DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE to become a rogue nation citizen will be swore in by the chief himself! hear all the details on this episode and have an opportunity to ask your own Rogue questions!! Also Rogue Ales will be $3 there will be Prizes during happy hour!!

Posted under beer events, events

Publican Jim Parker

By Frank James

If you’ve been around the Portland pub scene during the last decade, it’s likely that you are familiar with Jim Parker. You may know him well, or, like this writer initially, you may have simply been aware of the slender, mustachioed man in perpetual motion at the Concordia Ale House or Oaks Bottom or the Green Dragon and wondered how he could, like the Energizer Bunny, keep going and going and going, never slowing down. I met Jim when he was at the Oaks Bottom Public House in Sellwood. I frequented that neighborhood because the Sellwood Dog Park was a short distance away, and I got in the nice habit of stopping by for a beer and a bowl of their delicious chili. I’d amuse myself as I watched Jim bounce between the bar and the kitchen and the restaurant’s tables, pouring beers or serving hot dishes or busing tables, all the while punctuating his efforts with that unforgettable, boisterous laugh. And then, amazingly and suddenly, he might sit down at your table and take five minutes to describe two or three beer options that might fit your particular tastes. And then he’d pop right back up and get back to the floor and his constant, incredibly efficient motion. Sometimes, I got tired just watching him. For several years, he was seemingly everywhere around town where good beer was being poured, right in the middle of the action. But then, like a benevolent, publican version of Keyser Soze, the “The Usual Suspects” mystery man, Jim Parker just disappeared. Poof! And I wondered… What the heck happened to Jim Parker? Well, he obviously had not fallen off the edge of the earth.  In fact, he’d just relocated a few hours north to Bellingham, Washington. With the help of this blog’s founder, Angelo, I was able to get in touch with Jim and he was kind enough to answer a few questions about beer, brewpubs, the Green Dragon and the bar business, generally, in his remarkably candid, informative and engaging way.

What are you doing in Bellingham?

Jim Parker : Right now I am Read More…

Posted under Beer personalities

Well, one of the biggest beer weekends in Beervana has come and gone and we somehow managed to survive. In fact, this year’s Oregon Brewers Festival (OBF) – four days of craft beer-fueled fun (not to mention the largest all-craft beer festival in the country) – broke its own record for attendance this year, according to a Twitter post from festival organizer Chris Crabb. Crabb and company invest a lot of time and care not only into OBF featuring more and more great beers each year, but in assuring continual growth is still able to comfortably accommodate droves of humans at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. In fact, the organizers are already prepping for next summer’s fest, scheduled to take place July 28-31, 2011 (OBF is always the last full weekend of July). Check out some of our photos from OBF here.

This past Friday, we enjoyed a special open house at the new Hair of the Dog (HOTD) digs located at SE Yamhill at Water Street. This was our second glimpse at brewer-owner Alan Sprints’ spacious new brewery since attending Fred Fest this spring. As he’s generously done each year on the Friday of OBF, Sprints and his staff offered samples of HOTD beers including the no hops gourd brew Greg, Blue Dot Imperial IPA, Fred, Adam, Doggie Claws Barleywine, and a special Cherry Adam in addition to a lovely spread of snacks. It was great to see the work that the brewery has put forth including the installation of many brewhouse components and an attractive bar in the front space. We look forward to enjoying more beers here in the near future.

Later in the day on Friday, which was a very warm day, we ventured over to Belmont Station‘s Biercafe for a special event featuring the music of Lagunitas Brewing founder Tony Magee. While folks enjoyed the air conditioned pub space, special Lagunitas brews like Lil Sumpin’ Sumpin’, a wheaten summer IPA, and a delicious Fusion II, described by Magee as a “strong mild ale.” Essentially, it was a 4.5% mild brown ale with a gratuitous helping of West Coast hops.

Also pouring at Belmont Station was a number of specialty brews from Green Flash Brewing of Vista, California. Green Flash brewer Ryan Pearson was in house to greet folks and discuss the featured beers of the night: an Imperial IPA, Barleywine, and two new to Portland brews, a Summer Saison and a Citra Session Pale Ale. The latter was another low ABV beer with a big dose of pungently dank hops.

To make the time at Belmont Station even cooler, 21st Amendment co-founder Nico Freccia was on hand while samples of the San Francisco brewery’s Hell or High Watermelon Wheat ale (a favorite at the OBF), Live Free of Die IPA, Monk’s Blood Belgian Ale, and the new to cans, Back in Black IPA (a Cascadian Dark Ale).

On Saturday, Full Sail‘s Riverplace brewpub at McCormick & Schmick’s held its annual gathering while celebrating the birthday of Brewmaster John Harris. Friends of the brewery, including notable Oregon brewers like Full Sail’s Phil Roche, Ninkasi’s Jamie Floyd, Widmer’s Rob Widmer, Rogue’s Brett Joyce, and Hopworks’ Ben Love, beat the heat with newly released Full Sail brews that included the A Pleine Voile Saison and the Sanctuary Belgian-style Dubbel. Folks were kindly offered seasonal IPAs and the Vesuvius Tripel on tap in addition to buckets filled with ice and two kinds of the brewery’s Session ale in signature stubby bottles. Cigars were passed out and Harris was toasted to a happy birthday song and a big cake.

On Saturday evening The BeerMongers and Brewpublic hosted a special meet the brewers event highlighting MacTarnahan’s Brewing. For this night, Mac’s Amber and Summer Grifter IPA poured on tap while bottle samples of the Lipstinger Saison and brand new Ink Blot Baltic Porter were made available for sample in bottles. Brewers Tom Bleigh, Vasilios Gletsos, Eric Wathen, Ryan Pappe, Steve Fraser, and brand manager Mark Carver were in the house for this fun event. Also in attendance were Boneyard Beer brewers Tony Lawrence and Clay Storey. Look for more Boneyard and Mac’s Beer on tap this week at The Mongers.

Sunday marked the conclusion of the OBF as we headed north to Seattle to catch a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox. As is usually the case when the Red Sox come to Seattle, more Boston fans are in the stands than are Mariners (the M’s being in last place in their division doesn’t help their cause at this point in the season either). Before hitting the game, we visited Elysian Fields near the ballpark. Here we discovered less Elysian brands gracing the taps as in years past. Many guest taps were made available. In fact more guest taps now than Elysian’s own. It was also disheartening to be served beer at a not packed bar in plastic cups. We feel doesn’t appear to exhibit regard for the environment. Still, being offered were the likes of Elysian’s The Wise ESB, Zephyrus Pilsner, Perseus Porter, Dragonstooth Stout, Men’s Room Original Red, Bifrost Winter Ale, Avatar Jasmine IPA, and our option, Immortal IPA on cask.

At Safeco Field, we were excited to discover more craft beer on tap than ever before, most of which was regionally produced. Despite a hefty $8.75 price tag for 20 ounces of brew, it made us happy to be able to decide between more than your typical Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light, etc, that you see at many sporting arenas. Luckily things are changing for the better in America’s beer world, and leave it to the Pacific Northwest to lead the charge. Beers of interest that we noticed included Lazy Boy Pilsner and IPA, Alaskan Summer and Pale, MacTarnahan’s Amber, Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen, Sierra Nevada Pale, Hale’s Kolsch, Snoqualmie Grand Slam Amber, Skagit River Skullers IPA, Dick’s Best Bitter, and our pick, Fremont Brewing’s Summer Solstice, a great sessionable pale ale with a big floral hop aroma. A nice thing about Safeco, despite the expected sporting event beer price gouge, is that spectators are permitted to bring their own food into the arena. This helps soften the blow of steep beer prices for those who plan ahead.

After the game ended, and the Mariners took a 4-2 win, we headed back to Portland, Oregon aka Beervana in attempts of surviving the final week of Oregon Craft Beer Month. Cheers!

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

On July 1st, pint glasses of beer were raised statewide to celebrate the kickoff of Oregon Craft Beer Month. This special 31 day party highlights a year-round phenomenon of abundant craft beer in our fine state. With seemingly countless craft brew-centric events from Astoria to Ashland, Klamath Falls to Ontario, this fifth annual month-long celebration is unlike any other in the world. Perhaps the most notable toast to inaugurate yet another OCBM was a special toast at McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery & Public House coordinated by the Oregon Brewers Guild and president Brian Butenschoen. At this location, Oregon’s first brewpub since Prohibition was opened to the masses. For the July 1, 2010 toast, McMenamins’ co-founder Brian McMenamin was on hand to read words of his late father, himself a lover of beer.

At the McMenamins Hillsdale kickoff several brewers and brewery representatives were in attendance to celebrate the prosperity and growth of their trade that has accounted for a health portion of the state’s economy and livelihood. Last year marked the first year in which Oregon surpassed 1 million barrels, an apparent sign of our continued success and devotion toward craft beer. Oregon ranks in the top five in the country for craft beer produced, consumed, number of breweries, and breweries per capita. In Portland, more breweries exist than in any other city on the planet!

Posted under Beer personalities, beer events, beers on film, brewpubs

We at Brewpublic are delighted to announce that we’ll be on a great new Internet Radio show called Brew Happy today at 2PM. Brew Happy is on PDX.FM, a network of streaming radio and podcast shows based in Portland, Oregon. The network launched in September 2009 and, as of February 2010, has approximately thirty shows that stream live across two channels. Most of the shows premier live on either a daily or weekly schedule, and all but the music shows are available for download from iTunes as well as from the individual shows’ websites within a day of airing.

Brew Happy “airs” every Wednesday at 2PM Pacific Standard Time and older installments can be downloaded from PDX.fm’s site. Hosts Damian DeBrusier and Susanna Parker are on a quest to expand their audiences love and appreciate for brewing and beer culture. Damian is a bartender and Susanna works at Laurelwood. Both bring an interesting dynamic to the show. Past guests thusfar have included Brett Joyce, President of Rogue Ales, Van Havig, Senior Brewer at Portland, Oregon’s Rock Bottom Brewery, and Chris Spollen and Sean Thommen, both brewers at Amnesia Brewing. Today’s show with Brewpublic highlights the greater Oregon craft beer community and discusses some up coming events not to miss. We also promote our friends and sponsors Upright Brewing Company while tasting their Gose and Flora Rustica brews. There’s also a bottle of Cascade Brewing’s Sang Rouge sour blend in the mix. Tune in today and become a sponsor of those who support craft beer in your area. We are happy to say that Brew Happy is the latest sponsor of Brewpublic and we look forward to working with them more in the future! Cheers!

From their site:

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer, beer events, beer news

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how many beers is it worth? Who knows. Here’s some pictures we took or came across this week that we thought you would like to see. We also included a few words on each.

The Big Three. Taken on a cellphone camera, we ran into three of Oregon’s brewing big dogs. Curtis of Cascade, Alex of Upright, and Brett of Rogue were at Upright’s tasting room before the last Trailblazers home game against Utah. Curtis a Utah native, forgive him, was happy to see the Blazers fall to his Jazz. Alex was pouring his unique Turkey on Rye brew, a sour chili and chocolate beer unlike anything we’ve ever had.

Separated at Birth? Two great beer minds and all around jovial dudes . We made a visit to Saraveza for a special meet the brewer event featuring Matt Van Wyk of Eugene’s Oakshire Brewing. The brewery brought their new Smokin’ Bagpipes Scotch Ale, Two Wheeler Red IPA, and other delicious faves like Very Ill-Tempered Gnome and Collaboration Eviler. These were served by Van Wyk’s long lost cousin Jonathan Carmean aka Oregon bartender of the year.

The Elder: Tyler the Elder is one of the best barkeeps of all-time. Filling out the all-star line-up of Saravazian sluggers, the Elder and Jonathan Carmean are like the Bash Bros from the Oakland A’s in the 1980s (sans the steroids). Having great beers is not all it takes to run a cool bar. Having a cool atmosphere with great staff is what sets Saraveza ahead of the pack. Thanks for the Sang Noir, sir. Respect your elders.

Only in Portland (in the US): Whilst traipsing about the streets of Southeast Portland, Oregon, I noticed this empty bottle of Kasteel Rouge off the sidewalk by a convenience store. At first I thought it must be a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 or some ghetto booty liquor, but lo and behold, it was a bottle of Belgian joy. I don’t think I’ve seen a bottle of Flemish Red just tossed to the side like this. Cheap beer and empty potato chip bags, sure, but this is a bottle I’d keep in my window sill for a while in remembrance.

Dog’s Digs: We stumbled across this photo on Alan Sprints’ Facebook page. Sprints is the founder and brewer of Hair of the Dog. The brewery is moving to a new close-in Southeast location. Looks like there’s a lot of work a head for the esteemed brewery, but it looks like there will be plenty more space to do what they do best.

Four Play: Upright Brewing have been turning a lot of beer geeks’ heads lately. Brewers Alex Ganum and Gerritt Ill have seemingly boundless imaginations when it comes to recipe creation and flavor development. This week a special soured version of their wheaten Four Ale was drawn from Pinot Noir casks where added cherry fruit gave the brew a one-of-a-kind profiile. It was then bottled for further conditioning. Look for a special keg of this beautifully tart beer at Brewpublic’s upcoming My Beery Valentine event over Valentine’s Day/Zwickelmania weekend (February 13 and 14). Super limited bottles will arrive in future months as well. Stay tuned.

Super Jubel: Once every ten years Deschutes Brewing releases the Super Jubel, a jacked up rendition of the brewery’s beloved winter warmer ale. We saw this picture from a post on Deschutes’ Twitter page and it made us smile.

Posted under beer me, beer news

The saga continues.

Andrew Self (left) with Fred Eckhardt

This just in from Green Dragon Founders Club member Andrew Self:

“I just got back from a meeting between Brett Joyce and the Green Dragon Founders, and I have to say, I don’t hate the whole deal as much as I did when it was announced.  The Founders Club is staying, as is the Mug Club–though the Mug Club is rising in price.  According to Jim (who was also there), Ed was going to raise the price of the Mug Club anyway.  The food menu will see a shakeup and some of the more expensive dishes will get their walking papers and the food will likely return to a more pub-ish feel.  Live music will likely also be gone, though previously-booked acts will still be honored.  Of issue is both the stage taking up space and being non ADA-compliant as well as bad experiences with live music in Rogue venues in the past.  Video Poker will appear, though it will be mostly hidden by state law–it can’t be within line of sight of minors, and Rogue doesn’t want the pub to be unfriendly to families and minors. ”

–
Andrew Self

Please leave a comment and let us know what you make of this.

Posted under places to drink beer

Apparently the news we broke of Rogue’s intention to acquire the Green Dragon Pub and Bistro raised quite a stir.  In John Foyston’s article about this yesterday in the Oregonian, it was mentioned that it sounded like “(I) didn’t talk to the Rogue Folks.”  This is true.  In fact, being a lesser known resource than the big O, we often don’t get the press releases or inside scoop on a lot of the local beer happenings.  I tried to comment on the Beer Here’s blog, but was unable to do so.  What I wanted to let people know is that I made attempts to contact Rogue and the Green Dragon.  Rogue sent a vague letter from their “Attorney General” (lawyer), Brian Schweppenheiser demanding a retraction and clarification.  Schweppenheiser wanted me to clarify that “no employs have been fired.” I didn’t say anyone had been fired.  I reported that “Officially no one has been fired but no one is expecting to have a job and they already have new people lined up.” Schweppenheiser also asked me to clarify that “no employees at the Green Dragon have been fired, we do not have new employees “lined up”, the proposed purchase is not final and is subject to regulatory approval, the Green Dragon will not be closed down for 3 days.  It will not be closed at all.”  Schweppenheiser continued: “while it is true that we export Rogue Ales, Stouts, Porters, and Lagers to 19 countries, it is not accurate that “many feature repackaging of other available brands.”  We make special bottles (Red Fox, White Crane, and Brown Bear) in Japanese for our long-time importer, bar owner, and Japan craft beer pioneer Phred Kaufman.  All other Rogue Nation countries offer the same beers made available in the U.S.A.- no “repackaging” at all.”  When I sent a follow-up email to Schweppenheiser for my own clarification, my message was ignored.  I asked him “Why don’t you clarify what is really going on with Rogue and the Green Dragon so I can let people what is up.  Also, I know for a fact that you repackage your beers such as the Jazz Man, the Saturday Market Beer, and a number of the Aquarium series beers which are simply other Rogue beers with different labels.  Is this not true or are websites like Ratebeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com wrong about this?”  Thusfar, no response.  We also received a comment on the post from Brett Joyce, current president and son of founder Jack Joyce, announcing the demand for retraction and clarification, restating the same bulletin points as  sentiments of his lawyer. Joyce also commented “So, the rumors are true that there is a proposal, but nothing concrete. Glad to hear the staffs jobs are safe for a little while. Everyone at the GD always treated me great, sad to see it go.”  What is that supposed to mean?  “Safe for a little while”?!  How long is a little while and isn’t he the president of Rogue?  Most people’s fears echoed in the comments of this blog appear to be that of what Rogue will do to the establishment and its labor once they have control of assets.  Joyce, from this perspective could be interpreted as making it sound as if the Green Dragon is the one who would be responsible for job cuts.   Hmmm.

Ed Schwartz

So, after a day of anticipation to talk to a human being about what is really up with this situation, I was able to speak with Ed Schwartz, majority owner of the Green Dragon.  Schwartz appeared up front and cordial about the goings on with the deal, and has always come across to me as a straight shooter.  I interviewed him this morning and he put some perspective on things from his end.  Schwartz said “I am looking to sell (the Green Dragon). I have gotten some amazing surprises to change occupancy.  When we opened it was 49.”  When I asked him what the current occupancy is, Schwartz was unclear whether it is 49 or 98.  “(Occupancy) needs to be 200.” Apparently after toiling with the city, a struggle for many business owners, especially when dealing with alcohol, Schwartz seems tired, frustrated, and in financial upheaval.  “I just got a call from the city and they another $50,000 in fees” said Schwartz.  “For what needs to be done, is going to cost $220,000.  I don’t have it. Here’s the deal: the only way the company has been going on is by me putting $10,000 into it.  I am trying to do what’s best for the employees.”  According to Schwartz, however Rogue, as a potential buyer views the Green Dragon as “over-staffed by five people.”  To accommodate this issue, if Rogue buys the company, people would be forced to move to Flanders (Rogue’s current Portland ale house location).  Said Schwartz “The only people to lose a job would be those who are hung up.”  From his tone, I wasn’t certain if Schwartz was truly confident in Rogue or in dire need of a quick financial fix.  “The whole reason Rogue is doing this is they don’t want to make it a typical Rogue Place.  I mean, they don’t want to completely take over and make it Rogue.  The idea is to keep all the current guest taps and install an additional twenty taps for (Rogue) beers.”  Schwartz seems to genuinely care about the welfare of his staff.  “I am trying to do what is best for the employees” said Schwartz. So what is the timeframe on a potential changeover to Rogue?  “We’re looking at Wednesday-ish.” he said “There will be no interuption of service but if and when it goes through, (Rogue) will shut it down for a few days.” As of right now: “Nothing has been signed.”  May the Schwartz be with you.

Posted under beer releases, places to drink beer