Oregon Brewers Fest First Reax

The first day of the fest is down, and the second is about to commence. I have some bits and pieces, pics, and even a video to share with you. I'm not alone. John Foyston has coverage (story, pix), as do Angelo, Brady, Jon, and Sanjay.

Now, to the fest. When you take into account the number of sniffs and sips I had from my own beers and those of friends, I managed to sample a pretty broad selection of the beers yesterday. A few that really stood out were these:

• Ninkasi Helles Belles. This beer is designed to mislead. You want to read the name as "hell's" bells, but it's actually a Munich helles (pr. hell iss, not hels). You assume it's going to be an ale, a hop bomb, a booming Ninkasi beer. Instead, it's a classic helles and the beer that stood head and shoulders above others for me at the fest. A beautifully elegant beer with delicate, soft malts and peppery hopping, crisp and refreshing. It may be the most accomplished beer Ninkasi has ever brewed, and that's saying something.
• Rock Bottom Zombie Flanders. Van Havig has brewed a Flanders Red called Ned Flanders in the past, and I don't know--but I assume--that this is one of those. Thus the Zombie. But whatever its provenance, the beer is exceptional: slightly sweet, almost chocolatey malts and a sharp, true sour.
• Boulder Hoopla Pale. Colorado beers take some heat for their lack of hop character in these parts. But David Zuckerman, who cut his teeth at BridgePort before moving east, has put plenty of hop richness into this beer. A great hoppy session.
• Goose Island Pepe Nero. This is an unusual beer, a peppery dark saison. It's the kind of beer that seems a little one-dimensional at first sip, but which deepens to reveal further layers as you sip. A ruminative pour.
• New Holland Golden Cap: Speaking of peppered sasions, here's a blond example. Maybe it's the pepper: again, at first I was slightly put off by the beer, which had an astringency that seemed a bit pushy to me. But after a couple sips, it developed into a tang that I started to appreciate and then crave.

There were other interesting experiments I'd say were slightly misguided. Widmer's Foggy Bog Cranberry Ale could have used less cranberry and more ale; Dogfish Head's Black and Red featured both mint and raspberry--and the mint was too much of a weird thing. Finally, Elysian's Idiot Sauvin, made with Nelson Sauvin hops. Some people taste human sweat (me, Jon Abernathy), others get wonderful tropical fruits. In Elysian's, I got both.

Of course, there were lots of other great beers, some which others were raving about. That's the beauty of beer: its diversity pleases all palates. So sample broadly. I will leave you with some sights and video of the Fest.

A McMenamin Hammerhead escorts the ceremonial cask.

I shot this from my still camera and I don't know how to turn it off--so the end is bad. Sorry!

Organizer Art Larrance and parade dignitary Fred Eckhardt.

A rare sighting of Brian McMenamin.

The ceremonial tapping of the keg. (Again, a problem at the end of the vid by the videographer.)

Ninkasi co-owner/brewer Jamie Floyd.


Goose Island master brewer Brett Porter (an alum of both Portland/MacTarnahan's and Deschutes)

Gone Festing

Today begins the Oregon Brewers Festival, our annual Super Bowl of beer. It starts with a parade through downtown, a ceremonial tapping of the OBF cask, and four days of sun-soaked beer tasting on a green ribbon between the Willamette River and downtown Portland. Fred Eckhardt will lead the parade, which he probably should do every year--he is the patron saint not only of the Portland beer community, but good beer in general.



I will be tweeting pics and comments throughout the day, as no doubt will scores of other folks. Watch for the #OBF hashtag to check in on the happenings. (But I can give you a sneak preview: beer, smiles, sun, whooping.)

See you there--

Oregon Brewers Fest By the Numbers

If imitation is flattery, consider this my "aw shucks." Three weeks ago, Sanjay beat me to this year's statistical punch, and I see in my media packet that a similar item is included. But superfluous though it may be, I was there first, and by god, I'm doing the annual numbers post. Note that 2010's numbers are listed in parentheses (a Beervana value-added feature) and none of these numbers include the 51 beers in the "buzz tent." Here we go.

Years since inception: 24
Total beers: 86 (81)
Total breweries: 86 (81)
States represented: 14 (16)
Percent Oregon: 53% (43%)
Percent California: 19% (22%
Percent Washington: 10% (9%)
All Others: 17% (26%)

Ale to Lager ratio: 8 to 1 (9 to 1)
Total styles (by broad category): 34 (27)
IPAs: 17%, 15 total (20%, 16 total)
Belgian styles: 16% (12%)
German/Czech styles: 17% (14%)
Well-represented niche* styles:
__- Pilsner: 4 (5)
__- Cascadian Dark Ale: 4 (NA)
__- Porter: 6 (NA)
__- Munich Helles: 2 (0)
__- Kolsch: 3 (2)

Beers using wheat: 19-ish%** (23%)
Beers using spices/adjuncts: 19% (15%)
Fruit beers: 10% (15%)

ABV of smallest beer (Riverport Blond Movement): 4.3% (4.0%)
ABV of largest beer (Dogfish Head Black and Red Imperial Stout): 10.3% (9.5%)
Beers below 5.5%: 34 (NA)
Beers above 7%: 27 (NA)
Fewest IBUs in Fest (Gilgamesh Mint Kolsch): 0 (0)
Most IBUs at the Fest (Lucky Lab Summit IPA): 103 (111)
Beers between 0 and 40 IBUs: 51 (NA)
Minimum years in a row 21st Amendment has brought Watermelon Wheat: 10 (9)

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*Niche for Oregon, anyway. Your mileage may vary.
**Not every grain bill was available.

The Changing Oregon Brewers Fest

The first edition of the Oregon Brewers Fest came in 1988, when micros enjoyed little cross-state distribution. The breweries were local and, by today's standards, few. As the fest aged, it became a showcase for national breweries we couldn't regularly get in Oregon. As it aged more, local breweries, unable to get a slot in the year's showcase event, organized alternative fests. They wanted to put the Oregon back in the OBF. I'm not sure which approach is best, but one thing that didn't change was the number of taps: it stayed at a rigid 72.

Then a few years back, the OBF decided it would try to grow with the times. The number of regular taps grew slightly (it's now 86) and it has steadily tilted back toward Oregon. Where few small, local breweries could ever have had a chance for a slot in 2005, now a bunch do--including one nano. And for the first time since I've been doing "OBF by the Numbers" (look for that tomorrow), Oregon breweries occupy more than half the taps (51%).

I think the other big change is a move toward specialty beers. In past decades, breweries saw the OBF as a chance to introduce Oregonians to a beer they were pushing in the market. They may have been great beers, but it takes a bit of the luster off a fest when the beers are available at the local Fred Meyer. This year Goose Island, Dogfish Head, Ninkasi, Elysian, Burnside, Oakshire, and Amnesia, and Deschutes (Widmer, too, but they've been doing that forever, bless their hearts) are pitching off-speed stuff.

Little fests started competing with the OBF several years back, and they regularly put together line-ups of better and more interesting beer. The OBF had a choice to make: accept its place as the fest for the masses, the giant kegger by the river, or tune things up and become relevant as the premier big event on the calendar. Good to see they've selected door number two.