Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Time to toot my hometown horn! The City of Milwaukie moved out of their longtime historic home to a smaller HQ and now we know who is moving in, an Oregon style beverage duo.
I had not heard of Keeper Coffee before but I have heard about a little award-winning brewery named pFriem Family Brewers.
You can check out all the details from the New School Beer Blog that broke the story.
Setting aside that I am a Linfield grad, the chance to work with Breakside Brewery would make me sign-up for this Lewis & Clark class…
This is from Brewbound.com, “For the past 3 years, Breakside Brewery and Lewis & Clark College have partnered to offer a course in brewing and the business of beer for students interested in the craft beer industry. Sponsored by Lewis & Clark’s Center for Entrepreneurship, the course is instructed by Breakside brewmaster Ben Edmunds and R&D brewer Will Jaquiss.
The course is a comprehensive introduction to the beer industry, designed to prepare students with a practical understanding of how beer is designed, developed, produced and sold. The course focuses on three intertwined elements of brewing: fermentation science, beer as a business, and beer as an artisan craft, and students develop a broad understanding of the skills and theory needed to understand and/or join the beer industry.
In the capstone project of the course students split into small groups and each brew a beer of their own design on Breakside’s 3 barrel pilot system. The students work closely with Breakside’s brewing staff to select raw materials, develop a recipe, and create a sales plan for the beer. In the final class of the semester, the beers are evaluated by brewers from other breweries in Portland, so the students get real-time feedback from sources other than their day-to-day instructors. Unlike other brewing seminars for students, these beers are actually sold to the public and marketed just like any of Breakside’s other beers.”
I would love to take this class if I was still back in my hometown of Milwaukie. Not for the brewing part as much as the marketing at the end. How to sell a beer that you have had a hand in crafting must be a fascinating exercise and would put me squarely in the shoes of the people that I usually buy from.
Here is the list of the 2016 student beers and all three have aspects that draw me in…
Going Golden – American Summer Ale 5.3% ABV 22 IBUs
“This hoppy golden ale is equally refreshing and complex. it features the new Enigma hop, which has notes of apricot and peach, as well as touch of Mosaic and Cascade hops.”
Sunny Day Wit – Hoppy Belgian Wheat 4.1% ABV 15 IBU
“This is an interpretation of a Belgian witbier with the addition of more flavoring and aroma hops than would be found in a classic version. The hard-to-find Huell Melon hop, featured here, provides beautiful notes of honeydew and grass.”
Royal Baby – American ESB 5.8% ABV 35 IBU
“An American take on the classic English-style ESB, with a spicy, citrus aroma from both English and American hops, and a rounded mouthfeel from the addition of Torrified Wheat.”
Last time I visited my hometown, I noticed a new sign fir Beer Shop Milwaukie when I was getting a caffeine/Wi-Fi fix but it was not open, until recently.
The new beer store plans on 15 taps all told as they get up to full speed. There will be brunch will be served on the weekends with minors OK until 8pm and they will serve food since the space was formerly a restaurant.
One of the owners is from nearby Breakside so expect a strong selection from them plus other to-go bottles. This really fills a need for the surprisingly beer poor Main Street / Downtiwn blocks.
Yup, forty-five. Each birthday sorta demands a special beer and with the Oscars falling on my birthday this year, there is an added layer of that makes the decision harder.
The week before, I hit up Sunset Beer to peruse the choices. I also peered down my list of cellar items. And I ended up choosing….La Tormenta from Breakside Brewery which they describe as an…”Experimental sour ale hopped entirely with a unique hop blend including Citra, Mosaic, and Equinox. Tart sour notes combine beautifully with tropical and citrusy hop flavors.”
And that is an apt description. The beer pours a light yellow color and the initial aroma is very tropical fruity. Some potpourri type notes to it. Some might call it floral or perfume. Flavor wise, the sourness is there but not overly harsh, mostly tropical fruit and a bit of lemon peel. Not twinge inducing sour at all. The beer is very light on the tongue but so flavorful and quite unique which is saying something in this day and age. (Mine, not in general.) It is also a bit slick on the palate as well which is weird when you expect a bite of hops or a tart sour edge to it. This is quite a smooth sour.
As promised / threatened, here are some photos and a little more description of the new facility for Breakside Brewing near where I grew up (lo those many years ago).
I shared a taster tray with my brother-in-law which ran the gamut of beer styles.
Two of the favorites were the sour options, the Passion fruit sour and the Imperial Sour Apricot. More fruit notes in the former and less apricot than expected in the latter. But both (with varying sour levels) were quite nice.
The Spruce wheat was the clear un-favorite. Way too much pine for me. Needed something else to balance it out. Maybe rye or a sturdier malt? The ESB was a little too light as well and the Session Brown was a beer in search of a style.
The tasting room is dominated by a large wooden wall with taps tucked into the bottom. They have one food option and the warehouse area around them could use a food truck to help out because it is not inspiring food wise around them. A good amount of chairs at the bar and at tables. It is a big space so crowd noise is at a minimum.
My two favorites of the tray (and subsequent visits to the Amarillo Wheat and pilsner) were the Old Skool hop bomb which is a great concept to return to the base hops that have been a bit forgotten. The one that worked best though was the Aquavit Braggot. They used the spirit barrels that held this unique liquor. Which they made the wash for to begin with! It was spicy and light and just easy drinking and a different barrel aged experience.
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 ++
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 +
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
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)
All right beer lovers. Time to pony up some cash so we can bring another craft brewery into the world. Mystery Brewing and Wilderness Brewing got funded and now it is time to help out Short Snout. With the other two being in the midwest, my chances of sampling their beers is small but Short Snout will be based in Milwaukie (my hometown!) I hope to sample their beers in the future!
Head over to Kickstarter and make a pledge!