Killer Weekend in Review

For many months we’ve been planning our KillerBeerWeek and it has finally come and gone. Judging from the great turn out received each night at four different craft beer loving venues, we’d have to conclude that the result is nothing short of a success. This is pleasing to know that Portland, aka Beervana, is at the forefront of the craft beer revolution where more and more goodly folks are becoming attuned to the wonder of artisan brew.

Here’s a look at some of what went down over the weekend:

Friday

This marked the third day of KillerBeerWeek for Brewpublicans. We celebrated our second year in existence at Saraveza less than a week after Sarah Pederson and company rocked out their second birthday bash (Viva la Craft Beer Revolucion!). Like Sarah’s big hoopla, there was a wonderful lineup of craft beers ranging many styles (view the lineup of what we poured for our Brewniversary here). This night at Saraveza featured their all-star staff including Tyler “The Elder” Vickers, Jonathan “The Younger” Carmean, Erika “The Red” Huston, and proprietor Sarah “The Veza” Pederson.

At Saraveza, many brewers and beer celebs were in attendance, including Prodigal Son’s Brian Harder, Barley Brown’s Shawn Kelso, Beetje’s Mike Wright, Salmon Creek’s Larry Pratt, and Mt. Tabor’s Eric Surface. Brewpublic’s Matthew DiTullo presented a special craft beer-themed video art installation that ran throughout the night following the conclusion of the baseball game on television (where the New York Yankees were eliminated by the Texas Rangers).

Saturday

The big night of the week was KillerBeerFest at Bailey’s Taproom on Saturday. After learning a lot from last year’s inaugural KBF, Brewpublic and Bailey’s staff learned a lot and was far more prepared to tackle the anticipated droves of craft beer enthusiasts. Still, the turnout from the get-go when the doors opened at 4PM was somewhat daunting. For many hours, a line persisted across the pub and out the front door. 21 unique beers, each from a different brewery were at front and center for KBF.

Despite the large crowd and lines, the staff at Bailey’s did a stand up job in getting people served as quickly as possible. After the elbow-to-elbow crowd thinned just a bit, Brewpublic gave away some goodies from local breweries and thanked the Bailey’s crowd for their support of great beer.

It was great to see so many beer lovers as well as brewers and industry folks not only at KBF, but during the entire week of events. It is apparent how much people in this area love great beer and appreciate the work we put into making the week special. Thank you!

Sunday

Following the aforementioned four days of liver punishing, mind bending, and palate erasing fun of KillerBeerWeek, we closed out the weekend at The Hop & Vine for a special Beer Geek Brunch coordinated by proprietor Yetta Vorobik and her staff (see the menu here)

The Beer Geek Brunch was very tasty and was followed by Oregonian beer scribe John Foyston showing us his painting in the adjacent space. Besides what was on the pairing menu, several additional brews were opened during and after the three courses including Cascade Bourbonic Plague, Chimay Blue, Pike ’08 Entire Wood-aged Imperial Stout, Widmer Brrrbon, and more. It was the final straw that broke the camel’s back perhaps, and was a lot of fun. Now, we need to rest up for more adventures including journeys to Colorado and New England. Stay tuned, and godspeed! Cheers!

Check back here soon. We’ll be posting more photos from the weekend.