In July, You Can't Swing a Dead Cat Without Hitting a Beer Fest

Click to enlarge.

July used to belong to just one beer fest, the giant kegger-by-the-river that kicks off in five day's time.  Then the international beer fest muscled its way onto the calendar (though this year it's coming in August). That made room for other fests, big and small (Puckerfest, Belmont Station's celebration of sour beers, is still one of the best).  This weekend we'll have the formerly in-house McMenamins Roadhouse Brewfest, and it will compete with the new and still-shiny White Owl Lagerfest on Saturday and Sunday.

I have no idea if Lagerfest will join the pantheon of beloved classics, but it's relevant in 2014 not only because it's something new, but because lagers are making a big return to the west coast.  Why I find most fascinating is that these aren't lagers in ale drag, all bejeweled with subtle esters and way too many hops.  They cleave to more ancient traditions and are sessionable in both strength and hop intensity; there are German pilnsers and helleses gallore, along with an occasional Vienna lager, schwarzbier, and maibock.  Unusually, the fest has different taplists both days, and of the two, you'll find more hard-to-get lagers on Sunday, including more from beyond Beervana.  But both days have great line-ups, and for the lagerheads and lager-curious, it looks like a really nice time. 

The Summer of Lagers

Lagerfest
White Owl Social Club, 1305 SE 8th
Sat-Sun 11a to 9p
$20 = mug & 10 tix
Adults only


There haven't been this many lagers in Oregon since Weinhard bit the dust.  I don't know what Jung would say about it, but I know there's something in the collective unconscious.  I go to Germany and the Czech Republic, develop some kind of persistent lager itch, and glory be--brewers back home offer dozens of chances to scratch it.  If you have not, like me, been hoovering up these fine tipples, you have an excellent opportunity over the weekend: Lagerfest, an inaugural effort at showcasing some of these little lovelies.  You will see over to the right a list of the beers (click to enlarge), and therefore observe that it's long enough that even if you have been hoovering, there's plenty of reasons yet to go.