Wednesday July 14, 2010 offers a lot of options for Beervana craft beer lovers. Here’s a look at where and what you could be quaffing on this fine day:

Upright Reggae Junkie Gruit Release and Meet the Brewers – Upright Brewing has been turning the Oregon craft beer world upside down with some unique and fantastic beers. Since they opened just over a year ago, brewers Alex Ganum and Gerritt Ill have taken imaginative brewing to a new level. Known well for their French farmhouse style brews, on this fine evening at The BeerMongers, the Upright boys release their seasonal noteworthy hops-free herb beer known as Reggae Junkie Gruit. Brewed with a tantalizing blend of lemongrass, sichuan peppercorns, orange peel and hyssop, the gruit is another in a long list of innovative beers that Upright continues to put forth. Also tapping is a grassy loaded-with-hops Bavarian Engelberg Pils. 6-8PM.

The BeerMongers are located at 1125 SE Division Street in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 234-6012

Cascade Brewing Night at Puckerfest, Belmont Station – Puckerfest rolls on with more tart and wild brews than you can shake a stick at. Cascade brewer and sour champion Curtis Bain presents three very special sour ales on this night: The Manhattan Transfer, special blend of Pale Quad aged in Heaven Hill barrels, Tripel, and Sour Pie Cherry Kriek;  Noyeaux, a blend of Belgian spiced blonds, aged in white port barrels with raspberries and toasted inner pits of apricots used for the Cascade Apricot Ale; and the highly acclaimed dark, puckering, and complex Sang Noir. If you haven’t been by Puckerfest yet this year, what are you waiting for?! 6-8PM.

Belmont Station is located at 4500 SE Stark Street in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 232-8538.

Imperial IPA Fest Kick-off – Do you love hops? If so, this night is for you. In fact, the next five days are a dream come true for you. With more than 30 IIPAs being tapped throughout the week, Saraveza begins IIPA Fest with a bang. Tapping tonight: Beer Valley Leafer MadnessBlack Madness (a special blend of Leafer and the boisterously lupulin’d Black Flag Imperial Stout), Laurelwood Green Mammoth (debuting!), Oakshire Glen’s Hop Vice, and Ninkasi Tricerahops (gold medal winner at North American Beer Awards 2010). Brewer-owner Pete Ricks of Beer Valley, Oregon’s easternmost brewer, will in be in attendance, as will Laurelwood brewmaster Chad Kennedy. Folks with free tickets will receive a free Saraveza 32 ounce mason jar and get a fill for the price of a pint. Brewpublic is proud to sponsor this event. For more information go to http://brewpublic.com/events.

Saraveza is located at 1004 N. Killingsworth Street in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 206-4252

Hopworks Happy Hour Beer Pairing – Join Comune Accanto and the brewers of Hopworks Urban Brewery for a special marriage of happy hour delicacies and HUB’s award winning brews.

FRITTO MISTO – Fried shrimp, calamari, fennel, lemon and olives, Hub Lager

ROASTED APRICOT AND ARUGULA SALAD – With pancetta and aged balsamic vinegar, Evelyn Sunshine Imperial IPA

HOUSE MADE RABBIT & ROSEMARY SAUSAGE – With slow cooked sweet peppers ,onions and crispy polenta, Deluxe Organic Ale

TAGLIERINI ARRABIATA – With local porcini mushrooms, chiles and tomatoes, Survival “7 grain” Stout

LOCAL CHERRY AND BLUEBERRY CROSTATA – With basil crème fraiche gelato, Velvet Underground Imperial black ESB

HUB’s famous beer bike will be on hand as well with pint specials. Bon appetit!

Comune Accanto is located at 2838 SE Belmont Street in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 235-4900

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

By Matthew DiTullo, foreward by Angelo De Ieso II

Beer and music. Life essentials. Sure pairing food and beer (especially cheese, chocolate, and dishes prepared with beer as an ingredient), is an obvious match made in heaven for many craft beer lovers. But what about two facets of life that together captivate our imagination and relate a form social expressionism unlike anything else. Beer and music. Seems each serves to enhance the aesthetic of its counterpart. In a new series, Brewpublicans divulge some of their favorite pairings that encompass not only our sense of taste, touch, smell, and sight, but that of sound. Beer aficionado Fred Eckhardt has long reminded us to “listen to our beer.” Still, as far as qualifiers in the beer evaluatory realm is concerned, sound of beer is not yet a universally scrutinized component. We are not in any capacity to disagree with one of the greatest beer minds of Beervana, just simply here to suggest a bit of  refuge for that fifth and often over-looked (or is it over-heard?) sense. Music even further transcends the physical sense of hearing in a manner that involves components of pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. Like beer, music is an art form open to elucidation, opinion, and  so often characterized by governing regional social norms. This is why we are letting people who share our passion for both designs write of some of their favorite music and beer pairings. In our first volume of Beer & Music, we welcome back jazz and craft beer enthusiast Matthew DiTullo. Matthew’s blog This Shape of Jazz pertains to the writer’s passion for different jazz albums, primarily those of the 1960s in the avant-garde genre. Matthew also touches on titles pertaining to bop, hard-bop, soul jazz and post bop as he find these to be equally as important. Growing up in New York has evidently shaped his passions as well.  -ADI

Don Cherry, Where is Brooklyn? / Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Where is Brooklyn?  Well, Brooklyn Brewery pumps out some of the best brews in the Northeast and their Black Chocolate Stout is fitting for this adventurous album by Don Cherry on Blue Note Records.  Recorded in 1966, we hear a piano-less quartet that’s similar to Ornette Coleman’s classic Quartet earlier in the decade but oh how different it is.  Pharoah Sanders’ more haunting, spiritual tone completely contrasts the melodic blues and boogie aesthetic of Coleman’s.   It’s a jarring album of collective improvisation and connectivity.  With Brooklyn’s Black Chocolate Stout we’re offered a robust, sweet, chocolaty brew.  Enjoy it slowly along Cherry’s slurring and vivacious cornet playing.  Black Chocolate Stout is thick yet has a smooth texture on the palate much like Ed Blackwell (drums) and Henry Grimes (bass) as they back up the two horn players.

Dave Holland, Conference of the Birds / Captain Lawrence Flaming Fury

I absolutely love this album and I love this beer.  Flaming Fury is a highly sought after peach sour bottled by Captain Lawrence of Pleasantville, NY.  In this barrel-aged brew you get a lot of contrast of the earthy, peachy, plump flavors with the tart palate assaulting with sour yeast notes.  The contrast is welcomed and fantastic.  That’s why I chose to match it with this recording.  With the likes of Sam Rivers (reeds, flute), Anthony Braxton (reeds, flute), and Barry Altschul (drums, percussion) joining Holland (bass), individual styling pulls in every sporadic direction, but they always seem to coalesce together to form a sublime happening.

Fred Anderson, Staying in the Game / Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

I wanted to talk about Anderson and honor him since his passing on June 24 at the age of 81.  I have chosen Goose Island Bourbon County Stout because both the brewery and Anderson come from the Chicago scene.  And Bourbon County Stout is one of the best beers I’ve ever had from Chicago.  It’s lush, boozy and vibrantly sweet with notes of vanilla, oak, and cocoa while supporting roasted, burnt-like malts.  Not unlike Staying in the Game, it dances around your mind forcing you to give every bit of detail and attention to the experience.  Recorded less than two years ago, this album proves that beauty comes with age.  So throw a few bottles of BCS in the cellar and enjoy years from now along with this session date.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, At the Jazz Corner of the World Vol. 1 & 2 / Cascade Apricot Ale

Just as the mid 20th century New York Jazz scene was the Jazz corner of the world, present day Portland could be considered the beer corner of the world.  This pair of volumes was probably obtained within my first dozen Jazz vinyl LPs collected.  It’s a hip, hard bop sound, resonating from the legendary Birdland on the West 52nd Street scene.  Likewise no other brewery in Portland does more than Ron Gansberg’s elaborate sours from Cascade Brewing.  With numerous awards and recognitions from brews like Apricot Ale, Bourbonic Plague, and Vlad the Impaler, I’m proud to share city limits with this brewery.

Flatt & Scruggs, Foggy Mountain Banjo / Bluegrass American Pale Ale

I hope I wasn’t expected to do all Jazz albums.  My second love to Jazz music is Bluegrass.  I’ve even been known to pick a few notes on the ol’ five string. This 1961 Columbia recording is responsible for many of the skills I’ve learned.  The classic unmistakable licks of Earl Scruggs backed by Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys has hard driving chops we’ve known to love in Bluegrass.  What else is there to pair than the appropriately titled Bluegrass Brewing American Pale Ale.  The two great all-American genres would be Jazz and Bluegrass and you can’t have either of them without America.  Both rooted in the blues they take advantage of the African influenced down beat so it’s natural for me to harmonize with both genres.  Now back to the beer — the American Pale Ale is a balanced, forwardly hopped brew that’s delicious and thirst quenching for chugging along while having string band practice on the front porch.

More to come…

Posted under Beer & Music, beer reviews

Another weekend has come and gone. This past one involved Spring-like weather in mid-February, something we are lucky to enjoy here in the Pacific Northwest. The cherry trees blossoming and several others budding made it clear that the coldest and darkest days of winter here are finally behind us. This lends itself to better accessibility to better beer. And, as you might expect, we took full advantage of this golden opportunity.

Friday

Friday kicked off with more of the same fantastic weather that would ensue all weekend long. The perennial crocuses made an appearance to soak up the warm sunshine along with a number of other budding plants that had remained dormant all winter. We enjoyed it the same, opening the glass facing on the screen door to let the warmth of this pseudo-spring in.

After enjoying the sunshine during the day, Friday night we went to the Portland International Film Fest. This great event showcases some of the best independent film-making from around the world. After a fun time at the fest, we visited our friend Jesse McCann at his soon to open Apex Taproom in SE Portland. Ezra’s New School Beer Blog had a nice write up earlier on Friday (here). This was the second time we’d actually gotten to look at the progress on Jesse’s new digs, and we have been anticipating it for quite a while. Located just across the street from our friends at The Beermongers, Apex is in a  great location, next to the hip new Los Gorditos Mexican restaurant. It has been evident of late that this emerging corner will surely be a hit in SE Portland. Apex, happily, will feature 50 craft beers on tap and has the cooler capacity for about 1500 bottles. The bar has not yet been built, but with the way things are going, an OLCC permit should be passed soon and things should be well on their way toward opening. Apex will also promote bicycling by offering about 60 parking spaces for the non-carbon burning commuters. The remainder of the lot will be utilized for outdoor seating, and a small portion will be set aside for a some motorcycle parking. Jesse’s involvement with New Belgium Brewing Company and love for bikes is evident and seems like a perfect fit for the spirit of Portlanders.

Jesse’s dad Dermot, an artist who lives in British Columbia, has been in town helping with much of the work needed to get the new bar open. Friday was Dermot’s 60th birthday and a small group gathered to celebrate whilst checking out the progress of Apex. It was a sort of beer potluck with some delicious beers being shared. On tap, Hopworks Lager, and New Belgium Ranger served as delicious refreshers, and a selection of bottles were shared. One particular highlight was a bottle of Lost Abbey Cable Car, an American Wild Ale that is hard to come across. All the hype aside, this sour brew was incredible with a world of out of this world complexities. Brewmaster Tomme Arthur sure does put forth some spectacular beers, and this one was a true delight. Thanks to Renata for sharing!

It was great to see our friends from Hopworks beer geek buds Chris “King C” Ensign, Ezra “Samurai Artist” Johnson-Greenough, Abram Goldman-Armstrong, Ritch “SNOB” Marvin, his wife Amy, and more!

Perhaps the highlight of the night besides just checking out the spot and gathering with other beer folks, was the appearance of Matt Phillips of Victoria, BC’s Phillips Brewing. According to Abram, Phillips’ Cascadian Dark Ale, known as Black Toque, is the first commercially released incarnation of the style. Friends with Dermot, Matt made the trip down with cases of his dankly delicious Hop Circle IPA. The beer possessed a citrusy fresh flavor that was very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing!

We are very much looking forward to hanging out at Apex with friends, playing some pinball, and indulging in a vast selection of killer brews. Kudos to Jesse and Dermot for a great atmosphere. We greatly look forward to frequenting Apex soon!

Saturday

With the sun still on center stage, some spring yard work was in order. Pulling some weeds and hedging a bit while quaffing a few bottles of Samuel Adams Noble Pils and Deschutes Red Chair NWPA was on the agenda early on before heading out into the day to see what was doing. We met with the good folks at Bar Avignon to discuss our upcoming BrewPubliCrawl. On March 20th, SE Division Street in Portland will feature a pub crawl/meet the brewers event including the best beer bars on the rue and some of the best beers and their brewers in Oregon. More details to come soon, but one thing is for sure: Avignon offers some awesome craft beers on tap. An under the radar Full Sail Bourbon Wassail blend that was featured at the Holiday Ale Fest is currently flowing, as is a Walking Man Belgian Pale Ale, Ninkasi ESB, Fort George’s North III and Vortex IPA, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye on cask, and the venerable North Coast Old Rasputin on draught. Owners Nancy Hunt and Randy Goodman’s great little tap selection is often overshadowed by their unbelievable collection of wines and spirits, but it is surely a classy spot not to be overlooked by a true beer geek.

After departing Avignon and enjoying affordable vegan entrees at Los Gorditos, we ventured north to Upright Brewing learn of a new collaboration beer between Upright’s Alex Ganum, Gerritt Ill, and Confucian Brewer Corey Blodgett. Another special one-off concocted specifically for the upcoming Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers event at Hopworks on May 1, 2010. The beer fittingly named Monk & Mingus will feature this year’s selected Belgian Farmhouse yeast and will be a strong dark farmhouse ale. Much of the secrets of this anticipated beer have yet to be revealed, but a great write-up on Corey Blodgett’s Confucian Brewer site is worth a read.

Northbound from Upright to Prost on Mississippi Street, much needed half-liters of Hacker-Pschorr Märzen and Radeberger Pils helped to refuel before trekking on to Killingsworth where we made a stop at one of our favorite bars, Saraveza. Here we enjoyed a variety of wonderful tasters including Russian River Supplication, Everybody’s Brewing Country Boy IPA, and New Belgium Beer de Mars.We met up here with Captain Neil Yandow of Belmont Station and made our way down the way to our main stop of the night.

Saturday was Samurai Artist’s birthday party at the Hop & Vine, another top notch beer spot just down the street from Saraveza. In the back yard a fire burned warming us during the clear cool February night. Another beer potluck was underway. Rare bottles of commercial beer as well as delicious homebrews flowed. Highlights for us included Jimmy Blum and Ritch Marvin’s Cascadian Dark Ale collaboration homebrew, a bottle of Cascade’s tart Apricot, and Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Strong Brown on tap.

Lots of great beer geeks were in attendance for Ezra’s hoorah. Our pals Gordon “El Gordo” and his lovely wife Katie gave us a ride (thanks a lot!) back to Southeast. We visited our neighborhood pub, Victory, where a recently beefed up line-up of taps made deciding that much harder. Owner and head bartender Yoni Laos poured Widmer’s Deadlift Imperial IPA as well Delerium Tremens, and a delicious Wandering Aengus cider. It’s always nice to close out a weekend night at Victory. Look for them as a stop on our March 20th Division Street BrewPubliCrawl as well!

Sunday

More sun-soaking relaxing on the sabbath. A little gardening prep work, a little lawn chair sittin’, and a bit of quaffery. Deschutes Green Lakes Organic Ale, Deschutes Red Chair, Widmer Broken Halo, and Sam Adams Noble Pils paired well with the 60-degree February. Good times. Great weekend.

Posted under beer reviews, places to drink beer

Friday: Cascade’s Deluge

Where o where to begin? Another great weekend in the books. Thanks to the much appreciated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, it resumed until Tuesday. Friday was the second straight bottling day over at Cascade Brewing at the Raccoon Lodge. Here, Ron Gansberg and a small ensemble of beer geek henchmen bottled up 500 cases of this year’s Apricot Ale in 750 ml bottles. The tart and resonantly fruited beer is brighter flavored than last year’s batch without losing any of its vibrant olfactory luminosity. Still, the beer needs some time to condition. According to Gansberg, about a year and a half.

After work was through, I was fortunate enough to partake in the delving in of Cascade’s exchequer for some unique sampling. Some noteworthy favorites included the ever-compelling Sang Rouge, Sang Noir, a magnificently rubicund Saison, and a special blend of Gold Yeller with a splash of the Nightfall Blackberry Ale. This mix is a favorite of Raccoon Lodge owner Art Larrance, who, along with aficionado Preston Weesner, joined us for this much appreciated sampling experience.

Saturday Afternoon: Ambushed

We finally enjoyed BridgePort’s new seasonal, their Highland Ambush Scotch Ale over a wonderful lunch at their Hawthorne pub location. Lots of rich oaky, malten notes made it a perfect brew amidst the throes of January. Kudos to the BP crew for this treasure.

Saturday Night: John Foyston’s night at Roots

It’s obvious how much people in the craft beer community love and respect John Foyston. Foyston is the nonpareil beer reporter in Portland amidst a seemingly endless sea of us. Not only is Mr. Foyston a talented journalist with his finger on the area’s beer pulse, he is also a pro motorcycle mechanic, and accomplished painter. An installment of Foyston’s oil paintings are currently showing at Roots. On Saturday the talented gentleman was on hand for this unique showing of some intriguing depictions of Eastern Oregon and Washington imagery. It was quite evident the admiration folks in the community have for him, as the place was packed. It was a great experience to sit down and quaff a handful of Roots’ organic brews like the Burghead Heather Ale, the Island Red, and the Exxxcalibur Stout. There was even a Craig Nicholls sighting. All in all, a great time was had everyone.

After our fun and flavorsome experience at Roots, we headed home, stopping by The BeerMongers to pick up the essentials: a four-pack of Maui Coconut Porter, a bottle of Stone and Brewdog’s BASHAH Belgian Black IPA, and a few other beers. Thanks to Sean for hanging out and sharing his brews.

Sunday: Chill

Sunday was a relaxing day where not a lot happened. A little football was watched during the day before enjoying a wonderful dinner with our friend Alex Ganum of Upright Brewing. Alex shared selected bottles of Upright’s Billy the Mountain Old Ale and Oyster Stout, and even brought a special bottle of bourbon barrel stout from Old Market Brewing in Beaverton that was off the chain! It was a great cellar-raiding, quaffing good time.

Monday: MLK Day

Not much exciting to speak of on this day. However, we did slip away from a Netflix marathon long enough to return some materials to the Multnomah County Library and snag lunch at New Old Lompoc’s Hedge House alongside a glass of the new Old Tavern Rat Barleywine and a Condor Pale Ale back.

So here we go…back to the week. Looking forward to another long weekend ahead.

–Angelo

Posted under beer events, beer reviews

Sometimes it happens that you have occasions to have a beer, especially when weather is poor and your bike is at the repair shop. Not that bad after all…

I was invited to a tasting session in Montréal on Friday night. Our host (glouglouburp on Ratebeer ) and people there had more tasting experience than me. It is always a little headache to bring them something new because they’ve drank everything. Rastacouere has rated over 5500 beers on ratebeer. I arrived later and had the following beers:
Moyland White Christmas Spiced Winter Lager, Lawson’s Finest Liquids Chinooker’d IPA and Maple Nipple, Deschutes Black Butte XX, Telegraph Brewing Company Reserve Sour Wheat, The Bruery Partridge in a Pear Tree, Stone Old Guardian, Cascade Apricot Ale, Otter Creek Imperial India Pale Ale, Three Floyd’s Behemoth and Ale Smith Wee Heavy.

Our host shows us his new beer cellar and some great beers he own like two Lost Abbey Isabelle Proximus and bottles of Russian River Supplication. I should consider having more beer trips and bring back more of those “killer” brews.
When I came back, my answering machine told me that friends were having a brewing session at 9:00 next morning. I showed up at 13:00 when their apricot ale was boiling. We had a Schneider Georg Schneiders Wiesen Edel-Weisse (organic wheat ale), Long Trail Double IPA and a Pennichuck Halligan IPA. Enough time to chill (we needed imagination and this chiller will definitely have to be improved), transfer and clean everything. We store this 50 liters batch and tried a Warsteiner Premium Dunkel. We expected nothing from that beer and that’s exactly what we had. Back home, I decided to kill few suspicious bottles like the Sparkling Ale, Cedar Cream Ale, Weltenburger Kloster Adam Bock and Edelweiss (First time I saw a beer with ingredients like, glucose-fructose, ethyl alcohol, ascorbic acid and flavour of alpine herbs and it doesn’t taste chemical… ). Hard experience, but somebody has to do it.

On Sunday, I did improve my decoration in my bathroom with a brand new shower curtain. Great look! After that, I went to my local beer store to see if new brews where available. Let me introduce you to: Le sixième continent.
Ce commerce a ouvert ses portes depuis près d’un an et a changé mon approvisionnement de bières de microbrasseries. Avant leur ouverture, je devais me contenter de ce qui était disponible en épicerie (soit pas grand-chose) ou me rabattre dans des commerces situés à Montréal, Québec ce qui impliquait 45 minutes de voiture au minimum. Terminé les détours, vive l’achat local! Ce magasin de bières a en inventaire tout ce que les microbrasseries brassent au Québec. Un total de ± 348 différentes bières. Saint-Hyacinthe n’est pas une ville dédiée à la bière, donc l’établissement se doit d’éduquer et de conseiller les gens. Je crois que c’est pour cette raison que les bières ont été disposées par couleur. Pour le débutant, c’est peut-être intéressant, mais c’est le seul endroit que je connaisse qui fonctionne ainsi.
On y retrouve uniquement des bières du Québec, pas d’importations car elles sont régies par la SAQ. Il faut donc se fier à nos brasseurs pour créer de nouvelles recettes et visiter l’endroit régulièrement pour obtenir les nouveautés. Un autre fait particulier au Québec: La surface de vente dédiée à l’alcool ne doit pas dépasser 49% du magasin. On retrouve donc dans ce magasin une vaste sélection des eaux du monde, du chocolat et du thé pour remplir le 51% qui n’est pas de l’alcool. Les lois sont magiques ici.

I did complete this weekend with a Chimay Pères Trappistes, Blanche de l’Alchimiste and an IPA from Anderson Valley Brewing Co.
Happy 4th of July.
Santé
marc@brewpublic.com

Posted under beer reviews