An American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional. Small: Annual production of beer less than 2 million barrels. Independent: Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer.

Still, there is a lot of debate over the issue.  Some consider the 2 million barrels of annual production to be too high; for others, it's a non-issue.  Others are able to look past the issue of ownership (at least to some degree), and instead allow the quality of the beer to determine whether a brewery would be considered craft. 

The issue of size and independence will always be a hot topic in the craft beer industry.  But this post was not prompted by the issues of size or independence.  Rather, after seeing this Tweet about the possibility of Goose Island IPA being brewed at Redhook (which could just be speculation at this point; the point seems to be a conclusion drawn from this article), I began thinking specifically about the qualification of traditional used to define a craft brewery. 

Unlike size and independence, which are defined by specific quantitative figures (i.e. less than 2 million barrels and less than 25% ownership by a non-craft-brewery), traditional is a more qualitative term; its specific meaning will vary from person to person.  In many cases, traditional refers to the actual brewing process.  And the brewing process is perhaps the most important determining factor in whether or not a brewery could be considered traditional, and as a result, craft. 

But what about the brewer?  And what about the brewery?

Like any true craft, craft beers are the product of passionate craftsmen.  In the case of beer, those craftsmen are brewers.  Their careful hands are able to brew beer that tells a story.  Their beer not only reflects their own personality, vision, and inspirations, but also the personality of the ingredients that are used, the location where they brew, and the people for which they brew it. 

The possibility that Goose Island IPA would be brewed at Redhook's brewing facilities raises an interesting question relative to brewing traditionally: Is it still craft if someone else brews it?

While some situations require contract brewing at another brewery's location (i.e. issues related to equipment, internal capacity, etc.), the arrangement is usually limited to the use of equipment, capacity and a facility; the beer is still brewed by its original brewer (or team of brewers).  Situations like this are a great example of how players within the craft beer industry thrive because of one another, and don't necessarily view others as direct competition.

Craft beer is not only about the end product.  It's about the people, the places, and the process behind it.  When a recipe is sent out to some foreign production facility simply because they have the ability to brew it, the beer loses its opportunity to be considered craft.   Craft is not only about size and independence.  It's about tradition as well.

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. 

Admittedly, Hair of the Dog beers are unfamiliar territory for me.  On our visit we opted to walk the dog around the block- or, in more familiar terms, we ordered samples of all six beers currently on tap.  This included a 3-ounce pour of Greg, Blue Dot, Fred, Adam, Doggie Claws and Cherry Adam, each is presented in a really sweet custom stemmed glass (see the photo above).  Customers also have the option to walk the dog up the block, which includes four samples of the six beers (all but Doggie Claws and Cherry Adam).  Or, 3-ounce samples can be ordered individually for $2 or $3.00, depending on the beer, which can be a good option considering the robust flavors and high alcohol content of some Hair of the Dog beers. 

Greg, a beer brewed with winter squash, and Fred, a golden strong ale, were the most appropriate beers for the day given the hot afternoon.  I was surprised with the flavor profile of Greg given the absence of hops, but really enjoyed it.  Jessica and I were most impressed, however, with Adam and Cherry Adam which may be better suited for a crisp fall evening.  The entire lineup was unique, solid, and intriguing.  With these, predictablity is thrown out the window.  Reading about these beers can only take you so far; these are beers you've really got to try them yourself. 

Another unique aspect of Hair of the Dog is the vintage bottled beer selection.  While pricier than the $4.50 - $6.50 12-ounce draft beer pours, the 12-ounce bottles range in price from $10 for 2009 Doggie Claws to $25 for 2009 Matt.  During our visit, bottles of Fred from the Wood 2007-2009, Doggie Claws 2005-2009, and Cherry Adam 2008-2009 were available; 2009 Michael and 2005 Rose Cassis rounded out the 12-ounce bottle selection.  Hair of the Dog also had 50.7-ounce magnum bottles of Cherry Adam and Doggie Claws available for $60 and $50, respectively.  (All of these beers are for consumption at the tasting room only)

It sounds like Hair of the Dog is planning to start pouring some experimental and one-off beers in the near future.  The kitchen, which thankfully will not be serving typical brewpub grub, is scheduled to open in about two weeks.  This, combined with the cool space and great beer, will keep me coming back - with or without an excuse to celebrate.

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:

• Migration Pale Ale, or MPA for short, is Migration Brewing's flagship beer.  Described by Migration as  a "smoothdrinkin’ pale ale with a mid-palette maltiness coupled with crisp hop finish," I was glad to find the MPA I had last week to be better than the previous times I tried the beer.  Brewer Mike Braneslet us know that there may be some additional small tweaks to this one, but at this point, the guys are pretty happy with the recipe. 
• Honey Dew Ale, described by the brewery as "a crisp drinking ale with a mid-palette sweetness coupled with a slightly spicy finish."  Surprisingly, the beer's name is somewhat misleading; the beer isn't brewed with honey dew melon.  Rather, it's brewed with some honey malt and is a modified version of a recipe that Mike has been brewing for quite some time. 
• Clem's Cream Ale, described as "light on the hops, big on the flavor this super smooth drinking blond colored ale is specially formulated for your summertime drinking pleasure."  This one is also available on nitro at the pub.  The cream ale was my least favorite of the three beers, due to the diacetyl presence.  Perhaps future batches will be corrected. 

Mike (red shirt on the left) shows us around the brewery

A word that we heard continually by the guys at Migration to describe their was approachable.  In a previous post, I wrote about Migration's focus on session beers.  While I appreciate the emphasis on beers that aren't aggressively hoppy or high in alcohol content, the discussion of approachable beers prompted me to ask if Migration was going to introduce beers with any interesting ingredients.  Branes assured us that he does have some interesting recipes up his sleeve, mentioning both Belgian-style beers and a coffee stout recipe that, while high in alcohol (I believe he said 9%+, which doesn't necessarily fit the approachablecategory), "you can drink at 10 o'clock in the morning and come back to at 10 o'clock at night."  With Migration's focus on approachable session beers, I'd imagine that they'd do well with more subtle flavors like Upright's Four brewed with yarrow flowers and rose petals or Elysian's Avatar IPA brewed with jasmine.  Similarly, I think a fruit beer would be a great compliment to Migration's lineup.

With a recently expanded brewing operation, plans to distribute beer around town, and more beers in the works, Migration seems to be gaining some momentum.  On September 18th, Migration will be hosting a fall festival (which they'd like to see evolve into a Glisan Street festival in the future) where the brewery's newest beer, an Old Ale, will be poured for the first time.  Migration's beers will also be featured at the upcoming Green Dragon's Nano Fest, at the Brewpublic Microhopic event to be held at Bailey's Taproom, and the Pacific Northwest Brew Cup in Astoria. 

We'll keep an eye out for Migration's beers around town.  And, we'll be looking forward to trying Migration's new beers on the brewery's great outdoor patio.  That is, once it cools down enough to sit in the sun.

The Daily Pull now has a new look, thanks to my friend Josh Anderson.  Josh, who specializes in character art and animation, did a great job with this piece.  He managed to pull together an image that includes subtle elements of Portland and Chicago, while incorporating a not-so-obvious beer component with the fermentor - which is designed to suggest a rooftop water tower (I'm fascinated with rooftop water towers).  Bravo Josh!  Thank you.

Josh's work and contact info can be found on his website: www.sketchamatic.com
He blogs at: http://joshlanderson.wordpress.com/

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.

How did you approach brewing this beer?
Having read some about the style and sampled a few German versions, I was convinced that the key was to balance between the tartness, salt, and coriander. I didn't want it to be as sharp as a Berliner weisse, so I imagined it more as a tarter, saltier wit. Also, salt, when added to brewing water, should contribute mouthfeel and some slickness in the body; it's not just about making it taste salty. I basically tweaked our wit recipe, used some Old World brewing techniques--a mash hop and shortened boil--and asked Yetta to sour it with biologically stable lactic acid to her desired taste. The beer came out of fermentation tasting like a slick, spicy wit with a pH of about 4.5. We added acid until the pH hit about 4. Anything under 3.7 tasted far too much like a Berliner weisse, so we found that our sweet spot in sampling was in that 3.7 to 4 range.

Is this the first Breakside Brewing release?
This is the first official Breakside release.

What’s the connection with Hop and Vine?
I'm good friends with Yetta Vorobik since I work with her for Oregon Beer Odyssey classes, and she's been following our development closely over the last few months. She asked us to brew this style for her bar's anniversary.

What’s the story behind the name, Gator Boots Gose?
The name, Gator Boots, is the name of her actual LLC (check your receipt next time you go to the Hop and Vine!), which are the names of her dog and cat. Breakside owner, Scott Lawrence has assured everyone that we will never serve beers in house called 'Gator Boots.'

Will the Gose be part of Breakside’s regular lineup?
I'd love to be able to include it as a rotating beer in our lineup. We plan on brewing the wit regularly and will sneak a batch or two of gose on to see what folks think; if our customers ask for more gose, we'll give it to them!

Everybody wants to know, when will your beers be pouring at Breakside?
You can expect Breakside to be gradually releasing its lineup of beers over the next few months. We'll have a beer on tap for the next Microhopic event at Bailey's Taproom in September. My goal is still to have six beers on tap of our own by year's end. We've had a long waiting period with brewing equipment and the federal government, but we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I think we will have beer starting to come out consistently in October.

---

Thanks, Ben.  The beer was a treat.  We'll be looking forward to trying additional Breakside beers in the coming months, both at special events and at the brewpub.

But the discussion seems to have slowed in recent months.  Perhaps it's because the frequency of CDA releases have slowed.  Maybe we've exhausted the argument.  Or, maybe we feel defeated because the Brewers Association decided not to formally adopt either name.  Instead, the official name in the 2010 Beer Style Guidelines is American-Style India Black Ale. 

Still, Cascadian Dark Ales continue to draw national attention.  Last week, The Washington Post published the article, An Emerging Beer Style, CDA Marries Hops and Dark Malts.   Interestingly, the tone of the article suggests that the CDA name is "gaining currency."  In contrast to the Brewers Association's name choice, the article also states, in reference to the India Black Ale name, that "at least one brewery has had that term struck down by federal labeling authorities for not being an accepted style."  Whatever the case, the article brings the Cascadian Dark Ale into the spotlight for readers across the country.

A few days after The Washington Post article was published, and perhaps inspired by that article, Tasting Table, the popular daily email about food and drink covered Cascadian Dark Ales in Dark Magic.  Focusing on Deschutes Hop in the Dark, the Tasting Table story also worked to bring awareness about the style to a national audience. 

Living in the Pacific Northwest, it's interesting to see Cascadian Dark Ales hitting the national news months after the style was considered newsworthy here.  At the same time, this recent news is yet another reminder that the Pacific Northwest is home to breweries whose influence extends well-beyond the region - and long after the local news moves onto the next big thing.

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:

• T.B.D. Blonde
• High Dive Rye
• Apricot Cream Ale
• Razz Wheat
• Spring Harvest Wheat
• Schwindel Alt
• High Altitude Amber
• Friar Mike's IPA
• Friar Gone Wild Imperial IPA

Of the beers I tried, my favorites were: Schwindel Alt, Friar Gone Wild Imperial IPA, High Dive Rye and Apricot Cream Ale.  The Friar Gone Wild uses the same malt and Cascade, Amarillo, and Columbus hops used to brew Friar Mike's, but additional hops are added for a more assertive hop flavor.  The result with Friar Gone Wild is a big brew with 8.8% ABV and 94 IBU (compared to 6.1% ABV and 62 IBU for Friar Mike's IPA).  Interestingly enough, Friar Mike's isn't named after either Kinion or Haines.  Rather, its namesake is a friend who became ordained via the Internet.

The number of beers available during my visit was impressive, especially because Vertigo brews on a single-barrel system.  It's amazing that Vertigo had any beer on tap after going through 23 kegs of Razz Wheat at OBF.  But these guys have been busy.  During Oregon Craft Beer Month, they brewed 30+ barrels on their single barrel system. 

It sounds like brewing larger quantities will soon be much easier for Haines and Kinion; their new seven-barrel system is scheduled to be delivered within the next couple weeks.  The expansion is a long time coming.  Vertigo has been brewing on the single-barrel system since they opened in September of 2008. 

With distribution from the Coast to Portland to Mt. Hood, Vertigo Brewing has done an impressive job introducing its beers to a wide audience.  That number is likely to grow quickly with the installation of the new brewing system.  Keep an eye out at your local taproom for Vertigo beers or give them a call at 503-645-6644 and stop by if they're around.  Mike and Michael are happy to happy to share tastes, sell growlers, and talk about their beers.  Hopefully a new system will mean more beer in more places, and more predictable hours when they'll be open to customers.  We'll be looking forward to it. 

Vertigo Brewing is located at 21420 NW Nicholas Court, Suite D-7 (it's the building all the way in the back), Hillsboro, OR 97124.

Here's a map.

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.

I'm not bored with the beer scene in Portland, but I appreciate Matt's point.  There is definitely a group of people in Portland that attend beer events on a very regular basis (by that, I mean daily, or sometimes more than one event in a day).  I can see how some critical comments from this group may come across as boredom.  At the same time, this group is only a fraction of the local beer drinking public. 

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Matt's post is the fact that there's two distinct groups to consider here:  1.) the casual beer drinker (or the commoner), and 2.) the beer enthusiast (or the bored beer connoisseur).  Oregon Craft Beer Month does an excellent job appealing to both groups, not to mention non-drinkers.  A proposed Portland Beer Week would be developed with the intention of appealing to the uber beer geeks, a much smaller group of obsessed beer lovers looking for the best, rarest, and most noteworthy/blogable beers and experiences Portland has to offer. 

Again, in my mind, Oregon Craft Beer Month and Portland Beer Week are not mutually exclusive.  In fact, I think the two events would compliment one another - especially if they were held several months apart from one another.  For the most part, the makings for a killer Portland Beer Week are already here.  But it would require the imagination, dedication and organization from a range of people across the local beer scene.  Could Portland pull it off?  I think so.  Will it happen? We'll see...

Thanks Matt, for sharing your perspective.  And thanks for reminding us that with or without Portland Beer Week, we've still got it pretty good.  For now, I think I'll take your advice, crack open an Oregon beer, and be happy with what we have in one of the best regions for beer in the world.

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."

Maybe I was wrong to expect more.  You see, my expectations were shaped by the event calendars and the enthusiastic discussions I had heard about other beer weeks held in cities across the country - namely, Seattle Beer Week, San Francisco Beer Week, and Chicago Craft Beer Week.  While not a "beer week" event, Oregon Craft Beer Month is on the list with these and several other beer week events.  Should OCBM be grouped together with other beer weeks, or should Oregon Craft Beer Month be something different all together?

It seems that Oregon Craft Beer Month represents something different from these other events.  It's a month that showcases the best that Oregon brewers have to offer.  It helps build awareness about, and reminds us all about the great beers brewed across the entire state.  For this, I think Oregon Craft Beer Month is great. 

But in terms of excitement, rarity, and truly special events, I think we can do better.  And I think that Portland Beer Week might be the answer.

Portland, a city appropriately nicknamed Beervana, should be able to show the rest of the country how it's done.  With perhaps the most vibrant beer community of any city, one that spans from hardcore beer geeks to casual drinkers, even non-beer drinkers can appreciate what's going on in this town.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not proposing that Portland Beer Week take the place of Oregon Craft Beer Month; they're two completely different things.  Rather, I think the addition of a Portland Beer Week would address some of the concerns I've raised here. 

Here's why (or, what I hope would happen):

• Limiting the geographic area to Portland, and the length of time to seven days, would help bring more focus to the event overall
• The limited timeframe would encourage collaboration between brewers, breweries, chefs, venues, hosts, sponsors, etc., creating special events that offer experiences only available at PBW
• Due to a condensed timeframe, daily events would compete with one another to attract attendees.  This competition will elevate the experiences offered by those events.  Attendees would have to pick and choose - it will create a sense of exclusivity. 
• Brewers, breweries and taprooms would pull out all the stops and release the best of the best
• To accomodate schedules, events would happen early in the day.  Events would happen late into the night.  Again, it's out-of-the-ordinary and would likely generate some excitement.  People would take the entire week off work.
• Impromptu and unannounced events and releases would generate real buzz

Is PBW what's needed to raise the bar? As everyone is recovering from Oregon Craft Beer Month, I'd be curious to know what others think about a Portland Beer Week.  It sounds good to me.