By D.J. Paul

With another President’s Day Weekend now behind us also means another Zwickelmania is also in the books. This year we celebrated the 5^th Year of this annual day of Oregon brewery open houses put on by the Oregon Brewers Guild. Last year I traveled to Bend with Brewpublic’s Angelo De Ieso to Zwickel. This year I decided to stay closer to home and take in some breweries across Portland.

Knowing that the day will be a long one of consumption I headed to SE Portland via TriMet to meet up with my Zwickeling companion Snob Ritch. Both of us realized that we needed to get a good food base in us so we met at Taco Express, for a breakfast burrito. Fortunately this excellent taco truck is located across the street from our planned first stop, Gigantic Brewing.

With breakfast burrito in hand we walked over to Gigantic Brewing to eat our warm burritos in their tasting room. From perusing their beer menu we decided to go with their new seasonal release, The Time Traveler, a nice roasty porter that paired quite well with our breakfast burrito. Gigantic brought their A game on Saturday. They had Zwickelers enter the brewery from the rear parking lot. Once inside Joey Bosworth poured samples of their year-round IPA and their Royale: Belgian Pale Ale as free tasters alongside a backdrop of beers aging in wooden barrels. Then Ben Love was roaming the brewery to answer any questions from the masses while Van Havig poured The Time Traveler from the zwickel in the midst of the brewery. From there they shuffled the Zwickelers to the front tasting room to purchase a pint while waiting on the next Brewvana Bus to arrive. Read More…

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

Press release:

Occidental Brewing Co. is putting on the first Humbug Lager Fest. The small festival, which will be held December 15 at Occidental will feature delicious lager beers from several Oregon breweries.

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Occidental decided it was time to offer Portland beer enthusiasts a respite from fruitcake beers this holiday season. This Fest, sure to be the first in an annual tradition, will give quaffers an opportunity to enjoy crisp, clean lagers from the Commons, Upright, Heater Allen, Laurelwood, Rock Bottom, Block 15, Old Town, and of course, Occidental.

There is no admission fee to this indoor festival, and full pours will be available in addition to tasters. Beer will be served in glass.

While slaking your thirst with these marvelous lagers, fill your belly with the hearty cuisine of Urban
German and enjoy tunes spun by DJ’s (perhaps a ‘celebrity’ or two?). Read More…

Posted under Beer & Music, beer and food, beer events, Oregon beer, places to drink beer, press releases

Occidental Brewing will host its second annual Oktoberfest Saturday, September 29, from noon
to 10 PM. Following last year’s successful event, we expect even more folks to join us for the release
of our 2012 Festbier as well as live music and great German food.

This year’s Festbier will be a rich yet quaffable lager in the old tradition of Oktoberfest beers before
light colors and flavors began to dominate the style. German noble hops will provide a delicate hop
character to pair with a firm malt profile featuring Munich and Vienna malts. Also on offer will be
Occidental’s regular lineup of German-inspired brews. Hmmm, beer…

Portland stars of the Euroslav gypsy scene, Chervona, return to headline with their wild, russo-roma-balko dance party. Other musical guests will perform throughout the day.

Urban German will be on hand to feed our hungry revellers this year with an amazing menu of German snacks and entrees, including sausages, roast, spätzle, pretzels and more.

Just as last year, the fest takes place at the brewery and the adjacent courtyard at Cathedral Park Place near the base of the St. Johns Bridge and beautiful Cathedral Park, 6635 N Baltimore Ave. Theevent is free to attend, and minors are welcome.

Please join us for great beer, food, music, and company.

Prost!

Ben and Dan Engler
Occidental Brewing Company

Posted under Beer & Art, beer and food, beer events, beer to do list, events, Oregon beer, places to drink beer

Occidental Brewing is an Oregon brewery that is known around the greater Portland area for their signature German-inspired artisan brews. For the second consecutive year running, the young brewery led by uncle-nephew team Dan and Ben Engler will throw an Oktoberfest bash outside of their St. Johns facilities near Cathedral Park under the St. Johns bridge. Live music, German food, and more. Get into the spirit of things with Occidental on September 29, 2012. Here’s the details from the Engler boys: Read More…

Posted under Beer & Art, beer and food, beer events, beer to do list, Oregon beer, places to drink beer

Brewmaster and proprietor of Occidental Brewing, Dan Engler, will be leading our tour. We will begin at his brewery for an introduction, tasting and tour. Other stops on our tour are: Prost! (where we’ll eat), The Commons, Upright and Bazi.Tour is 21+ with valid ID and all-inclusive.

www.experiencebrewvana.com
503-729-6804

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

By Kerry Finsand

A Benefit For We Love Clean Rivers, Inc. June 8 at the Spirit of 77

Taplister, a website that helps beer geeks find their favorite beers on tap and discover new ones in Portland and beyond announces the first ever Rye Beer Fest, a fundraiser for the nonprofit organization, We Love Clean Rivers Inc.

The Rye Beer Fest, a celebration of the revival of rye beers, will be held at the Spirit of 77 (500 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR) during Portland Beer Week. The fest will take place on Friday June 8, from 4-10 p.m. and will feature special one-off rye beers like Hopworks’ Fight for your Rye’t to staples such as Upright Six and Oakshire Line Dry Rye. In addition to rye beers, there will be rye whiskeys paired with the rye beers that were curated for the fest. Entry to the event is free. Beers will cost $1 for a 4-ounce sample, $2.50 for a 10-ounce pour of beer and $5 for a 20-ounce pint. The price of the whiskeys is to be determined.

Event highlights include:

4-6 p.m.- Meet The Brewer, some of the breweries who brewed the fine beers for this fest will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. During the meet the brewers Rye cocktails will be available as well.

Starting at 5 p.m. and on every hour We Love Clean Rivers will be doing a raffle drawing. Tickets cost $2 each or $10 for 15. Prizes range from NRS boating swag to Smith Optics sunglasses.

While you are enjoying your drinks, watch extreme kayaking and rafting videos on the big screen.

A percentage of the proceeds of this event will benefit We Love Clean Rivers Inc., a nonprofit that is dedicated to cleaning high-use rivers by mobilizing the river recreation community and partnering with local environmental, recreation, and educational organizations. To keep up with the latest news regarding the Rye Beer Fest check out www.ryebeerfest.com

Complete Beer List: Read More…

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

This is a bit last minute, but we’re having an event to release our barrel-aged doppelbock this Saturday, for which we’re also smoking a whole pig that was raised on our spent grains. We’ll be pouring the barrel-aged Lucubrator and our regular beers. $15 bucks gets you a glass of the limited edition Doppelbock and a pork sandwich. 1-6 pm on Saturday, March 17, 2012. -Dan Engler, Occidental brewer/co-founder

Posted under beer releases, events, Oregon beer

Occidental Brewing Company is pleased to announce it has entered into a distribution agreement with Maletis Beverage. Occidental is excited for this new partnership, which will facilitate the spread of its delicious beer around Portland, OR, and Vancouver, WA, the target distribution territories. Brewer and co-founder Ben Engler says “Our truck could only carry so much beer, after all. For beer lovers, this means more Occidental in more locations. To our bar and restaurant partners, please continue to expect the same level of service we have strived to provide. You will still see plenty of the Occidental team; we just won’t be driving the truck. Maletis Beverage will officially take over distribution on Monday, February 13. Occidental will continue to self-distribute until that time.”

Posted under beer news, Oregon beer, press releases

It’s time for the latest beer summit at Roscoe’s Pub (8105 SE Stark St, Portland, OR) and this time it is the return of their New Breweries of Oregon.

The New Breweries of Oregon Summit will be celebrating some of the great new breweries to recently open their doors in Oregon. The Summit will kick off January 27, 2012 at 4PM at the Montavilla Neighborhood pub.

Roscoe’s co-owner Jeremy Lewis says “We will be featuring great beer from Read More…

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

Our next Summit will be celebrating some of the great new breweries to open their doors in Oregon. The Summit will kick off January 27th at 4PM at Roscoe’s.

We will be featuring great beer from some of the newest Oregon breweries. Some of the breweries will include: Logsdon Farms, Commons (Saison de Pamplemouse and Sticke), Flattail, Good life, Long Brewing , Occidental (Dopplebock), and much more.

We will have 5 ounce taster trays available

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