- The fest itself, Saturday 10/5 from noon to 5.
- Saturday Brewer's Dinner with Full Sail
- Sunday brunch.
Showing posts with label Skamania Lodge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skamania Lodge. Show all posts
Monday, September 30, 2013
Fifth Annual Skamania Lodge Weekend of Beer
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Skamania Lodge Beer Fest
Over the weekend, I attended the first ever beer fest hosted at Skamania Lodge. Before we delve into the details of the fest--the beers and so on--I'd like to step back and consider the evolution of the modern beer festival.
Back in the distant days of the 1990s, beer fests were few, and they were convened to expose drinker
s to beer. The assumption being that drinkers were either 1) too green to have experience much beer on their own, or 2) too remote from certain breweries to have tried their beers. The Oregon Brewers Fest offered Beervanians a taste of the wider American scene, while the Spring Beer Fest gave us a chance to try those wee breweries from the hinterland that weren't getting distribution in Portland. The fest concept has grown so that we now have specialty fests highlighting specific beery elements--Belgian beer, cask beer, fresh hop beer.
With the Skamania Lodge fest, I wonder if we aren't seeing the emergence of a new function--a fest to highlight a location. As you can see from that photo above, the back lawn at Skamania fairly begs for events. I have been at fests all over the Northwest, but none have had as pretty a location as you see there. Although there weren't a huge number of breweries, it was a respectable showing--10 breweries, a couple dozen beers. Better still, the crowd was tiny. You walked up, got a pour, and leisurely proceeded back to your table to savor the conversation, ale, and view. You go to different fests for different reasons; being able to enjoy yourself, to go for the experience--this is rare enough to be precious. Skamania Lodge should tweak a few things for their second annual fest (which I'm told, there will be), but even untweaked it was one of the more enjoyable events I've attended.
Fest Description
Skamania Lodge invited, by my count, 10 breweries: Amnesia, Dick's, Double Mountain, Fish/Leavenworth, Full Sail, Laht Neppur, Lazy Boy, Salmon Creek, Walking Man, and Yakima Craft Brewing. The brewery selection focused heavily on locals: Walking Man was brewed a couple miles away, Double Mountain and Full Sail just upriver. Laht Neppur is from Waitsburg, north of Walla Walla, while Yakima is from ... Yakima. There was only one Portland and no Seattle breweries. A nice mixture of small and local.
Each brewery brought a couple of their standard beers, and these poured at 1pm. At four, they tapped special beers--seasonals, mostly, some of them making their debut.
(That's a tweak I'd make: start phasing those in earlier so serious beer geeks, familiar with standard offerings, have a larger variety earlier.) As a bonus, a number of brewers attended. I caught up with Jamie Emmerson, whom I haven't seen in years. Over the course of the 4-5 hours of the fest, attendees cycled in and out, and there were probably 150 there at any given time. The mug/token thing was standard, except that the taster pour was generally half a mug. And the mugs? Very cool embossed glass jobs. (If you look closely in this picture of people huddling around the fire pit, you can see them.)
Beers
The beer selection wasn't the long suit for the fest--brewers, left to their own devices, brought lots of IPAs. (Tip for future events: talk to the breweries and make sure you have a variety of different styles.) Even with that, there were a number of beers I hadn't tried. Leavenworth, which merged with Fish some time back, brought Eightmile Alt, a wonderful example of subtlety and skill. Laht Neppur took a flyer on local wild, fresh hops. The result was a strangely funky beer--a bit worty (this year's crop was apparently quite low-alpha), but candyish and herbal.
I confess to having missed Lazy Boy's beers so far. Their IPA didn't thrill me--a big grinding and aggressively hopped, with a malt base that bottomed out and left the alphas beating you about the head--but their Redhead was a treat: a gentle, eminently quaffable beer with lovely fresh, spicy hops. Purportedly an imperial, but I couldn't tell. Yakima had a syrupy Scottish ale that might have done with a hop or two more. That brewery also had an amber called 1982 which must surely be a reference to Bert Grant's famous Scottish Ale--the first craft beer brewed in Washington. I admire the reference, but I didn't get a chance to try the beer.
I had another pour of Double Mountain's Dapper Dan (tasty!) and finished with the local specialty--Walking Man IPA. I wanted to go out on a winner, and I knew WM would deliver.
All in all, a wonderful day. Afterward, we warmed up in the hot tub and then feasted on a menu designed to incorporate all the beers that were at the fest. In my earlier post I described Skamania Lodge. I'll alert you when they do this next year. Consider going in for the package deal. It's spendy, but for a relaxing time with lots of good beer, you can't beat it.
Full Disclosure: Skamania Lodge comped Sally and me--and a few other members of the media--for the weekend.
Back in the distant days of the 1990s, beer fests were few, and they were convened to expose drinker
s to beer. The assumption being that drinkers were either 1) too green to have experience much beer on their own, or 2) too remote from certain breweries to have tried their beers. The Oregon Brewers Fest offered Beervanians a taste of the wider American scene, while the Spring Beer Fest gave us a chance to try those wee breweries from the hinterland that weren't getting distribution in Portland. The fest concept has grown so that we now have specialty fests highlighting specific beery elements--Belgian beer, cask beer, fresh hop beer.With the Skamania Lodge fest, I wonder if we aren't seeing the emergence of a new function--a fest to highlight a location. As you can see from that photo above, the back lawn at Skamania fairly begs for events. I have been at fests all over the Northwest, but none have had as pretty a location as you see there. Although there weren't a huge number of breweries, it was a respectable showing--10 breweries, a couple dozen beers. Better still, the crowd was tiny. You walked up, got a pour, and leisurely proceeded back to your table to savor the conversation, ale, and view. You go to different fests for different reasons; being able to enjoy yourself, to go for the experience--this is rare enough to be precious. Skamania Lodge should tweak a few things for their second annual fest (which I'm told, there will be), but even untweaked it was one of the more enjoyable events I've attended.
Fest Description
Skamania Lodge invited, by my count, 10 breweries: Amnesia, Dick's, Double Mountain, Fish/Leavenworth, Full Sail, Laht Neppur, Lazy Boy, Salmon Creek, Walking Man, and Yakima Craft Brewing. The brewery selection focused heavily on locals: Walking Man was brewed a couple miles away, Double Mountain and Full Sail just upriver. Laht Neppur is from Waitsburg, north of Walla Walla, while Yakima is from ... Yakima. There was only one Portland and no Seattle breweries. A nice mixture of small and local.
Each brewery brought a couple of their standard beers, and these poured at 1pm. At four, they tapped special beers--seasonals, mostly, some of them making their debut.
(That's a tweak I'd make: start phasing those in earlier so serious beer geeks, familiar with standard offerings, have a larger variety earlier.) As a bonus, a number of brewers attended. I caught up with Jamie Emmerson, whom I haven't seen in years. Over the course of the 4-5 hours of the fest, attendees cycled in and out, and there were probably 150 there at any given time. The mug/token thing was standard, except that the taster pour was generally half a mug. And the mugs? Very cool embossed glass jobs. (If you look closely in this picture of people huddling around the fire pit, you can see them.)Beers
The beer selection wasn't the long suit for the fest--brewers, left to their own devices, brought lots of IPAs. (Tip for future events: talk to the breweries and make sure you have a variety of different styles.) Even with that, there were a number of beers I hadn't tried. Leavenworth, which merged with Fish some time back, brought Eightmile Alt, a wonderful example of subtlety and skill. Laht Neppur took a flyer on local wild, fresh hops. The result was a strangely funky beer--a bit worty (this year's crop was apparently quite low-alpha), but candyish and herbal.
I confess to having missed Lazy Boy's beers so far. Their IPA didn't thrill me--a big grinding and aggressively hopped, with a malt base that bottomed out and left the alphas beating you about the head--but their Redhead was a treat: a gentle, eminently quaffable beer with lovely fresh, spicy hops. Purportedly an imperial, but I couldn't tell. Yakima had a syrupy Scottish ale that might have done with a hop or two more. That brewery also had an amber called 1982 which must surely be a reference to Bert Grant's famous Scottish Ale--the first craft beer brewed in Washington. I admire the reference, but I didn't get a chance to try the beer.
I had another pour of Double Mountain's Dapper Dan (tasty!) and finished with the local specialty--Walking Man IPA. I wanted to go out on a winner, and I knew WM would deliver.
All in all, a wonderful day. Afterward, we warmed up in the hot tub and then feasted on a menu designed to incorporate all the beers that were at the fest. In my earlier post I described Skamania Lodge. I'll alert you when they do this next year. Consider going in for the package deal. It's spendy, but for a relaxing time with lots of good beer, you can't beat it.
Full Disclosure: Skamania Lodge comped Sally and me--and a few other members of the media--for the weekend.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Skamania Lodge
This weekend I had the good fortune to be the guest of the Skamania Lodge as they kicked off their first in-house beer fest. (I say "first," but it was actually an experiment; 
I hope it was successful enough to try again.) I'll write about the beer in a subsequent post, but first, a little bit about the Lodge itself--you may be as unfamiliar with it as I was before going out there.
The Lodge
Skamania Lodge is located just east of Stevenson, Washington, 45 miles down the Columbia River, which beer geeks will recognize as the home of Walking Man Brewing. You can get there on either side of the river, but be sure to cross over the Bridge of the Gods in at least one direction (toll bridge, $1) for one of the best views of the Gorge.
That stretch of the river is marked by striking mountains on either side that drop down sharply to the river. The Lodge overlooks a wide area in the Columbia, accentuating the mountains and creating a visual illusion of a vast, wide body of water, almost like a bay. The Lodge was situated to take advantage of this vista, and the two restaurants, outdoor amphitheater, and half the rooms all look out onto it.
A Resort
It is here where I would normally transition into the superlatives about the place's beauty and its great facilities--and I will--but let's characterize it first. Skamania Lodge is a Destination Resort, one of these modern inventions that has
something in common with city states of ancient Greece. You have at your disposal all amenities necessary for a full life, set in an environment of raw natural beauty and impressive architecture. You would not be surprised to learn that 70% of the Lodge's business comes from corporate clients who use the many impressive business accoutrements--and then go off to shoot 18 holes on the championship golf course. So it is one of those kinds of places.
That said, it is a resort that downplays a generic corporate ethos and quite successfully invokes a Northwesty, woodsy look and feel. This is probably because it was originally a partnership of four groups, including the Columbia River Gorge Commission and the US Forest Service. Although it was only built in 1993, it feels older and strongly evokes those forest service lodges of the early 20th century (like Timberline Lodge). The interior features heavy use of native fir, locally quarried stone, and even old-growth timbers reclaimed from an Astoria cannery. The central great room is anchored by an 85-foot tall, half million pound stone fireplace, visible from two sides. Perhaps this central hearth, more than anything else, communicates the sense of a lodge. The furniture is mission-style, and the lamps and details evoke that earlier craftsman period.
Finally, the art is well-chosen--I particularly liked the petroglyph rubbings and historic photographs. As a nice finishing touch, there's an active Forest Service office in the lobby.
The various amenities include an indoor pool and a very cool outdoor hot tub, a spa, three plus miles of hiking trails (at one of the properties two lakes, Sally and I saw a blue heron), and all the usuals like wi-fi, flat screens, etc. For full details, check the website.
Feasts
If you know about Skamania Lodge, you may well know it for its feasts--Friday night and Sunday bruch buffets of such surpassing plenty that they inspired two separate philosophical conversations about the nature of hunger and satiety. My sense is that people drive down to the Lodge solely for these spreads, and it's not hard to see why. The Friday night buffet includes a seafood station (crab, shirp, lox, mussels, clams, smoked seafood), ceaser salad station, carving station (salmon, pork loin, prime rib), and a pasta and bread selection. Oh, and of course, the stunning desert station. For our feast, repeated on Saturday, the chefs had prepared the food with recipes using the beer served at the fest. My food palate is not as educated as my beer palate, but I will say that the seafood was especially nice, and the chilled dungeness crab I had on Sunday morning was as fresh as any I've had. (The dinner buffet is $33 and the brunch $29.)
Events
Skamania Lodge is putting together different events--like the beer fest--to
draw folks out during the off-peak times. If you want to spend a weekend out there, these are pretty good bets. The beer weekend would have set you back $237, but you got a night's lodging, tickets to the beer fest, and both the dinner buffet and Sunday brunch feasts included in the price. You can check the Skamania Lodge packages list for similar deals. (And, if they do another of the beer events, I'll alert you here.)
Full Disclosure: Skamania Lodge put me and Sally up for the night, fed us two massive meals, and poured our beers all for free. I was not the only member of the media there (Lisa Morrison and her husband were, too), so you may see some press elsewhere, too.
I hope it was successful enough to try again.) I'll write about the beer in a subsequent post, but first, a little bit about the Lodge itself--you may be as unfamiliar with it as I was before going out there.The Lodge
Skamania Lodge is located just east of Stevenson, Washington, 45 miles down the Columbia River, which beer geeks will recognize as the home of Walking Man Brewing. You can get there on either side of the river, but be sure to cross over the Bridge of the Gods in at least one direction (toll bridge, $1) for one of the best views of the Gorge.
That stretch of the river is marked by striking mountains on either side that drop down sharply to the river. The Lodge overlooks a wide area in the Columbia, accentuating the mountains and creating a visual illusion of a vast, wide body of water, almost like a bay. The Lodge was situated to take advantage of this vista, and the two restaurants, outdoor amphitheater, and half the rooms all look out onto it.
A Resort
It is here where I would normally transition into the superlatives about the place's beauty and its great facilities--and I will--but let's characterize it first. Skamania Lodge is a Destination Resort, one of these modern inventions that has
something in common with city states of ancient Greece. You have at your disposal all amenities necessary for a full life, set in an environment of raw natural beauty and impressive architecture. You would not be surprised to learn that 70% of the Lodge's business comes from corporate clients who use the many impressive business accoutrements--and then go off to shoot 18 holes on the championship golf course. So it is one of those kinds of places.That said, it is a resort that downplays a generic corporate ethos and quite successfully invokes a Northwesty, woodsy look and feel. This is probably because it was originally a partnership of four groups, including the Columbia River Gorge Commission and the US Forest Service. Although it was only built in 1993, it feels older and strongly evokes those forest service lodges of the early 20th century (like Timberline Lodge). The interior features heavy use of native fir, locally quarried stone, and even old-growth timbers reclaimed from an Astoria cannery. The central great room is anchored by an 85-foot tall, half million pound stone fireplace, visible from two sides. Perhaps this central hearth, more than anything else, communicates the sense of a lodge. The furniture is mission-style, and the lamps and details evoke that earlier craftsman period.
Finally, the art is well-chosen--I particularly liked the petroglyph rubbings and historic photographs. As a nice finishing touch, there's an active Forest Service office in the lobby.The various amenities include an indoor pool and a very cool outdoor hot tub, a spa, three plus miles of hiking trails (at one of the properties two lakes, Sally and I saw a blue heron), and all the usuals like wi-fi, flat screens, etc. For full details, check the website.
Feasts
If you know about Skamania Lodge, you may well know it for its feasts--Friday night and Sunday bruch buffets of such surpassing plenty that they inspired two separate philosophical conversations about the nature of hunger and satiety. My sense is that people drive down to the Lodge solely for these spreads, and it's not hard to see why. The Friday night buffet includes a seafood station (crab, shirp, lox, mussels, clams, smoked seafood), ceaser salad station, carving station (salmon, pork loin, prime rib), and a pasta and bread selection. Oh, and of course, the stunning desert station. For our feast, repeated on Saturday, the chefs had prepared the food with recipes using the beer served at the fest. My food palate is not as educated as my beer palate, but I will say that the seafood was especially nice, and the chilled dungeness crab I had on Sunday morning was as fresh as any I've had. (The dinner buffet is $33 and the brunch $29.)
Events
Skamania Lodge is putting together different events--like the beer fest--to
draw folks out during the off-peak times. If you want to spend a weekend out there, these are pretty good bets. The beer weekend would have set you back $237, but you got a night's lodging, tickets to the beer fest, and both the dinner buffet and Sunday brunch feasts included in the price. You can check the Skamania Lodge packages list for similar deals. (And, if they do another of the beer events, I'll alert you here.)Full Disclosure: Skamania Lodge put me and Sally up for the night, fed us two massive meals, and poured our beers all for free. I was not the only member of the media there (Lisa Morrison and her husband were, too), so you may see some press elsewhere, too.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Blogging, Transparency, and Skamania Lodge
You boot up your friendly, neighborhood beer blog to read a review of the newest Widmer product. The blogger raves about it. Question: would you trust the blogger's opinion if you knew Widmer had given the blogger the beer?
The Federal Trade Commission believes you would not, and therefore is preparing to make bloggers confess if they've received free swag:
To complicate matters, not all products are created equally. While I might feel more beholden to a company if they gave me a $26 bottle of beer, it hardly seems worth it to sell my credibility for a lousy $1.50 bottle.
And that brings me to a subject where I think absolute transparency is required--junkets. A few months back, the Astoria Chamber of Commerce paid for a bunch of beer writers to go to their fair city and sample beer and stay in a hotel for free. If I didn't disclose that fact, I would expect you never to trust me again. The reader has some responsibility to make judgments--but that depends on having all the facts.
All of this is a good segue into a junket I'll be attending this weekend--to Skamania Lodge for their "Celebration of Beer" weekend. The Lodge is putting me up for free, and even letting me bring Sally. They're feeding me and giving me free beer. I don't actually have a huge amount of information about the event, but I suspect they are looking for a little press, particularly during this dismal economy. When I write about it--and I will write about it, lots!--you need to understand that my opinions of the place is colored by the fact that I'm enjoying it for free. (My opinion on the beer will be less suspect: after all, there's no quid pro quo there; it's Skamania Lodge who's footing the bill.)
I think it's a great opportunity to explore the whole question further--and as I write about this, I would love your feedback. All bloggers have is their credibility, so freebies are an issue with which to contend. The FTC aside, I will try to be transparent when I receive freebies, and you all should feel invited to charge me with corruption if see evidence that I'm too easily bought off. Seem fair?
The Federal Trade Commission believes you would not, and therefore is preparing to make bloggers confess if they've received free swag:
Beginning Dec. 1, bloggers, Twitterers and many others who write online product reviews must disclose the receipt of free merchandise or payment for the items they write about.I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, I think transparency is a good thing, and I don't really see any harm in this regulation. On the other hand, it ghettoizes blogs--who must make this disclosure--but leaves the mainstream press alone. So, if the brothers offer me a bottle of their new cherry doppel and I blog about it, I have to disclose the freebie. If Willamette Week publishes the same article, I don't have to. That seems a bit ... off.
The guidelines, an update of the F.T.C.’s 1980 guide concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising, will affect many in the beauty and fashion blogging community, where freebies ($40 eye-shadow palates, $250 clutch purses and, yes, $69 jeans) are rampant. The rules reflect the commission’s concern about how advertisers are using bloggers and social networking sites to pitch their products.
To complicate matters, not all products are created equally. While I might feel more beholden to a company if they gave me a $26 bottle of beer, it hardly seems worth it to sell my credibility for a lousy $1.50 bottle.
And that brings me to a subject where I think absolute transparency is required--junkets. A few months back, the Astoria Chamber of Commerce paid for a bunch of beer writers to go to their fair city and sample beer and stay in a hotel for free. If I didn't disclose that fact, I would expect you never to trust me again. The reader has some responsibility to make judgments--but that depends on having all the facts.
All of this is a good segue into a junket I'll be attending this weekend--to Skamania Lodge for their "Celebration of Beer" weekend. The Lodge is putting me up for free, and even letting me bring Sally. They're feeding me and giving me free beer. I don't actually have a huge amount of information about the event, but I suspect they are looking for a little press, particularly during this dismal economy. When I write about it--and I will write about it, lots!--you need to understand that my opinions of the place is colored by the fact that I'm enjoying it for free. (My opinion on the beer will be less suspect: after all, there's no quid pro quo there; it's Skamania Lodge who's footing the bill.)
I think it's a great opportunity to explore the whole question further--and as I write about this, I would love your feedback. All bloggers have is their credibility, so freebies are an issue with which to contend. The FTC aside, I will try to be transparent when I receive freebies, and you all should feel invited to charge me with corruption if see evidence that I'm too easily bought off. Seem fair?
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