Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
bottle shops, pubs and breweries
I admit, upfront, that I have been slow in adding PDF’s to the travel section of the website. My bad.
But since it is Oregon Craft Beer month, the time is ripe to reinvigorate this portion of the site. So here you go! Part one of four of my suggestions of where to go in Portland.
Last month I yawped about some southwest breweries, but since July is Oregon’s time in the sun (literally), I will post about Oregon beers. And I will try my best to focus on non-Portland based brewers.
First though, here is a sampling of beer events that I believe are the highlights of the month.
CRAFT BEER MONTH KICK-OFF – McMenamin’s Hillsdale 7/1
PUCKERFEST – Sour beers at Belmont Station 7/9-7/15
INTERNATIONAL BEER – Portland International Beerfest 7/16-7/18
Seattle enjoyed a fine Beer Week last month and one of the places that I saw mentioned over and over again was Naked City Brewery and Taphouse.
24 taps and local sustainable food. Where else are you going to get Snipes, Chuckanut and Elysian in one place! Plus their own house brews.
The kick-off to craft beer in Oregon month starts here for me with the North American Organic Brewers Festival, and it starts TODAY!
Here are some of the breweries you will find at Overlook Park in Portland:
Elliot Bay
Captured by Porches
Hopworks Urban Brewing
Laurelwood
Natian
Oakshire
As if the beer world needed more festivals! Now can beer festivals are sprouting everywhere. But this one sounds really good. Too bad I won’t be in Colorado until the Beer Blogger conference in the fall.
Here is the 411, straight from the brewery website:
Oskar Blues invites you to join the EVOLUTION of craft beer with the initial all Canned Beer Ragbag at its roots, Lyons, CO. Under the backdrop of Rocky Mountain National Park, Burning Can offers up the future prospect of craft beer civilization by pulling all the plugs on beer traditions. Craft Beer from (15ish) Canning Pioneers, Live Music by Nashville’s Bonepony www.bonepony.com, Can Art, Beer Can Chicken & other beer-infused dishes collide to create an inaugural event sure to shake the status quo the way canned beer was meant to.
This free spirited poke has its soul in the right spot….All proceeds from this event will go directly to the Colorado Brewers Guild www.coloradobeer.org & its continued fight to keep Colorado beer culture alive!
Eco-Cycle www.ecocycle.org is in the house to ensure the environmental advantages of the can keep Ma Nature happy as cans take care of keeping the beer fresher, longer than bottles & making it portable to keep up with your next movement, regardless where or what it is.
Walk away from this celebration with a rattled hominid cranium full of how far craft beer in a can has come, a soul full of roots music & full belly of beer can chicken. You also walk with Inaugural BURNING CAN collectors swag knowing the entire shindig helps keep Colorado beer culture kicking. Wait…did I mention the mechanical bull????
Who & What: Lovers of Craft Beer in a Can, Music, Food & Rocky Mountain Revelry
When & Where: Oskar Blues Brewery @ Sandstone Park, Lyons, CO – June 26th, 2010 1pm to 4pm
Why: To Celebrate Craft Beer in a Can & benefit The Colorado Brewers Guild
When I saw the photo of the stately home that is now a grand beer and wine bar. I thought, I wish there was something like this in Los Angeles. After reading this information from their website, you will probably wish you had one in your hometown.
“A journey, we firmly believe, is what you make it. And location, atmosphere and flavor are key ingredients in assuring it’s something exceptional.
Journeys is a friendly, comfortable, smoke-free pub. It’s also a mindset: at once playful and carefree but also contemplative — Where shall we go next? What exotic bazaar remains untrodden?
With quality beers and wines by the glass or bottle all readily available, we hope to enliven this dialogue, providing a perfect perch where you can sketch an itinerary to launch your next travelogue, be it a trip to the Rogue or Moulin Rouge.”
JOURNEYS FEATURES:
6 beers on draft
50+ beers from Oregon and beyond
10+ wines by the glass
75+ wines from around the world
Wine tastings and ongoing specials
An open-air patio for al fresco flavor
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!
One of the few shows on basic cable that is actually informative (in-between the jokes), is Zane Lamprey’s 3 Sheets. Check out the video below about his tour.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One neighborhood in Eugene, Oregon is the beer buying equivalent of the Mall of America. The latest entrantSixteen Tons adds to an area of the Duck town with several other beer retailers, including Beer Nuts, a smaller bottle shop about a block away, and the Bier Stein, a great bottle shop that also offers beers on tap and food, about two blocks away. And then there’s the Circle K convenience store across the street.
Bet there are some happy craft beer lovers in that part of town.