Holiday Book-Signing Events Saturday and Sunday

As the incessant thrum of cheery music attests, 'tis the season. If you want to get all your holiday shopping done in one stop, let me suggest two group signings this weekend. Illustrious authors will be in attendance, books and signing pens in hand--and I will be there, too. Come pick up a personalized copy for that beer geek in your life.

Saturday, December 3, 5-7pm - Bazi Bierbrasserie
1522 SE 32nd, PDX
Present at this signing will be Jon Abernathy (Bend Beer), Niki Ganong (The Field Guide to Drinking in America), Brian Yaeger (Oregon Breweries), and Pete Dunlop (Portland Beer: Crafting the Road to Beervana).

Sunday, December 4, 2-5 pm - NWIPA
6350 SE Foster, PDX
At this edition we'll have a similar crew, with myself, Niki Ganong, Brian Yaeger, Jon Abernathy, Steven Shomler (Portland Beer Stories), Matt Wagner (The Tall Trees of Portland and art director for Gigantic Brewing label art), --and possibly more. 

Getcher books this weekend!

Important Notices

I wanted to start the week off with a reminder that it will end with a rousing evening at Litcrawl when I'll be speaking at the Big Legrowlski:

Jeff Alworth at Litcrawl
Big Legrowlski
Friday, Nov 4, 7pm
812 NW Couch St, Portland
Free!

The subject of the talk--which I hope is punctuated by chatty discussion from attendees--will be the way national tradition shapes beer style. I'll give a classic example, and then describe the emergence of the newest national brewing tradition, and how it's unlike anything we've ever seen before. I'll coordinate with the pub to have two beers on tap that illustrate these points (they'll be used to demonstrate how flavors arise from the weird practices in each country), and we can taste them as we go. It will absolutely be fun for the whole family, so please come.

I'll bring some Beer Bibles along in case anyone wants to buy a signed copy. Great for the holiday season! (Please bring cash; I don't know that I'll be able to swing credit cards.)

I also have two podcasting notes. First, Patrick and I have been swamped with various thins and haven't gotten a Beervana Podcast finished in awhile. Apologies. We'll try to get on that. And introducing...

The Four Top
Oregon Public Broadcasting has (finally!) started to put together a portfolio of podcasts. One is called The Four Top, hosted by local wine writer Katherine Cole, on the subject of food, dining, and beverages. I've been a regular member of the panel of four, along with names you'd recognize like Lucy Burningham and Jacob Grier. We're trying to build interest and listenership, so please check it out:

The Four Top: Soundcloud, Stitcher, iTunes, 

Oh, and: boo!

An Evening With Alworth (Friday, Nov 4)

In a bit more than two weeks, Portland's premier literary event, Wordstock, hits town. As one component of that, on Friday, November 4, there will be a simultaneous happening across downtown and in the Pearl--mostly in places that serve drinks. In three phases, book events, readings, and various literary fun stuff will happen, including a talk I'll be giving at the Big Legrowlski:

Jeff Alworth on Litcrawl
Big Legrowlski
Friday, Nov 4, 7pm
812 NW Couch St, Portland
Free!

The event is free, and it will be a freewheeling discussion about beer style and the weirdness of national brewing traditions. I will tell funny tales about strange practices and relate them to the beer we're drinking (I hope to have one designated beer, in case people want to taste along). It's a free event, though it will of course be far more entertaining if you have a beer in your hand. I always encourage audience participation, and these events are usually a blast.

Please join me! (Did I mention it was free?)

Where To Find Me in September

I have been remiss in my self-promotion duties in the face of what turns out to be an unexpectedly active September. (Hey, I can hear your groans, you know!) Mark your calendars.

Klindt's Books, The Dalles, today, noon-3pm
Today, in just two hours, I'll be signing books at Klindt's Booksellers in The Dalles. (Oregon's oldest bookstore, dating back to 1870.) If you wanted to scramble and drive there--presuming you don't live in The Dalles--there's still time. I'll be there until 3pm.

Feast Portland
On Friday (9/16, noon) I will be joining a star-studded panel to discuss cider. Tickets are still available, and you should buy them to listen to Kevin Zielinski, Nat West, and Josh Bernstein.

On Saturday, from 1-2pm, I will be signing/selling books at the Grand Tasting. That event is sold out, so if you have tickets, come and say hi.

South Dakota Festival of Books, Sept 22-25
I'm doing several events at this book festival in Brookings, South Dakota. If you're anywhere nearby and interested, have a look at the events I'll be doing (click on the link) and see if any tickle your fancy. The guided tasting on Friday, Sept 23 is going to be super cool. We'll talk flavor elements, but we'll also talk national tradition and how you can spot it in your pint--or stange--glass.

Update.
An unexpected troll hit this post, and after a few exchanges, s/he (though one suspects "he") decided to retreat and delete all his comments. I was able to turn them off before he could delete the first one, so you can get a flavor of the conversation. 

The End is Nigh

In order to locate a two-month period in which blog posts were as bereft here as they were in Sept and Oct this year, you have to go back to 2006. During these past two months, I've been on a national book tour while trying to complete a book manuscript. And so blogging has suffered mightily. Fortunately for all concerned, things are finally coming to a conclusion. My mid-November, it should be back to the normal level of randomness you have all come to expect.

However, tomorrow I depart for Miami to begin the final leg of the book tour. I'm arriving early so I can enjoy a bit of sunshine and Cuban food. Thereafter follow these stops, for anyone who happens to be nearby:

• November 4 at 8pm, Miami, FL
  Books and Books, Coral Gables 
• November 5 at 7pm, Tampa, FL
  Hidden Springs Ale Works  
• November 6 at 5pm, Atlanta
  Ale Yeah Craft Beer Market (you can also pre-order signed copies)  
• November 8 at 2pm, Nashville
  Yazoo Brewing special event
• November 9 at 6:30pm, Richmond, VA
  Ardent Taproom - ticketed event ($30 gets you the book and three Ardent beers) 
• November 10 at 6:30, Washington DC
  Busboys and Poets Brookland 

What else? Well, I did manage to do a bit of serious blogging while I was on the road, and you can read about that over at All About Beer in a post I promised last week after passing through Milwaukee:

The Pabst complex is so compelling because it’s so tangible. Capitalism is a violent and sometimes jarring force, and as quickly as it graces a business with the generative power to rise from the pavement, it can strike it right back down. For 15 decades, that brewery continued to grow in lunges, expanding capacity to remain lean and efficient, to gobble up more and more of the growing market. The excitement and energy we are witnessing in brewing now is no different than the one that visited the U.S. 150 years ago when German immigrants brought their brewing expertise and inspired drinkers with lager beer. But in 1996, the same calculus that fueled that empire also led to the decision to quit the place: beer could be made more cheaply elsewhere. In a pen stroke the buildings went dark.

Read the rest here.  Finally, Patrick and I have a new Beervana Podcast on the subject of cider. It coincided with the Cider Made Simple book launch last night (with very serious thanks to Nat West, Kevin Zielinski, Abram Goldman-Armstrong, and Silas Bleakley and Kristina Nance). In this week's episode, we do a survey course on cider. (At one point in the podcast, there's an inadvertent Happy Halloween from the producer. You have to listen to hear it.)



You can also listen to it on iTunes.

The Essence of Style

People who read this blog know well enough what a beer style is; it's the label on the bottle--"stout," "gose," "IPA"--that tells us what kind of beer we should expect to find inside. It's the thing we fight about when the Brewers Association releases its annual judging guidelines, the quality that helps us assess whether a beer has been well-brewed or not. But if you think more deeply about style, you will come to see that it is actually a fascinating story that comprises the origins and development of that style as inflected by national brewing tradition, cultural preferences, ingredients, and even things as seemingly unlikely as war, famine, and taxes. Other fermented beverages like cider and wine are reflections of place. Beer is a constructed beverage, more like food, and beer style is akin to the cuisines of the world: they reflect the people that brewed them.

If you went around to the countries famous for their brewing traditions and asked them to serve you a "dark beer," you'd get very different things in each country. In Dublin you'd get stout (natch). You might get a mild in England. In Belgium, they might serve you a very strong, dark ale. In the Czech Republic you'd get tmavé or černé, and in Germany you might receive a dunkel lager. If you told the story of any one of these beer styles, it would take you through all those elements I described above. Irish stouts, now 4% session beers, started out as strong, soured brown porters in London. How they migrated from one city to the other and became so radically transformed takes you through malting innovation, preference migration, the effect of taxes, and more.

In action.

I mention all of this, because it's the lead-in to a talk I've been giving at my book events for The Beer Bible. Karen MacNeil's precursor book The Wine Bible, was arranged around region, as befits a beverage dependent on terroir. My book was arranged around style, and in it you find several dozen fascinating stories about their slow development over the past five plus centuries. It makes sense for me to start at the place of style, which gives me the chance to tell some pretty entertaining stories. (Beer is chock full of entertaining stories.)

As you may know (sorry about all the social media promos), I'm in the middle of a national book tour, and I think you'd enjoy spending an hour and a half chatting beer if I happen to come through your town. (The Q&As have been fascinating, too.) I know I'm a wholly unreliable source on this, but I think we've been having quite a bit of fun at them. Beginning Saturday, I'm on the East Coast, so have a look and see if I'll be in your town.

Saturday October 3, Grey Lodge Pub, Philadelphia
4 - 5:30 pm. | Event details here

Sunday October 4, WORD Bookstore Jersey City, NJ
4 - 5:30 pm. | Event details here

Monday October 5, Sixpoint Brewery, Brooklyn
7-9 pm. | A ticketed event--buy tix here

Wednesday October 7, Sam Adams, Boston
6-8 pm. | Event details here

Thursday, October 8, Longfellow Books, Portland, ME
7 - 8:30 pm. | Event details here

Saturday, October 9, World Beer Festival, Durham, NC
Afternoon and evening events | Event details here

Mark Your Calendars - Upcoming Beer Bible Events

We have launch in T minus 8 days. That's when (next Tuesday), The Beer Bible goes on sale and I begin a months-long tour of some of America's finer cities. For those of you who live in Oregon, mark your calendars.

• Tuesday, August 11, Belmont Station (5-7pm)
• Thursday, August 13, Block 15 Taphouse in Corvallis (6:30-8:30pm)
• Saturday, August 15, Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene (noon-1:30pm)
• Thursday, August 19, Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco (6-9pm)
• Friday, August 20, Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA (5:30-7pm)
• Sunday, August 23, Double Mountain in Hood River (11a - 1pm)
• Monday, August 31, Powell's Cedar Hills (7pm)

If you want updates or reminders about these events--or future ones outside Oregon--I will be posting those at the book's Facebook page.

I'll have a bit more Beer Bible-related stuff in the coming days. 

Thanks to CBC, Portland Will Be Awash in Good Beer

Each April, an event known as the Craft Brewers Conference visits one lucky city. Thousands of beery types flow in, attending seminars that are mostly not interesting to the average beer fan ("How to Build a Brewery," "Best Practices in Brewery Date Coding," etc.). What is interesting, and the reason you should prepare your liver for a marathon of pub-going during the week of April 12-18, is that there are a ton of extremely cool events happening around town. For example:

• The week of CBC, the Cascade Barrel House will have two bars and a food station on the production side of the brewery where they'll host "Sour Week," featuring wild ales from breweries across the country.
• On April 15 from 2pm on, Gigantic hosts Gigantic and Friends at Apex Bar. They'll be pouring beers from Three Floyds, Solemn Oath, Lost Abbey, Beau’s All Natural, Sun King and Surly.
• April 13-18, Breakside's Milwaukie brewery will be open from 11am - 8pm with " many of special barrel-aged, mixed culture, and library beers." The brewery is also releasing six collaboration beers with breweries from around the country (which will be pouring, along with collaborations from other national breweries, at the White Owl Social Club on April 16).

It goes on and on. Bailey's, Belmont Station, Roscoe's, Saraveza, and many more will be pouring special beers, A lot of this beer is not generally available in Portland, so it's an opportunity to travel around the country while staying right here in town.

Next week I'll try to post a complete(ish) list. (Email me at the_beerax(at)yahoo.com if you don't trust me to get your event on the list--and given my detail-herding skills, you shouldn't.) In the meantime, clear your calendar.

Two Oregon Beer Books

Two new books are arriving on bookshelves (just in time for the holidays) from local writers.  The first is a companion to Pete Dunlop's history of Portland beer: Bend Beer by Jon Abernathy (and a foreward by Gary Fish).  The second is the long-awaited guide to Oregon breweries called, well, Oregon Breweries by the peripatetic Brian Yaeger, just back from Amsterdam.  I have read neither book (Yaeger's isn't actually available yet), and yet having read Jon and Brian for years, I feel certain they are going to be worth owning.

By chance (or rather good planning), both will be at Belmont Station on December 6 at 5pm for a joint signing and beer-sampling event.  (And Brian's release party happens December 1, 7pm at Widmer.)

Look for the books and see if you can't spare the time to go congratulate them at the event.

Lucky Lab Big Beer Fest

Qimby Beer Hall, 1945 NW Quimby St.
Friday, February 28th and Saturday, March 1, from noon to 10 p.m. 

Although I've essentially given up blogging about events (too many!), I will direct your attention to one this weekend: the Lucky Lab Big Beer Fest at the Quimby brewery.  Ben Flerchinger has been curating a big beer fest at the Lucky Lab for a number of years now (the name "barley wine" seems to come in and out of the title), and it's always worth a look.  What makes it interesting is not just that big beers are the focus, but that Ben stores various vintages and pulls them out later on.  Of the fifty-odd beers he has in hand, only ten are from 2013.  He's got one from 2008 and 15 are 2010 or earlier.  Each year before sending out the line-up, Ben does a round of QA to make sure his kegs still contain potable potents, so you're not wandering into a crapshoot. 

You can see the full line-up here. 

A Weekend All-In-One Guide

I tell you what, when we fall back after Halloween, there's no longer any pretense that we have exited the light.  Into the darkness we go, but fortunately, that means into the thick of winter beer season with all its attendant releases, fests, and events.  As much for my own benefit as yours, here's an omnibus post to try to capture at least a good portion of them.

Events

Bailey's 4th Annual BelgianFest 
Saturday, November 16
2pm to Midnight
Bailey's Taproom, 213 SW Broadway

Lots and lots and lots of amazing looking beer.  It's tomorrow, so step lively. 


Mustache Bash
Thursday, November 21
6pm to 9pm
Portland Brewing, 2730 NW 31st

A niche event for those with handlebars, but I give it the shout-out to a brewery that's working to find its local groove again. 


Drinking Beer For Angelo
Sunday November 24
5pm to 9pm
Bad Habit Room (Saraveza), 5433 N. Michigan

All beer donated to support the health care costs of our good friend Angelo de Ieso.  Includes a silent auction and super-rare Cascade beer tasting. 


Holiday Ale Fest
Wednesday December 4 through Sunday December 8
Times vary
Pioneer Courthouse Square

The dark yin to sunny OBF's yang.  Big beers, big crowds, and big fun.  Put it on your calendar and pick a day to revel.

New Releases

There are so many new releases happening I can't keep up.  I'll mention a few that caught my attention here, but feel free to add to the list in comments.  I'm happy to update the post.  Deschutes brings out the eighth (!) edition of The Abyss (11%/86 IBUs), this year with vanilla bean and cherry bark.  Tomorrow night, Coalition is launching their own imperial stout Bring Out the Imp (8.5%/ 70 IBUs).  An imperial CDA called Duffy's Counterpunch (7.5%/82 IBUs) is the latest "brewer's share" from Full Sail, and its author, Stephanie Duffy, is a beautiful stand-in for Rosie the Riveter.  Block 15's wonderful Figgy Pudding is on the horizon, but brewer Nick Arzner is warning people not to cellar it.  (The wild yeasts down there in the Willy Wonka cellars may have gotten a mite too feral.)  Oakshire recently released their 7th Anniversary Ale, a soured Baltic porter aged on cherries.  All the classics are coming out as well (Brrr, Jubel, Wassail, Vinter Varmer, and more), but one of my faves is now in cans--Hopworks Abominable Ale.  Finally, Widmer has a troika of bourbon-aged Brrrs: regular (just bourbon-aged), Vanilla, and Ginger. 

Holler with additions and I'll put 'em up.

Drink Beer for Angelo

On Thursday night, you should go down to The Commons and have a pint.  There's an event there exactly typical for Portland--beers from the host brewery along with Breakside, Deschutes, Fort George, Gigantic, Laurelwood, Ninkasi, Occidental, Upright, Vertigo and Widmer.  But actually, it's totally unlike anything that normally happens here in Beervana.  The proceeds for the night's swillin' go to Angelo De Ieso, the pied piper of Portland beer.  You surely know his face and probably have spent some time with him.  If so, you know him as one of the most genuinely nice guys in the world. 

Unfortunately, Angelo's had some extremely bad luck.  His friend and co-Brewpublican DJ Paul explains:

Last month while I was in Seattle I heard some horrific news that my friend and Brewpublic’s founder, Angelo De Ieso, suffered through some intense seizures and was in the hospital at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, Oregon. I was able to track Angelo down through his wonderful and caring brother Mario just before Angelo went into brain surgery. The doctors needed to do this so they could do a biopsy on what they found to be a brain tumor. I remembered this call quite vividly as tears were brought to my eyes. How could Angelo be going into brain surgery I asked myself? I just spoke to him a few days prior finalizing some locations for his upcoming KillerBeerWeek. Everything seemed just fine.

After almost 2 grueling weeks in the hospital Angelo was finally discharged still without any knowledge of the results of the biopsy on his brain tumor. Then the time came last week for him to travel back down to Springfield with his brother to meet with his team of doctors to discuss his biopsy results. Dr. Eller informed him of the great news that the brain tumor is benign. However, Angelo will still have a long road ahead of him since he may continue to suffer from future seizures. And with this comes more and more medical and pharmaceutical costs.

It is absolutely unforgivable that anyone should go without health care in the US, but lots of folks fly without it.  Bloggers, for example.  But that's the country we have, and Angelo is one of those folks.  As a consequence, he's $200,000 in the hole.  I doubt very seriously that you can drink enough beer Thursday night to cover his tab, but by god, you ought to try.  You've never had a better excuse.

If for some reason you can't make it to The Commons, go over to this website where you can help defray his costs. 

Angelo and Dr. Eller

Cider Tasting at Portland Nursery

By the way, if you want to taste Kevin Zielinski's cider, head on down to Portland Nursery from 10a - 5 pm tomorrow and Fri-Sunday next week (Oct 18-20) to try some great local ciders.  It's a buck a token and you can sample from EZ Orchards, Wandering Aengus/Anthem, Reverend Nat's, Finnegan, Finn River, Schilling, and Portland Cider.  Kevin and his wife are pouring, so you can say hi to them, too. 

Wandering Aengus's James Kohn (l) and Kevin Zielinski,
this afternoon at Portland Nursery

Cider (this) Saturday; Book Events

Bushwhacker Cider Third Anniversary
1212-D SE Powell, Portland
Noon to Midnight
Eight local ciders on tap, Leigh Marble and Shoeshine Blue live from 4-7p, free samples of Bushwhacker cider, grilled sausages and more

Source: Aaron Hobbs

When Jeff and Erin Smith founded Bushwhacker in Portland, there were only four cideries in the state.  That was just three years ago, and one of the reason there are so many more now (15?) is thanks to Bushwhacker.  It may well be the most well-stocked cider store in the US, and the Smiths make their own cider to boot.  There are no bigger boosters of the product in the Northwest.  To celebrate their third anniversary, Bushwhacker will be hosting a shindig this Saturday.  The festivities will include eight NW ciders: Bushwhacker Peach Ginger, Txa Txa Txa, Cherry Hop; Schilling Spiced Ginger; Snowdrift Cliffbreaks; 2 Towns Bad Apple; Bull Run Cranberry/Pear; plus special surprises from 2 Towns.

Stop by and say congrats.



John Holl Book Signings
John Holl is having a good year.  His new book, The American Craft Beer Cookbook is on shelves now, and over the summer, he was named the new editor of All About Beer Magazine.   He's on an Oregon swing right now that will take him to these locations.

• Full Sail Brewing in Hood River tomorrow, September 18, 2013 5-7p.  If you have the chance to stop in and buy the book there, Full Sail has cool swag on offer as a bonus.
• Belmont Station, Thursday 5-8p
• Feast Cookbook Social, Friday 2-4p (Heathman Hotel, 1001 SW Broadway).  $5 gets you in the door where Chef Michael Stanton will provide light fare and John and 18 other authors will be signing books (including Lucy Burningham and Ellee Thalheimer).

I have not seen the book yet, but the early buzz is good.  Stop by one of the events and pick up your signed copy. 

Don't Miss Portland Beer Week

In about--well, actually, right now--Portland Beer Week kicks off at the Northwest Lucky Lab.  There are other events scheduled for today and everything wraps up on Sunday, June 16 (which makes it a beefy, two-weekend week).  There are tons of brewer events, brewers dinners (this one at Wildwood with brettanomyces-only Crooked Stave beers looks like a winner), seminars, fun events, celebrity brewers, and festivals keyed by the Portland Beer Fest on Saturday. 

I have gotten ever more pathetic about event discussion, but the organizers have put together a very nice slate of events and you should definitely have a gander at the calendar so you don't miss something cool.

Please Make a Note of It

Ah, December in Beervana.  Most places would be concluding their schedule of events by wintertime, but here we're just heating up.  Nothing a Portlander loves more than heading out into a 42 degree, pitch black rainy night (which seems to start at 3:30) for a pint.

I wish I could spend more time talking about the events below, but time ain't on my side.  You, however, should take the time to click the links and consider attending: all three get my highest recommendation:


The Commons One-Year Anniversary
Today and Friday, December 6-7, 5pm
Mike Wright has actually been selling his beer professionally longer ago than a year, but Beetje moved from the garage into commercial space and got a new name.  In the year since he opened the doors to the Commons, he's medaled at the GABF.  Special beers and a new release on Thursday.  Go say congrats.

Chef's Challenge Beer Dinner, Deschutes Brewery
Monday, December 10, 6pm
Celebrity chefs, local personalities judging them (including noted literati Lucy Burningham), and rare Deschutes beers.  And the proceeds go to Morrison Child and Family Services, so no post-feast guilt.  It's all good.

Humbug Lager Fest, Occidental Brewing
Saturday, December 15, noon
Portland's most overlooked great brewery hosts a fest with the most overlooked category of beers.  Eight beer-geek fave breweries, possible "celebrity" DJ's, and lagers.  You should drink more lagers.

____________
COOL PHOTO BY JOSEPH WIGHTMAN

Events in My Absence

In about ten days, I climb aboard a plane bound for Dusseldorf, from whence I shall embark upon an excellent adventure.  (More to come on that.)  While I'm taking in the grandeur of German coolships (apparently there are such beasts, and not just in zoigl breweries), interesting things will continue to happen around these parts.  I'd like to draw your attention to two notable events.


Brews for New Avenues 
Saturday, October 13, 2 to 5 (VIP) and 5 to 10pm (General) at the Green Dragon

One of the enduring virtues of the craft beer world is how much folks turn beer into green to benefit worthy causes.  On Saturday, Oct 13, the Green Dragon will be the site of a mini-festival to support New Avenues for Youth.  New Avenues is a very cool organization dedicated to getting homeless kids off the streets.  They do it not only by providing basic needs, but educating kids and training them for jobs. Here's a bit from the announcement:

Featuring the first live rare beer auction to ever be held in Portland, plus rare craft beers on draft, this event is a must-attend for any beer enthusiast. Even better, 100% of the proceeds will go to New Avenues for Youth's programs that help Portland's homeless and at-risk youth.

GENERAL ADMISSION, $10 entry includes a beer, raffle ticket, and commemorative mug. (Get an additional free beer when you buy your ticket in advance online)

• Portland's first live rare beer auction
• Rogue chocolate stout beer floats with Ben & Jerry's ice cream
• Live bluegrass & food carts
• Free TrackTown rootbeer floats for designated drivers

VIP Pre-Event, $50 entry

• Only 100 tickets available
• Exclusive specialty beers & food
• Silent craft beer auction
• Commemorative tulip glass

I've seen the list of auction beers, and they're impressive--Fred #1, verticals of Abyss, Dissident, and Black Butte Aniversary, Westvleteren 12, packages of every beer many beers brewed by New Glarus and Cigar City, BridgePort's first five Old Knuckleheads (beginning in 1989), a 9 liter St. Feuillien, and lots more.  For more, visit the website.


Beers Made By Walking
Saturday, Oct 20, 3-8pm, with Meet the Brewers from 3 to 5pm
Belmont Station

This is an extremely cool thing that ex-Portlander (but we still claim him) Eric Steen put together.  I'll let him describe it:"Beers Made By Walking is a program that invites brewers to make beer inspired by nature hikes and urban walks. Each walk is different, each beer is a portrait of that landscape. This summer we invited five breweries to go on nature walks. A botanist/herbalist on each hike identified edible and medicinal plants along the trail and these plants were then used to create innovative beers. We invited brewers in distinct parts of the state and the participating brewers are Coalition and Upright (Portland), Flat Tail (Corvallis), Standing Stone (Ashand), and Deschutes (Bend)."

The beers:

• Coalition Brewing.  Ale with Stinging Nettles and Salmonberry 
• Deschutes Brewery.  IPA with Juniper and Sage 
• Flat Tail Brewing.  Fresh Hop Cherry Saison with Corvallis Cherries and Yarrow 
• Standing Stone Brewery.  Ale with Sweet Root, and Wild Ginger 
• Upright Brewing.  Saison with Yarrow and Rose

I really regret that I'm going to miss this--I've long wanted to brew with yarrow (but fearful of its flavor) and stinging nettles?  Fascinating.  So you'll have to go check it out and report back.

Key Events During Oregon Craft Beer Month

Oregon Craft Beer month is now underway--to less fanfare than usual.  Perhaps this is the inevitable result of every month looking like craft beer month in Oregon.  Nevertheless, there are a few important events to put on the calender, and they are these:

World Beer Congress, July 28-August 1
For some reason, this event has been flying a bit under the radar, and yet it is a big-ass deal.  The congress only happens every four years, and this year it'll be in Portland from July 28-August 1. A lot of the events are not for Joe Beergeek (Beer Canning and Double Seaming Technology), but there is one thing that might attract your attention: Beer Steward Seminar.  This is a program designed in part by our own Karl Ockert, who writes: "It is aimed towards educating the beer professionals who handle, sell and promote good beer and we have trained almost 1500 wholesalers, retailers, brewers (and beer writers) in the 18 months since we started."  I've written about this before, and I am psyched to attend the session and see what they've come up with.

Puckerfest, July 13-19

Belmont Station's annual ode to tart kicks off on Friday (just as I leave town for the weekend--@#$%!!).  I alert you particularly to Friday the 13th, when Oakshire's Skookumchuck makes a showing and Saturday, July 14, when Cantillon--now rare--has its day.  The schedule is here, and truth be told, every day is going to be a winner with rare, lovely beers. 

PIB (July 20-22) and OBF (July 26-29)

Forces of nature about which oceans of ink have been writ.  Note the dates and the beers: PIB and OBF. 

Saraveza's Imperial IPA Fest, July 22

Beyond the title, which mostly says it all, I give you a few of the more exotic entrants: Block 15 Blockhead, Deschutes Jedeye, Fort George Bad Juju, and Ninkasi Babylon.

Fred Eckhard's Beer and Cheese Tasting, July 24

The twentieth annual, at Flanders Rogue at 5 pm.  Call 503-222-5910 for deets.


For the full list of events, check out the Oregon Brewers Guild.

Newsy Bits

Great news from the New School: Double Mountain is expanding and will be bottling by the end of summer:

The building next door is 5,000 sf, and the plan we're working on calls for about 25% of it to be dedicated to extra taproom seating, along the windows on Fourth Street. We'll also convert our garage space into full-time taproom space, and expand our kitchen, too. The other 75% of the new building will be used for packaging and warehousing. We've put money down on a new 12-valve bottle filler from GAI that will be arriving from Italy in a month or two, and we're getting an automated keg line as well. Our goal is to have the expansion/remodel and new equipment installation completed by the beginning of the summer tourist season, with bottles to follow sometime later in the summer.

Very good news indeed. Incidentally, the Double Mountain fifth anniversary bash is this Saturday at the brewery. They somehow scored the Meat Puppets as musical guests, which is an amazing blast from this geezer's past.

A competing event that looks mighty fine happens at Occidental on Saturday:

This is a bit last minute, but we're having an event to release our barrel-aged doppelbock this Saturday, for which we're also smoking a whole pig that was raised on our spent grains. We'll be pouring the barrel-aged Lucubrator and our regular beers. $15 bucks gets you a glass of the limited edition Doppelbock and a pork sandwich. 6635 N. Baltimore Ave., Portland, OR 97203. 1-6 pm.

Finally, I alert you to an event you can't go to--unless you live in the Bay State or nearby. It's called "The Artisans" and the idea is to feature small breweries from around the world. Looks like the Portland/Seattle International Fests, but the selection is, top to bottom, really impressive. It's sort of the "beer geeks greatest hits" fest. Wish I could go.

The Super Group of Collaboration Brewers Dinners

In pop music, when a bunch of famous musicians coalesce into a new band, it's called a "super group." Next Wednesday, a super group of brewers will be jamming at Laurelwood with the brewpub's executive chef, Aaron Nichols (6:30-9:30, at the main brewpub on Sandy). The brewers are Laurelwood's new man Vasilios Gletsos (drums?), Upright's Alex Ganum (bass, obviously), the still inchoate Gigantic's Van Havig (frontman), and (rhythm guitarist?) Tom Bleigh, now at Hopworks.

The menu:

Amuse: Chicken coronets with preserved lemon.
Beer: Cascadian Pilsner brewed by Van Havig and Vasili Gletsos

Appetizer: Mussel and shrimp soup with lemon grass, kafir lime leaf, fish stock, chilies, garlic, shallot, and Thai spices.
Beer: Thai Wit brewed by Tom Bleigh and Vasili Gletsos

Salad: Blood orange and arugula with red onions, Castelvetrano olives, and parsley.
Beer: Sour Red blended by Alex Ganum, Tom Bleigh, Van Havig, and Vasili Gletsos

Entrée: Smoked pork belly and pomegranate barbequed brisket with potato-chard gratin, and pomegranate demi glaze jus.
Beer: Scottish Ale brewed by Alex Ganum and Vasili Gletsos

Dessert: Grapefruit tart with pecan brittle and Chantilly cream.
Beer: Milk Stout brewed by the Laurelwood Brew Team

There's a bit of six degrees of Vasilios going on here--they're all brewers he's worked with who have gone on to new breweries. Tix are fifty bucks, which is a pretty good deal for this one-of-a-kind collaboration. More info here.