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Showing posts with label Astoria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astoria. Show all posts

Monday, May 12, 2014

First Look: Astoria's Buoy Beer

[Source]
The town of Astoria, where the Columbia River drains into the Pacific Ocean, has become one of the best places in Oregon to drink beer.  In the space of a half-mile stroll, one can proceed from Fort George Brewing to Astoria Brewing (.3 miles) and then on down the Riverwalk to newly-opened Buoy Beer, smack dab on pilings in the river.  It's on the site of the former New England Fish Company of Oregon cannery (a 90-year old structure; it's not clear how much of the current building dates back that far). 

The principals in the brewery are a group of guys who had various things to bring to the table (story here), including Dan Hamilton, a homebrewer with a penchant for lagers.  They brought in Kevin Shaw, a brewer whose professional experience dates back to Star Brewing in the mid-90s.  He also brewed for Bert Grant, got a degree at Siebel, and then went on to work for 14 years at BridgePort.  The focus on lagers is the hallmark of Buoy's line (at least now), and they have a helles, pils, and cream ale on tap now, and a dunkel is apparently part of the regular rotation (but not on now).  There's a pale but--shocker!--no IPA.  (Given that Astoria and Fort George are so close and so closely identified with hops, this may be an astute move.)

The building is pretty spectacular.  It's got a wonderfully worn wooden floor and wood-paneled walls that make for a cozy pub session.  They've installed a sliding door that opens out on the boardwalk portion of the Riverwalk, which they can swing open on those rare, sunny and warm days.  All the wood makes it relatively quiet inside.  The real treat is still coming, though.  When you enter the building, you pass by the main bar and restaurant on one side and the brewery on the other.  If you keep following the hallway, it dumps out you into an as-yet-unfinished room that is bounded by large windows looking out over the river.  If you incline your head, you can see the bridge to the left.  They are installing a bar in that room and it looks like it isn't super far from being complete.  It's going to be one of the prize places to sit in Astoria once they get it open.

The Beer
Buoy clearly emphasizes lagers.  They prefer classic, unadorned old-school lagers in their traditional presentation.  No 38-BU dunkels here.  I really hope they sell, because these are rare beers in Oregon (which is exactly the reason I'm worried they won't).  In addition to the lagers, they have a pale, a porter, and a red.  My notes:
  • Helles.  The malt is nice and bready, but quite light--one has to bring attention to notice it at all.  The hops are delicate and lightly spicy, just as you would expect, and there's a mineral component that reminds me of Bavaria.  The surprise is that it's a fruity beer, too--berry, perhaps, and definitely banana.  I think isoamyl acetate (the banana) probably gets you drummed out of the Munich brewers guild, but it's subtle enough that the overall presentation here isn't hurt by it.  And I tried more than a few Franconian helleses that had odd esters floating about. 
  • Czech Pils.  It looks and smells just right--although the hops are not especially pronounced in the nose.  At first sip, the malts really pop nicely, too, but then the hops come in fast and sharp.  Czechs talk a lot about "soft" bittering, and a lot of them use first-wort hopping to try to get a softness.  Perhaps this version is too dry, but the 35 IBUs throw things a bit out of balance.
  • Pale.  An impressive beer keyed by vividly piney hops.  It has excellent balance, with rich, saturated flavor.  As I was drinking it, I started thinking about what kind of conifer was I tasting.  Was it really pine?  Maybe juniper.  Cedar?  Sweet spruce?  There's definitely a touch of dank as well. Both the pale lagers were clear and bright, and I was happy to see the pale was cloudy in the Oregon manner.
  • Cream Ale.  This doesn't seem to be part of their regular line-up, but it is their most impressive beer.  You want a cream ale to have a sweet, approachable palate, but in order for it to be a satisfying session ale, it's got to end with a crisp snap.  This one does that, and has a lovely touch of corn sweetness in the middle  (I'll probably learn there's no corn and lose all credibility--wait, I have no credibility.  Never mind.)  I had a pint and the last sip was as refreshing as the first.
  • NW Red Ale.  A chewy, spicy, caramelly beer with a somewhat jagged, ragged finish.  Okay but not especially memorable. 
  • ESB.  Seems like it has a great recipe, with lots of bready malts topped by soft hopping--but it was overwhelmed by diacetyl.  The brewers may have been trying to leave a dollop of diacetyl in, but this was way too much.
  • Porter.  Chalky black malts greet your tongue, but they're not supported by anything.  The mid-palate is hollow, and it stays chalky and charred throughout.  There is a bit of berry ester that works well, but I could use a few more crystal malts to add body and sweetness.

The Food
Oysters above and fish and chips below.
Astoria has quietly become a pretty decent food town, too.  Twenty years ago, it was a food desert, and if you went out to a "nice" restaurant, you paid 20 bucks for rubbery, bland fish.  Buoy's trying to offer a serious menu, and based on the two dishes Sally and I had, they're pulling it off.  You'd think Astoria would have a lot of seafood, but it doesn't (except for fish and chips, a local specialty).  Buoy's menu is seafood-heavy, and is helmed by chef Eric Jenkins, an old hand with fish. Not only is the focus on seafood, but where possible, Jenkins sources local catches.   Buoy also offers burgers, and good call--despite the seafood, most people seem to be going for them.  (It may have had to do with portion size--see  below.)

I'm a fish and chips fan, and I love both Bowpicker's and Fort George, both of which serve tuna F&C.  At Buoy you get a choice of salmon or rockfish, and I went the latter.  The breading was delicate and not greasy (critical), but it was the fish that stood out.  Flaky, flavorful, and moist.  I could have eaten a pound of it.  The fries were crisp and salty.

Sally had pan-fried Willapa Bay oysters with jalepeno jam.  By the description, I expected it to be an overly-fussy misfire, but no.  The jam had only a trace of fire, and that balanced the sweetness.  Both drew out the succulence from the oysters. Impressive.  If there's a drawback to the menu, it's portion size.  The fish and chips are hearty, but the oysters weren't a complete meal.  If she didn't have my fries to snack on, Sally would have had to get a side.  That makes it a fairly spendy outing--but worth the price.

Overall, a strong debut, and I expect it will only improve as rooms and recipes come on line and get refined.  Since I make it to Astoria pretty often, I will be happy to check in and report back.  I'll throw a few extra pictures below the fold for those who admire my beautiful iPhone handiwork.

Monday, July 01, 2013

Astoria in June

Better than Paris, France.
You may dream of a summer trip to the Champs-Élysées, with repasts of vino and baguette and views of the Seine, but give me a paper plate of Bowpicker's and a pint of beer at the mouth of the mighty Columbia.  Views of the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower?  I prefer to rest my gaze on the majesty of grain barges.  Twice in the past two weeks did I visit Oregon's old town, but the second is the one you'll be interested in: I and a gaggle of writers toured Fort George on the occasion of the release of their 3-Way IPA, a collaboration with Lompoc and Gigantic.

We also got a tour of both breweries--the old wee one you can see at the back of the pub and the new 30-barrel system across the parking lot.  But: breweries.  I could tell you about a cool fitting at the bottom of the grain silo that sends organic malt in opposite directions to both brewhouses, or about the pig-shaped hot liquor tank.  But they're breweries, and one mash tun thrills no more than the next.  I hadn't seen the new canning line, and I admit a fascination with packaging, but again, not a lot to say there.  The rilly big shew, however, was our first glimpse at the new second-floor pub space that runs the entire length of the Fort George building (the brewery shares the first floor with the Blue Scorcher Cafe). 

Fort George Expansion
Fort George has grown in increments since it first opened.  Initially, space included a modest pub and the small brewery.  Then the brewery built an outdoor patio for those many sunny days Astoria enjoys.  Then they began steady expansion that took them to neighboring buildings for storage and brewing space.  But except for that patio, the seating space has not grown. (I kid about that sun thing--Astoria is the most humid town in the US, averages 191 days of rain, 67 inches of it overall, and gets less than a week, on average, of temperatures north of 80 degrees.)  Popping a spiral staircase to the second floor way more than doubles it.

The new upstairs is suffused in light that comes in through three walls that are largely warehouse windows.  You get a better view of the river up there, too.  It's essentially a self-contained separate restaurant, with a different menu and a separate bar.  Whereas you get a pretty standard pub menu below, upstairs it's wood-fired pizzas.  The tables and bars are long and beautiful, and I can imagine that when light is scarce around about January, this will be a great place to be.  One of the coolest features is that spiral staircase; the brewery managed to harvest discarded runners from the last upgrade of the Astoria column.  Anyone who's been up that signature landmark will instantly recognize them.  (There are a batch of photos here.) 

New Beers
We were ostensibly visiting to try the 3-Way IPA, and we each received one as it came off the canning line.  (As cool as it sounds.)  Lompoc, Gigantic, and Ft George all all noted for hops, so I expected a face-melter, but instead, it's more a meditation on the eras of Oregon IPAs.  It's got old school hops (Cascade), more modern hops (Centennial), and new hops (Meridian), all in a milkshake-cloudy solution of sweetish (but not heavy) malting.  A summer IPA.

The beer that won my heart is a different collaboration, Tender Loving Empire Northwest Pale Ale.  Leaving aside the question of this new style appellation (it's just a pale), it's a damned tasty beer.  Sweet with honey malt but spiced with a bit of rye, it's electrified by Meridian, Simcoe, and Centennial hops.  It is very close to bright, a minor miracle for Fort George, is light-bodied and very crisp--so much so that I was fooled into asking whether they'd used the 1811 lager yeast.  (Nope.)  They did can it, I don't know whether you can find it in PDX.  All the more reason to spurn France and head to the Sunset Empire.

Astoria Brewing Expansion
Angelo De Ieso and I did break away from the herd for a stop into Astoria Brewing, which is but a quarter mile away.  Astoria Brewing has been shoe-horned inside a small corner of the Wet Dog Cafe since 1997 ("Pacific Rim Brewery" for the first half of that time).  Some time ago, owner Steve Allen decided to expand, and a new brewery will go in a few buildings down the Riverwalk.

Astoria is a very nice counterpoint to Fort George.  Despite the fact that Astoria's flagship is the aptly-named Bitter Bitch, brewer John Dalgren has interest in beer ranging from sessionable lagers to wild ales--beers Fort George is just never going to mess with.  (If Fort George were a band, they'd be something like the Ramones--boisterous, hugely fun, but totally unmistakable.)  My palate was in slightly rough shape when we arrived to try three subtle beers in a row--a kolsch, very light pilsner, and--on my request--a strawberry wheat ale.  John was actually a bit embarrassed by that last one, but it was actually exquisite.  There are few agricultural products finer in this fine state than strawberries, and he captured their lovely flavor, married them to the wheat, and kept everything dry.  It's a hard beer to brew, and it was really dialed in.

Fort George has definitely captured the imagination of Astorians.  But visitors should not be too blinded by its assets to ignore Astoria Brewing.  Dalgren is quietly making very nice beers a few blocks away.  (And the Wet Dog has the better view.)

John Dalgren (L) and Steve Allen

Monday, July 19, 2010

In Praise of Rogue

Rogue has its critics. Some of the sniping is well-earned (overly pricey beer and food at the pubs, sometimes pretentious hype), but some of it is just a culture clash. Rogue has a national presence, and it dotes less on locals than any other major brewery. But I come today not to nitpick Newport's finest, but to praise it. Two objects draw my honeyed prose:

1. Chatoe Single Malt. Okay, that "chatoe" business is bad--it falls into the "sometimes pretentious hype" category. I'm not sure if they're mocking wine (chatoe, dirtoir) and if so, why, but it's a distracting affectation. The beer, however, is a wonder of restraint. For all its bluster, Rogue has managed to get less attention and credit for its hop and barley fields than it should. Bringing the crops into the line of production makes Rogue not only uber-green, but restores them to an ancient lineage of farmhouse breweries. (I wish they'd highlight the farmhouse aspect rather than using a misplaced wine appellation reference.) The Single Malt is meant to highlight the ingredients, and Rogue boldly does so by offering a 12º P session ale of modest hopping (35 BU). No over-compensation here; Rogue's confident enough in the quality of their ingredients that they display them nakedly.

A wise choice. By style, I guess you could call it a best bitter--Rogue's "Revolution" hops don't even incline you to think they're particularly American. They have a grassy, slightly lemony quality. Together with the gentle, bready malt, the beer becomes crisp and almost astringent. The softness of the malt and spicy/grassy quality remind me a bit of a kolsch. My guess is that this beer will taste best the closer it is to the conditioning tank. It's delicacy must be both fragile and evanescent. I had a pint at the Astoria pub that seemed sparklingly fresh. A very accomplished beer, and a surprising one.

2. The Rogue Astoria Pub. For a town with a population of just 10,000, Astoria has an embarrassment of brewpub riches. Astoria Brewing has one of the best views in Oregon, and Fort George has quickly distinguished itself as one of the better Oregon brewpubs. Rogue's pub, which doesn't have an attached brewery, may well play third fiddle for visitors. A pity. Located in the historic Bumblebee Cannery building, it is literally out in the middle of the river. I've been there in nasty weather, when it's warm and cozy, and sunny weather, when it's bright and airy. Either way, the vast expanse of the Columbia is just outside the window. Inside, the pub has that comfortable, worn feel of an antique pub--even though it's only been open since 2007.

As with all Rogue pubs, it's expensive, but you receive in compensation the opportunity to try some of their rarer, specialty beers. It doesn't feel like a Rogue pub so much as an Astoria pub--a neat trick for a new place. And, as evidence of other good behavior they don't often get credit for, they leave two taps open for Fort George and have a substantial "Fort George Beer Served Here" poster behind the bar. If you're in town more than a night or two, try to work it in.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

In Astoria

Travel is good for the soul. Even when you decide to just take an impromptu trip an hour and a half down the Columbia River to Astoria, the change is a balm. Take for instance my experience in Rainier, where Sally and I pulled off to get an afternoon jolt of caffeine. In two adjacent parking lots were two venders. The barista (baristi?) was a cheery Eastern European (Ukrainian, Russian?--I'm not good with accents of the region) who made a very nice latte. Then we moved down the line to a guy selling fresh Oregon berries. This was not the huge, watery, under-ripe variety you get in the grocery stores in April. The strawberries were a small, tart mountain variety, and the blackberries had an herbal note. Barely out of the city and I was already having a good time.

Although this will not be principally a beer trip, I did want to scuttle over to Fort George, where a keg of North III appeared on Monday. A winter beer that really impressed last December, I thought it was gone for good. A bit hefty for July, but it made a surprisingly good partner for the albacore sandwich I had for dinner.

Fascinating anecdote
One thing I didn't realize about the Fort George Brewery--it's on the site of the original 1911 settlement of Astoria. Following the War of 1812, the fort they occupied was renamed Fort George after England's king. That's cool enough. But there's an even better part of the story, and an opportunity the brewery needs to exploit.

As it happens, the first woman of English descent arrived in 1814: an English barmaid named Jane Barnes.
To oversee their new empire, the Northwest Company appointed as governor Donald McTavish, a distinguished veteran partner of the firm. In the spring of 1813, as his ship was being outfitted for its voyage to the far side of the New World, McTavish passed the time in a dockside tavern in Portsmouth, England. Behind the bar stood Jane Barnes, a lively, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed beauty. The slumpy old Scot asked her to join him, and in a “temporary fit of erratic enthusiasm,” she agreed. McTavish and Barnes proceeded to the finest stores in Portsmouth to ready her for the voyage.
She was the source of some intrigue, setting off a battle among no fewer than four men (and they're just the ones mentioned in the history books)--including the scion of the local Chinook leader.

So my question: how is it possible that Fort George does not brew Barnes Bitter? An English barmaid visiting the first settlement in Oregon that happens to be the site of the brewery? Synchronicity, folks--exploit it.

Okay, off to seek more modest adventure--

Monday, March 30, 2009

An Astoria Overview

"Astoria's a different place."
--Jimmy Griffin, Rogue Astoria
Astoria is in some key ways like a little microcosm of Oregon. Like Oregon, Astoria's located in the upper left corner of the state. It is a working community, not a show place. The people share a common sense of themselves and are fiercely proud of their town. They feel like the place doesn't get enough attention for how good it is, but at the same time, you get the sense they aren't thrilled about the idea of a lot of new people coming and messing things up. It is a place where people feel and live their history, where everyone knows everyone else in the community, and that if an event happens in town in the morning, by two o'clock that afternoon it will be old news.

For all the history and prominence of the town, it only has 10,000 people, as stable a population as you find in Oregon. The history, of course, goes all the way back to Lewis and Clark, who spent a delightful winter at Fort Clatsop in 1805-'06. John Jacob Astor founded a fur-trading post there in 1810, and from there its prominence has always been linked to the Columbia River's vast mouth, opening into the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean.

I have been to Astoria a number of times over the past decade, and among all the major towns of Oregon, it has changed the least. This has something to do with the history--old towns change less than young ones--but also because people seem to hold the entire place as communual property. In no other Oregon town have I felt the residents were so involved in the life of the community. As we made our tour of breweries on Saturday, people would refer to other townsfolk by their first name, off-handedly, like you would a relative. Of course, things do change. Astoria, despite its penchant for stability, has, as a port city, suffered the whiplash of global change more than others. Canneries disappeared, mills closed, artists arrived. Perhaps these outer forces make a town rely on inner stability more.

A good example of this came at our first stop on Saturday, at Fort George Brewing. I expected to see just the other beer writers invited along--John Foyston, Lisa Morrison, and Abram Goldman-Armstrong--but we were joined by a few locals who'd gotten wind of our arrival (that familial feeling again). One of them, Dan Bartlett, a former city manager, very graciously went and grabbed us copies of the Clatsop County Historical Society Quarterly, which had an article about Astoria's early breweries. It wasn't until I got it home that I saw the date of the issue--Fall 1989. (I'll do a separate post on Astoria's brewing history, tip of the hat to Dan.)

For visitors, all of this is very good. For history, no city--I think you can include Portland in this claim, but just to be safe I'll except it--can match Astoria. It contains several stellar museums: Flavel House, Fort Clatsop, Maritime Museum, and Heritage Museum. All of these were put together with the kind of care you'd expect from a town whose citizens can exhume 20-year-old historical quarterlies. But even more than that, the city itself has the feel of a place lost in time. To sit in the Wet Dog (Astoria Brewing) and look out on the massive Columbia is to feel like you're looking into time. The hillsides are studded with streets of 19th-century homes. In the homogenization that results from modernity and globalization, Astoria is a place apart.

Just one bit of advice: take the Gore-Tex. The 1.13 inches of rain we enjoyed on Saturday was not unusual, nor the wind that lashed us as we scampered between breweries. (It was robust enough to pin Lewis and Clark down for a winter, recall.) Perhaps more than anything else, this is why Astoria's permanent residents number no more than 10,000. The weather is relentless. I have spent summer days where it was in the fifties and rainy. (Though that's rare--only 1.2 inches of rain falls on average in August.) December is ... worse. On the other hand, there is no place as nice to enjoy a beer and watch the weather--and ships--roll through. If you have never visited, you should. And if you're a beer fan, you must. (But more on that later.)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Preview of Coming Attractions

As if to say, "Behold, I offer you the malty riches of Astoria," Chris Nemlowill poses with one of his Fort George beers.


I have video, pics, and lots of notes from my sojourn to Astoria this weekend. I'll be rolling content out as soon as I can get it ready. (Probably no omnibus post--I'll do it piecemeal.) Qucikie upshot: a cool town, good beer, great people. More soon--