By D.J. Paul

As the saying goes you can judge a person by the company that he keeps. Well I can confidently say that Van Havig and Ben Love are doing just fine. Yesterday Van and Ben celebrated their 1^st year in business and what an outpouring of appreciation they received. For the entire evening the beer line extended out past the door and for a significant time all the way back to the bike racks.  The duo is obviously doing something right.

And for this milestone in being in business for one year was their first foray into barleywines. Massive! is what it’s called and it has no challenges in living up to its name. Word around the pub was how surprisingly mellow it is for being so young. Nothing overtly sweet with this one! They poured their only keg of this throughout the evening and released their pub only bottle sales. The artist of the label, AJ Fosik, has his sculpture, which was the inspiration to the beer label on display inside the taproom for the next few weeks. Make sure to stop by; it’s an amazing piece.

Now lets bring it back to Van and Ben’s company they keep. Tonight is one very special night at APEX. A few friends of Van and Ben from Chicago have sent one stellar lineup of beer Read More…

Posted under beer awards, Beer Brewing, beer events, beer history, beer news, Beer personalities, beer releases, brewpubs, places to drink beer, Uncategorized

The popular Portland brewers at Gigantic Brewing have announced that they are throwing their very own beer week. Huh? Yes, you heard that correct. From May 5-12, 2013, Ben Love, Van Havig and company will be partying and pouring their fine brews at some of the city’s best craft beer establishments.  There will also be some super limited releases including barrel-aged treats and rarities from breweries such as 3 Floyds, Piece Brewing, and Haymarket. It’s gonna be huge! Here’s the full details from Gigantic: Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer news, beer releases, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, press releases

Gigantic Brewing of Portland is one of the Northwest’s hottest new craft breweries. Not even a year old, the brewery founded by brewmasters Ben Love (formerly of Hopworks and Pelican) and Van Havig (formerly of Rock Bottom) is turning heads and wowing palates all across Cascadia and beyond. Belmont Station is Portland’s premier craft beer destination featuring more than 1,400 bottled beers and an extensive tap selection in their Bier Cafe. The two businesses are teaming up to release a special craft brew for Belmont’s 16th Anniversary. “Geezers Need Excitement” Chocolate IPA will be unleashed on Saturday March 15, 2013 to the delight of thirsty beer lovers. Here’s the scoop from brewmaster Ben Love: Read More…

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

By D.J. Paul

With another President’s Day Weekend now behind us also means another Zwickelmania is also in the books. This year we celebrated the 5^th Year of this annual day of Oregon brewery open houses put on by the Oregon Brewers Guild. Last year I traveled to Bend with Brewpublic’s Angelo De Ieso to Zwickel. This year I decided to stay closer to home and take in some breweries across Portland.

Knowing that the day will be a long one of consumption I headed to SE Portland via TriMet to meet up with my Zwickeling companion Snob Ritch. Both of us realized that we needed to get a good food base in us so we met at Taco Express, for a breakfast burrito. Fortunately this excellent taco truck is located across the street from our planned first stop, Gigantic Brewing.

With breakfast burrito in hand we walked over to Gigantic Brewing to eat our warm burritos in their tasting room. From perusing their beer menu we decided to go with their new seasonal release, The Time Traveler, a nice roasty porter that paired quite well with our breakfast burrito. Gigantic brought their A game on Saturday. They had Zwickelers enter the brewery from the rear parking lot. Once inside Joey Bosworth poured samples of their year-round IPA and their Royale: Belgian Pale Ale as free tasters alongside a backdrop of beers aging in wooden barrels. Then Ben Love was roaming the brewery to answer any questions from the masses while Van Havig poured The Time Traveler from the zwickel in the midst of the brewery. From there they shuffled the Zwickelers to the front tasting room to purchase a pint while waiting on the next Brewvana Bus to arrive. Read More…

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

I don’t even know where to begin, but I suppose I will start somewhere… It really irks my bones when I can’t pump out some juicy craft beer fodder for the readers of Brewpublic, and the past few days have been lacking. I know it. I mean, Brewpublic prides itself of giving you a steady, daily glimpse into some of the many many goingson in and around Cascadian brewing and a little more. Being on planes, trains, and automobiles with a Smartphone, a thirsty palate, and a hankering to round up as many beers as possible makes the blogging a bit lacking at times, but it’s not because of will.

They say the road to hell is paved in good intentions, and we intended to scare up some goods for you the past few days, but we were short a laptop, a spare liver, and more daylight hours (heck, we can often muster just fine in the dark!). On Monday we scheduled details for rounding up as many kegs as we could while in and around Portland, Oregon. The reasons were many. SF Beer Week events, a new pub opening, and simply to blow Bay Area artisan beer enthusiasts’ minds. Spending much time in the East Bay of the San Francisco area, it has been my goal to inject as much of the Cascadian craft beer culture into the locals down here as I possibly can. With SF Beer Week about to pop off (February 8-17, 2013), I couldn’t think of a better way to exemplify what amazingness Oregon’s uniquely saturated yeast culture has to present. Don’t get me wrong, Northern California is home to some legendary breweries and beer halls that rival some of the finest in this world. Further, NorCal is booming with new breweries that vivaciously illustrate the significance of the modern day Post-Prohibition beer revolution. Thus, it makes perfect sense that while living here, I find myself working at an Oakland pub named Beer Revolution with the best selection of regional, national, and international fermented malted pours. Soon, the adjacent revamped train depot in Jack London Square will beef up the neighborhood’s selection almost two-fold. Looking to open very soon, the Olde Depot Taphouse will assert the community as an even more undeniably world class destination.

Appointed to manage Olde Depot is seasoned professional Dan “Bully” Bollwinkel who has further inspired us to take things on the West Oakland craft beer scene to the next level. Bully and I jaunted to Portland on a plane, rented a modest Dodge Caravan and sought to stock up on as many different beers as we could safely drive back 600 miles south to Oakland. On our journey, we even went a little overboard and maxed out the payload to the point where the chassis began to woefully sag toward the earth. With just 36 hours to obtain an optimal variety of mostly 1/6-barrel kegs and a few bottles, we were focused on making the most of our precious time.

Immediately upon touching down at PDX International Airport with just the clothes on our backs and Read More…

Posted under Bay Area beer, Beer & Art, Beer personalities, beer releases, beer reviews, Beer Travel, brewpubs, craft cider, Oregon beer, places to drink beer

By Alex Ganum, owner & brewmaster of Upright Brewing

As is usual, I’ve got beer on my mind. Brewing really never gets old, and enjoying beer sure doesn’t either. Here and there I find myself headed to Upright late at night, after 10 p.m. Maybe I need to check on a fermentation, or crop yeast at an especially opportune time, or maybe I just want to start getting setup for the next day. That’s likely an excuse to go in and actually unwind, which to me is turning up the stereo and tasting samples from barrels. We recently started renting a bit of extra space for more barrel aging, so I’m pretty floored about producing several new annual releases. Many of the ones in mind were made in extra small batch form in the past, like the Special Herbs, Five aged in Fantasia casks (we need a name for that one Angelo), Lactovasilios, and single cask Provision. There’s also completely fresh recipes in the works, like a Fantasia-esque brew made with beautiful muscat grapes, a wine barrel-finished whiskey version of the recent Spollen Angel tripel, and a barrel-aged coffee stout fermented with saison yeast. I’d really like to do an annual whiskey barrel aged English-style barleywine too. And we’ve got four casks of 2012 Flora Rustica in motion too, which will further rusticize (Breakside Ben – is that a halfway legitimate term?) one of the brewery’s most historic-tasting beers. Read More…

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

“A beer for sophisticates and flaneurs, The Royal is a golden concoction of fruity and citrusy flavors meant for whiling away one’s time in brasseries, cafes, and pubs, or anywhere friends can be found.” 

Gigantic Brewing‘s forthcoming release, The Royale is a Belgian Pale Ale. 6.3% ABV, the brew uses Weyermann Pils as its base malt, as well as a bit of  Munich and Crystal malt. For spicing and aroma, it is hopped with Cascade, Crystal and Mt Hood. This beer denotes the fifth release in what the brewery calls “the endless series of limited edition of artists and artisan beers.” The striking label art for The Royale is that of Fawn Gehweiler, who currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

“We’ll be brewing (The Royale) through December along with Black Friday, a new Imperial CDA (Cascadian Dark Ale)” says Gigantic Brewing co-founder/brewmaster Ben Love. Read More…

Posted under Beer & Art, beer releases, Oregon beer, places to drink beer

By D.J. Paul

Southeast Portland’s most recent brewery, Gigantic Brewing, has just received label approval for their first two bottled beers, IPA and The City Never Sleeps. Gigantic IPA will be their only year-round beer in both 22-ounce bottles and on draft throughout Oregon, Washington, Alaska and British Columbia. The City Never Sleeps, their Imperial Black Saison will be their first 22oz bottled seasonal. This beer premiered at this year’s Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers along with winning “The People’s Choice” at the Oregon Gardens Brewfest. Read More…

Posted under beer news, beer releases, Oregon beer

On Wednesday May 9, 2012 Gigantic Brewing officially opened its doors to the public. The industrial brewpub at 5224 SE 26th Avenue in Portland, Oregon’s reputation of esteemed brewers Van Havig and Ben Love preceded the first tastes of beer by most, and with good reason. Havig and Love have both asserted themselves at two of the state’s most esteemed brewers by creating some of the region’s most beloved craft beers. In addition, both have been avid members of the brewing community in a myriad of capacities.

Upon arriving at the squeaky clean new brewhouse off SE Steele Street, it was evident that Read More…

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

Join us for the opening of the Gigantic Brewing Taproom and Champagne Lounge. Doors at 3pm, open til 9ish. Gigantic IPA & The City Never Sleeps on tap along with our collaboration brews and guest taps. Come celebrate!

Gigantic is located at 5224 SE 26th Avenue (at Steele) in Portland, OR. For more on Gigantic, check out their site: www.giganticbrewing.com

Gigantic Brewing Taproom and Champagne Lounge is beer and champagne only, and thus you must be 21+ years of age.

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