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
Every February I visit Timmy Brown, Brewmaster at Mission Spring’s brewpub in Mission, BC with a chef, and we do a beer dinner at his house. This year the chef was my friend Izaak Butler, (formerly of Green Dragon and Roots), and we did a 5 course pairing dinner which was fantastic. Chef Izaak perused the Granville Island Marketplace for produce and meat, while we delivered Northwest Brewing News in an Olympics-besieged Vancouver. With some road closures already in effect navigating the city was mental, and we got out as quickly as we could, with a quick stop for a sanity-restoring pint at the Alibi Room. The Alibi’s 18 taps are all BC craft beers, with the exception of one Rogue handle. The three handpumps serve a rotating selection of local casks. Owner Nigel, who hails from Middlesboro, England, has revolutionized the BC beer scene in the last two years. The food at the Alibi is excellent too, and tends toward the rich and filling.
Chef Izaak Butler
Chef Izaak and I visited Brewery Creek beer shop on Main to get some of the beers for the dinner, and brought some of the others from Oregon. Sometimes when envisioning how the flavors of each food and beer will interact you get it right, other times you miss the mark, and sometimes its pure magic. (At 2009’s beer dinner at Timmy’s chef Jesika Starr Rowley and I paired Central City’s Springboard Lager with scallops wrapped in bacon and pan seared. It was one of the best flavor combinations ever). Each course in this year’s meal and its beer pairing is listed, and the pairing is rated and explained.
NAILED=wonderful perfect, no better flavor match, HIT=Worked as envisioned, DINGED=OK but it wasn’t quite as expected. MISSED=Did not work, train wreck in the mouth.
Course 1
The Farmhouse cheddar, from Agassiz, BC with kiwi salsa and locally made Que Pasa organic blue chips. BEER: Widmer Drifter Pale Ale 5.7% abv, 32 IBUs. DINGED The tropical fruit flavors of the Nelson Sauvin hops in the Drifter worked well with the fruitiness of the kiwi and sweetness of the yellow bell pepper in the salsa. I had expected this interplay to be more pronounced than it was. The mild cheddar flavors paired well with the beer as well.
Course 2
A salad of cauliflower, fennel, radicchio, Niciose olives, topped with a sardine with Mission Springs IPA dressing. BEER: Mission Springs IPA, 5.6% abv 45 IBUs NAILED Mission Springs IPA is brewed with NZ Saaz and NZ Hallertauer, giving it a more herbal flavor than those brewed with Northwest hops. The herbal flavors compliment the bitterness of the radicchio Timmy Brown began brewing it with New Zealand hops during the hop crisis, and has kept using them.
This is a course I was skeptical about when Izaak described it to me as we were driving into Vancouver. It really worked though.
“The strong presence of bitter flavors cuts the oiliness of the fish with olive oil,” says Chef Izaak.
Our host Tim Brown pours the Amity Pinot Noir
Course 3: Intermission
Brioche bun with wild boar bacon, poached egg with truffle oil, and Normandy sea salt. BEER: (wine for intermission) Amity Vineyards 2005 winemakers reserve Pinot Noir NAILED. This course says Chef Izaak was the “most adult and upscale breakfast sandwich I could think of.”
It’s truly fantastic, rich and sweet with salty notes from the bacon and sea salt, and paired well with the dark cherry, salal and blueberry flavors of the organic Pinot Noir.
Course 4
Spicy beef chili BEER: Hopworks Secession 6.5% abv 70 IBUs HIT the roast and hops of Hopworks Cascadian Dark Ale married well with the spicy smoke of the chipotle-based chili. The beef roast was stewed with the peppers until it naturally fell apart, and was flaky soft and sweet.
Course 5: Dessert
Medjool dates stuffed with Manchego cheese wrapped in French prosciutto with mint leaves BEER: Traquair House Ale 7.2% DINGED: I had high hopes for this course, but the flavors did not work together as well as they had in my mind the mint helped cut the rich sweetness of the dates, but paired with a sweet malty Scotch ale it could have used more salt as a counterpoint.
Overall the dinner was a huge success with its focus on hearty rich foods paired with big beers leaving us sated and happy.
Tags: Alibi Room, beer and food, Brewery Creek, Cascadian Dark Ale, CDA, cheese, Hopworks, Mission Springs, Vancouver BC, Widmer, wine
Posted in On the Road | Comments Off
