Please join us at Belmont Station as we welcome our guest François de Harenne, Directeur Commercial of the Orval Trappist Brewery in Florenville, Belgium to the City of Roses. Stop by the Station for your chance to meet François and learn about the fascinating history of Orval. 4500 S.E. Stark St. Portland, OR 97215; (503) 232-8538. 7:00 – 9:00 pm.
If you’re not one of the lucky lads or lasses who will be in attendance for the country’s biggest and baddest beer fests, aka Great American Beer Fest (aka GABF), fret not. The 29th installation of the GABF September 16-18 might offer over 2,200 beers to try which is more than you’ll likely find at any other single festival, but after all, who can drink 2,200 beers in three days (We’re imagining a few friends contemplating it).
This month, do what so many people around the country are doing, take a staycation. Yes, it’s that catch word you’ve likely heard promoted from advocates of living local, but it certainly is good for the economy, and in these rougher economic times, it might be just what you need to enjoy the fruits of the Pacific Northwest, in our humble opinion, one of the greatest places to live on the planet.
Here’s a look at some events coming up in September that you might consider attending if you love Oregon craft beer Read More…
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…
Taste the great beers from Alaskan Brewing: Amber, Pale, Stout, White, IPA, Smoked Porter, & Barleywine. Double Black IPA & Barrel-aged 2009 Smoked Porter on draft at Belmont Station
From the folks at Belmont Station: “We’ll turn most of our Biercafe taps over to Imperial IPAs to hop up your Labor Day Weekend. Saturday Noon-11PM. Sunday Noon-11PM Labor Day Monday Noon – 11PM. Yes Sunday and Monday are extended from our usual Biercafe hours. Special tappings each day to be announced. Some to expect: Blue Frog DIPA, Double Mountain Molten Lava, Salmon Creek King Salmon IPA, Laurelwood Organic Green Elephant, Terminal Gravity Simcoe Double IPA, Pike Double IPA, Great Divide 16th Anniversary, Avery Maharajah, Bear Republic Racer X, Oakshire Perfect Storm, Russian River Pliny the Elder, Everybody’s Big Brother, Hales Seattle Beer Week…”
From the folks at Belmont Station: “We’ll turn most of our Biercafe taps over to Imperial IPAs to hop up your Labor Day Weekend. Saturday Noon-11PM. Sunday Noon-11PM Labor Day Monday Noon – 11PM. Yes Sunday and Monday are extended from our usual Biercafe hours. Special tappings each day to be announced. Some to expect: Blue Frog DIPA, Double Mountain Molten Lava, Salmon Creek King Salmon IPA, Laurelwood Organic Green Elephant, Terminal Gravity Simcoe Double IPA, Pike Double IPA, Great Divide 16th Anniversary, Avery Maharajah, Bear Republic Racer X, Oakshire Perfect Storm, Russian River Pliny the Elder, Everybody’s Big Brother, Hales Seattle Beer Week…”
From the folks at Belmont Station: “We’ll turn most of our Biercafe taps over to Imperial IPAs to hop up your Labor Day Weekend. Saturday Noon-11PM. Sunday Noon-11PM Labor Day Monday Noon – 11PM. Yes Sunday and Monday are extended from our usual Biercafe hours. Special tappings each day to be announced. Some to expect: Blue Frog DIPA, Double Mountain Molten Lava, Salmon Creek King Salmon IPA, Laurelwood Organic Green Elephant, Terminal Gravity Simcoe Double IPA, Pike Double IPA, Great Divide 16th Anniversary, Avery Maharajah, Bear Republic Racer X, Oakshire Perfect Storm, Russian River Pliny the Elder, Everybody’s Big Brother, Hales Seattle Beer Week…”
Many of you may be aware by now that I’ve been taking a little break from drinking beer. Yes, Oregon Craft Beer Month aka July was quite an intense experience and I’ve found it helpful to set aside one month a year to let my liver, kidneys, lymphatic system, and blood cleanse a bit before gearing up for the action packed harvest season that encompasses Oktoberfest and fresh hop events. We’re also jazzed about next month’s Microhopic 2 and October’s 2nd Annual our KillerBeerFest and Brewniversary parties that will undoubted reveal a scope of beers worth saving up for.
Being on the wagon doesn’t mean that beer is not still at the forefront of our daily lives. No sir. In fact, a few sips here and there are always allowable. A good example was last Thursday when our friend Theo showed up at The BeerMongers with a growler of Russian River Hop Father that returned with him from the source in Santa Rosa, California. Somewhere in the middle of the brewery’s Blind Pig IPA and their holy hyped Pliny the Elder IIPA, Hop Father managed to extract the most from each lupulin gland in true Russian River fashion. A nip of this beer set in front of me could succeed in satisfying me by smell alone.
On Saturday we rounded up a herd of beer geeks to serve as a judging panel for Blitz Bar’s 2nd Annual Brewers IPA Challenge. In fact, the event was a double IPA challenge featuring 13 imperially hopped-out samples. Fellow celebrity judges included the Oregonian’s beer writer John Foyston, the Oregon Brew Crew’s award winning zymurgist Bill Schneller, Belmont Station manager Neil “Captain” Yandow, Breakside Brewery and Oregon Beer Odyssey beer guru Ben Edmunds, and bloggers Ezra Johnson-Greenough and Ritch “SNOB” Marvin from The New School Beer Blog, Bill Night from It’s Pub Night, Charles Culp from An Ear For Beer, Jeff Alworth from Beervana, Jason Wallace from Portland Beer & Music Blog, and our own art guy, Matthew DiTullo.
The IIPA judging was a lot of fun with great music and the smell of Jack Daniel’s regional Barbecue Competition who saw the winner advance to nationals. Of the 13 IIPAs offered, a top three would prevail as decided by our panel:
Seattle’s Pike Brewing makes some of the best beer in the area. Here’s your chance to meet brewmaster Drew Cluley at Portland’s Belmont Station and try the 2010 debut of Auld Aquaintance as well as the Double IPA on tap. Pike will also b pouring bottle samples of Pale, Naughty Nellie, Kilt Lifter, IPA, Dry Wit, 5x Stout and Monk’s Uncle Tripel.
Most craft beer geeks are familiar with the beers of Stone Brewing Company. Since 1996, the San Diego area brewery has been challenging beer drinkers to expand their idea of what beer can be. With statements like “Fizzy yellow beer is for wussies,” Stone’s repertoire of brews often runs well above the average alcohol by volume standard set by the vanilla macrobreweries. Though their sharply hopped IPA and Pale Ale are considered Stone’s flagship beers, it is perhaps their Arrogant Bastard Ale that has captured the intrigue and dominated the palates of innovation within the burgeoning craft beer uprising. This American strong ale makes the statement to consumers on the bottle that “You’re not worthy.”
A combination of brilliant marketing, sharp imagery, and risk-taking recipe development has been a proven formula for success for Stone. Instead of yielding to the idea that compromise is necessary to lure in leary-palated beer consumers, Stone has always operated on the philosophy of simply making the bold and robust beers that they like to drink, and in return, a huge following of dedicated followers has emerged.
In 2006 Stone moved from a modest industrial park brewery (now home of Lost Abbey Brewing) in San Marcos to an expansive custom-designed facility in Escondido. The new location currently has a capacity of more than 70,000 barrels per year, with capacity expandable up to 250,000 barrels, and includes an on-site bottling line. The new location also features a restaurant known as Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, a 300+ seat establishment which features a large outdoor patio and 1-acre gardens. Here, Stone serves a rotating menu of food—concentrating on organic, free-range and local ingredients—and beer from Stone, local San Diego and regional California craft brewers, and other specialty breweries in the United States and abroad. The brewery also houses a “Stone Company Store” where Stone merchandise can be purchased in addition to 2L and 1L growlers which can be filled with Stone’s seven year-round beers and special releases.
In June 2008, Stone Brewing became improved their eco-friendly approach when they lined their brewery roof with solar panels. This is said to have cut their energy costs in half. According to the brewery, the 1,561 roof-mounted solar modules will offset more than 538,000 pounds of carbon emissions over its lifetime, which is equivalent to planting 204 acres of trees.
On top of all this, Stone has been a regular champion of Beer Advocate, repeatedly voted by readers and contributors as the best brewery on the planet. And it’s easy to see why. With touted release offerings like the Vertical Epic line-up which sees a new style released each year from 02-02-02 through 12-12-12. Collectors and connoisseurs have been known to pay a pretty penny for past vintages from this series on sites like Ebay. In addition, Stone has been eager to work collaboratively with brewers from around the world like Nøgne Ø of Norway, BrewDog of Scotland, Mikkeller of Denmark, and several well respected American breweries such as Dogfish Head (Delaware), Victory (Pennsylvania), Firestone Walker (Paso Robles, CA), Maui Brewing (Hawaii), and Jolly Pumpkin (Michigan).
Recently, Stone co-founder Greg Koch visited Portland, Oregon to investigate America’s craft beer mecca. Here Koch made appearances at a variety of brewpubs and craft beer bars around the city while hosting events at Belmont Station, The Eastburn, and Concordia Ale House. Brewpublic met up with Koch at The BeerMongers for an exclusive two-part interview. In this interview, we learned much about the brewery, and the man behind its collective vision.
Stay tuned for part two of this exclusive video on Brewpublic.
Please join us at Belmont Station as we welcome our guest François de Harenne, Directeur Commercial of the Orval Trappist Brewery in Florenville, Belgium to the City of Roses. Stop by the Station for your chance to meet François and learn about the fascinating history of Orval. 4500 S.E. Stark St. Portland, OR 97215; (503) 232-8538. 7:00 – 9:00 pm.
![For The Love Of Beer](http://brewpublic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/For-the-Love-of-Beer-Trailer-Release1.jpg")
