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

It was a hazy, muggy weekend with weather the garden enjoyed. On Friday, after work, a trip over to New Old Lompoc’s 5th Quadrant revealed some delicious brews and the expansion of the brewery in the back. Equipped with only a cheap cellphone camera, I was able to capture this magnificent photo of Brian Keilty. Lots were going on at 5Q including the Green Bottling crew putting limited bottles of the Heaven’s Helles beer into 22-ouncers.

On Tuesday, the brewery will feature a soft opening with barrel-aged brews and special reserve series treats. We are quite enthused about the expansion of the new New Old Lompoc space at the corner of North Williams and Failing. At the bar we enjoyed bold glasses of the Le Chat Noir (also featured at Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers) and a robust and tangy Belgian stout wittily dubbed the Bussells Stout. Simple marvelous!

Brewer Bryan Keilty of New Old Lompoc

Next, we headed to NE Alberta Street to investigate a new African fusion restaurant called Enjoji where great portions of Ethiopian cuisine alongside a selection of about five different Ethiopian bottled brews were available. Per the suggestion of the amiable server, I went for a bottle of Bedele Special, a summer wheaten brew with a mild citrus character.

Bedele Special

After this adventure, we found ourselfves next door at Saraveza for their typically divine selection of mouthwatering brews. Deschutes’ Black Pearl, a roasty dark ale with a moderate 5% alcohol content hit the spot. Couldn’t stop there. Had to opt for a goblet of New Belgium’s La Folie, a piquant and puckering brown ale. To conclude our wonderful experience, we went for the gusto and popped a bottle of Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. Later, I found out that the beer got the name “Weasel” from the Civet cat who eats coffee beans and poops them out. The partially digested java is cleaned and roasted and made into a sort of delicacy, hence the hefty $20 a bottle price tag. Now that’s some good shit!

On Saturday, nice weather early on suggested that a brew in Amnesia‘s beer garden was a wise decision. A decadently spiced Double Dry-hopped Desolation IPA was sampled side by side with Amnesia’s regular Desolation. The DDD was considerably cloudier than the original and packed quite a bit more of a punch. After Amnesia, I forget what happened. Just kidding. We went over to Laurelwood‘s brewpub on NE 51st and Sandy Boulevard. There, we enjoyed breezy moderate spring weather from the open-aired rooftop patio. The Bottled Blonde was a session-worthy, light and summery ale with a great hops tinge. We also enjoyed pints of the Hooligan Brown Ale, one of Oregon’s finest bruins, and the Lucky 7 IPA, a clean and crisp India Pale that featured seven different hops varietals.

John John Dead Guy

John from Horse Brass

On this beery day, we were in need of getting a taste of Rogue’s John John Dead Guy so we headed over to the Horse Brass Pub. As previously mentioned, this beer is a limited release Dead Guy Maibock ale aged in Rogue’s Dead Guy Whiskey. Sweet, ferocious, but not unapproachable, the John John was also the brew we noticed Don Younger quaffing at the bar. At the Brass, the 2009 Correction Ale from Lagunitas tantalized the palate in much the same way that Pliny the Elder does. This distinctively aromatic West Coast IPA that isn’t trying to be an IPA is an amazing deal in bottle for around $4, and to get an imperial of it at the pub is off the hook.

Amnesia Double Dry-hopped Desolation (left) and original Desolation

Our night cap for this Saturday was a special 750 ML bottle of Victory Wild Devil. We brought this big boy back from our trip to Chicago and loved partaking in its meld of complexity and drinkability. A tart and hoppy rendition of the brewery’s Hop Devil the wild yeastiness of this beer brought a smile to our taste buds’ faces.

Sunday was a day that involved yardwork, painting our kitchen, and a bit of frisbee golf at Pier Park. After winding down our weekend, we had dinner and pints at Proper Eats in St. Johns. Happy to find two amber ales of quality in Ninkasi’s Believer and Fishtale’s Amber, we were a bit bummed to realize the taplines in this place hadn’t seen a good cleaning probably ever. Lots of off flavors, but hey, that’s life. Now it’s back to another week doing what we do and dreaming about next weekend’s assortment of asskickin’ brews.

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

On Friday Green Bottling headed over to New Old Lompoc’s 5th Quadrant to bottle up some beers.  According to Green Bottling’s Mike Weksler, approximately 175 cases each of the hoppilicious C-Note Imperial Pale Ale and the maltnificent LSD (Lompoc Strong Ale) were bottled.

Green Bottling's Mike Wexler (left) and Lompoc brewer Jon Berry

Posted under beer releases