Up on Flint between Moda Center and Mississippi lies the 100% charity brewer, Ex Novo. And despite a Gose collaboration with Ecliptic that I didn’t cotton to, their beers were really well done. I would certainly re-visit.
And it was due to my Mom’s choice of the Single Hop Mosaic Pale which was my favorite beer of the trip. Close second was the Dynamic Duo Double IPA (brought a bottle home of that beer) Stiff Upper Lip their take on the ESB was solid but not spectacular, The Most Interesting Lager in the World could have dialed back the grain and toast and given a little more sparkle. Others may like their Vienna lagers like that though. YeastMode the Belgian Strong Golden fit into this B category as well. Below that (and surprisingly to me) was the Ecliptic Gose collaboration. It was dark and weird and a tad too salty. The balance was off.
The vibe inside reminded me a bit of a sunny McMenamin’s. A little hippy brewpub. But the fact that they are making a go of a charity brewery is fascinating and heartening to me. The fact that two of the beers struck me as so good is icing on the cake.
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