A silver medal for Breakside’s classic Irish-style Dry Stout at GABF, and some exciting upcoming seasonals on the horizon. Go Breakside, keep up the great work. Here’s the info from their press release:

Breakside Brewery (820 NE Dekum) recently claimed a silver medal for its classic Irish-style Dry Stout at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival competition, the largest national beer competition recognizing the most outstanding beers produced in the United States. The top three winners in the competition’s 83 beer-style categories were announced October 1 at the 30th annual Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. Read More…

Posted under beer news, beer releases

Here’s a complete list of 2011 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) winners from Oregon:

Silver – Session Black Full Sail Brewing Co. OR American-Style Dark Lager 2011

Bronze- Legacy Lager Silver Moon Brewing OR American-Style or International-Style Pilsener 2011

Bronze - Ching Ching Bend Brewing Co. OR American-Style Sour Ale 2011

Bronze - Disorder Stout Barley Brown’s Brew Pub OR American-Style Stout 2011

Silver Shredders Wheat Barley Brown’s Brew Pub OR American-Style Wheat Beer 2011

Silver - MacTarnahan’s Amber Ale MacTarnahan’s OR Classic English-Style Pale Ale 2011

Silver - Breakside Dry Stout Breakside Brewery OR Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout 2011

Bronze - Down ‘n’ Dirty IPA Deschutes Brewery OR English-Style India Pale Ale 2011

Gold - Dark Side Stout Silver Moon Brewing OR Foreign-Style Stout 2011

Bronze Organic Deranger Laurelwood Brewing Co. OR Imperial Red Ale 2011

Bronze Radiant Ninkasi Brewing Co. OR International-Style Pale Ale 2011

Gold - Smoke Ale Rogue Ales OR Smoke Beer 2011

Gold - Hazelnut Brown Nectar Rogue Ales OR Specialty Beer 2011

Bronze - Pinot Jubel Deschutes Brewery OR Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer 2011

Gold - Bourbon Murder Deschutes Brewery OR Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout 2011

…and, here’s the list of winners from Washington:

Bronze - Brave American American Brewing Co. WA American-Style Brown Ale 2011

Gold - Leavenworth Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen Fish Brewing Co. WA American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast 2011

Bronze - Leavenworth Whistling Pig Hefeweizen Fish Brewing Co. WA American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast 2011

Gold - Clear Creek Pale Ale Silver City Brewery WA Classic English-Style Pale Ale 2011

Bronze - Prime Time Pale Ale Big Time Brewery WA Classic English-Style Pale Ale 2011

Silver - Chuckanut Dunkel Chuckanut Brewery WA European-Style Dunkel 2011

Bronze - Chuckanut Alt Chuckanut Brewery WA German-Style Altbier 2011

Gold - Chuckanut Kolsch Chuckanut Brewery WA German-Style Kölsch 2011

Gold - Blonde Ram Restaurant & Brewery – Seattle WA Golden or Blonde Ale 2011

Gold - Chuckanut Helles Chuckanut Brewery WA Munich-Style Helles 2011

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

Posted under beer releases, beer reviews, brewpubs, places to drink beer

Back again at Great American Beer Festival, day two. So many beers to try and so little time. It’s shaping up to be one of the best brew festivals of all times, unquestionably.

Before we got things started, we rolled west to Boulder, Colorado to one of the best breweries of all time – Avery. Last year we visited Avery during the first annual Beer Bloggers Conference and were instantly amazed. Even before visiting the actual brewery, we have held their brews in high esteem.

Avery, like Great Divide, packs in a ton of great beer into a relatively small facility. Located in an unassuming industrial park, the tap lineup at Avery is staggering. The front bar features more than Read More…

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

Day two in Denver brought the opening day of the Great American Beer Festival and the first of four sessions occurring throughout the extended weekend. After getting our media credentials and before heading into the fest at 5:00PM, we settled in across from the Colorado Convention Center at Row 14 (on 14th Avenue) where we enjoyed the tapping of a handful of fresh hopped seasonals. Unique fresh hop favorites of the day included Crabtree Chunkin Pumpkin and Breckenridge Palisade Peach Wheat. Other tasty fresh hop brews pouring were from jockeyboxes such as the grubbin’ Steamworks Colorado Proud Pale. Left over from an earlier event were the beers of Bull & Bush like their Hop Carl session IPA and Captain Midnight Black Saison.

As soon as 5:00PM came, we Read More…

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

Our group arrived safely to the 30th Annual Great American Beer Festival, America’s largest beer festival. As we prepare for our first day of the actual fest, we reflect on our first night back in Denver, Colorado.

After a two-hour flight from Portland, we landed at Denver International Airport in the late afternoon and jumped on a shuttle toward where we were staying in the west part of town. At our lovely vacation home, we were happy to discover beer already stocked for us in the refrigerator. After those were quickly depleted, we walked a few blocks to the corner liquor store to pick up some sixers of choice regional brews. Flying Dog Pale Ale, Breckenridge Agave Wheat, and Odell IPA all hit the spot before heading out into the city. First stop: Great Divide Brewing in Denver’s LoDo district. Close to a slew of great beer spots such as Falling Rock Tavern and Wynkoop Brewing, Great Divide is an amazing example of how much brew can be produced in such a small space. Here we were given a full tour by our friend Hanna Laney, Great Divide’s “word nerd” and “the queen of bad pun” (perhaps this is why we like her so much).

After kicking their keg of Fresh Hop brew, we moved on to pours of Wild Raspberry and the mighty Yeti Imperial Stout. Then, we moved on to Star Bar, a lovely dive bar. For this particular evening the pub had regional brews including some tasty sour ales on draft from jockeyboxes.

Our last stop of the evening was at Blake Street Vault, also in the LoDo District. Here an Oskar Blues tap takeover was in effect. Tastes of their big Ten Fidy Imperial Stout served as a nice nightcap. Also, the Home Grown Hops (HGH) Dry-hopped Strong Ale was tasting quite good.

With the first night in the books, we are now set to hit the floor of the Colorado Convention Center downtown and get into some serious tasting. Stay tuned…

Posted under beer reviews, places to drink beer

While we are getting geared up for next weekend’s Ladies of Lagers and Ales tastival, next weekend at Saraveza, we look back over the past weekend and remember an amazing flavorsome celebration of another group of females – hops.

You see, hops are the female flower clusters, or strobiles, of the hop species, Humulus lupulus. At this time of year, the herbaceous perennials are reaching to high heaven, and just recently, if you’ve observed your bines, you may have noticed the flowering finger-like fruits beginning to form spicy cones.

Saraveza’s 2nd Annual IIPA Fest took place on Saturday and Sunday, July 16 and 17, and was a celebration of the most regal, magisterial, and potent of all hoppy beers. Ah, the Imperial India Pale Ale (IIPA) – bigger and bolder, and often more bitter than its already amplified parent. Read More…

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, places to drink beer, weekend in review

It was a weekend filled with brews, birthdays, and beer bashes.

To keep the alliteration rolling, Friday was a Bend beer ball at The BeerMongers. Brewers and representatives from around the Bend and Central Oregon region made the trek to Portland to share some of their finer offerings. Highlights included having Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing, Jimmy Seifrit of 10 Barrel, Tyler Reichert of Silver Moon, Ryan Schmiege of Deschutes, and Tony Lawrence of Boneyard Beer in the house.

The taps were loaded with some Bend’s best, ranging from sessionable to extreme. On the light side, Three Creeks of Sisters brought their Golden Ale, Deschutes supplied their Portland brewed Armory XPA (an American Extra Pale Ale), and Silver Moon tapped their GABF medal-winning Read More…

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

By Aaron Brussat

Chip Hardy, owner of The Bier Stein Bottleshop & Pub of Eugene, is putting his brewing boots back on. It started with last year’s “High Five,” a deceptively strong imperial red ale that Hardy brewed at Ninkasi to commemorate the Stein’s fifth anniversary, and which took first in a blind imperial red taste-off. His first collaboration of this year, “Missing Link” IPA, was brewed at Oakshire and took first place in a flight of local IPAs.

Due out soon is another strong, hoppy offering: a revisiting of a Glen Hay Falconer tribute beer that Hardy and Todd Friedman, now a brewer at Hop Valley, brewed when they worked together at West Brothers. The new beer, the 6^th Element Imperial IPA, should be available at The Bier Stein and Hop Valley in early July. Future plans include a beer with Read More…

Posted under Beer personalities, Oregon beer, beer history, beer releases

The Brewers Association announces that the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) eligibility rules have been updated. Beginning in 2011, breweries located in the unincorporated, organized U.S. Territories of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands will be eligible to enter the GABF.

Each year, breweries throughout the U.S. enter commercially available beers to be judged by the GABF’s professional judge panel. Festival attendees can also sip the beer entered in the competition during four tasting sessions.

The Great American Beer Festival invites sensory trained beer industry professionals from around the world to evaluate entries in over 80 style categories. Judge panelists recognize up to three beers in each category with gold, silver and bronze medals. These awards are among the most coveted in the industry and heralded by the winning brewers in their national advertising.

Posted under beer events, beer news, press releases