What: The release of Double Mountain’s new beer “The Empire Strikes Back”

When: Tonight, Thursday, March 4, 2010,  5-9pm

Double Mountain, one of the best breweries in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, has just informed us of their third anniversary party (you have to say “par-tay” when it’s this cool).

Double Mountain co-founder Charlie Devereux says “Come on down to Double Mountain and help us celebrate three years of fantastic beers, tasty fare and good times with friends. We pay homage to our great family of fans every March with a big blowout party… It’s our way of saying thanks for supporting us all the year round.”

As of this past Monday, Belmont Station’s Bigger, Badder, Blacker Beer Week has been in full effect. Perfect for the throes of winter, now there’s no need to feel let down after the end of your big New Years celebration. The Belmont boys and girls are bringing out barrels of big bold brews to blow you away. Each day a new treat hits the rotation and by the end of it all on Friday, count on a mind and liver-bending experience like no other. Beers such as Deschutes The Abyss and Black Butte XXI Imperial Porter, Alameda Imperial Stout, Great Divide Chocolate Yeti, Sierra Nevada Life & Limb, Alaskan Baltic Porter, Wednesday Full Sail Black Gold, Widmer Cherry Doppelbock, He’brew Jewbelation 13, Beer Valley Fresh Hop Black Flag, Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, Firestone Walker Velvet Mirkin, and Rogue Mogul Madness will be there for your much needed beatdown.

As a special treat, it has just been announced that Double Mountain will be unveiling their first Imperial Stout in the Portland market.

“IMPERIAL CHAOS“

The past weekend could have been one of the best beer weekends to date. But to be perfectly honest the memory is a tad jogged. Down at the Holiday Ale Fest in Pioneer Square, it was amazing how many friends and brewquaintences you can run into, and even better, it’s great to meet new people and get their perspective on beer and life (which to us is pretty much synonymous). Laymen and brewers clicked their plastic HAF mugs amidst intermittent roars that rumbled through like “the wave” at a baseball game. As always, it is essential for the craft beer enthusiast to get down under the tents early. In fact, our weekend really started on Wednesday, as the organizers of the HAF did a nice job of preparing for the swarms of festivalgoers by adding this extra day.

Whenever there’s a cool festival in town, the fixture beer outfits around the city step up their game as well offering a great line-up of seasons. Between our few sessions at the Ale Fest, we made a few essential stops to the Horse Brass pub to pull back from the mayhem that would inevitable ensue down at Pioneer Courthouse Square. On Friday we also happened over to New Old Lompoc’s 5th Quadrant SideBar to meet with event staff coordinator Amy Casanova. She and the other nice folks at Lompoc helped Brewpublic raise nearly $800 for start-up community radio station KZME during our Cocoa Hop. We are grateful for Amy and Lompoc’s contribution in this noble cause, and also to all the brewers and chocolaters who gave of themselves, their time, and their products.

While at the 5th Quadrant we witnessed the brewers and Green Bottling put the yummy seasonal C-Son’s Greetings into 22-ounce bombers. We were also reminded of Lompoc’s upcoming 8 Malty Nights event coming up on the 11th to kick off Chanukah.

Further north, we found ourselves over the border in Vancouver, Washington to pick up some essentials at By the Bottle and check out the collaboration brewing of Salmon Creek Brewpub’s owner/brewer Larry Pratt with Seattle brewstar Tom Munoz. Munoz, a former brewer with Silver City teamed up with Pratt to put together a one-of-a-kind pale ale that should be ready to drink at Salmon Creek in a few weeks. See you there!

Later on Friday, we had a blast over at Belmont Station for a meet the brewer night with Bear Republic head brewer Peter Kruger. The Healdsburg, California brewer, we found out, has roots in Oregon brewing. Kruger was one of the early brewers at Full Sail in Hood River. Former Full Sail brewer Charlie Devereux of Double Mountain was on hand to say hello to his old friend and greet him with a growler of DM’s delicious Fa La La La La winter ale.Bear Republic’s delicious array of specialty and mainstay brews were the highlight of the night, and at the front and center was a Clobberskull wine barrel aged strong ale brewed with 10% split peas. Apparently the beer has a great history, and is of a recipe revitalized in Randy Mosher’s pioneering book Radical Brewing.

While at Belmont Station, we also meet with Michael Branes of Migration Brewing, one of Portland’s newest breweries. Branes, who worked for some time at Mountain Peoples Distribution, was join by fellow Mountain People’s Oregon sales manager Tim Ensign, who was pouring samples Bear Republic brews as well.

Saturday, as blogged about earlier found us back under the hearkening tents at 11AM stat for twitterworthy special tappings of select Bear Republic beers like the Trebuchet, a Belgian trippel aged in 100-year-old cognac barrels and two special fruited “The Grizz” super brown ale–one with nectarines and another with blackberries–to accompany the might Old Baba Yaga that was kickin’ ass since Wednesday. The boozier than all ungodly sin Trebuchet was the first thing to hit my stomach on this fair day. A brewer friend said it was too much “nail polish” for him, but to me, I rendered it my breakfast of champions. Several other wonderful beer rounded out my HAF weekend. I have to admit this was the best one yet. In fact, despite others’ gripes, I honestly didn’t experience on dud in the lot.

After escaping the mob scene that was Pioneer Courthouse Square, we trudged off some of the liver burn by hoofing a few miles home to Southeast. We were not extinguished yet. There was still Green Bottling’s holiday party at the cozy Horse Brass. Here, several local brewers raised a tall one to the great year and to Jack and Mike’s successful year of bottling up some of Oregon’s finest like Lompoc, Full Sail, and Laurelwood. After just a few more lighter beers to rehydrate (Full Sail and Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ales), this one was in the bag.

Sunday was relatively mellow, save for a few brews shared with fellow blogger D.A. of Beer Around Town. All said and done, I think I may just hybernate until the ‘10 Barley Wine and Big Beer Fest.

The big dogs at Double Mountain never skimp on killer beer. Hell, even their Dapper Dan brown ale is dope. Tonight you can join DM brewmaster Matt Swihart at the best bar on Division Street, Victory. Here, owner and barkeep Yoni and the crew have been pining for a release party, so here it is. Deck the halls, jingle all the way (is it even Thanksgiving yet?), and have a cup of cheer aka Double Mountain’s seasonal hoppy beast known as “Fa La La La La.”

Says DM’s Charlie Devereux in a recent press release “Fa La La La La is our winter ale offering, packed with enough rich malt and Centennial hops to fill Santa’s toy bag.” Though Swihart’s beer and presence are the real presents, t-shirts will be raffled off (”Don we now our gay apparel”). Devereax warns “This one should be packed, so make it over early if you can.”

Double Mountain brewer Matt Swihart filling his 5-barrel hopback to the rim with just-picked Brewer's Gold Hops.

Double Mountain’s co-owner Charlie Devereux wants to remind beer geeks and hopheads alike to stop by the Concordia Ale House for the first Portland pints of “Killer Green“, Double Mountain’s venerable Fresh Hop IPA. Devereux will be on hand at Concordia, raffling off Killer Green t-shirts and talking beer with the faithful.

Think just because July is over that the brewmania is as well?  Guess again. This is beer heaven, suckaz, and when it comes to the refreshing malted adult craft beverages, the cup runneth over into August (and September, October, November, December….). You see, we ain’t no one trick pony here, and we’ve got Double Mountain Brewery to prove it. Double Mountain founded by Charlie Devereux and former Full Sail head brewer Matt Swihart are gearing up to showcase what is  arguable the best beer under one roof in Oregon (if not the Pacific Northwest). August 1, 2009 marks the brewery’s First Annual “Cookout”. According to their blog:

It’s basically a noon-to-night street party, replete with live music all day, good eats, a kid’s tent, many beers and fun for everyone. We’ve been granted permission to fence off the entire block in front of the brewery, erect a big stage and fire up the grills. The kid’s tent will have activities sponsored by Helping Hands Against Violence, a local nonprofit. The event will be family-friendly until 8pm, and we’re permitted to play music until 10pm. Admission is totally free.

Double Mountain is unquestionably one of Oregon’s top dogs when it comes to the artisan liquid arts. We dropped by East Burn, a prominent player in Portland’s craft beer scene, to say hello to DM’s Charlie Devereux and get a taste of the Hood River brewery’s new crisp, blonde India Pale Ale dubbed “The Vaporizer.” I asked Charlie some questions about his new beer and what is shaking these days at Double Mountain.

Where did you come up with the concept and name for “The Vaporizer”?

Here is a Brewpublic exclusive interview, conducted on January 8, 2009 at the Double Mountain Brewery taproom, with Brewmaster Matt Swihart.

Margaret Lut:  There is quite a bit of noise in the background (sound of drills, other power tools and hammering in the background). Matt, can fill us in on why all the noise?

Matt Swihart: Oh, we are putting some lights outside the building so people can read the sign when they go by. It’s a novel idea we read somewhere in a marketing magazine or something. (Laughing) This was a pretty bare bones operation when we started so we are playing catch up on some little things. We’ve been in business for about a year and a half, we started on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a beautiful time to start up a brewery. Every anniversary from here until time ends will be celebrated on St. Patrick’s Day and I think that is just a beautiful thing.