Beer and Banking
When I saw this tweet from Umpqua Bank about a beer tasting to be held at one of the bank's branches, I did a double take. Beer at a bank? I know that Umpqua Bank highlights local small businesses with events like this in the bank's branches, and was happy (and surprised) to see that one of these small businesses was Belmont Station. I was intrigued, so I went to check it out yesterday.
Carl from Belmont Station set up a table in the Beaumont Village Umpqua Bank branch, and had four thoughtfully selected Oregon beers to sample:
Cole Hackbarth talks about Full Sail Brewing and Colesch
Earlier this month, we headed out to Hood River and stopped by Full Sail’s Brewpub to sample some of the brewery’s Brewmaster Reserves beers. The most memorable beer from the trip was Full Sail’s Colesh – a recipe developed by, and appropriately named after, brewer Cole Hackbarth. After our visit to the brewery, I reached out to Cole to learn more about Full Sail, his role as a brewer, and about the delicious Colesch. I didn’t expect to hear that the beer was his first professional recipe, and I really didn’t expect to hear the name Chuck Norris brought up…but it was. Here’s what Cole had to say:
About the Brewery
Full Sail opened in 1987, began bottling in 1988, and won its first GABF gold in 1989. In the 23 years since, we have grown from 287 BBL that first year to almost 90,000 in 2009. And we continue to brew award winning beer, the most recent a GABF gold for Session Black in 2009. The original brewhouse was a 20 BBL system that now lives in Portland and churns out the Brewmaster Reserve line concocted by John Harris. The majority of Full Sail beer is now brewed on a manual 200 BBL system in the original Hood River brewery location. We brew about two dozen different beers throughout the year, in addition we also contract brew for Henry Weinhard's. In 1999 the original investors were bought out by the employees to become an employee owned company, and we have put that sense of ownership into everything we do at Full Sail.
Blind Tasting Notes: Cascadian Dark Ales
Amidst all the Cascade Dark Ale craziness last week and over the weekend, I took part in a blind CDA tasting hosted by Ezra Johnson-Greenough. The tasting brought together some good people to sample ten different Cascadian Dark Ales. I was surprised by some of the results after the beers were revealed, but thought the blind tasting was a really good way to think about both the flavor profile of the beer, and whether or not I'd consider it to be true to the Cascadian Dark Ale style - without knowing where it was brewed. Here are my notes and ratings from the tasting (beers were rated on a 5-point scale):
1. Hopworks Secession
Dark brown, medium malt, good hop bite without being overly bitter, lighter brown in color than I expected from a CDA, light fruit/citrus notes in smell. I could drink more of this; good example of CDA 3.5
Beyond the Pacific Northwest: Out of Market Beers Worth Checking Out
While I tend to lean towards beers that are brewed locally, over the past few weeks I've had a few beers brewed outside the Pacific Northwest that stood out for me. Each of these are pretty readily available, and I think each are worth checking out:
New Belgium Le Fleur Misseur
Le Fleur Misseur is part of New Belgium's Lips of Faith series of beers. We were looking for something different when we picked up a bottle of this beer; we hadn't tried this one from New Belgium, the name was intriguing, and the attractive packaging sealed the deal. We weren't disappointed.
Jack Harris Talks About Fort George Brewery and The Murky Pearl
In yesterday's post, I talked about our trip out to Fort George Brewery and Public House in Astoria last weekend. After our visit, I reached out to Jack Harris, owner and brewer at the brewery, to learn more about the Fort George, the brewers, and The Murky Pearl Oyster Stout. Jack shared some great info about the history of Fort George Brewery, Oyster Stouts, a bursting Wild Turkey Barrel, and a collaboration Stout to be released later this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Goonies. Check out the interview:
About the Brewery
The Fort George Brewery and Public House opened on March 11, 2007 in the Fort George Building in downtown Astoria, Oregon. For ten years prior, the Fort George Building, built in 1924, sat unoccupied, with many of its’ windows broken out and pools of rainwater festering inside. Our neighbors, the Blue Scorcher Bakery first opened up and we followed shortly creating new life in an otherwise blighted part of our town. The building sits on the exact site of the first white settlement in the region that at one time was known as Fort George, but has spent most of its' two-hundred years as Astoria.
Fort George Brewery – Astoria, OR
While we were in Astoria last weekend, we also hit up Fort George Brewery and Public House. I thought this place was great. Located a couple blocks south of the river, it's pretty obvious that the prominent building (which looks just like the building used in the logo) was some kind of factory building in the past. The interior is a great balance between industrial factory and neighborhood pub.
We knew we were in the right place when, in addition to the beers brewed by Fort George Brewery, we saw some pretty awesome guest beers on tap - and oddly enough, all the guest beers were IPAs. And these weren't your run of the mill IPAs either: Russian River Pliny the Elder, Bear Republic Racer X DIPA, Green Flash West Coast IPA, and Avery's Maharaja. We thought we'd have to book a hotel room for the night right then! Come to find out, Fort George had hosted an Indian dinner with IPA pairing earlier that week.
Kyle Larsen talks about Double Mountain Brewery and Imperial Chaos
In out trip out to Hood River and White Salmon last weekend, we stopped in at Double Mountain Brewery. Brewer Kyle Larsen was nice enough to show us around the brewery, and took some time to talk with us about Double Mountain's beers as we sampled what they had on tap. After having, and really enjoying, the recently released Imperial Chaos at the Bigger, Badder, Blacker event at Belmont Station, I asked Kyle some questions about the beer, about Double Mountain Brewery, and about getting his start as a brewer there.
Not that we need another excuse to head out to beautiful Hood River or to Double Mountain, but it sounds like a trip out to the taproom may need to happen in the next couple weeks to try a couple new offerings from the Brewery...one of which is set to be released today. Here's what Kyle had to say:
About the brewery
The “Brew Beef” Story, part 2: the Brewer’s Perspective
Last week I wrote a post about upcycling spent brewer's grain to feed cattle. The post centered on Ninkasi Brewing's partnership with Oregon Natrual Meats and included comments and information from ONM's founder and CEO Stephen Neel. Since then, I reached out to Nikos Ridge from Ninkasi Brewing to get his perspective about the upcycling efforts. I asked Nikos a few questions about the partnership to expand on the information offered by Stephen, and to provide some insights from the brewer's perspective:
Why is upcycling spent grain important for brewers/breweries to consider?
We feel that upcylcing our spent grain is a great opportunity to take something that could potentially be a negative (spent grain waste) and turn it into a positive by using it to promote a local, sustainable food network. Localization of products has benefits for the environment, for individuals through cost reductions, and for food security, by way of access to independent, community-focused suppliers.
Astoria Brewing Company – Astoria, OR
Over the weekend, we also made it out to Astoria, OR to check out the town and to visit the couple of local breweries in town. The drive from Portland is about two hours, but I like the drive out to the coast. Once in Astoria, Astoria Brewing Company was our first stop.
Astoria Brewing Company is part of the Wet Dog Cafe. The place sits right next to the Columbia River, and offers a great view from the dining room (photo above). Unfortunately, the view was the best part about our experience here.
In walking into Astoria Brewing, you get the sense that it's probably very well patronized during the summer. There's a lot of action in this place: a bunch of big beer signs highlighting the brewery's creatively named beers (while some are clever, I felt like the names and cartoon labels/beer shirts were a bit cheesy and over-the-top), a souvenir shop (where $2 will get you a souvenir beer list), and a game room. While not my taste, I'm sure it works for this place given its location. There's also a good selection of guest beers on tap.
Everybody’s Brewing – White Salmon, WA
We had a beer loving friend in town from Chicago this weekend, and decided to venture outside of Portland to check out some breweries that we've been hearing about lately. Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon, Washington was one of those stops.
Just over the river from Hood River, White Salmon is about an hour drive from Portland. With this relatively new brewery (they've been open for a year and a half) in the area, you can find a great variety of beers from some good microbreweries in and around Hood River. Everybody's is certainly worth the trip; if you're headed out to the area, I'd also recommend making time for Double Mountain and Full Sail.
