This year’s Oregon Brewers Festival (OBF) promises to be the biggest and best to date.  Make sure to get down to Tom McCall Waterfront Park this weekend and discover an unbelievable assortment of craft beers.

Several interesting beers were provided to us at the media preview led by Noel Blake on Thursday. In addition, the festival offers a spectrum of seemingly endless brews worthy of any beer lover’s undivided attention. Some highlights available at the festival included:

Caldera’s Hibiscus Ginger Beer:  Here’s a beer with a focus not on hops, but rather on ginger root, beets, and hibiscus flowers. This light golden  4.7% ABV brew also makes use of Belgian candi sugar and 2-row and Carafoam malts. While this beer might not be for everyone, it certainly gets points for uniqueness, as well as a balance of both complexity and drinkability. We love it!

Rock Bottom Oud Heverlee: With deep malt flavors, this Belgian-style brew made with dried tulips and specialty-aged “vloer suipt” Sterling hops. Peppery, floral, and mildly fruity, this beer is another shining example of Portland Rock Bottom’s imaginative spirit and brewing know-how lead by brewmaster Van Havig.

Collaborator Sunstone Pilsner: The Oregon Brew Crew in conjunction with Widmer Bros provides a platform for talented homebrewers to showcase their talents to the public on a commercial scale. This year’s Collaborator was a distinct spin on the traditional German-style Pilsner. Brewer David Haynes designed this 35% wheaten lager with the end result being, as media guide Noel Blake states a “perfect summer Pils.”

Upright Brewing Reggae Junkie Gruit: If you read the virtual pages of Brewpublic, you know how much we love Upright. This brew uses no hops, just an assortment of herbs and spices such as organic spelt berries, hyssop, bitter orange peel, Sichuan peppercorns, and lemongrass. The base malts of organic pale and Munich result in a pleasant 5.2% ABV summer quaffer. Upright also featured a special gin barrel aged brew exclusive to the Buzz Tent in limited quantities.

The Bruery 7 Grain Stout: Can Orange County, CA’s The Bruery do any wrong? We’ve yet to find a beer from them that we didn’t love. This Belgian-style Saison is no exception. Brewed with Two-row pale malt, rye, oats, unmalted wheat, flaked rice, flaked maize, and spelt, and moderate portions of Magnum and Sterling hops, here we have a very balanced warm weather brew. An astringent finish with residual spice character are highlights of this beer’s architecture. Cheers!

Widmer Captain Shaddock Grapefruit IPA: Named for a certain Captain Shaddock who some credit with bringing grapefruit (actually pomelo) to Jamaica in the late 18th Century. This particular Widmer brew makes use of the experimental GFX-75 hop, whose flavor is likened to grapefruit. And, even more interestingly dried grapefruit peel was added to the end of the boil to accentuate more of the citrus character in this dark amber colored 60 IBU brew. Hats off to Widmer for continuing to try new things and keeping our beer interesting.

Oakshire Overcast Espresso Stout: This award winning beer is available year round from the brewers at Eugene’s Oakshire Brewing. Made with five types of grain and Chinook and Willamette hops, this beer is cold-pressed with locally roasted organic espresso coffee. The result is a bold, dark, roasty coffee brew with additional notes of chocolate and rich maltiness. Perfect for a cold day, its also a great breakfast brew to get you going in the morning.

Double Mountain The Vaporizer: Hopheads rejoice for this beer, that was the first keg to run dry at this year’s brewers dinner. Now a year round offering from the Hood River brewers, The Vaporizer is a pale golden-bodied ale with Pilsner malts and copious amounts of citrusy US Challenger hops. A dry, clean, refreshing finish leaves us wanting more and more!

Cascade Summer Gose: An absolute must have at this year’s Oregon Brewers Festival, Cascade’s Summer Gose is a light quenching tart beer inspired by a tradition originated in the village of Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany and launched by great popularity in nearby Leipzig. Imagineer Ron Gansberg and his talented staff of brewers utilize the standard high portion of wheat malt in the Gose. Citrus notes and the addition of salt and coriander spice meld to provide a wonderful summer seasonal perfect for the hot days on the waterfront. Look for other seasonal versions of the Gose as the months pass. Each brewed with interesting original ingredients.

These beers are just the tip of the iceberg at OBF. Discover your favorites this weekend at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. For more information on the OBF, visit the website at www.oregonbrewfest.com

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

Twenty-three years ago, three local microbreweries – Portland Brewing Co., Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., and BridgePort Brewing Co. – conspired to put on a microbrew festival in the city of Portland. The goal was to bring beers from outside the local market for Portlanders to drink. Microbrews were still fairly new, with only 124 craft breweries across the nation. Festival organizers wanted Portlanders to be able to compare local microbrews with those from other regions, so they would see what was happening elsewhere in the nation.

Thirteen breweries participated in the first year, with a total of sixteen beers on tap. The anticipated attendance was 5,000. When it was all said and done, more than 15,000 poured through the gates. The festival was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. The weather was hot, and so was the refrigeration, leading to a great quantity of foamy beer. It didn’t matter. People loved the Oregon Brewers Festival!

Fast-forward 23 years: today there are more than 1,400 craft breweries in the U.S., and the Oregon Brewers Festival has thrived, becoming one of the nation’s longest-running and best loved craft beer festivals. It is the premier summer event for anyone who loves craft beer, or is visiting Portland in July. Located on the west bank of the Willamette River, with towering Mt. Hood as a backdrop, the Oregon Brewers Festival is quintessentially Portland, and the ideal venue to relax with friends and sip some suds.

The Oregon Brewers Festival is a true reflection on the immense popularity of American craft brewing, and the fact that the festival continues to draw vast crowds 23 years after its inception is a strong testament to the public’s loyalty toward craft brews. More than 70,000 people will flock to Tom McCall Waterfront Park from all around the world this summer, generating an economic impact of approximately $1.5 million for the city of Portland. The purpose of the Oregon Brewers Festival has always been to provide an opportunity to sample and learn about craft beer. The number of breweries participating has more than quadrupled from that first year, now with 81 craft breweries from across the county showcasing a score of beer styles ranging from Amber to Wit.

In terms of operation, little has changed since the early days of the Oregon Brewers Festival. Volunteers (now numbering 2,000) pour the beer; industry exhibitors explain key ingredients; homebrewers visually describe their craft with on-site brewing; and vendors offer beer-related merchandise.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events, 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

July is undoubtedly the most festive month regarding beer in Oregon, as it is most other places in the Northern Hemisphere. The hot weather this week has beckoned us to indulge in the refreshing brewhas like no other time throughout the year. This week, the weekend started a bit early. The Oregon Brewers Guild Dinner kicked off the week of grand brews on Wednesday. We pulled an early shift in pouring to help out, and were reciprocated by receiving the t-shirt/glass/tickets to enjoy the latter half of the wonderful event. From the pouring end, it was great to see the pillars of the Oregon brewing community congregate to celebrate the freedoms that spawn creative and flavorsome brews unlike those from most anywhere else on the planet. Serving folks like Deschutes Brewmaster Larry Sidor, Fifty Fifty Brewmaster Todd Ashman, Beer Valley Brewmaster Pete Ricks, and Oakshire Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. This who’s who event was pretty fun and the only down side of the pouring portion was people asking for samples without providing tickets.  Still, it was a hoot. On the tasting end, the five tickets I received were redeemed for the following brews:

Double Mountain Red Pilsner, Wakonda Sneaker Wave Imperial Pilsner (I was fortunate enough to snag the last pour from this 1/6 barrel keg…very bold), Ram Big Horn Pauliny Pils (from Salem, very nice!), Upright Flora Rustica (some fool from Shelton Brothers import company said Upright was terrible…more reason to distrust importers), and Rogue’s Maierfest lager (very smooth and enjoyable).

On Thurdays, the early weekend proceeded with a stop at Bailey’s Taproom for a Chuckanut meet the brewer special event. Brewer Josh Pfriem and beer guru Jim Parker were on hand to talk beer and share some phenomenal German-style brews from the Bellingham brewery. On hand for the first time in Oregon was a Dunkel, a Marzen, a Kolsch, and a Helles. Chuckanut also had a Dortmunder on tap at the big fest (OBF) on the Waterfront. Legendary Rogue Brewmaster, John Maier was on hand at Baileys during the Chuckanut event. At this point it was obvious the OBF weekend was getting rolling.

On Friday, Hair of the Dog hosted a special open house event with their rich line-up of brews and a few specialties unavailable to the public until just recently. A Flanders Fred poured alongside a Bourbon-barrel aged Fred. The Bourbon Fred was definitely the buzz brew at this intimate gathering. 2008 Glen Hay Falconer scholarship winner Patrick Murphy tended the taps as a long line of beer geeks awaited samples of the highly sought after brews of Brewmaster Alan Sprints.

After Hair of the Dog, we journeyed over to Belmont Station for a nutsy (in a good way), event. Green Flash’s Brewmaster, Chuck Silva was on hand to share bottle and tap pours of his wonderfully floral hop-driven brews. Boulevard Brewing of Kansas CIty was at the station as well, with lots of delicious offerings, including the summery Single Wide Pale Ale. Carston Haney, head brewer of Alameda Brewing was also at Belmont Station talking about his new dank Imperial IPA, and it was reported that Rogue’s John Maier was at the beer depot earlier on this day. Wow! What a beer undertaking.

On Saturday we were attending a wedding of a dear friend in Vancouver, Washington, where BridgePort IPA flowed like water and the summer heatwave rolled on into the night. After the wedding, we paid a special visit to our friend David Nunez of By the Bottle, Southwest Washington’s premier bottled beer stop, and sampled some great summer beers before catching up with a Heaven and Hell blend involving a 2007 Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA and their 2008 Worldwide Stout. Talk about bold!

On Sunday, we pretty much just chilled out (well, as much as we could with a window-AC unit) and made a quick stop at Upright Brewing’s new tasting room where we hung with our friends/brewers Alex Ganum/Gerritt Ill and caught up with McMenamin’s best brewer Corey Blodgett (now brewing at St. Francis School in Bend, Oregon) and his fiancee Anastasia. Upright will be bottling some of their Shelton Brothers-hated beers on Tuesday.  Brewpublic will be there!

Concluding sunday, a visit to the Horse Brass was needed to sop up more of the phenomenal hoppy brew list of late. This included Astoria’s Bitter Bitch and Stone’s 13th Anniversary Imperial Red. So, as all the outtatowners head back to whereever they are from following this big brew weekend, we smile knowing it is just another day in Beervana. We some riders!

Posted under Oregon beer

Brewpublic just caught wind of the beers that will be featured this year at the Oregon Brewers Festival Buzz Tent. This will be the first year for this tent that will showcase uber-geek beers, cellared specialties, one-offs, and other brews you might never see again. OBF’s Chris Crabb explains “This year, we’ve switched it up by asking the brewers to create not only the (one featured OBF brew) beer, but the buzz as well.”These beers are highly prized, very expensive, and our selection is very limited in quantity. Many of the brewers of these beers will be on hand in the tent to talk up their product.”

The list of beers is mind blowing for anyone who loved this sort of thing. Here’s more details we received in a press release from Chris:

The Buzz Tent will be open on Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25 from Noon to 4:30 pm each day. Admission is separate from the festival. A ticket costs $20 and includes a punch card good for eight four-ounce tastes. The ticket will give you tastes of six different buzz beers, plus two tastings of your choosing. Because of the different quantities of product on hand, we can’t guarantee what beers will be pouring at any single time, but we can guarantee they will be fantastic! Look for the chalkboard outside the tent, or follow the Buzz Tent on Twitter: @OBFBuzzTent.

We will be selling a total of 2,000 tickets to the Buzz Tent: 1,000 per day. The tickets are first come, first serve. Tickets can be purchased on site starting Thursday, July 23 in the “Tokens Only” lines on the south end of the mugs/tokens tent. You must purchase a Friday and/or a Saturday ticket. The Buzz Tent itself is located in between the Mug/Tokens Sales and the South Beer Trailers.

Admission to the Buzz Tent does not include a mug. Just use the mug you are using to sample all of the other beers at the festival. To whet your whistle, here’s a sample of what will be pouring in the Buzz Tent this weekend:

Alameda Horseshoe Hefeweizen, Alaskan Barley Wine Anderson Valley Huge’r Boont, Ballast Point Sour Wench Tart Blackberry Ale #1, Beer Valley Black Flag Imperial Stout 2008 Fresh Hop edition, Blue Frog Barrel Aged Strong Amber Peligroso, BridgePort 2008 Stumptown Tart in firkin, BridgePort BBL Ebenezer, Cascade Brewing Sang Royale, Cascade Brewing Gold Yeller, Cascade Brewing Night Fall, Cascade Brewing Gose, Cascade Brewing Mouton Rouge, Deschutes Bourbon Quad, Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, Fearless Strong Scotch, Fifty Fifty Imperial Eclipse Stout (barrel aged for 180 days in Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Barrels), Firestone Walker Double/Imperial Union Jack, Full Sail 1998 Old Boilermaker Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine, Grand Teton Brewing Howling Wolf Weizenbock, Laurelwood Organic Deranger Imperial Red, Laht Neppur Spiced Waitsburg Winter Warmer, Lazy Boy Pomegranate Belgian Golden Ale, Lompoc Barrel Fermented LSD, McMenamins West Linn Largo Laws Treasure Strong Scottish, McMenamins Crystal Ballroom Obama Nation Domestic Schwarzbier, McMenamins Old St. Francis Base Camp Coffee Stout, McMenamins Oak Hills Das Schwertz Maibock (Whiskey Barrel Aged), Moylan’s Brewing Co. Batch #1000 Double Kilt Lifter, New Belgium La Folie, Oakshire Glen’s Hop Vice Imperial IPA, Redhook Raspberry Tripel, Rock Bottom Rod Flanders, Stone 13th Anniversary, Sprecher Brewery Bourbon Barrel Scotch Ale, and Widmer X-114 IPA.

Check out my write up on last year’s OBF here.

Posted under beer news

If you are a beer geek in the Pacific Northwest, you’d have to be living under a rock to not know the importance of July for craft beer in Oregon. For the fifth consecutive year, the Oregon Brewers Guild headed by Brian Butenschoen has organized a magnificent schedule of events to highlight the significance of craft brew in our great state. Butenschoen notes that the summer is undoubtedly the most successful month for craft brewers in the state. “It’s not surprising considering the weather here” says Butenschoen, who was on hand raffling off t-shirts and prizes at the Horse Brass Pub on the month’s kick off party. “(Craft beer) makes its peak in July and August. Since we started doing this five years ago, we’ve had a proclamation from the governor and mayor.” A parade of brewers kicks off the Oregon Brew Fest during the last weekend of July.  the inspiration was taken from the Brewers Association‘s American Craft Beer Week. For Butenschoen and others dedicated to promoting the craft that is so vital to Oregon’s economy July involves a lot of hard work but is also very much worth it. “It’s Craziness, but a good kind of crazy” he says. “The Brewer’s Dinner that kicks off the OBF is the closest thing to the brewers reception at the Great American Beer Fest. Lots of different specialty beers.” Butenschoen explains that the fest is really about the brewers. The dinner is a great way for industry people to gather in one spot in a great environment, Tom McCall Waterfront Park. “It’s more of a gathering than a sit down dinner” he says. “It’s nice to be on the river drinking good beer with friends.”

Each year, Oregon’s craft brew movement gathers momentum. More and more new breweries keep popping up across the state. Butenschoen says that from 2007 to 2008 Oregon has seen an 18% growth in barrelage during the month of July. That’s a whopping 10,000 barrels! According to Butenschoen, the success of craft beer on tap in the summer is quite significant. “About 85% of beer sold is sold in grocery stores” he says. “In Oregon, close to 40% of what is sold on tap is craft.” From a brewer’s perspective this makes the summer months a quintessential period for their livelihood.

Brian Butenschoen

Several publications around Oregon will feature big spreads on Craft Brewers Month including Portland, Bend, and Eugene. Across the state, several noteworthy event will be held to celebrate the impact of artisan brew for the culture and the economy.  For a comprehensive list of these events, go to the Oregon Brewers Guild website.

At the Horse Brass on July 1st, two hop randalls were installed to pump fresh hop nectar through from special kegs provided by Deschutes and Full Sail. Deschutes Cellar Door India Black Ale was marinated with whole nuggets, while Full Sail’s Grandsun of Spot Imperial IPA was enlivened by a randall full of sarache ace cones. Lots of other noteworthy brews graced the taps, including a delicious Pilsner from the guys at Double Mountain Brewing.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events

Beer Valley's Pete Ricks

Celebrating the second year of his brewery, Pete Ricks of Oregon’s eastern-most brewery, Beer Valley will be on hand at Belmont Station this Wednesday, March 25, 2009 from 6-8PM. I talked to Ricks over the weekend and asked him about the brief history of Beer Valley out in what would otherwise seem like a no-man’s land for beer.  “It’s been good.” he told me. “We doubled our production since last year and expanded distribution into Western Oregon.”

Ricks, a self-proclaimed extreme brewer, hails a monstrously hoppilicious 11% ABV imperial stout, the Black Flag, as Beer Valley’s flagship brew. At Wednesday’s event in Portland, Ricks will unveil a year old Black Flag on draught as well as some special bottles of the brew fresh-hopped and fresh-hopped Leafer Madness, a pale ale injected with copious amounts of floral hops.

I asked Ricks what running a brewery out in Oregon’s eastern high desert, a stone’s throw from the Idaho border has been like. “Everyone in the area has been very supportive.  Other brewers like Barley Brown’s (of Baker City, Oregon) have been making great beer, too.”  Beer Valley has also been getting recognition elsewhere. “Our beer in eight states with about 15 distributors” says Ricks. “We were very well received recently at the Philadelphia Beer Fest.”

So what does the future behold for Beer Valley? Says Ricks: “We are doing OBF (Oregon Brewers Festival) in July with a special super dry-hopped Leafer Madness.  We are also planning to do more in Oregon, Washington, and California.  We are already in California, Yakima, and Tri-Cities, and hope to push more into the Seattle area soon and are working on filling out areas in Eastern Oregon like Bend.”  If you are unable to make it to the event on Belmont Station, a five hour drive to Baker City will allow you growler fills at the production brewery.

For an indepth interview with Pete Ricks from last April, click here.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer events