Author: Sean Inman

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PDX Summer 2024 – Report # 1

Summer in Portland and two vacation days that covered the spectrum of beer at five breweries. Starting at the Woostock Avenue outpost of Double Mountain. First but not last taster tray ( unless you are ranking and not going by time ).

I sampled the old school IRA, their Japanese lager, Jiro, an ESB and a pair of IPAs. Aside from Jiro, the other beers were below par to me. The IRA that I loved back in the day seemed a little mis-brewed. But it was great to be sitting outside watching the people go by in this busy section of town.

Second was a brief stop at Duality Brewing. Eagle eyed readers will remember that I raved about this brewery earlier this year and the second trip revealed another set of interesting stuff. Boysenberry Hazy Pale, Saison with fig leaves, and what I chose a Kveik yeast beer made with Egyptian barley. This brewery is just flat-out creative.

The next day was a trip to Mount Angel and the Abbey on the hill. Down at the bottom is the Benedictine Brewery. This is a lovely spot with two covered picnic table seating areas and an indoor area. Overlooking a bit of hop fields across the street. Which was already partially harvested.

Flight two time and these beers were solid to great all around. The St. Michael Helles was my favorite, followed by the Half Cloak Belgian single. There were dark beers aplenty and the table quickly agreed that the St. Gabriel Dubbel. It was a great melding of space, beer and divinity and it was real popular, filling up within the first hour.

Then it was a short hop ( sorry ) to Crosby Hop Farm and their beer garden in the hop field, TopWire Beer Project. Operating on the premise of pouring beers made with their hops. Which is how I could be sitting between rows of hops drinking a beer from Chicago, Anti-Hero IPA from Revolution Brewing.

Just a great spot to enjoy a beer and the variety was fantastic. Pilsners, hazies and even an amber ale. I mean who brews that anymore? And I love that it is a summertime treat.

Last stop of a full day was Little Beast on Division for their Tart Ale take-over and BBQ. I had a strawberry lemon sour that was like drinking lemonade. A small pour was what I needed though later I thought that I should have gotten their Japanese rice lager.

Busy, busy and still three days of drinking to do.

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United Craft

Six episodes of Beer TV is coming.  United Crafts of America is a series “that celebrates the craft beer revolution sweeping across the United States.”

Starting in the  first episode that feature NYC and Interboro Spirits of Brooklyn before heading around the U.S. to Portland, Asheville, Boston, Great Falls and San Diego.

You can watch the trailer HERE.

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Needed or Not – iCooler

Full disclosure, I am calling this an iCooler. It is not a new product. Below is an image and the description of the Claw Cooler from fading into obscurity hard seltzer brand White Claw.

“The CLAW Cooler is a first-ever cooler designed for an endless stock of cold White Claw – without ice! The “magic” inside it involves a specialized sensor that detects when the stock is running low and prompts the user’s smartphone whether they need to refill. The cooler is also temperature controlled via a rechargeable battery, has an LCD interface for emptiness levels and alerts, and has waterproof Bluetooth speakers. “

Needed or Not? – no one needs a web enabled cooler or refrigerator or coffee maker, or name the appliance. Who wants more texts? Or more emails. And I will bet that the battery will either run low in the middle of the day or you will forget to recharge it the night before.

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Batch 51

Add this beautifully packaged beer to your treasure hunter list…

La Trappe for their Oak Aged Batch 51 has matured their Quadrupel for 18 months on very fancy Pineau des Charentes Rouge Cognac barrels. Sounds quite luxurious.

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Poor

Here at BSP headquarters there sits an old-style (thankfully not rotary) phone. It is the red phone, because it is red, and when people have bad ideas, they should call us. Which they never do.

Bit of an intro to say that the Brew Brothers who have eponymous spots in North Hollywood and Burbank are headed to a third place on Ventura Boulevard near Vineland. The place is called…

It is a bit of a tired name to me. Once you finish groaning about the pun, Google it and you get bars all across the United States so you won’t be really standing out namewise. Plus it has a negative connotation.

Now that I have that out of my system, it is great to see that there will be another craft beer bar coming to town and subsequent posts show that they are putting in a lot of effort on the interior look.

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Two Everywhere

Everywhere Beer Co. fresh off their Hot Dog Week have hit the two year mark and they have a few things on the agenda that attracted me.

3 special bottle releases included rum barrel-aged painkiller and a brand new barrel-aged stout⁣⁣⁣

a celebratory piñata

a tiki-seltzer bar with adult “capri sun” packs⁣⁣⁣

Be ready August 2nd through the 4th.

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Avid for Avocado

I am not into Avocado or guacamole which puts me into a minority here in Los Angeles. There is always an exception though, and for me it is the Avocado Ale from Angel City Brewery which I find to be an excellent summer drink.

This year is the twelfth edition of the Avocado Ale Fest in DTLA. Get there early as lines grow and try this summer tradition ale,

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Review – Gelson’s Summer Blonde Ale from El Segundo

Looks like there is a renaissance of branded beers much like in the olden days of craft beer. One of these is a new blonde ale on tap at Gelson’s fancy supermarkets that is brewed for them by El Segundo brewing.

Here is the brewery description, “made with 100% Tettnanger hops, contributing to its subtle floral and herbal spice notes. The malt profile, featuring Rahr 2-Row, Rahr Premium Pilsner, Flaked Corn, and Dextrin malt, creates a harmonious balance of doughy sweetness, white bread, cake batter, and honey.”

It is quite a light beer. I abhor the word crushable but this beer is one that will go down quick. It was served extra cold which both helps on a hot day but also dampens flavor. The malt is the lead act but even it is mild and the corn finish is what you will remember most.

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It’s Handy

Handy Market has been a Burbank staple for years and with my love of going to non-chain grocery stores / grocery boutiques a miss on my part.  But after seeing a few beer posts from the store, I decides to drive a town over and see what I had missed.

It is a tiny space in comparison to most grocery stores but the first positive point was the availability of single cans. I picked up a pils from Highland Park and a pastry sour (never had one of those) from Ogopogo. The next positive was the double endcaps of beer. This was where most of the bottled and barrel-aged resided. There was Bottle Logic but also a couple Belgians and de Garde as well. Third positive was the prices were pretty fair. $5.50 for a local beer is pretty good.

The one down is that it is only the small cold case in the corner. It was a limited selection though one last up, was that it seemed to be curated well.