Key Events During Oregon Craft Beer Month

Oregon Craft Beer month is now underway--to less fanfare than usual.  Perhaps this is the inevitable result of every month looking like craft beer month in Oregon.  Nevertheless, there are a few important events to put on the calender, and they are these:

World Beer Congress, July 28-August 1
For some reason, this event has been flying a bit under the radar, and yet it is a big-ass deal.  The congress only happens every four years, and this year it'll be in Portland from July 28-August 1. A lot of the events are not for Joe Beergeek (Beer Canning and Double Seaming Technology), but there is one thing that might attract your attention: Beer Steward Seminar.  This is a program designed in part by our own Karl Ockert, who writes: "It is aimed towards educating the beer professionals who handle, sell and promote good beer and we have trained almost 1500 wholesalers, retailers, brewers (and beer writers) in the 18 months since we started."  I've written about this before, and I am psyched to attend the session and see what they've come up with.

Puckerfest, July 13-19

Belmont Station's annual ode to tart kicks off on Friday (just as I leave town for the weekend--@#$%!!).  I alert you particularly to Friday the 13th, when Oakshire's Skookumchuck makes a showing and Saturday, July 14, when Cantillon--now rare--has its day.  The schedule is here, and truth be told, every day is going to be a winner with rare, lovely beers. 

PIB (July 20-22) and OBF (July 26-29)

Forces of nature about which oceans of ink have been writ.  Note the dates and the beers: PIB and OBF. 

Saraveza's Imperial IPA Fest, July 22

Beyond the title, which mostly says it all, I give you a few of the more exotic entrants: Block 15 Blockhead, Deschutes Jedeye, Fort George Bad Juju, and Ninkasi Babylon.

Fred Eckhard's Beer and Cheese Tasting, July 24

The twentieth annual, at Flanders Rogue at 5 pm.  Call 503-222-5910 for deets.


For the full list of events, check out the Oregon Brewers Guild.

Beer Month Notes, With Pictures

And Oregon Craft Beer Month rolls forward, leaving tired livers in its wake. Notably, Puckerfest has delivered a tour de force of great beers, one that continues tonight when Block 15's Nick Arzner brings a four-pack of his wonderful barrel-aged beers. If you haven't been to Puckerfest yet, definitely go. I've been really impressed with the pricing structure; it encourages you to get many small pours. Many of these beers are exceedingly rare, so Belmont Station could be charging a mint. Anyway, I've been sipping and snapping (pics) of beers as I go along, and here are a few highlights.

Flat Tail Corvaller Weisse
I have now tried exactly one of Dave Marliave's Flat Tail beers, which looks impressive when you compare it to the previous total (100% increase!). At some point I'll make it to Corvallis and do a proper survey. In the meantime, I was quite pleased with the Corvaller Weisse he brought for Puckerfest. Just 3.6%, it was a great example of how flavorful small beers can be. Lots of lactic tart with a wheaty background, crisp and light, perfect for that summer we may one day get. A very nice example. Below are Dave and his beer.



BJ's Enfant Terrible
It's probably sends the wrong signal to call this a zombie beer, but I mean it only in the best sense: it's the last keg of a 2007 batch of brett-aged beer made by Vasilios Gletsos when he was at BJ's. (There's another zombie at Puckerfest, Roots' Epic.) Sometimes aged beers get mellower, sometimes they don't. Brettanomyces is not a gentle yeast, and it has roughed this beer up pretty good. Still, I enjoy tastes of the past. Plus, it was purty.



Upright Lambicus Six and Blend Love
Four Uprights were pouring last night, but two were aged in gin barrels. Let us speak no more about that. (Gin fans should consult Nicole, who likes a nice gin-soaked beer.) The two I liked were Blend Love, the kind of sour that brings folks together, and Lambicus Six, which divides them. Blend Love was a toothsome mixture of tart and sweet, shot-through with rich, summery fruit flavor (raspberries, cherries, and strawberries). Lambicus Six, made with the rye-based Upright Six and aged with a lambic blend, was deeper, funkier, and much more sour. Some of the sour-heads were giving it a big smile, others wrinkling their noses. I smiled.



Breakside Beach Saison
This is not a Puckerfest beer, nor is it sour. Rather, it's a pretty traditional Dupont-style saison made with Dupont's yeast. (A yeast Breakside's Ben Edmunds and I used in a Grisette collaboration I'll tout heavily next week.) This is a classic saison: rich with tropical fruit flavors, crisp, dry, and moreish. It's a fantastic beer, and I could drink gallons of the stuff.


Deschutes White IPA (But Not That One)
Before last night's Timbers game (another topic about which we shall not speak), I stopped in at Deschutes to see what was shaking. In addition to the usual goodies--a nice pils, Armory XPA, Black Butte XXXIII--they have a remarkable beer called Chainbreaker White IPA. This isn't the White IPA that came from the collaboration with Boulevard--still not released--but a milder, super tasty version. It's not remotely an IPA: nothing in it has even distant familial connections to that old style. Rather, it's a hoppy wit, or a spiced wheat pale, or something. It's a soft, delicate beer that has a spine of zesty hops that merge perfectly into the spices. I suspect they used sage in this recipe, as they did in the collaboration brew--in any case, my mind couldn't shake the connotation. It's one of the most interesting beers I've tried in a long time, a fusion brew that actually finds breaks new ground in tastiness, not just bizarreness.

800 Miles and 75 Years

Just as a reminder of how very different life can be, have a gander at this news from Salt Lake City:

The state took a step in the right direction in the past legislative session, repealing the inane private club law that either angered or amused visitors, depending on their mood or disposition. Beginning July 1, adults of legal age will no longer have to fill out an application, join the club and pay for the privilege of buying a legal alcoholic beverage in a bar....

But, even while Salt Lake City contemplates jettisoning archaic regulations that limit the number of bars to two per block, a stumbling block in the pursuit of a vibrant downtown, another major obstacle looms. The state is poised to run out of liquor licenses.

Only 12 liquor licenses for bars and 15 for restaurants remain for the entire state due to unnecessarily restrictive regulations that limit the number of bars in Utah to one for each 7,850 residents, and the number of restaurant liquor licenses to one for each 5,200 Utahns.

While the Legislature, composed primarily of nondrinking Mormons, is known to espouse free market principles, they seemingly don't apply when it comes to the regulation of intoxicating beverages. The state decides when and where and who sells what sort of alcohol, and monopolizes the sale of bottled wine, hard liquor and full-strength malt beverages in state-owned stores.

Good old Utah, dragging itself into the 1930s. Craft Beer Month doesn't look so bad by comparison, does it?

Craft Beer Month -- It's a Party

Thanks to a post by a certain reliably-dyspeptic blogger, there's a mini-boomlet in criticism over the events of Craft Beer Month, now less than four weeks away. Joining the disgruntled one--reluctantly, it seems--Derek characterizes it this way:

Ok, so I’ve been thinking about this whole Oregon Craft Beer Month, frustrated at the fact that we have a whole “beer month” but the excitement just isn’t there. Organization? Honestly I’d trade for Seattle beer week any day.

Craft Beer Month is what it is. The intention is not to appeal to the fringe of extremely sophisticated connoisseurs who read and write beer blogs. We have so many events that do that already we've grown complacent. (Fresh hop ale season, the cask beer fest, Cheers to Belgian Beers, an organic beer fest, a winter beer fest under the Christmas tree in downtown Portland--the list goes on and on.) We don't need Craft Beer Month to be a specialty event because we already have those.

Rather, it's a huge group hug for the Oregon beer industry and an open invitation for all-comers to belly up to the bar, any bar, for some really good beer. It's not exclusive, it's inclusive. There are 140 events across the state, and if you can't find something interesting, you're just not that interested in beer. Nearly every brewery will roll out something new and special and most will throw a bash. Can't stand the OBF? Can't find anything you like from among the 150 beers at PIB? No worries--try Puckerfest or the Concordia Ale Cup or Hopworks Bike Fest or try some cheese and beer pairings with Fred Eckhardt.

If you go into Craft Beer Week thinking it is anything other than a big party, I would suggest--gently--that you're missing the point. When you're in the backyard hanging with friends and someone brings out a half-rack of Pacifico, you don't whinge that it's not Boon Geuze--you crack a bottle and enjoy it. Of course, in this case, you will have an abundance of extremely good beer, not Pacifico. So what if it's familiar? Craft Beer Month is a party, and parties are good things. There's no region on the planet that celebrates beer in more ways than we do. I expect to find a way to have a good time and celebrate that fact.

Meet the Brewers

Today is July 1, the kick-off for "Oregon Craft Beer Month." I'll do my best to keep you up to speed on the major events that tickle my fancy, but keep in mind that almost every brewery in the state is participating with release parties, special events, mini-fests, brewing dinners, meet-the-brewer events, and so on. Click the logo at right for a full listing.

For the kick-off, there is a special event at the Horse Brass about which I am attempting to learn more. The brief description reads thus:

Come and meet the Brewers of the Oregon Brewers Guild at the Kick Off Party for Oregon Craft Beer Month.

I'll try to track down which brewers and pass that along. There's also another meet-the-brewers event at the Green Dragon, where Eric Wathen and Max Skewes will be showcasing their Alameda Brewhouse beers. I've included the details of these events in my right-hand column, and I'll update that with selected events as the month progresses. Enjoy!

[Update, noon]

Still no word on the brewers who will be at the event, but here is a list of rare and special beers that will be on tap for the event.

• Bridgeport, 2007 Hop Harvest IPA
• Deschutes, Oak Aged Jubel and Black Butte Porter XX
• Double Mountain, Molten Lava Double IPA
• Eugene City, Track Town IPA
• Full Sail, 2007 Vesuvius
• Hopworks, Washoe Weizen
• Laurelwood, Belgian NW Red Infrared
• Lompoc, 2007 C-Son’s Greetings and Flower of the Gods Imperial IPA
• Mia & Pia’s, Irrigator Doppelbock and Ra Ale
• Mt. Hood, Wee Heavy (cask)
  
• Ninkasi, dry-hopped Tricerahops (cask) and vanilla-infused Oatis Stout
• Rock Bottom, Kolsch 55 and Simcoe-dry hopped IPA
• Rogue Ales, Imperial YSB and Imperial Porter
• Terminal Gravity, Tripel
• Widmer, Doppelbock

Craft Beer Month

[Note: post updated with accurate dates.]

The Oregon Brewers Guild is touting the third annual Craft Beer Month, which kicks off on July first. I haven't done a lot of touting myself, but since the calendar is out, here's a few for which you should save the date:

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Concordia Cup, July 9th-13th
10 of the Best Oregon Imperial IPA's battle it out for first place in a blind taste test. Winning brewer will captain the Oregon Beer Brawl II team. Votes will be gathered from July 9th starting at 11 am until July 13th at midnight. Taster trays are $10 to participate and vote for your favorite. Admission is free.

Concordia Ale House, 3276 NE Killingsworth, Portland
503-287-3929 • www.concordia-ale.com

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"Puckerfest," July 14-20
Specials on tap and in the bottle throughout the week. Unofficially named the "Puckerfest," several sour beers will also be pouring at the adjoining biercafé.

Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark St., Portland
503-232-8538 • www.belmont-station.com

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Sagebrush Classic, July 18-19
One of the Northwest and Central Oregon's premier culinary and golf events, put on each year by Deschutes Brewery.

Broken Top Club, Bend
800-601-8123 • www.sagebrush.org

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Portland International Beerfest, July 18-20
130 beers from 15 countries in three days. Eminently doable.

North Park Blocks, Portland

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Oregon Brewers Guild Dinner, July 23 (6:00 to 8:30 pm)
Some of the biggest names in craft brewing attend this informal BBQ as a prelude to the Oregon Brewers Festival. The ticket price of $50 ($40 for SNOBs) includes dinner, a souvenir pint glass, and six half-pints of Oregon beers that are not featured at the festival. Proceeds benefit Oregon Brewers Guild. Attendance is limited to 600.

Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland
503-288-2739 • www.oregonbeer.org

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Oregon Brewers Festival July 24-27
What needs to be added?

Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland

Mark your calendars--

[Note: dates were wrong on the original post and have been updated. Sorry for the confusion! Damn that copy editor...]