12th Annual Holiday Ale Festival

Most likely, it will be cold. And yeah, it'll probably be rainy. But under the big white tent in Pioneer Square, the heaters and strong beers will warm you plenty. It's time again for the annual Holiday Ale Festival!

2007 Holiday Ale Festival mug.

"The 12th annual Holiday Ale Festival will begin on Thursday, Nov. 29, and continue through Sunday, Dec. 2 at Pioneer Courthouse Square, located at 701 SW Sixth Ave at the intersection of SW Broadway and Yamhill streets, immediately on the MAX Light Rail line. Hours for the event are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission into the venue is free. A purchase of a 2007 souvenir mug is required for tasting beer, and costs $5. Patrons purchase script for $1 apiece. It takes $4 in script for a full mug of beer, or $1 for a taste. The event is for ages 21 and over." -2007 Festival Press Release

This year's festival features 41 different beers including traditional styles such as IPAs, Olde Ales, Barleywines, Strong Ales, and Belgians. Mixed in with these, you'll also get a chance to try a few elusive styles like Red Wheat Wine, Quad Pale, and a very complex blend from Hair of the Dog. For four days, you can come out to Pioneer Square and sample some of the best hand-picked beers around this season, many of which were created specifically for this event.

Most of the beers are Oregon brewed, but others are from our West Coast neighbors, a showing from Colorado, and a couple from Belgium. This West Coast predominance is a great showcase for illustrating the strengths and variety of our styles. You might recognize some of the beer names, but most have an extra bit of holiday fun thrown in: bourbon barrel aged, oak barrel aged, vertical blends, and other surprises.

Pitchers of beer lined up for sampling.

The styles at this festival represent almost every recipe twist you can imagine from the ultra-hoppy to the mega-malty and the very well-balanced beers in between. Some beers mask their alcohol content while others showcase it. Because of this variety, you'll definitely want to try and sample as many as you can, rather than getting a full mug's worth of your favorite. In fact, this is the kind of festival where you'll probably find a new favorite.

The beers served here range from about 5.3% to 12% ABV. A little number crunching reveals that the average ABV across all 41 beers is 8.1%! So, if you don't want to drive to the event, keep in mind that the MAX train has a stop just feet from the festival entrance. Be safe and enjoy Portland's 12th annual Holiday Ale Festival!

Photos: 2007 Holiday Ale Festival Media Preview

Photos from the 2007 Holiday Ale Festival Media Preview.




Check out the rest of the photos here.

Open Letter to Deschutes Brewing

Dear Deschutes Brewing,

I've just read that you will be opening a brewery in the Pearl, here in the beer capital of the world. Too many breweries? Never! I say welcome!

A mug from the 2007 Bend Brewfest, a stone's throw from the massive Deschutes brewing operation on the river.

We Portlander's love beer, and because we have so many great breweries in town, we can be quite snobbish. So what? We have high standards. While that might make us outcasts at some parties, it's good for the industry, driving it to make better and better beer.

But with Deschutes, it's not the beer I'm worried about. I stop by on every trip to Bend and the quantity and quality of your beer is always amazing. Hell, even your bottled beer has remained true to your customers, not wavering the least in the face of commercial watered down swill. What I'm really worried about is your potential social cave in by moving to Portland and forgetting who your real supporters are.

Let's walk through an example with a fictional brewery, let's, uh, call them PortBridge. Let's say that they used to have a great place: long community benches, great pizza, and great character and atmosphere. Stumbling into this place, in the midst of a sea of abandoned buildings, would be surprisingly cozy and always a stop when guests were in town. Then, let's say, they closed down for about 11 months for remodelling. Everyone would be waiting, wondering how much awesomeness they could pack into the new design. It turns out, they could only fit zero awesomeness.

Let's imagine, that the new version of this fictional place turned it's back on it's long time supporters and decided to cater to a different crowd. Yeah, the beer was the same, but everything else changed, for the worse. It used to be cozy, now it's uncomfortable. It's now a restaurant/bakery/coffee place that happens to have a brewery. Hypothetically, of course. And, hypothetically, I'd never go back.

Now, in this theoretical world, there are market forces at play. I understand that brewing is a hard market and it's tough to stay alive, but the place where you brew and got your start should be reflective of the people that got you there. Go ahead, open up this type of place as a satellite in Seattle or somewhere, but not here. Don't piss where you play, isn't that it?

Anyway, the point is, we already love your beer. If you brew it, we will come. Unless, that is, you stray too far from the beer side of things. Keep this in mind: your place should reflect that you happen to have a restaurant in your brewery, not a brewery in your restaurant. Yeah, it's a subtle distinction, but it's a distinction that Portlander's will make.

Sincerly,
Brett

Beertown Frown

I'm torn up about this. Really. I think I'm going to take a half day at work, just to ponder (and, of course, drink). What I probably won't drink though, is Beertown Brown, Bridgeport's newest brew to hit the streets.

Bridgeport Brewpub and Bakery, Downtown Portland.

First of all, let me say that this beer is a good representation of the style: Northern English Brown Ale. But it's the Northern English blandness that's the problem. You know where you can go to get a Northern English Ale? Northern England. If someone is going to take the time and effort to release a new bottled style in Portland, and use the Beertown moniker, then good god, make it a Northwest version of the style.

Portland has earned the name Beertown, let's not tiptoe around it. We need to use this as a catalyst to show the outside what we have to offer. I see two ways to go about this. The first way would be to get together and come up with a new style to add to the books: Northwest Ale. What would this be? That's for the brewers to decide. The second option is to amend the current styles: Northwest Brown Ale, Northwest Pale Ale, etc. Again, what these would be is up to the brewers.

As a regional and world leader in brewing, that's exactly what we should be doing: leading. We are currently in a position to direct the industry and there are a lot of eyes on us. Without work, we won't stay on top forever. Now is not the time to be timid.

Fresh Hops for Portland

Once each year, toward the end of September, there is an unusual site as Oregon brewers in vans and pickups race around the Willamette Valley, leaving a trail of hop cones behind them. The beginning of this trail may start at any of the hop fields that are so prevalent in this area. Following the trail in the opposite direction, you'll wind up at any of several breweries in Portland, but you won't find any hops once you arrive. The trail mysteriously ends at the mashtun. But, you already know where I'm going with this, don't you?

Dried Cascade Hop Cones

Don't worry, the hops didn't just disappear, even though the trail went cold. This is hop harvest time, time for the annual fresh hop beers. Although a bit dramatacized above, it is actually a race from the field to the brewery as the brewers attempt to pluck the hops from the vine and use them for brewing as quickly as possible. In this region, there are brewers that have been using fresh hops for seasonal brews for twenty years. So, it's taken awhile to catch on, but each year the number of fresh hop beers available in the U.S. increases dramatically.

The normal practice for a brewery is to have dried hops delivered to their brewery from the growers or distributors. If the hops are whole hop cones, they have been dried and baled. If they are hop pellets, the hop cones are dried and then compressed into small pellets. These hop pellets can be combined with additives to help protect the alpha acids and aid in the utilization of the hop during boil additions. These "enhanced" hops are processed in this way for consistency and ease of use. There are also hop extracts, but whole hops and pellets make up most of the brewing around the world.

Let's take a step back and discuss the use of hops in beer. Sure, in the Northwest, we know "hoppy" beers, but what exactly does this mean? Most of the time, the average drinker will recognize this through the aroma and flavor of the beer. Beer academics will also note the bitterness level, usually classified by International Bittering Units (IBUs). These are the three basic uses of hops when brewing: bitterness, flavor, and aroma. Depending on the chemical makeup of the hops, some are better for bittering, while others are better for flavor and aroma. The brewer can decide how to use the hop by timing the addition of the hops during the standard 60 - 90 minute boil. The basic idea is that the longer the hop is in the boiling wort, the more bitterness it will add. The shorter the hop is in the wort, the more it will add to aroma. The middle ground is for flavor. Depending on how the hop is used by the brewer, there are many different levels of bitterness, and flavor and aroma can range from earthy and grassy to floral and citrusy. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of combinations when you can choose which hops to use, when to use them, and how much to use.

Fresh Hops on the Vine

Now, back to the fresh hops. Why run up Mt. Hood or through the Willamette Valley to grab hops off of the vine, run to the brewery, and brew a batch of Fresh Hop Ale? Like any plant, hops have different characteristics when alive and on the vine, then they do after drying and processing. Drying the hops will get rid of excess water and leave a more concentrated product. Fresh hops are also known as wet hops because of this. They are basically still "alive" when thrown into the boiling water (contrary to popular belief, you can hear the fresh hops scream as you drop them in the water--they sound like lobsters). Normally, this plant "waste" is dried out of the hops, but with fresh hop ales, it is these characteristics that make a unique brew.

Because these hops aren't dried and concentrated, most brewers use about five times the normal hop quantity to get the desired result. These fresh hops usually lend a more grassy and floral taste and aroma to the beer and most brewers make use of this by showcasing them in an Ale or IPA. Though it's possible to get similar tastes and aromas from dried hop cones and pellets, it's impossible to duplicate these fresh hop ales using traditional brewing techniques.

Luckily, Portland is situated in the Hop Belt. For other brewers that aren't so lucky, they can still make fresh hop beers--but it comes at a price. The Fresh Hop revolution has caught on and brewers like Sierra Nevada and Great Divide are having their fresh hops flown in from our area so that they can offer a fresh hop ale as well. There seems to be twice as many fresh hop offerings this year as there were last year--and let's hope that this trend continues.

10 Questions with Ben Flerchinger of Lucky Labrador Brewing

Brewer's Name:
Ben Flerchinger

Brewery:
Lucky Labrador Brewing

1) If you were stranded on a deserted island, and you could only choose one pound of either hops, water, barley, or yeast, which would it be, and why?
Yeast. There has to be something with sugar in it on the island.

2) What is the best aspect of NW beer drinkers?
Knowledge. NW beer drinkers know their stuff. Also, I would say that they are not afraid to give a new beer a try.

3) What is your favorite beer style, and why?
What have you got?

4) What is the first beer you brewed that was worthy of a name?
I brewed a pale amber in honor of one of our old brewers returning to work. Welcome Back Ale. It was the first beer I got to make all on my own so it was pretty cool for me. We are still looking for the exact specs on pale ambers but I think I was pretty close.

5) Where do you get your inspiration from when creating new beers?
I try to think of the wierdest thing you could do to or put in a beer and get shot down from there. Belmont station is another great source of inspiration. Homebrewers can give you some interesting ideas too, stuff you would never think of doing in big batches.

6) What is the most misunderstood aspect of being a professional brewer?
A friend of ours has a plaque displayed right as you walk into his brewery, it reads "Brewing is not fun. Brewing is a job, it is hard work." I agree with that, except every once in a while you get to have some fun.

7) What characteristics of Portland make this area so popular for brewers, breweries, and consumers?
Portlanders seem to have a great sense of being in touch with what we eat and drink. From farmer's markets to community gardens and craft breweries, people get to see where a product comes from, how it is made, and who made it.

8) If “Northwest Ale” was added as a new style of beer, what would it be?
Dry hopped pale ale, that seems to be what the peoples want to drink.

9) What is the most underrated hop?
Fresh hops.

10) What are the relationships like between competing brewers? Is there a sense of community, friendly competition, etc.?
I think Portland brewers tend to be competing more with the brewers in Golden, Colorado or St. Louis, Missouri than we are competing amongst ourselves. We tend to help out each other as much as we can, there is plenty of room for all of us.

Beer of the Month - Amnesia Sleighjerker [November 2007]

Amnesia Sleighjerker [November 2007]

Alright, back to Amnesia Brewing for November's Beer of the Month. October was pretty a mild month for us out here, but November has finally brought Winter with days hovering in the mid 40's and a cold biting wind. So, we fight back the only way we know how--with stronger beers!

Weighing in around 8% ABV, Sleighjerker has the ability to take the edge off of a cold night (but honestly, I'd drink this one in any weather!). 8% ABV is also a range that can be tricky for beers. If the beer is too thin, that alcohol can poke out like a sharp stick. Of course, in the winter, you do want a bit of a bite, but you also still want to recognize the contents of the pint as a beer. Since we're not in Barleywine territory with this ale, the beer needs to balance out the alcohol and hop bitterness with a nice maltly base.

Too much of anything will knock a beer out of whack, but with a Winter Ale we can expect a dark brew balanced on the sweeter side. This residual sweetness comes not only from the higher quantities of malt used to raise the alcohol level, but also the different malts that are used. Darker beers make use of more heavily roasted malts for color and flavor. These malts can impart a smoky, roasty, or even chocolaty flavor. Because there are usually more sugars left behind in these beers after fermentation, the higher final gravity gives the beer a thicker body and mouthfeel, often classifying the beer as "chewy". While it doesn't quite eat like a steak, there is a noticeable difference when comparing these beers to browns and even some porters and stouts.

So, how does Sleighjerker measure up to these criteria? Great dark color, complex chewy malts, mild hop bitterness, and a great warming alcohol content make this a great beer to seek out and enjoy this Winter!