Eugene Beer Week Rolls On

If it’s possible to have too much fun at a beer week, than we might have just crossed the line. Last evening we enjoyed the release of Ninkasi’s ConservationAle at their comfy beer garden.

A partnership among Ninkasi Brewing, the McKenzie River Trust and the Eugene Water & Electric Board will celebrate the utility’s century of service to the community while supporting the protection of Western Oregon rivers with the introduction of Conservation Ale.

Located in the heart of the Whittaker Neighborhood, a part of town that has quickly become one of liveliest in Eugene, Ninkasi is a no-brainer destination for beer geeks. Following a few rounds with our friend Lisa “Beer Goddess” Morrison, Harry Sanger, Oakshire founder Jeff Althouse, and Ninkasi founding brewer Jamie Floyd, we headed on to a special Brewpublic and BoozeWeek collaboration event at Izakaya Meiji.

At Meiji, we were wowed by the flavors of beer infused spirits concocted by our friend and BoozeWeek front man Elliot Martinez. These three beer cocktails included:

Martínez: The precursor to the Martini, this classic gin cocktail is made with maraschino liqueur and house-made Ninkasi Tricerahops bitters.

…FlaK 36 is made with Spaten Pils, gin, rhubarb bitters.

Mudflap is made with Oakshire Espresso Stour, Rye, and creme de cassis.

Many of Eugene’s prominent beer figures made an appearance at Isakaya including, Althouse, Floyd, Oakshire brewmaster Matt Van Wyk, Sixteen Tons’ Mike Coplin, and The Bier Stein’s Dave Stockenhausen. To say the least, it was a jolly good time.

After getting back and resting up at the Oakshire farmhouse, we rose from the dead to get Wednesday going with a bang. Back to The Bier Stein to prepare for tonight’s Whiskey Barrel-Aged Beer Fest (of which Brewpublic is a proud sponsor).

As we log these accounts, we are enjoying a fantastic oak spire-soaked bourbon Natty Dread Red known as Buffalo Soldier. To make matters even better, the Soldier is poruing from a firkin set up by brewmaster Trevor Howard and head brewer Todd Friedman. We’ve got to finish up this beer and get back to beer Stein where many a-barrel-aged bourbony behemoths are beckoning…