Seattle Beer Week’s Last Call
While I wasn't able to attend any of the other great events that happened last week as part of Seattle Beer Week, I did manage to make the trip from Portland on Sunday for Seattle Beer Week's Last Call event. Twenty-two Washington microbreweries were represented at the event and each had one or two beers - most of which were unique seasonals or one-off brews - available for tasting. I had pretty high expectations for the day. Unfortunately, those expectations went unmet.
The Last Call event was held at the Hale's Ales Palladium, which is really just a fancy name for Hale's Ales' warehouse. While the warehouse offered us shelter as rain threatened outside, the space was dark, quiet, and surprisingly empty. We showed up at 1:00pm, an hour after the event started, thinking we would let the initial rush of people get in the door before we lined up for a beer. I don't think that rush ever happened. Instead, we walked right in and found ourselves looking over our beer options with plenty of room to walk around and check things out with ease.
I started the afternoon with the beer that intrigued me most: Port Townsend Luciferous Belgian Whiskey Sour. The story behind the beer is as interesting as the name. Luciferous apparently began a couple years ago as a hoppy red ale with which the brewers weren't entirely satisfied. Instead of releasing it or dumping it, Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus were added and the beer was left to ferment in a basement where temperatures were left uncontrolled. After two years, the beer spent five months in a bourbon barrel before being served this weekend. The beer was a slightly hazy brown color, mildly sour, crisp with a dry finish. While I detected some bourbon in the background, the whiskey and sour flavors weren't as pronounced as I had hoped.
On the Road: Providence, RI
Julian's in Providence
For the second time in as many weeks, I found myself on the East Coast again last week; this time it was Providence, Rhode Island. I had never been to The Creative Capital before this trip and, despite the relatively limited brewery options in the city, I was really looking forward to exploring what Providence had to offer. Coincidentally, I was in Providence when our friends at Brewpublic published the first part in a series about beer in Rhode Island. While I wasn't able to explore beyond the city limits, I did find a few great beer spots worth checking out in town.
The most notable of my stops was Julian's. I had first heard about Julian's from a fellow Oregon Beer Odyssey classmate a few weeks ago. Described to me as a place worth checking out, but somewhat off the beaten path, it ended up being only about a mile walk from my hotel. And as Portland was getting rained on, I enjoyed the walk on a nearly 80 degree evening in Providence.
Rope Swing & Sunburn: Signs of Summer
Summer must be right around the corner. As if we needed more than a few 75+ degree days to get us excited for the summer months ahead, Widmer and Redhook recently had samples of their summer seasonals, Sunburn and Rope Swing respectively, delivered to my house. While I'm always skeptical of beers that carry names like these, both ended up being great compliments to warm sunny afternoons.
Redhook Rope Swing Summer Pilsner
From the brewery: "Redhook’s Rope Swing Summer Pilsner is the first Pilsner the brewery has released outside of its pubs. While craft brewers generally only produce ale style beers, Redhook’s brewers have enjoyed stretching their capabilities and testing out different styles through their limited releases and now Rope Swing Summer Pilsner. This particular Pilsner is brewed in a true Czech Lager Style. It uses 100% Saaz hops and is fermented for 4-6 weeks before packaging. Additionally, the beer uses Pale, Munich and a little bit of Caramel malts, as well as a special yeast strain with heritage rooting back to the Czech Republic. Redhook’s brewers were very careful to keep the process and ingredients as authentic as possible when developing the Czech Style beer. A big part of why they chose to do the Pilsner now was the adventure of trying something new. They already had a Blonde Ale and believed the challenge of a Pilsner, combined with the summertime weather, presented the perfect opportunity to test out something new for the season."
Welcome to the neighborhood: Breakside Brewery is open for business
Portlanders celebrated the opening of Beervana's newest brewery this weekend. Breakside Brewery, located in the Northeast Portland neighborhood Woodlawn, opened its doors for business on Friday afternoon. While Breakside's own beers are not yet available (look for them around July 1st), the brewery opened with a full food menu and a great list of guest taps that, as evidenced by the Yelp reviews and talk on Twitter, have been very well received.
I stopped in at Breakside on Saturday afternoon with some friends who were in town visiting from Chicago and others in from Hood River. We found a home at one of the tables in the bar between the two giant garage doors that opened onto a beautiful sunny Portland afternoon. After ordering beers from a list that included New Belgium Mothership Wit, Elysian The Wise ESB, Firestone Walker Union Jack and Dogfish Head Festina Peche, we dug into Breakside's pulled pork nachos and the jalapeno poppers. Our selections from the refreshingly straightforward menu of appetizers and sandwiches were great choices. A few beers later, some of our friends opted for the pulled pork sandwich and the blackened chicken burger - both of which looked great and disappeared quickly.
Aside from the food we ordered, there are a couple menu items that have the potential to be real standouts: the Lovely Pork Belly Sandwich: slow cooked with soy, brown sugar, leeks, ginger, and anise, and topped with fresh fennel and carrot slaw, and the Breakside Burger: The Cadillac of burgers! Juicy and tender American Kobe-style beef from Snake River Farms with a creamy center of Rogue Smoky Blue. Topped with roasted wild mushrooms and caramelized onions. I'm looking forward to trying both of these.
Beer Releases: Timing is Everything
As a blogger who writes about beer, I generally find myself paying closer attention to details than most others typically would when attending beer events, visiting pubs, or drinking beer. After all, it's usually the details that offer the best content. But my attention to detail isn't confined to the beer industry. Outside of writing a beer blog, I work as a marketing consultant, and marketing is all about the details.
I say this to preface a point about beer releases: timing is everything.
While it isn't confined to one instance, I'll use an example that illustrates what I'm talking about. A local brewery recently had a bottle of a seasonal beer delivered to my house. In this case, the beer was delivered in advance of the beer's release party (this is pretty typical when a brewery is looking to leverage the reach bloggers have to help build anticipation about a beer before it's available to the public). This particular release party was marketed as being the public's first opportunity to taste and purchase the seasonal beer. Until this point, the marketing efforts for the beer that I had seen seemed to be doing a good job of generating awareness and anticipation for the release. I was looking forward to trying the beer and writing about it before the release.
Black Tuesday is a good thing
For me, last weekend began and came to a close in the same place: Saraveza.
On Sunday afternoon, I hooked up with Double Mountain brewer Kyle Larsen for a tasting of seasonals from The Bruery, one of Kyle's favorite breweries. The Orange County, California-based brewery shared a lineup of beers that included: Saison de Lente, Trade Winds, Autumn Maple, Partridge in a Pear Tree, and Two Turtle Doves.
While each of these beers was excellent, it quickly became obvious that the crowd really wanted Ben Wiess from The Bruery to crack open the highly anticipated bottles of Black Tuesday. Black Tuesday is an Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels with an ABV of 19.5%. It's a big beer. I agree with Angelo, this brewery exclusive was a real treat to try.
Double Mountain Bon Idee Release
As Angelo from Brewpublic points out in his post about Double Mountain's Bon Idee, there has been a lot going on lately in Beervana. After attending the Goose Island release event last Thursday, some of us headed over to Saraveza for the Double Mountain Bon Idee release party.
I had intended to share my thoughts about Double Mountain's latest effort, and its entry into this year's Cheers to Belgian Beers festival, before the actual festival. In some ways I'm glad I wasn't able to get my thoughts posted until now.
On Thursday, I enjoyed Bon Idee. As a farily hoppy beer described by the brewery as an Oregon Farmhouse Ale, it was a predictable brew given Double Mountain's heavy hand when it comes to hops. And while the limited quantity and blend of Bon Idee Avec Kriek suggested an enhanced version of the beer, I prefered the Bon Idee without the addition of Double Mountain's Kriek. At the release, the beers were complimented by house made boudin blanc sausages prepared by Spence Lack of Saraveza. And in leaving Saraveza on Thursday night, I thought Double Montain would be a strong contender in Saturday's Cheers to Belgian Beers competition.
Cheers to Belgian Beers 2010 Recap
This year's Cheers to Belgian Beers festival was my first. And of all the beer events and festivals I've attended, Saturday's event has definitely earned a spot as one of my favorites.
I like the idea behind Cheers to Belgian Beers: it's a brewing competition where all the beers share a common yeast strain. This year, brewers were tasked with using Wyeast 3726-Farmhouse yeast. Having never attended the fest, I was impressed with the spectrum and diversity of choices among the 30+ beers brewed for the event. The choices showcased a variety of ingredients from grapefruit peel to peppercorns, and styles from farmhouse table beer to Belgian dark strong ale. There was something for everyone. Evidence of this could be found in just about every conversation going on at the fest, and is reflected in the varying written opinions from Bill, Jeff, Angelo, Derek & Dr. Wort.
While many beer festivals quickly become chaotic and uncomfortable, Hopworks, the host for this year's event, offered an experience that was was refreshingly easy. We were met with a line of about 20 people when we arrived around 3:00pm, but the volunteers were organized and friendly. The line moved quickly and, with our pockets full of tickets and tasting glasses in hand, we reviewed our options. We barely took one step towards the beer tent when we came across a group of friends who were eager to share opinions of what they'd already tasted. This, and the fact that it was conveniently located at the beginning of the alphabetical lineup, prompted me to choose Block 15 La Ferme' de Demons as my first choice.
Goose Island’s Greg Hall introduces Matilda, Sofie, and Pere Jaques to Portland
Goose Island Brewmaster Greg Hall talks about Matilda, Sofie, and Pere Jaques
When I first came across a Goose Island beer in Portland, I was surprised for two reasons. First, I didn't expect to see beer from my hometown 2,200 miles away in Oregon. And second, from Goose Island's pretty extensive line of beers, there was one lone offering available: Bourbon County Stout.
In the months after we moved from Chicago to Portland, I did see Goose Island's Christmas Ale on the shelves at some stores and thought Goose Island may be making a push into the market. But Christmas came and went, and Goose Island's Christmas Ale went with it. Until recently, the only news I heard about Goose Island came from friends still living in Chicago.
