Breakside Brewery kicks off new round of experimental releases

Northeast Portland’s Breakside Brewery is starting 2011 off with a slew of exciting events and beer releases. After a brief hiatus, Breakside’s weekly experimental releases will resume this Wednesday at 3 PM. With a new 3 barrel brewhouse installed and fully operational, Breakside brewer Ben Edmunds has found time to start producing pilot batches of avant-garde, one off beers. As always, these are small batch (one keg only!) brews; they are tapped at 3 PM each Wednesday; when the keg is finished, the beer is gone, and there is no guarantee that the beer will make another appearance. Popular releases in the series this past fall included a Belgian chocolate stout, pumpkin saison, gose, smoked porter, imperial pumpkin cream stout, and kombucha barleywine.

January 5: Brunch Pale Ale An easy-drinking pale ale that uses nine different types of fresh citrus zest in lieu of late addition hops.

January 12: 2011 Sake Ale A light wheat ale brewed with sake yeast, fresh cedar tips, and fresh ginger

January 19: Rye Common Our take on the ‘California common’ style using a large portion of rye in the grist for added complexity

January 26: Cranberries & Cream Oregon cranberries give a tart edge to a sweet, cream ale base in this fruit beer that we’ve worked on for the last two months.

February 2: Belgian Pale Ale A classic Belgian-style pale/amber in the tradition of De Koninck brewed with three rare Slovenian hops.

To add to the fun of Wednesday releases, Breakside brewers and bartenders will also be breaking out a Randall each Wednesday and will pour one of the house beers through it; the Randall infusions will not be limited to hops, but will also include infusions with chiles, fruits, spices, and more. This Wednesday, expect to see the Breakside Dry Stout poured through espresso beans! Plans are also in the works to bottle very small amounts of future experimental beers, and these small runs should be on sale by the end of February. Outside of the experimental series, Breakside currently has six house beers on tap: a witbier, dry stout, IPA, hoppy amber, brown porter, and a strong ale brewed with chocolate, habanero, and honey. Joining these beers soon will be a double IPA.

Also, starting this month, Breakside beers will be on tap around Portland at top beer bars and restaurants, such as Bailey’s Taproom, The Hop and Vine, and Grain and Gristle.

Breakside Brewing is located at:

820 NE Dekum

Portland, OR 97209