By Frank James

Attending a beer fest should be about the joy of discovery. Of course, you can simply gravitate to the usual suspects, the familiar beers you know and love, the ones you’re certain will  quench your thirst in a most pleasant fashion.  Or you can revel  in  what beer fests should  actually be about: discovering new and interesting beers and tastes and breweries.
Last year’s Green Dragon NanoFest was one of those occasions when I was lucky enough to enjoy the latter kind of experience.  It was one of those weird little accidents, as I just happened to be driving through the area, saw the beer tents, the crowds and decided to stop by and see what all the commotion was about.  As is usually the case, I ran into a friend, we chatted and she encouraged me to sample her fest favorite: an imperial IPA by some little brewery called Block 15.  She knows her beer, and her tastes generally line up with mine, so I went off in search of this supposedly tasty brew.  I was out of luck. The beer had been so popular, according to the owner/brewer who was manning his own taps, that they’d ran out the first day.  He added however, that they did have a nice rye beer, their Superfly Rye.

As I began to walk away, to search for a more appetizing alternative, Nick Arzner shifted into full sales mode and began extolling the beer’s virtues in such reverent and scrumptious tones that I stopped dead in my tracks.  What the heck, I thought,  even though I generally don’t like rye beers, experimenting with styles you may not like is what beer fests are all about. He poured a sample, I tried it, and drinking that beer was a true revelation.  That typical dry rye spiciness was smoothed out with a hint of caramel sweetness that balanced it very nicely. To my utter shock, I ended up having another couple of samples and then a full cup. From that point forward I began to check  for his beers in places like Belmont Station and Bailey’s Taproom, establishments that carried Block 15 beers.  A day trip down to the Corvallis brewpub followed and I was hooked.  Block 15 beers gained a prominent spot on that exclusive list:  it was one of those  beers I’d drive a few miles just to find a pint of it on tap.

I don’t think I’m alone in that regard.  Even though the Corvallis brewpub has only been open since the spring of 2008, they’ve already established a niche as nice little brewery that consistently pours very tasty, and often unique, high quality beers. If one of their beers is on tap at one of the local bottle shops, taprooms or pubs, they don’t seem to stick around very long. Someone else, besides me, seems to be drinking a lot of their beer… and they’re doing it pretty quickly also.  Block 15 received a nice bit of recognition this spring when they won Read More…

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer, brewpubs, places to drink beer

For a moment we considered doing a month in review. We still might, but there’s just so much to reflect upon for the past Oregon Craft Beer Month (OCBM), we aren’t sure where we would. With several awesome festivals and unique events, OCBM 2010 was undoubtedly a huge hit filled with wonderful beers, memories, and the great people who make craft beer in Oregon the best month of beer appreciation anywhere in the world.

As previously mentioned here in the paper-free pages of Brewpublic, almost every day during the month of July featured multiple events and made for tough decisions about which event(s) to attend. Of course, there are worse problems in the world to deal with than an overabundance of spectacular beer.

This past weekend marked the final hurrah of OCBM, and as you might expect, there were at least a handful of noteworthy craft beer events worth involving oneself in. Bailey’s Taproom’s AnniBrew3 Barrel-aged Beer Fest was a go-to goings-on for the uber geeks that didn’t want to pass on once in a lifetime vintages of brews organized by proprietor Geoff Phillips and his faithful. Rogue’s Bones and Brew was a hot ticket item for those around Portland’s Pearl District looking to soak in some perfect summer weather, live music, and partake of the luring scents emitting from the grill. Concordia Ale House’s now well-known Concordia Cup was another chance for hop heads and S.N.O.B.s (Supporters of Native Oregon Beer) to blind taste a dozen different imperial IPAs (all brewed here in the fine state of Oregon) and help to decide which brewer will represent us in February’s Beer Brawl versus California and Washington.

For us, we were locked on our six hour meet the brewers pub crawl, aka BrewPubliCrawl. Featuring twenty breweries and some of their representing brewers. The crawl kicked off at Red Fox, a pub we haven’t spent much time at in the past. Not necessarily a beer geek pub, Red Fox serves up some of the best bloody Marys in town. However, they regularly carry Double Mountain and Laurelwood beers on tap. A third tap is devoted to Trumer Pils. Double Mountain and Laurelwood brewmasters Matt Swihart and Chad Kennedy, respectively, arrived at the noon kickoff time to meet and greet a healthy early crowd ready to get a day of craft beer under its belt. Laurelwood’s Deranger Red and Double Mountain’s Hop Lava seemed like a perfect beginning to this big day.

After a while enjoying the relaxed vibe at Red Fox, the crowd pushed on to nearby Saraveza pub, one of Portland’s finest destinations for beer geeks. Always replete with great service and excellent beer selections, Sarveza revealed Hopworks Velvet Underground Imperial Black ESB, Seven Brides Emily’s Ember Amber Ale, Fort George Vortex IPA, Heater Allen Bobtoberfest, Ninkasi Radiant Summer Ale, and more.

The next stop on the crawl was at Lucky Lab’s Overlook location where Deschutes Sage Brush Pils, Migration Pale Ale, Lompoc’s C-Note, Alameda’s Yellow Wolf IIPA, and a special Lucky Lab Pilsner, brewed for Pacific Rivers Council, were pouring in the eastern room at the venue. A great day made outdoor seating optimal in front of the establishment on N. Killingsworth. This fabulous weather would make the next stop perhaps the best of the day.

The pub crawl commenced at The Hop & Vine just a block away from the Overlook Lucky Lab. Here, jockeyboxes where set up in the spacious backyard where folks could relax and gather. On tap: a new Boneyard Beer RPM IPA, a new MacTarnahan’s Ink Blot Baltic Porter, Cascade Nightfall Blackberry Sour Ale, Widmer Gose, Natian Organic Golden Ale, Upright Auld Reekie Smoked Brown Ale, Vertigo Apricot Cream Ale, and Oakshire La Ferme Belgian-style Farmhouse Ale. All of these beers were excellent and it was great to have the brewers all on hand. At 6:00PM, Ninkasi founding brewer Jamie Floyd addressed the crowd and got everyone pumped up about the bounty of Oregon beer that makes our state so badass.

Thanks a lot to everyone involved in making the OCBM closing ceremonies so much fun. Thanks to Mother Nature for a tremendous day, all of the brewers for their time and top notch brews, and to staff at Red Fox, Saraveza, Lucky Lab, and The Hop & Vine for making this event a success!

Time for a liver cleanse now…

Check out more photos from BrewPubliCrawl and OCBM and more at http://brewpublic.com/photos

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer, beer events, beer reviews, places to drink beer

Bailey’s Taproom is unquestionably one of the best craft beer bars we’ve ever set foot inside, and, of course, our standards for beer are pretty high. Proprietor Geoff Phillips and his dedicated crew of beer geeks will be celebrating their third year on Saturday July 31, 2010 with a lineup of specialty barrel-aged brews, to the delight of area beer zealots and those traveling from afar to partake in one of the most anticipated beer events of the year in Portland, Oregon.

In a few recent posts on Bailey’s blog,our friend Geoff divulges some of the rare barrel-aged brews attendees can expect to try. We pulled the following info from Bailey’s site:

Read More…

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

Another jam-packed weekend it was for Brewpublicans here in Beervana.

Belmont Station

On Thursdays July 8, Belmont Station, with one of the most impressive calendars for Oregon Craft Beer Month (OCBM), kicked of their fourth annual sour week, known as Puckerfest, with very special event. Billed as a pre-party for the week wilds, Thursday marked the release of Double Mountain’s 2010 Devil’s Kriek. Brewed with orchard cherries grown in Hood River by brewmaster Matt Swihart, attendees were offered free samples of the brewer’s freshly picked fruits as well. Swihart and founding partner Charlie Devereux were in attendance to meet with friends and fans of the brewery. Deep amber bodied and with a well-rounded Brettanomyces yeast character, patrons had the opportunity to do some comparative sampling of this beer beside last year’s rendition. We are convinced that this is Double Mountain’s best one yet.

Also flowing from the stand-up taps at Belmont Station on this night was the Bruery’s Orchard White, a choice Belgian-style witbier brewed with coriander, citrus peel and lavender. Baker City’s Barley Brown’s Hot Blonde Ale brewed with jalapeno peppers was a light and refreshing summer-appropo golden ale exhibiting a welcomed chili spice snap without being too aggressive on the heat. The Hot Blonde won a gold medal at this year’s 2010 NABA and it was easy to see why. A keg we sampled a few weeks ago at The BeerMongers with brewmaster Shawn Kelso, kicked in less than 24 hours.

On Friday July 9, Puckerfest rocked on without missing a beat, this time with three special kegs from Jolly Pumpkin brewing of Dexter, Michigan. These rare pours included Calabaza Blanca, Oro de Calabaza, and Luciernaga. Blanca is, as the name suggests (translates literally as “White Pumpkin”), a white ale brewed in the classic biere blanche tradition and spiced with orange peel and coriander. Like most of the JP brews, it is distinctively tart and very refreshing. The Oro is a a Belgian-style strong ale aged in oak barrels and is brewed in the Franco-Belgian tradition of special golden ales. In truly JP fashion, Oro is quite peppery and effervescent with a gentle hop bouquet and the beguiling influence of wild yeast. The Luciernaga (meaning “firefly”) is another sort of hybrid brew commercially described as an “artisan pale ale brewed in the Grand Cru tradition.” With a hazy golden and carbonic body and medium hop aroma, Luciernaga is accented by the addition of coriander and grains of paradise. Spicy, tart, sour, hoppy, and somehow smooth, this was many people’s favorite of the three. However, it was impossible for us to decide which one we liked best since all three were top notch brews.

Saturday July 10 brought great weather to Portland. The three-straight 90 degree days were finally in the rearview and we were able to enjoy perfect 75-80 degree sunshine. During the day we hung out with the Daily Pull’s Brady Walen and prepped for our interview with Three Sheets alco-median Zane Lamprey who was in town on the last leg of a 53 city stand up comedy and book release tour. We prepared questions for the jokester during the day amidst picking up some special bottled brews to share with him during our interview. We were a little uncertain of how the interview would go. Since Brewpublic is dedicated to craft beer over fraternity party-esque drunkenness, we formulated an interview plan that would allow for an entertaining yet informative interview. Videographer and documentarianist Alison Grayson would capture the interview.

Before meeting with Lamprey, as mentioned, we stocked up on beer for the entertainer from a number of Oregon breweries that we thought any libation lover, not just a craft beer lover would appreciate. These included bottles of Upright Six, Cascade The Vine, Pelican Heiferweizen, Heater Allen Coastal Common, and a six pack of Caldera IPA . Just prior to our scheduled interview time, we dropped by Bailey’s Taproom to enjoy a glass of MacTarnahan’s Lipstinger. At Bailey’s we ran into our friends Bruce and Dave with BS Brewing. They were also preparing to interview Lamprey, just before we were. By the time the interview was to begin, we were already a bit McKenna’d (this is a term Lamprey uses in reference to his college buddy Steve McKenna synonymous with intoxicated). The interview was brief as we motorboated through questions and beers. Lamprey, surprisingly, wasn’t into drinking much off camera. This was understandable since he had a long night ahead of him and had already been cruising around town knocking back avocado daiquiris and other crazy concoctions for his TV show. Basically he had been on a drinking spree since the end of April when his tour kicked off. Still, he was nice enough to try some of the beers we brought before McKenna was called over to shotgun some Caldera IPAs with us.

After we left to allow Lamprey ample time to prepare for his show, we reluctantly departed our beer stash left in the green room and joined the rest of the three-quarters filled Roseland upstairs.  The show started with the ever-drunken McKenna introducing comedian Marc Ryan. Ryan’s content sought humor in STDs, DUIs, and mostly lewd material that teenage beer-bongin’ fratboys might find appealing.  Early in, we were ready to never see McKenna again. We didn’t even muster a chuckle the entire time he was on stage (and we’d been drinking and were in a good mood). Quickly realizing  that homophobia, womanizing, and drinking for the soul purpose of getting loaded were topics bolstering this show, we were in fact able to tolerate the show as long as we did in part because the other folks in the audience paid $25 to be here and, as a courtesy to our hosts, we were waiting for things to improve.  Sadly, they didn’t. Lamprey’s stand up was more fun loving and less lewd, but his go at standup was a little weak.

It was apparent that this show had a devout audience, but it simply wasn’t our cup of tea and jello shots.

Before the show was over, we had to leave for a prior engagement. It was fairly apparent from our interview and the his stage presence that Zane Lamprey doesn’t really care about the geekier side of craft beer. And, fair enough, not all people do. He projects to is the lowest common denominator, which are people who like to party. Granted this is sometimes funny, because let’s face it,  the notion of being drunk or stupid can be humorous, and travel shows where you get to peak in other cultures is at times rather fascinating. But Lamprey’s disparaging, shock-value, anything-for-attention humor was evident when he Tweeted about doing Fondue shots (dropping a shot of melted cheese into a beer and chugging it) with McKenna at the Widmer Gasthaus) reminded us of being kids and seeing that one kid eat an earthworm for a dollar, or  to make a girl scream and get his buddy to laugh. His success, we feel is partly due to his ability to be spontaneous and at times charismatic.  Despite not really enjoying the stand up show,  it was a treat to actually meet Zane Lamprey and wrap with him. Also, the Three Sheets show is rather entertaining and we are sure a lot of people would have loved to been in our shoes. Lamprey’s PR person, Karen was very cool, so big BIG ups to her!

Sunday morning we enjoyed pints of Boneyard Black 13 and Heater Allen Coastal Common at The BeerMongers while watching the final match of the World Cup.With allegiance to neither Spain nor Holland, we somehow found ourselves pulling for Holland purely based on a better craft beer selection. We weren’t the least bit disheartened when Spain ended up winning it all.

The weekend wrapped up with a great party at the Horse Brass pub to celebrate the birthday of three prevalent area beer personalities. Horse Brass founder Don Younger, accomplished beer scribe Lisa “the Beer Goddess” Morrison, and Point Blank Distributing founder Scott Willis. Together this triumvirate of  craft beer prowess celebrated 162 years of life, many of which they’ve each, in their own way, used to champion breweries in Oregon and beyond. A special tap menu of strong and hoppy brews graced the taps like Steelhead Hopasaurus Rex, Caldera Hopportunity Knocks, and Russian River Blind Pig IPA. There was even a band performing some blues numbers that had the legendary publican shaking it by the dance floor. It was a great time with lots of local beer folks like Full Sail brewmaster John Harris, Belmont Station original founder Joy Campbell, current owners Carl and Amy Singmaster, Charles and Teresa Culp, Northwest Brewing News’ John and Linda Norton, Bailey’s Taproom founder Geoff Phillips, and beer fest organizer Preston Weesner. Even Music Millenium founder Terry Currier was in attendance. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

Posted under beer events, beer reviews

Lots of spectacular barrel aged brews that you do NOT want to miss! Celebrate one of the best beer bars in Oregon’s third anniversary! Cheers to Geoff and the crew!

Posted under beer events, events, places to drink beer

On March 20, Brewpublic put together BrewPubliCrawl, a unique meet-the-brewers pub crawl featuring eight breweries at four dynamic stops on SE Division Street in Portland. Here, we enjoyed some spectacular and unique beers while soaking in a wonderfully sunny day on the Spring Equinox. We also had the pleasure of meeting not only talented and friendly brewers, but several folks passionate about craft beer. One such person was Mary Engel, a talented writer with a vast history of writing that has been featured around the country. Engel was covering our event with her partner Nolan Hester, a photojournalist amongst other talents. Engel’s article “Oh, Hoppy Day,” covered the fun that was had during BrewPubliCrawl as well as the amazing craft brew community that exemplifies Portland as arguably the best beer city on the planet.

More recently, we heard from Engel, who was informing us that she was putting together an article about Portland aka Beervana for the LA Times. We recently were sent a link to the story and were pleased to see someone in Southern California giving recognition to Portland as a true pioneer in the beer world (we often joke that San Diego thinks they invented hops though the do not grow them).

The LA Times article, named “Achieving Beervana in Portland, Ore.,” showcases a snapshot of some of Portland’s rich craft beer culture. Portland is Engel’s new hometown and she is quite happy with her quaffing options. The article points to Portland’s number of breweries, more than any other city in the world, but focuses deeper on what makes us the best town for brew culture anywhere.

“But numbers alone don’t capture Portland’s status among true beer aficionados, the kind who would sooner quaff hemlock than a Miller or a Bud. There’s something about this most livable of cities that encourages innovation.”

Well stated. Well known beer guy, Marc Martin is quoted in the piece, as we learn of our friend’s forthcoming business. “Portland is eco-friendly, green, bicycling, Birkenstock-wearing — it’s a culture that lends itself to unusual and unique things,” says Martin.

Engel’s piece goes on to cover what most out of town publications point to. Oregon’s statistics regarding craft beer and how we consume more craft beer per capita than any other state, and how beer is replacing wine. You know, something like the info you can find on the Oregon Brewer’s Guild website.

Upright Brewing

“Achieving Beervana in Portland, Ore.” visits Alex Ganum of Upright Brewing at the Portland State University Farmers Market and experiences Ganum’s Four, Flora Rustica, and Gose. These are three brews we are fortunate to have close by. By the way things have been going for Upright, you can expect SoCal’ers to be demanding some of it soon.

Rogue Public House

The former Portland Brewing digs is now the Old Crusty home of Rogue. After some art walking, Engel and friends wind up here and are “promptly overwhelmed by the 32 beers on tap.” Here they taste the refreshing Juniper Pale Ale, Brutal Bitter/IPA,  Mocha Porter, and Château Rogue Single Malt Ale. Good calls if you’re only gonna go about 1/8 of the beer menu here.

Doing beer tourism up properly, the group pays a visit to PDX’s ultimate tourist destination, Powell’s City of Books, the largest independently owned retailer of books in the country before falling off the train of high quality brews and diving in at Tugboat Brewpub. We’ve got to wonder “Why not Bailey’s Taproom across the alleyway?” This would have been one of the best microcosmic glimpses into Beervana’s offerings anywhere citywide. Oh, well, Tugboat and its unclean Rubber-made brews are again commended on their cozy unique atmosphere, which is quite nice, as are some of their guest tap offerings on cask.

While grabbing some food at Vindahlo, an Indian restaurant, they wisely opt for Double Mountain and Oakshire pints. Great call considering these are easily two of Oregon’s best breweries.

The following day, the group enjoys a walk through Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. Too bad Oaks Bottom pub isn’t what it once was when Jim Parker and Jonathan Carmean had a hand in it, but that is fine, because there’s always more options, including one of Beervana’s best…

Hopworks Urban Brewery

Righteously, they go for a sample tray here at HUB. Places like this are great for such tasters to experience the variety of hoppilicious brews made by some of the most talented folks in the country. We find it humoring how Engel likens owner Christian Ettinger to Elvis with “beers to swoon over.”  We’ll see how that pans out next April when they form another band. Next time you go to HUB, we may be tempted to order the burnin’ hunk o’ love brew or the organic blue suede shoes ale…perhaps a jailhouse bock. That is unless they announce “Ettinger has left the building.” Dude needs some rhinestones on his fermenters. If Ettinger is Elvis, who would Upright’s Ganum be? We suppose we’d have to say Frank Zappa. Okay, we digress…

The crew aptly highlights the mealy yet caffeinated even Grain Survival Stout, , the quintessential Cascadian Dark Ale known as Secession, and the gold medal winning IPA.

Alameda Brewing

A nice final stop on the Beervana mini-tour if Alameda, where brewer Carston Harney (Willie Nelson?) makes Portland’s head spin with aromatic hop-play. They go for the Pale Ale and Belgian-style IPA with a vegetarian burger. These are combos we often do up here as well.

This is the end of the fun for now for Engel’s out of town friends. They headed back to the airport where they conceivably could hit up a handful of other craft brew spot in PDX International. Lucky for Engel, she’s now a Beervanian, and we are happy to have her spreading the word about our great city and its great beer. To those from out of town, come visit and try your liver at all Beervana has to offer!

For more on Mary Engel, check out her bio here.

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

Catch the Oregon Beer Odyssey’s great class and learn the ins and outs of beer geekdom.

“Our original, introductory course that gives you all ths skills you need to talk knowledgeably about beer. Educate your palate and make yourself a better consumer!”

More at http://www.oregonbeerodyssey.com/

Posted under events

Recently we had the pleasure of delving into some new palate awakening brews. These fine ales were of the deep, dark, and hoppy persuasion, but not all could be stylistically considered as Cascadian Dark Ales according guidelines proposed by CDA proponent Abram Goldman-Armstrong (check out his panel review of CDAs in this month’s Northwest Brewing News). Here’s a look at some interesting hoppy black ales we’ve enjoyed recently.

Southern Oregon La Freaque: Here is an interesting beer brewed as a part of the KLCC Brew Fest collaborative series in which several brewers, mostly from the Central Willamette Valley, developed an imaginative Cascadian Dark Ale with a twist. This brew, like the others, employed a Belgian yeast strain in a complex and resinous CDA with a mild roast character. While many of these breweries like Oakshire, Block 15, and Ninkasi utilized rye malt in the recipe, SOB’s La Freaque did not. Brewmaster Scott Saulsbury said in a recent interview: “the recipe came from Jamie (Floyd of Ninkasi Brewing) and others in the Willamette Valley. It’s a high gravity, 8.2% ABV beer. We used Belgian La Chouffe yeast with dark malts, Munich, and Carafa III for the color.” Portlanders may have already noticed the beer in the market at spots like Belmont Station, Horse Brass, and The BeerMongers as a palate made its way north through Maletis Beverage Distribution recently. In total 12 barrels of La Freaque were brewed. This is the smallest batch possible on SOB’s brew system in Medford, Oregon. As for the flavor, Saulsbury adds: “The bitterness has mellowed some. It’s a tasty black ale with some moderateness. I was scared of using (La Chouffe) yeast at first, but the flavors came together nicely.”

Hop Valley Collaboration Brew: In conjunction with the aforementioned team of imaginative Oregon brewers, Hop Valley of Springfield, Oregon also produced a black ale using a malt bill guideline. This relatively unique beer, according to Brewmaster Trevor Howard had a 17 Plato, 76 IBU outcome and used five percent rye in the recipe. Howard says “We got the (Wyeast 3522) Ardennes yeast from Oakshire Brewing. We brewed a 15-barrel batch. Half was put into Pinot Noir barrels and is still aging on oak. The other half is on tap around Eugene and Portland.” In total about a dozen kegs were released. “I am pretty impressed by how this beer turned out” says Howard. “The style is hard to picture what the end result will be. I am not usually a fan of Belgian IPAs because the hops and yeast sometimes don’t work together well. However, this one came together well.” We concur.

Sockeye Double Gnarly: Labeled a “Double Black IPA,” this bold, black beer, pours a deep brown-black body with a soft tan head. Not available in the Oregon market, Sockeye is located in Boise, Idaho and makes some of the best beers in the state (Thanks to brewmaster Shawn Kelso of Barley Brown’s for the bottle). Brewmaster Josh King has an affinity for such complex, well-built beers. Gnarly has an assertive prominence of Northwest hops followed by a touch of dark roasted malts. This subdued yet prevalent dark malt roastiness proliferates as it warms providing a pleasant balance juxtaposed with the pine hop bitterness.

Stone/21st Amendment/Firestone Walker El Camino (Un)Real Ale: Yet another out of control collaboration beer spearheaded by the ballsy brewers at Stone Brewing of Escondido, California. You might figure impression of this beer would be as complicated as the name, but it remains rather balanced for an imperial hoppy black ale employing figs, chia, and fennel (let over ingredients from these breweries’ other one-offs?). This truly is a black ale–pitchy, dark, opaque, with a thin gray-tan head, there is obvious resinous hops and dark fruits in the nose. From big legs in the glass to a thick-0n-the-tongue mealiness punctuated by waves of Northwest hops. Piny and bold but tweaked with the spiciness of the fennel and the odd sweetness of the Mission figs. Like many of Stone’s big brews, this one starts a fight in your mouth. In other words, while there’s something to be said about complexity, this beer certainly has a lot going on and is certainly not for the faint of heart (or tongue).

Right about now, we could go for a nice Berliner-weiss.

Posted under Beer personalities, beer releases, beer reviews

Oregon Beer Odyssey (OBO) is an independent company dedicated to promoting appreciation and knowledge of great beer through tastings, classes, and private events. Coming up this Saturday at Bailey’s Taproom, OBO will feature a unique opportunity to experience some flavorsome wild ales with sour, tart, and rather uncommon  Says co-founder Ben Edmunds “I’m pretty amped on both of them–we’ve got some really great beers lined up to introduce folks to. Saturday should be a good chance to geek out on some of the finer points of making and tasting sour beers: where else will you get to compare all the major strains of Brettanomyces side by side?”

Wild and Sour Beers (Saturday, 4/3, 2:30-4 PM at Bailey’s)

Here’s the official class description:

Sour is the new hoppy! Few styles have caught the imagination of brewers like sour ales in the last few years. These are labor-intensive beers that take years to make and test a brewer’s artistic and scientific talents. Taste a wide range of beers made through fermentation beyond the control of traditional brewer’s yeast, including styles like gueuze, gose, Berliner weisse, Flanders red, and oud bruin. Find out why so many brewers find these peculiar ales to be the future of beer innovation.

For folks who want to know exactly what we’re going to taste:

The focus of the class is going to be on discussing the flavor profiles of sour and wild beers, more than their production (though there will inevitably be some of that too). We’ll start with gose and Berliner weisse, talking about different methods for getting a light sourness through wort spoiling and mash acidification. From there, we’ll move onto the profiles you get from different types of Brettanomyces by exploring mixed fermentation beers–lambicus vs. bruxellensis vs. claussenii. And then, Flemish sours and the blending of sour flavors. After that, we’ll do a side by side tasting of four gueuzes and talk about the range of ‘funk’ within that style. We’ll finish with one of Ron’s fruit beers, since the class, after all, is about the sour magic.

We’ll also touch on evaluating sour/wild beers. How do you differentiate between world-class and mediocre beers when they all share such unfamiliar flavors?

It’s good for geeks and novices with a sense of adventure. Tasting all these beers side by side outside of a class would cost $100+, so this is a pretty affordable way to explore the style!

Brewed by Monks (Sunday, 4/4, 4:00-5:30 at The Beer Mongers)

Official Class Description:

Belgian Trappist beers are revered around the world for their complex flavors that defy what we typically expect in beer. Taste all of the classic ‘monk-brewed’ styles of beer, including dubbels, tripels, and quadrupels. Beers used in this class include classic Belgian versions as well as the vanguard American craft brews they monks have inspired. Come drink like a monk!

And in more detail…

In honor of Easter, we’re going to compare and contrast dubbels, tripels, and ‘quadrupels’ (or Belgian strong darks, or “Strong Cascadian dark ales without Cascadian hops”) from the real Trappists, the Belgian abbeys that imitate the originals, and the American craft brewers they’ve inspired. Try brews from at least four of the seven Trappist breweries, as well as six non-Trappist interpretations of these classic styles. We’ll discuss differences between tripels and Belgian strong goldens, go through how to pair abbey ales with food (and do a little practice with chocolate), and decide whether the Trappist breweries deserve the hype they have.

Both classes cost $35/person. Sign up and learn more at www.oregonbeerodyssey.com. You can register at the bar too–just as Sean or Craig (Beer Mongers), or Geoff, Michael, or Scott (Bailey’s).

Posted under beer events, beer history, places to drink beer

Walkabout Brewing located in Central Point, Oregon, just north of Medford and Ashland is a beer that rarely makes its way to Portland. In fact, it was some years back that kegs would occasionally be available in the Northwestern corner of the state at places like the Horse Brass Pub. More recently, we at Brewpublic brought a few kegs north for our 1st Brewniversary/KillerBeerFest last October. The heartily hopped Red Back IPA quickly emptied at Saraveza while the Jabberwocky Strong Ale was a hit at Bailey’s Taproom.

This elusive microbrewery run by Australian native Ross Litton, a friendly man with a big passion for bold beer recipes, recently put its Worker’s Pale Ale in 22 ounce bottles. Assisted by Green Bottling, a Portland-based contract mobile bottling company based in Portland, 240 cases of the Pale are now in bottles. However, it is not likely that Portlanders will have the beer brought north since the small brewery is focusing on their local beer market nearly 300 miles to the south. The good news is, travelers and passersby will have access to smaller quantities of this dialed brewery’s beers without having to commit to a whole keg. We think we’ll have to make another road trip to Southern Oregon soon.

(l to r): Caldera founder Jim Mills, Walkabout founder Ross Litton, and Caldera brewmaster Trevor Kemp.

Reviewing our tasting notes of Walkabout’s Worker’s Pale, we found the amber bodied brew to possess a thick white head and a lot of citrus hops character indicative of the Pacific Northwest and with enough caramel malt presence to balance. If you get a chance, don’t miss out.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer news