Two New Ones From Full Sail

No brewery has more identities than Full Sail. On the one hand, it's a venerable old micro that puts out classic American ales. On the other, it's the sole major Northwest brewery committed to selling lagers. On the third hand, it's a regional brewery trying to kick-start a segment that effectively died out a generation ago when Rainier, Oly, and Weinhard fell to consolidation. In December, the brewery offered new products in two of the three identities. (One imagines that the third, the Session wing of the brewery, is set for the foreseeable future.) Below are a couple reviews.

Bump in the Night Cascadian Dark Ale
CDAs are starting to look a little old hat, but the fact that Full Sail proudly proclaims the latest Brewmaster Reserve one is fuel to the fire for the movement to establish the style. It also indicates that Full Sail is shooting for the more specific sub-style of the larger hoppy black beer category. Black IPAs are effectively IPAs brewed with dark malts. The character of the hops and dark malts are left to the brewer--an IPA brewed with spicy Hallertauers and some color-darkening malts would be totally appropriate for "style." The attempt to carve out some terrain for the hop-growing Pacific Northwest has resulted in CDAs, which focus on citrusy/piney American hops. These are steeped in a tea of dark malts that produce coffee-like bitterness, another characteristic of the region. CDAs are black IPAs with flourishes characteristic of the region. (This actually helps exonerate partisans from the debate about where black IPAs were first invented.)

Full Sail follows these cues, and Bump in the Night is a 65-BU hop fest. Now, full disclosure: I'm not a fan of the style and therefore a poor judge. While I've grown to respect a few versions (Deschutes and Widmer), I haven't found any I love. Bump in the Night? Well, my sense is that it's not the strongest example. The hops are aggressive, and despite the size of the beer (6.5%), seem to beat it up a bit. It's roasty but a bit thin (which I assume would be appropriate, too--IPAs shouldn't be as chewy as stouts), and some of the reviews mark it down for that. I guess I can see wherefore the faint praise. But actually, I enjoyed it. To me, the hops were woody and combined with the roast, the effect was of pine tar. Of all the different kind of flavor notes I've encountered in beer, I'd call that an acquired taste--a niche note--and perhaps not the most elegant. I nevertheless sucked Bump in the Night down pretty fast, all the time marveling that I so enjoyed fermented pine tar. Give it a B on the ratings scale for this reviewer, but it's probably closer to a B-/C+ for CDA fans.

LTD 04
Full Sail's foray into lagers has been most interesting. With the exception of LTD 03 (a pils), by far my favorite of the bunch, they are fairly similar in quality: hearty, uncomplicated lagers. LTD 01 was called an "easy-drinking lager," and that appears to be the mission statement for the whole line. Leaving aside 03, they're not brewed to any particular style except their own. With numbers for names and such a clear similarity, I'm prepared to declare it intentional.

LTD 04 is in this mode--and is even more stripped down. It takes Reinheitsgebot literally: one hop (Willamette), one malt (must be pilsner), yeast, water. The result is a very pale beer with a grassy, boozy nose. The grassiness continues on the palate. Working overtime, I can produce the adjectives lemon and pepper, but these are mainly impressions, not full flavors. The alcohol is pronounced enough that it creates a sweetness slightly out of keeping with the simple, grassy-fresh beer. As the glass takes on warmth, so does this disparate note. I enjoyed it, but wasn't distracted much by any subtle flavors. One minute I was enjoying my first sip, and a moment later I was done drinking: the beer was gone. I suspect this was the goal, and so I could consider a B- on the ratings scale, but so simple is the recipe and so uncomplicated the sensory offerings that I'll downgrade that to a C+. Back in the day, a 7% light lager would have been called Malt Liquor, but never have they tasted this good. So on the other hand, maybe I should give it an A. Ah ratings.

Score One for Jim Koch

This just in:

Boulder, CO • January 3, 2011-The board of directors of the Brewers Association (BA), the trade association representing the majority of U.S. brewing companies, has voted to change the BA's designation of "small" in its definition of a "craft brewer." The Association's board of directors also has revised its bylaws to reflect the change.

The NBA has the "Larry Bird exception," and I hope they'll call this change the Jim Koch exception. Boston Beer, Koch's company, recently passed the two-million barrel mark, causing the inevitable discomfort among the small-brewery advocacy group. It's the right decision, for a lot of reasons, not the least of them this one:

The industry's largest craft brewer, The Boston Beer Company, is poised to become the first craft brewer to surpass 2 million barrels of traditional beer within the next few years. Loss of The Boston Beer Company's production in craft brewing industry statistics would inaccurately reflect on the craft brewing industry's market share. [Itals mine.]

Still, it only forestalls a major re-thinking of the definition of "craft beer." The Brewers Association booted Craft Brewers Alliance (aka Widhook), which only brews the beer BA would otherwise consider "craft." As the years roll by, breweries will get big and complex and if BA wants to remain relevant as the collator of craft brewing statistics, it will have to deal with this complexity.

Still, props to Brewers Association for revising its arbitrary criteria.

What's Selling in the British Craft Market

[Note: a couple US retailers have offered their own insights in the comments below. Well worth a read.]

In addition to writing and blogging about beer, Zak Avery manages an online a beer shop in Leeds. For his year-end thoughts, he offers some interesting insights into the craft beer market from his vantage as a retailer. (Retailers regularly offer insights to the beer market to which both brewers and bloggers are blind.) Zak observes:

British beer is on the up: this year, people bought more British beer than ever before, particularly at Christmas, when they were buying presents for others. And I don't mean just from the usual suspects (BrewDog, Marble, Thornbridge - although they sell very well), but also generically as a category, from Hook Norton Old Hooky to Ilkley Mary Jane. I think that this signals a turning point for British beer, and people are finally realising that it is simultaneously a great national and also a local product.

Belgian beer is on the wane: fifteen years ago, Belgian beer (and I'm talking all across the board, from Leffe to Trappist to Palm to De Dolle) was new and relatively undiscovered. Five years ago, interested peaked, and today, it's a declining sector. There are certain niches that defy this trend, but overall, there isn't any growth left in Belgian beer in the UK.

American beer is on the verge of going stellar: Sierra Nevada have doubled the volume of imports into the UK each year for the last four years. People like American 'craft' beer because it is largely tasty and uncomplicated. I'm not talking Lost Abbey, I'm talking Odells, Flying Dog, Brooklyn et al. American craft brewing is also showing its most profound influence yet on British brewing.

I'm hoping he expands on that last sentence. With the amount of information I have on the subject--zero percent--I could interpret it a number of different ways. I'd like to understand it, though.

Also, I wonder if Chris or one of the Beermongers folks could reflect back their impressions of the waxing and waning of imports. My sense is that Belgians are still very much a big deal in the US. True? How are British and German imports faring?

In Case You Missed Them

Over the past week or two, I had a bunch of year-end business to take care of, including:

1. The Satori Award winner
2. The People's Choice winner for best debut beer
3. The DMS Awards for worst achievements in beer
4. The year in review

And now, welcome to 2011--

Best New Year's Hangover Cure

I am regularly asked, "Jeff, what's the best hangover cure?" I suppose my years as a blogger and my trustworthy look incline them to think I'd know the answer, and you know what?--they're right. I have spent years working on the best formula, poring through medical journals and running trials here at home. While there may be a little fine-tuning left, I am prepared to go public with my own cure. Follow it, and I guarantee you'll have no troubles.

• Carrots. Researchers in Auckland were the first to stumble onto this important building-block in hangover prevention. Beta carotene, it turns out, binds to blood toxins, preventing body absorption. There is a slight downside: you must eat at least two pounds in any 12-hour period to gain the benefit, but with juicing and roasting, this can be a tasty proposition!
• Wind sprints. Also important in the fight against hangovers are endorphins, those neurotransmitters responsible for calming sensations. A two-decade longitudinal study at the University of Nairobi has demonstrated the link between endorphins and lowered hangover levels. I recommend wind sprints as a way of quickly producing these. While running up and down your driveway on New Year's eve may provoke some curious glances by dog-walkers, you'll be happier in the morning.
• Neil Diamond. Interestingly, hangovers may be as much as 89% mental creations; external causes generally contribute only a small amount of the toxic load you need to avoid. While music in general can be beneficial, neuroscientists at the University of West Calgary found amazing results in brain wave orientation as a result of the brassy baritone of Neil Diamond. Or perhaps the jazzy, nostaligic hooks are responsible. No one knows for sure.
• Aromatherapy. While recordings of Neil Diamond alone produce remarkable outcomes, when coupled with aromatherapy, the results are astounding. The most effect scents are those produced by burning tires, but since this is unpleasant, lavender can be substituted with near-equal efficacy.
• Avoiding alcohol. The link here is weak, but I thought I'd mention it. Anecdotally, many people have found a connection between alcohol consumption and hangover. We won't know more until the research is in, but every hangover cure has a certain measure of folk wisdom. Anyway, it can't hurt.
  

A lot of people drink on New Year's eve because it promotes sensations of euphoria and conviviality. Fortunately, I have discovered that a nice carrot binge followed by wind sprints and the soothing effects of Neil Diamond and lavender oil is every bit the equal to a Tom Collins or an imperial IPA. If you employ my five-part plan, I can virtually guarantee you great results. Good luck (and happy new year)!

Tidbits

Post Updated. See below.

I'm taking it slow today, so I'll farm out content to others in the blogosphere--particularly since there's some nice stuff out there.

MSM Getting it Wrong
Via Stan Hieronymus, Time has an article by Anita Hamilton examining craft brewing through the prism of Sam Calagione (always a dicey proposition) and come to this conclusion:

Perhaps the biggest challenge that Calagione, like all craft beer makers, faces today is the fickle palate of his core customer. "Craft beer drinkers tend to be promiscuous. They'll have four different beer styles they like," notes Brewers Association director Paul Gatza. Such lack of brand loyalty may actually force smaller brewers to constantly release new concoctions, lest their fickle audience lose interest. As any beer buyer can attest, these days even regular grocery store shelves are typically packed with a constantly-changing selection of tempting new craft labels and flavors.

Of course, the rest of the article refutes this thesis by citing Dogfish's best-seller (60 Minute IPA) and pointing to the success of Blue Moon, a beer on the market since the 1990s. Yes, there is a lot of experimentation, but no, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. The best-selling craft beers are the most familiar, and they outsell new releases by orders of magnitudes. Anita Hamilton mistakes the noise of new releases for the reality of craft brewing: it, like everything else, is dominated by a few best-sellers--many, like Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada Pale, Boston Lager, etc., that have been around for years or decades. The drinkers of those craft beers seem not to be fickle in the slightest.

Brady Getting it Right
At the Daily Pull, Brady Walen offers a few predictions for the coming year, all of which seem sound to me. Plus, they're interesting.

Latest Beer Price Index
Bill has the fourth quarter figures for the Portland Beer Price Index. I wonder the extent to which beer prices mirror larger economic trends. Although craft beer continues to sell well despite the economy, it hasn't experienced any inflation at all over the past year. In fact, six-pack prices were $8.85 in the third quarter of '09 and they're $8.73 now (essentially flat throughout 2010).

Not Your Father's Mirror Pond (?)
Over at Not So Professional Beer Blog, Sanjay reviewed a classic, Mirror Pond. Glancing over the review, I see these hop details: 40 IBU, Cascade and three other unspecified varieties. Wait a second--four hops? I am almost certain it used to be single-hopped and had fewer IBUs. I'll contact the brewery and find out if it has indeed changed--something Deschutes was openly pondering a couple years ago--or if this is just further evidence of my declining mental acuity.

Update. I just heard back from Gary Fish at Deschutes. There has been no change in the recipe and it's four additions of Cascade hops--not four different hops. This info is on the website, so shame on Sanjay and me for missing it. Gary adds: "We did make some subtle improvements to the formulation last year based on our perception we were losing some of the 'bright' and aromatic qualities of the Cascade hop." So there you have it.

A Bottom-of-the-Post-Scoop
A tipster (who can out himself if he wishes in the comments) sent along this link to Baristadors Coffee. I include it down here, like filmmakers who put in a bit of content after the credits, as a thank-you to those who are still reading. If you follow the link, you'll see that this West Side coffee shop just posted this news:

Now holding an OLCC Liquor License and Brewing License so we can also serve:

• Our In-House brewed beer and your favorite liquor beverages

Stop in for a visit… you’ll be glad you found the best kept secret of SW Portland!!!

You heard it here first. (I think.)

Satori Award 2010: Prodigal Son Bruce/Lee Porter

The Satori Award
In Zen Buddhism, satori is the moment of sudden enlightenment when the mind realizes its own true nature. The Satori Award, now in its fifith year, honors the beer that in a single instant allows the drinker to realize brewing magnificence. It is that moment when the sheer force of tastiness produces a flash of insight into the nature of beer. I award it for the beer released in the previous year (roughly) by an Oregon brewery (roughly) for a regular or seasonal beer. The inaugural winner was Ninkasi Believer followed by Full Sail Lupulin (2007), Cascade Apricot Ale (2008), and Upright Four (2009).

___________

Trying to name a single best beer has been brutal the last few years. I have had to leave Deschutes Dissident, Double Mountain (pick one: IRA, Kolsh, Kriek, Vaporizor), and Hair of the Dog Blue Dot on the table--among many other good and great beers. This year it was a little different. I tried no beer that could compete with those beers or past winners. There just weren't many beers released. Many of the new beers came from new breweries, and new breweries rarely debut with world-class beers.

I did admire several beers quite a lot. The People's Choice winner, Deschutes Hop in the Dark, was the first CDA I actually enjoyed. Ninkasi's Maiden the Shade didn't revolutionize anything, but it was a really nice summer IPA. My local brewpub, Coalition, debuted with a nice red and an even nicer Loving Cup Maple Porter--a beer I've had a lot of pleasure drinking this fall and winter. Rogue made their best beer in years with Single Malt, an ale so mild it got little attention--but which perfectly showcased the brewery's new homegrown malt and hops. Block 15's first bottled release, Figgy Pudding, was a great effort at reproducing a strong English ale (call it an old ale or barleywine as you wish). And finally, nano-brewing Beetje impressed me with an elegant, understated saison called variously Urban Farmhouse or B-Side.

The next cut were those I actively considered for the Satori--my short list. I oscillated among each of these beers and I could make the case for each of them, but of course there can be only one. So first, the two that just missed the cut.

Cascade Noyeaux
First, a guy who might as well pitch a tent on the short list--Ron Gansberg. He constantly has something new in the hopper, but a few of his experiments grow to become regulars in his ever-expanding line-up. Noyeaux is effectively a sister beer to the '08 Satori winner Cascade Apricot Ale. It's made on a similar base of port-aged, strong blond ales (blended, as are all the Cascade sours) and includes the kiss of raspberries. The key ingredient, however, comes from the pits left over from the Apricot Ale.

I learned about the special ingredient a year ago when I visited the brewery. Ron showed me how he was repurposing the discarded pits. Employing a high-tech process, Ron removes the meat from inside the pits and adds it to the Noyeaux. (Actually, the process involves a hinged lever device and a lot of grunting, and then results in an explosion of pit-shrapnel.) That meat, later toasted, tastes like almonds, however (it's even used in amaretto syrups), and so does the resulting Noyeaux. Cascade's most-coveted beers are aged on bourbon casks, but I like the ones that come off wine and port barrels. The flavors meld more naturally with fruits and nuts and allow the sour to wash over them. You can take the Vlad; leave me the Noyeaux.

Oakshire Well-Mannered Gnome
By all rights, I should elevate this extremely tasty small beer to the Satori as a matter of advocacy. Everyone should drink small beers! It's certainly a worthy choice. Made in the small-beer manner, off the second runnings of the massive Very Ill-Tempered Gnome, the Well-Mannered Gnome has as its grist six malts as well as infusions of Nugget, Centennial, Willamette, and Crystal hops--including dry hops. The result is as complex and lush as it is svelte (just 3.8%). It was dry and spicy--though not husky, as is sometimes the case with small beers. (Harsher notes can apparently be pulled out in the second run.) It was pouring when Patrick and I visited a few weeks back, and I think it may have been my favorite beer of the visit. And this is exactly the thing about low-alcohol beers: they're not just good for small beers, they're good, period. I confirmed from brewer Matt Van Wyk that they'd continue to make this, and next year I'd put it on your "must try" list.

Prodigal Son Bruce/Lee Porter
The final beer, and the Satori winner, is from one of those new breweries--Prodigal Son, from that increasingly beer-rich region of Northeast Oregon. This beer didn't do too well in People's Choice polling, and I'm not surprised. Just 17,000 people live in the home of the Round-Up, and probably not many read beer blogs. They are fortunate indeed to have brewer Brian Harder, a Seibel-grad and Rogue alum, as a prodigal son who so kindly returned with the bounty of his beer knowledge. In Prodigal Son they have one of Oregon's best brewpubs, both in terms of ambiance as well as beer.

One of the themes that's come up a lot lately in the beerosphere is novelty-fatigue. While it's very cool to live in a moment of such experimentation, one also hankers for a familiar style done really well. When I visited the brewery, all the beers were well-made, and with the exception of the hefeweizen--an offering to lite drinkers--each was well-executed, distinctive, and tasty. Among these was a porter that I didn't realize until later was 7.5% because it was so balanced and approachable. I wrote this about it:

A robust beer that conceals its strength in velvety-soft folds of chocolate. Roast notes balance the beer, but they play a minor role. It was a hot summer day when we visited, and I could easily have downed an imperial pint of this dark nectar.

Sometimes I know the second I drink a beer that it's special, and sometimes I know it because I keep wanting another one days after I tried it. I thought Bruce/Lee was special the first time I had it, but over time, as I pined for it, I knew how special it was. It's a bit big to call a simple porter, but that's how it tasted: nothing gaudy or ornamental about it, just pure pleasure. I expect to see good things from Prodigal Son over the years, and I'll try to make it out there from time to time. You should, too.

People's Choice Winner: Deschutes Hop in the Dark

Beer releases seem to be cyclical. Either that or it was the economy. For whatever reason, this year we had far fewer new releases than in a typical year. A good half of the beers on my list of potential Satori winners (best debut Oregon beer) came from new breweries. If it hadn't been for the hype around Cascadian Dark Ales, I'm not sure what, beyond new breweries, we'd talk about this year.

It is appropriate then that your choice for the best debut beer is a CDA--and appropriate that you chose a different beer than I did. (More on that tomorrow, when I unveil the Satori.) Here's how the final voting turned out, and as you can see, Deschutes took home the honors:

It is worth noting how close the vote was and how the top four beers were all different styles (CDA, summer IPA, sour, and old ale). It's also worth noting that the nanobrewer Beetje ended up with a sizable share of the vote despite selling almost no beer (at least when compared with the top two breweries). Whether that was evidence of vote-packing or an avid niche fanbase, it was nevertheless impressive.

Congrats to the folks from Bend--

Announcing the 2010 DMS Awards for Worst Accomplishments in Beer

At some point this year, as I lolled backward in one brewery or another full of the complimentary draught offered to appease my powerful pen,* it occurred to me that maybe bloggers had gotten too cozy with breweries. Like Nero in a corrupt age, bloggers are apt to fiddle even while a brewery burns. Okay, it's not that bad; still, I thought perhaps a little year-end truth-telling might be an effective antidote. Not everything that happens in the beer world is good, and we will all feel better about ourselves if we acknowledge it.

So herewith I offer the first annual DMS Awards (Dismal Malty Substances) honoring the worst accomplishments in beer. May I have the envelopes, please?


The Pete Coors Award for Worst Act By a Brewery
This award is for the Coors family, who battled non-whites and unions back in the 70s and 80s before cleaning up their act (the kind of thing that sticks in the brains of people like me). Fortunately, breweries don't behave as badly as in those days. Still, we have a few offerings to chose from:

• Columbia River Brewing for offering bogus, sock-puppet reviews online (even before they'd opened!) as nominated by Paul and documented by the New School. Tsk tsk.
• Centerbridge Capital Partners gets a nod for behind-the-scenes efforts to homogenize Rock Bottom's beer after organizing a merger with Gordon Biersch recently. A homogenization they promised not to enact.
• Deschutes Brewery probably shouldn't be on this list, but I'm peeved at them for dumping their entire bottled run of Black Butte XXII (!). It's one of my favorite beers, and I wouldn't have minded a flawed "visual presentation" on an otherwise "fantastic" beer. (As Deschutes described things.)
• Although it's hard to blame Bud Light Lime for this, I will. A hooched-up Stanley McChrystal, at the time the Army Commander in Afghanistan, trashed his commander, the president, and ended up resigning. The aforementioned Bud Light Lime was the fuel of his misspeech, and I'm sure that's not the whole of its crimes.
• We have a much-agreed-upon nomination for all breweries who pull their winter beers on January 2. Amen. Winter starts on December 21--the winter beers should at least survive its first fortnight.
• Finally, a nomination for Magic Hat Brewing by Mark H. This was an issue I didn't even know about until the DMS nominations, but it appears richly deserved. Magic Hat sued Georgetown Brewing over the name of their 9lb Porter and won. Boo!
  

All of these are worthy efforts, no doubt. But easily the worst actor--from my perspective, anyway--is the Texas-based Gambrinus company for trademarking the word "Beervana" for its BridgePort brand. Gambrinus earns the DMS.


The OLCC Award for Worst Act By a Non-Brewing Entity
The award honors the always fun, always capricious Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which does its best to remind people that Beervana is indeed not a perfect place--mainly by making it so. Our list here is shortish, but there are some standouts--predictably, led by the OLCC:

• The OLCC starts things off with their bizarre prohibition against advertising happy hours.
• The Washington State Legislature gets a nod for hiking beer taxes (though I can't get too worked up about this one, given the billions the state is in the hole).
• Finally, the US House considered a bill that would block interstate sales of beer and wine.
  

The winner is a no-brainer, though. It goes to the OLCC (who else?) and Oregon DOJ for randomly deciding to reinterpret a 30-year-old law so that Oregon homebrewers could not compete in public competitions, bring their beers to homebrew meetings, or even leave their home with their own homebrew. Absolutely idiotic, and it brought national attention and shame for creating a problem where none existed.


The Pour Curator Award for Worst Label
Greg Heller-LaBelle has a blog called the Pour Curator, and it has a special focus on label art. I hadn't included this as won of my initial DMS categories, but I agree it ought to be one. So in honor of his blog, we offer these achievements in bad label design:

• Collaborative Evil. Greg's choice is a muddled collaborative project from Fifty/Fifty, Lucky Bucket, and Oakshire. Greg observed that it was "a massive, red mess of Lenin, bombs, the grim reaper and unreadable font." You can see it here.
• Bell's 10,000th Batch. In the other direction is a beer Bell's made with 101 malts and 58 hop varieties. Despite the complexity of the recipe, its label was apparently designed in 38 seconds on an old 286 computer. You can see it here.
  

The winner, however, actually debuted the "art" on their labels back in '09. I remain shocked by how unfortunate they are--both empirically and for the labels they replaced. Your 2010 DMS winner is Pyramid Brewing, with their sports-drink inflected design. No, it does not make them seem edgy or active.



The Doc Wort Award for Worst Blog post
The namesake of this award was nominated, but that's not why we're honoring him. Rather, Doc Wort has long done his damnedest (even recently) to identify other bloggers' failings. This year we nod in his direction as the nominations come out:

• Jeff Alworth of Beervana for initially deriding BrewDog's End of History before being convinced by his readers he was wrong. (Long live the stoat!) Plus, it was apparently the big hit at the bloggers' conference last fall.
  
• E.D. Kain of Balloon Juice for praising Jimmy Carter for paving the way for craft beer. Except Carter had nothing to do with craft beer. (He legalized homebrew.) Plus, Kain's fave beer is Fat Tire, which earns him extra minus points.
• Andy Crouch of Beer Scribe for slagging beer blogging on his beer blog. He seemed to be saying, "yeah, I have a beer blog, but I'm not a stinkin' blogger." Poor form.
  

But the winner is Jeff Alworth for Beervana for his lazy attempt to use an innocuous article by John Holl to grind an ax against the Gray Lady. I was immediately castigated, and Holl graciously commented on the post as well. All of it made me feel petty and it may be the low point of the blog. On the upside, I have since established a e-connection with Holl, and one day I'm leading an expedition to New Jersey with a case of Oregon beer.


The Budweiser Chelada Award for Worst Macro-Related Product
What happens when you mix Clamato and Bud--Chelada! One of the lowlights of the products foisted by creatively-bankrupt beer companies on a weary public and the namesake of this award. (A few of these, including the winner, didn't debut this year, but because we couldn't acknowledge them before this year, they get their moment in the sun in 2010.)

• MGD Light 64. The arms race in light beers started here, with this nearly colorless, flavorless product of just 2.8% alcohol. Note the word "nearly" as we move to...
• Bud Select 55. This is mildly beer-flavored water with a splash of alcohol (2.4%). It's certainly not beer.
• Stella Black. One might think this is a schwarzbier, what with the "black" and all. Nope. Just a random macro that was subsequently mocked for the absurd name.
  

The winner by a landslide, however, has to go to Four Loko, a product not only shockingly distasteful, but so dangerous it was banned in many states and then declared illegal by the FDA.


The HAF Pin-up Girl Award for Worst Event or Feature at an Event
The Holiday Ale Fest is one of the best events in the Portland calendar, but it made two blunders this year. Organizers somehow decided that to get back into the fest, returning customers would have to keep their wristbands on, intact--for as many as five days. But worse still was the second year of the HAF pin-up girl, a bizarrely discordant image for what is otherwise not a party-hearty, frat-boy affair. It shall henceforth stand as the namesake for this award and serve as this year's winner.


The Boston Beefheart Award for Worst "Innovation" or Ingredient
The winner of this year's award will serve as the namesake, though there were some other poorly conceived "innovations" this year as well.

• Innovation itself. We are definitely seeing blowback on all the experiments breweries have been undertaking in recent years. In nominating innovation, Bill Schneller identifies those "beers designed to be served in 4 oz samples at beer festivals because no one would ever want a pint of it."
• Imperialization. An anonymous commenter nominated the urge to imperialize everything--a trend that shows now sign of flagging.
• Miller Lite Vortex bottle. Sign that you have no ideas left about what goes in the bottle? You start pimping the bottle itself.
  

Ah, but the winner. The winner is a real joy to think about: Boston Beer's Burke in a Bottle, brewed with fried beef hearts. Seriously, that's just gross.


The Henry Weinhard Belgian Wheat Award for Worst Beer of the Year Award
Named for the world's worst commercially-produced beer, the final category is the most (err, least) prestigious and also the most difficult to assess. "Worst," like "best," is subjective. Moreover, we can't all try every beer available. Minnesota-based Flagon of Ale suggested Surly Oak-Aged Bender as worst, for example. Maybe it is, but from this distance I'll never know. Instead, I offer these nominees:

• Laht Neppur's Strawberry Cream Ale I described it this way: "it wasn't shocking that this beer was treacly, but I was surprised that it was such a muddy, indistinct treacle."
• Caldera's Hibiscus beer Proof that taste is subjective, many admired this at the '10 Oregon Brewers Festival. For me, it was way too sweet and gingery.
  
• 21st Amendment's Come Hell or High Watermelon. This beer comes from the legacy division of recurring badness, and was nominated by commenter Renee. In a world of imperialization, this goes the wrong direction ("froufy," perhaps) . Of course, every year it's one of the most popular at the OBF, so go figure.
  
• Hair of the Dog Apricot Fred A beer I had the good fortune not to try, it was described during nominations as a "fiasco" by Hopmonster and a "disappointment" by Kevin. This is a real stunner, because Hair of the Dog is easily one of the country's best breweries. But we pull no punches here.
  

But the DMS goes to Migration Little Bitter, a 75 BU/4.5% beer and a classic case of a brewpub misfire that was released due to cost realities. Even brewer Mike Branes admitted the beer was a misfire, and the brewery has since begun to right the ship. I know this has been a rocky year for Migration, and I am sending my best vibes their way: may you win the 2011 Satori. And hey, it could be worse--you're in a category with Alan Sprints!

_______________
*This tale is apocryphal. I actually pay for 95% of the beer I drink, and despite authoring the Number Two Blog in America (patent pending), my pen is sadly no more powerful than a Bud Select 55.

Widmers' New Labels

For your post-Christmas digestion, these new labels from the Widmer Brothers:


You can follow the link to see others in the series--though they are all of a kind. The largest loss is drifter, which was one of the truly beautiful labels out there. One thing that continues is the wood-cut "W," which you can see in previous versions (with thanks to beerlabels.com for one):

Current

Earlier

Earlier still

Merry Christmas One and All

When I lived in India for a couple of academic years, I enjoyed the regular religious celebrations there. Some were celebrated nationally--Holi, Divali, Christmas, Eid--and some were confined to local gods or religious communities. (I was once told, persuasively, that a third of the days in India are devoted to religious celebration, though I can't confirm this.) On holiday days, businesses might be closed, or government offices, or schools, or all or some. The rhythm of days was obscure to the non-Indian. But here's the thing: India celebrates only three national holidays--Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi's Birthday. The rest are acknowledged publicly, but not as national holidays.

The nice thing about India is that there's a lot of slop-over. I have been invited by joyful celebrants into mosques, temples, homes, and even the sea to join religious celebrations. On Christmas, I was taken into the shrine room of a Tamil family by a woman who plucked up a toy Jesus from her alter. It had been resting amid the images of Hindu gods. She said brightly, "See, we celebrate baby Jesus' birth, too!"

Religion isn't the problem. It's the commingling of religious observances and bank holidays. Let us consider them separate issues and allow ourselves to acknowledge the day for what it is, Christmas, a good and fine day that even Hindus in Tamil Nadu celebrate. Or Buddhists like me.

Merry Christmas, folks--

Traditional Wassail - Don't Forget the Eggs!

In the "old" category of today's posts, we turn to Martyn Cornell, who offers several 19th-Century recipes for mulled ale concoctions. In one, preparation the proportions call for six pints ale along with a half pound of brown sugar--plus some sherry. Sounds tasty! (No, it doesn't.) There are others involving gin, oatmeal, and lots of spices. But the most intriguing is this, one of two employing eggs:

Many drinks in the “spiced heated ales” tradition feature eggs: here’s a typical mulled ale recipe:

1 pint of strong, lightly hopped ale
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of sugar
Quarter-teaspoon of nutmeg or ginger
1 tablespoon of rum or brandy

Beat the eggs, sugar, spices and spirits together in a two and a half pint jug. Heat the ale in a two and a half pint saucepan almost to boiling. Pour the hot ale into the egg mixture from a great height (to prevent the egg curdling). Rapidly pour the now creamy liquid from the jug to the pan and back in a long stream several times. Serve.

Most look as though they have adequate info to actually construct, so if you're looking for an interesting beverage to serve on Christmas Eve, you might consider the very old school. What they lack in appeal they gain in authenticity.

Beer West's Strange New Adventure

For Christmas Eve, I offer you two posts--the old and the new. The new involves a technology the magazine Beer Northwest plans to deploy when it restyles itself Beer West. Developed by the Beaverton-based tech company Digimarc, it allows you to scan print matter with your smart phone and trigger web-based content.

With Digimarc, you can bring the interactivity and enhanced content from either images or text and use what readers are familiar with in the digital world on the printed page. By inserting a digital watermark behind text, publishers can create a hyperlink from articles to related content online. Readers simply hold their smart phone over the link and are instantly connected.

I think it would work like this. You're reading an article about Russian River, say (now that the mag covers the West Coast), and you scan the article with your phone. On your phone, up pops a video interview with brewer Vinnie Cilurzo. Or--and this is where I think the tech could really be handy--up pops a list of bottle shops selling Consecration, the beer they're discussing.

Now, technology of itself is no virtue. This is a tool of communication, and it will be up to Beer West to harness it. And, despite the fact that publisher/editor Megan Flynn is about 19 years old (I kid), Beer Northwest has had a decidedly traditional approach to publishing, with little to no web presence or social networking component. So Megan and Co. will have to step up their game and make sure the back end is loaded with cool features and info.

In any case, it will be an interesting experiment.

Beautiful Oregon

There are many fine places in Oregon. This is one:




It's the Yaquina Head lighthouse in Newport. Taken 12:30 pm today. Just before I took this one:



You can climb up to the light, which is shockingly tiny--the size of one of those old-school outdoor Christmas lights. The only thing it lacked was a pub from which to watch the sea pound the rocks. BLM should get on that.

Five Most Important Figures in Craft Brewing

Lists proliferate at the end of the year, and most of them are useful for starting conversations--but not a lot else. The New York Observer identifies the five most important figures in craft brewing, though, and it's hard to argue with their list:

• Jack McAullife, who founded the first micro (New Albion).
• Fritz Maytag, who provided a blueprint for the modern micro (Anchor).
• Ken Grossman, who founded Sierra Nevada.
• Jim Koch, who founded Boston Beer and pioneered contract craft brewing.
• Fred Eckhardt, the "dean of American beer writers."

It's an intriguing question. Importance is difficult to identify. All of the Observer's choices are respectable and defensible, but if I were to put together a list, it wouldn't include the three California brewers. You could make the argument than any of them "founded" craft brewing, but maybe all three is overkill. Jim Koch is a great businessman, and founding a beer business based on a contract-brewing model was actually pretty brilliant. (Though most people haven't forgiven him for it.) And Fred is clearly the most important beer writer in US history, but was he the most important writer? I'd probably go with this five:

• Fritz Maytag. When people regale the story of Anchor, Fritz gets credit for rehabbing an ancient brewery and bringing back the steam beer style. But his biggest contribution was showing that it was possible to find a market that would buy traditional, expensive all-barley and whole-hop beer.
  
• Ken Grossman. He was one of the pioneers in craft brewing and put all the elements together. One of the most important aspects of his approach was quality control, which is not incidental in Sierra Nevada's longtime success.
• Bert Grant. All the brewers in the Observer's list are production breweries, but Bert was the first one to see the potential in brewpubs.
  
• Dave Logsdon. If you've ever read the story about Redhook brewing, you know that yeast wasn't always easy to find. Americans didn't really know how to brew, and yeast was a topic mostly beyond their ken. Logsdon, who founded Wyeast, is perhaps more responsible than any brewer for the proliferation of authentic beer styles in the US.
• Michael Jackson. Although I love the Observer's choice of the most colorful, lovable figure in Beervana, I'd say that it was Michael Jackson's World Guide to Beer that set brains spinning.
  

But as lists are principally for starting discussions, I throw it back you--who would you include?

Vote For the People's Choice

Okay folks, here's the final list of beers I'm considering for the Satori. There are a couple that may get scratched down the road because they won't be brewed again, but better safe than sorry.* I consider every beer on this list to be at least very good. I've already created my short list and am 90% sure which will take home the final prize. But palates differ. The last couple years, the People's Choice differed from my own, and I expect that will be the case in 2010. So let your voice be heard. I'll leave this poll open through the end of the weekend and next week I'll announce both the People's Choice and the Satori.

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*To make the list, a beer had to be brewed in Oregon, be something the brewery planned on making again (no festival one-offs), and had to be released in the last calendar year.

Name That Pub

Me likey:

As part of the multi-year Founding Partnership, Widmer Brothers will sponsor the new bar area, located behind the south end goal at PGE Park, and is looking to fans for ideas on the bar’s name. Timber fans can submit ideas and vote on their favorite name on the Widmer Brothers Facebook page.

They have pretty generic offerings, but also a fill-in space where you can add your own. Something characteristic of logging would be cool--the Widmer Millhouse or something. (Any loggers out there know some logging-appropriate term that would be cool? This site of Minnesota logging lingo offers interesting ideas. You could go with "Deacon's Seat.")

The brothers also list a regular line-up of Widmer beers, but I think they're missing a fantastic cross-branding opportunity here. They should re-purpose W '10 as the local Timbers tipple--available only at the stadium. What with Abe now being the poster boy for the Timbers--and the pied piper of Cascadian Dark Ales--the whole thing comes together beautifully. Plus, I bet the Timbers Army is a CDA-lovin' group of fans.

CDAs and People's Choices

Last week, I polled you about your favorite CDAs. There was a method to my madness: as we come toward the year's end, I start eyeballing the Satori Award (which honors the best debut of a beer to an Oregon brewery's regular or seasonal line-up). The really big trend this year was Cascadian Dark Ales, which I have to consider for the Satori, even though it's a style I don't really love. So to help winnow things down, I polled you. Below are the results with a weighted average (1-4, poor to excellent):

• 3.1 - Deschutes Hop in the Dark
• 2.9 - Widmer W '10
• 2.6 - Oakshire O'Dark 30
• 2.6 - Boneyard Armored Fist
• 2.4 - Alameda Cascadian Coal
• 2.4 - Terminal Gravity CDA
• 2.2 - Full Sail Bump in the Night

So there you have it: Hop in the Dark the clear winner. (It also polled the best in a multiple choice, but that was biased toward the beers more people had tried.) Widmer placed a close second, and I kept hearing complaints that Hopworks' Secession wasn't on the list. Technically, it was an '09 release because it appeared at the Organic Beer Fest that year. I'm persuaded by those who think it's properly a '10 beer, though: it couldn't have qualified in '09 because I didn't expect to ever see it again. I'll therefore add all three to the final Satori long list, which currently includes these beers, annotated where necessary:

• Beetje Small Saison
• Block 15 Figgy Pudding (based on its expected return)
  
• Boneyard (?) - not sure which, if any, beers this new brewery might place in the long list.
  
• Breakside Dry Stout - I could be persuaded this wasn't Breakside's best beer
  
• Cascade Noyeau (also thinking we may see this beer again in the future)
  
• Coalition King Kitty Red/Loving Cup Maple Porter - either one of these should be in there--the red's the best of their hoppy beers (ie, most of them), but the porter's the really inspired beer.
  
• Columbia River Brewing [Paddlers Porter?] I should check this brewery out before final Satori balloting.
  
• Deschutes Hop in the Dark
• Hopworks Secession
• Mt Tabor Little Bull Stout - This was so well-loved at the Microhopic I'm thinking it's this new brewery's best. Yes?
  
• Ninkasi Maiden the Shade (appeared at the '09 Oregon Country Fair, but counts even less than Secession's '09 appearance)
  
• Prodigal Son Bruce/Lee Porter - I could be persuaded this wasn't the best Prodigal Son beer, maybe. Damn fine beer.
• Rogue Single Malt - easily the best of their debut beers made with homegrown ingredients
  
• Widmer Sunburn
• Widmer W '10 CDA (I'll check to see if this will be back in the future)
  

Obviously, not every beer that meets the criteria is on this list, but you might see something that I clearly missed. Please holler. I'd hate to miss an obvious choice. Although the Satori isn't exactly the most important award on the planet, I'm pretty happy with how the previous choices look in the rear-view mirror. I like to get it right.

In case you're scoring at home, only two of these are straightforward hop bombs (you could boost the number to five by including CDAs), while five are porters or stouts. Only a couple Belgian-styles, which may mean the streak in that genre (of two) may be over.

Weigh in and I'll post a follow-up poll with all the finalists and get a people's choice. (Oh, and the interns are madly collating your suggestions on the DMS Awards, which will be announced by week's end.)

Very Cool People

On Friday evening, I enjoyed a couple hours and a few beers at Beermongers with Joe Middleton and Jason Rizos of the Oregon Brew Crew (Joe's the tall one), where they presented me with the hardware that goes along with the Pulp Bung award. Before you leap to the conclusion that I'm on my second victory lap--gauche, at the very least--wait. I actually am remedying a mistake from that earlier post. The Brew Crew cited several people for awards, and I wanted to nod in their direction. Six people in all received bung awards, and two--Oliver Manuel (homebrewer, cited for contributions as a volunteer to the Brew Crew) and Randy Plew (of Plew's Brews, in St. Johns)--are unfamiliar to me. To them I nod with appreciative ignorance.

The three others, however, I do know and they are among the people I most admire in the Portland beer world. I consider it extremely good fortune to share this award in a year they were also honored. So, to these very cool people:

• Chris Crabb ostensibly does PR. She has long worked with the Oregon Brewers Fest and Holiday Ale Fest, and lately with some local breweries, and possibly she does a lot more than that. But "PR" understates matters. Bad PR people send out press releases. Good PR people send out press releases and liaise between the media and clients. Exceptional PR people build long-term relationships with people, making the media feel like clients. Back in 2004, when I had long been out of writing about beer from anything looking remotely like real media, I contacted Chris and told here I'd be blogging about the OBF. For a political blog (post here). Cool, she said, and got me credentialed: classy. Over the years, every email I've sent with questions has been returned within hours with accurate info and a pleasant response. This year, unbidden, Chris sent me a spreadsheet of the beers at the Holiday Ale Fest, adding a note mentioning that she knew I liked this kind of data, so here it was. The award goes to her for her "efforts to promote or support the trade from a commercial perspective," but this also understates it. Someone said, "she's one of the good ones," which is better.
• Alex Ganum won the Jim Kennedy Entrepreneurial Bung, and I'm not sure if it honors his work founding Upright Brewing, his joint project with Ben Meyer (Grain and Gristle), both, or something else. In any case, it's deserved. With Upright, Alex pushed the envelope on brewing in Portland--away from hops, and toward a brave new future. More than any brewer I know in Oregon, Alex is oriented toward the culinary possibilities in beer. When a I wrote a piece for Sunset last year, I asked him which cheeses his beers best suited. He wrote back at length with a variety of suggestions for pairings, including descriptions of the flavor notes and how they related to each other. In a city that takes food very seriously, Alex has created a series of that can match the culinary diversity. If Portland is going to continue to be on the leading edge of good beer, we need folks like Alex around.
  
• Ron Gansberg received a special bung for achievements in sour ale brewing. I've written a lot about Ron in the past few years, so probably not a lot more needs to be said. I've raved about his beers and described him as everything from a mad scientist to Willy Wonka. I could add James Brown, because Ron's the hardest working man in brewing. In the past 18 months, he's come into his own and is now achieving the national reputation he richly deserves, and Oregon is getting some ink for beer that doesn't feature hops. With the debut of the Cascade Barrel House earlier this year, Ron's beer has begun to receive more attention in the hometown--also richly deserved. I have gone on and on about Ron in the past, so no need to do so here.

It's interesting that in the year I was selected, the two brewers who were also selected have won Satori Awards. I don't know if the Brew Crew planned it that way, but I thank them for it nevertheless.

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Photos: Jay Brooks (Crabb) and Angelo De Ieso (Ganum)

DMS Award Nominations

Back in July, I ruminated on the corrupting nature of beer blogging. It is an innately compromising activity. In that post, I pointed out how my positive review of Rogue's Chatoe Single Malt resulted in links from the brewery and juiced traffic to the tune of a 25% bump. Add to that the free beer, in-depth brewery tours, and general cliquish nature of the industry, and you have lots of reasons for why we might shade things in a brewery's favor.

I threatened an antidote to that impulse, the Dismal Malty Substances (DMS) Awards.* Well, let's deliver on the threat. I have a couple of nominees in mind, but I would love to solicit input from you all. Did you have offensive beer this year? Did you see a brewery behaving badly? Was there an "innovation" you'd rather forget? Embarrassing blog post? Let's have a little fun, along the lines of Hollywood's Razzies. We don't want any salted earth commentary, but we should all be able to poke fun at ourselves, right? Here are a few potential categories

• Worst beer
• Worst act by a brewery (local and/or national)
• Worst blog post
• Worst macro-related product (Four Loco, Bud Select 55, etc.)
• Worst event or feature at an event
• Worst "innovation" or ingredient
• Others???

I can put this together myself, but I would love some help from you all. As you proved with the info about CDAs, your collective brain is far bigger than mine. Add your nominations in comments (or ideas for other categories). If you have something that's too hot to handle, you can also email it to me privately at the_beerax (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Let the fun begin--

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*A beer geek pun. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is an off-flavor in beer.