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.
Migration Brewing: Six Months In
This month, Migration Brewing, one of Portland's newest breweries celebrates its sixth month in business. Last week, I was part of a group of writers and media who met with friends and co-founders of Migration, Colin Rath, McKean Banzer-Lausberg, and Mike Branes, to try the current beer lineup, and hear about Migration's progress thus far and plans for the future.
With September quickly approaching, it's hard to believe that it's already been six months since Migration opened its doors. In some ways, February seems like yesterday. At the same time, a lot has happened in the last six months. Migration has introduced us to three beers that will be part of the regular lineup (the much-talked about Little Bitter is not a beer that will be part of that lineup). The brewery also doubled its capacity, adding two new seven-barrel fermentors. With the increase in available capacity, Migration is hoping to start distributing its beers to local taprooms and bars around town beginning in mid-September.
The current lineup of beers includes:
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.
Vertigo Brewing – Hillsboro, OR
After enjoying Vertigo Brewing's Friar Gone Wild Imperial IPA at the Oregon Brewers Festivallast month, I took the trip fifteen miles west of Portland to check out the small Hillsboro-based brewery late last week. At the brewery, which is tucked deep into an industrial park about a mile and a half south of Route 26 just off of NW Cornelius Pass Road, I hooked up with Mike Haines and Michael Kinion, co-owners and brewers at Vertigo.
Before my visit, I didn't know much about Vertigo. With the exception of the beer I tried at the Oregon Brewers Festival, I hadn't tried any other Vertigo beers. I had seen the brewery's Razz Wheat beer on tap around town occasionally, not to mention the huge lines for the beer at the OBF, but my visit to the brewery revealed that there is much more to Vertigo than this, its best-known beer.
It turns out that Razz Wheat was the source of some concern for Mike Haines early on. With another popular fruit beer, an Apricot Cream Ale, among Vertigo's lineup, Haines didn't want Vertigo to be dubbed a fruit beer brewery. After trying both of these beers at the brewery, it's easy to see why they're so popular. But these two beers were among seven other beers available on draught during my visit. The complete lineup included:
Photos: Camping & Beer
Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest at Scott Lake, OR
Deschutes Hop in the Dark at Scott Lake
Silver Moon Hop Knob IPA at Natural Bridge, Rogue River
Portland Monthly Overlooked a Few
When the July issue of Portland Monthly Magazine arrived in the mail this week, with a mouth-watering photo of a frothy pint and the words Oregon Beer on the cover, I was eager to dig into the cover story. The article touches on various aspects of the Oregon beer scene, including discussion of some breweries, pubs and brewers. I was most interested in what the article referred to as The Perfect Oregon Case. This list of 48 beers represents the writers' "absolute favorite Oregon beers."
Overall, I think the list does a good job offering a spectrum of quality Oregon beers that are readily available in Portland. Are they the most noteworthy, innovative or exceptional beers brewed locally? No. But given the Magazine's audience, I was happy to see that the list wasn't simply a compilation of the most popular beers from the area's most well-known breweries.
While I appreciate the attempts to include a variety of beer styles and breweries from across the state on the list, I couldn't help but wonder about a few notable breweries that didn't make the list. Sure, the list was supposed to include only those beers that are available on tap or by the bottle in Portland, but even then, exceptions were made. The most obvious exclusions in my mind include: Fort George, Barley Brown's, and Block 15.
A Migration Towards a Niche Market
McKean Banzer-Lausgerg from Migration Brewing talks about Portland's competitive landscape
In a recent post published at The New School, Ben Edmunds, a columnist for the site, prompted us to think about the point at which Portland would be considered a saturated beer market. Framed in the article as the Portland Beer Apocalypse, Ben offers his take on this very real possibility, saying:
"I fear for the Portland brewpubs. Already forced to compete with a tough restaurant scene, brewpubs are strained by large outlays of cash and credit for brewing systems, as well as the challenge of running both a brewery and restaurant." He goes on to say, "I fear that good beer and the best intentions may simply not be enough to make a brewery succeed. I hope I am wrong, but I’ll be surprised if the city can handle forty-plus breweries and brewpubs sustainably."
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:
A Trip to Sisters, and Three Creeks Brewery
View from the road, driving through Sisters
If you haven't been to Sisters, OR, you're missing out. We rented a house just outside of town for Memorial Day Weekend this year, where views from our deck afforded us some of the best mountain views I've seen in Oregon. When we weren't exploring the surrounding parks and trails, we spent most of our weekend relaxing and enjoying the view. We didn't want to do much else. There was one exception, however.
Sisters is home to Three Creeks Brewery. The Brewery is located just southeast of downtown in what looks to be a rehabbed old barn. The build-out is beautiful. Separated into two parts: a restaurant and a bar, we grabbed a table in the bar on Saturday afternoon and ordered a taster tray.
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."
