PIB Wrap-up

Ah, PIB, already I miss ye. Can it be that I have to wait 364 days for your bounty to return? Thank heavens we live in Beervana--my pain can be assuaged somewhat in the interim.

A couple of themes emerged from this year's fest. First, the emphasis on local brews. American beers represented the second-largest share of real estate at PIB, causing some in my crowd whinge. Why, after all, should we devote attention to beer we can get year-round when there are so many we can't get? A fair point. But the local beers stood out all the more by being surrounded by world classics. If we fail to recognize some of our best locals as world class, it's perhaps a failure of proximity--you always imagine that the ancient, distant breweries have the secrets of the beeriverse we have decades to master. Seeing our beers there was a reminder that Oregon brewers are among the finest on the planet.

Another theme: hops are hot, yeast is not. The first or second PIB I attended had several funky Belgians--including two or three world-class lambics (Cantillon, I believe). This year, there were no straight lambics and the fruit lambics were all of the large commercial variety--emphasis on sweet. Most of the Belgians tended to emphasize strength over sour--probably a reflection of Portlanders' tastes. On the other hand, there were hops a'poppin. Even in Belgian and German beers.

My notes in a moment, but one more comment. As we walked into the event on Friday, one of my fellow fest-goers looked at me and said, "So, what should I try? I'm following you--you're the beer Sherpa." Very nice (nevermind whether it's true.) You may all now call me the Beer Sherpa.

Okay, the notes (in the order I drank 'em):

Blaugies La Moneuse [saison, Belgium, 8% abv]. Malty; more akin to an abbey than saison. Extremely effervescent--it took the pourer about five minutes to get the head to settle. A bit of grating tinniness that clashes with the nice (if inappropriate) sour note. Rating: average.

L’abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien [abbey ale, Switzerland, 10.5% abv]. Aroma of a Flemish red--sweetly sour. Garnet. Realy layered flavor. Cry and alcoholic, with a spicy note underneath. Slightly thin in body, reminding me of a wine. Vents volatile essence. An authentically original ale. Rating: excellent.

Mahr's Ungespundet [lager, Germany, 4.9% abv]. Looks like a hefeweizen--cloudy golden. Nice, rich beer. Clean, straightforward. Not a lot to say--a good session. Rating: Good.

Caracole Saxo [Belgian Blonde, Belgium, 8% abv]. A wonderfully floral nose--lavender? Strikes me as a saison--very summery, but with the cellary quality I associate with Dupont. Extremely effervescent. Spicy and dry, but with a soft mouthfeel, drawn out by what taste like floral botanicals. The best beer I had a the fest. Rating: a classic.

Full Sail Black Gold Imperial Stout [10.5% abv]. (What I wrote on Sunday was verbatim from my notes.) a beer so tasty it was like a liquid brownie. Alternately, it was compared to an after-dinner coffee drink, spiked with bourbon. Rating: excellent.

Rochefort 10 [strong Trappist ale, Belgium, 11.3% abv]. This beer has a lot of character, but it's so sweet, big, and full of alcohol and candi sugar that it resists me. Time to have some sausage. Subtlety is not this beer's virtue. Rating: incomplete.

[I did, in fact, have a sausage after the Rochefort--a three-quarter pound "big boy" that got me back in the game.]

Hitachino Celebration [eisbock, Japan, 7.6% abv]. Richly peppery. Notable alcohol, but the beer isn't heavy or cloying. (Note in the margins: "Obviously, my adjectives, if not my palate, are failing me.") Rating: good.

Westmalle Tripel [Belgium, 9.5% abv]. Another intense abbey. I note mainly that my palate collapses in the face of this much alcohol and density. This beer bullies me around, taunting me with it's heft. What I devine: the beer shares some of the character of Chimay (the red label?). Some candi sugar fizz on the alcohol. Probably exquisite, but I have a hard time penetrating its depth. Rating: incomplete.

Birrificio Cassissona [Belgian-style specialty ale, Italy, 7% abv]. An effervescent, beguiling ale. The cassis is a minor note, adding some sweetness, but mostly a dark-fruit quality that might otherwise come from malt and yeast. Buckwheat color. The sweet is offset by notes of bitter and tart--those three notes are in perfect harmony. I imagine this would be a delightful complement to hearty foods. Rating: excellent.

Verhaeghe Duchesse de Bourgogne [Flemish red, Belgium, 6.2% abv]. Hits the sweet spot. Classic Flemish red, which I find very hard to describe. Predominant flavor is a balance between sweet and sour, neither overwhelming the beer. Rating: excellent.

St Sylvestre Gavroche [supposedly also a Flemish red, France, 8.5%]. "Gavroche = gagroach." (Sorry, it was getting late in the fest.) Rating: not poisonous.

Walking Man Blootvooetse Bruin [hybrid style, US, 5.3%]. A malty brown ale with a touch of sour. Sally claims to be able to taste the Kombucha, but I think she's faking. Mighty quaffable. Rating: good.

PIB - Video

Here's a minute forty-six of muddy, low-res video, this time on Youtube. Last time, my one-minute clip was high-res, and I got a complaint or two. This time, we have easy-to-play low res. See what you think. (I seem to not be able to embed it in the post, so click on the pic:



Cheers--

International Beerfest First Impressions

This is a preliminary post for anyone who's still planning on heading down to the International Beerfest this afternoon. We have some early must-tries, based on a sampling of about 16 beers. I'll post a fuller round-up later today or tomorrow.

Big Winners
Saxo Blonde (Brasserie La Caracole, Belgium) - has a softly floral nose that suggests actual infusions of flowers--lavender comes to mind, but I can't say. It has a cellary quality, and is effervescent, dry, and spicy in the manner of a saison, yet has that very soft, flowery note.

Black Gold Imperial Stout (Full Sail, Hood River) - a beer so tasty it was like a liquid brownie. Alternately, it was compared to an after-dinner coffee drink, spiked with bourbon.

Duchesse de Bourgogne (Brouwerij Verhaeghe, Belgium) - A classic Flemish red I sampled toward the end of the evening. A perfect mixture of sour, sweet, and dry that got raves from our group. Despite the 3-ticket pricetag, even the cheapskates went in for a pour.

Best to Skip
Oud Beersel Kriek (Brouwerij Oud Beersel, Belgium) - A sugary-sweet confection with almost no sourness or complexity.

Jenlain Biere de Garde (Duyck, France) - Cloyingly sweet. The one real dud I sampled.

More to come--including a video clip of the event.

Preview - Portland International Beerfest

Portland International Beerfest, July 14-16
North Park Blocks
Friday 4-10pm
Saturday Noon-10pm
Sunday Noon-7pm
www.portland-beerfest.com

There isn't a way to do an adequate preview of the Portland International Beerfest short of, I guess, getting Michael Jackson to write it. According the website, there will be 126 beers there, 95 from foreign lands. I'm no novice, but safe to say that I haven't had the chance to try 80% or more of the beers yet. So, disclaimers out of the way, let's get to business.

The 126 beers pouring represent 12 countries, but one stands out: Belgium, with 49 beers. (Germany, at number two, has but twenty.) For beer geeks, this is good news indeed. Belgian brewers are the great innovators in the beer world, and they will try brewing anything. Despite having some of the oldest and most traditional breweries in the world (Orval, a brewery run by Trappist monks, is 900 years old), it also features one of the most vigorous batch of new microbrewers outside of Portland. One theme I noticed this year is how many Belgian breweries are taking their cues from Beervana to brew massive, hoppy beers. So don't be shy--take the opportunity to dive into the wild, weird, wonderful world of Belgian brewing.

In addition to the Belgians, you will also have the opportunity to try some of the rarest beers in the world, as PIB gathers together artisnal beers from some tiny breweries in Europe. (Whether they're good or not is another matter--not every microbrewery is a Hair of the Dog; some are obscure for a reason.)

Having looked pretty carefully through the list of beers, I've compiled a list by type that I think are worth highlighting. You will follow your own muse, but here are a few to keep your eyes on.

Stats: Austria (2), Belgium (49), Czech Republic (2), England (10), France (3), Germany (20), Italy (2), Japan(2), Poland (3), Scotland (1), Switzerland (1), US (31). Total: 126

Extremely Rare

• L’abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien (Switzerland) - Only a thousand bottles of this Swiss abbey ale are making it across the pond in 2006. Before bottling, the beer is aged in wine barrels. [10.5% abv]
  
• La Gnomette (Belgium) - A bit more of this beer is coming to the US--40 kegs--but it's far from an abundance. Brasserie d'Achouffe changes the recipe each year. [9% abv]
  
• Uerige Doppel-Sticke (Germany) - This is a German alt of the kind that inspired the Widmer Brothers when they brewed up their first batch of Ur-Alt. It weighs in at an astonishing 75 BUs--amazing for a German beer. [8.5% abv]
  
• Pierre de Rouge (Oregon) - Brewed by Max Tieger for Tuck's brewery (in Tigard) just before he left to start his own brewery. A Belgian style red which, once its gone, will be gone for good. [7% abv]
  

Rare
Most beery types have sampled Trappist ale from widely-distributed Chimay and Orval. But have you tried the other monks' ales? You'll have a chance with Rochefort's most robust abbey ale, Rochefort 10 [11.3% abv], as well as Westmalle Tripel [9.5% abv], and the newest of the Trappists (founded in '91) Achel Extra [9.5% abv] (all from Belgium). The former two are among the most famous in the world, and I'm embarrassed to say I've never tried them.

As I'm on a saison kick, I would like to direct your attention to two of four offered: Blaugies La Moneuse [8% abv] and Fantome Saison [8% abv] (again both from Belgium). La Moneuse is a maltier, less hoppy saison than Dupont (it's named for a local bandit), while Fantome features a more layered, spiced palate. I recall that it used to be brewed with peppercorns (and may still), one of the most delightful ingredients I've ever encountered.

Also:

• Oud Beersel Kriek (Belgium) - Comes from a brewery that closed to much anguish in 2002, only to be reoponed last year. Krieks are sophisticated fruit lambics with a sour-dry note, more akin to wine than American fruit beers. [6.5% abv]
• Meantime IPA (England) - An IPA from a brewery I've never even heard of. It's in Greenwich, so hence the name. [7.5% abv]
• Black Gold-Bourbon Barrel (Oregon) - A bourbon-aged imperial stout. What more do you need to say? [10.5% abv]
• Caracole Saxo (Belgium) - This is a bit of a wild card, catching my eye as a brewery I've never even heard of. Takes its name from the word "snail" in the local Namurois dialect. [8% abv]

Rare Styles
There are a number of traditional beer styles out there that we don't have much of an opportunity to sample in their native form. This is one of the main reasons I go to PIB--to sample some of the styles I've read so much about.

• Monchshof Schwarzbier (Germany) - A dark lager, something like a porter, but drier and lighter. [4.9% abv]
• Black Boss Baltic Porter (Poland) - Speaking of lagered porters, that's what a Baltic Porter is. I've tried Black Boss, and it's quite nice. [8.1% abv]
• Klaster Dark (Czech Republic) - Another dark lager, but a Bohemian variety. [4% abv]
• Mahr's Ungespundet (Germany) - This is an unfiltered artisnal German beer, harkening back to an earlier, less fussy time in German brewing. [4.9% abv]
• Duchesse de Bourgogne (Belgium) - A Flemish red ale (the classic style of which is produced by Rodenbach). This style is typically nearly as sharp as a lambic, though the quality of the sourness is unique. [6.2% abv]
• Val-Dieu Bruin (Belgium) - Oud bruins (brown) are another regional specialty of Flanders, but these are sweeter and less sour than other Belgians. Liefmans is the classic producer. [8% abv]
• Duyck Jenlain Amber (France) - France's sole native style of beer is the biere de garde, and it is quite hard to find an indiginous example. Duyck is one. [6.5% abv]

Weird
Finally, there are some beers that defy category but look promising. I have the least amount of confidence in these, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the transcendent beers of the fest is in this batch.

• Blootvoetse Bruin
(Washington) - I wouldn't mention this save that it comes from one of Beervana's finest breweries, Walking Man. Despite the name, which suggests brown, this is a take on a Flanders Red that gets the sourness from--I kid you not--Kombucha tea fungus. [5.3% abv]
• De Proef Flemish Primative
(Belgium) - A Belgian offering with several strains of brettanomyces, the wild yeast strain that give lambics their funk. Several! [9% abv]
• Cassisona (Italy) - What makes this lambic interesting is where it comes from: Italy. There appears to be some kind of microbrewery movement happening down in the Boot. Worth seeing how they're doing. [7% abv]
• Kerkom Bink Bloesem (Belgium) - One of those funky Belgian beers with a lot of weird ingredients, including pear syrup. Who knows. [7.1% abv]
• Melbourn Strawberry (England) - This is a British fruit ale which may or may not be worth trying (I can't tell if it's just a sugary confection or is akin to lambics, as one site implies). [4.1% abv]
• Hitchino Nest Celebration Ale
(Japan) - A Japanese spiced eisbock (a beer made and then frozen, with some of the ice removed to make it more robust). [7.6% abv]

Looking back at the list, I see I've recommended 26 beers from ten countries, which is, I guess, a slight winnowing. That's the nature of this fest--too many beers, too little time. Ah well, there are worse quandries to find yourself in.

Cheers!

Post updated July 14, 2006.