Hair of the Dog, a Great Way to Celebrate a Year in Portland
This time last year, we started fresh. We embarked on something new. It was exciting. This week marks the one year anniversary of when we moved to Portland from Chicago. To celebrate, we hit up the newly re-opened Hair of the Dog Brewery and Tasting Room in Southeast Portland earlier this week.
First impressions of the new location are favorable. Jeff Alworth at Beervana suggests that Hair of the Dog should be one of the top three beer destinations for tourists visiting Portland, saying, "you just won't find this kind and quality of beer anywhere in the city--or the state, or the country, for that matter." And from the Beer Cave, "With the opening of this new tasting room, I really feel like Alan [Sprints, owner of Hair of the Dog] kicked the Portland beer scene up a notch. With his unique and truly delicious beers, and extensive collection of vintage offerings, this place is something special."
I completely agree with these guys. You won't find this kind of beer anywhere in the city. And the place really is something special. A visit to Hair of the Dog was the perfect way to celebrate surviving our first year in Portland.
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.
Naked City & Elysian Fields: Two Worthwhile Stops in Seattle
In a quick trip to Seattle last week, I was able to stop by two brewpubs I had never been to before: Naked City and Elysian Fields. I had a great experience at both and would consider them to be worthwhile stops when in Seattle.
Naked City Brewery and Taphouse
Naked City is located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle, just northwest of Green Lake. While it's a few miles north of downtown Seattle, it's worth the trip. I was impressed by the number and variety of beers on tap: 24 total beers on tap - four of which were brewed by Naked City; the remaining 20 made up a pretty impressive list of guest taps.
Schooner Exact 5 Grid & Naked City Spark in the Dark
I Spent $15 to Drink Pliny the Younger
It's true. Last night I spent $15 to drink Pliny the Younger. After missing other local tappings of the much-hyped beer at Horse Brass, County Cork, Saraveza, and Henry's Tavern in Portland, I figured that the $15 offer from Belmont Station would likely be my last chance to try this year's Pliny the Younger. After trying it last night, I'm glad I spent the money.
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.
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
Shawn Kelso Talks about Barley Brown’s Brewpub and WTF IPA
After listing Barley Brown's WTF IPA as my most memorable beer in my top of 2009, I reached out to Shawn Kelso in hopes that he could tell us a little more about Barley Brown's and the brew pub's WTF IPA. Shawn offered up some great comments about the brewery, getting his start as a brewer there, creating 'Winter Time Fun', and some of his favorite local beers right now.
About the Brewery
Barley Brown's is a Brewpub located in Baker City, OR. We have been around since 1998. We brew all our beers on an Elliot Bay 4bbl system. All our beers are kegged and we don't bottle our beer except for growlers to go. All our beer is sold in house, but recently we have sold a few kegs to the Portland area. We love hops, and by tasting our beers you can tell that we do. We have received 34 national medals - 31 from the North American Beer Awards and 3 from the Great American Beer Festival.
Upright Brewing: Billy the Mountain Release
There's not a much better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than at Upright Brewing's Tasting Room, especially when it's packed with a bunch of other beer loving folks looking to get their hands on some of the Brewery's latest release Billy the Mountain. After being named Best New Brewery in 2009 by John Foyston of the Oregonian, it was great to see such a good turnout for the event. And while some people may have been deterred by the lines for beer, Upright's staff handled everything very well - offering samples of beers to people waiting in line with empty glasses and offering snacks throughout the place. We were offered two different beers before we made it to the front of the line.
We were lucky enough to have been offered a sample of Billy the Mountain while we were in line, because sadly, the new beer on tap had run out by the time we reached the front of the line (this was at about 3:30pm). While we were bummed that we weren't going to get any more Billy the Mountain, we were happily surprised to see that Upright had some additional beers on tap than those listed on the chalk board. We had:
