Brewpublic’s first Microhopic Fest (and we plan on doing more) at Saraveza was a huge success. A great turnout, delicious beers, and the spectacular staff at the pub made for a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who attended, especially the brewers: Eric Surface of Mount Tabor Brewing, Jason Kahler of Big Horse Brewing, Tom Kramer of Ambacht Brewing, and Brian Frisch of Rivergate Brewing.

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

By Angelo

I wanted to take a moment to thank the sponsors of Brewpublic for their support of what we do. It really is a full-time job to keep Brewpublic going and to the small businesses who have advertised on our site, we are truly grateful.

Thanks to our past sponsors as well. If you’d like to get in our affordable advertising rates for May, 2010, please email angelo@brewpublic.com.

Thank you!

-Angelo

Posted under Uncategorized

After recently returning from New England on a fun filled beerhunting adventure, we were pleased that our bounty of bottled acquisitions arrived, like us, safe and sound. Of course, to make room for two big boxes of beer, we needed to do a little spring cleaning. With the beer fridge stocked to its maximum capacity and the boxes in our cellar toppling one another, we decided the best option for us would be to invite a few friends over to help us tipple away the surplus.

Down into the understory of our home where spiders keep watch of cellarable beer safely resting in a cool, dark environment, we filed in, one by one, until upwards of ten of us made it in. Previously this evening we’d started a fire in our backyard, but unwittingly wound up congregating in the most unusual nooks of our abode. With trusty tap deck and dusty old mixtapes from a past era, we had the simple pleasure of dwelling in a space that brought to mind adolescence…except for the part about the craft beer.

Of course, the guests brought some choice offerings of their own, so addition quaffing was in order. At one point the mini tastival developed into a Saison event before transgressing into a showcase of Baltic Porters. We knew we could count on the Oregon Beer Odyssey’s Ben Edmunds to provide some choice libations, as well as the Daily Pull’s Brady Walen and Jessica Pickul. It was a great opportunity to catch up with friends we felt like we hadn’t seen in eons and meet kind folks we look forward to sharing more great beers with in the future. . Though we had only been gone two weeks, being remiss of the Pacific Northwest’s unparalleled atmosphere of people and brews made it seem like an eternity.

As might be expected, as hearty beer flowed, inhibitions waned and more stowed away bottles where un-topped. The fire we built in our backyard burned alone as we found our sanctuary in the dirt-walled depths of our trusty cellar.

“If the roof fell through, I would be happy. If the plumbing piping broke, it would be a different story.” -Jessica

Posted under beer reviews, places to drink beer

Oregon’s first meet-the-brew pubcrawl was a huge success. The culmination of great people, great beer venues,  outstanding beer, and spectacular weather was the perfect recipe for one hell of a time!

Victory Bar proprietor and barkeep Yoni Laos adds special beers to the chalkboard. You can always count on exceptional beers at Victory, but today was even more special. The pub usually opens at 5pm, but on this special day, Victory opened at noon to accommodate droves of thirsty craft beer drinkers. Brewers Matt “Speck” Speckenbach and Ben Love of Hopworks Urban Brewery (just down the street) were on hand to debut their new For Those About to Bock lager. From Double Mountain in Hood River, Oregon, Kyle Larsen was on hand to showcase his pitchy, booze-a-licious Imperial Choas Double Stout. Lots of other delicious geek-friendly beers adorned the taplines including Le Trappe Isid’or, Mt. Shasta Lemurian Lager, Mikkeller Single Hopped Centennial IPA, and Southern Tier Hoppe Imperial Extra Pale Ale.

After a great reception for the brewers at Victory and an hour and a half at the inaugural stop, the crowd dispersed and headed west down SE Division Street to stop #2 at New Old Lompoc’s Hedge House. The Hedge House is a beloved neighborhood watering hole and dining destination where the delectable beers brewed at two Lompoc breweries can be enjoyed. For this first day of spring, the sun was shining bright and the outdoor patio and lawn seating was a bonus.Pouring at the Hedge House were some brewhouse specialties including Lompoc’s peppery Saison the Beach, a tropically scented Simcoe Survivor Belgian IPA, the 69 Baltic Porter lager, and a handful of other quenching Lompoc brews. Lompoc’s NW 23rd brewery’s Zach Beckwith was on hand to greet the crawlers, many of whom made this their lunch stop as well.

Onward to stop #3 at Bar Avignon where Full Sail Brewmaster John Harris was on hand in his own neighborhood. Harris, a seasoned pro in the brewing industry has been an inspiration to many brewers climbing the ranks. His Full Sail Hop Pursuit was pouring at Avignon. The beer is a vibrantly hopped pale ale with no apologies. Quite refreshing and appropriate for such a day. To make things even better, Fort George brewer Spencer Gotter made the trek in from Astoria, Oregon to greet folks. Fort George’s Vortex IPA, a boldy hopped, yet well-balanced Northwest brew was featured to the delight of the crawlers. Avignon prepared special toasted hazelnuts for the event that went perfectly with the grubbin’ beers.

Finally, the crawl made its way to the stop #4, the last stop, at The BeerMongers. Though the bottleshop and pub has only been around a few months, they’ve been making quite a splash in the neighborhood. On this fine day three breweries were on hand to partake in the festivities. Walking Man brewers Jacob Leonard and Dan Munch made the trip from Stevenson, Washington to exhibit their sought after Big Black Homo Imperial Cascadian Dark Ale and to unveil a special new sour wheat ale known as Foot Funk. From the far expanse of Eastern Oregon, Barley Brown’s owner Tyler Brown and Brewmaster Shawn Kelso made the long haul to deliver two special beers: WFO India Pale Ale and the 2009 Great American Beer Festival bronze medal winning Tumble Off Pale Ale. From even further away, Oregon’s easternmost brewery Beer Valley’s Pete Ricks came through with the debut keg of his new Rosebud IPA. Ricks also brought a special blend of his Black Flag Imperial Stout and Leafer Madness Imperial Pale known as Black Magic. Not a less than killer beer in the whole bunch, this served as the perfect closure to a perfect day.

For more pictures from BrewPubliCrawl No. 1, visit our photo page

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

We just made a small run of Brewpublic t-shirts that we plan on having available at Saturday’s March 20 BrewPubliCrawl. If you would like to purchase one please email Margaret at Brewpublic dot com. The last run we did were gone in one day.

These are 100% pre-shrunk cotton Gildan t-shirts screened by Portland’s Black Jack Graphics. These handsome shirts are $15. They are available in S, M, L, XL, XXL.

Also available are one-of-a-kind Brewpublic sweatbands with our chic logo. These are for sale for $5.

All proceeds of sales go to continuing this kick-ass beer website. Thank you humbly for your support of Brewpublic!

Posted under beer events, beer me, beer to do list

Brewpublic and Saraveza’s My Beery Valentine event during Zwickelmania/Valentine’s weekend was good enough to scare up a grand ($1000) for Mercy Corps Haiti Relief Fund. Thanks to a great turn out and generous donations from breweries, chocolaters, and folks like our man Tyler “The Elder” Vickers, Portland’s craft beer community again came up big for those in need.

Thank you very much to all who came out and helped promote the event. Also, thanks especially to the following who gave generously:

The Mikes at Vertigo Brewing, Alex and Upright Brewing, Aaron and the folks at Widmer Brothers Brewing, New Old Lompoc Brewing, everyone at Equal Exchange Organic Chocolates, Lori of SugarPimp, Sarah Pederson, Tyler “The Elder” Vickers,  Erika Houston, Jonathan Carmean, the entire staff at Saraveza who are always as friendly as they are hardworking and knowledgeable, Charlie and Double Mountain Brewing, Matt and Oakshire, Tim and Mountain Peoples, Chris and Fort George, Nick and Block 15 Brewing, all of the beer bloggers, writers, and supporters of Oregon Craft beer who wrote up the event, all of our friends who came out for a good cause and great beer. Thanks to anyone else we might have accidentally forgotten to mention. We couldn’t have done it with out all of you. Thank you!

Buzz Beer of event goes to Block 15 Brewing’s Love Potion #9. An all around spectacle of a beer, this dark brown-black beer with a pinkish head possessed the ultimate aroma of black raspberries and dark chocolate with a truffle-like flavor to match. This beer was Valentine’s day in a glass. We will be heading to Corvallis at the end of the month to check out more of Nick Arzen and Block 15’s fabulous recipes. Prost!

Read more on the event  from The Daily Pull’s recap here.

Posted under beer events

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

I never thought I’d be honored to receive a bung. But, I truly am. The Oregon Brew Crew has awarded me on behalf of Brewpublic the esteemed 2009 Pulp Bung award. This award recognizes “Outstanding Craft Beer Promotion Through Printed Word.” I am truly honored to have received this award from the OBC, and pleased to be the first on-line publication to be bestowed with this recognition. In total, six bungs were awarded recognizing proponents of craft beer and brewing in a number of capacities.

Fellow 2009’s Bung winners were:

Gold: Russ Menegat, Green Dragon / Rogue Brewery

Enthusiasm/Red: Michael Brown, F.H. Steinbart Co.

HBOTY/Silver: Bill Schneller

Volunteer/Orange: John Heasley

Enterpeneur/Purple: Sarah Pederson, Saraveza

What made this event cooler was that I was awarded the Bung with my good friend Sarah Pederson, owner of Saraveza. Sarah’s little pub on N. Killingsworth Street has quickly become a destination for beer geeks from around the world. She was awarded with a well deserved purple Jim Kennedy Entrepeneur bung.

Thank you to Aaron Cohen and Aaron Grier who were on hand at Saraveza to present Brewpublic with this prestigious award. Past winners of this award included esteemed and impassioned writers John Foyston, Lisa Morrison, and Abram Goldman-Armstrong. I hope to continue to provide everyone who reads Brewpublic with more interesting content. Sorry if this sounds like an Oscar speech, I am just beatified and exultant. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our website and promotes craft beer.

Posted under beer awards

Brewpublic Visits Cascade Brewing at Raccoon Lodge from Brewpublic.com

Posted under Oregon beer

“They are nothing but cheap, lazy, pandering journalism.”

-Ian, PortlandBeer.org (regarding “best of” lists)

Okay, so there’s some truth in that, but we promised our final 5 of 2009. Thanks to all of you who chimed in with your faves of the past year. And, what a year it was.

In some ways, 2009 seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and in others, it seems that events in the earlier part of 2009 happened eons ago. Taking this into account, our final lists might be somewhat myopic. After all, there were a lot of great memories and delicious brews. Here’s our lists before we change our minds:

Margaret’s Top 5 of 2009

In no particular order

Caldera Rose Pedal Imperial Golden Ale

Schneider Hopfen-Weiss

Stone Cali-Belgique IPA

New Glarus Belgian Red

Alaskan Baltic Porter

Angelo’s Top 5 of 2009

In no particular order

The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner-Weiss

Barley Brown’s Roadside Fresh Hop IPA

Cascade Five Thread

Upright Five

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

Our Honorable Mentions: Snipes Mountain Harvest Ale, Cascade Bourbonic Plague, Cascade Sang Noir, New Belgium Tart Lychee, Goose Island Sofie, New Glarus Berliner-Weiss, Double Mountain Devil’s Kriek, Lucky Lab Pavlov Imperial Porter, BridgePort Hop Czar, Alameda Yellow Wolf, Hopworks Bourbon DOA, 21st Amendment Back In Black, Russian River Temptation, Lagunita’s Hop Stoopid (cask), Deschutes Fresh Hop Mirror Pond, Full Sail Pleine Voile, Pelican Tsunami Stout, Pelican Storm Watcher, Upright Four, Lucky Lab Bourbon Barrel-aged Irish Red, New Old Lompoc Cherry Flechter, New Old Lompoc Barrel Fermented Centennial IPA, Lucky Lab Super Dog, Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA, Alameda Papa Noel Moonlight Reserve, Caldera Ginger Ale, Standing Stone Wet-hop Amber, McMenamins Roseburg Station Hopqua Fresh Hop Pale, Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA, Deschutes Cinder Cone Red, Firestone-Walker Union Jack IPA, Firestone-Walker XIII, Terminal Gravity Festive Ale, Dogfish Head Peche, Dieu du Ciel! La Solstice d’hiver Barleywine, Oakshire Overcast Espresso Stout, Deschutes Black Butte XXI, Lazy Boy Misteltoe Bliss (special spiced barrel), New Glarus Cracked Wheat, Laurelwood Vinter Varmer, Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws, Barley Browns WTO IPA, Fort George XVI Chapel, Cascade Summer Gose, Double Mountain Bohemian Pilsner, Beer Valley Gone Fishin’, Full Sail Wassail, Bear Republic Clobber Skull, Hair of the Dog Fred From the Wood, MacTarnahans Amber Ale, BridgePort Highland Ambush, Widmer ‘10, Big Horse MacStallion Scotch Ale, Snipes Mountain Coyote Moon Brown, Pelican Heifer Weizen, Pyramid Lipstinger Saison, Pyramid Grifter, Vertigo Cream Ale, Deschutes Abyss, Deschutes Red Chair, Green Flash West Coast IPA, Bear Republic Olde Baba Yaga, Hopworks Ace of Spades, Hopworks 7 Grain Survival Stout, Hopworks Red Ale, Hair of the Dog Matt, Widmer X114 IBA, Seven Brides Drunkel, Full Sail Colesch, Full Sail Old Boardhead, Cascade Apricot Ale, Pelican Kiwanda Cream Ale, Double Mountain Fa La La La La, Beer Valley Fresh Hop Black Flag Imperial Stout, Hopworks Lager, Double Mountain Killer Green, Beer Valley Leafer Madness, Trade Route Pandan Brown, Oakshire Ill Tempered Gnome, Bear Republic Racer 5, Double Mountain Hop Lava, Widmer 84/09, Walking Man Homo Erectus, Upright Reggae Junkie Gruit…and more we obviously forgot.

Top Five Things We’re Looking Forward to in ‘10

Brewpublic Division Street Pub Crawl (details coming soon)

Pyramid Brewing line-up of sour beers from Seattle pilot brewery

New breweries and pub opening (Alchemy, Migration, Apex, Abraxus, Cascade’s SE Portland location, etc)

New England beer adventures

New beer festivals coming to the Northwest

Posted under beer awards