The Belgians are coming! The Belgians are coming!
The 5th Annual “Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers” Festival Returns April 30th

What:
Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers is back for its fifth year and promises to be bigger and better than ever, with 42 Oregon breweries crafting signature Belgian-style beers specifically for this annual event. A majority of the beers at the festival have been produced using the same strain of yeast, highlighting the wide range of flavors and styles produced in this beer category.

This year the festivities are moving to Metalcraft Fabrication in North Portland where ample space allows for more breweries and Belgian beer fans to participate in the event. A selection of Portland’s favorite food carts will be on-site with food available for purchase. Tickets are $15 and include entry to the festival, a commemorative tasting glass and five drink tickets.

After sampling all the Belgian style ales, attendees will vote for their favorite in the “People’s Choice Awards.” To the victor goes the spoils, and in this case the winning brewery earns the right to select next year’s yeast strain. Block 15 Restaurant & Brewery won the 2010 competition and has chosen Trappist High Gravity as this year’s yeast strain, which is ideal for classic Belgian dubbels or triples with a balance of complex fruity flavors.

When:
Saturday, April 30th from noon to 9p.m.

Where:
Metalcraft Fabrication 723 N Tillamook St., Portland

How:
Admission is free! There is a $15 charge for five drink tickets and a tasting glass, which is required to taste. Additional tastes are $1. Tickets can be purchased at the festival entrance.

For More Information:
More information and a list of participating breweries, please visit the OBG’s website at http://oregonbeer.org/pctbb

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

The trio behind Brewing Up Cocktails is excited to announce the release of a series of collaboration beers that it has brewed with Breakside Brewery, a recently opened Portland brewpub that has released numerous experimental and avant-garde beers. For this year’s Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers (PCTBB) festival, mixologists Jacob Grier, Yetta Vorobik (also the owner of Portland’s The Hop & Vine bar), and Ezra  Johnson-Greenough teamed up with Breakside brewer Ben Edmunds to create three ‘cocktail beers.’ Each of these barrel-aged creations attempts to mimic a classic or contemporary cocktail using the same base beer, brewed with the Wyeast Trappist High Gravity yeast strain. Much barrel-aging focuses on taking regular beers and simply adding an additional layer of flavor from the barrel. These beers are different in that the beer functions as one component in the finished beverage, much like the way a spirit functions as the base of a classic cocktail.

The three cocktail beers are as follows: Read More…

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

Another fun night at the Horse Brass Pub in Portland on Tuesday January 11 featured a special event organized by the Oregon Brewers Guild. Many local brewers and well-known industry folks were on hand to partake in the fun. Representatives from each brewery threw a dart to decide what beer style would be made by their brewery for the 5th Annual PCTBB scheduled for April 30, 2011. A high number dictated that a strong beer would be brewed. Similarly a low number meant a lower ABV offering.  Darts landing in Read More…

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

In a not so shocking turn of events, Portland Rock Bottom Brewmaster Van Havig has announced his departure from the company. After a recent merger between Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch in which the conglomerate CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries, Inc. decided to homogenize a number tap offerings across its national chains, the opposing and outspoken Havig was released from the company on Monday January 2.

Havig, a former President of the Oregon Brewers Guild and well respected visionary and recipe developer says the order came down from Read More…

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer, beer news

Since returning from our Colorado beer adventures last Thursday night, we were propelled directly into a weekend of Portland’s ongoing world of great beer. Whether it’s private parties amongst like-minded beer lovin’ friends or public celebrations of brew, the fun seems to never end here. Here’s a look at what we did over the weekend: Read More…

Posted under beer reviews

Bailey’s Taproom has announced their first annual BelgianFest, featuring at least 18 taps dedicated to Belgian-style brews by Oregon breweries.

Those who have been hankering for a festival of Belgique brews will find them all under one room at the taproom and won’t have to wait until spring to experience the annual Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers event. Further, unlike PCTBB, Bailey’s BelgianFest will not restrict breweries to one specific yeast strain. Many of the brews obtained by the staff are one-of-a-kind, first release, or vintage kegs.

Bailey’s founder and uber beer geek Geoff Phillips says “Similar to our anniversary and CellarFest earlier this year we will be running it like a mini festival; a token system will be in place, plus a souvenir tasting glass is including in the admission.”

It also appears that more special beer events are on the horizon for Bailey’s Taproom. Phillips informs us that CellarFest 2011 will return in January2011 as well as an inaugural GermanFest planned for April 2011.
Here’s a look at what you can expect for Bailey’s BelgianFest: Read More…

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

By Frank James

Here’s the conclusion of the interview with Nick Arzner, the owner/brewer from Block 15 Restaurant and Brewpub in Corvallis. He talks about breaking into the competitive Portland craft beer market, barrel aging beers and of course, he talks about the delicious beers that flow from his tanks. He also extends an invitation to Brewpublic readers to tour his ever-expanding brewpub and sample some of Block 15′s unique and tasty beers, if they ever find themselves in Corvallis. As someone who’s done just that, this writer can attest to the fact that the trip is very much worthwhile.

NA: We’re extremely critical of our beers. So it’s great that in a such short time we’ve gotten a lot…a lot of people have noticed our beers. Maybe our style of brewing, or our styles of brewing, out commitment to quality. So it is a little surprising, at how busy we’ve been in our pub, we never thought we would, everyone says, did you know you’d be this busy. I say, yea, I thought we would be successful and make it…things just kind of aligned up in the right way. We’re very pleased with how people feel about our beers. But we’re not satisfied with where we’re at, we’re gonna keep on rolling. Hopefully when we’re 5 years old, I’ll feel pretty satisfied with that. It’s been fantastic.

Do you have any specific goals as either a brewer or a business owner over the next 5 years or so?

NA: We have a term: we’re growing quality, not quantity. We have some goals so far as where we want to get our beers and maybe kind of find some patterns with some of the really unique beers that we do and expanding what we’re doing to create what we feel is the ultimate brewpub. We don’t have any goals as far as building another Block 15 or building a production brewery or anything like that – short term. We keep all options open long term. But for now its just loving what we’re doing, re-tooling what we’re doing and making…really just brewing world class beers, day in, day out.

How did you break into the Portland market? Was it just a matter of knowing people, people contacting you or did you actually go out and actually solicit the business?

NA: I think the very first person was, the very first establishment was Bailey’s Taproom. I think (owner) Geoff (Phillips) emailed me…that’s his commitment to bringing in different and unique beers. I think he emailed me, I sent him some beers up there and they got some really positive feedback. We’ve never been able to distribute much at all, because our demand is so high here, and we won’t push out beer before it’s ready. It kind of snowballed from there. I’ll get emails from different bar owners in Portland, taprooms that would want our beer on tap. Unfortunately, I’m not able to take it up there too often. But this year I might be able to, every other month, take some kegs up to Portland, type of thing, but never really a big distribution. But that’s kind of how that worked in Portland, it was really Bailey’s reaching out first, then some other taprooms reaching out, then maybe a couple of beer festivals we’ve done up there. Special events like that. We started off, we started brewing we had 6 tanks, and we have 17 now, it gives us hopefully at some point the flexibility to have more, to do double batches and to be able to take a few kegs up to Portland. And we do, we actually take some kegs every once in a while down to the Bier Stein in Eugene. They’re very big supporters of us, also.

That’s a pretty quick expansion: from a 6 to 17 tanks. Did you anticipate that?

NA: Well we reinvested pretty much all of our profits back into our business. That’s what we feel we should do, and that’s what is going to make us a better brewery in the short run. So we just keep reinvesting. In fact, I have more tanks coming within the next month, so we should get up to about 20, and having an open fermenter, a custom open fermenter, Koelschip-type vessel made, so we can start doing more open fermentation for our wild ales. And start playing with some spontaneous fermentation-like stuff. We’re fortunate that people really enjoy what we’re doing and they come here and support us so we feel that we should in turn keep evolving and create more unique and interesting and higher quality beer.

You presented a beer at the Cheers for Belgian Beers fest up at Hopworks this past spring. What beer did you present there?

NA: Ferme de la Demons. It was a…cause we had the farmhouse yeast we had to use, and within the dark (color guideline), we were assigned a high alcohol, about a 6% dark beer. So again, it was just one of those ideas, what would be a flavor combination, in our minds that worked and what are some barrels we have around, so we did a black farmhouse ale, essentially aged in bourbon, pinot noir and Oregon oak barrels. And then we blended it with some cherry.

And it was chosen as the People’s Choice, the best beer that day?

NA: Yea, it was pretty cool

I recall drinking it and it was definitely a very unique beer.

NA: I wasn’t able to make the festival, unfortunately. But what we ended up doing was, we re-barreled, we re-barreled the beer we’ll release it in October because well, we brewed another batch of it, mainly because I didn’t want to release a 9 percent black farmhouse ale in May going into the summer. So, we re-barreled it and the pinot noir barrels we had, had tested for some Brettanomyces from the wine barrel we had in front of it, the flavor hadn’t really developed so we inoculated with a [garbled] pristinamycin, we’ll bring it out in October and it’ll have another layer of flavor to it.

So that particular beer will be here on tap in October?

NA: In October. Originally we were going to bottle a part of it and I wanted to have another beer bottled, the Ferme de la Ville Provisions, which was a different farmhouse ale, part aged in oak barrels for about 12 months before we had blended it back in with a batch of [unintelligible] but labeling has taken a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would…the bureaucratic fun stuff.

Are you doing any bottling at this point?

NA: Well not yet, we’re moving towards that. We’ve done some test bottling. In fact, we’re test bottling some more stuff today. And then the plan, our plan has always been we’re going to start bottling…I almost can promise, mid-November we’ll have a beer called Figgin Pudding that we’re gonna bottle and it’s somewhere between an English olde ale/barley wine aged in brandy barrels with figs and spice. So we’re gonna do…I think in the first year we’re gonna bottle roughly 6 beers and we’re doing all bottle-conditioned beers in 750 milliliter Belgian bottles with cork and wiring finish. So we’re doing all really high end, mainly barrel-aged beers that we’ll pretty much just sell out of here. Maybe a couple of other places if we have enough beer.

Like Bailey’s Taproom or Belmont Station -

NA: Yea…sure…we’re talking about bottling only about 80 cases of each beer so we’re not talking about a whole lot of it. But we’re definitely bottling Pappy’s Dark this year, there’s a strong going in bourbon barrels –

You brought that to the Spring Beer and Wine Fest (in Portland)

NA: That’s right…

That was a definitely a very memorable beer. Very nice.

NA: That was one of the first beers I believe, we brought to Bailey’s that first year and it kind of put us on the map in Portland I think. People were like…wow, this beer is…different! We designed it as a beer really to showcase the bourbon barrels rather than most beers are designed to add a bourbon, maybe that barrel complexity to the beer, we thought let’s do one to showcase the bourbon barrels. We used a bunch of British and Belgian specialty malts and it kept it more like a bourbon color. It’s kind of one of those things you do the first time and you go, holy shit, we did that right the first time, alright! (laughs) That’ll make it into bottles this year. I think the first year we only did four bourbon barrels, last year we did a few batches, we did 12 and this year we’re going to get a couple dozen bourbon barrels. Then we’re gonna…we’ll have a lot more on draft. Its funny, we’ve been saying a lot more, we’re really talking pretty small production. We’ll bottle about 80 to 100 cases of that. That should be available, next February. We always release in February.

What are some of your favorite beers. I know it’s kind of like picking out your favorite child, but if you were to sit at the bar and pick out your favorites, what would they be?

Steve Van Rossem and Nick Arzner

NA: I think, for right now, what we have on tap, the Belgian Blonde. I love that. I love getting off work…I really enjoy that beer right now. Like I’ve said, we’re kind of re-tooling it. My wife and I spent a couple of weeks in Belgium May and there’s a Blonde in every cafe. It’s amazing actually how different a lot of them are. So we really kind of shot for in that range. We changed up our yeast this year and some of our grain sugars. Anyway, I think it’s really refreshing, but also relaxing…this reminds me of sitting in a cafe. So right now, I get off work and that’s what I have: the Blonde. I really enjoy that beer. And I drink our IPA a lot also. I probably drink IPA’s 50% of the time and everything else 50% of the time.

Is that the Alpha IPA?

NA: Yes.

Very tasty also.

NA: So, right now, that’s my favorite. I’m really excited for a couple of beers coming out. Like our Hemp Nut Brown…which just came out. It just came out. I just got back in town and I haven’t had a full pint of it yet. It’s a really nice brown ale. I like a lot of Belgian-style ales. We normally always have one on tap. When we can keep up with that.

This particular Belgian Blonde is a specialty, is that correct?

NA: Right. Every summer we do that.

Anything you’d like to say in parting? Anything about the brewpub or the brewery that you would like folks to know about?

NA: Well, for Brewpublic readers and people in Portland one cool thing is that if they are ever coming down here to make a special trip feel free to email me. If I’m around I love showing people what we’re doing here. Dual cellar…part of our cellar expansion which hopefully will be done in November…and I’ll show you when we do a little tour down here, we’ll have a bunch more barrels and an open fermenter and a little brewer’s lounge area, that’ll make it nice and comfortable, so when I do tours I’ll have some special beers on tap. You can just kind of sample and hang out. I really love, I love what we’re doing here, I think its a…I love showing people what we’re doing. It always blows them away when they see, wow, it’s a little brewpub in Corvallis that’s doing all that stuff. So mainly just that…if you’re coming down to the area, get hold of me, we’ll give you a tour

… Alright, thanks very much for your time, it’s been excellent. **

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer, brewpubs, places to drink beer

Here’s a look at some events not to miss on this fine Friday July 16, 2010 here in Beervana

Portland International Beer Fest – Any tried and true beer fest-goer knows that the early part of the opening day of most beer fests is the best time to attend to avoid long lines and elbow to elbow crowds. That being said, the thoughtful organizers of this Portland International Beer Fest (PIB) have interspersed some special and mystery brew releases slated to hit throughout the three day extravaganza to keep the real heads returning. This fest is one of our favorites because of the plethora of rare and truly mind-blowing selection of offerings from anywhere on the planet fine beer in brewed. Italy, Norway, Belgium, Germany, and of course , Beervana, just to list a few. Get your 33 Beers notebook out and get ready to rack up some cred on RateBeer and Beer Advocate. This is perhaps the best beer fest of the year in Portland. Don’t miss it! Today’s opening begins at 4PM.

The PIB is located in the North Park Blocks of Portland. For more information, ask anybody wearing a craft beer t-shirt.

IIPA Fest Hopworks Night – Get your face melted with some of the hoppiest beer in the Pacific Northwest (yeah, right where the hops grow!). Hopworks Urban Brewery will lay down three of their hoppiest beasts on Saraveza tonight including the gold medal Ace of Spades, and seasonal specials Galactic Imperial Red and Evelyn Sunshine IIPA (named for brewmaster Christian Ettinger’s daughter).  Other brews on tap for this fun festivity include Cascade’s Imperial Wheat IPA and the unfathomably lupulin laden Avery Maharaja (10.24% ABV, 102 IBUs). If any of these kegs kick, the crew has many other special surprises in the cooler.

Saraveza Bottle Shop & Pasty Tavern is located at 1004 N. Killingsworth Street in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 206-4252.

Upright Brewing Barrel Release – As previously mentioned, Upright brewers are unveiling a different barrel-aged beer each Friday during July to celebrate Oregon Craft Beer Month. Today’s tapping is an exotic Hungarian oak barrel-aged Four with homegrown yarrow and rose flowers. Employing many of the intriguing ingredients of other beloved Upright brews like their Flora Rustica, Organic Rose City Seven, and with a light, tart base of their flagship Four, this beer is as complex as its name indicates. The taproom is open from 4:30-9PM today, so get to it!

Upright Brewing is located at 240 N. Broadway Street in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 735-5337.

BridgePort Stumptown Tart Firkin Tapping – The Highland Stillhouse is the finest place to enjoy rare single malt whiskeys and other exotic liquors. It also happens to have a kick-ass tap selection. In fact this place is so cool, it’s actually worth the drive out to Oregon City to check it out (We recommend you find a designated driver coming home). Tonight they’ll be tapping a super-limited firkin of BridgePort‘s third incarnation of their fruit brew. Each year, the beer has employed a different fruit. This year’s tart uses 2,000 pounds Oregon grown red raspberries and is brewed with Pacific Northwest pale malted barley, Pacific Northwest malted wheat, German hops, and a Belgian yeast. It is a blend of 50% Belgian Tripel aged in wine barrels one year blended with Belgian Tripel and Raspberries. 7-9PM.

The Highland Still House is located at 201 S. Second Street in Oregon City, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 723-6789.

Deschutes  Reserve Series Beer Tapping – Today marks the beginning of ten days of special Deschutes Brewery tappings at their Portland pub. The Sinfully Delicious Belgian Dark Strong Ale, a beer Deschutes originally unveiled to the public at this year’s Cheers to Belgian Beers, is the first. Then, each day, count on a new specialty brew from their repertoire. For a list of all their tapping, check out this older post.  Starts at 11AM each day.

Portland’s Deschutes Brewery is located at 210 NW 11th Avenue in Portland, Oregon. For more information, call (503) 296-4906.

For a full list of events going on, check out our calendar or visit the Oregon Brewers Guild website.

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

By Oakshire Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk

As the summer season peaks its little sun drenched face around the corner, so does beer festival season (although the copious winter beer events seem to be keeping us equally busy these days). Surely brewers in Oregon are looking forward to NAOBF, PIB, OBF and other acronym labeled, beer rinsed weekends. But let us not forget the smaller and often equally as successful (from a ‘kick ass beer standpoint’, not a ‘make money for the owner of the fest’ sorta standpoint) events that are becoming part of the Oregon Beer Scene. In the last month we have experienced the Green Dragon’s Cask Festival and the Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers (PCTBB) held this year at Hopworks (HUB). Both of these fests were firsts for me, and for Oakshire. We sent a Watershed IPA cask to Green Dragon and La Ferme, a farmhouse ale to PCTBB and were very pleased to be honored with a top six vote in the people’s choice awards at PCTBB.

You’ll note the last time I spoke with you here in the hallowed halls of Brewpublic, I pointed out that the beer diversity, in a general sweeping stereotypical brush stroke, is very shallow. But, I followed that up with the realization that there really is a lot of different types of beer to be found in Oregon. It’s just that the bounty of Northwest IPAs cloud our beer goggles. And recently at PCTBB, and prior at the Green Dragon, further cleared my goggles and helped me realize that the beers that Oregon brewers are producing is not only of high quality, but is creative and diverse at the same time.

First of all, the cask fest at Green Dragon was held in April and I attended the second session. Several of the beer writers in Portland have weighed in on the good and the bad and the ugly, so I won’t waste bandwidth recapping the event, but instead will highlight a few points. Many reviewers seemed less than impressed with the festival, and perhaps Portlanders were as well, considering the attendance was rather low. Or was it that many don’t care for lower carbonated, warmer beer? I don’t know the answer, but what I can tell you is that many of the cask conditioned beers I tried were spot on and great examples of real ale. It was also nice to have Steve from Cheese bar on site to provide small cheese plates (which were part of your entry fee along with the choice of a bacon chocolate bar or a Kobe dog.) I just wish there were more than 17 beers available. Certainly more breweries need to be making cask conditioned ale, Oakshire included. Were there things that could be changed for next year? sure. No fest is perfect euphoria, right? And I’ll make some suggestions next year to Sam and crew now that I have experienced the fest. Bottom line, though, is that more people need to make real ale in Oregon.

Next was Cheers to Belgian Beers this last Saturday. Other than the fact that HUB did a great job of hosting this event, the highlight of the day was that I was originally under the assumption that the population of beer drinkers in Oregon that appreciated Belgian-inspired ales was so slim that I didn’t think many breweries made Belgian style beers. With thirty plus beers ranging from wild beers, to spiced beers, to traditional Saisons, there was a lot to choose from. And the way that each brewer succeeded in getting a unique performance from the same yeast is a nod to the talent that is Oregon Brewers. I was surprised that the yeast expressed itself so differently, but impressed as well. On Saturday, I started out by trying all the wild/sour beers and was impressed with many, but none more than Big Horse. Tart, complex. funky, fruity. Well done. Double Mountain and Full Sail are on my list of Hood River breweries that I need to get to, but now I have another to explore for sure.

Even the near misses for my palate at PCTBB were creative endeavors that I might not have attempted myself (no hops, uber session beer, and unique fruiting.) All in all, this was a fun afternoon drinking up the talent that is around us. And of course a special shout out goes to my friend Nick Arzner and his head brewer Steve who took the People’s choice award for their multi-barrel aged dark Belgian Ale. Not only was it creative and balanced, but delish to boot. And as has been tradition, Nick gets to pick next year’s yeast strain. Let’s just hope for me he gets to host too. It would be a closer trip! (Editor’s note: Read more from Nick Arzner himself here)

So, there’s some real brief thoughts from my world. Now, as I finish this up and go finish packing for the 14th annual Boonville Fest (which could become my fave), let me know, what’s your favorite “smaller” Oregon beer festival? One of the two aforementioned? Rogue’s Brewer’s Memorial Ale Fest? One of the fresh hop fests? Sasquatch? Oregon Garden Beerfest? Or something other that I should be going to? Chime in. No NAOBF, OBF, PIB or Holiday Ale Fest, they’re too big. And more importantly what makes it better? What needs to be changed?

Cheers!

OakshireMatt

Follow Matt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/OakshireMatt

also, you can follow Oakshire’s blog at http://oakbrew.com

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer

Here’s a video from Brewpublic’s Matt DiTullo featuring some scenes from the Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers at Hopworks. Says the videographer “Pretty simple, I focused on post production of color correcting and focus points.”

Posted under beer events, beers on film