Tag: Hood River

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Back in the PDX

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My trips to Portland have to have three things.  Time with my mom.  Time with my sister and four nephews and lastly, time with the beer that I don’t see in LA (though yes I did have some Ninkasi which is now available in the Southland.  So here are the beers of Portland along with ** or !!! to signify what you should be trying when you visit the Rose City next.

Base Camp In-Tents IPL
Oakshire Line Dry Rye +
Ninkasi Total Domination & Believer Red

@ Breakside Milwaukie (more on this spot in a later post)
Passion fruit sour +
Spruce wheat – (my brother-in-law tried to talk me out of it
Esb –
Old Skool hop bomb +
Imperial sour apricot +
Session brown –
Aquavit Braggot ++
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Pfriem Strong Blonde +
Fort George Three Way IPA collaboration with Gigantic and Lompoc
Occidental Kolsch + (16oz tallboy)
Double Mountain Cluster single hop IPA +++
Kloster Andechs vollbier @ Beer Mongers +++
Freigeist pink gose +
Elysian super fuzz blood orange pale —
Breakside Pilsner +
De Garde Berliner Weisse +
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in Hood River

pFriem tasting tray at their excellent taproom near the Columbia river
pilsner +
blonde IPA ++
IPA +
Little saison +
saison +
schwarzbier +

Big Horse Brett +
Everybody’s Brewing Hoedown Brown
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Back in Portland

Boring Brewing Oatmeal pale
Gigantic High Fidelity pale
Lompoc Rat and Warthog IPA
Lompoc Eleventy One CDA
Burnside Lime Kolsch
Migration Glisan Street Dry hopped pale ++ (at Podnahs BBQ)
Breakside Amarillo wheat
Worthy Imperial IPA

5 Days. And I did not set foot in Belmont Station or Bailey’s Taproom or Cascade or other favorite haunts.

(more on growlers in grocery stores and Breakside in Milwaukie and other Stumptown beer posts later this month)

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Review – Aberrant from Bergschrund (Logsdon)

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Love the label in this new series from Logsdon.Farmhouse and good to see another beer offering from the Logsdon folks.  Mostly because I haven’t had even close to a bad beer from these guys.  On to my quick review: Pours a pale straw yellow with a big foamy white head.  A light Belgian yeast note in the aroma that really hits upon the first sip.  I pick up vanilla and spice notes amidst the funk.  My sister in law detected some fruit notes that I didn’t notice but maybe some stone fruit lurks for those that are more supertaster than I am.  Really light tasting and not 8% abv at all.

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I have seen this one at Vendome in Toluca Lake and at a few other beery locales and I highly recommend it.

And what am I reading while drinking this?  A book about wine!  Heresy, I know but I have learned a nice amount of information already from the Inventing Wine by Paul Lukacs.  And that is in just a the first few pages.

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Double Mountain

Normally, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would raise dread in me but if it comes from Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River it means four great beers.

photo taken from Untappd.Com
photo taken from Untappd.Com

Double Mountain Red War
“Strong Belgian-style Red Ale. A big yet very approachable beer. Lots of fruity complexity (banana, cherry, apricot), without a lot of the smoky phenols and higher alcohol notes of many Belgian ale strains. The fermentation finished dry, but with residual sweetness from a blend of light and dark crystal malts.”

Double Mountain White Rider of Conquest
“Strong Belgian-style Blonde Ale – A big, golden-hued flavor bomb with heady alcohol and silky mouthfeel. Abundantly estery yeast notes underpinned by enticing hoppiness.”

Double Mountain Black Famine
“Belgian-style Quad. The third in the Four “Horsemen of the Apocalypse series, Famine brings you closer to the dark side. Black and chocolate malts were used sparingly so as to not get in the way of the wonderful dark fruit esters characteristic to the Ardennes yeast strain. The nose gives you toffee, dark fruit, and raisin, while a creamy vanilla rounds out the middle. Fruit and ripe banana flavors hang on the tongue, finishing bright.”

Double Mountain Pale Death
No description from the website but I would love to have a sampler tray of this group.

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Xmas 2012 – Double Mountain / FaLaLaLa

We head to the mecca that is Hood River, Oregon for our next holiday treat from Double Mountain, FaLaLaLa.

“T’is the season for a big, malty hop bomb…We’ve loaded our inaugural holiday brew up with enough Centennials to fill Santa’s toy bag. Cheers to hoppy beers! Brewed with Gambrinus Organic Pilsner and Munich malt, imported crystal malts and Centennial hops.”

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Berliner Weisse review – Full Sail

The second and final review of the Berliner Weisse style comes from Hood River Oregon and Full Sail. It is part of the Brewer’s Share series that previously brought us an ESB and an Alt….

“The third beer in the series “Chris’s Berliner Weiss” developed by Assistant Brewing Supervisor, Chris Haveman will be released in 22oz. bottles and on draft in the summer. Chris’s Summer Delight is an unfiltered, refreshingly tart small batch Berliner Weiss beer, brewed with 50% wheat malt and just a touch of Hersbrucker hops A perfect German style sour brew with a dry finish for a hot summer day. ABV 4% IBU 9. Chris has chosen to support the Oregon State University Brewing Sciences Program, from which Chris is an alumnus. The program is one of the few in the nation that studies all aspects of producing beer, wine, and fermented foods.”

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Event Review – Logsdon Farmhouse Night

With the 4th version of L.A. Beer Week nearing it’s climax, certain truths have become evident. Firestone-Walker is creative with their major event theme. Fifty/Fifty Brewing brings some great beer and the Bottle Room in Whittier will dazzle with their food and beer pairings.

Last night was Logsdon Farmhouse Ales night. With head brewer and yeast wrangler, Dave Logsdon in attendance all the way from Hood River, Oregon. And you had a great gamut of his beers to sample….

….to go along with different cheese plates that Tony Alcazar had whipped up for the occasion.

I had a sampler tray of four beers that may have been first poured through the lines and so they didn’t have the same bite and flavors that I remember from the bottled versions of the beer…

…but the hopped Saison was quite nice. Very mild and certainly not an American amped of saison style.

It was great to sit with Kevin and Scott from Artisan Ales who make sure we get the Logsdon beers down here as well as to talk to Dave and Tony. That’s the type of environment that makes a L.A. Beer Week event great….

….all layers of the industry out at the bar talking to the fans and showing off the beer.

You have two more opportunities to go all Logsdon durin the final days of L.A. Beer Week. Tonight at Sunset Beer Co. and Sunday at the Union Station festival. Don’t miss your chance to try a really great cherry beer….

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Pfriem

My idea of heaven would be Hood River. Small town. Beautiful view of the Columbia river. Restaurants aplenty. Fruit orchards. Oh and breweries. Lots of breweries now and when Solera and Pfriem come online.

Pfriem Brewery will (legalities willing) be pouring by Memorial Day. Josh Pfriem (formerly of Chuckanut and Full Sail will be manning the kettles. Belgian-styles and Northwest-style hoppy beers will be the focus at the start. For More information read the interview over at the New School HERE.

And it is pronounced FREEM.

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Logsdon Farmhouse Ales

Dave Logsdon started with Full Sail then moved to Wyeast Labs. So he knows beer from multiple angles and now he has a farmhouse line of beers under his own name.

Logsdon is entering the Belgian, farm-style ales category. He plans to release two beers this spring — a Seizoen and a Seizoen Bretta.

I love this quote that I saw in one of the articles about the new brewery, “We’re probably the only brewery in the United States that’s a farmhouse making farmhouse ales,” The beer will be made on a family farm with organic hops.

Plus, it has been set-up as a co-op. So maybe more beers from different brewers will come of this incubator of sorts.

Logsdon Farmhouse beers will pop up at New Seasons and Whole Foods as well as local restaurants in Hood River and Portland and maybe beyond later.