Migration Rallies

When Migration Brewing first opened up a couple years ago, I was psyched.  It's in walking distance from my house, has a comfortable interior and a slightly industrial but typically urban patio out front.  Problem was, the beer had trouble.  The young guys who started the place were eager, hard-working, and determined to improve things, which they did ... marginally.  But meh beer in a city like Portland is a hard sell.

Sunday afternoon and still packed.

I am a coward.  In the months since my last visit (over twelve), I have dodged Migration.  I didn't want to discover the beer hadn't improved and face the blogging consequences of such a finding.

Last Friday, during a celebratory night out, Sally, Patrick, and I decided to give Migration a shot.  It was one of those gorgeous spring evenings when Portland is about the prettiest town on earth and it's like the city has simultaneously taken a big, happy bong hit.  I was no longer slave to my lesser emotions.

After worming our way through the teeming crowd (a hopeful sign), we ordered three pints, found a table, and discovered that all has changed.  The beers were absolutely clean and well-made, and after a moment of shock, we started nit-picking the recipes.  That's always a good sign--if you're talking about slight tinkering, you're really talking about how you enjoy the beer (as opposed to the discussion you're really having when you're attempting to discover what that nasty, rotten note is).  We had the Terry's Porter--the beer I found the most reliable back in the early days--the IPA, and Glisan St. Dry Hop.

The IPA was perhaps objectively out of balance, but typical for the town.  Patrick's a hop head, but he found it a bit sharp even for his liking.  Still, it was obviously intentional, and I found it pretty palatable.  Terry's Porter is a sold, roasty beer with a bit of rounding sweetness.  The Dry Hop was the real winner, though.  A pretty standard pale (with some oats--always a good call) with tons of late addition and dry hop flavor and aroma.  Just 5%, it's the perfect beer for sitting in the sun on that patio.

I am happy to say my next visit will be measured in days or weeks, not months.

The Boys Are Alright

The good gentlemen of Migration Brewing recently invited the media over for a meet and greet--and tasting, of course. I attended, but with a touch of the nerves, for back in June, I called the brewery out for bad beer. No need to repeat the comments here, but suffice it to say that I figured I wouldn't be the most loved guest. But hey, that's how it goes. I certainly owed Migration another shot to prove me wrong--and, given that the pub is walking distance from my house, I was hoping they would.

Co-owners Mike Branes, McKean Banzer-Lausberg, and Colin Rath started out by giving an oral history of Migration, useful context for understanding the full story. The three are young guys with not a lot of experience in brewing, though Mike Branes, the brewer (pictured at right), worked at a Minnesota brewpub before heading to Oregon. The owners didn't have a lot of money, so they scrambled to get the place opened at the earliest possible moment--meaning they didn't have their brewing equipment installed yet. Lompoc and Three Creeks let them brew with their excess capacity, but that wasn't the same as learning on their own system.

When they did get their system--built by a fabricator that had never made brewing equipment--they had to just brew and go. This resulted in catastrophes like Little Bitter, the source of my earlier post, which they inexplicably didn't just dump.

All of which brings us to the tasting last week. Let's start with the punchline first: big improvement. I would still call these beers average, but they show marked improvement. The early batches of the flagship Migration Pale Ale were harsh and unpleasant. It's still a bit tannic, but a pleasant summer pale. Brief comments on the beers:

• Migration Pale Ale (5.5%). The flagship is designed to be a balanced, English-inflected pale and uses Cascade and Fuggles. The recipe has evolved and is now more balanced and sessionable.
• Honeydew Pale (6.2%). The name comes from the use of honey malt and is meant to be evocative. Unfortunately, it's pretty sharp and expresses very little sweet honey character. I'd like to see more fruit character from hops like Amarillos and a more assertive sweetness from the malt.
• Cream Ale (4.6%). My fave of the bunch, even though it had a very mild touch of diacetyl. Mike uses oats instead of the more traditional corn, but the result is the same--a light, frothy, summer session.

There is a lot to love about Migration. The location and feng shui of the pub is fantastic and the food is good. The guest taps have always given patrons excellent beer to enjoy. The big thing is Migration's own beer--which was, after all, the point of the exercise. McKean, Mike, and Colin are hard-working guys who really want to give the public what they want. I think ultimately it will take more varied, characterful, accomplished beers than the ones currently pouring before Migration conquers the world, but they are light years ahead of the early MPA and Little Bitter I tried. The trajectory looks very promising.

Migration, We Have a Problem

Migration Brewing is a relatively short walk from my house. (Short walks now being defined by the literal stone's throw distance separating myself and soon-to-open Coalition.) As such, it was a very welcome arrival. When they opened, they hadn't gotten their own beers up and running, so I waited until they had a pale on tap. It was ... not good. No worries; it had been brewed at Lompoc, and I figured, let them get their own system going before making hasty judgments.

The good news abounded. The food was tasty, the space is fantastic, and the other taps were occupied by an extremely well-selected (if small) group of beers. If the dismal weather ever ceases, they're going to have wonderful seating--lots of picnic tables out front, and a garage door on one wall that will turn the inside out. All of that still stands.

But last night I went and had another pint and it was ... worse. They're currently pouring two beers, that pale and the one I tried, promisingly called Little Bitter. Rather than go in whole hog, Sally and I tentatively ordered the bitter and an Upright Four (which distressingly makes rarer and rarer appearances as other Upright beers supplant it). Good call. The Little Bitter was literally undrinkable. From a good six inches away, my nose picked up the diacetyl, but the really appalling thing was the strange, lacerating bitterness. I want to say it was a tannic bitterness, but that's not quite right. More like some kind of weed extraction. Looking at the website now, the stats suggest it would be painfully, undrinkably bitter (75 IBUs in a 4.5% beer), but this was beyond hop bitterness.

I note no other bloggers have actually commented on the beer, which I take to be the silence of kindness. I'm not interested in marking Migration with a scarlet letter, either, so consider this an intervention. Migration, I have confidence you can brew good beer, but you need to get on the stick. In Beervana, bad beer is a death sentence, and I want you around the neighborhood for a good, long time.

Openings - Rivergate Brewing, Spints Alehouse, Migration Brewing, and Prost

Recession, what recession? Apparently someone's getting loans. We have news of three separate openings.

Rivergate Brewing
This first piece comes straight from the horse's mouth, via comments, from Brian, a co-owner. Since it refers to comments in a thread from which I've removed it, some of the comments appear to be non sequiturs (go here to read the full conversation):

"Ok, so here’s the details on Rivergate Brewing: North End Pub. I am one of the owners of the new North End Pub on Lombard. Yes, we are going to be as family friendly as OLCC will let us be. We hope to be open by about November the 10th; we may have to open without beer or alcohol--we will have to see when the OLCC gets the permit issued, Just waiting on them.

We are currently trying to get the dining room repainted. Yes it has been a HERCULEAN task getting things cleaned up; the building has been vacant for about 2 years. We hauled 14 yards of debris out of the parking lot alone. I will be planning on brewing some of our own beers in the future, just not happening at the start. I am NOT a hop head, don’t expect big IPA’s from me. I am an ale and Kolsch fan and have been known to dabble in some darker beers just for fun. We are looking forward to seeing as many people as we can when were open. Sorry no more information has leaked out--lots of people have been stopping by and talking to us, so many in fact we have started locking ourselves in so we can get some work done. [editor's note: sorry!]I have hired several excellent cooks to run the kitchen and are working on a great menu, trying to keep it local fresh and flavorful. Hope this helps. Thanks for all the kind words, and we hope to live up to the expectations.

Spints Alehouse
Yesterday, cruising north on 28th Avenue, I happened to see what I thought would become breaking news: a new alehouse. It's walking distance from my house, and I was thinking--what good fortune I have that 1) these places are opening so near to me, and 2) I get to break the news. Umm, no. Apparently everyone in the city knows about Spints but me. (Sample from a cursory Google search: Portland Food and Drink (1), Portland Food and Drink (2), Willamette Week, and It's Pub Night. Oh, and they have a website and Facebook page, too.) Looks like it is going to follow Seattle's lead and become (at last!) a high-end restaurant with cuisine designed to be paired with food beer. A real McCoy gastropub.

Prost
It would be hard to miss the coming of Prost, which is the newest link in the Seattle-based chain, not to mention the newest member of North Mississippi's food scene. The owners completely remodeled an indistinct, tumble-down building on the corner at Skidmore, producing a Victorian gem. The focus is German beer, and all the taps are German imports. From the chatter I've seen on the Brew Crew's listserve, the taps are rather generic. Prost's real virtue lies in the formerly vacant lot just adjacent to the pub. It is now filled with food carts, and Prost is acting as the indoor dining room. Grab a plate of Pad Thai, head inside with it and get a pint of Bitburger. You could definitely find a worse pairing.

Migration Brewing
Bill gets the credit here, breaking the news yesterday, that yet another brewery is opening up in my neighborhood. (No doubt we can credit their siting to the gravity of my intense beer geekyness, which is drawing the breweries like planets to a black hole.) Anyway, here's Bill:

My eagle-eyed neighbor Lindsey spotted signage for a new brewpub near NE 28th and Glisan: Migration Brewing. Pretty soon you'll be able to do an alphabetical pub crawl up 28th. Coalition at Ankeny, Holman's at Burnside, Beulahland at Couch, we need stuff at Davis and Everett, then there's Spints at Flanders and Migration at Glisan.

Neighbor? No wonder we're pulling them in. Apparently Bill's a Buckmanite, too.

Good stuff to keep us warm and happy this winter.