Sometimes we can forget how freakin’ cool it is to have a Deschutes Brewpub in downtown Portland. Not long ago, you’d have to make the three hour trek out to Bend to get your paws on some of the exclusives that are now just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Even better, too, is that now that there are more locations, this means more tasty one-off Deschutes’ brews in general.

This week, as usual, we rolled into Deschutes Portland and were gladdened by the presence of some interesting new brews.

Here’s a video involving some discussion between Oregon brewers about the emerging Cascadian Dark Ale beer style. This took place at a symposium hosted by Abram Goldman-Armstrong at Belmont Station.

Brewpublic at the Cascadian Dark Ale Symposium from Brewpublic.com

The past week has been teeming with mouthwatering, hoppy dark brews, starting back mid-last week when we attended a Cascadian Dark Ale blind tasting with friends. Here we were lucky to sample ten different CDAs and get a feel of the various nuances from a unique unbiased perspective. Now, as can be expected with any blind tasting, some were obviously more favorable than others. Style champion and all around beer geek Abram Goldman-Armstrong got us excited for the CDA Week at Belmont Station and the CDA Symposium he would be hosting on Saturday morning. All and all, we’ve probably never had as many of one style of beer as we did over the last week.

Thanks to Ezra for hosting and sharing and everyone who participated in the Cascadian Dark Ale blind tasting this past week. Here’s some notes on these ten beer offerings.

On Tuesday November Beer zealots in Portland lined up around the block of Deschutes Brewpub to be some of the first to get their paws on this year’s Abyss. Promptly at 2PM, the side door on NW Couch Street opened and the faithful were received by pub staff with platters of samples before heading through the restaurant and toward the front entrance. Deschutes’ Portland lead brewer Cam O’Connor welcomed the drooling masses while the first 48 in line who opted to purchase at least six bottles (but limited to twelve bottles on this day) were allowed to purchase a single bottle autographed by Deschutes brewmaster Larry Sidor.

This year’s Abyss was characteristically robust but appeared a bit boozier than in years past. Lots of bourbon up front could indicated that some cellaring might not hurt. The 11% ABV wax dipped imperial stout was at the epicenter of the pub on this autumn day. What’s in your cellar?