The Best of Portland International Beer Fest

I am lately overly busy, and unlike past years, PIB and the OBF are running on consecutive weekends--which means I don't even have the time to stop and breathe after one fest before I should be looking to the next. So I'm sorry this is a scanty review.

I had a number of wonderful beers, some of which were old standards, some that were new head-turners. Of those I loved, though, I loved two the most. Put these at the back of your mind and if you see them at a beer store, consider them must-buys.

They're both beers I had identified earlier--the Baird Temple Garden Yuzu and Harviestoun's Ola Dubh ("Engine Oil"), aged in barrels of the 12-year Highland Park Scotch whisky. The Baird beer was fascinating. The base beer seemed something like a kolsch--mild and crisp. It was the addition of Japanese yuzu ("citron, a terrifically aromatic and tart citrus fruit") that made this a totally unique beer. It smelled familiarly (and misleadingly) citrusy, as if hopped with Northwest strains. But the flavor was absent citrus or hop; rather, it had a very earthy, peppery quality. You could tell it didn't come from spices or pepper, but something like a vegetable--but citrus fruit seemed out of the question. Something new, and tasty, under the sun.

Haviestoun sent two batches of their Ola Dubh. One had been aged in 12-year old scotch barrels, the other in 30-year-old barrels (!). The latter appeared only briefly on Saturday and then vanished, and it took me about a half hour of waiting in a long line to get my pour. Plenty of time, it turned out, to savor the 12-year version. The 30-year was intensely scotch-y; it was the predominant flavor. Some folks preferred this. Although I love scotch, I found it out of balance. So much liquor had seeped into the brew that the beer was the accompaniment; it was a lighter-bodied brew and not particularly creamy.

The 12-year version was exceptional. The base beer is extremely rich and creamy. The "oil" of the name is apt; it has a viscosity rarely achieved in beers. In this beer, though, the Scotch is a complimentary, minor note. Certain elements were accentuated--vanilla, wood, pipe tobacco. With very strong beers, it's sometimes difficult to bring the beer to a point of pleasant intensity. The 12-year hit this mark perfectly. You didn't want to swallow, but instead let the mouthful swish around so you could continue to search for other flavors in the rich brew. It was one of the better beers I've ever tasted, and by far the best beer aged in a whisky barrel.

(Incidentally, the 12-year was served from the bottle, the 30-year from a keg. This means that there are bottles out there identical to what I sampled--even more reason to pass along the recommendation. I don't know how bottled 30-year would differ.)

Pics from PIB 2008

Ola Dubh 12 Year, not the coveted 30-year, was this year's brightest jewel.

A volunteer smiles while pouring Dupont Foret. Wouldn't you?

At 1:30 on Saturday, people started lining up for the special beers.

The wee cask of JW Lee's barleywine blew long before I got to the front of the line.

These beautiful little goblets ran out by about 3 pm on Saturday.

Festgoers (and friends).

When you start seeing gnomes, it's time to go home.

The Complete Guide to the Portland International Beer Festival

Portland International Beer Fest, July 18-20

North Park Blocks, Portland
Friday 4pm-10pm
Saturday 12pm-10pm
Sunday 12pm-7pm

Beer drinkers pay $20 for 10 beer tickets and official PIB glass. More tickets available for $1 each. All beers are 4 oz. servings. Each beer costs 1 to 4 tickets depending on "swank factor." Usually at least half are just 1 ticket.

The Great Beers

For the beer fan who wants to increase her knowledge of world beer styles, there are few opportunities that offer so many landmark classics as the Portland International Beerfest. Most of the beers brewed in Oregon can trace their lineage backward to Europe and a traditional, local style. Knowing what the originals taste like is useful not only in undertanding the style, but in appreciating the innovation or original flourish you find in a local beer based on that style.

I don't often refer to these in my previews because so much has already been written. That's probably short-sighted, though. Few will have tried all these (including me), and it's worth mentioning something about the style why the beer's important. So here we go.

Rochefort 6 (Belgium)
There are only seven Trappist breweries in the world, and they brew what are loosely refered to as Abbey ales. The adjective "Trappist" is specific--the brewery must be overseen by actual Cistercian monks. Breweries that brew abbey ales or are resident in former abbeys cannot legally call themselves "Trappist." Brewing at the monastery dates back to 1595, and the monks of Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy still brew their beer, in three styles, 6 (red cap), 8 (green cap), and 10 (blue cap). The ten is the most commonly exported, and the 6 the least, just 1% of production--so this is a rare opportunity. The 6 is a reddish dubbel, lighter than the 8 or 10. I've yet to try it.

Click to expand the post and continue reading...

Konigshoeven ("La Trappe") Quadrupel (Holland)
Another of the Trappist breweries, and the only brewing monastery outside Belgium. By tradition, the styles of abbey ales range in strength from a small ale to dubbel (double), tripel, and quadrupel. From Konigshoeven we have the quad, which weighs in at 10%.

Schneider-Weisse (Germany)
Possibly the oldest brewery producing wheat beers, Schneider's brewery dates back to 1607. If you've only every had Northwest Hefeweizen, try this beer (or Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse) for a re-education. These beers are amazingly tasty--soft on the palate, fresh, effervescent, and redolent with cloves and spice that comes from the high fermentation temperatures. They are perfect summer beers, and I enjoy them regularly.

Oktoberfest (Ur-Marzen) (Germany)
In German, "Ur" means original, and Spaten lays claim to having brewed the first Marzen, or Vienna-style lager. First brewed in 1871 by Josef Sedlmayr, it has the characteristic malty/spicy quality that has made this style so famous. Originally, the beer was brewed in March (Marzen) and aged through the summer. It is now aged 14 weeks and is rounded and richer than some more modern versions. If you try it, do so early, because none of the flavors are bold enough to stand up to a hop-clouded palate.

Liefmans Kriek (Belgium)
The style "kriek" is now starting to become known to American drinkers, but this beer will fool you if you're expecting a lambic kriek. Liefmans is the standard-bearer for a sweet-and-sour ale known variously as Flanders or Flemish Brown or Oud Bruin. "Kriek" means cherry, and old and young browns are blended at the addition of cherries before a secondary fermentation. The result is more cherry than brown, but delicious. I haven't had one since before Liefmans financial troubles, so I will be interested to see how they're holding up.

Belhaven Wee Heavy (Scotland)
Belhaven is substantially older than the US, founded in 1719. Despite this, it is not well-known in the US, and I've never had the pleasure of finding any. Belhaven is a traditional brewery producing two classic Scottish styles, 80 Shilling and Wee Heavy, the top ends of the continuum in terms of strength (like the Abbey system, the beers run weak to strong from 60 Shilling to Wee Heavy). Belhaven's Wee Heavy is on the very bottom end for strength--6.5%.

Aventinus Eisbock (Germany)
What's stronger than a doppelbock? A doppel distilled. The way it works is this: when you partially freeze a beer, the part that ices up is water--remove that ice ("eis"), and you have an eisbock. Aventinus is one of the most famous, and Michael Jackson once wrote that in the beer garden of eden, the forbidden fruit would taste like Aventinus Eisbock. Do superlatives run higher than that?

Boon Kriek (Belgium)
Frank Boon (pronounced something like "Bone") proves you don't have to have an old brewery to brew a world classic. He founded his brewery after many Oregon micros, in 1989. Nevertheless, I believe he brews the finest lambics in the world. It is a totally traditional lambic brewery, and all his beers are spontaneously fermented--that is, he adds no yeast and lets nature take its funky course with his beer. Kriek is a blend of old and young lambic with a healthy addition of cherries. If you've never had a lambic, you must try this beer--it will radically alter the way you think about beer.

Others
Those are not the only world classics pouring at the fest. I did not include those readily available in town: Chimay (another Belgian Trappist), Pilsner Urquell (the "ur" in Urquell denotes the status of this original Bohemian pilsner from the Czech republic), Saison Dupont (the standard for Belgian farmhouse ales), Duchesse de Bourgogne (the exquisitely balanced Flanders Red), Coniston Bluebird Bitter (apparently the bottled version, which is stronger and less interesting than the wonderful draft version) Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout (one of the most traditional stouts, and the only English stouts available in the US 20 years ago). If any of these beers is on tap, don't hesitate to try them. If I were to assemble a list of the ten best beers in the world, Chimay Blue, Saison Dupont, and possibly Pilsner Urquell would be on it. These are great beers.

The New Beers

It's not only the US which has a micro revolution. New breweries are popping up all over the globe, and as with the young American breweries, a lot these have energy and a nice measure of irreverence. Some may be world classics in a few decades, so you can get in on the ground floor now. I have tried only one of these, so I'm running blind here. Caveat Beeror.

Ølfabrikken - Porter (Denmark)
You know what they say, Denmark's the new Portland. Okay, they don't say that, but they could, because this Scandanavian country now has several breweries with serious international juice. Ølfabrikken, which I haven't a clue how to pronounce, is Danish for "The Beer Factory," and it was founded just three years ago. Nevertheless, they have produced dozens of beers. This is their main export, a big Baltic (7.5%) and a delight to those who have tried it.

Mikkeller - Black Hole (Denmark)
You know the story: homebrewers turn pro, found a brewery, start winning awards, and pretty soon they set Copenhagen ablaze. Okay, you know a variant of the story. What's remarkable about this brewery is that it appears to have taken its cues from the US, with beers named Jackie Brown and Santa's Little Helper. That means that our beers, inspired by Europe, are now impressive enough to be inspiring a whole new generation of brewers ... in Europe. In any case, Mikkeller has a vibe that certainly would not be out of place on North Mississippi or SE Belmont. This imperial stout was brewed with flaked oats, dark cassanade, honey, coffee, and vanilla. The brewers describe it (with a nod to Stone?) as "vulgar and extreme." Sounds like my kind of beer.

The Bogedal - No.103 (Denmark)
Our final entrant into my Denmark picks (there are other Danish beers, if you want to keep working on the theme) comes from the country's only all-gravity brewery. That's old-school ... like medieval old. As the brewer puts it, the "beer runs from cask to cask by help of pulleys and level differentiation… without the use of pumps." I don't really know what this beer's going to be like because the translation is a bit iffy. It may something like a Oud Bruin, or maybe not. The brewery says it goes well with venison, however, so you got that goin for you.

De La Senne - Taras Boulba ("Smeirlap!") (Belgium)
I reviewed this beer recently, but it bears mentioning again. A wonderfully complex and surprisingly low-alcohol beer (4.5%--a friend to you at this high-alcohol event). Full review here.

Picobrouwerij Alvinne - Melchior (Belgium)
This is an 11% barleywine made with mustard seeds. I need no further invitation, but in case you do, I offer this description from their webpage, run through the Google translator: " The Melchior is the heaviest descendant of our brewery. This Barley wine is one to be cautious taste. It is a complex beer with a spicy nose, malty and heavy gehopt. It has a solid body and is a bitter aftertaste." One thing I do like is a heavy gehopt. Founded in 2004.

Baird - Temple Garden Yuzu Ale (Japan)
Bryan Baird is an American who founded his brewpub in Numazu, Japan, exporting a little bit of Beervana-style brewing east. Turns out he was living in Japan and decided he'd like to open a brewery there, so he came back to the US, learned to brew at Redhook, and then opened Baird's in 2000. His model? "The brewery-pub outfit that I admire most, though, unquestionably is McMenamins." This particular beer is a little hard to resist: it's brewed with Japanese lemons (yuzu) harvested from the garden of a nearby Buddhist temple. It's a wheat beer and the "aromatics stem entirely from late kettle additions of Yuzu peels." Wow.

Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! - Peche Mortel (Canada)
Don't be fooled, as I was, by the "peche" in the title--it doesn't mean "peach." Péché Mortel means "mortal sin," and this is a cult favorite that may one day become a world standard. Dieu du Ciel started as a brewpubin Montrèal ten years ago, and has only recently started bottling. The untrained brewer, Jean-François, has also achieved a kind of fame that reminds me of Craig Nicholls'. This is their flagship beer, an imperial stout. (Dieu du Ciel, incidentally, means God in heaven!--an exclamation of pubgoers, one imagines, after they've committed themselves to a Mortal Sin.)

Best of the Rest

In the last of my posts on the Portland International Beer Festival, which opens this afternoon at four, I will bat clean-up. There are a number of beers that didn't fit into earlier categories, but which deserve mention. Since there hasn't been a lot of chatter one these posts, let me throw it open to you: which beers are you looking forward to?

Cantillon Cognac-Barrel Gueuze (Belgium)
Cantillon acquired some oak barrels that had aged cognac for 15 years. They added their gueuze for another two. Wow.

La Choulette Framboise (France)
This is actually a bière de garde (France's only extant indigenous beer style) that has been brewed with raspberry juice. It is described as dry rather than sweet, and the raspberry is purported to be a relatively minor note. Intriguing...

De Molen Rasputin Imperial Stout (Holland)
I'm a sucker for gimmicks, and the gimmick here is that De Molen is brewed just once a year--this particular vintage on March 17th 2007. It was later bottled on April 27th. That means it will arrive a little over a year old, which means it ought to be ready for sampling.

Harviestoun Ola Dubh 30 Yr (Scotland)
Ola Dubh means engine oil, a name Harviestoun gives to a beer that's somewhere between a stout and old ale. It has been aged in Highland Park malt whisky barrels. This one aged in a barrels of 30-year-old whisky. It will be tapped at 2 pm Saturday, and will probably run out quickly.

Konigshoeven ("La Trappe") Quadrupel (Holland)
Another of the Trappist breweries, and the only brewing monastery outside Belgium. By tradition, the styles of abbey ales range in strength from a small ale to dubbel (double), tripel, and quadrupel. From Konigshoeven we have the quad, which weighs in at 10%.

Schneider-Weisse (Germany)
Possibly the oldest brewery producing wheat beers, Schneider's brewery dates back to 1607. If you've only every had Northwest Hefeweizen, try this beer (or Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse) for a re-education. These beers are amazingly tasty--soft on the palate, fresh, effervescent, and redolent with cloves and spice that comes from the high fermentation temperatures. They are perfect summer beers, and I enjoy them regularly.

Oktoberfest (Ur-Marzen) (Germany)
In German, "Ur" means original, and Spaten lays claim to having brewed the first Marzen, or Vienna-style lager. First brewed in 1871 by Josef Sedlmayr, it has the characteristic malty/spicy quality that has made this style so famous. Originally, the beer was brewed in March (Marzen) and aged through the summer. It is now aged 14 weeks and is rounded and richer than some more modern versions. If you try it, do so early, because none of the flavors are bold enough to stand up to a hop-clouded palate.

Liefmans Kriek (Belgium)
The style "kriek" is now starting to become known to American drinkers, but this beer will fool you if you're expecting a lambic kriek. Liefmans is the standard-bearer for a sweet-and-sour ale known variously as Flanders or Flemish Brown or Oud Bruin. "Kriek" means cherry, and old and young browns are blended at the addition of cherries before a secondary fermentation. The result is more cherry than brown, but delicious. I haven't had one since before Liefmans financial troubles, so I will be interested to see how they're holding up.

Belhaven Wee Heavy (Scotland)
Belhaven is substantially older than the US, founded in 1719. Despite this, it is not well-known in the US, and I've never had the pleasure of finding any. Belhaven is a traditional brewery producing two classic Scottish styles, 80 Shilling and Wee Heavy, the top ends of the continuum in terms of strength (like the Abbey system, the beers run weak to strong from 60 Shilling to Wee Heavy). Belhaven's Wee Heavy is on the very bottom end for strength--6.5%.

Aventinus Eisbock (Germany)
What's stronger than a doppelbock? A doppel distilled. The way it works is this: when you partially freeze a beer, the part that ices up is water--remove that ice ("eis"), and you have an eisbock. Aventinus is one of the most famous, and Michael Jackson once wrote that in the beer garden of eden, the forbidden fruit would taste like Aventinus Eisbock. Do superlatives run higher than that?

Boon Kriek (Belgium)
Frank Boon (pronounced something like "Bone") proves you don't have to have an old brewery to brew a world classic. He founded his brewery after many Oregon micros, in 1989. Nevertheless, I believe he brews the finest lambics in the world. It is a totally traditional lambic brewery, and all his beers are spontaneously fermented--that is, he adds no yeast and lets nature take its funky course with his beer. Kriek is a blend of old and young lambic with a healthy addition of cherries. If you've never had a lambic, you must try this beer--it will radically alter the way you think about beer.

Others
Those are not the only world classics pouring at the fest. I did not include those readily available in town: Chimay (another Belgian Trappist), Pilsner Urquell (the "ur" in Urquell denotes the status of this original Bohemian pilsner from the Czech republic), Saison Dupont (the standard for Belgian farmhouse ales), Duchesse de Bourgogne (the exquisitely balanced Flanders Red), Coniston Bluebird Bitter (apparently the bottled version, which is stronger and less interesting than the wonderful draft version) Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout (one of the most traditional stouts, and the only English stouts available in the US 20 years ago). If any of these beers is on tap, don't hesitate to try them. If I were to assemble a list of the ten best beers in the world, Chimay Blue, Saison Dupont, and possibly Pilsner Urquell would be on it. These are great beers.

PIB 2008: The Best of the Rest

In the last of my posts on the Portland International Beer Festival, which opens this afternoon at four, I will bat clean-up. There are a number of beers that didn't fit into earlier categories, but which deserve mention. Since there hasn't been a lot of chatter one these posts, let me throw it open to you: which beers are you looking forward to?

Cantillon Cognac-Barrel Gueuze (Belgium)
Cantillon acquired some oak barrels that had aged cognac for 15 years. They added their gueuze for another two. Wow.

La Choulette Framboise (France)
This is actually a bière de garde (France's only extant indigenous beer style) that has been brewed with raspberry juice. It is described as dry rather than sweet, and the raspberry is purported to be a relatively minor note. Intriguing...

De Molen Rasputin Imperial Stout (Holland)
I'm a sucker for gimmicks, and the gimmick here is that De Molen is brewed just once a year--this particular vintage on March 17th 2007. It was later bottled on April 27th. That means it will arrive a little over a year old, which means it ought to be ready for sampling.

Harviestoun Ola Dubh 30 Yr (Scotland)
Ola Dubh means engine oil, a name Harviestoun gives to a beer that's somewhere between a stout and old ale. It has been aged in Highland Park malt whisky barrels. This one aged in a barrels of 30-year-old whisky. It will be tapped at 2 pm Saturday, and will probably run out quickly.

Cheers to all. Hope to see you there--

PIB: The New World Beers

It is appropriate that the list of American beers is growing. I love the Portland International Beer Festival because it allows me to (relatively) cheaply taste beers that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to assemble and sample. But it's now the case that American beers are as good, as rare, and as costly as their international counterparts. They should proudly share the stage--they are international standards, even if they are domestic or local. You will certainly find ones you like, but here's the list of those that are catching my eye.

Great Divide Oak-Aged Yeti
There's an old trick Charlie Papazian suggests for homebrewers to get the flavor benefits of oak without having to buy the barrel: toast a few oak chips and dump them in during fermentation. Great Divide borrows the technique for their otherwise unaltered imperial stout. 9.5% abv.

Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza
Jolly Pumpkin has gotten more press than any brewery in recent memory. Well, let's see if a Michigan joint deserves such adolation. This is their version of a biere de garde which they describe as "spicy and peppery with a gentle hop bouquet and the beguiling influence of wild yeast." I believe Oro de Calabaza means "Golden Pumpkin." 8.0% abv.

Allagash Black
You know, there are a lot of stouts at this fest. This is another one, but with a twist. Allagash has long been a leader in pushing the Belgian envelope, so it's not suprising that they've used a Belgian yeast strain and bottle fermented in the methode champenoise. 7.5% abv.

Cascade Quadrupel
Ron Gansberg sends two of his experiments to PIB, and the truth is, I'll try them both. I chose to highlight the Quad (the other is his Grand Cru), which I dimly recall from my visit to the Raccoon Lodge (it was one of the later beers I tried) as fantastic. I would like to verify. For those who haven't had Gansberg's Belgian-inspired beers, get on the stick--they're some of the most interesting beers in all of Beervana. 11% abv.

North Coast Brother Thelonius
A huge double from the folks who brought us Old Rasputin. It has what is easily the coolest label this side of ... well, Old Rasputin. I have heard murmurs that it may hold the rare artistic genius of Crepuscule with Nellie (that link, by the way, is worth following).

Deschutes XX Black Butte
You have already heard something about this beer, and perhaps you have had it. It is nothing like Black Butte, weighing in at 11% alcohol and including cocoa nibs, 100 pounds roasted coffee as "dry hopping," and then aging in Stranahan’s Colorado whiskey barrels.

I'll try to wrap all of this up with a final post today or tomorrow. As an FYI:

Portland International Beer Fest, July 18-20
North Park Blocks, Portland
Friday 4pm-10pm
Saturday 12pm-10pm
Sunday 12pm-7pm

Beer drinkers pay $20 for 10 beer tickets and official PIB glass. More tickets available for $1 each. All beers are 4 oz. servings

Each beer costs 1 to 4 tickets depending on "swank factor." Usually at least half are just 1 ticket.

PIB 2008: The New Beers

It's not only the US which has a micro revolution. New breweries are popping up all over the globe, and as with the young American breweries, a lot these have energy and a nice measure of irreverence. Some may be world classics in a few decades, so you can get in on the ground floor now. I have tried only one of these, so I'm running blind here. Caveat Beeror.

Ølfabrikken - Porter (Denmark)
You know what they say, Denmark's the new Portland. Okay, they don't say that, but they could, because this Scandanavian country now has several breweries with serious international juice. Ølfabrikken, which I haven't a clue how to pronounce, is Danish for "The Beer Factory," and it was founded just three years ago. Nevertheless, they have produced dozens of beers. This is their main export, a big Baltic (7.5%) and a delight to those who have tried it.

Mikkeller - Black Hole (Denmark)
You know the story: homebrewers turn pro, found a brewery, start winning awards, and pretty soon they set Copenhagen ablaze. Okay, you know a variant of the story. What's remarkable about this brewery is that it appears to have taken its cues from the US, with beers named Jackie Brown and Santa's Little Helper. That means that our beers, inspired by Europe, are now impressive enough to be inspiring a whole new generation of brewers ... in Europe. In any case, Mikkeller has a vibe that certainly would not be out of place on North Mississippi or SE Belmont. This imperial stout was brewed with flaked oats, dark cassanade, honey, coffee, and vanilla. The brewers describe it (with a nod to Stone?) as "vulgar and extreme." Sounds like my kind of beer.

The Bogedal - No.103 (Denmark)
Our final entrant into my Denmark picks (there are other Danish beers, if you want to keep working on the theme) comes from the country's only all-gravity brewery. That's old-school ... like medieval old. As the brewer puts it, the "beer runs from cask to cask by help of pulleys and level differentiation… without the use of pumps." I don't really know what this beer's going to be like because the translation is a bit iffy. It may something like a Oud Bruin, or maybe not. The brewery says it goes well with venison, however, so you got that goin for you.

De La Senne - Taras Boulba ("Smeirlap!") (Belgium)
I reviewed this beer recently, but it bears mentioning again. A wonderfully complex and surprisingly low-alcohol beer (4.5%--a friend to you at this high-alcohol event). Full review here.

Picobrouwerij Alvinne - Melchior (Belgium)
This is an 11% barleywine made with mustard seeds. I need no further invitation, but in case you do, I offer this description from their webpage, run through the Google translator: " The Melchior is the heaviest descendant of our brewery. This Barley wine is one to be cautious taste. It is a complex beer with a spicy nose, malty and heavy gehopt. It has a solid body and is a bitter aftertaste." One thing I do like is a heavy gehopt. Founded in 2004.

Baird - Temple Garden Yuzu Ale (Japan)
Bryan Baird is an American who founded his brewpub in Numazu, Japan, exporting a little bit of Beervana-style brewing east. Turns out he was living in Japan and decided he'd like to open a brewery there, so he came back to the US, learned to brew at Redhook, and then opened Baird's in 2000. His model? "The brewery-pub outfit that I admire most, though, unquestionably is McMenamins." This particular beer is a little hard to resist: it's brewed with Japanese lemons (yuzu) harvested from the garden of a nearby Buddhist temple. It's a wheat beer and the "aromatics stem entirely from late kettle additions of Yuzu peels." Wow.

Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! - Peche Mortel (Canada)
Don't be fooled, as I was, by the "peche" in the title--it doesn't mean "peach." Péché Mortel means "mortal sin," and this is a cult favorite that may one day become a world standard. Dieu du Ciel started as a brewpubin Montrèal ten years ago, and has only recently started bottling. The untrained brewer, Jean-François, has also achieved a kind of fame that reminds me of Craig Nicholls'. This is their flagship beer, an imperial stout. (Dieu du Ciel, incidentally, means God in heaven!--an exclamation of pubgoers, one imagines, after they've committed themselves to a Mortal Sin.)

Are you getting excited for this fest?--man, I am.

PIB 2008, The Great Beers

For the beer fan who wants to increase her knowledge of world beer styles, there are few opportunities that offer so many landmark classics as the Portland International Beerfest. Most of the beers brewed in Oregon can trace their lineage backward to Europe and a traditional, local style. Knowing what the originals taste like is useful not only in undertanding the style, but in appreciating the innovation or original flourish you find in a local beer based on that style.

I don't often refer to these in my previews because so much has already been written. That's probably short-sighted, though. Few will have tried all these (including me), and it's worth mentioning something about the style why the beer's important. So here we go.

Rochefort 6 (Belgium)
There are only seven Trappist breweries in the world, and they brew what are loosely refered to as Abbey ales. The adjective "Trappist" is specific--the brewery must be overseen by actual Cistercian monks. Breweries that brew abbey ales or are resident in former abbeys cannot legally call themselves "Trappist." Brewing at the monastery dates back to 1595, and the monks of Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy still brew their beer, in three styles, 6 (red cap), 8 (green cap), and 10 (blue cap). The ten is the most commonly exported, and the 6 the least, just 1% of production--so this is a rare opportunity. The 6 is a reddish dubbel, lighter than the 8 or 10. I've yet to try it.

Konigshoeven ("La Trappe") Quadrupel (Holland)
Another of the Trappist breweries, and the only brewing monastery outside Belgium. By tradition, the styles of abbey ales range in strength from a small ale to dubbel (double), tripel, and quadrupel. From Konigshoeven we have the quad, which weighs in at 10%.

Schneider-Weisse (Germany)
Possibly the oldest brewery producing wheat beers, Schneider's brewery dates back to 1607. If you've only every had Northwest Hefeweizen, try this beer (or Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse) for a re-education. These beers are amazingly tasty--soft on the palate, fresh, effervescent, and redolent with cloves and spice that comes from the high fermentation temperatures. They are perfect summer beers, and I enjoy them regularly.

Oktoberfest (Ur-Marzen) (Germany)
In German, "Ur" means original, and Spaten lays claim to having brewed the first Marzen, or Vienna-style lager. First brewed in 1871 by Josef Sedlmayr, it has the characteristic malty/spicy quality that has made this style so famous. Originally, the beer was brewed in March (Marzen) and aged through the summer. It is now aged 14 weeks and is rounded and richer than some more modern versions. If you try it, do so early, because none of the flavors are bold enough to stand up to a hop-clouded palate.

Liefmans Kriek (Belgium)
The style "kriek" is now starting to become known to American drinkers, but this beer will fool you if you're expecting a lambic kriek. Liefmans is the standard-bearer for a sweet-and-sour ale known variously as Flanders or Flemish Brown or Oud Bruin. "Kriek" means cherry, and old and young browns are blended at the addition of cherries before a secondary fermentation. The result is more cherry than brown, but delicious. I haven't had one since before Liefmans financial troubles, so I will be interested to see how they're holding up.

Belhaven Wee Heavy (Scotland)
Belhaven is substantially older than the US, founded in 1719. Despite this, it is not well-known in the US, and I've never had the pleasure of finding any. Belhaven is a traditional brewery producing two classic Scottish styles, 80 Shilling and Wee Heavy, the top ends of the continuum in terms of strength (like the Abbey system, the beers run weak to strong from 60 Shilling to Wee Heavy). Belhaven's Wee Heavy is on the very bottom end for strength--6.5%.

Aventinus Eisbock (Germany)
What's stronger than a doppelbock? A doppel distilled. The way it works is this: when you partially freeze a beer, the part that ices up is water--remove that ice ("eis"), and you have an eisbock. Aventinus is one of the most famous, and Michael Jackson once wrote that in the beer garden of eden, the forbidden fruit would taste like Aventinus Eisbock. Do superlatives run higher than that?

Boon Kriek (Belgium)
Frank Boon (pronounced something like "Bone") proves you don't have to have an old brewery to brew a world classic. He founded his brewery after many Oregon micros, in 1989. Nevertheless, I believe he brews the finest lambics in the world. It is a totally traditional lambic brewery, and all his beers are spontaneously fermented--that is, he adds no yeast and lets nature take its funky course with his beer. Kriek is a blend of old and young lambic with a healthy addition of cherries. If you've never had a lambic, you must try this beer--it will radically alter the way you think about beer.

Others
Those are not the only world classics pouring at the fest. I did not include those readily available in town: Chimay (another Belgian Trappist), Pilsner Urquell (the "ur" in Urquell denotes the status of this original Bohemian pilsner from the Czech republic), Saison Dupont (the standard for Belgian farmhouse ales), Duchesse de Bourgogne (the exquisitely balanced Flanders Red), Coniston Bluebird Bitter (apparently the bottled version, which is stronger and less interesting than the wonderful draft version) Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout (one of the most traditional stouts, and the only English stouts available in the US 20 years ago). If any of these beers is on tap, don't hesitate to try them. If I were to assemble a list of the ten best beers in the world, Chimay Blue, Saison Dupont, and possibly Pilsner Urquell would be on it. These are great beers.