Tonight at Belmont Station Southern Oregon Brewing (SOB) founder Dr. Tom Hammond will introduce the brewery’s new labels and their Nice Rack IPA in bottles for the first time. Brewpublic recently visited Medford, Oregon with Green Bottling to help with this bottling. Other freshly bottled brews from SOB will include their flagship Pin-Up Porter, Woodshed Red, Pale Ale, Gold Digger Lager, and a phenomenal limited release 2008 Barley Wine featuring a blend of Wild Turkey and Jack Daniels barrel-aged brew. According to Belmont Station, SOB will have the Nice Rack IPA on draft this evening.

Founder Jim Mills packages Caldera's first bottled beer

Ashland, Oregon’s Caldera Brewing has added a new dimension to their craft beer repertoire, a line-up of seasonal craft brews soon to hit shelves for distribution…in bottles. A pioneer in canned craft beer, Caldera is the first Oregon brewery to can their product since the craft beer revolution. Beginning with their brightly hopped Pale Ale and now also selling their India Pale Ale and Ashland Amber in cans, the brewery has won over the hearts and taste buds of several Northwest beer lovers. Now, with the help of Green Bottling, who works with more than 17 Northwest craft brewies, Caldera will feature a special seasonal line-up of beers in 22-ounce bottles. Known as “the Kettle Series,” this rotating assortment of brews, according to brewmaster and founder Jim Mills will feature eight different beers annually.

Brewpublic visits BridgePort Brewery to check out the new Highland Ambush Scotch Ale, the latest in their Big Brew Series.

In this video, BridgePort’s assistant brewmaster Jeff Edgerton explains the work that went into producing this new barrel aged beer.

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.

Just got word from Mike Weksler of Green Bottling that he is bottling up 20 bbls of 10 Barrel Brewing’s GABF bronze medal winning Sinistor Black Ale.

Here is a commerical description of the beer:
We craft our S1NIST0R BLACK ALE using a special German dehusked black malt that is free of astringency, giving the beer a rich black color without the traditional dark beer characteristics. You will notice subtle hints of chocolate with an easy drinking balance on the back end. In the glass the dark color may look intimidating to some, but don’t let this beer fool you. Our unique combination of malts creates a very light body and smooth finish.

Though we’ve yet to try any of their brews, Oregon craft brewer newcomer Pale Horse Brewing of Salem has just put some more of their beer in bottles. This time, its the Hopyard Dog IPA. The Hopyard Dog will join the ranks of Pale Horse Stout and Hillybilly Blonde in 22 ounce bombers. Green Bottling’s Mike Weksler says his mobile bottling team filled 150 cases of the India Pale. Weksler says of the Hopyard Dog: “It’s a really nice balanced IPA. Something for everyone.” Cheers!

Green Bottling's Mike Weksler

Says Green Bottling’s Mike Weksler “Yesterday we bottled 737 cases of the 2009 Hop Harvest for Bridgeport.” Weksler adds “This year the beer has a slightly different taste. It’s got a toasty flavor to it.”

Who’s all in?  This beer is one of Oregon’s finest fresh hop brews, and there’s a lot of good ones. As I type this, I sip on this years Deschutes Hop Trip.  Mmmm! We are geeked to try the Barley Brown’s Wild Hop American Strong Ale at Bailey’s on October 10 and revisit the Standing Stone Wet Hopped Red Ale. Speaking of Standing Stone, I just returned from Ashland to pick up some special brews for Brewpublic’s October 9th Brewniversary Celebration at Saraveza and the KillerBeerFest at Bailey’s Taproom on October 10th. Anyone who’s made this trek on a limited schedule knows how that goes. Look for some more beer updates soon.

Brewer Tyler West of Silver Moon

Brewpublican Mike Weksler of Green Bottling, informed us today that their crew is bottling up some beers at Silver Moon Brewing in Bend, Oregon. 300 cases of Amber, Porter, Hefe, and IPA should be on shelves soon. According to Mike, “The Amber is a real standout – flavor and sessionable.”

Despite mumblings of Roots Organic Brewing perhaps being done for, it would seem that the place is very much alive production-wise. Mike “the Glyde” Weksler of Oregon’s Green Bottling informs us that the Island Red and Roots IPA are being bottled as I type this. “Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes” says Weksler. “We bottled 150 cases of IPA and 150 cases of Red.” Boo yah!

Green Bottling has been bottling up a storm around Portland. Here’s a couple new beers they’ve capped up for your drinking pleasure:

BridgePort Stumptown Tart