Brewer Ben Edmunds talks about Gose and Breakside Brewery’s first beer
It's not everyday that a new brewery decides to brew a Gose style beer for its first offering. But that's exactly what Ben Edmunds, brewer at Breakside Brewery, decided to do. As Portlanders wait patiently for one of the city's newest breweries to start pouring its own beers on-site, some lucky people were able to try Breakside's first official beer last week at the Hop and Vine's second anniversary party. The delicate yet crisp brew, not to mention the fact that it was served in wine glasses, was a perfect compliment to the celebration.
I caught up with Ben Edmunds after the event to discuss the beer, the style, and the timeline when we might expect to see more from Breakside. Here's that conversation:
Tell us about Gose and your experience with the style
Our gose is/was a traditional stab at this resuscitated style. The style was nearly unknown until a few years ago in the US; most Germans don't even know it exists! This was the first gose I had ever brewed. Gose is a specialty from eastern Germany. It is a tart (not overly sour) wheat beer made with coriander and some level of salt addition. Originally from Goslar, where the water had a naturally high salt content, the beer is more closely associated with Leipzig now. In the 1920s, there were hundreds of 'gose houses' in Leipzig, a university town where the beer was peddled as a sexual stimulant. You can imagine the student reaction. The style nearly died out during the Cold War, when wheat was appropriated for food use in the Soviet Bloc, and it's only now making it to the US. The first American gose I tasted was at the Herkimer Brewery in Minneapolis, where they specialize in traditional German styles. Theirs was very heavy on the palate, but it was well balanced with only a touch of sourness. Since then, I've had a few German examples as well as all of the goses we've seen from Upright, Cascade, and now Widmer. Alex's version from Upright is the one that inspired me most; it had a phenomenal balance and dryness, and the tartness was just right. When it came time to try the style, I used a different yeast strain, so the beer's profile is quite different.
Bored Beer Connoisseurs and Commoners
Following my postearlier this week, Oakshire Brewing's Matt Van Wyk offered his view about Oregon Craft Beer Month and the possibility of a Portland Beer Week event. While his view differs from mine, Matt offers some great points. And because his post is not open for comments, I thought I'd respond here.
After reminding us that not everyone is a beer blogger or uber beer geek, Matt's post suggests that we consider the casual beer drinker, or the commoner, and offers this:
...perhaps the critics of OCBM are coming at it from the wrong perspective, from a bored beer connoisseur perspective. We can’t put on hundreds of events during a month and have them all be Barrel Aged beer fests, Beer and cocktail events, or 4 chef beer dinners. Can they be there? Yes. Do we need other events that aren’t for the experienced “off the radar” crowd? yes. Is there room for improvement? yes. Is there any other state that has the volume of events and beer flowing as Oregon? I’d wager not.
Portland Beer Week
While perhaps an unpopular view, I'm happy that I came across posts from Beer Around Town and Dr. Wort expressing a shared lack of enthusiasm for Oregon Craft Beer Month. While these posts were written leading into Oregon Craft Beer Month, I was optimistic about my first July living in Portland when I first read them a month ago. Now that July has come and gone, I'm disappointed to report that I'm in the same boat.
For me, Oregon Craft Beer Month simply fell short. I expected more excitement. I expected more out-of-the-ordinary. Instead, it felt routine. In many ways, with the exception of a couple notable events, July was just like any other month for beer drinkers in Oregon. New beers were released, beer dinners were held, breweries offered tours, and brewers attended meet-and-greets. I wanted more.
Now, an important distinction needs to be made. When I say that I wanted more, I'm not talking about quantity. There were plenty of events happening throughout the month. Rather, I share the same view offered by Derek at Beer Around Town, "I can’t help but think we could corral all this individual stuff into more substantial events."
Oregon Brewers Festival Recap
And what a weekend it was. As we look back on a great weekend at the Oregon Brewers Festival, it's pretty amazing to think that there's still nearly an entire week left to enjoy Oregon Craft Beer Month. But before gearing up for the home stretch, I wanted to offer up my impressions of the OBF.
Having moved to Portland just after last year's fest, this was my first Oregon Brewers Festival experience. Overall, I thought the festival was great. While beer obviously plays a central role in any beer festival, I appreciated the fact that OBF includes a variety of festivities and experiences that work to create a real festival atmosphere. Unfortunately, I missed the opening day parade and keg-tapping, but in reading reviews from others in attendance, it's obvious that the opening ceremony really helped set the tone for a great weekend.
Before the festival got started on Thursday, I had posted my picks for the Oregon Brewers Festival. These were all beers I had never had before. And after visiting the fest a couple times this weekend, I'm pretty happy that I was able to try all but one on my list (sadly, the beer I wasn't able to try was Flying Fish Exit 4 - which was well received and made several peoples' best of the fest lists).
My Picks for the Oregon Brewers Festival
The Oregon Brewers Festival starts today! While I've been distracted recently by the seemingly endless number of Oregon Craft Beer Month events, I thought I'd follow Brewpublic and Portland Beer and Music's lead and share my beer picks for the fest. Here are the beers - with descriptions offered by Gary Corbin - that I'll be seeking out this weekend:
- Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale: A simple beer from a technical standpoint, what makes it unique is the blend of a Belgian yeast and citrusy Amarillo hops on a grain bed of pale malt, malted and unmalted wheat, and corn flakes. Yes, corn flakes. And with that milky white head, you could call it breakfast. It's named for the famously "recalcitrant" fermentation tank in which it came to life.
- Boundary Bay German Tradition Double Dry Hopped Pale Ale: Made especially for the Oregon Brewers Festival, this beer gets its name from the German Tradition hops used in all four hop additions, including two dry-hoppings. Two-row and Munich malts fill out the simple grain bill and provide malt balance to Tradition's medium-level bittering and citrus flavor and aroma.
- Caldera Hibiscus Ginger Beer: This beer is not about the hops. Ginger root, beets and hibiscus flowers provide its unique spicy, zesty flavors and aromas. Belgian candi sugar boosts the fermentables provided by 2-row and Carafoam malts. Ginger and hibiscus are boiled with the wort, along with a small amount of Willamette hops. The beer is "dry-flowered" with hibiscus. It was brewed special for the OBF, so get it before it's gone.
- Flying Fish Exit 4: This inspired Belgian-style Trippel has a hazy golden hue and the aroma of citrus with hints of banana and clove. Predominant Belgian malt flavors give way to a subdued bitterness in the finish. This beer is worthy of high praise, having won a gold medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival and named by Men's Journal as the best Belgian beer brewed in America for 2009.
- Great Divide Hoss: Based on the Marzen lagers of Bavaria, this award-winning brew (bronze - GABF 2009; World Beer Cup, 2010) boasts rich, layered malt notes with hints of cherry and dark fruits. The unique addition of rye imparts a slightly earthy, spicy character. Thanks to lagering and a proprietary clean-finishing yeast, Hoss finishes crisp and dry, with just a hint of Perle and Hersbrucker hops.
- Rock Bottom Oud Heverlee: This beer is steeped with both Belgian tradition and its correspondingly unusual ingredients. Dried tulips add a "weet niet het" flavor in the local vernacular - sort of a floral-crossed-with-umami kind of thing. Also, only specially-aged "vloer suipt" Sterling hops are used to bring out their best, most "noble" flavor. The Belgian-style yeast brings out notes of pepper and apricot.
- Rogue 21: Brewmaster John Maier has brewed a different beer for OBF for 21 years in a row; to honor the OBF and John’s “21er,” John brewed a one-time batch of an Olde Ale, called 21 Ale. It's brewed with 14 ingredients: 2-row, Briess Amber, C-40, Wyermann Carafa & Rogue Farms RiskTM Malt; Willamette, US Goldings & Rogue Farms Revolution Hops; Simpsons Golden Naked Oats; Franco-Belges Carawheat; molasses, brewer’s licorice, Wyeast Old Ale Blend yeast & free range coastal water.
- Sierra Nevada Tumbler: Sierra Nevada uses malt within days of roasting at the peak of its flavor to give Tumbler a gracefully smooth malt character. Two-row pale, crystal 40, chocolate and smoked malts give it a malty complexity. Challenger hops in the boil add balancing bitterness, while more Challengers and some Goldings give just enough hop flavor in the finish to balance all that malt.
- Surly Bitter Brewer: On top of its base of 2-row pale ale malt, Simpsons Golden Naked Oats, crystal malt and roasted barley gives this beer its extra smooth, slightly sweet taste and dark amber color. Glacier hops are used as first-wort hops, in the whirlpool, and for dry-hopping, with Columbus for additional bittering. The result is a malty, moderately-hopped, highly drinkable session bitter.
- The Bruery 7 Grain Saison: Two-row pale malt, rye, oats, unmalted wheat, flaked rice, flaked maize and spelt comprise this unique beer's complex grain bill. By contrast, only moderate amounts of Magnum and Sterling hops balance the malt's sweetness. The house Belgian-style strain provides a spicy character in the finish.
- Widmer Brothers Captain Shaddock IPA: People sometimes describe the aromas and flavors of hoppy IPAs as "grapefruit." Hell, why not use some then? Widmer's brewing team used a simple IPA recipe and added a generous amount of dried grapefruit peel to the end of the boil. The aroma is a melody of citrus, with a slight spice undertone, accentuated by the use of Citra hops. The flavor is that of nice hop forward IPA with the bitterness of grapefruit.
Please note, these beers and descriptions were part of the lineup made available to media on July 16th. The festival's website offers a list of all the beers that will be pouring here. The fest starts today at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland and runs through Sunday.
Drink Beer, and help PSU students headed to Uganda!
As some of you know, my wife, Jessica, is part of a Portland State University student group heading to Uganda next week as part of a three-week field seminar studying International Community Development. And, as you may imagine, the cost of travel, tuition, and immunizations isn’t cheap. So before the group departs, they’re holding one last fundraising event – which doubles as a bon voyage party – at the newly opened Breakside Brewery in North Portland.
With the support of some generous local breweries, Scott Lawrence, one of Breakside’s owners, has agreed to open early on Saturday with some great beers on tap. Stop by between noon and 3:oopm, grab a pint (or two) and support the PSU student group as they prepare for this amazing opportunity. Featured beers will include:
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.
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.
