Bailey’s Taproom is unquestionably one of the best craft beer bars we’ve ever set foot inside, and, of course, our standards for beer are pretty high. Proprietor Geoff Phillips and his dedicated crew of beer geeks will be celebrating their third year on Saturday July 31, 2010 with a lineup of specialty barrel-aged brews, to the delight of area beer zealots and those traveling from afar to partake in one of the most anticipated beer events of the year in Portland, Oregon.

In a few recent posts on Bailey’s blog,our friend Geoff divulges some of the rare barrel-aged brews attendees can expect to try. We pulled the following info from Bailey’s site:

Read More…

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

Rock out with some great beers of Caldera in Ashland, Oregon.

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

When Brewpublic celebrated our first year by throwing two big parties, we wanted to make certain that the beers being tapped were special. Naturally, we also wanted to go with one-offs and unique brews for our KillerBeerFest held at Bailey’s Taproom. Caldera Brewing of Ashland, one of our favorite breweries on the planet hooked us up with a keg of their Rose Petal Imperial Golden Ale. When we spoke with Caldera founder Jim Mills, he told us “I don’t know how it’s going to go over, but (the consumers) just want to try something new and crazy and different.” Well, it appears Mr. Mills was on to something. Since this statement in September of 2009, Caldera has not only increased the popularity of there spectacular craft beers in a can (these regularly include their IPA, Pale Ale, and Ashland Amber so far), but they’ve initiated a special seasonal lineup of brews known as the Kettle Series. These 22-ounce bottles feature the likes of a refreshing Lawnmower Lager, spicy yet light Ginger Pale Ale, shockingly labeled, complex Vas Deferens, a lupulin smack in the face known as Hopportunity Knocks, and the gold medal winning Rauch Ur Bock.

Now, with the help of mobile bottlers Green Bottling, Caldera is soon to release the Rose Petal Imperial Golden Ale, proving that craft beer consumers are game for creative and imaginative styles. Made with 11 pounds of rose pedals and two liters of Bulgarian rose water, Mr. Mills says “this beers tastes like a party at Grandma’s house.” This smooth yet dangerously delicious beer should be available throughout the summer. Now you can make Caldera a part of your KillerBeerFest as you see fit. Prost!

Posted under Oregon beer, beer news, beer releases

Idaho Falls, Idaho – 2010′s North American Beer Awards were a tour de force by Oregon brewers. Oregon led the way with 29 medal, more than any other state, including Washington, who finished second with 22 wins. Idaho came in third with 18 medals.

Leading the pack for Oregon at this year’s awards was Pelican Pub and Brewery of Pacific City, Oregon. At one point the three representative brewers circled podium like congo line. Nine medals for Pelican nearly matched 11 from Anheuser-Busch‘s collective brands that included Budweiser, Michelob, Natural Ice, Busch O’Douls, and King Cobra.Three of Pelican’s awards came for Kiwanda Cream Ale, which won three silver medals alone. Pelican’s Stormwatchers Winterfest and Surfers Summer Ale were bestowed with gold as well. Interestingly, Kiwanda Cream and Surfers Summer Ale took first and second place in the Light Ales category.

Other big winners for Oregon included Barley Brown’s Brewpub of Baker City, a perennial multi-medal winner at NABA, who raked in four medals. The high win for brewer Shawn Kelso was being awarded gold for his Hot Blonde in the Chili Beer bracket. Caldera, Deschutes, and Bend Brewing each won three medals, Widmer, and RAM Big Horn of Salem each won two medals, while Full Sail, Ninkasi,and RAM Big Horn of Happy Valley rounded out Oregon’s winning ways by winning one a piece.

Oregon swept two categories, winning all three medals in the Imperial IPA and English Summer Ale categories.

Here’s a look at the Oregon winners:

Pelican Brewery & Pub, Pacific City, Oregon

Silver 11D – Foreign Stout – Tsunami Stout

Gold 12C – English Barley Wine – Final Round Stormwatchers Winterfest

Gold 14B – Light Ales – Surfers Summer Ale

Silver 14B – Light Ales – Kiwanda Cream Ale

Silver 14C – Blonde or Golden Ale – Kiwanda Cream Ale

Silver 20D/E – Strong Belgian Ales – Saison du Pelican

Silver 2A – Kolsch – Kiwanda Cream Ale

Bronze 5C – (Extra Special) Strong Bitter ESB – Nestucca ESB

Silver 6A – English Summer Ale – Surfers Summer Ale

Barley Brown’s Brewpub, Baker City, Oregon

Silver 11E – American Stout – Disorder Stout

Gold 17E – Chili Beer – Hot Blonde

Bronze 21 – Specialty and Experimental Beers – Turmoil

Silver 6G – Double/Imperial India Pale Ale – WFO IPA

Bend Brewing Company, Bend, Oregon

Bronze 11A – Dry Stout – Dry Irish Stout

Bronze 12B – English Old Ale – Outback X

Bronze 6A – English Summer Ale – Metolius Golden Ale

Caldera Brewing Company, Ashland, Oregon

Bronze 11F – Imperial Stout – Caldera Old Growth Imperial

Gold 18A/B – All Smoke Flavored Beers – Caldera Rauch Ur Bock

Silver 3A – Munich Helles – Caldera Helles Lager

Deschutes Brewery

Bronze 12C – English Barley Wine – Jubel 2010

Gold 5C – (Extra Special) Strong Bitter ESB – Bachelor ESB

Gold 6A – English Summer Ale – Twilight Ale

Widmer Brothers

Bronze 15A – American Hefeweizen – Widmer Hefeweizen

Bronze 6G – Double/Imperial India Pale Ale – Deadlift

RAM Big Horn Brewery, Salem, Oregon

Bronze     19D – Belgian Dark Strong Ale – Ski Lifter

Bronze     4B – Helles Bock / Maibock – Salem Spring Bock

RAM Big Horn Brewery, Happy Valley, Oregon

Bronze 7A – American Amber Ale – West Village Red

Ninkasi Brewing Company, Eugene, Oregon

Gold 6G – Double/Imperial India Pale Ale – Tricerahops Double IPA

Full Sail Brewing Company, Hood River, Oregon

Silver 13B – American Premium Lager – Session Premium Lager

Other notes:

Washington breweries swept all three medals in the Scotch Ale category as follows:

Gold Laht Neppur Brewing Company, Waitsburg, WA – Piper Canyon Scotch Ale

Silver Walking Man Brewing, Stevenson, WA – High Road Scotch Ale

Bronze Black Raven Brewing Company, Redmond, WA – Second Sight Strong Scotch Ale

Four American-style India Black Ales (aka Cascadian Dark Ales/Black IPAs) advanced to the medal round of experimental and specialty ales (category 21). According to NABA judge coordinator Bob Beckwith, a new category will be added for these beers next year. Congratulations to Barley Brown’s for winning bronze in category 21 this year. Had there been a category specific to this style, the brewery would have won gold.

Almost 1200 entries were submitted at this years judging, featuring 149 judging flights for 74 medal rounds. Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all those participating.

For a complete list of NABA winners, visit http://www.northamericanbrewers.org/awards/NABA2010-WinnersByBrewery.html

Read more on this year’s NABA on The Northwest Beer (aka The Pickled Liver) site.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer news

Last week at the conclusion of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago, the biannual World Beer Cup (WBC) was held.  This global competition with a majority of American entries, has run since 1996 with an ultimate goal to create “greater consumer awareness about different beer styles and flavor profiles while promoting international brewing excellence.” A panel of certified beer judges were in place to honor the top three beers in 91 categories with gold, silver, and bronze awards. The World Beer Cup, one the most prestigious beer competitions in the world, witnessed 13 Oregon breweries take home medals in 2010. Here’s a look at some of the winners.

WINNERS

Oregon breweries claimed six gold, four silver, and three bronze medals at the 2010 WBC, second to only California who claimed 45 medals (but also entered 185 more beers than Oregon). Among the Oregon winners, was Bend Brewing Company (BBC). Accomplished brewmaster Tonya Cornett continued her winning ways for BBC. Cornett won top honors in the strong ale beer style category for its Outback X, a beer Cornett describes as demonstrating “roasted malt with hints of hops in the nose leading to a rich, roasted malt flavor with a background of dried fruits and sherry.”

“The Outback X was originally brewed for our ten-year anniversary,” Cornett explains. “We re-brewed it because people liked it so much, and I am thrilled that it just keeps doing as well as it does.” This is the third gold medal for Outback X.

This year, 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S. states vied for WBC awards, making for the world’s largest-ever commercial beer competition. Winners were selected by an international panel of 179 beer judges, including Cornett, who served a first-time WBC judge this year. “Sixty-five percent of the judges are from other countries,” she says. “I felt really fortunate to judge alongside and learn so much from them.”

In addition to the gold medal win for Outback X, Cornett garnered glory for her traditional stein lager recipe, which won a silver medal for Lost Abbey Brewery of San Marcos, California. Cornett teamed with award-winning Lost Abbey Head Brewer Tomme Arthur last year to brew two versions of traditional stein lager using molten rocks to set the wort to boil. Hot Rocks Stein Lager, created by Cornett and brewed by Arthur, took silver at WBC.

BBC has won 12 brewing competition medals in the last four years. This is Cornett and BBC’s sixth gold. In 2008, Cornett was honored as the first woman to win the title of World Beer Cup Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year. BBC simultaneously won Small Brewery of the Year. “I am actually better known in the international brewing community than I am in Bend,” jokes Cornett.

Shawn Kelso of Barley Brown’s Brewpub in Baker City, Oregon, much like Cornett, has been proving that it doesn’t take a large brewery to rake in medals. Kelso, on Barley Brown’s four-barrel brew system took home gold for Shredders Wheat, in the American-style wheat category. The same brew that landed the brewpub a Silver at the 2009 Great American Beer Fest (GABF) was now at the top of the pack. Look for more great beers from Kelso and Barley Brown’s to come. Rumor has it the brewhouse could be seeking out a larger brew system in the 10-15 barrel range to keep up with increasing demand for their delicious brews.

Caldera Brewing of Ashland scooped up two wins at this year’s WBC including a gold medal for their Rauch Ur Bock in the Smoked Beer category, and a silver medal for their Pilot Rock Porter in the Brown Porter category. Look for more innovative releases from brewer Trevor Kemp and Caldera founder Jim Mills. The brewery has recently kicked of their Kettle Series in 22-ounce bottles. This series includes the Rauch Ur Bock, so you can also taste the gold medal winner. Also in the Smoke Beer category, Rogue Ales of Newport snagged a silver for their Smoke Ale.

The Pelican Pub & Brewery and Brewmaster Darron Welch won a silver medal for MacPelican’s Scottish Style Ale at this year’s WBC. The staple Pelican brew won the medal in the Scottish-Style Ale category and was one of 29 entered.

“As an experienced World Beer Cup judge, I can say that this year’s event was one of the most competitive I have seen,” said Welch. “The quality I saw even in the preliminary rounds was very high and there were lots of outstanding beers that didn’t receive medals. The fact that MacPelican’s Scottish Style Ale was honored this year is extremely flattering.”

Upright Brewing and founder brewer Alex Ganum won a bronze medal for their Gose, a mildly tart wheaten ale, in the German-style Sour Ale category. For Ganum, this is his first WBC win, but hey, it’s only the first year his brewery has been in existence. We expect a lot more bling-bling for him in the future.

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) continues to do well in just a few years since opening to the public. HUB claimed a silver medal at WBC for their Organic Velvet ESB in the  Extra Special Bitter or Strong Bitter category. Look for Christian Ettinger, Ben Love and company to accumulate a healthy collection of beer competition medals as time goes by.

Widmer Bros took home two WBC rocks this year. Their Drop Top Amber was crowned with the gold in the Ordinary Bitter and their original Alt pocketed a bronze in the German-Style Brown Ale/Düsseldorf-Style Altbier circuit.

Rounding out the Oregonian wins Full Sail of Hood River receiving a gold in the American-Style Dark Lager field for their Black Session; Deschutes nabbed a gold for their well-known Bachelor Bitter in the Special Bitter or Best Bitter field; Hop Valley of Springfield sealed the bronze honors for their DD Blonde, American-Style Wheat Beer.

Congratulations to all the winners at this year’s World Beer Cup. Prost!

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, beer news

One of Oregon’s most anticipated brew events kicks off this Saturday. On February 13, 2010, the second year of Zwickelmania, a celebration of craft beer, gives thirsty beer lovers across Beervana an inside glimpse into daily Oregonian brewhouse operations and even better, provides them with tastes of what we love.

Running from 11 am to 4pm, Zwickelmania, in conjunction with the Oregon Brewers Guild, is a free statewide event that offers visitors a chance to tour Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample their favorite beers.

Here’s some highlights of this year’s Zwickelmania that we recommend you check out if you get the chance.

Caldera Brewing: In Oregon’s deep (Ashland, Oregon) , beer lovers can meet founder and president Jim Mills at the pub, try a range of Caldera’s wonderful brews including their Rose Pedal Golden, Ginger Pale, Dry-hopped Orange, Hopportunity Knocks, Lawnmower Lager, Pilsner, and more. Also, get sick deals on beer. Mills says “I’ll be at the brewery for Zwickelmania selling cases of cans for $20. Shirts, hats, goodies also available.”

Caldera Brewing Company, 540 Clover Lane, Ashland, OR 97520

Caldera Tap House, 31 Water St #2, Ashland, OR 97520

541-482-HOPS

Fort George Brewery: Speaking of expansion, the good folks at Fort George Brewing in picturesque Astoria, Oregon are growing their brewery to a full city block, increasing volume to a 30-barrel system, and planning to unleash their citrusy, piny hop treat, Vortex India Pale Ale, in tallboy (16-ounce) cans. Yeah, we can’t wait either! Head brewer Jack Harris says “Spencer (Gotter) will be brewing Nut Red Ale and giving brewery tours on Saturday. We will be sampling the Illuminator Dopplebock out of the magic zwickel.” On top of all this, February is Stout Month at Fort George, and this means a buttload of grubbin’ dark roasty treats and killer guest taps (Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, Stone RIS). You don’t have to be a Goonie to wanna do the truffle shuffle over these brews!

1483 Duane Street Astoria, Oregon 503-325-PINT(7468) fortgeorgebrewery.com

Vertigo Brewing: Hillsboro’s nano brewers, Vertigo will be serving up an assortment of their scrumptious brews including the Razz Wheat, Schwindel Alt, TBD Blonde, High Altitude Amber, Friar Mike’s IPA and High Dive Rye. But since the brewery is so small, brewer Mike Haines says “these could change rapidly as we go through the kegs.” Get it while the gettin’s good.

21420 Northwest Nicholas Ct., Hillsboro, OR 97124 www.vertigobrew.com

Ambacht Brewing: Hillsboro, Oregon’s other nano brewery, Ambacht, has been under the radar for some time. After lots of preparation and recipe development, the beer is finally ready to pour. Meet brewer Tom Kramer and sample an assortment of their unique beers including a Belgian-style pale ale called Ambacht Golden Ale, available at the brewery in 750 ml bottles for purchase.

1055 NE 25th Ave Suite N., Hillsboro, Oregon 503-828-1400 http://ambacht.us/

Oakshire Brewing: For those of you who will be in the Emerald City aka Eugene, Oregon, make sure to hit up one of Oregon’s best breweries, Oakshire. Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk, Co-Founder Jeff Althouse, and Head Brewer Joe Jasper will all be on hand to talk shop, give tours fill corn cans and provide good cheer. It also looks as though these guys might have the most impressive line-up of anyone for Zwickelmania: Oakshire Amber, Watershed IPA,Overcast Espresso Stout,Two Wheeler IPA, Frog’s Wort Pale Ale, Ill Tempered Gnome, Harvest Ale, Red Nugget, 09 Sasquatch, Duck Billed Platypus, Cascade Conundrum, Perfect Storm, and Bourbon Barrel Aged IPA! Hot damn!

1055 Madera St., Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.oakbrew.com

Hopworks Urban Brewery: Assistant Brewmaster Ben Love tells us that HUB will be doing brewery tours every half hour, sampling beer off the zwickel in the cooler (as expected) and on the Bar Bike and playing washoes!!!!! The brewpub will also be unveiling a new lager called For Those About to Bock.

Full Sail Breweries: Two location (Hood River and Portland, OR) will feature some rare treats including a new Brewers Share handle Collin’s Dark Secret (based on FS Packaging Manager Collin Godkin’s recipe) paired with artisan chocolate. Guided Brewery Tours at 12, 1, 2, 3and 4PM.

Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub, 506 Columbia Street, Hood River, Oregon 541-386-2247

Full Sail at Riverplace, 0307 SW Montgomery, Portland, Oregon 503-222-5343

www.fullsailbrewing.com

Gilgamesh Brewing: Turner, Oregon’ start-up brewery has been receiving quite a bit of buzz of late. Their presence at the Oregon Wine, Food, & Brew Festival at the fairgrounds in Salem last month made quite an impression on folks. Amidst an expansion process that will grow the nano brewery from a one-barrel system to a seven-barrel system, the Gilgamesh crew will take time out of their busy schedule to serve up free samples and sell growlers at the Willamette Valley Vineyards’ Pinot & Chocolate Celebration in Salem. In a recent email, Gilgamesh said “This is sure to be a great day with some of Willamette Valley Vineyards’ special Pinot Noir that is only served to the public this one day of the year. There will be different companies with chocolates and candies… and now GILGAMESH BREWING! We will have our Chocolate Mint Stout (naturally!), as well as two other brews on tap so please come on out to visit!” We sure hope the other brews  will be their Black Mambabeer brewed with black tea (instead of hops) and tangerine peels, or maybe their Cranberry Saison. Either way, beer geeks near Salem who like off-the-wall brews should check this out!  Please see Willamette Valley Vineyards’ site if you need more info – http://www.wvv.com/whatsnew/#events210.

Pyramid Breweries at MacTarnahan’s Taproom: The NW Portland brewery will offer two separate tasting tables in the Taproom for Pyramid and MacTarnahan’s brands as well as complimentary three-ounce samples of six different beers including Mac’s new Spine Tingler Belgian-Style Tripel and Pyramid’s latest Ingnition Series release, a “Barbed Wire” Imperial Hefeweizen. There will also be complimentary light appetizers, a short walking tour of facility culminating in a sample of Haywire Hefeweizen from the Zwickel on a brite beer tank.Brewers Tom Bleigh, Vasilios Gletsos, and others will be on hand to discuss offerings.

2730 NW 31st Ave.,Portland, Oregon 503-228-5269 www.macsbeer.com

Upright Brewing: Always feels like Zwickelmania at Upright. These guys love making imaginative beer with a don’t give a damn attitude. Brewer and owner Alex Ganum says Upright’s first Zwickelmania event will highlight a firkin of the Four, a wheaten farmhouse ale, dry-hopped with a pinch of Mt. Rainier hops. Brewer Gerritt Ill will be pouring bottles of random Upright favorites as well.They will be rockin’ until 6PM as well.

240 N Broadway, Portland, Oregon 503-735-5337  www.uprightbrewing.com

Cascade Brewing: Stop by the Raccoon Lodge and say hello to the Ron Gansberg, Curtis Bain, and Chris Baggenstraus of Cascade who are taking time out of their very busy schedule to unleash some unbelievable brews. Recognized globally for their sour, lactic, and fruit and spice infused recipes, this could very easily be the hot spot for this year’s Zwickelmania.  Brewmaster Gansberg discloses “For Zwickelmania, we will be tasting select beers from the oak barrels. We will taste the Spring Gose from the Zwickel, as well as the Noyeaux…a blend of White Port barrel aged Strong Blond Ale on Raspberries blended with Noyeaux…apricot nut infused Tripel. We will also release this years Apricot and Sang Rouge for tasting and sale from the bottle!” Servus!

7424 Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway Portland, Oregon (503) 296-0110 www.raclodge.com

New Old Lompoc: Stop by the 5th Quadrant brewery for a special tasting experience at one of Portland’s best breweries. Brewer Bryan Kielty says “We’ll have the Lompoc Lounge set up in the brewery and have two beers on tap there. Brewery tours given by Dave Fleming and myself and tasting off of different tanks from 11:00AM-5:00PM. SideBar will be open 11:00 AM-9:00PM with a bunch of crazy beer on tap (Bourbon Barrel Aged LSD, 69 Baltic Porter, Double Dry Hopped Cnote, and Old Tavern Mouse). We will also be serving pulled pork sliders at SideBar.”  This is a must stop for craft beer lovers!

3901 N. Williams, Portland, Oregon (503) 595-1876 www.newoldlompoc.com

BridgePort Brewpub: What would a Zwickelmania be without visiting a piece of Oregon’s craft beer history? Bob Negele, general manager of retail operations at BridgePort tells us

that we have “some compelling reasons to come by BridgePort this Saturday as part of the Zwickelmania Celebration:

* First 50 people who come into the brewpub between 11:30am – 4:00pm with two cans of food for donation to the Oregon Food Bank will receive free of charge a BridgePort growler; all they need to do is pay $11.00 for a fill. Regularly a $27.00 value

* We encourage everyone to bring cans of food to be donated to OFB, we’ll be offering $2.75 pints from 11:30am – 4:00pm

* We’ll conducting brewery tours on the hour 12-4pm.

* Great food specials that day.”

1313 NW Marshall St., Portland, Oregon (503) 241-7179 www.bridgeportbrew.com

Bend Brewing: Central Oregon’s finest microbrewery, Bend Brewing will offer a special tour of the downtown bend brewpub. On this special day, Hophead IPA and Outback X will be pouring on tap. Also with a collaboration between Tonya Cornett and Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton. called Desert Rose will be available. This distinctly refreshing offering is based on a Berliner Weisse but brewed with dried cranberry and hibiscus. If you can, don’t be ridiculous…be it! Days like this we wish we had a private jet and personal pilot.  Prost!

For a complete listing of 2010 Zwickelmania events visit http://www.oregonbeer.org/zwickelmania

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

More Top 5 lists. You gotta love it!

Looks like fellow blogger, Jeff over at Beervana, has posted his own short list of highlights/trends in beer in 2009. Here is our own take on the matter.

Top 5 Oregon Beer Stories of 2009

1. The announcement of 19+ breweries and brewpub opening in Oregon in 2010 (Beer Around Town, Beervana)

2. Representative Ben Cannon’s 1900% beer tax increase fails

3. Zwickelmania on Oregon’s Sesquicentennial  <3

4. BridgePort and Widmer share 25 years in brewing

5. Brewpublic celebrates one year anniversary with a Birthday party at Saraveza and KillBeerFest at Bailey’s Taproom.

Top 5 Beer Trends of 2009

1. Sour Beers - Pucker up! This style is gaining momentum.

2. Collaborator Beers - How many brewers does it take to make a kick ass beer? Apparently, at least two.

3. Cascadian Dark Ales - Many Black IPAs were released this year. A great style or an ingredient bomb? What to call them Cascadian Dark Ales or ??? but definitely not Texan Brown Ales. When brewed well, their flavor is roasty, malty but with a nice hoppy presence.

4. “Green” Brewing - Isn’t brewing already a pretty green process? Now, how does someone market it so consumers feel better about themselves. All in all, it is better to go green then to go … ???

5. Expensive Scandinavian/non-traditionally beer country Imports – There seemed to be an increase of these hitting the market in 2009 with many different styles produced. How about we Oregonians grow the hops and you Scandinavians sell them back to us in a super hoppy beer and we pay out the nose for them. Oh, how good you taste, though!

Top 5 Oregon Brewer Interviews By Brewpublic of 2009

(yes, we like to float our own boat, deal with it!)

1. Larry Sidor, Deschutes Brewery (insight to a true hop head and great brewer that brought you beers like Abyss and Dissident)

2. Jason Kahler, Big Horse Brewery (the only known interview w/ Jason)

3. Matt Swihart, Double Mountain (who doesn’t love Double Mountain)

4. Nick Arzner , Block 15 (a great interviewee and brewer)

5. Jim Mills, Caldera (the man who brought canned beers to Oregon)

Honorable mention: Dan Carey with New  Glarus, who showed Brewpublic some great hospitality and amazing beers!

New Year’s Eve Brewpublic will reveal its Top 10 (yes, 10 not 5) beers of 2009. Stay tuned for the finale of our Top Beer Lists.

Posted under beer awards, beer me

The California beer road trip was almost complete.  But you can only be on the highway so long before you need to sink your palate into some craft beer.  Luckily, Ashland, Oregon is a little hub for Southern Oregon craft brews.  Caldera is a fabulous production brewery from Ashland that produces some of the best beers in the state of Oregon.  We were not fortunate enought to hit them up, but we were quite fortunate to experience and old favorite, Standing Stone.

Open seven days a week for great beer and artisan food, Standing Stone Brewing Company in Ashland is located in a historic brick building that is part of the National Register of Historic Places.  Formerly the Whittle Garage founded in 1925, the now chic environment in the heart of the affluent Southern Oregon community. 

The service was stellar, the place was immaculate, and the beer was top notch.  Standing Stone is worth your time on any travel along I-5 through Southern Oregon.  Our bartender Robin served us a wonderful sample tray of seven house beers prepared by brewmaster Adam Benson with the utmost precision.

Honey Cream Ale: A very light soapy straw colored ale with a sweet, creamy, and crisp biscuit flavor.  This soft, well-balanced session brew finished with a mildly peppered hop finish.

Hefeweizen: A hair darker than the honey cream, this wheaten brew possessed a slight phenolic banana-clove attitude in the light nose. Quite refreshing and easy drinking was this standard beer. Clean, Bavarian, delicious.

Amber Ale: A deep copper-bodied amber ale with a thick off-white head.  Crisp, malty and with a gentle hops balance, this Northwest rendition held a brisk and bitter finish.

India Pale Ale: West Coast Pale with a copper body and an off-white creamy head.  Mildly flowery with some creamy aromatics.  Soft and very approachable for those who may be skeptical of the IPA genre of beers.  Nice.

Standing Stone sample tray

Nitro Oatmeal Stout: Opaque deep brown-black bodied stout with a small bubbly tan-gray head.  Roasted malt nose lingered as did notes of coffee and chocolate to develop a reference to mocha that stood out.  Quite smooth.

Wet Hoptoberfest: 200 pounds of wet Centennial hops for Willamette Valley to make this seasonal brew.  A lager brewed at ale temperatures, this copper-orange autumn hued Marzen with a creamy off-white head was in tact with a sticky caramel, nutty, and fruity nose.  Uniquely flavorful, harboring on overdone, yet a mesh of styles and Munich and Caramel malts that worked amicably.

Double IPA: Almost as light as the IPA here.  Again, a mild hops nose with a very soft bittering presence, especially for an imperial IPA.  Smooth, creamy, and approachable for those who are reluctant to jump into a hoppy beer.

While we enjoyed our wonderful beers, we noticed the classic brick and steel frame of the building with appealing wood and iron beams.  Five fermenters sat in lofts above in open view. Malt sacks were stacked in the space between the main bar area and the back open dining family portion of the establishment. Catering drinkers of all ages, Standing Stone makes two brands of their own lemonade including a ginger and a cherry variety.

Standing Stone brewpub

It is no surprise that Standing Stone had accumulated a number of awards since its inception in 1996.  Perhaps the most notable is the one for the State of Oregon’s Governor’s Sustainability Focus Award for small buiness in 2007.  The brewery cuts waste and energy in a number of ways and utilizes 98% organic malt and 75% Northwest hops on top of thriving on local growers to make its beer.

Unfortunately, like many stops on our trip south, we were forced to cut our stay short and head northward from one heck of a trip.

Posted under brewpubs

Tugboat Brewing Company of Portland is a quaint and affable public house with an interesting assortment of house brewed American real ales.  Made in the tradition of the classic English styles, Tugboat’s specialties and guest taps often play second fiddle to the cozy, relaxed atmosphere of the pub.  In the alley of SW Ankeny just off Broadway in downtown Portland, Tugboat is stumbling distance from an array of true-to-Portland establishments such as Mary’s Club, a famed strip club just around the corner, Sauce Box, a swanky cocktail lounge with down tempo DJs and perusing hipster-chic regulars, and the neighboring Bailey’s Taproom with its twenty microbrews on tap served in a clean, open coffeehouse environment.  Tugboat, with it’s charm, comes grit and a lived-in living room space where hunkering down in a candle-lit booth with one of their many books is as normative as boisterous laughter shared over a cloud of cigarette smoke.  The staff are friendly with a tight knit charismatic fervor that illuminates even the most shrouded, musky corners of what is a real public house.  For the beer geek, the Tugboat is a worthy stop, featuring a fair assortment of unpasteurized, unfiltered Anglican grog brewed in their on-site brewery.  This consists of Rubbermaid horse trough mashtun visible from inside the pub.  Italian pickle buckets are used as fermenters.  This “open barreled” set-up, may be a clue to some of the inconsistencies and off-flavors of the Tugboat beer line-up, but beer snobbery is not what they are about, and if you are, they offer a nice selection of guest taps ranging from Caldera Red to Fishtale WInterfish, Anchor Porter to Klamath Basin Pale.  For the Beer Advocate or Rate Beer critic, the Tugboat will likely not score high, but still shines as a diamond in the rough of sorts.  Most of the beer geeks will be in the cleaner, tidier Bailey’s Taproom across the way lost in their laptops, taking notes of the latest greatest seasonal release.  Both places have their charm, mind you, but Tugboat is it’s own entity.  Like a time warp to a fictional pulp novel or a scene from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Tugboat seems like the kind of pub where lost dreams are reminisced about and old friends catch up until the wee hours.

As for beers, here’s a look at some of the beers you might find at Tugboat:

Tugboat Amber Ale: Poured a murky to light amber with no body.  Caramel malt notes, thin and watery.  Slightly acidic and dull as sin.  Difficult to fully palate over the plume of smoke in my general vacinity.

Tugboat British Brown: Another somewhat drab offering from this cool location.  Dark amber body with no head.  Mild hops presence, but quite homebrew-esque.  Flat body, with a mild whiff of lemon-grapefruit and red wine in the nose.  Syrupy, but thin.  Quite yeasty and unbalanced.

Tugboat ESB: One of the more popular offerings here. Foggy copper color (at least that is how it appeared in the darkness of Tugboat’s tap house). Strong, floral hops in the nose.  The body was a little washed in the finish.  Hoped for more bitterness or caramel maltiness.  Also a bit homebrew-ish and under carbonated.  Overall a decent drinkable beer, but nothing to write about (oh wait I am).  Try it at least once.  Maybe mine was slightly off.

Tugboat Coffee Brown: Poured a ruddy, muddy thin brown body with next to no head.  Nose of java and stale wet malts.  Same ameteur brewing qualities as other house selections.  Faintly nutty and faintly carbonated.

Vintage Belgian Ale: The more than kind barkeep, Linsel at Tugboat let me sample the remainder of this beer from a mason jar he had left for himself after the keg had blown.  A wild yeast sour ale, unlike anything purposefully made at the brewpub.  Aged for eight months, possessing a tart lactic zing that surprisingly was more than delicious.  Fruity notes of cherry and creamy vanilla yogurt lingered all over the tongue.  Very nice beer.  Wonderingn why they don’t make this one more.

All Hallow’s Ale: Available for the spooky times around Halloween, this bitter cask brown ale had a promising hops presence of an English IPA and a malty underpinning to contend with the creamy yeast strain.  A bit under-developed in the overall balance, but still one of Tugboat’s best.

Chernobyl Imperial Stout:  Here is my favorite excuse to go to Tugboat.  The Chernoble Stout!  Just saying the name makes me smile and melt…uh…sorry.  Neep abyssmal opaque hue with no evident head.  Faint alcohol in nose, sweet and roasty.  Slightly chocolate and liquorish on the tongue with hints of smoke and candy in the finish. To think this beer came out of a Rubbermaid bucket is astounding!  This beer, in my humble opinion rivals the Dogfish Head World Wide Stout.  I know that you beer geeks will think I am crazy by saying this, but isn’t it true that a lot of your opinions on beer are formulated by what you read on beer rating web sites anyways?  Perhaps this beer is as inconsistent as the rest and my sample coupled with my experience just did it for me.  Who knows.  What I do know is that Tugboat is worth a try.  If you are like me and secondhand smoke is not your friend, give it a few months when the statewide ban takes place.  Tugboat rocks!

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