Laurelwood and Other Underrated Breweries

Just working through a backlog of emails here, and I see that Laurelwood is planning an event to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Ten--wow! I still consider Laurelwood a relatively new brewery (which of course underscores the fact that I am a relatively old man). They're having a party in a couple weeks (March 18), and I'll try to remember to flag it beforehand.

It got me thinking. Laurelwood is one of my regular haunts. It has four things I admire in a brewery: proximity (17%), good food (9%), televisions for watching Blazers/Red Sox/Packers (13%), and reliably above-average beer with the occasional homer (61%). Over the years, I've had several beers there of such surpassing quality that they readily spring through my clogged memory of beers past. In short, I consider it easily one of the best breweries in Portland.

Strangely, you don't hear all that much about it among beer geeks. It's a family hangout, and Chad Kennedy doesn't dial up habenero-dandelion saisons or barrel-aged beers. I therefore declare it one of Beervana's Most Underrated Breweries (TM). That, in turn, makes me wonder which others are underrated, which in turn makes me think it's time for a poll.

So here goes, the "most underrated breweries" poll. The idea here is to identify those breweries that don't get their due credit for producing great beers. Media darlings like Upright and Block 15, which in other contexts would be considered underrated, here are not. As the host of the poll, I get to create the list, but I'll leave you a slot to overrule me.

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--

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.

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.)

Your Book-Reading Habits

Last week I posted a three-question survey to learn about your book-buying habits. This wasn't idle curiosity--based on the raft of books coming out and my desire to add to their numbers, I have long wondered just how big the market is. Surveying readers of this blog has some utility--you all are the most avid consumers of all things zymurgical. I figured it would be a very bad thing if you didn't buy books, but we have to test these fears. The results are encouraging.


1. How many beer books do you own?
In 1977, there was exactly one way to learn about beer: buy Michael Jackson's book on the subject. In 2010, there are thousands. This question was designed to test whether or not books had become obsolete; if avid fans had abandoned them, hope is lost. I wanted to test intensity, too, so I broke it out into categories. Of the 163 respondents, only 11% didn't own any books (yay!). A third of you own more than seven (yah!), and two t The breakdown:

11% - None
28% - 1-3
26% - 4-6
35% - 7 or more


2. Which topics interest you enough to buy a book?
Avid beer fans appear to be generally interested in the world of beer. None of the six topics fared poorly, but three were more popular. I take this also to be very good news. Here are the results, and since you could answer more than one, totals exceed 100% (the percentage indicates the proportion of respondents endorsing the item):

65% - Homebrewing
60% - Beer guides
59% - History and culture
38% - Technical info
33% - General beer info
33% - Business of beer


3. Do you subscribe to beer magazines?
This final question was designed to test a theory of mine. Beer mags are quite popular. Draft Magazine has about 250,000 subscribers, All About Beer 100,000. I wondered if that was a good proxy for beer fan intensity, or rather represented a different, overlapping demographic. Blog readers like their news fast and local, whereas mag readers seem to have a more national view. And sure enough, two-thirds of you don't subscribe to any magazines. So, from a book-selling perspective, that's probably a slightly different group and probably have slightly different interests.

Dunno if this was useful to you, but I found it most interesting. Thanks all who took the time to fill out the survey.

Beer Book Survey

Beer books have been on my mind a lot lately. For one, I've been receiving a lot for review, and the breadth of topics as much as the number make me wonder if we're not seeing a surge in popularity. This interests me on an urgently personal level, too, because I'm in the process of trying to nail down a project or two myself. Which brings us to the following 3-question, 30-second survey below. The people who come to this blog are exactly the target audience for beer books, so I'm interested (keenly interested): do you own or plan to buy books, and which kinds? If you have thirty seconds to spare, I'd most appreciate it.

Thanks--

Hey Everyone, let's have a poll!

Let the wild speculation/lobbying begin.




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Your Opinion of Sour Ales

This morning's post has produced more interest in the topic of sour ales than I expected. And now I'm wondering--maybe there's more interest in sour ales than I realized. (And maybe all my friends are a bunch of unreconstructed hop-heads.) So, since everybody loves a poll,* here goes:



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*Except for those of you who really, really hate them.
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People's Choice Winner (*)

Over the holiday weekend, I ran my annual people's choice award, somehow oblivious to the fact that we live in a fully Facebook age. (And Twitter.) Last year, no breweries were able to funnel their fans to my site, and so it pretty accurately reflected the views of my regular readers. Because I sprang it over Christmas, that almost happened again. Almost!

As it turns out, both Upright and Ninkasi got announcements out before last night's deadline. As a result, Spring Reign squeaked out a win. What's interesting to me is that before Ninkasi discovered the poll, they were getting absolutely killed. Before Upright rang in, I had about 200 votes. Deschutes Fresh Hopped Mirror Pond was out in front, followed by Widmer Drifter and Upright (which had tied itself for third place). In the end, Deschutes only finished five votes out of the lead. So, while this poll was never scientific, I think it's safe to say that without lobbying, it would have been the clear fave. Still, we can't reward counterfactuals, so Ninkasi Spring Reign takes the gold cup.

A few interesting lessons did emerge. First, if Deschutes was thinking of not repeating the fresh hopped Mirror Pond experiment in 2010, I'd like to to offer this poll as an argument for its popularity. I was nonplussed by it, but clearly, a lot of you were mighty impressed. Similar note to Hair of the Dog regarding Michael. Despite a very, very limited run, it managed to get a solid 20 votes. Finally, my choice, Upright Four, got a respectable 24 votes. Twenty three of you out there are pretty smart! :-)

Lesson two is that the bigs are doing a good job making beers that appeal to the serious beer geeks. Widmer Drifter got an unaided 40 votes. Mac's Grifter got 18 votes as did Session Black. Given that these beers were pitched at a broader market, I'd say they hit the mark.

Lesson three? Somehow I'll have to figure out how to foil brewery promotion if I do this again. Meantime, congrats Ninkasi--they loves you.

People's Choice Poll

As we start winding back up post-Christmas (hope everyone had a great time), I leave you with the people's choice award, which I'll close down at the end of the weekend. Cheers--

People's Choice Poll

Okay, folks, here's the people's choice poll. Same criteria as for the Satori Award--an Oregon beer released in 2009 that will be a regular or regular seasonal beer. Also, note that for Upright, I selected the two most widely-available beers, Four and Five. I know some of you will like some of their other beers better, but it seems unfair to penalize a debut brewery by splitting the vote among several beers. My sense is that Four and Five have the biggest followings, so I hope this is a good compromise.

Happy voting--

A Final Word on Old Ales

To complete the circle, I wanted to mention that I sent BridgePort brewmaster Karl Ockert the results of the two polls I ran on the blog last week. Karl had okay-ed my proposal to poll readers here to see what style of beer they'd like BridgePort to brew for the open slot in the "Big Brews" line next spring. In the first round I polled you on ten styles, and the faves to emerge were 1) big NW red, 2) Old Ale, and 3) Strong Rye. In a run-off, you favored the old ale with a clear plurality of about 40%. The red just nipped the rye for second place.

I sent the results to Karl, and he will take them under advisement. Apparently some of the brewers there cotton to a strong lager, though Karl said " I am on the fence but the Rye sounds appealing to me."

It was a fun exercise, and I appreciate your votes. I actually think you all are a great cross-section of the target audience for the "Big Brews" line. Those types of specialty beers are aimed squarely at the beer geek, as is this blog. I was surprised to see how poorly some of the original ten fared (Cascadian Dark Ale only got 4% of the vote; wheatwine, which I thought might poll strongly, just 9%). Based on your voting, I'm prepared to predict that any of the top three beers (or the odd-beer out, the imperial stout, which also polled strongly) would sell well.

And, since I can't rely on BridgePort to brew the old ale, I took matters into my own hands and whipped up a batch over the weekend. Old Codger, a beer as cranky as its brewer.

BridgePort Big Brew Poll - Final Round

Earlier this week, I asked you to vote in a poll about which beer BridgePort should make for its "Big Brews" line this Spring. Karl Ockert and Co. were interested to see what you all thought. From an initial list of ten styles, we have winnowed it down to three: Big NW Red (20% in initial polling), Old Ale (17%), and Strong Rye (14%). For the majority of the period the poll was open, old ales were out in front. A late push gave big reds the edge in the end. But can they hold the edge in a narrowed field? The answer lies with you. I'll include a description of the styles below the poll.



Big NW Red. This is a style that just started appearing--Laurelwood, Roots, Ninkasi, and Widmer have all brewed versions of the style. Those versions all had certain qualities in common beyond the reddish color. Similar to IPAs, but the malt base is a bit sweeter, almost candyish, and not nearly as full bodied. These are beers designed to showcase hops: the malt is there to look pretty, but not much else. They are generally sharply bitter, but many are also dry-hopped or strongly aromatic.

Old Ale. Rich dark amber in color to a very dark brown; near black. Tamed aromatics. Although bittering levels can greatly vary, expect common fruity, vinous, intense malts and sharp alcohol characteristics. The often racy but mellow attitude of the beer may also include acidic notes, raisins and black currants. Vintage varieties may have a low level of oxidation. Stronger versions may have similarities to a port wine. Brewers may also inoculate a portion of the batch with Brettanomyces lambicus and age for an extended period of time to achieve an old-school acidic character. (BeerAdvocate)

Strong Rye. Rye isn't a style (except for roggenbier), it's a grain. As an ingredient, rye contributes a spicy, tannic, sometimes earthy tone. If it occupies too much of the grain bill, you end up with a harsh, unpleasant beer. Hit the mark, though, and it adds wonderful, unique character. Brewers have discovered that rye goes well with hops, so a strong rye beer would probably feature a fair amount of our beloved humulus lupulus. But that would be up to BridgePort.

I'll leave this poll open a couple days and then send off the results to BridgePort on Friday afternoon. Please vote!

BridgePort Advice - Please Vote!

In case you missed it, I posted a poll yesterday to find out which beer you'd like to see BridgePort should make for its Spring "Big Beers" series. I'm shooting for 200-250 votes, and the current total is 144. So please vote now if you haven't.

The early returns show three strong contenders (old ale, Big NW red, strong rye) and one more on the outside looking in (imperial stout).


(Thumb-on-the-scale time: go old ale!)

Soliciting Your Advice

In my interview with Karl Ockert last week, he mentioned that BridgePort is currently ruminating about their Spring "Big Brews" slot. The Big Brews line is the one that has included Hop Czar (which will be moving to six-packs), Fallen Friar, Stumptown Tart, and Raven Mad. Karl asked me--as he probably asks everyone--what I would suggest. I told him I'd do him one better than that; I'd find out what you would suggest.

So below is a poll with a number of styles that I have pre-selected. They include only "big" beers--my rule of thumb was 7% and up. I eliminated styles BridgePort already brews (tripel, double IPA, barleywine), and styles that are pretty broadly brewed or randomly imperialized styles (Imperial Kolsch!). Of course, some of you may have a suggestion that's not here, so please use the write-in category. I'll run this for a few days (until we hit 250 or more) and then we'll winnow it down to 3-4 styles and see if there's a clear fave.

You can click through to learn more about the styles at BeerAdvocate, which handily also has beers brewed in those styles. Kellerbier is totally obscure, but it's a hoppy lager generally brewed at weaker strengths--but it can go up to 7%. Some of you will remember Jamie Floyd's wheatwine from Steelhead, but otherwise examples are rare. It's essentially a barleywine made with a large proportion of wheat.

I have no idea how much pull your suggestions will have, but Karl ran it past some folks at BridgePort and they're interested in what you think. So please vote!

Your Fave IPAs

From yesterday's polling exercise, we learned three things:

1. Tweeting news of a poll tends to pervert the outcome.
2. The little guys are making big noise.
3. There is no consensus on "best" IPA.

Let's begin with point #1. Yesterday at about 1pm, I tweeted news of this post. At that time, Pelican was out in front, trailed closely by Double Mountain, Ninkasi, and Terminal Gravity. Within an hour, Ninkasi had retweeted the link, urging followers to vote. Within another hour, Ninkasi had 40% of the vote. While this demonstrates impressive social media organizing skills, it doesn't resolve the question of which beer is most favored by Oregon beer geeks. Oakshire, which was already doing well, boosted its own numbers by retweeting as well.

More surprising was the broad support small breweries received. Let's assume Ninkasi would have finished strong even without the tweeting. The were joined by four other breweries all receiving 7% of the vote: Oakshire (27 votes), Double Mountain (27), Laurelwood (26), and Terminal Gravity (24). All of the these breweries beat the two bigs on the list, Full Sail (which received 23 votes) and Deschutes (18). Since these breweries sell tiny fractions of the volume of the big breweries (and are therefore not known to as many drinkers), their tallies are quite impressive. Pelican, it should be noted, slid to 5% with 20 votes, but keep in mind that this is a brewery producing fewer than 5,000 barrels.

Okay, last point: there is no favorite. This is very good news. These beers are not all brewed alike, and drinkers appreciate the differences. I wouldn't be surprised if many of you, like me, don't really feel comfortable trying to select a favorite. It depends on one's mood. Terminal Gravity, which I've called the king of Oregon IPAs, is a muscular, punk-rock beer. Pelican's is a subtle tour de force, like a John Coltrane set. Hop Lava is like a screaming wall of metal. You may love punk, but sometimes you're in the mood for jazz. The best IPAs have found a mood and they serve us in different situations.

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats to those who came out on top. I'll leave the poll open for a few more days, so keep voting if you wish.


Update. I forgot to include the "other" write-in votes. They are listed in comments. Also, I should have included Caldera IPA in the list--it's another fantastic beer. An oversight.

Beervana's Best IPA?

Last night presented a delicious conundrum: after an eight-day hiatus, which beer to welcome me back? I considered but quickly rejected an import. I wanted to reacquaint my mouth with beer of a regional nature. From there, it seemed only a short step to choosing an IPA, which has undoubtedly become the king of local craft styles. But which IPA? By my reckoning, a good half-dozen have claim to be the best and, depending on my mood, I might go for any of them. Eventually, I went for Ninkasi Total Domination, which is lively but not punishing.

Thinking further, I wondered if this may be a bit of a Rorschach style. Although I can limit my list of faves to a top seven, looking through the list of breweries I see at least twice that number of credible candidates. So, in the spirit of democracy, I throw it to you. Below are 14 IPAs I selected based on my own preferences. Breweries get only one slot (though many brew more than one IPA), and I left out imperials as well as BridgePort's, which is actually a pale. However, if you think my list is insufficient, there's the requisite "other." I'll leave the poll open until I get at least 200 votes.

All of this, incidentally, is a prelude to a review I'll do on Brew Dog's Atlantic IPA--the beer they sent on a two-month jaunt in the Atlantic for "sea-aging," in the historical manner. The brewery sent me a bottle (retails at $26 for 11 ounces!), and I will crack it tonight. We'll see whether it is indeed superior to the local IPAs--the very kinds of beer that inspired Brew Dog in the first place.

But first, the poll. (Direct link here if it doesn't load properly.)



(For what it's worth, my top six are, alphabetically: Deschutes, Fort George, Full Sail, Mt. Hood, Ninkasi, Pelican, Terminal Gravity.)

Make Sure to Answer the Poll

The response rate hasn't been so hot for my poll about your drinking habits. I'd like to get 250 responses, and we're currently only at a bit over 100. If you haven't answered, please consider it. Also, a reminder that if your habits have changed in more than one way due to the recession, just select the way you're dealing with the squeeze most often.



Thanks!

Recession Blues, Polling Edition

Back in January, I ran a poll asking you to describe how your beer-drinking habits had changed. At that point, there was not much evidence of a trend away from craft beer. This week we learned that craft beer sales are down even while macro sales are apparently up--so it seems like a good time to run the poll again. I am keeping all the answer categories the same so we can compare them. I should have added a catch-all category ("I'm using a mixture of techniques to save money"), but since I didn't, I won't do it here, either. So, if you are using a variety of strategies to keep costs down, just check the answer you rely on most often.



After a couple days, I'll post the results, along with those from January.

(Usual disclaimer: The poll isn't scientific. There are a number of reasons why we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking the results reflect larger trends. Still, it might plausibly register some change over time--or at least provide us an opportunity to compare results every three or four months during the recession.)

Guinness Anyone?

Guinness is celebrating an anniversary this year--the 250th since Arthur signed the lease at St. James Gate. It's not a bad year to have something to promote, and Guinnie's going all out, including the rumored release of a new beer. Yet not everyone is pleased. Some chafe under the fame of what they describe as an inferior beer. Those in the know will, head tilted forward didactically, argue for Beamish.

I am a snob, and I do find the draft product thin and uninteresting. The pedants are right--Beamish is better. But hey, it's a force of nature, and perhaps the most widely-available beer on earth. So what do you think, Does Guinnie live up to the hype? Let's hear what the verdict in Beervana is.