It’s hard to believe that Block 15 Brewery has been open for five years. Its seems like it was just yesterday when the Corvallis brewpub opened its doors, but then again, right off the starting blocks, the beer has been better than most. “What a journey it has been” says founder Nick Arzner. “We want to thank our wonderful customers and the Corvallis community for their support. We also want to thank our amazing staff for all of their hard work and dedication.”

Join Block 15 on Saturday March 2, 2013 for a not to miss celebration of their first half-decade with some incredibly mouthwatering offerings including locally sourced food and beer. “We are releasing a couple gems from our wild cellar, featuring an awesome Anniversary burger, dancing to the live music of The Bon Ton Roulet, discounting apparel, and featuring Hoppy Hour all day long!”

Here’s more details on this fun and tasty event, including a special anniversary brunch at Les Caves. Read More…

Posted under Beer & Music, beer and food, beer events, beer releases, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, vintage beers

By D.J. Paul

Once again, Lucky Lab Beer Hall in Northwest Portland will host another installment of their Annual Barleywine and Big Beer Tastival next month. This year’s tastival takes place on Friday, March 8^th and Saturday, March 9^th from Noon-10:00pm each day.

This annual fest has been going strong for at least 16 years. Originally held at the Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne the tastival moved to their NW Quimby location after they converted this former Freightliner warehouse to a brewery and pub back in 2006. With their massive amount of pub space along with a nice outdoor patio this space allows for an enjoyable atmosphere while quaffing some strong barleywine samples.

From the recent media preview I did learn some promising updates to this annual tasting. According to Lucky Lab brewer and tastival organizer, Ben Flerchinger, this past year he along with a few others went through their stockpile of barleywines and disposed of the ones that have not aged all that well. This was one of the reason that I skipped the tastival last year. In 2011 I had few more oxidized barleywines than my palate could handle. From this re-tooled cellar of barleywines we were able to sample 7 different ones with each one offering their own unique flavor. Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, brewpubs, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, vintage beers

By D.J. Paul

One of the best (okay, I say THE best) annual beer festivals in the country is Chicago’s Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers (FOBAB). Now two months behind us, FOBAB was properly documented to capture the celebration of the festival’s 10 th Anniversary.  This FOBAB documentary is a collaboration of www.BeerFX.com, www.ChicagoBeerGeeks.com, and www.Skalawag.com.

Directed, Shot, & Edited by:
Mark Skala/Skalawag Productions. Produced by: Kent Weber & Nik White. Audio Recording, Editing, & Mixing by: Kurtis Garza-Rupp. ?2nd Camera & additional Audio Recording by: Stephen Poon.

FOBAB began Read More…

Posted under beers on film, places to drink beer, vintage beers

If you’re like us, you’re totally geeked out on the sour beer phenomenon that has swept North America over the past half decade or so. One of the first Northwest regional outposts for great craft beer, Belmont Station (4500 SE Stark St., Portland, OR) returns with their week long Puckerfest. Now in its sixth year, Puckerfest promises some of the area’s most tantalizingly tart, savoringly sour, wickedly wild, and flat out funky favorites. This year’s Puckerfest runs from Friday July 13 through Thursday July 20. Belmont Station chief beer officer Carl Singmaster sent out a presser yesterday with the full details, including the beers and breweries that you can expect to find at Puckerfest. Here’s the lowdown: Read More…

Posted under beer events, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, vintage beers

It’s not every year my birthday lands on a weekend, so when it does, I am even more excited. This year is my zodiac, year of the Dragon, and with it came a breadth of excellent beer. While last year’s birthday festivities were pretty epic (camping in the Cascade foothills with my birthday beer brethren), this year’s was nothing to sneeze at. It was my first birthday in the Bay Area since I turned legal drinking age so there was a lot of work to take care of.

On the Friday preceding my birthday, I caught a ride up north with my Portland friends Theo and Amanda Skourtist who were in town for the weekend. The mission was to snag a few pints at Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa and Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma. Trips to these two world class establishments never get old. In Santa Rosa, we met up with Tatiana Peavy aka Goats Udder at Russian River. It was a gay Read More…

Posted under Bay Area beer, beer events, California Beer, places to drink beer, vintage beers, weekend in review

Upright is three years in! To celebrate, come join us at the brewery Friday the 30th from 4:30 to 9 pm and check out our newest seasonal beer, Blend Love! Four casks containing a sour cherry version of the Four were blended with about a cask and a half of raspberry laden Six to create this characterful sour ale, full of lactic and acetic character, fruit and oak tannins, and a light funkiness from brettanomyces yeast. It was a blast to produce and then name this beer after one of Upright’s favorite people and brewers, Ben Love. It’s perfectly ready to enjoy now but will cellar well for several years. One keg will be on tap along with plenty of bottles for sale at $12 a 750ml and $125 a case. Please note there will be a single case per person limit. During the anniversary on the 30th, expect to see some other neat beers on tap as well!

More New Seasonal Bottle Releases:

Gose

The third annual Gose is conditioning now and should be ready for release either the 16th or 23rd depending on how that goes. The salt can retard the process so we’ll be tasting it just before to determine the final date. The recipe was basically unchanged but this batch fermented out excellently and was displaying great aromas and flavors before bottling. It should be the best batch yet!

Pure Wit

Pure Wit, also on it’s third go-round has been out on draft for less than a week and another batch designated for bottling is in the works for an early/mid April release. Our take on the style is a bit more rustic than most with a distinct tartness, flowery nose, and a super dry finish.

Monk & Mingus

Also in the works is the annual Monk and Mingus, a collaboration with former longtime Oregon brewer Corey Blogett (sic), now head brewer at Maritime Pacific in Seattle. The Monk and Mingus is made for the Cheers to Belgian Beers fest in April and completely different every year. This particular batch is a strong stout fermented rather cool to keep the yeast profile in check and make room for a cold pressed infusion of coffee from Heart Coffee Roasters. The beer is very early in its process but we’ve got a great feeling about it!

New Distribution

Upright just started shipping beer to Nevada through Cepage Selections. Look for bottles on the shelves already and draft coming soon.

Posted under beer events, beer news, Beer personalities, beer releases, events, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, vintage beers

Upright Brewing celebrates their third anniversary on Friday March 30, 2012 with the release of Blend Love. Although not mentioned in their press release, this tribute beer to brewmaster Ben Love, was a concept that we came up with in the brewhouse on one of many bottling days. Frequently founder/brewer Alex Ganum and brewer Gerritt Ill would entertain seemingly endless ideas for beers named after brewers. Evolving from the more objectifying labeled Four Play, Blend Love is a more respectably presented nod to one of Portland’s finest and kindest brewers.

In the past Alex was so kind as to allow us to organize Van Night for longtime Rock Bottom Brewer Van Havig (now a business partner and fellow brewmaster at Gigantic Brewing with Love) at the Grain & Gristle Pub. Alex and the G&G also let us put together Ben Fest to pay homage to Ben Love and four other Bens in the Portland beer scene. Oh, and let us not forget the Shawn Kelso Night in which Upright devised an uncharacteristic mammoth hops beast poured alongside 10 Barrel Brewery’s newly acquired brewer who gained notoriety whilst developing over the top hop behemoths at Barley Brown’s Brewpub.

As you can see, Alex appreciates his friends and  fellow brewers in the industry, and likes to have fun with the naming of beers. He also is highly passionate about breaking into uncharted territory when it comes to developing and executing craft beer styles. One obvious example that comes to mind is Upright’s Flora Rustica (brewed with calendula flower and yarrow). Further, Upright has not only gotten radical with its brewing but has also revisited some historically significant styles such as Gose, Oyster Stout, and Bavarian Hefe, and Pilsner.

Perhaps the most endearing element for us about Alex’s brewery is that it is undoubtedly a labor of love that is more about friendships and the enjoyment of beer itself rather than it is about the marketing or the hype that so many others get caught up in. So, for Upright’s third anniversary, we couldn’t be happier for our buddies Alex and Gerritt, two of our favorite brewers of all time.

Blend Love is an amalgamation of four barrel-aged versions of Upright’s wheaten Four, with more than a barrel of raspberry Six rye ale. Here’s the details from the steed’s mouth: Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer news, Beer personalities, beer releases, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, vintage beers

Those who love the big bold flavors of imperial dark ales coupled with a touch of bourbon will be happy to hear that Full Sail Brewing Co. is again releasing their coveted Top Sail Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter.

Aging for a year in the bowels of their cellars, Bourbon Top Sail is slated to drop on February 1, 2012 and promises lots of oaken notes and a rich bourbon notes. Look for a vertical tasting and more. Here’s the details from Full Sail: Read More…

Posted under Beer personalities, beer releases, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, press releases, vintage beers

Belmont Station is a place that feels like an never ending craft beer festival. Every night of the week there’s something going on in the Bier Cafe and the bottleshop. More than 1400 bottles of beer and nearly twenty rotating draught selections to choose from. Perhaps the most badass of all of their events is BIGGER, BADDER, BLACKER! This week long celebration of, as the title indicates, bold and behemoth dark brews, hosts some of the most coveted pitchy pours in the world.

If you missed the kickoff last night, you missed the initial “Descent into Darkness”, including rockstar brewer Shawn Kelso of Barley Brown’s (soon to be with 10 Barrel Brewing) unleashing two muscular brutes – BB’s Anniversary Ale simply known as “13″ and his 2010 Great American Beer Festival gold medal winning Turmoil CDA. In addition the Station was gracing the people with these two highly sought after dark ales, they also unveiled a Mikkeller Tequila Barrel-aged Black Hole alongside a Peated Whisky Barrel-aged Black Hole. Still not sated? How about some Laurelwood Moose & Squirrel Imperial Stout, New Belgium Clutch (sour Belgian style stout), or Deschutes Black Butte XXI (yes, from 2009). But don’t fret, for this, my friends, is just the tip of the big black iceberg. Read More…

Posted under beer events, Beer personalities, beer releases, Oregon beer, vintage beers

For the first year since they’ve started brewing their beloved holiday seasonal, Double Mountain Brewery of Hood River, Oregon has been in limited supply of the hoppy Fa La La La La. Based on Brewmaster Matt Swihart’s Full Sail treat known as Wreck The Halls, the brew did not make its way into the Portland market. However, fans of the full bodied brew can get a taste not only of this year’s release, but also of the three years prior at a special vertical tasting slated for Christmas Eve at the Hood River brewpub. Here’s the details from the brewery; don’t miss out: Read More…

Posted under beer events, brewpubs, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, vintage beers