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…
Celebrate Central Oregon’s Proud Brewing and Distilling Tradition This Weekend At The Little Woody
This year’s beer lovers’ festival to feature bourbon from local and national distilleries
Bend, Oregon – August 30, 2010 – The Little Woody was created in 2009 to commemorate one of Central Oregon’s cultural hallmarks — beer — and it’s back thanks to popular demand. The one-day event drew more than 2,000 craft beer enthusiasts last year to sample brews from local breweries, meet the brewmasters and sing the praises of great beer.
Due to the overwhelming interest, the second annual Little Woody Barrel-Aged Brew Festival will return to the Des Chutes Historical Museum in Downtown Bend — but this time for two full days on Friday and Saturday, September 3-4.
The Little Woody celebrates the ancient barrel brewing technique as adapted by craft brewers in Central Oregon and the Pacific Northwest including Deschutes Brewery, Ninkasi, McMenamins, Three Creeks and Bend Brewing.
Some of the beers these fine local breweries will be slinging include Firewater Red from Three Creeks, made by combining Firestorm Red and an ‘09 Barley wine aged in a Pinot Noir barrel for 9 months, and Barrel Head, the popular McMenamins Hammerhead aged in a Hogshead whiskey barrel for over 4 months and then cold conditioned for another 2 months, resulting in a hoppy ale with a hint of fruit in the nose but a dry and woody finish.
This year the festival will also feature oak barrel-aged bourbons from Basil Hayden, Weller, Jefferson, Bulleit and Evan Williams Single Barrel. The Bendistillery will also be sampling their line of vodka and gin as well as mixing a few cocktails, and a selection of Oregon wines will be available.
WHAT:The Second Annual Little Woody Barrel-Aged Beer and Bourbon Festival, featuring local brews, local bourbons, local food vendors and live music from local favorites The Moon Mountain Ramblers and Portland’s Jack Straw.
WHEN:Labor Day Weekend, September 3 from 5 -10pm and September 4 from 12pm -10pm
WHERE:Des Chutes Historical Museum lawn in Downtown Bend
COST:Admission to the event is $5 or $6 with a commemorative glass. A tasting package is $15, which includes glass, entry and 10 tokens. Bourbon tasting is $30 for six tastes. A portion of the event proceeds will benefit the Des Chutes Historical Society.
The Little Woody would like to thank all of our sponsors for their support to make the Little Woody 2010 a success: Nature’s Whole Food Marketplace, The Source Weekly, Perez Design, Mutineer Magazine and Bendistillery.
About The Little Woody
In the past, brewers served beer that had been aged in oaken casks. Now, brewers are turning to these historical techniques for adding depth of flavor to their beers. The Little Woody celebrates this ancient brewing technique as adapted by American craft brewers, featuring beers aged in wine barrels, whiskey barrels and oak barrels, which uniquely flavors and intensifies the beer. In addition to showcasing the wide variety of barrel-aged beer from local and regional microbreweries, this year’s Little Woody will offer bourbon tasting from some of the region’s finest distilleries. For more info, please visit www.thelittlewoody.com.
About Lay It Out Events
Lay It Out Events is a full service event production company. In addition to producing Northwest Community Bend WinterFest presented by Mt. Bachelor, Balloons Over Bend, The Bite of Bend, and The Little Woody, Lay It Out Events provides event production services and is available for contract events. For more information please visit www.layitoutevents.com or www.thelittlewoody.com.
Come out to the farm for a weekend (or two) of some end-of-summer fun! Help pick some hops (in the shade) while enjoying some BBQ and an exquisite selection of ales and sodas. Bring the family, your appetite, and your camping gear…..you won’t want to leave early!
BREW SESSIONS EACH SUNDAY
LIVE MUSIC SATURDAY EVENINGS
HORSESHOES, DARTS, BEER PONG, CHILE ROASTING
Please call if you plan to bring an RV or 5th wheel
Come out to the farm for a weekend (or two) of some end-of-summer fun! Help pick some hops (in the shade) while enjoying some BBQ and an exquisite selection of ales and sodas. Bring the family, your appetite, and your camping gear…..you won’t want to leave early!
BREW SESSIONS EACH SUNDAY
LIVE MUSIC SATURDAY EVENINGS
HORSESHOES, DARTS, BEER PONG, CHILE ROASTING
Please call if you plan to bring an RV or 5th wheel
The fireweed is blooming and the leaves are starting to fall in Alaska, and on September 1, Alaskan Brewing Co. will release Alaskan Double Black IPA – a versatile and powerful brew built to face the coming season head on.
“It looks like a porter, drinks like an IPA and has the kick of an imperial stout,” says Alaskan Production Manager Dave Wilson. “We always challenge ourselves to showcase balance in our beers, and with so many big and bold flavors, this beer took that challenge to a new level.”
Alaskan Double Black IPA is the latest in the Brewery’s Pilot Series of limited-edition specialty beers. The new brew features a combination of beer styles, with a flavor profile most similar to an Imperial IPA and the dark black color and rich flavors usually found in heartier stouts and porters. Brewed with an array of dark malts, Alaskan Double Black IPA features the distinctive flavors of coffee and bitter chocolate with a subtle toasted sweetness. Large Cascade and Centennial hop additions late in the boil, and dry-hopping after fermentation, lighten and refresh the overall perception and flavor of the beer. It finishes with a dry palate and lingering citrus bitterness.
There has been a lot of discussion as to what to call this emerging beer style – “Cascadian Dark Ale,” “Black IPA,” and “American-style India Black Ale” are just a few of the names being used. “We’re not sure where it fits within traditional beer styles,” says Wilson, “Or if it fits at all, but it’s dark and hoppy and unexpectedly smooth.”
Alaskan first released their Double Black IPA as a “Rough Draft” for the 2009 Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival in Anchorage. “We didn’t really know what to think of it then, but we knew we really wanted to have it again.”
Alaskan Double Black IPA is the second release in the Brewery’s “Pilot Series,” a rotating collection of distinctive brews packaged in 22 oz bottles that has included Alaskan Baltic Porter, Alaskan Raspberry Wheat and will include a new release of Alaskan’s World Beer Cup-winning Barley Wine in December 2010. These and all of Alaskan’s specialty release beers are available in limited quantities throughout the western states. Stay tuned to AlaskanBeer.com and facebook.com/AlaskanBeer for updates and information about new releases and what is happening with the Alaskan Brew Crew.
Deschutes Brewery Street Fare Features Portland’s Finest Food Carts Street vendors pair their fare with Deschutes ales, all to benefit the kids
Deschutes Brewery is closing down the street in front of their Portland Pub on August 12, 2010 from 5-9PM for the all-new Deschutes Brewery Street Fare. A benefit for Morrison Child & Family Services, the Street Fare will feature Portland’s best street carts along with local indie music. These popular vendors will pair their specialty dishes with Deschutes ales for an evening of street food, live music and craft beer.
An entry fee of $5 includes the first food and beer taster, and additional taster tickets are only $4. All proceeds benefit Morrison Child and Family Services.
For more information, call Deschutes Brewery at (503) 296-4906.
Friday August 6, 2010, Laurelwood Brewing Company taps a new beer loaded with a plenitude of malts and hops. Brewmaster Chad Kennedy says this beer is “One of the more unique beers we’ve created.” This pale ale is made with six different malts including, barley, rye and wheat as well as four varieties of hops. To make it even more exciting, the beer contains fresh Bay Laurel leaves that were added in the fermenter and conditioning tank. Kennedy says the result of this 5.7%, 40 IBU brew is “a balanced pale ale with the pleasing aroma of fresh bay leaves- quite distinct from the dried version.”
I like to come to Québec to visit my family, friends and their kids and also for the summer festival. We had a real good edition with plenty of concerts from artists like Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Rush, Social Distortion, GBH, Jello Biafra and so on. But what about the beer? Unfortunately, the festival was sponsored by Molson and the only products available on the site were Molson Dry, Molson M and Aquafina, which is the only bottled water that has an ugly taste because it is bottled from tap water (thanks Pepsi). Well, I can understand that only macro breweries have the money to sponsor such a big event, but it is always boring to attend a rock concert without anything good to drink.
Nevertheless, I took the weekend to pubcrawl Québec’s breweries, too. Here’s where I went:
La Korrigane The name of La Korrigane comes from an Icelandic codfisher transformed into an exploration ship. Their expedition in 1934-1936 brings back a collection of 2000 ethnic objects of Polynesia, Indonesia and Egypt.
I have been very lucky and a bit insolent to attempt to the newest brewery in town, La Korrigane. In fact, the place wasn’t really opened. It was just a practice for the real opening night and only family and friends were invited to this event where the new staff was experiencing a new location, with new equipment and the first batch of recipes that hasn’t been tested with the water of the city. So, okay, I promised to the owner to be objective in my comments and I wrote one page for the suggestion box. The renovations of this huge building present a location easy to access (Corner of St-Joseph and Dorchester) with a terrace and eventually a kitchen (please offer more than burgers). It will certainly help for the revitalization of St-Roch neighbourhood.
Beers tasted there revealed much potential. I will surely return to measure the evolution when the installations will be fine tuned. The only thing I could notice was that the beers had a mouth felt too thin. I experienced a witbier (Mary Morgan) with good aroma of banana, citrus and a bit of yeast. The blueberry beer (Emiliy Carter) didn’t impress me because I found it too acidic. The red and the oatmeal stout (Cornik) presented a some acidic taste, too, but where quite interesting. The blonde (Vila) was my preference with a light touch of flowers and honey.
L’Inox As I remember, this brewpub is the oldest (1987) that is still opened in Québec. They recently move to a new location, so the occasion was perfect for a visit. Only three beers were on tap because the affluence of the summer festival. Simply called Blanche, Blonde and Rousse (white, blonde and red), I had glasses (no tasters available) of beers that respected the standards. The white presented touches of citrus and the red some caramel malts. The best was the blonde, American pale ale that presented a hoppy taste from five different hops. It was simply great on a sunny terrace. I shall visit this place when seasonal beers will be available, but on such a touristic street (la Grande Allée), I think this brewpub will now have the happy problem to fill up the mass of tourists instead of the local beer geeks. Good for the volume, but please don’t forget to brew funky things.
Microbrasserie Le Corsaire Le Corsaire is located in Lévis, just next to the ferry boat of the St-Lawrence River. So the best way to access it is to take this ferry which gives an exceptional view of Québec and his Frontenac Castle. The brewer, Martin Vaillancourt, made some of his classes at the aforementioned L’Inox as well as in England, so this brewing style is strongly and well represented here since 2008. Here is what I’ve tried:
Tanaka blanche, wheat ale with ginger, Seeräuber Pilsner, Galère pale ale, Bristol ESB, Maya blanche au miel, Corsaire Alt, Davy Jones Stout, Session bitter and Session bitter on cask. Unfortunately, no IPA was on the board, but I had something very hoppy with the Session Bitter on cask. What a great beer! 80 IBU and only 3,5 % of alcohol. I would have took pints and pints of it but had to leave to take the last ferry back to the north shore.
I’ve been lucky (and lonely) because I was the only passenger for this travel on a ferry that can carry close to 40 cars and a bunch of pedestrians. David Suzuki would have certainly not agreed with this, but there were no other options. A good thing is that this session bitter will probably be Le Corsaire’s next beer to be canned (no bottles, but cans for this brewery). At least, this travel didn’t produce five tons of CO2 for nothing… Sorry Mr. Suzuki and Mrs. Earth.
To conclude, well I have to admit that the Québec City beer scene is away from what we can have in Montréal. Of course, the quality is improving, but with the exception of the cask bitter, I haven’t tasted a lot of really exceptional beers. On the other side, all the tasted beers were correctly brewed and did not present any technical defaults.
If you’ve already come to Québec, you’ve probably taken note that I’ve forget to visit a brewery. No, I haven’t forgotten. I visited it but won’t talk much of it. When you have a tasting tray and three of the beers are totally acidic, it is not normal. The worst is when you mention it to the staff, they agree but still continue to pour it, because the place is full and people just don’t make the difference. I don’t like that. Instead of giving my money for default batches, I would prefer to make a donation for cancer research.
Brewpublican Marc Demeule lives and quaffs craft beer near Montreal, Québec and is an honorary citizen of Beervana. Marc@Brewpublic.com
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 aTwitter 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!
Meet brewer Eric Surface and founder Brian Maher from of one of Oregon’s newest and finest breweries from here in SE Portland. Three five gallon kegs will be pouring, so don’t miss out! 5-8PM
This year’s beer lovers’ festival to feature bourbon from local and national distilleries
out to the farm for a weekend (or two) of some end-of-summer fun! Help pick some hops (in the shade) while enjoying some BBQ and an exquisite selection of ales and sodas. Bring the family, your appetite, and your camping gear…..you won’t want to leave early!
![For The Love Of Beer](http://brewpublic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/For-the-Love-of-Beer-Trailer-Release1.jpg")
