How BridgePort Got Its IPA

BridgePort IPA was released in 1996, which doesn't exactly place it at the front of the hoppy American ale line.  In 1996, I was already a hophead, and I got my fix through assorted offerings, the majority of which were not called "IPA."  But as I sat in the Gypsy across from Cinema 21 killing time before a show 18 years ago, I first encountered the flavor of the future.  Bitterness would soon become the rage, and an "arms race" followed, each beer more violent than the last.

BridgePort, though, foresaw the post-war period, when bitterness would give way to a different kind of intensity made of saturated flavors and aromas.  Hopping has now moved down the line, from the front of the boil to the end and after, in the conditioning tank.  (Sometimes breweries now skip the front of the boil altogether.)  I don't know that we can draw a direct line of causality directly backward from beers like Boneyard RPM all the way to NW Marshall, but BridgePort IPA was indeed the earliest example of these contemporary hoppy ales in the Pacific Northwest.

Last week, the man who first brewed that beer talked about it.  Appropriately, he's not from around here.  Sometimes it takes an immigrant to point out to locals what they have right in front of them.  Here's Australian brewer Phil Sexton describing his inspiration for BridgePort IPA.

More Randomness!

Two dudes wander around Newcastle drinking in various pubs.  If you miss ambling around the streets of chill cities where the rain rattles down spitefully and then ducking into warm pubs with cask ale, this will please you. 

The Delightful Hans-Peter Drexler

By far the most pleasurable aspect of writing a book about beer is getting to meet the brewers.  It's also the most frustrating, because it's the aspect I can never communicate very well.  I was digging around looking for information a moment ago and stumbled on this fantastic video by Schneider and Sohn which is all hinged to the words of Brewmaster Hans-Peter Drexler.  Every brewery should emulate this model--brewers are easily the best people to speak on behalf of a company's beer.  You get just enough of a taste of Hans-Peter in this that you can probably see what it was like to spend a couple hours with him in Kelheim. 



Introducing TAP X: Nelson Sauvin from Schneider USA on Vimeo.

Christening Crux Fermentation Project

Later today I'll post a "meet the new brewery" segment on Crux Fermentation Project, Larry Sidor's new brewery.  In the meantime, here's a video of Saturday's brewery christening.  Doing the honors are Larry, Paul Evers, and Dave Wilson, the proud new owners of the new brewery.  (Incidentally, it's only shaky for about the first ten seconds.)


Crux Fermentation Project Christening from Jeff Alworth on Vimeo.

Friday Flick: Chimay

As a way of providing content while trying to keep my shoulder to the wheel, I will henceforth offer video clips of cool beer stuff--mainly, probably, breweries. Today, a lovely piece on the monks for the Abbaye de Scourmont. You know it better as Chimay.

Cool Alan Sprints Vid

The Oregon Travel Network (Travel Oregon) has put together a very cool little video featuring Alan Sprints. It shows him indulging one of his less-famous passions, cooking. If you look carefully, you'll see that he's doing that cooking out at the new brewery, too. Have a look:

I Seem to Recall That Coors Used to be More Hoppy

As our palates change, we sometimes mis-remember the past. We recall beers that impressed us with their aggressive flavors and wonder what happened to them. Poor Full Sail has weathered accusations of dumbing-down Amber for years. Of course they haven't; rather, after ten or fifteen imperial IPAs, it is the tasters' palates that change. But that's in the realm of the micro.

With the macros, it's a totally different ball game. Here's a clip I meant to post where Ken Grossman describes what happened.

If you remember a more flavorful Coors, your memory doesn't deceive. Twenty years ago, it was more flavorful. By the way, the flavor threshold for hops is somewhere in the range of 8 IBUs (it depends on the beer, obviously), which means that you can't taste any of the three hops used to brew "triple hops brewed" beer. At this point, hops are solely there to keep the beer from being too sweet--they add zero flavor.

Ken Grossman on the Second Anniversary Beer

Note: Post has been updated; I've added another video.

Yesterday, Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman made a couple of stops in Portland, and I caught him when he appeared at Steinbart's. Fred Eckhardt was supposed to appear jointly, but he arrived late and, in gracious humble form, sat at the back of the crowd. (Angelo caught the later appearance at the Horse Brass and filmed it.) I cut together some video of his comments about the beer he, Charlie Papazian, and Fred jointly conceived for the second of the Sierra Nevada 30-year anniversary beers.

I apologize for the quality--it was filmed in the warehouse, and Ken was standing about a foot underneath a fluorescent light. The bay door was open, and you can hear cars driving along rainy roads in the background. Still, I think you'll find it interesting.

I shot about 45 minutes of tape, and Ken spoke on some pretty fascinating topics. Do you guys have any interest in further footage? I thought I'd put up one more where he talks about the next anniversary beer--but I also have footage of him talking engagingly about technical aspects of brewing, like: how to leach iron from kegs before using them; how quickly beer degrades in the bottle and which seals are most effective; how the SN torpedo works; history of Sierra Nevada; discussion of issues around distribution; and more random stuff.

Finally, I want to highlight an extremely cool thing the brewery is doing this year: Beer Camp. Twenty lucky participants will go down to the brewery, spend two days crafting and brewing a beer which will then be released in their home regions once it's ready. Someone from Portland absolutely needs to be in that group of 20. So go and enter.

Update: Here's the video about the third anniversary beer Sierra Nevada brewed with New Albion founder Jack McAuliffe. Call this the "Old Toe-sucker" clip.

Different Branding, Different Video

Just as a contrast to the New Belgium video I posted a couple days ago, here's one from Sierra Nevada (featuring our own Fred Eckhardt). Compare and contrast:



(I like this one better.)

But is it a craft brew?

This sort of violates my no-politics rule on this blog, but it's funny enough that I think everyone can appreciate it. (Warning to the faint-of-heart: if you find Jon Stewart too base for your tastes, probably best to skip this.)



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TV Segment

At long last, here's the segment on winter ales from KOIN's "Keep it Local." My gaffes were limited to staring at my shoes at the start (my, isn't Jeff bald!) and totally blanking out on what an alt was. KOIN, unfortunately, has gaffed by cutting this clip short--and leaving off most of the Oakshire tasting. Sorry Matt!

Our Rock n Roll Tastes Better Than Yours

Example 287 demonstrating that Portland is Beervana: when your coolest high-concept indie rock band homebrews. I give you the Decemberists:



And on that note--have a fine weekend!

Love Letter to Vinnie

This isn't exactly critical journalism, but it's a nice three minutes. My favorite part is the mini bung Cilurzo uses to pour a wee dram of his Supplication from the cask. Does everyone have those? And also, look at how many barrels he has--good lord. I gotta get down to Santa Rosa soon.

Update. Not everyone loved this video.

Olympia Beer Commercial

I sort of forgot my earlier fascination with old beer ads when I inadvertently stumbled across one of the old Oly "Artesian" ads. Enjoy!

Holiday Ale Fest Video

I slapped together this video last night with clips from the Fest. As you'll note, I took liberties with the timing in the captions to emphasize what was happening. Cheers!

Various Cool Things ...

... about which you should be apprised.

1. Gary Corbin, a long-time Portland beer guy (writer, homebrewer, drinker), has begun his own blog. Wine creeps into some posts, but don't hold it against him.

2. The Holiday Ale Fest is coming: Thursday through Sunday at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Twenty-nine beers, 39 hours. (Preview to come.)

3. A guy sent me links to three videos that feature a tour of Belgian breweries. They're part of a series called "Thirsty Traveler," they're professional (as opposed to, ahem, some online beer vids), high res, and pretty fast loading. And they're cool. First, Second, and Third in the series. (First two are the best.) Seriously, if you love Belgian beer, these are worth a look.

Headin' to India

I'm off to India, returning Thanksgiving Day. I'll be at a Buddhist monastery in the Indian Himalayas, far from anything resembling beer or an internet connection, so this site will go quiet for a bit. I've got a cool documentary that the Blitz-Weinhard Brewery used to show before brewery tours. Now the brewery is gone, but these remain. Enjoy--I'll see you after Thanksgiving.

Part One

Part Two

Henry Weinhard Documentary

Sometime in the 80s or 90s, the Blitz Weinhard Brewery put out a cool documentary that details the history of the brewery. I can't remember if it was actually part of the pre-tour video they showed when you visited the brewery or not, but it is a stand-alone, in any case. I had to break it up into three, roughly 2 1/2-minute chunks to get it on Youtube. The good news is that I found a transfer format that keeps the video quality far higher than in some of my past postings. Enjoy--

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Henry's Ad: The Airplane

I've had a hard time getting to a few reviews I have planned (the new wither beers are here, the new winter beers are here!) , and so in the meantime, here's another Hank's ad. I think the days of taking a suitcase full of beer on a plane are done. How many casualties of 9/11 will there be?

Blitz Weinhard Commercial from the 60s

There are an interesting series of commercials from the 60s featuring the jingle on this commercial--one of the more involved, lyrically, of any made. In the one I'm posting here, they've gone for the theme of the river, and the ad shows the mighty Willamette and recalls a time when you could walk across it on the floating Douglas firs. Other ads feature a farmer, a logger, and a fisherman, rounding out the great extractive industries on which the state was built.

This commercial shows how Portland, unlike other cities that are the centers of wealth in their respective states, was the focus of the state's wealth--it's commercial and shipping hub. I'd show the others, but the VHS they came from had degraded and they're in bad shape. This one's got a couple of rough patches, but it's the best. Enjoy--

Got the sun in the mornin' to get me out of bed,
Got an old hat to cover my head,
Got me a river runnin' by my door,
Got everything here, don't need no more.

Don't make a lot of money, but the livin's free,
I work when I want, break when I please,
Some folks say I gotta do more,
Guess I could ... don't know what for.

[announcer: In Blitz Country the river is still the road, and for 120 years, Blitz Weinhard has been the one premium-quality beer found wherever you stop along that road. Blitz country, where people enjoy the best of living, and along with it, the best of beer.]

Got a snow-capped mountain outside my door,
Got a beer called Blitz, don't need no more,
Got two good reasons for livin' here:
The best country in the country and the country's best beer.