Category: Guide to better beer

how to discover new beer to try

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Microhopic

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Brewpublic is a great Portland based beer blog that puts on the occasional great beerfest. So if you are in Beervana on June 19th, you might want to head over to Saraveza.

“Brewpublic announces a special mini-fest featuring four of Oregon’s best nanobreweries. This event known as Microhopic will be the first to showcase these fine brewers under one roof. In fact, it might be safe to say that most people in the Portland area have never tried most of the beers to be presented at Microhopic.

On hand, will be the beers and the brewers who made them. These breweries will include Big Horse Brewing of Hood River and brewer Jason Kahler; Rivergate Brewing of N. Portland and brewer Brian Frisch; Mt. Tabor Brewing of SE Portland and brewer Eric Surface; and Ambacht Brewing of Hillsboro and brewer Tom Kramer.

We are excited to invite you to come to this event featuring a rare and eclectic assortment of Oregon-brewed beers. This event will take place on Saturday June 19, 2010 at Saraveza, located at 1004 N. Killingsworth Street in Portland, Oregon.” For more information or press related inquiries please contact angelo@brewpublic.com or visit http://brewpublic.com/events Cheers!

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World Cup + World Beers – Argentina

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TODAY: ARGENTINA V. NIGERIA

Day 2 of the World Cup and the light summer hot weather appropriate beers continue with Quilmes from Argentina.
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Quilmes frist started brewing in 1888 in Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province, with Otto Bemberg, a German immigrant at the helm.

By the 1920s it was already the most popular beer in Buenos Aires. The entire country was next and now Quilmes has 75% of the beer market share in Argentina. It sponsors the Argentina national football team, and the colours of its labels mimics the uniforms light blue and white.

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World Cup + World Beers – South Africa

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All eyes now turn to South Africa as today is the start of the 2010 World Cup. From the opening whistle to final goal, I will suggest some great beers to drink while rooting on your favorite World Cup team. The beers selected wil be brewed in or famous in one of the countries playing that day. And since it is summer, I will focus on lighter, refreshing fare.

TODAY: SOUTH AFRICA V. MEXICO

Here is the game day selection for hosts South Africa and Castle Lager part of the corporate giant SAB.
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This is now a traditional water lager that uses corn as a main ingredient and is heavily marketed. But is has a long history in South Africa starting as a refresher for mine workers and would probably do the trick on a hot June day.

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Hop in the Dark

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Deschutes Brewery’s newest Bond Street Series release:
Hop in the Dark is a Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA) made with a combination of Cascade, Amarillo, Citra and Centennial hops and generous roasted NW malts to create a jet black India Pale Ale hybrid.

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Sierra Nevada @ Library Alehouse

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As usual, when you go to a Library Alehouse event, you get great beer and great food. You can tell some thought has gone into the preparations.

This post will talk about the beer and the food and tomorrow I will post a video and some interesting notes from Sierra Nevada Ambassador Steve Grossman. (That last name should sound familiar to SN fans.)

We started with a palate opener that was great for our new found Southern California sunny weather, Summerfest.
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It was probably my favorite for the night (tied with the Nautilus). It was a straw yellow and pretty zippy. A little bit of tart lemon to it as well as some nice hops.

Even though it was not included in the menu, I had to try the latest in the 30th Anniversary collaborative beers. This being the Imperial Helles Bock. The Charlie Papazian and Fred Eckhardt inspired offering.
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This beer left me a bit confused. Complex. Lots of alcohol but not heavy. Malty flavors that faded into a touch of hoppiness. It was an interesting take on a bock for sure. Poor me, I will have to try again (maybe from a bottle) to see if I can catch anything new.

Then it was on to the Beer Camp Nautilus.
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This was another really punchy, wake you up type of beer. Very easy to drink. I could see this as a gateway beer for people raised on pilsners. It has all the attributes of a pils with extra hops and extra grain flavors.

Next was the Southern Hemisphere Harvest. Sierra Nevada knows IPA’s. Nothing fancy here. Just straight up well balanced hop profile. Nice floral aroma with a lot of good citrus notes.
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Last was the first 30th Anniversary beer, the Anchor Steam collaboration. I don’t know what happened since my last taste of this beer but it was wicked smokey. I don’t know if that is how it ages but the chocolate notes I first encountered were smothered away. I was really looking forward to it and it was the biggest let down.

On the food front, I ate fried calamari! Not the spidery bits. Just the suckers. Not horrible. Sorta like mussels except less chewy. The Jerk chicken was really spicy. The beans and rice duo on the side really helped put the fire out. The most successful dish to me was the Mocha Torte. Delicious! All paired well with their respective beers.

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St. Lupulin

It’s early June and the summer beers keep a comin’. That is good news because here in Los Angeles it is almost always summer and we could use as many actual pale ales as we can get.

So here is another option from Odell’s in Colorado.
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Full Sail + Summer =

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The latest in summer IPA’s. You may know of Sunspot or Grandsun of Spot. Now you get Spotless…

From the Full Sail press release..”the newest release in their Brewmaster Reserve series, Spotless IPA. This release continues Full Sail’s summer “sun” series. Named to honor our sun that has been spotless for over a year, Spotless is a true Northwest style IPA – richly hopped with Willamette and Zeus hops. A deep golden color, bright bitterness and a definite fruity finish meld into a beer that is all set to toast the summer months. It will be available in specialty beer stores and pubs throughout the Pacific Northwest from June to August in 22oz bottles and draft. ABV: 6.5% IBU: 70″

The next beer in Full Sail’s Brewmaster Reserve line up will be Sanctuary, a Belgian Style Dubbel, to be released in August.