A Celebration of Beer at Skamania Lodge

by Dan Culver

This past weekend we traveled up the Columbia River Gorge to enjoy a nice afternoon and evening at Skamania Lodge for their fourth annual Celebration of Beer event.

It was a great time this past weekend as the weather in the gorge was perfect for enjoying some craft beer at the scenic Skamania Lodge.  Located just outside of Stevenson, WA, the Lodge was host to this year’s Celebration of Beer.  The beer festival included a handful of Washington and Oregon breweries, each showcasing multiple seasonal beers.  Many, if not all brewers of the beer were in attendance, which to me is very refreshing and made for an informative beer tasting experience.

After being provided with an ample amount of taster tickets and a great Skamania Lodge mug we got to sampling numerous fresh beers.  Some fresh hopped beer was on hand from Snipes Mountain and Walking Man, along with some great Belgian style beers coming from pFriem Brewing.

Coffee beers were also represented well with a couple of coffee stouts, each from Big Horse and Walking Man.  A couple of newer breweries on the scene were also in attendance.  Acadian Brewing and Backwoods Brewing both located in Carson, WA brought some of their tasty brews.  Acadian’s West Coast style IPA being so popular that I actually missed out on it.  I’ll just have to take everyone’s word that it was excellent.

I’d have to say two of my favorites of the day were a Solera’s Peche, a tart wheat beer with an ample amount of peaches and Snipes Mountain’s New Sheriff, a super flavorful fresh hop beer with a low abv, making it very sessionable.

With great weather, great beer, and great people, it was, need I say a great time.  We really enjoyed meeting and chatting with all of the brewers especially Josh and Annie Pfriem, Jason Kahler of Solera, Lompoc‘s Irena Bierzynski, and Chad Roberts from Snipes Mountain.

This event is well done and recommended for anyone who would like to spend a weekend getting away but still have the fun of a beer festival.  Having the luxury of a room at the lodge after sampling beers is an obvious convenience and really added that vacation feel to it the event.

I think you can safely put this event in the must-do category if you enjoy good scenery, good food and good beer.

Cheers!