Oscar Beer

Tonight I will sit down uneasily to watch the Oscars, an event I welcome with about the same enthusiasm as the Super Bowl. Both events are overhyped and overlong and leave you feeling hollow and gross. The Oscars, in particular, manage to exceed my cynicism each year--such pain for a movie fan! With this in mind, I selected a single beer to enjoy during the telecast.

I might have gone forFuller's ESB (The Queen), Casablanca (Babel), Boston Lager (The Departed), or Sapporo (Letters from Iwo Jima), but instead I chose: Rodenbach. I can offer no justification for this.

(Which is, perhaps, the best metaphor for the Oscars. At the very least, I'll have something to enjoy.)

Welcoming Doctor Wort

I am feeling a little cramped for time right now, so it seems like a good opportunity to direct you to Dr. Wort's Buzz-erk Beer Blog, which, at the tender age of five weeks, is humming right along. He has a nice post-mortem on the recently deceased Rose and Raindrop--as good a place as any to dive in:

They had an auction of all the décor--Beer engines to the coat rack! I bid on quite a few things, but in the end, people over bid me… $200 for a working beer engine didn’t cut it!

I tried to clear the top shelve of beer bottles on that day, but it was coming to an end. A pub that toted a huge metal Chimay hanging sign in the interior of the bar, came down to their last bottle of Chimay (the last keg had run dry three days before). I said, “the last bottle of Chimay at the R&R?. I’ll take it!” And with that, they brought me a dusty bottle of 1998 Grand Reserve Chimay! Had to be the best Chimay I ever had. Owner Tom and bartender John signed the last bottle of Chimay for me....

Go say hi.

Two Pales for Winter - Widmer '07 and Dick's IPA

When last I was standing in front of the beer cooler at Freddy's, I selected a couple of bottles that would more properly served in May. Maybe it's the same problem that infects holiday marketing--you want to get an earlier and early jump on things, so Spring beers come out in January.

Never mind the season, there's something to learn here: the two beers form a nice little binary set. Both are good examples of Northwest brewing: they are loose, funky variations on a style, done in a sort of grungy garage-band style. One succeeds, one fails. Why this is so becomes an object lesson in brewing.

Widmer '07 Pale Ale
Each year, Widmer releases a beer in it's "W" Brewmasters' series. Two years ago it was an IPA and last year a strong red. This year they ratchet back the oomph and give us a very summery pale ale with an amazing depth of hopping. They have used four different types of hops in various additions throughout the boil and after (it's dry-hopped), to create a sublime aroma that is sweet and citrusy, but with a distinct lemony note. On the palate, the hops comingle with the malt to draw out the sweetness--at 34 BUs, it's not actually very bitter.

The beer is a becoming reddish-pale; a strawberry blonde? Crowd-pleasingly approachable, but with lots of flavor. I sometimes find dry, slightly grating quality in the Widmer yeast, but this is purely sweet and hoppy. It reminds me of some of the beers I've tasted by younger brewers who are filled with exuberence--they want to use every hop in the house. It is certainly not the kind of beer one would expect from the largest, second-oldest brewery in the state: W '07 is of the more surprising bottled offerings from the Widmers in recent memory.

Stats
Malts: Pale, CaraVienne 20-L, Caramel 80-L, Carapils
Hops: boil - Alchemy, finishing - Alchemy, Summit, dry-hopping - Summit, Chinook
Alcohol by volume: 5.4%
Original Gravity: 13° Plato
Bitterness Units: 34
Available: Through July

Rating
Excellent.

Dick's IPA
Thanks to our winter ale tasting, Dick's has now entered my radar. I was pleased to see it getting some shelf space, and had high hopes when I poured out the cloudy golden bottle. Alas, Dick's is a textbook example of a rowdy beer gone wrong. At just 5%, it's far from a true IPA (most standard pale ales are stronger), but who's slavish about designations? The problem is that it's hopped like an IPA, producing a brutally aggressive beer with no legs to support itself. Hops can be a good thing, and some nuclear recipes have the layered hopping and malt backbone to support 75+ IBUs (by "layered" I mean hopping that contributes flavor and aroma along with alpha acid bitterness). But Dick's isn't balanced, and it seems like an amateurish effort.

Northwest beers are test their mettle with hoppy beers--not so much for the dollars as for bragging rights. Dick's has come out swinging, but they've shown that hops ain't enough for bragging rights--the entire recipe has to sing.

Stats
Malts: Unknown
Hops: Chinook, Tomahawk
Alcohol by volume: 5%
Original Gravity: 1.055
Bitterness Units: Unknown

Rating
Average.

The Secret Shame of Beervana: Cheater Pints

When I did my review of Amnesia, there transpired an interaction I did not mention. As most readers know--whether they know they know or not--the traditional "pint" glass used in pubs across the state (and US) do not hold 16 ounces of beer. If you pour a bottle out into one of these glasses and manage the traditional head, you know what happens--it goes right to the top. You could squeeze an ounce or two more in there if you skipped the head, but you'd have to bend the laws of physics to fit in a pint. These glasses were originally designed to shake mixed drinks in, which is why they're dense and stackable, and also why they're known as "shaker pints."

I mentioned this to the table of friends when we are at the Amnesia, and they were shocked. So shocked, in fact, that they didn't believe me. So much did one of my friends disbelieve me that she brought the waiter over to set me straight. I stuck to my guns, and so he went to fetch a measuring bowl. Sure enough, 13 ounces and change. All were mollified, mystified, and mortified. The waiter apologized and said he couldn't believe they were shorting folks.

But let us not pile on Amnesia--shaker pints are the standard in Portland. The crime of the cheater pint was once revealed by Willamette Week writer William Abernathy, who used to cruise around to pubs and pour out glasses into a Pyrex measuring bowl. He managed to shame a number of pubs into going to real pints, and inspiring others to go for 20-ounce imperial pints.

But alas, cheater pints have taken over. There's a current thread discussing the matter on the Brew Crew's listserv, and I'm surprised by how many folks were unaware of this practice. With prices edging up toward five bucks, maybe it's time to re-start the shaming. Or at least offering a list of "honest pints" so informed consumers know where to go. But who would do the research?

(Note: I'll be out of town and offline until Monday. I hope you have this all figured out by the time I return. Cheers.)

Nice Article About Oregon Beer Industry

John Foyston, the Oregonian's beer correspondant, has an involved business story in today's Oregonian that's worth checking out. The upshot? Times are good for Oregon breweries:

Craft brewers in the state made 3.5 million gallons more beer last year than in 2005, a 16 percent increase and the third year in a row of double-digit gains. This at a time megabrewers such as Anheuser-Busch Cos. and Miller Brewing Co. have struggled to maintain their revenues and market share.

According to figures released this month by the Oregon Brewers Guild, the state's 79 breweries produced about 792,000 barrels of beer in 2006, or 24.5 million gallons. That's up from 21.1 million gallons a year earlier, and makes Oregon one of the leaders in a craft beer segment growing faster than any other part of the U.S. alcoholic beverage market.

He also details the new and expanding brewpub scene across the state--an early head's up for what we can look forward to in the coming year:

New Breweries

• Beer Valley Brewing: Will start brewing in Ontario in early 2007 with a pub to follow thereafter.
  
• Double Mountain Brewing: Will open this year in Hood River.
  
• Fort George Brewery and Public House: A new brewery that should be open soon in Astoria's historic Fort George Building.
• Hopworks Urban Brewery: Brewer Christian Ettinger's new brewpub should open this spring on Southeast Powell Boulevard.
  
• Karlsson Brewing Co: This brewpub/restaurant recently opened in Sandy and is a family business.
• Max's Fanno Creek Brew Pub: Brewer Max Tieger brings great beer to Old Town Tigard with a brewpub scheduled to open this spring.
  
• WildFire Brewing: Central Oregon's sixth brewery opens soon in Bend.
  

Expansions/Moves

• Deschutes Brewery: Just announced, the pub is planned for the Pearl near the Armory.
  
• Laurelwood Brewpub: The old Sylvia's restaurant building is being reworked into a new flagship brewery/restaurant for Laurelwood. The brewery will open first, probably sometime early this spring.
  
• Ninkasi Brewing: Moves soon to permanent quarters in Eugene with a tasting room.
• Rogue Ales: A new pub just opened in Astoria's Hanthorn cannery building.
• Wild River Brewery: Wild River just added a Medford pub to its four other Southern Oregon locations.
  

Hillsdale "Battle of the Belt"

For the past 13 years, the McMenamins have conducted a little in-house brewfest for bragging rights as the Empire's best brewer. This year, the winning brew goes to the OBF as the McMenamin submission, and of course, the winning brewer wins a prize-fighter style belt as a talisman of his/her prowess. I have never been to this event, and since I'll be out of town this weekend, won't make it yet again. But you should go. Patrons decide the winner--and, of course, get to taste the 19 beers. It's an eclectic line-up and includes some pretty groovy styles: framboise, heather Scotch ale (no hops?), two tripels, cherry porter, and an oatmeal stout, among others.

The Hillsdale, despite the modest building, is in some ways the most historic of the McPubs: it is where brewing began. Thus, the brewers return to the source to battle it out. Should be big fun, so go try the beers for me.

Hillsdale Brewery and Public House
1505 S.W. Sunset Blvd.
Portland, OR 97201
Saturday, February 17 - 11am to close

Review - Bill's Tavern and Brewhouse

Brewer: Jack Harris
188 N. Hemlock
Cannon Beach, OR 97110
(503) 436-2202

Sunday through Thursday - 11am to 11 pm
Friday and Saturday - 11am to 2am
Children allowed in separate seating area

Beers: lighter ales, specialty ales (rye and blackberry), seasonals

Last month I went to the coast during an unprecedented snow storm that left drifts on the beaches. Locals were skittish and unnerved, but it made for one of the more exhilerating hikes I've taken as we stepped out into clearings in Oswald State Park and saw the sea beyond the snow. As a testament to its hardiness, Bill's Tavern and Brewhouse was up and running. The beer was cold and the chowder was hot, and that put this reviewer in fine fettle.

Bill's is one of the very cute little buildings along Hemlock, the very cute little street running through this tricked-out seaside town. There was a time there when it looked like Cannon Beach might turn into a treacly tourist town devoid of any heart, but it seems to have turned the corner and has become a beautiful yet functional town. The pub itself is a wonderful little building and a marvel of design. The brewery is in the center of the building, rising up into the gabled rafters--you can see the tanks through a window above the bar. The eating areas are divided between a family area and a "bar," though both are essentially mirrors of each other. The entire interior is decked out in fir and homey touches (including a wood stove), giving it a lodgey feel.

Food and Beer
I tend to judge a restaurant by its chowder, and so in my sole visit, that's what I had. I'd give it a B-. The clams were fresh and there was a trace of grit (good sign), but it was on the thin side and not quite hot enough. Sally had the fish and chips--her point of judgment for any pub. Their halibut was perfectly cooked; it was flaky (not rubbery) and the fish was also fresh. The chips were soggy, though. (No one buys fish and chips for the chips, so just a minor deduction there.) The menu featured typical pub fare, and seems like a reliable bet.

The brewery favors lighter ale, and isn't afraid of adjuncts. I suspect this is partly in deference to their clientele, who are probably not after strong, characterful beers. (Food on the coast is worse than any region in the state--it's two decades behind the times, and finding a decent cup of coffee is like looking for an intact sand dollar on the beach.) Within the confines of these limitations, brewer Jack Harris gets a lot out of his beers. A good example: I thought his summery Blackberry Beauty was his best beer, and one of the best fruit ales I've ever had. I imagine that it tastes like heaven on a summer afternoon after you've been wandering the beach for a couple hours. Below are my notes on the beers we tried (it's a fairly stable line-up, which contrasts with most Portland brewpubs):

Golden Rye - Delicate, astringent nose with evident maltiness. Rye offers a pronounced dryness in the palate, and is a fairly noticeable flavor--a little like rye bread. I also get a lemongrass note that may arise from the play between rye and hops. Rating: Good.

Blackberry Beauty - The nose is blackberry, but more like the essence of the fruit, rather than picked berry. Wheaty palate and tartness from the fruit almost completely without sweetness. Rating: Excellent.

Bronze Ale - Sweet aroma with no detectable hopping. On the palate, hops offer a delightful minor, peppery note. It's a little bit more tannic than I would like. Rating: Good.

Duckdive Pale - Robust hop aroma that comes off as slightly soapy. There are tannins in this beer, too, and they combine with the hops to make it unpleasantly bitter. Soapiness persists in the palate. Extremely dry. Rating: Average.

Yule Mule - Smoky, roasty, and malty aroma create the impression that this is going to be a Scotch or related ale, and completely belies the riot that awaits the tongue. I thought it was spruce, but Sally picked out the peppermint. There is also cut lemon balm. I believe Bill's does a different seasonal every winter with different adjuncts. Not my cup of tea, but a worthy experiment. (I'll skip rating this one.)

I'll leave you with some footage I shot while I was there. Music snippet by my friend Vince Maldonado.

Beer Taxes Introduced

This is probably more appropriate for BlueOregon, but Dems have introduced two versions of beer taxes that won't thrill breweries:

House Bill 2535 would increase the tax by about 10 cents per drink for large beer manufacturers. Right now, the tax is one of the lowest in the country, penciling out to less than 1 cent per drink. The proposal would exempt smaller home-grown breweries.

Senate 502 would eliminate Oregon's beer distributor trade laws, which the legislators call "sweetheart" protections for the middle men. It would also allow grocers to use credit to pay for their beer deliveries -- a provision they've wanted for years from Salem. Rob Bovett, president of the Oregon Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, said he wants lawmakers to combine the two bills as a way to get retailers on board with a beer tax increase.

Beer taxes are generally worrisome to breweries, because they cut into already razor-thin margins (at three fifty a pint, the retail value of a keg is nearly $900, but a brewery makes around a hundred). The first bill affects breweries producing 125,000 barrels or more, which is fairly low--within a few years, as many as four Oregon breweries could be producing that amount. The Senate bill isn't online yet, so I haven't seen whether it would rectify the power imbalance distributors enjoy. Let's hope.

Update. The senate bill is now up, and it's no clearer. Here's a summary:

"Repeals laws relating to required contracts between suppliers and wholesalers of alcoholic beverages. Eliminates statutorily mandated exclusive territories for wholesalers of alcoholic beverages. Repeals other laws governing relationship between suppliers and wholesalers of alcoholic beverages."

Inside info? Do tell.

Bests

A word on the post below. I didn't have time to finish it off, but I may not get back to a computer for awhile, so I'm posting the 70% version. I'll fill in the text on the last three when I can. Still ahead in my "best of Beervana" series: Portland brewpubs, Oregon brewpubs, Portland taverns, and Best McMenamin pubs.

Beervana Bests - The Beers

There are probably two dozen world-class beers pouring at any given time in Oregon. Some of them are seasonals, some are venenerable standbyes. Some, like Saxer's Three-Finger Jack Doppelbock and Wild Duck's Sasquatch Strong Ale, are destined to fade away. If you're visiting Beervana, it always pays to try something new--you may stumble on a gem that will never be brewed again. But, if you you want a sampling of the best of the best, here's a list of can't-miss offerings that are reliably (if occasionally only seasonally) available. (To avoid the appearance of favoritism, they're listed alphabetically.)

BridgePort IPA
Among the many legendary Oregon brews, BridgePort's flagship may be the most hallowed. It became the first American beer to win the 119-year-old Brewing Industry International Awards for "champion beer" in London in 2000 (beating 750 beers from 43 countries). BridgePort slipped to silver the next time the event was held, in 2002, but regained the title in 2005. Perhaps more than awards, though, BridgePort IPA has come to define hoppy in the Northwest, and made IPAs Beervana's fave style. At 5.5% alcohol, it's technically just a hoppy pale, but never mind, to Oregonians, it's the IPA.

Caldera Pale Ale
Pale ales are as ubiquitous on the West Coast now as industrial lagers were thirty years ago, and a number of them are best sellers (Mirror Pond, Full Sail Pale, Sierra Nevada). But when we did a blind tasting, Southern Oregon's Caldera held its own with the giants. It's a classic pale hopped with nothing but Cascades, slightly sweet and full of citrus. If you're not in Ashland, you may have a hard time tracking it down, but Belmont Station stocks Caldera, and you might find it at Henry's or the Horse Brass in Portland. Believe it or not, Caldera cans this beer, but it suffers not a whit for arriving in this humble container.

Deschutes Bachelor Bitter
Over the past couple years, Bend's Deschutes Brewery began solidifying itself as Oregon's (and possibly the nation's) best brewery. Nearly every beer it releases is exceptional, and lately, Deschutes has been releasing a lot of beers. It would be easy to select Black Butte Porter, Mirror Pond, or newcomer Inversion IPA from the stock of amazing beers. Instead, I'll go for one of the brewery's oldest and one that's now available only on tap at the brewery: Bachelor Bitter. Brewed by founding brewer John Harris (now at Full Sail), it typifies the brewery's genius. Deschutes does pretty standard English-style ales, but they just do them better than anyone else. Generally, bitters are unassuming little ales that keep the mouth wet and the conversation lively. But Bachelor Bitter delights the tongue with traditional British and classic Northwest hops, and the malt is toasty, toffee sweet. You have to go to central Oregon to get a pint, but there are worse places to visit.

Full Sail Session
Every "best of" list needs a controversial inclusion, and so I offer you Full Sail Session. It is a summer lager modeled on the old regional brands that defined the Northwest for decades--Henry's, Rainier, Olympia. Executive brewmaster Jamie Emmerson designed the beer to appeal to beer drinkers who just can't do stronger ales (including, apparently, his neighbor, who admitted he wanted to like Full Sail, but after years of trying, gave up). I admire the brewery for taking good beer full circle. Session is better than the tin-can pilsners, of course--it is a sparkling light lager, but in a hat tip to Beervana, the hopping is relatively pronounced and citrusy. It is not the kind of beer that knocks your socks off, but in the context of the history of Northwest brewing, it's a worthy heir.

Hair of the Dog Fred
If there's an asterisk next to Deschutes when talking about Oregon's best brewery, it points you to Hair of the Dog, a wee brewery with the most devoted fans in the country. Located in a warehouse next to the railroad tracks in SE Portland, the brewery has been run on a shoestring since was founded in1993. Nevertheless, HotD beers are regularly cited as among the best beers in the world.

Fred is characteristic of the brewery's approach to beer. It features ten hop varieties from five countries and a huge malt bill that includes rye. It really doesn't hit its stride until its been in the bottle for 18 months, and it conforms to absolutely no style on the planet. Fred is amazing and unique, and any visitor to Oregon should definitely have a bottle. Incidentally, it's named for beer writer and home-brewing pioneer Fred Eckhardt, who is one of the godfathers of the good beer movement and a mentor to Oregon's early brewers.

Pelican Doryman's Dark
One of the prettiest brewpubs in Oregon is located on the beach at Pacific City. They could serve water in their dining room and people would pay five bucks to sit there, but instead, Pelican has become the most celebrated brewpub in the state. Listen to the accolades: brewpub of the year and best brewer of the year three times each from the GABF, 18 medals from the GABF, dozens of awards from other contests. Of these decorated beers, the most interesting is Doryman's Dark. It's called a brown ale, but I think that's misleading--it's bigger and hoppier, and just plain different from traditional browns. Oregon brewers are rarely able to do a beer straight--they must tweak and rearrange until it's something almost like a regular style, but Oregonized. Such is Doryman. Dorymen, namesakes of the beer, are, by the way, fishermen (and women) who ply the cold waters off the Oregon coast in dories--funny, banana-shaped small craft. It is a local nod to a characteristic local craft.

Rogue Shakespeare Stout
Dark beers were instantly popular when good beer returned to Beervana, and why not? We already loved black, bitter coffee, so making the transition to espresso-y stouts wasn't much effort. Of the many very good black beers in the state worthy of mention, my favorite is Shakespeare Stout. It combines the finest qualities of the style--dense bitterness, rich creaminess, and a dollop of chocolate to round out the mocha-like palate. Along with the other beers on this list, it has won its share of awards and accolades. It was named for the Ashland Skakespeare Festival, which used to be down the road from a Southern outpost of the Newport-based brewery--until it was washed away in a flood.

Roots Burghead Heather Ale
In the 80s and early 90s, every brewery was fooling around with funky ingredients. A few of these, like Saxer's dreadful Lemon Lager, became huge hits among the Bartles and James crowd, and before long, respectible brewers had retreated to the safe harbors of malt and hops. Craig Nicholls, then brewing for the Alameda Brewhouse, bucked the trend. He made a series of beers that included adjuncts, but instead of overwhelming the beer, they added subtle notes that drew out the beeriness rather than crushing it. One of his most interesting experiments was a recipe he based on ancient pre-hop Scottish ales that used heather to balance the malt. Many of his other recipes have been lost to the sands of time (Spring Rose Doppelbock, Juniper Porter, Sage Festbier), but Burghead Heather Ale is a regular summer offering. It is a great example of the innovation that characterizes Oregon brewing.

Terminal Gravity IPA
It is impossible to have a "best of" list without including one true IPA, the favorite style of good beer fans throughout Beervana. It's equally as impossible to identify a "best" IPA--there are just too many good ones. I'm selecting Terminal Gravity, though, because no brewery other than BridgePort is more associated with its IPA than Terminal Gravity. The little brewery from Enterprise, in the far Northeast corner of the state, has always found an audience in the cutthroat Portland market, and many people call this their favorite beer in the world. Who can argue? It's a burly ale with a thick mouthfeel and a saturated bitterness that satisfies the most inveterate hophead.

Widmer Snow Plow Milk Stout
There is an interesting story behind milk stouts, but an even more interesting story behind Snow Plow. Back in the late 1980s, the Widmer Brothers decided to partner with a local Portland homebrewing club to produce obscure styles of beer that lacked a commercial market. Periodically, the brewery and the homebrewers jointly decided on a style, and then the homebrewers held a competition to see who could make the best version. That recipe was then converted so that it can be produced at the brewery, and was distributed on tap to various local pubs. The first style they tackled was milk stout, which, to everyone's surprise, found a market. Two years ago, Widmer started releasing it as their winter seasonal.

Milk Stouts aren't actually brewed with milk, but rather milk sugar (lactose). Unlike most sugars, however, lactose can't be broken down by beer yeast, and remains unfermented, as calories and carbohydrates. It gives the beer a unique sweetness and silkiness on the tongue that does in fact suggest milk. Snow Plow is sweet and creamy, bordering on decadant, but there are hints of roasty malt and a breath of hop at the end. I have never found a person who liked beer but disliked Snow Plow.

Post has been updated (2/5/07)

Sierra Nevada IPA

I was in the store the other day, and saw a sixer of Sierra Nevada IPA, a beer listed on the brewery's webpage as a "specialty draft." Apparently a seasonal, but I know nothing more about it. However, it was mighty tasty, so here's a quickie review (more on the style here, if you wish a backgrounder).

Tasting Notes
Sierra Nevada has gone for an English IPA, distinct from the Northwest version by virtue of hops. You notice it first in the nose (the appearance, golden orange, looks like Inversion)--nothing citrusy about this beer. It has an aroma I finally settled on as cedar, reminiscent of strongly-hopped London ales I've had.

The flavor is also woody, with an intense, resinous hopping. I am particularly (pleasantly) sensitive to Goldings, and these really pop. The beer is sharply effervescent and has a hard-water crispness. The aftertaste leaves your mouth coated and lips smacking. It reminded me quite a bit of Fuller's ESB, though I don't know if they would taste alike side by side.

Given that there are a million IPAs on the West Coast, it's a nice change-up to find an English style. I really enjoyed this one.

Stats
Malts: "English malts"
Hops: Boil - Magnum; finishing and dry-hop - Golding
Alcohol by volume: 6.9%
Original Gravity: N/A
Bitterness Units: N/A

Rating
Excellent.

__________
PHOTO: SF Fred

More Lists

Jon at The Brew Site shot me an email last week to encourage me to join in his conversation about "Fifty beers to drink before you die." I have meant to get to it, but I've been a bit tardy. Truth is, the task is daunting. Jon breaks his into ten categories, which goes to show how restrictive a list is with even fifty beers. You could select regions of the world and be limited to a handful each, which seems a little harsh; or you could go through each style and select one for each--with subcategories (brown porter, robust porter), you'd run out of slots before you ran out of styles.

Meanwhile, I've been getting an increasing number of emails from out-of-towners headed West who want to know where they should go and what they should drink when they get here. It got me thinking that maybe I should do a "best of" series that is focused on the pubs, breweries, beers, and brewpubs in Beervana. So that's the plan.

(The implementation, of course, is another matter.)

Beer and Cigarettes

Not that this should become a public policy blog, but Gary Corbin has a rumination about whether Oregon ought to ban smoking in bars.

The ban on smoking in pubs is problematic in that it takes an admittedly evil – but LEGAL – product and behavior (smoking tobacco) and removes our right to choose to do it. And, to do it in a time and place long associated (even expected) with smoking: drinking. If we’re too chicken to ban it altogether, why ban it in the very place people want to do it most?

...The problem is that pesky second-hand smoke issue. Sure, non-smoking customers can go elsewhere, but not everyone can: employees, vendors, inspectors, et al.

Maybe the occasional visit of the vendor or inspector can be overlooked. One whiff won’t kill them. But not so the employees. Oh, sure, technically they can quit. But why should it be a choice between making a living – and dying?

Further, there’s an unequal power relationship between employers and employees. In short, employers have it, employees don’t. That’s especially true in the food service industry, which has never been (and probably never will be) unionized. Jobs are tenuous and competitive, pay is typically poor (except in swanky places), and stress is very high. I can attest to all of this with first-hand experience.

This is exactly where I always end up. I hate smoking bars. You can't breathe, the food and beer tastes worse, and when you get out of the building, you realize your clothes reek. But I always end up where Gary does--it would be fine if others wanted to, but what about the employees? I've never heard a solution to this problem, but he has a thought:

Why not a pub smoking tax? Establishments that allow smoking would pay a per-seat premium to the state for that privilege (funds to be used to pay for education and health programs related to smoking). Further I think smoking establishments should be required to provide full health insurance benefits to all employees, even part-timers, and maybe a wage premium, too.

I suspect most employees who work in smoking bars are smokers themselves--or don't mind. If we followed this solution, it might actually be a reasonable compromise. Anyone have thoughts?

BridgePort's Beertown Brown

Brown ales are having their moment. Last year, Deschutes released Buzzsaw Brown and this year BridgePort has introduced Beertown Brown. Even the New York Times is hip to the trend. Browns are a worthy and neglected style, one of the only traditional English ales that hasn't made a dent in American brewing. But why now?

In the Jan 22 New Yorker, Eric Konigsberg describes the trend in colors, and maybe there's a hint here. Colors, as you know, follow the mood of the age (you do know that, don't you?): flamboyant and pschedelic in the drug-washed 70s, metalic and gray in the techno-greedy 80s. The aughts, it appears, are gloomy:

"I see an influence from the military situation, and I think it's going to be with us for a while," [pigment specialist Catherin Wunch] said. "I kind of see colors for 2008 as being grayed." Wunch, who has short hair in a square a businesslike cut, passed around a handful of color chips, in gray blues, gray browns, and a grayish pink....

Jill Liebson, a designer for a fabric-printing company in Florida, seemed to agree. "I think we're going to go much deeper than before, because we aren't living in optimistic times," she said. "And in the home people want deep safety."

So, brown ales. Safe and comforting, a touch sweet but not overwhelmingly so--Ovaltine for the soul. This appears to be what BridgePort had in mind with Beertown Brown, which the brewery describes as "an easygoing, drinkable beer." It's not designed to challenge, but to soothe.

Tasting Notes
I love browns, if such a thing can be said about this modest style. They are comforting and, when they're well-brewed, can be a symphony of minor notes. It's not a style that will knock your socks off, but you can be quietly impressed.

Such, sadly, is not the case with Beertown. With mild styles, the line between good and insipid isn't wide, and I'm sad to say that it is on the wrong side. In every way, it fails to measure up: the color is faded, the head fizzy and weak; it is thin of body, and the malt notes are hollow; the hopping is far too mild to provide any interest. It's a watery beer without a distinguishing character. It is not an impressive beer.

But don't take my word for it. The Denver Post gave the beer a mini-review, and they were underwhelmed, as well:

"Beertown is a bit thinner on flavor than its British forebears, with a good malt aroma but not much behind. True to the style, there's just a hint of hops in the finish. It has 5.2 percent alcohol (by volume)."

(You know a beer is timid by Northwest standards when it is regarded as a lightweight in Colorado.)

There may be reason to hope for improvement, though. I got wind of a rumor that BridgePort
may be tinkering with the recipe. Let's hope so--with some more body and 50% more hops, Beertown could easily cross back over the line into subtle excellence. And, if I'm going to manage in the face of all this gloom, I'll need the extra body and hops in my comforting brown.

Stats
Malts: Unknown
Hops: Unknown
Alcohol by volume: 5.2%
Original Gravity: 13.2° Plato
Bitterness Units: 20

Rating
Average.

No Kids at the OBF

This is disturbing:

After 19 years of promoting the Oregon Brewers Festival as a community event, we regret that we will not be allowed to have minors under the age of 21 on the festival premises in 2007. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has stipulated no minors be on-site, citing OLCC Rule 845-006-0340 (7) (a) in which "eating predominates" and the premise must not have a "drinking enviroment". In order to view this rule, please go to here and click on "Laws and Rules". Click on OLCC Law Book. This will open up a PDF file for viewing.

One of the cool things about Oregon is that it has a grown-up view about alcohol. Kids aren't immediately corrupted by the sight of their parents sipping a nice kolsch, and the OLCC used to know it. In fact, when Oregon's microbreweries began to rise to prominence in the 1980s, drinking was actually taken out of the dark, windowless caves of the corner taverns into well-lit, homey brewpubs. Families started coming, and the focus turned from getting smashed to enjoying an artisinal product.

Kids, of course, will be lured less by a product they've watched their mother drink than by something elicit and forbidden. So the OLCC has made it forbidden again. Nice. Well, the OBF is suggesting we take action, so I'll pass it along to you:

If you disagree with the OLCC's decision, then please contact executive director Stephen Pharo and let him know: 503-872-5000,1800-452-6522,or steve.pharo@state.or.us

I think I'll send 'em a note.

Update. Tom Dalldorf, the publisher of Celebrator Beer News, sent this letter to Stephen Pharo. It's a nice statement:

Dear Mr. Pharo:

I am distressed to learn that the usually forward thinking people at the OLCC have regressed to the dark days of neo-prohibitionism in restricting kids (under age) from attending the nation's premier outdoor beer event -- the Oregon Brewers Festival.

I have attended this event every year since 1990 and have marveled in print at how wonderfully it is organized and what a mellow non-party vibe it consistently exhibits (with the exception of that one draconian year the OLCC had the taps inside a 21 only tent). My job takes to me to beer festivals all over the world and the OBF is a stand out by any measure.

Please consider resending this ill-advised edict. Families with children are a moderating and uplifting addition to a large festival such as the OBF. Look at successful events around the country and most especially in Europe for some guidance. Keep Oregon's great contribution to beer culture on track for the future.

Most sincerely,
--
Tom Dalldorf, publisher
Celebrator Beer News

Second Update. Janie Har wrote about this in today's Oregonian, and your humble blogger was quoted. Also a friend of mine:

Beer fans call the OLCC's action an unenlightened attempt to clamp down on an activity that makes the city -- and state -- unique.

"It's a pretty common thing for people to see their parents drinking beer in this town, and it's not a shocking or despicable act," says Jeff Alworth, a Portland beer blogger who publicized the crackdown in a posting on blueoregon.com.

Joe Bertagnolli, a 41-year-old therapist who brews at home, says he's taken his 13-year-old son to the event at least twice. His boy, Jordan, has never tried to get into his dad's beer, Bertagnolli says.

"It's just a festival where people get together and sip beer," he says. "It takes a lot of the mysticism and illicit allure out of it for kids."

On Brown Ales

The New York Times, bless their hearts, have done another beer tasting. This time brown ales:

Perhaps it’s left to us, the Dining section’s tasting panel, to rescue brown ales from marketing torpidity and reveal the vitality within, for these beers are anything but dull. Yes, they are quiet, subtle and even self-effacing. More important, they are delicious, and they especially shine with food....

As with great character actors who are so easy to take for granted, you have to pay close attention to brown ales to appreciate their virtue. They have roles to play — quenching thirst, facilitating conversation, sharpening the appetite — and they do it well. If by chance you notice the fine, almost sweet maltiness of the aroma, and the brisk, dry, mineral quality of the flavors, even better. More likely, it’s the absence of these qualities in a poor example that stands out, conveying the sense of something missing.

Eric Asimov, the Times' beer guy, knows how to write. If only he knew beer. I don't mind so much that of the 18 beers he assembled, only one is from the West Coast, or that it finished a tepid tenth in the taste-off. I don't even mind that he included, strangely, altbiers in the tasting. What I really mind is the overall failure to offer any kind of context for these decisions or the ultimate preferences. As a reader, how is anyone supposed to evaluate the difference between Avery's Ellie's Brown ("Brisk, with rich malt aromas. Fruit, mineral and bitter hop flavors") and Sam Smith's Nut Brown ("Strong malty aroma, with dry, brisk flavors that linger"). Both are brisk and richly/strongly malty.

I might not have bothered mentioning all of this, but I have a bottle of the Beertown Brown, BridgePort's latest, in the fridge awaiting review. I'll try to do better in my review than "brisk."

Deschutes Pub to Open in the Pearl

Very big news:

Deschutes [Brewery] has been looking for suitable digs in Portland for several months and recently found space occupied by an auto body shop at Northwest 11th Avenue and Davis Street, near the renovated armory. The planned pub will have a brewery and will pour many of the special and one-off beers on tap at the Bend brewpub, which generally offers 18 Deschutes beers on tap including a couple of cask-conditioned offerings. And there will be the X-tap - which has occasionally been connected to a keg of Lemongrass Mirror Pond or the like.

The pub is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007 and will be the first Deschutes operation not located in Bend.

A few comments. That location, though it's in the heart of the Pearl, is actually also the heart of Oregon brewing. It is two blocks from where the Henry Weinhard brewery sat for 130 years, two blocks from the original Portland Brewing (now Rogue), a few blocks from BridgePort, and a few more from the original Widmer. Given founder Gary Fish's knowledge about Oregon beer, I wouldn't be surprised if he chose it for the history as much as the trendiness.

The good news for locals (local Stumptowners) is that we'll be able to get a lot of the tap-only beers like Bachelor Bitter, which have always been the reserve of locals in Bend. I predict this will become one of the most popular pubs in Portland and join the must-visit ranks for visitors.

Full Sail Limited Edition Lager (LTD Series)

With Limited Edition Lager, Full Sail extends its foray into lagers and overwrought x-games language. It is the first of their "Livin' the Dream" series (aka LTD), and the packaging--not so much the bottle, but the sixer box--drips with, like, gnarly rippin' verbiage, dude. It is the least palatable aspect of the brewery's new direction, but I've always been happy to ignore what the marketing department's doing and go straight for the beer. So let's do that.

Tasting Notes
It is an impressive-looking beer. A striking russet, and clear as a winter night. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't russet. It has a characteristically lager-y aroma, like a marzen, sweet with a touch of aromatic noble hopping.

There are two pronounced flavors in this beer, candy and spice. The initial impression is of sugar--it's perhaps the sweetest beer I've ever tasted. Candy sweet, though, not thick and malty like a barley wine. It is fairly effervescent, and I also get a cola note, which makes the whole affair taste, at first blush, like a Pepsi. But then the hopping comes in, and pretty robustly. It's peppery-spicy, and it doesn't balance the cola so much as draw your attention away from it. The finish remains sweet, but the hops do stay with you.

At first I thought it was going to be a fairly standard lager, something like a big marzen (it goes 6.4%). But this is entirely novel. I tend not to appreciate lagers as much as my wife Sally, so I studied her reaction and took a few quick notes. Said she: "I really like it. It's eeeeasy drinkin'; sweet and tasty. Hey, it even says easy-drinking on the label."

I'm not going to knock myself out looking for this beer, but I think it may appeal to some of the same people Session appeals to, but draw them further into the quicksand of good beer--from which, I hope, they will never escape. If it does that, well, that'd be rippin' gnarly, dude.

Stats
Malts: Caramel, chocolate, wheat
Hops: Czech Saaz, Hallertauer
Alcohol by volume: 6.4%
Original Gravity: 16 degrees Plato
Bitterness Units: 26
Other: A "secret sauce" (brewery's words)
Available: Everywhere, until the Spring when LTD 02 will be released.

Rating
Good.

Full Sail's New Direction

With the arrival of 2007, Full Sail celebrates its 20th anniversary. Among extant, non-amalgamated breweries, its ride has been among the wildest. With age, apparently, does not come stasis. A few weeks ago, Full Sail released Limited Edition Lager, its second in as many years, making it the only Oregon brewery to seriously brew lagers. But before we talk about that, how about a trip down memory lane?

• 1987 - Brewery founded in Hood River. In their first year, they brewed just 2,000 barrels of Golden Ale in what was a glorified home-brewery (they hand-capped and hand-labeled each bottle).
• 1988 - Full Sail releases Amber Ale, which quickly becomes a much-imitated standard, eventually evolving into a recognized style (American Amber Ale).
• 1988-1994 - Full Sail grows at an average rate of 40% per year and is brewing 80,000 barrels by the mid-90s, making it Oregon's largest brewery.
  
• 1994-95 - To accommodate expected growth, Full Sail builds a 250,000-barrel brewery (a quarter the size of the old Henry's brewery on Burnside).

• 1995-98 - Industry-wide collapse strands the brewery with a vast facility and shrinking production.
• 1998 - Four of the original owners decide to sell their stock, and an Indian beer magnate tries to drive the company into near-bankruptcy so he can buy the brewery on the cheap.
• 1999 - The brewery manages to weather the storm and the employees pick up the stock, making Full Sail the first employee-owned brewery in the US.
• 2003 - Full Sail announces it will pick up some of the production of the Henry Weinhard's brand, bringing it back to Oregon.
• 2005 - The brewery re-brands itself and releases "Session" to tap into the hipster Pabst market. It's a big success.

When it released Session in 2005, the brewery took an interesting risk. They decided to try to create a retro beer that recalled the Northwest's historic regional breweries and was not a challenge to the palate. An industrial lager that was a lot tastier and more expensive than Pabst, but which was cheaper than micro and in the family of Henry's. I recall reading a Foyston article in the Oregonian that quoted Jamie Emmerson, the founding brewer, saying he wanted a beer his neighbor could drink. They were going for a drinker that had been missed by micros--the guy who wanted to like good beer, but really didn't.

So now they have released Limited Edition Lager, part of their LTD series. It's also a lager (I've got a review in the hopper), and further explores the lager market. It is, however, very much unlike Session. Saxer has trod this ground before, discovering that Oregonians don't really like lagers, no matter how good they are (and Saxer's were really good). But that was ten years ago, so now maybe Oregonians have expanded their horizons. It's another interesting gamble, but one worth watching.

Review - Amnesia Brewing

832 N Beech Street
Portland, Oregon

Monday 4-11 pm
Tuesday-Sunday noon-Midnight
Pints: $2.75
Pitchers: $10.00
Seasonal outdoor seating; dogs allowed.

Beers: Pale ale, porter, IPA, ESB, seasonals and specials.

Brewpubs come in a few major styles, and among these, a Portland standard is the converted warehouse. While it has its aesthetic virtues, generally the warehouse brewpub is the result of a thin pocketbook: breweries need space and warehouses provide it. Cheaply. Amnesia, like so many brewpubs, was an early resident in a marginal neighborhood. But it also fits the vibe of the no-longer-marginal Mississippi neighborhood: straightforward, hardworking, and a little funky.

The building is made of corrugated metal, and except that the parking lot in front has been converted to outdoor seating--picnic tables under white tents--you might mistake it for a metal shop. In fact, once you're inside, you see an old sign on its side up near the rafters that reads "Ornamental Iron" and you might still think it's a metal shop. The building is a one-room job, but the brewery is set off from the seating area by the bar. The rafters are open and disappear into insulation at the roofline. Tables are oak, and the chairs may even have been picked up at auction from the old, original BridgePort--anyway they're exactly the same variety. All in all, a Lucky Lab-ish vibe.

Food
The menu is simple: meat. The kitchen consists of an outdoor grill, and the brewery will throw a burger or four varieties of sausage on for you. They also have a mixed appertiser plate that includes cheese and bread. Since I'm still irrationally afraid of mad cow disease, I skip the burgers and go for the sausage and, as a connoisseur, I give them the hearty thumbs up. My fave are the slightly spicy Hungarian sausages.

Beer
Brewer Kevin King seems to groove to the pale tune--he's currently got two IPAs and an ESB on tap, and he usually has a pale as well. They are Northwest in character, with lots of citrus and bite, but fairly approachable. During the holidays, he had on two winter ales, a big and bigger, that de-emphasize hops for malt and warmth. They are, like the brewery, straightforward and hardworking. Most Oregonians will recognize these beers as variations on very popular themes. As a group, they're above average--not at the Roots/Laurelwood level, but substantially above the McMenamins. Below are some capsule reviews I scribbled out the last time I was there.

ESB - Very nice, balanced ale. Has a good, malty structure and a spicy hop complement. Almost tending toward brown in the glass. A classic English-style ESB. Rating: Excellent.

Porter - The palate is chalky and I get more tannins in the mouth than I would like. The brewery's weakest beer, but, if you like dark ales, perfectly respectable. Rating: average.

Copacetic IPA - Rich, super creamy, sweetly malty with a spritely citrusy hopping. Their strongest beer. Rating: excellent.

Frosty's Revenge (winter seasonal) - A rich, malty beer, akin to a Scottish ale. It's frothy and creamy, and has a touch of diacetyl that's actually a nice note. Rating: good.

Sleighjerker (winter seasonal) - A traditional winter warmer with lots of hops and alcohol (8%). It did end with a sweet note that not everyone at the table found uniformly delightful. I thought it was fine. Rating: good.

Amnesia is one of those great brewpubs that reflects the character of the neighborhood and feels like a happy gathering place for locals. Of course, it's worth a drive, too.
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PHOTO CREDIT: Vicki Jean