Weekend in Review

Saturday is always an excuse to seek out the brews you might’ve overlooked on Friday and the week prior. We linked up with our friend Kyle who brews at Double Mountain in Hood River. Laterly we’ve been enjoying the DM Fa La La La La at various beer spots around town. We wanted to get warmed up with some easy drinking brews so we started with a growler of Laht Neppur IPA that we obtained in our recent travels to the Walla Walla Valley in Eastern Washington. An herbaceous and yeastily unique number, this golden colored beer was great to finish off. Our keg will be greatly missed. Following this brew, we popped a favorite beer style from one of our favorite breweries of late. The Bruery of Orange County’s Berliner Weisse called Hottenroth. Friggin’ delish! Tart without being overbearing; light (3.1% ABV) and crisp, with an incredible wheaten bready finish. Hottenroth was perhaps the best beer of the weekend if not the entire week.

We made it over to our friend Lisa Morrison’s cellar draining party to “help” her dispose of some bottled favorites from the depths of her mind-blowing coffers. Different stations of fabulous beer styles including Belgians, Barleywines, and some obsolete classics made the night a whole lot of fun for beer nerds like us. The tasting highlights of the night included a Hair of the Dog Adambier #2, 1998 vintages of Rogue’s Old Crusty and Anchor’s Old Foghorn, a five year old Boundary Bay Old Bounder, 2002 AleSmith Old Numbskull, North Coast XVI Anniversary and a few 750 milliliter bottles of New Glarus’ cherished fruit beers. Our buddy Charles Culp busted out a bottle of NWNX Brewing’s first-run five-year-old Belgian Golden Ale from his home state of Texas. Charles helped to brew the beer in his Austin days. Another highlight included a Jim Parker sighting. Jim made the trip down from Bellingham with a tasty growler of Chuckanut’s Stout. Before leaving Lisa graced us with a delicious pour of The Bruery’s 2 Turtle Doves Belgian-style dark ale. Brewed with cocoa nibs and pecans, this 12% ABV brew was great by itself, but also blended superbly with a little New Glarus Belgian Red. Hot damn!

After leaving this awesome gathering, you’d think the liver would be done for. Well, it still had a little kick left in it. Dinner at the New Old Lompoc Hedge House demanded another pairing. Here we experienced the Bald Eagle Pale Ale. A spiced up rendition of the Condor Pale but with high alpha Simcoe Hops, this floral and quenching beer was a “bird with bite.” Word to the bird.

After departing the Hedge House, there was room in the tank for one last quaff. It was one that we had been thinking about all day. At Bar Avignon, well known for their dynamic wine selection, a line-up of great beers can be discovered as well. After reading a post in John Foyston’s Oregonian Blog, “the Beer Here”, we learned that Fort George’s North III was a-pouring. A deep dark, fruity Belgian brew, this year’s North delivered a world of complexity ranging from sweet to bitter with lots of candy and dark fruit and a presence of creamy oak. This was indeed the perfect nightcap to a wonderful Saturday. On Sunday morning we contacted Fort George’s Chris Nemlowill to find out what exactly went into this beer that made it so unique. Here’s what we found out:

“North III is a tripple that had maple sugar added to the boil instead of Belgian rock candy then was conditioned on 60 pounds of sugar plums and sat on oak. About 10% ABV. Heaps of Golden Promise, Honey malt, 120L Crystal malt; no elves were harmed in the production of this beer”

Look for North III at the 2009 Holiday Ale Fest. It rules!