Posts Tagged ‘Fests’
Written by Abram on 06 April 2010
Brewsville-Chicago: The Craft Brewers Conference and World Beer Cup draws brewers from all over the world to America’s Second City this week. I got in at 8, met some brewers from Haverhill (prounced Averil (as in Levine) on the L train, and went to Rock Bottom for Ralph Olson’ s retirement party. Ralph has been a hop salesman in Yakima for 31 years for HopUnion. The party was brilliant, with uber-hoppy beers from far and wide pouring at the event, including Oakshire’s Watershed IPA.
This is what retirement looks like
A large contingent of Cascadian brewers were there to wish Ralph well. I felt right at home, and saw a large number of brewers and beer folks from other parts of the US and Canada (well OK, US, Canada and Quebec).
After the Hopunion party, it was off to a Stone/Surly party at Jake Melicks, a beer bar with mad amounts of flatscreen TVs showing sports which reminds me of the Tap and Mallet in Rochester, NY, or St. Augustines on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, BC. Surly founder Omar Ansari went to my alma mater, Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the company based in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of the Twin Cities makes some amazing beer. I had Surly’s Schaudenfreude, described to me by the barman as “their take on a session beer” which was like a massively hopped English brown, super malty and tasty.
All evening there were many enlightening conversations about beer, and sustainability. This week will hold many more fantastic conversations over fantastic beer, I’m certain. Stay tuned to brewsville.com for the latest. Cheers.
Tags: CBC, Chicago, Fests, hops, Oakshire
Posted in On the Road | Comments Off
Written by Abram on 04 April 2010
Brewsville-Pentiction, British Columbia
It’s been said that Pentiction is the Florida of Canada. The mild climate of the Okanagan Valley is conducive to peach, and apple orchards, and draws many retirees. The beachfront on Lake Okanagan is lined with hotels and even the odd casino. Penticton boasts a thriving beer scene for a town of its size (43,000 in the metro area) with two breweries (Tin Whistle and Cannery) and a brew pub (The Barley Mill).
Each year the town plays host to the Okanagan Fest Of Ales, an indoor beer event that features breweries from across BC, and beyond. A good number of Washington brewers attend, as do a number of importers pouring beers from Belgium, China, and Germany. The festival draws a mix of attendees from 19 to 90. Tickets for Friday and Saturday sessions are very limited, and often sell out in advance. Click here for info.
This year the festival celebrates its 15th anniversary April 9-10. The festival hosts a unique two-tiered competition. The People’s Choice Award, is given to the brewery that gets the most votes in public balloting, and the Industry Choice award, which is given to the brewery to get the most points from secret judges selected from brewers and beer media. Crannóg Ales, an on-farm organic brewery from Sorrento BC has taken the Industry Award for Best Beer for the last 5 years running.
While in Penticton be sure to visit Salty’s Beach House, which serves amazing Thai curries and is located on the beachfront. The Book Shop downtown offers an amazing array of used books with reasonable prices. The store is has 5000 square feet of space, all of which is jam-packed with books, making it one of the largest used bookstores in Canada. Also recommended is a stroll along the beach to investigate the grounded paddle wheelers at the west end of Lake Okanagan. These stylish boats once plied the lake as passenger ferries. Penticton also hosts an Iron Man Competition, with a swimming component, so don’t be surprised to see locals training by swimming in the frigid April lake. Look closely though, as Lake Okanagan is rumored to be home to Ogopogo, a Loch Ness Monster type creature, with sightings dating back to the 1870′s.
Tags: BC, Crannog, Fests, Penticton
Posted in Upcoming Events | Comments Off
Written by Abram on 04 April 2010
The West Coast Randall and Oakalator in-line oaking system
Brewsville-Portland, Oregon
When Hopworks sent out a press release announcing the release of its Gigabit IPA at 2pm Thursday April 1, I was certain this was the latest April Fools joke from the brewers at the SE Portland organic brewery. (I had collaborated with the brewery’s Christian Ettinger, when he was brewing at Laurelwood on the “West Coast Randall” in 2004, so I expected this was more of the same. (the West Coast Randall was a 100 gallon water heater stuffed with hops, ala a Randall (organoleptic hops transducer), a nose thumbing at the emergence of the Randall phenomenon on the East Coast.
Funnily enough the joke was on me this time. Gigabit IPA is a real project, and a very tasty beer. The beer was brewed in an attempt to lure the high tech behemoth to bequeath Portland with its favor as a test site for its broadband internet network, that has a one gigabyte speed. I had a chance to try the 5.9% abv beer at the Spring Beer And Wine Fest, where it was one of the full pour beers to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The beer has 75 IBUs and a great Northwest hop flavor, and its label is styled to look the Google homepage. Seems like pretty good bait to lure the company to Portland to me.
Tags: Fests, Hopworks, IPA, Laurelwood, PDX, SBWF
Posted in At the Pub | Comments Off
Written by Abram on 23 March 2010
Hopworks owner Christian Ettinger monkeys around on the salvaged bike frames above the bar at Hopworks during the build-out phase.
Hopworks Urban Brewery celebrates its second anniversary on Wednesday, March 24 with $2 pints all day. The “eco-brewpub” as owner Christian Ettinger calls it produced 4500 barrels of certified organic beer in 2009, and is now distributing throughout Cascadia (Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia). The brewery took gold medals for its Organic Rise Up Red, and Organic Ace of Spades Imperial IPA (now on tap) at the 2009 Great American Beer Fest in Denver.
The brewpub, located in the Sunset Fuel building on 29th and SE Powell is family friendly, with a children’s play area. The building incorporates a number of eco-friendly elements. The Sunset Fuels offices were deconstructed and many of the materials were used to build the bar and booths, a cistern is used to collect rainwater for watering landscaping and washing down the parking lot, low or no-VOC finishes and paints were used in the construction of the pub. HUB uses biodiesel to fire its kettle, and hosts Bike-to-Beerfest, a celebration of bicycles and beer. This year the event will be held August 29th.
Christian Ettinger and HUB Assistant Brewmaster Ben Love at the Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria
Tags: Fests, Hopworks, organic, PDX
Posted in Sustainable Brewing, Upcoming Events | Comments Off
Written by Abram on 09 March 2010
This Saturday, March 11th Double Mountain turns 3. To celebrate they have a heated tent outside and will be pouring 14 beers including some rarities from the cellar.
Just down the street from Full Sail, the brewery has established a reputation for well-made flavorful beers. Its Koelsch has become a staple in the Portland Draft market, and hoppy favorites such as IRA and Hop Lava are popular around the state as well. These standards are complimented by fantastic special releases. Double Mountain pioneered using a Belgian house yeast for its beers, which went fermented cool produces a rounded malty flavor profile, and at higher temperatures gives a spicier character too the beers.
The pub makes a perfect destination after a day of hiking in the Columbia Gorge. Its thin crust pizzas are excellent and compliment the beers well.
Live music will add to the festive atmosphere on Saturday.
2:30pm PARIS SLIM (slide guitar blues guru)
4:30pm GARRETT BRENNAN and the GREAT SALT LICKS (acoustic roots supergroup)
7:00pm TONY SMILEY and the BIRD (our favorite loop ninja)
9:00pm CHRONICLE (conscious reggae, on the dance floor)
Tags: Columbia Gorge, Double Mountain, Fests, Hood River
Posted in At the Pub | Comments Off
Written by Abram on 06 March 2010
Brewers Union's phalanx of hand pumps
Brewsville: Eugene, Oregon 13 February, 2010
Happy Zwickelmania! Don’t know what a zwickel is? Keep reading. First though a visit to the KLCC Microbrew Festival in Eugene.
A benefit for local radio station KLCC 89.7 FM, the KLCC Microbrew Fest combines two of my favorite activities, a beer festival and a record fair. Though admittedly in recent years CDs have been overtaking the vinyl at the event. (Full disclosure my CD player broke last year, and I have record players on all three floors of my house). The selection was pretty picked-over by the time I finished judging the homebrew competition (specialty and experimental category), and made my way through the festival floor. I still managed to score a couple Irish trad. Records. On the beer front I had the opportunity to try a good number of beers not found in Portland on a regular basis, including Wakonda Brewing’s Firthur, a pale ale brewed with fir needles. Named for the town in Ken Kesey’s Oregon Logger Odyssey Wakonda is located in Florence, the coastal town on which Kesey based the mythical Wakonda. Firthur named for Kesey’s famous magic bus matches resinous NW hops with actual Doug fir needles. The beer was a bit yeasty, but the hop and fir flavors melded well.
I also tried a few of the Collaboration beers. Every year Eugene brewers team up and make the same style to serve at the KLCC fest. This year 11 breweries in and around Eugene brewed “Belgian Rye Cascadian Dark Ales.” Sound like a mouthful? It was. The Chouffe yeast played off the hops in an interesting way in most examples and the rye backed up the dark malts of the CDA with a thick mouthfeel. Maui Brewing took part in the Collaboration brew this year. Belgian Rye CDA from Hawaii? Well yes, it is about as bizarre as feathers on a shark, but there is a Eugene connection. Scott “Spank Dog” Freitas formerly of the much-mourned Wild Duck brews at Maui. His take on the style was a little sweeter than most.
Brewers Union Local 180, from Oakridge got the benefit of serving its Collaboration Beer “Because We Can” on hand-pump like all of its house beers. The brewery is tucked away in the town of Oakridge, surrounded by national forest. Brewer Ted Sobel learned his chops in the North of England, and its evident in his beers. His Collaboration brew was a little on the heavy side for a CDA, and reminded me more of a porter. The brewpub in Oakridge offers five house ales on handpump, and guest taps on CO2. Sobel bought the old 3-barrel brew system from Hawks in Roseburg, and worked to make the building feel like an authentic English country pub. “Tannin Bomb” a 6.8% abv Old Ale tasted on the recent visit to the brewery had an aroma of prunes and dark plums, sweet dark toffee, and a raisiny finish with subtle notes of toast and a hint of warming alcohol. A truly English style beer.
Tags: Brewers Union, Cascadian Dark Ale, CDA, Eugene, Fests, Wakonda
Posted in On the Road | Comments Off
Written by Abram on 25 February 2010
Ben Flerchinger of Lucky Lab with the TARDIS cooler
The Lucky Lab Beer Hall hosts a celebration of mighty big beer and barleywines March 5-6. The Lucky Lab brewers have been cellaring some of these mighty beers (none under 8%abv) for years in their cooler. In fact this year, they have added the new TARDIS cooler, just for cellaring barleywines. “It’s bigger on the inside,” says Lucky Lab’s Ben Flerchinger, noting that like Doctor Who’s time machine, the new cooler is bigger inside than out (bigger beers that is). Look for barleywines from 2008 Beer Valley Highway to Ale, and 2007 and 2009 vintages of Lucky Lab’s own Old Yeller, to Butte Creek Trainwreck 2007, and other big beers including Monk Fish Tripel from Fish Brewing, an Imperial schwarzbier from Buckbean Brewing in Nevada, to Rock Bottom Black Peter, described as “Evil Dark Black” in style.
Tags: aged beer, barleywine, cellaring, Fests, Lucky Lab, PDX
Posted in At the Pub | Comments Off
Written by Abram on 25 February 2010
Salmon Creek employees at the Spring Beer and Wine Fest in 2009
The 16th annual Spring Beer and Wine Fest takes over the Oregon Convention Center April 2-3. Over 40 breweries offer their wares alongside wineries, cideries, chocolatiers, and cheesmakers. This year the popular beer and wine pairing seminars, previously held across the hallway from the festival will now be on the Chef’s Stage inside the fest. Seminars include topics such as cheesemaking, and beer and chocolate pairing.
Tags: cider, Fests, PDX, wine
Posted in Upcoming Events | Comments Off
