Local brewpubs & restaurants compete to see who serves the city’s best clam chowder while raising money for the Community Transitional School

Lompoc Brewing has announced the date for its sixth annual Chowder Challenge, an event that determines which Portland restaurant serves up the best clam chowder. A dozen local brewpubs and restaurants will vie for the coveted Chowder Cup at the annual Chowder Challenge on Saturday, February 25, 2012 from Noon to 4 pm.

The blind tasting competition will take place at Lompoc’s Fifth Quadrant, located at 3901 N Williams Ave. Admission into the event is free. Attendees ages 12 and over must purchase sample trays for $10 to participate in the tasting. All of the money raised will be donated to Portland’s Community Transitional School, which provides important educational services to children who are homeless or otherwise at risk of school failure.

A dozen samples of traditional New England-style clam chowders from the participants are served in non-labeled, two-ounce cups. After tasting all entries, attendees vote for their favorite. The chowder receiving the most votes will be named the People’s Choice Winner and will take home the coveted Chowder Cup; awards will also be given for second and third place.

Confirmed restaurants include Cascade Brewing Barrel House, Columbia River Brewing, D’s Bar, Deschutes Brewery, EAT, El Gaucho, Fifth Quadrant, New Old Lompoc, Rogue, Salty’s and Trebol. The New Old Lompoc, known throughout the city for its chowder, has taken home the Chowder Cup five of the past six years.

The festivities also feature a beer garden, live music, a soda garden for kids, Joe the Balloon Guy, a raffle with prizes from the participants, special beers, and pub food for purchase. Minors are welcome at the family friendly event.

Among the specials beers will be two offerings from LOLA, or Ladies of Lagers and Ales, a social drinking group for ladies who love craft beer in the Portland area. LOLA brewed a collaboration beer with Lompoc Brewing in December. Look for two versions of a Wee Heavy: Wee LOLA, and a version blended with a number of aged Lompoc beers for a woody, dry, slightly sweet and bitter ale, dubbed the Lolampoc Clan.

The Saturday festivities kick off with a shrimp boil on Friday night, Feb. 24, also at the Fifth Quadrant. Beginning at 6 pm, seafood lovers are invited to roll up their sleeves and dig in; admission is $14 a plate which includes shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob and Louisiana spicy sausage. There will be spicy garlic butter available for dipping and Old Bay on the tables, plus special beers on tap. There are no pre-sales, so early arrival is recommended.

For more information, visit www.lompocbrewing.com.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer and food, beer events, beer releases, brewpubs, events, places to drink beer

Friday the 13th is here, and despite what you might have been lead to believe, it is actually a day of prosperity and good beer. Proof: New Old Lompoc (1616 NW 23rd Ave, Portland, OR) is releasing their anticipated Black Dawn III, a bold coffee stout, making its third annual appearance. According to the brewery, the beer is “a rich, full-bodied stout featuring strong roast and dark chocolate notes that play nicely with the dominating coffee presence, courtesy of more than three lbs of coffee per barrel. Once again this year, our friends at Ristretto Roasters provided the coffee, cold pressing 20 lbs of their Beaumont Blend, El Salvadoran and Peruvian beans.”

Sounds tempting, right. Well, there’s more. check this out:

There will actually be three different versions of Black Dawn III: one with all three coffees above, one with only the El Salvadoran beans, and one with only the Peruvian beans. We will also be pouring Black Dawn II, which featured Ristretto Roasters Beaumont Blend, and 2009 Pre-Dawn Imperial Stout (the base beer for Black Dawn I). We’ll have a taster tray available so you can taste all the different incarnations and compare flavors between the different coffee varietals.

This party will also celebrate the release of Illegally Blonde, a full-bodied Imperial vanilla cream ale that features flaked oats and flaked barley. Illegally Blonde will also be on the taster tray mentioned above. Rounding out the lineup on tap will be Arctic Blast Winter Warmer (cask conditioned and CO2), Hop Secret Imperial IPA #1, Sounder Slayer Lager and Old Tavern Rat Barleywine. This should be quite an event!

Friday the 13th is also Lompoc brewer Zach Beckwith’s birthday, so swing by the NW 23rd Ave brewpub and toast the codger!

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, beer releases, brewpubs, events, places to drink beer

Friday the 13th is here, and despite what you might have been lead to believe, it is actually a day of prosperity and good beer. Proof: New Old Lompoc (1616 NW 23rd Ave, Portland, OR) is releasing their anticipated Black Dawn III, a bold coffee stout, making its third annual appearance. According to the brewery, the beer is “a rich, full-bodied stout featuring strong roast and dark chocolate notes that play nicely with the dominating coffee presence, courtesy of more than three lbs of coffee per barrel. Once again this year, our friends at Ristretto Roasters provided the coffee, cold pressing 20 lbs of their Beaumont Blend, El Salvadoran and Peruvian beans.”

Sounds tempting, right. Well, there’s more. check this out: Read More…

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, beer releases, brewpubs, places to drink beer

Pull out the Lederhosen, it’s time for Oktoberfest! The brewers at Lompoc Brewing are welcoming autumn with a release party for their fall seasonal, Lompoc Oktoberfest.  The gathering, which includes a German barbecue, will take place Sept. 11 from Noon to 8 PM in the Lompoc’s Fifth Quadrant Brewery and inside the Sidebar tasting room, both located at 3901 N. Williams Ave. Staying true to the theme, the menu will feature a selection of German sausages with a variety of condiments/toppings. There will also be a traditional accordionist playing beer polka tunes from 2 to 5 PM.

Pale orange in color, Lompoc Oktoberfest is a Marzen Lager featuring a clean malt flavor artfully balanced by a touch of Perle hops.  A portion of the grains used was roasted in the oven at Lompoc’s Fifth Quadrant restaurant, giving the beer a slight biscuity flavor.  The beer is 5% ABV and 15 IBUs.  Lompoc Oktoberfest will be on draft in all five of Lompoc’s pubs beginning Sept. 13.

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

(Or Where I Feel Comfortable Taking My Sometimes Cranky Weimaraner)

By Frank James

One of life’s quandraries for dog-owning beer lovers is what to do with your pooch when you want to go out to have a cold one. For Portlanders, the answer is pretty simple: take Fido with you. Here in dog-friendly Portland, the real question becomes a matter of where to take Fido.

Obviously, you never want to go someplace where you have to drink bad beer. And if it’s a hot, sunny day, the numero uno factor is whether the place has sufficient shade, cause roasting like a lizard in the desert is a no-go from the very start. (No need for further tanning here.) Location is always another factor that comes into play in one fashion or another.

And as important as any issue is whether your pooch actually likes the place, as nothing will ruin a pleasant pint like an anxious, unhappy dog. Now, if you own your typically easy-going, no-drama Lab, just about any place that will allow you to park your pooch under the table is okay. But if you have a dog who can be just a little finicky, you have to be a bit more selective. So, as I go through my decision making process, Binx, who can be more than a little finicky, gets a heavily-weighted vote.

Binx, a 6 year old, rescued Weimaraner, pretty much runs my life. Or at least he seems to think so. He’s a great dog, but he definitely has a very well-defined sense of his likes and dislikes and he’s pretty upfront about expressing his opinion about those issues. He lives to chase the chattering squirrels who tease him in our back yard and at the parks where he patrols like a manic, furry pinball, bouncing from tree to tree as he glares up at his tormentors. But he thinks chasing inanimate objects like sticks and balls and Frisbees is about the dumbest thing any self-respecting Weimaraner could ever do. He loves ice-cold, fresh water -preferably filtered by Brita – but will literally turn his nose up if he’s presented with old, tepid water that came from a tap, no matter how thirsty or hot he may be. He loves little dogs, but is extraordinarily wary of Great Danes, especially if there is more than one around at a particular time. A true Oregonian, he hates the hot sun and will literally run to find shelter in the coolest shade around, where he’ll plant himself until he’s forced to move. Binx also has certain favorites when it comes to the Portland area’s craft beer establishments. How do I know? Am I merely attributing anthropomorphic traits to a mute, four-legged creature who wouldn’t know one bar from another?

Possibly, but as any dog owner knows, it’s pretty easy to figure out whether your dog likes something or someone or a particular location. Their posture, their ease – or discomfort – and whether they are happy or displeased about being in a particular place becomes pretty apparent, pretty quickly. In fact, if a dog owner can’t tell whether their dog likes a certain place, they aren’t paying attention. All you have to do is watch them closely and you’ll get all the information you need. What are the spots that rank as Binx’s favorite spots, ones that I also enjoy? What are the craft beer establishments with outdoor seating that Binx feels most comfortable? And why?

This isn’t a “best craft beer establishment to take your dog to…” listing. No, it’s much more subjective, as it is simply a list of the places I like to go to because I know that my dog is most comfortable at those places. There are specific reasons, and I’ll note those reasons, but the establishments I’ll describe are simply the places Binx really likes and I’ll let you know why he likes the particular establishment. He’s a funny dog. He’s very friendly, but he also hates to be bothered by other dogs who can’t take a hint when he tries to nicely tell them to bug off. He’ll tolerate a certain amount of guff from another dog, but then he will lose patience. Binx usually has a very friendly, goofy, silly posture – he’s never started a fight or incident in the three and a half years I’ve owned him – but if another dog refuses to simply leave him alone, he will get this look that reminds me of Robert DeNiro’s Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, when Travis says : “You talking to me? You talking to me?” And that is usually enough to motivate a too-curious dog to move along. But obviously, I prefer frequenting places where that type of mini-drama is unlikely to unfold, where Binx can just chill, scavenge leftovers from our meals and get a cool drink of water.

Now, the human in this equation does get a vote. These places are on the list because they all serve good beer, either their own or via a series of taps that are consistently of good quality. But ultimately, if Binx likes the place, it’s cool with me.

Read More…

Posted under Oregon beer, brewpubs, places to drink beer

This Saturday is the annual Bastille Day Celebration at N Failing and N Williams, and Lompoc is joining in the celebration with a beer garden featuring the release of their annually-awaited Lompeizer.

Join New Old Lompoc from Noon to 6 pm in the Fifth Quadrant parking lot (3901 N Williams Ave) and enjoy pints of Lompeizer as well as a preview of Son of C-Note, our debut for the Oregon Brewers Festival.  It’s Happy Hour all day with $1 off Lompoc beers and cocktails.

Lompeizer is Lompoc’s tribute to American domestics.  Brewed with Pilsner malt and 30% flaked rice, the result is a pale straw colored beer that is highly drinkable and perfect for summer in Oregon.

Like its father, Son of C-Note is a hop masterpiece – if there’s a hop whose name begins with “C,” it’s probably in this beer. Six additions of Chinook, Crystal, Centennial, Cascade, CT2, Challenger and Cluster hops make Son of C-Note register on the upper end of the hops scale. It was also double dry hopped after fermentation giving the beer a massive hop aroma. Great Western pale and crystal malts combined with flaked oats provide the malty backbone.

Take a beer break and head on over to the Pix Patisserie Bastille Day Celebration, a day/night long block party that honors the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 that spurred the French Revolution.  There will be live music from local bands like Nice Nice and Dirty Mittens, a wine drinking 5K, Champagne sabering demo, dance off, and more. Did we mention the giant Bastille Tower made of cream puffs? Yes, you get to eat it!  For more info on the schedule of activities, visit www.pixpatisserie.com.

This is a FREE community event but in exchange they Pix asks that each attendee bring two or more non-perishable food items for the Oregon Food Bank.  For each item donated guests will receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of 100 gift certificates to Portland’s best restaurants.

SIDEBAR
Sidebar will be closed on Saturday for a private party but is open on Friday for regular hours – 4 to 10 pm.  We’re pouring Son of C-Note, Big Bang Red, 2008 Oktoberfest, 2009 Le Chat Noir,  LSD (Lompoc Strong Draft), and Condor Pale Ale.

R.I.P. ROOTS ORGANIC BREWING
As you’ve likely heard, Roots Organic Brewing closed its doors this week.  The folks at Lompoc were fortunate to grab some of the last kegs of Roots Organic Beer and will be pouring it all weekend at all four of their pubs.  Head to Hedge House, New Old Lompoc, Fifth Quadrant or Oaks Bottom and raise a pint to the memory of Roots.

Posted under Beer & Music, Oregon beer, beer events, places to drink beer

Hats off to New Old Lompoc for continuing to knock out mad money brews. They’ve got a great team of dudes making their nectar. The Bald Guy Brigade recently announced the new and improved Side Bar at 5th Quadrant. Now the cool barrel-agin’ space has a fireplace. Hells yeah!

The new fireplace at Side Bar is gonna be the toast of the Beer Craft beer crowd come winter 2010-2011. Thankfully we’ve been graced with warmer days of late. With all the barrel-aged delicious brews Lompoc is churning out these days, you can count on more coolness to come…Look for Lompoc at a special Brewpublicrawl in March!  We’re stoked.

Thanks to Lompoc’s Facebook page for these great pictures! Lompoc’s Barrel-aged Cherry Stout will be a sure hit at Brewpublic’s MY BEERY VALENTINE event coming on Valentine’s/Zwickelmania weekend.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer news

Lompoc Brewing is pleased to release Portland’s first beer brewed for Hanukkah – “8 Malty Nights” will be released on the first night of Hanukkah, this Friday, Dec. 11, from 4 to 9 p.m. at the Lompoc Sidebar, 3901 N Williams.

8 Malty Nights is a rich, dark ale made with chocolate malts and flaked rye. The Chocolate Rye was brewed by Lompoc brewer Sam Orlansky, who is Jewish and grew up in San Diego with childhood friend Bradley Greenstein. Sam became a brewer; Bradley became a Rabbi with the Congregation Neveh Shalom in Portland. Rabbi Greenstein was present at the brewery November 10 to bless the mash and join the brewers in a toast with Manischewitz.

Though not technically certified, 8 Malty Nights is considered kosher in that is has undergone the blessing and supervision by a Rabbi. Most beer is generally considered Kosher without special certification.

“Drinks such as wine and beer have always represented our partnership with the divine,” Greenstein said at the blessing. “God gives us hops and grapes and grain and we make something even more beautiful from them.”

The release party will also feature complimentary Jewish appetizers, including Sweet Noodle Kugel, Lookoumades (fried honey puffs) and Potato Latkas with Apple Sauce and Sour Cream. Other beers on tap include Cherry Fechter Special, Bourbon Barrel Fermented Dark Side Porter, C-sons Greetings, Jolly Bock and Aslan Belgian Style Golden Ale.

We hope you will all join us as we toast L’chaim!

Posted under beer events

The past weekend could have been one of the best beer weekends to date. But to be perfectly honest the memory is a tad jogged. Down at the Holiday Ale Fest in Pioneer Square, it was amazing how many friends and brewquaintences you can run into, and even better, it’s great to meet new people and get their perspective on beer and life (which to us is pretty much synonymous). Laymen and brewers clicked their plastic HAF mugs amidst intermittent roars that rumbled through like “the wave” at a baseball game. As always, it is essential for the craft beer enthusiast to get down under the tents early. In fact, our weekend really started on Wednesday, as the organizers of the HAF did a nice job of preparing for the swarms of festivalgoers by adding this extra day.

Whenever there’s a cool festival in town, the fixture beer outfits around the city step up their game as well offering a great line-up of seasons. Between our few sessions at the Ale Fest, we made a few essential stops to the Horse Brass pub to pull back from the mayhem that would inevitable ensue down at Pioneer Courthouse Square. On Friday we also happened over to New Old Lompoc’s 5th Quadrant SideBar to meet with event staff coordinator Amy Casanova. She and the other nice folks at Lompoc helped Brewpublic raise nearly $800 for start-up community radio station KZME during our Cocoa Hop. We are grateful for Amy and Lompoc’s contribution in this noble cause, and also to all the brewers and chocolaters who gave of themselves, their time, and their products.

While at the 5th Quadrant we witnessed the brewers and Green Bottling put the yummy seasonal C-Son’s Greetings into 22-ounce bombers. We were also reminded of Lompoc’s upcoming 8 Malty Nights event coming up on the 11th to kick off Chanukah.

Further north, we found ourselves over the border in Vancouver, Washington to pick up some essentials at By the Bottle and check out the collaboration brewing of Salmon Creek Brewpub‘s owner/brewer Larry Pratt with Seattle brewstar Tom Munoz. Munoz, a former brewer with Silver City teamed up with Pratt to put together a one-of-a-kind pale ale that should be ready to drink at Salmon Creek in a few weeks. See you there!

Later on Friday, we had a blast over at Belmont Station for a meet the brewer night with Bear Republic head brewer Peter Kruger. The Healdsburg, California brewer, we found out, has roots in Oregon brewing. Kruger was one of the early brewers at Full Sail in Hood River. Former Full Sail brewer Charlie Devereux of Double Mountain was on hand to say hello to his old friend and greet him with a growler of DM’s delicious Fa La La La La winter ale.Bear Republic’s delicious array of specialty and mainstay brews were the highlight of the night, and at the front and center was a Clobberskull wine barrel aged strong ale brewed with 10% split peas. Apparently the beer has a great history, and is of a recipe revitalized in Randy Mosher‘s pioneering book Radical Brewing.

While at Belmont Station, we also meet with Michael Branes of Migration Brewing, one of Portland’s newest breweries. Branes, who worked for some time at Mountain Peoples Distribution, was join by fellow Mountain People’s Oregon sales manager Tim Ensign, who was pouring samples Bear Republic brews as well.

Saturday, as blogged about earlier found us back under the hearkening tents at 11AM stat for twitterworthy special tappings of select Bear Republic beers like the Trebuchet, a Belgian trippel aged in 100-year-old cognac barrels and two special fruited “The Grizz” super brown ale–one with nectarines and another with blackberries–to accompany the might Old Baba Yaga that was kickin’ ass since Wednesday. The boozier than all ungodly sin Trebuchet was the first thing to hit my stomach on this fair day. A brewer friend said it was too much “nail polish” for him, but to me, I rendered it my breakfast of champions. Several other wonderful beer rounded out my HAF weekend. I have to admit this was the best one yet. In fact, despite others’ gripes, I honestly didn’t experience on dud in the lot.

After escaping the mob scene that was Pioneer Courthouse Square, we trudged off some of the liver burn by hoofing a few miles home to Southeast. We were not extinguished yet. There was still Green Bottling‘s holiday party at the cozy Horse Brass. Here, several local brewers raised a tall one to the great year and to Jack and Mike‘s successful year of bottling up some of Oregon’s finest like Lompoc, Full Sail, and Laurelwood. After just a few more lighter beers to rehydrate (Full Sail and Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ales), this one was in the bag.

Sunday was relatively mellow, save for a few brews shared with fellow blogger D.A. of Beer Around Town. All said and done, I think I may just hybernate until the ’10 Barley Wine and Big Beer Fest.

Posted under beer events

Brewpublic attended the soft opening of New Old Lompoc‘s new Side Bar at the brewpub’s 5th Quadrant location. Formerly the home of the now relocated Scrap, Side Bar is a beautifully designed space with an amazing bar back reminiscent of such masterpieces as Seattle’s Beveridge Place and Port Townsend, Washington’s Water Street Brewing & Ale House.

Another element that makes the cozy Side Bar so inviting is the assortment of barrel-aged beer that give the room a distinct intimacy and personality that true craft beer geeks can appreciate.

Barrels filled with Lompoc brew at the 5th Quadrant Side Bar

NOL's Side Bar

Open barrel fermented C-Note Imperial Pale and Bourbon barrel-aged LSD

NOL's Heaven's Helles (left) and Centennial IPA.

Fred Eckhardt (left) and Don Younger

The figurehead of Lompoc’s Bald Guy Brigade is founder Jerry Fechter who was on hand along with many of the NOL’s staff including brewer Bryan Keilty, and happily greeted a crowd of Beervana’s who’s who. Beer guru Fred Eckhardt and Horse Brass founder Don Younger were in attendance to enjoy an assortment of profoundly palatable selections from Lompoc’s repertoire. This included a newly released Heaven’s Helles lager, Centennial IPA, an open-barrel fermented C-Note Imperial Pale, and the buzz beer of the night, a bourbon barrel-aged LSD (Lompoc Special Draught). Like beer with your bourbon?  This is the beer for you! Creamy, oaken notes dangled in the background amongst a barrage of boozy goodness that might stand to age at least another few years.

New Old Lompoc founder Jerry Fechter

This delectable presentation of brew was accompanied by a generous spread of h’or dourves. Thank you to New Old Lompoc for this wonderful experience, and even more so for doing what you do!  Excellente!

Posted under beer events, beer news, beer releases