On Tuesday night Barley Brown’s Brewpub of Baker City, Oregon made a rare appearance in Portland at a meet the brewer event at Belmont Station. Brewer Shawn Kelso and owner Tyler Brown were on hand to share some of their specialty brews from their four-barrel nanobrewery including a two year vertical of the Sled Wreck Winter Ale, an Imperial IPA, and an Imperial uber-hopped Cascadian Dark Ale. Following a successful trip to the Great American Beer Fest that landed Oregon’s Far Eastern pub two medals, the brewery has been making more of a presence in the Rose City. BB’s will also be participating in the forthcoming Holiday Ale Fest during the first weekend in December. Brewpublic was fortunate to sample the five brews available at the Belmont Station event and conduct a brief interview with Shawn Kelso whose passion for his craft and people is far from abstruse.

Two different versions of the Sled Wreck–an ‘08 and an ‘09. The ‘08 has a little bit of American oak character and some bourbon notes. How did this beer change?

On a Friday we left Portland heading eastbound toward the Southeastern corner of Washington State. As previously mentioned, any trip along the gorge demands a stop at Double Mountain Brewpub in Hood River. Here we visited our friend Charlie Devereux who shared a hoppilicious pint of Killer Green and a sweet and sour snifter of Devil’s Kriek. After this needed pit stop an hour or so out of town, we continued on our way east along the I-84. Hood River is the dividing line where you can see the climate change from temperate rain forest to high desert. Douglas-Fir trees are replaced with Ponderosa Pines and wet green terrains evaporates into pillowing glacial pastels. The town also marks the end of craft beer abundance in Oregon. Dispersed along the Interstate are some great pours such as Barley Browns in Baker City and Beer Valley in Ontario, but for the most part, once you pass Hood River, you will find your self in Bud Country where cowboys and ranchers are as commonplace as tumbleweeds and livestock.

…and we’re drinking it up on the left side…

Barley Brown's Shawn Kelso flaunts his GABF Bling

A rare treat is in store for Portlanders who make it to Belmont Station for Tuesday night’s tasting of some exclusive Barley Brown’s brews from Baker City, Oregon. Said Belmont’s Chris Ormand a few weeks ago, “We’ll be tapping a cask conditioned keg of Barley Brown’s most excellent Turmoil Black IPA. Plus Shredders Wheat and WFO IPA. Brewer Shawn Kelso of this small brewpub consistently creates some of the finest brews around. (we’re betting we’ll be toasting at least one GABF award–fingers crossed). Shawn can’t be here but his beer will be!”

Tonight we were able to get our palates around a flavorsome new maltilicious Full Sail fresh hop beer. Despite the hoparazzi not having many cameras handy, we can confirm that Oregon Guildmeister Brian Butenschoen was on hand to quaff the birra delicioso. Here’s an incriminating cell phone photo taken by Brewpublic’s own Margaret Lut.

Gearing up for our Brewpublic Anniversary event at Saraveza on October 9th and our KillerBeerFest at Bailey’s on October 10th, we couldn’t help but feel the vibe of the harvest season. Though we didn’t anticipate the event to be much of a fresh hop event since the Portland fresh hop festivities will be in full effect the same day at Oaks Park, we were happy to recently discover our event will feature some fantabulous wet hop brews exclusive to the weekend. For example, our friends from Barley Browns, owner Tyler Brown and head brewer Shawn Kelso of Baker City were kind enough to share a gem of a beer from their four-barrel brewery’s library. Making the five hour trek from their Eastern Oregon hotspot, these guys brought us a one-of-a-kind Wild Fresh Hopped American Strong Ale. They will also feature some of these unique highly sought after brews at Belmont Station in the near future. During their brief stay in Portland Brown and Kelso also dropped off eight beers to MacTarnahan’s/Pyramid to submit them in this year’s GABF. Expect some medals from these chaps.