Sweet N Sour Weekend

This past weekend, things amidst beer SNOBs have involved both the sweet and the sour. The obvious sour outing has been the Puckerfest of 2009, and the sweetness of happenstances such as Bob Farrell’s Braggot release at the Bastille Day at the Failing and Williams block party; combined with the Honeymoon release of Cascade Brewing (at Raccoon Lodge) is an event to certainly remember!  There was the Simcoe beer flowing and the summery Heaven’s Helles while the summer dunk tank was dropping “celebrity” brewers to the water while Lompoc’s founder Jerry Fechter emceed the fiasco. It was quite a splash. Beer guru Preston Weesner gave us beer lessons and clued us in about a special black and tan that will be at the Portland Internatitonal Beerfest, composed of the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA melded with their Worldwide Stout mixed for the first time ever in Oregon.  Weeser let us taste Farrell’s ten year old Atomic Fireball before we sunk Green Bottling’s Mike Weksler in the dunk tanks. Slaint! Let us not forget the 159th B-Day event at the Horse Brass orchestrated by the Beer Goddess aka Lisa Morrison on Sunday (Point Blank’s Scott

Willis shares the same b-day as these other beer legends). A Traeger Grill was auctioned off and a Pin the Tale on the “Don”key was in effect to honor the pub’s founder, Monsieur Younger. Much fun was has by all, no question!  If it’s beer months and the Raccoon Lodge is not pouring the flavorsome beers of Ron Gansberg and his assistant Curtis Bain, what is there really happening? So many great sour brews were tapped this weekend such as a rare 2008 BJ’s (R.I.P.) brew and one gingery tart taster from Trade Route, a special New Belgium Terrior (maybe the tartest of them all) and the highlight of this year’s Puckerfest, mayhaps, the Double Mountain series, of Devil’s Kriek…