JUNE IS BARREL MONDAYS MONTH.  Every Monday in June at 3PM we’ll roll out two rare barrel aged beers on draft:

MON JUNE 21     Deschutes Abyss 2009 Imperial Stout with licorice & molasses partially oak aged

Deschutes Black Butte XXI Imperial Porter with cocoa partially aged in Stranahan’s Whiskey Barrels

Posted under events

On Tuesday November Beer zealots in Portland lined up around the block of Deschutes Brewpub to be some of the first to get their paws on this year’s Abyss. Promptly at 2PM, the side door on NW Couch Street opened and the faithful were received by pub staff with platters of samples before heading through the restaurant and toward the front entrance. Deschutes’ Portland lead brewer Cam O’Connor welcomed the drooling masses while the first 48 in line who opted to purchase at least six bottles (but limited to twelve bottles on this day) were allowed to purchase a single bottle autographed by Deschutes brewmaster Larry Sidor.

This year’s Abyss was characteristically robust but appeared a bit boozier than in years past. Lots of bourbon up front could indicated that some cellaring might not hurt. The 11% ABV wax dipped imperial stout was at the epicenter of the pub on this autumn day. What’s in your cellar?

Posted under Oregon beer, beer releases

City Beer Store in San Francisco

City Beer Store

It had been four days since we’d left Gold Beach and already we had already visited fourteen California breweries.  We packed up our belongings at Erik’s place in the Presidio after a beer filled night on the town in San Francisco and headed back to the lower mission for one last San Francisco hurrah.  Our first stop was the City Beer Store on Folsom Street. The place was a little cubby hole filled wall to wall with craft and imported beers.  I am guessing there must have been about 300 in all.  They also featured an assortment of beers on their six taps.  Many of the bottled beers were not in coolers and randomly hanging out on a tall shelf in the back of the shop.  This is where I discovered some hard to find bottles for Oregonians like Drakes Imperial Stout, Port Imperial Pilsner, as well as a can of 8.5% Belgian-style fruit beer from Santa Cruz..  I also noticed that they had the 2008 Deschutes Abyss available, but decided to try my luck with it upon returning to the Rose City.  I purchased three different 750ML bottles of beers from the Bruery, only to discover they had become available for distribution in Oregon while I was on the road.  Still, some excellent beers including the Black Orchid, the White Orchid and the Autumn Maple brew were worth discovering.  Being from Oregon and working at a beer store in Washington, I wasn’t blown away by the selection, but being a beer lover, I can appreciate what this place is attempting to do for the people of San Francisco.  Outside of BevMo and larger supermarkets, SF doesn’t really have a place like Belmont Station, the Bier Stein, or By the Bottle.  City Beer Store is an oasis of sorts.

21st Amendment Brewery and Restaurant

After purchasing a mixed case of beer, and already going over budget on my trip, I reorganized the cramped trunk space in our car and the three of us headed down to 2nd Street to 21st Amendment Brewery and Restaurant for our first meal of the day.  It was a no-brainer for me.  I ordered the Holiday Spiced Ale, a wonderfully dark chestnut-brown robust beer filled with nutmeg, coriander, and cinnamon spices.  It was essentially Christmas in a bottle.  The menu board indicated that the place had 22 ounce bottles of this to go and I was surely going to grab one for the road along with some cans of their Hell or High Watermelon Wheat and the sharply hopped 21-A IPA. Margaret ordered the Autumn Wheat, a lightly hopped American style wheaten ale with a hazy golden body and a fruity essence that went well with food.  Erik opted for a Fat Bavarian, a German style hefeweizen served in a tall fluted glass.  It had a wonderfully bold phenolic nose of bananas and spiced with a spritzy carbonic mouthfeel.  All were very nice beers.

21A Fat Bavarian, Autumn Wheat, and Holiday Spiced Ale

We kept a close eye on our parking meter, since the ticket for a violation of the time limit will land one a $60 fine.  On top of that, a quarter only got us five minutes, so we were watching that avidly.  After our meal we were excited about a peak into the brewery.  This was often the most fun part of visiting various places.  However, we were disappointed to find the door to the brewery locked and no one with the key to open it.  To make matters worse, we were told by our server that 21st Amendment didn’t bottle any beers, just cans of the two aforementioned perennial brews.  I mentioned the sign on the wall, and our server said it was not true.  Margaret insisted and directed him to the sign where it clearly said “22 ounce bottles of Holiday Spiced Ale to go.” Upon being shown his sign, our server said “Well I guess you win.” turned away from us and left us answerless.  Oh, well, it was still better than the mean lady at Anderson Valley.  We got a six pack of Watermelon Wheat and IPA in cans and headed on our way out or San Francisco. Next time we hope to arrange tours of the production only Anchor Brewing and Speakeasy Brewing, two of our favorites.  But we felt pretty content in the fifteen we had managed to visit thus far in California, and looked forward to a few more on our journey north through wine country.

Our next stop: Rubicon Brewing in Sacramento.

Posted under beer reviews

Deschutes Brewery sent out their most recent Bitter Truth Newsletter this month.  It is an informative, colorful, and well-designed update of many of their happenings around Bend and Portland.  It also lists several newly released and soon to be released beers of interest.  Among these are the Luckiest Lager, a German style lager with a bountiful supply of hops , the Old Samhain (Sah-win) Halloween nitro brew, six different fresh hop beers, and the Big Red Double Cinder Cone barleywine.  Perhaps, the most intriguing new offering to soon be released is a Wild Plum Stout brewed with sour wort and tart plums.  Mmm.  If the puckeringly sweet flavor of the Dissident Oud Bruin was any indication of how well Deschutes does sours, then this could be nothing short of spectacular.

I phoned Deschutes’ brewmaster Larry Sidor at the brewery in Bend this morning to find out more.  Sidor informed me that the Wild Plum Stout will be release soon and will be a pub only brew.  “We made about twelve and a half barrels of it” said Sidor.  “The plums are from our refrigeration mechanic.   He grew them in his yard and we felt it was something we should work on.”  So, about 20-25 pounds of plums were handpicked and run through a wine grape crusher.  The hand-cranked quarter-inch press extracted the sugar and tart qualities from the fresh fruit.  “(The stout) has a sour wort with a Lactobacillus culture in it.  We put about two or three gallons into the mash.”  So how did it come out?  Said Sidor: “When I tasted it, it was pretty darn tart.”

Larry Sidor Deschutes brewmaster

So when can Portlanders expect to get their palates around this imaginative new beer? “Whenever we brew anything, we send a few kegs (to Portland)” said Sidor, “We netted about ten barrels.  Two or so will be sent to Portland.”  According the the brewer, the beer was brewed on the week of October 1st at 17 degree plato.  Around 200 lovibond, the beer possesses a rich black body.  “We used a lot of roast barley, special B, and we went a little crazy and threw a little candy sugar in it, too.”  This beer promises to be real unique.

While I had Mr. Sidor on the phone, I asked him about this winter’s Reserve Series brews.  The undeniable success of the Abyss Imperial Stout over the last few years has made called for its perennial return.  “We started with a couple hundred barrels (in 2006)” said Sidor. “We didn’t know how the public would react.  Beers we personally love as brewers don’t always make it.  There’s the marketing, pricing point perspective, etc.”  But to his delight, and that of several craft brew enthusiasts, Sidor said “the stuff just evaporated.”

Taking a year to prepare for, this year’s Abyss  is slated to be unveiled around November 15 in handsome wax-dipped 22 ounce bottles.  Blended from bourbon barred-aged and pinot noir barrel-aged batches, the Abyss varies each year.  “It is different each year due to variation in blending process and barrel availability” said Sidor. “It’s a similar issue that wine makers have. If I don’t like a blend, I’ll alter it some until I get it right.” The 2008 release makes use of Maker’s Mark barrels.  2009′s blend, already brewed and waiting be barreled,  will have its own distinct personality. “We will use a whole lot of Stranahan’s bourbon barrels” claimed Sidor.  Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey is produced at craft distillery that contracts with Oskar Blues Brewing of Lyons, Colorado to make some delicious brew.  Sidor informed me that Deschutes will obtain 30 or 40 barrels from Stranahans.

In addition to these captivating brews, Deschutes plans to bring back the warm and hardy Mirror Mirror barleywine as a part of its Reserve Series.  The oak-aged bohemoth will be available again in 22-ounce bottles in March or April 2009 for the first time since 2005.  To make thing even better, the brewery is maturing a Big Red Double Cinder Cone for bottling in this series.  Further, they are working on another run of the Black Butte XX Imperial barrel-aged Porter to celebrate their upcoming 21st anniversary.  Sidor said his hands are full of specialty projects and mainstay beers at Deschutes.  They even have a follow-up batch of Dissident Oud Bruine slated for release sometime in 2011.

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