Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Laurelwood has a new beer that caught my eye…
Cascadian Kolsch
“A Northwest rendition of a German classic ale. Crisp malty flavor and a clean finish is a nod to the Noble hops with which it is brewed. The heavy handed dry hopping with Citra hops finishes this beer with a Northwest kick. This is the first beer developed and brewed by brewer Nick Phelps. Raise a glass of this treat to celebrate the kick off of fall.”
I am as puzzled and curious as you are by this Stone label. Wine & tea flavors mixed up with beer? Can it work? My record with beers with wine notes is hit and miss. I have had Rogue’s Chamemellow and it was flat out delicious. It will be interesting. It worked in the collaboration saison earlier this year.
Well now you can try their ’11 special release. A Russian Imperial Stout. Here’s to hoping that it isn’t one of the alco-bombs that are so prevalent and so over-hyped.
Here is the press release with all of the pertinent info:
“PORTLAND, ORE. – Sept. 27, 2010 – For nearly a year, sour beer lovers all over the Northwest have anxiously awaited the opening of the Cascade Brewing Barrel House, and the wait is finally over. Located at 939 SE Belmont St., the Cascade Barrel House will open its doors to the public at 11 a.m. today.
Situated in a former produce warehouse built in 1947, the Cascade Brewing Barrel House is divided into two sides. The west side of the building features 5,000 square-feet with a loading dock, barrel room, cooler and workspace. At a temperature of 65-degrees, the barrel room is specially designed to cultivate the Lactobacillus bacteria that give these brews their distinctive sour tang. The barrel room has the capacity to hold up to 350 barrels; currently, the space holds more than 250 French oak and Kentucky Bourbon barrels filled with wheats, blondes, quads, reds, browns and porters.
On the east side is a 2,100 square-foot tasting room with seating for 90 inside, plus seasonal seating for another 80 out front when the weather is nice. There are 18 beers on tap, a dozen of which are dedicated to Cascade’s award-winning sour beers, with another two taps reserved for sour beers from barrels tapped directly through the cooler wall. These select barrels will be tapped every Tuesday at 6 p.m., giving the public the opportunity to taste sour beer straight from the wood. The remaining five taps pour Cascade’s mainstream beers. The current tap list includes two of the brewery’s most sought-after beers – 2009 Great American Beer Festival award-winners Bourbonic Plague and Vlad the Imp Aler. The beer list is continually updated on its website’s homepage.
According to Cascade brewmaster Ron Gansberg, “I’m thrilled and gratified to see the Barrel House finally open. This gives people a new option for a beer experience. Sour beers are an intense sensory experience, on par with very hoppy beers, and we feature more sour beers on tap than any other place I know of.”
To complement the beers, the Cascade Brewing Barrel House features a limited menu of small plates, nuts, sandwiches, salads and soups. The ingredients are all local, including a cheese plate from Willamette Valley Cheese and a charcuterie plate with smoked salamis and sausages from the Original Bavarian Sausage deli in Tigard. Other menu highlights include peppered cashews, hummus with house made crackers, bacon tapenade, baked potato salad and a baked chicken sandwich.
All of Cascade’s beers continue to be brewed at Cascade Brewing, located at 7424 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy in Portland. Art Larrance, who has been involved in Oregon’s craft beer industry since its inception, established Cascade Brewing in 1998. Larrance co-founded one of the state’s first microbreweries, Portland Brewing, as well as the Oregon Brewers Festival, which today is one of the world’s preeminent craft beer festivals. He currently owns and operates the Raccoon Lodge and Brew Pub on Portland’s west side, where Cascade Brewing operates out of the ground floor.
The Cascade Brewing Barrel House is open Sunday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Minors are allowed daily to 10 p.m. For more information, call 503-265-8603. “
If you want to get a craft beer geek salivating then just say the word Yeti. To the normal population, it is just a creature of myth. To the beer nerds it is a beer with many different spins from the Great Divide Brewery in Denver. A favored stop on the GABF tour.
Limited amounts of their beer would make it here to LA but now the bounty increases! And the place to be is Blue Palms on Hollywood. (With their new parking system). You can try out some Yeti and other delightful Divide beer.
Check out the other beers in the Brooklyn Brewing stable HERE
One of the first thing that hops out when you visit this brewers website is this tagline, “New Zealand’s first ultra cool, postmodern brewers of leftfield ales. Specialists in all styles.”
All you have to do is peruse their beer list to see that leftfield is an understatement.
How about:
Pot Kettle Black
“Remixed and remastered as a celebration of Pot Kettle Black’s double trophy-winning effort at BrewNZ 2009: Champion beer in the ‘Stouts and Porters’ class and winner of the ‘People’s Choice’ award at the Beervana festival.”
I always find something interesting from the Beer Advocate magazine (much more so than the website, which is a little on the trolly side) And on the last page of the recent edition is about a newish brewery in Massachussetts by the name of Cody Brewing.
They have two really out there offerings: Fruit cake strong ale and Wasabi lemongrass lager.
The Ale Project of Pretty Things has a new beer, Hedgerow Bitter, described as “…our first properly-hoppy beer. We wanted a beer that was dry and bitter, and that’s what we got. 5.4% abv with all UK grown hedgerow variety hops: Pioneer, First Gold and Sovereign.”
I’ve had one Pretty Things ale and now I want more!
Thanks to the innovations column by Lisa Morrison (man is she finding good stuff that I want to pass on), here is something that might help out when you have a bomber you want to open but don’t want to power it all down in one night and would rather enjoy it over two.
Beer Savers! to the rescue!
Now, I have not tried this product but because of fridge space being limited, a nice little cap would work wonders instead of a stopper that protrudes out.
