Craft Beer Month: Days 10-12

After a fallow few days, Craft Beer Month picks up steam again today for the final push through the OBF. Below are a few highlights in which I suspect you may find interest:

• Puckerfest, today through July 16, Belmont Station. Still no word on the beer line-up following tonight's release of Devil's Kriek by Double Mountain. Watch their website and twitter feed for updates.

• Beer, Brats, and Music Fest, July 11, Raccoon Lodge. The best info on this event is in John Foyston's A&E beer column--but of course, the Oregonian has uselessly decided not to post it online. But you only need to know one word: gose. Ron Gansberg has brewed one, and it will be on tap tomorrow. (The style is wild, wonderful, and fantastically rare.)

• 8th Annual Roadhouse Brewfest, July 11, McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. Meet eight McMenamin brewers, listen to live music (Freak Mountain Ramblers), eat, drink, and be merry.

• Parking Lot BBQ & Party, July 11, Fort George Brewing. Features the Dry County Crooks, "an outlaw country/rock outfit with punk roots." (Okaaaay.) More info here.

There are two more events I don't know a whole lot about. This first one feature yet another brewery I haven't heard about, Mt Emily Ales. (They're blooming like spring roses!) Mt. Emily Ales Beer Garden, La Grande Crazy Days, Depot St. between Adams and Washington, La Grande; 541-962-7711; 12-11:30pm

And finally, Saraveza and the Hop and Vine are sponsoring a 5k run in North Portland called the Craft Dash tomorrow morning. You won't find me there, but runners may be interested.

As always, check the full listing if you want to see all the events.


Update.
Here's one more. Lisa Morrison asked for bloggers to spread the word on a fundraiser she's hosting for the Falconer Foundation. On July 12, the Horse Brass is holding a joint birthday party for Lisa, Don Younger, and Point Blank Distributor Scott Willis--all who share a birthday. A batch of special beers including HotD Adam from the Wood, Full Sail Saison, and a Belgian IPA from Walking Man.

Weekend Best Bets - Summer Solstice Edition

Well, here we are, preparing to celebrate the summer Solstice Oregon style: under drizzly skies, with temperatures in the mid-60s. Okay, so it's a celestial event, not one tightly associated with good weather. Still, the days are long and the warmth is imminent. Time to ignore the weather and celebrate.

Brewers Summer Games
Two events will aid you in this endeavor. The first is of course the most star-studded: the Summer Brewers Games at Pelican Brewery in Pacific City. And indeed, the stars are bright. For example, the Emcee is widely-known to his literally tens of readers as one of several Portland beer bloggers. Oh, and I guess there will apparently be some brewers there, too.

More seriously, it looks like it will be a blast. The Beer Goddess, Lisa Morrison, will be judging the event along with Abe Goldman-Armstrong, and there are some fair-sized bragging rights at stake. Of course, there will be more kegs of good beer than you can shake a stick at, so whether you find the festivities interesting or not, your attention will be occupied.

Noon-8pm, on the beach, kids are encouraged and can participate in the Root Beer Games. All proceeds go to charity.


Raccoon Lodge Summer Solstice Celebration
For Portlanders unable to make it to the coast, you can at least make it across the river to the Rac Lodge for a party. In particular, this looks like a fantastic idea:

The brewers will roll out a full 58-gallon barrel of Cascade Brewing’s Summer Solstice IPA. This barrel conditioned beer will be ceremoniously tapped old style, with a bung and a mallet.

It looks like it will be big fun:

The event features an afternoon of live music, including Cascade Brewing Brewmaster Ron Gansberg’s bluegrass-folk band, Black Lodge. There will be pork roasted over an applewood fire for delicious BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, as well as other food for purchase.

Raccoon Lodge & Brew Pub
Saturday, 3 - 9:30pm
7424 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy
503-296-0110

Weekend Best Bet

And now for something completely different. Usually I try to direct your attention to a variety of beers that interest me on the assumption that you might find yourself in a number of different pubs. Today I'm going to highlight a single beer, and one that won't even be pouring until 4:30 on Sunday. That's when Lauren Salazar will be at the Green Dragon along with four beers from New Belgium. And among the beers that interest me is Dandelion Ale.

Dandelions are an old-fashioned botanical most closely associated with wine. In this case, New Belgium has augmented a low-hopped beer with fresh dandelion greens and grains of paradise. And it's a hefty beer, too, at 7.8%. Sounds tres Belgique.

New Belgium Tasting at the Green Dragon
4:30pm, Sunday
928 S.E. Ninth Ave.

Weekend Best Bets

We have apparently entered summer early. However, since today is the official kick-off of Rose Festival, I expect the rain to return shortly. For the time being, this week's selections reflect the weather--hot and summery. Enjoy--

• Start your weekend at Belmont Station, where at 6pm tonight Upright Brewing's Alex Ganum will be on hand along with Upright's four regular beers (4-7). You will rarely have an opportunity to try them all together--and I do believe this marks Seven's debut. (Holler if I'm wrong on that.)

• The lush, tropical Caldera Dry Hopped Orange is at Eastburn. A great beer. As an FYI, Eastburn is also hosting the world premiere of Double Mountain Vaporizor Golden IPA on June 3. Charlie Devereaux will be on hand to introduce it.

• At the Horse Brass, the Duchesse de Bourgogne. On tap. (!)
  

• The Concordia Ale House has beers from the Washington Beer Cup on tap--and they're huge, non-summery monsters. Still, since I know some of you will inappropriately be attracted to these, I will mention that two stouts (especially inappropriate): Fish Poseidon and Elysian Dragonstooth. Hale's Aftermath IPA won the event, so there's that, too.

• Update, Green Dragon. Now that the taplist has been updated, I'd say you could do worse than the Oud Beersel Framboise. Especially on a day like today.
  

Disclaimer: Until Taplister comes on line, I can't speak for the currency of these listings. If you know of an inaccuracy, please note it in comments.

Weekend Best Bets

[Update. You should never try to slap together a post when your mind is elsewhere. Stan Hieronymus points out that Citras are not low-alpha. I conflated them with Teamaker in my mind. Citras are of course the hop used in Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. At least I was right about one thing--they have garned a bunch of love. Well anyway, have a good weekend.]

My dear mother is in town this weekend (first time in two years--a terrible oversight!), and so I'm cutting right to the chase. Here are my picks for the most interesting pours happening around town. Perhaps you'll see me at one of these places having a beer with Mom.

• Bend Brewing's Rocksy Stein Lager, a stone beer, is was pouring at Bailey's. [Whoops; apparently it blew. Now you must trek to Bend.] It's one of the rarest styles going, and I am seriously hankering to try it. Also at Bailey's, the rarely-seen-on-tap Poseidon Imperial Stout by Fish.

• The Horse Brass has a nice line-up, including Beer Valley's Leafer Madness, Hacker-Schoor Dunkel Weisse, and pouring this weekend Trip II Citra Hop Belgian Ale, a combo-brewed beer from Elysian and New Belgium. Citras are those new, super-low-alpha hops that have garnered quite a bit of love in recent beers.

• The Green Dragon's patio is now open, so that's not a bad destination. None of their beers screams must-try, but their's is the most diverse list. You can stop by knowing something will tickle your fancy, whether it's a mead, Belgian, or double IPA.

• Other great places for outdoor seating: Amnesia, EastBurn, Hedge House and Fifth Quadrant, Hopworks, Laurelwood, the various Lucky Labs, and the Mash Tun.

Have a good one--

Weekend Best Bets

Since there are only 250 tickets available for FredFest, I therefore conclude that some of you might be tippling elsewhere. Here are my recommendations.

• Go sit out on the sidewalk at Bailey's and have a Stonefly Rye from Three Creeks. I was down in Sisters just a couple of weeks ago, and this is the beer that most impressed me. Perfect sidewalk-on-a-sunny day beer.

• Two of Upright's beers are pouring at Belmont Station, and Four is also ideal for sunshine. Five? Go, try it, and tell me. Or wait until after I visit the brewery on Monday. There's also a cask BridgePort Hop Harvest pouring, which might serve to answer the question: how long do fresh hop ales reside tastily within a cask?
  

• The Horse Brass is pouring Fort George's Vortex IPA. It's one of the better IPAs brewed in Oregon, which is saying a lot. And it doesn't often make it up and over the Coast Range to our fair city.
  

• At Eastburn (and also the Horse Brass) you'll find Double Mountain's Kolsch, a beer over-hopped by German standards, but perfecto by our own.
  

Of course, you might also find yourself wishing to boldly go to a movie. In this case, I recommend the St. Johns Cinema and Pub, where for ten bucks you get both a ticket and a glass of beer and no assaultive ads. Eschew Regal; go indie.

Weekend Best Bets

A quick-and-dirty survey of the city's most alluring pours:

1. Cheers to Belgian Beers Fest, Lucky Lab NW, noon to 10 pm.

2. Deschutes the Dissident, Bailey's Taproom.

3. Upright #4 Farmhouse, Saraveza.

4. Double Mountain Kolsch and Caldera Pilot Rock Porter, Horse Brass

5. Cascade Mouton Rouge, Belmont Station.

6. Trade Roots (formerly Laughing Buddha) Ginger Pale, Concordia Ale House.

7. Deschutes Oatmeal Pale, Deschutes

8. (Pacific City edition) La Fleur Amère ("the Bitter Flower"), Pelican's entry to CtBB, Pelican.

Weekend Best Bets - I'm Outta Town Edition

So I'm writing this on Thursday afternoon, a couple hours before leaving town for the weekend. It's probably a little too early to do a decent survey of your options, so I'll highlight Pelican Brewery's seasonals. Pelican was the only brewery to take me up on the offer to update me on their special beers. Other breweries, the invite's still open. Drop me a line!

Nestucca ESB. Features English hops (Goldings, Fuggles), and was dry-hopped for a delightful fresh hop aroma. This beer just went on tap last weekend. 45 IBU, 6%.

Riptide Red. Pelican's take on Irish ales, "Riptide Red is our local tribute to Irish heritage." 25 IBUs, 5.3%.

Angler’s Amber. Based on the description, I'd say this is more like an alt than a NW amber ("Fermented cool with prolonged cold storage in the lager brewing tradition"). I love a good ESB, but this looks the most intriguing. But hey, if you're sitting in their gorgeous pub, there's no reason to restrict yourself to one. 50 IBU, 6.7%.

Ah what the hell, here's a bonus recommendation, even though I don't know that it's current. (Just looks too good to pass up). As of Thursday afternoon, Concordia's website said they had on Double Mountain Terrible Two Anniversary ale. A bourbon-barrel aged brown. Mmmm, tasty.

Weekend Best Bets - Sunny Weather Edition

This weekend will be sunny and, by current standards, hot. As such, I have scanned the taplists for sunshine beer.

One of the best hot weather beers is Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, pouring at Concordia Ale House. A good German Weiss is a damned hard beer to top on a sunny day.

Belgium's answer to Weissebier is witbier, and Hoegaarden's is pouring at Belmont Station.

Another fine choice in this vein is the rare-ish Hair of the Dog Greg, a light squash beer. You can find it at the Green Dragon. Also available, Oakshire's version of the wit style.

If none of these please you, click around my "On Tap" links and find something that does float your boat.

Weekend Best Bets

I had intended to make "Weekend Best Bets" a regular feature of this blog. I guess periodic feature is better than nothing, though. So without further ado:

Allagash Tripel Reserve (Concordia Ale House). Allagash does Belgian ales, and they take pains to make a great tripel. This version is drier than most you will have tried, but smooth, gentle, and yummy (technical term).

Beer Valley Leafer Madness, on cask at Belmont Station. Dunno if it's any good, but an imperial IPA (9%, 100+ IBUs) from Ontario, Oregon on cask--three facts that tip the scales in favor of sampling.

Bike Town Brown, the latest Collaborator is on tap at the Eastburn. I went to a Brew Crew meeting last night to do some research and was reminded that Collaborator is one of the rare jewels in the crown of Beervana. Browns are perfect beers on a 52-degree, rainy day. Guess what the weekend's weather is supposed to be?

Cascade Mouton Rouge (Bailey's). The most under-rated of the Gansberg sour lineup, this is the base beer for many others, and it's wonderful on its own.

The Horse Brass has one of my faves, Caldera Dry Hop Orange, and there's a beer there I know some of you don't hate--Pliny the Elder.

Finally, a couple good ones are pouring at the Green Dragon: Fort George Raspberry Wit, a beer I really enjoyed when I was in Astoria (check out the subtlety of the rasberries and how the wit character remains). And although I have not tried it, Lost Coast Double Chocolate Porter beguiles. Double chocolate? What can it mean?

Weekend Best Bets

Your best bets for a sweet pull this weekend....

2007 Alaskan Smoked Porter
This beer ages wonderfully--up to five years and more. Try last year's version alongside this year's at Belmont Station.

Ommegang Hennepin v. Saison Dupont
What's the best saison in the world--Dupont? Test the theory with Ommegang's version, which I might tentatively call superior. It's at Bailey's. Over at the Green Dragon, they're pouring the original from Dupont. Tis the saison!

New Breweries
Block 15 (Corvallis) and Vertigo (McMinnville Hillsboro) are pouring at Bailey's as well. It's easier than traveling an hour or more to the source. Block 15 has a Belgian Brown (7.7%) and Vertigo an alt (5.1%). Or try Oakshire (Eugene) Espresso Stout at Henry's Tavern.

Deschutes Spencers' Gold
On an unexpected journey to the Pearl today, I stopped in for a pint that was brewed at the mothership in Bend. It is an extraordinary session (4.5%) absolutely saturated with Cascade and Centennial flavor (though not bitterness). Holy moly.

Go forth and enjoy--