Instead of travelogue, I am going to throw up some photos from my recent 3-city tour of Oregon interspersed with beer lists.
Wayfinder Hell, Flowers in the Kettle hazy IPA, Panopoly Hefeweizen, Doomtown IPA and Hidden Hand Black Lager.
Upright Supercool IPA, Old Town Pillowfist IPA and pFriem Bright Pale Ale.
The Story of Hefe
The Widmer Way: How Two Brothers Led Portland’s Craft Beer Revolution.
Combined with the soon-to-be-released book on Goose Island, this history that explores the Widmer brothers live and Portland beer history up to now as part of the Craft Beer Alliance fills in much needed information about the old guard of craft beer.
Portland – McMinnville – Astoria / Part 1
I will be posting photos and additional commentary on my recent trip to Oregon, but here are some initial reactions from stops in Portland, McMinnville and finally Astoria….
It has been a patio drinking kind of trip. Sitting at Wayfinder beer watching the tables fill up with Portlanders who take every opportunity to sit outside to Allegory Brewing in McMinnville before the UFO parade to the sorta-outside seating section at Fort George. Usually, one bundles up in Oregon but even at the tip top of the state with Washington across the water of the Columbia it has been blue skies.
Beer-wise Wayfinder was strong. Primarily light and tilted to belles and dark lagers with an excellent hefe. I snuck into Beer Mongers for a quick pint and ran across Mirage Brewing of Seattle whose Neon Guts hopped pils was really nice.
From there to Allegory who had nine beers on offer and nary a dud in m6 taster tray of five. They even had a barrel-aged small stout.
Then all the way up the 101 to Astoria. Walking to Fort George, after parking the car a couple blocks from their city block I walked past a distillery, a cidery, a bottle shop and tap house and Astoria’s newest brewery, Reach Break. Typical Oregon.
More Oregon photos and a list of beers drunk in later posts.
Home Brew Con
There won’t be any droids or cosplayers or Whovians at the Portland Convention Center in June. But it will be plenty nerdy because the Rose City will be hosting Homebrew Con, also known as the National Homebrewers Conference.
The three-day event will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year this year. There will be “interactive sessions, workshops and demonstrations that cater to beer enthusiasts and amateur brewers of every level.” Plus there will be a keynote address from Charlie Papazian.
The event finishes with the National Homebrew Competition, the world’s largest beer competition.
The “Con” runs fromThursday, June 28 to Saturday, June 30. Check out the conference schedule HERE.
Brewmasters Cottage
Whenever I travel to Portland, I stay at the Inn of the Mom. But for those without relatives in Stumptown who are there for beer travel, might I suggest the Brewmasters Cottage.
Where else can you stay that is in the city that also has hops as lights?
Holiday Beer # 17 – Liquid Sweater from Ex Novo
We head back to my hometown of Portland for our next Winter Warmer from Ex Novo, Liquid Sweater…”PDX Red Ale with rich caramel & dark fruit notes. Willamette hops & spicy herbal finish.”
PDX Peek – Zoiglhaus & Great Notion
Zoiglhaus
I was super excited to go here because of the fact that the brewmaster is a fellow Linfield alum. And the beer did not disappoint. The Cedar Fever was a great combo of light pilsner base with cedar and hops. It really popped and got my trip off to a great start. The Festbier worked well too. Good malt to luxuriate in. The restaurant space left something to be desired. It was cavernous and pretty empty on a Friday afternoon. Also the food was only so-so for Portland.
Great Notion
Well this place was busy. Even some brave souls out on the patio. I had to find a standing room only spot for my taster tray. My favorite was the Contraband Saison despite the rep for the hazy IPA’s. I did check out three of the hazy offerings of the seven listed! Of those Grape Lotion was the most intriguing with a wine grape addition that fought the hops to a draw.
Cider Riot in L.A.
There will be a riot in SoCal, a Cider Riot! as the Portland based cidery makes the trek to Los Angeles June 8 through 10, with stops at Phantom Carriage Brewery in Carson on the 8th and Great Society Cider & Mead in Long Beach on Saturday the 10th from 3-5pm. Cider Riot Instigator and Portland Timber superfan Abram Goldman-Armstrong will be on hand to talk about his ciders.
Cold Brew and Gluten Free
I have always wondered why gluten free beers didn’t you an overabundance of hops or other strong flavors when crafting their beers. It seems to me to be the way to bridge the regular beer drinker to their ales and lagers.
Someone heard me or, more likely, Ground Breaker Brewing decided that the coffee culture of Portland would be well to be represented in their line-up of beers.
Hopefully, I see this one in my local beer shoppe. Will be quite interested to see how it tastes.
PDXit
My faith in politics and politicians was never that strong. And with the last election, my faith in the American electorate sunk to historic lows as well so I have been avoiding as much Trump talk as I can because it seems futile to not only struggle against Washington DC but the 306 Electoral College votes as well.
Throwing craft beer into the mix seems like a plan that could turn out bad. Seems too partisan for actual nuanced discussion.
But others are taking a different tack and not surprisingly Keep Portland Weird has taken a stand with….
The stated mission of Beer Party PDX is to “Organize members of the PDX beer community to effectively protect and promote basic civil rights, including voter access, freedom of speech, and equal rights.”
Members of the craft beer community have already stood up against one of the many questionable cabinet secretary choices (Scott Pruitt for the EPA) so this may be the start of more organizations that have both beer and what I would call common decency in common.
I think breweries do need to stand for agenda items like clean water and small business help and local issues like potholes on the road outside your establishment. Protecting people who are your customers seem like a smart play to me as well. Whether people will agree or boycott when you take a stand on action items that don’t have direct links to beer or the beer business is another thing though. Along with the attacks on journalism there is an even stronger, “stay in your lane” brew beer not dissent camp in the U.S. now.
But with Trump approval ratings cratering fast, going Anti sooner, rather than later, could be the smart business now (if you are located in liberal country) and later (when more disturbing leaks are revealed).