Photos: 2008 North American Organic Beer Festival

I just got back from the 2008 North American Organic Brewers Festival and boy is my liver tired...




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Full Sail Brewing Celebrates Oregon Craft Beer Month

Brewmaster John Harris and Brewer Phil Roche from Full Sail's Brewery at Riverplace in Portland.

Hood River, - June 27, 2008 -- This year Full Sail celebrates 21 years of doing what they love, brewing beer. As a continuation of their 21st birthday celebrations, Full Sail is proud to announce the next beer in their line up of small batch draft beers called "Brewer's Share." The brewery will launch their second offering, Lizama Summer Weizen, during Oregon Craft Beer Month, (July) an event that is celebrated annually and highlights the industry and culture of craft beer in Oregon.

As brewers we know the best way to celebrate is to brew a special beer - but we came up with so many creative ideas, so many brewers, so many beers, that we could not stop at just one. Instead we are giving all of our brewers a chance to brew their own beer with our Brewer's Share series," said Irene Firmat, Full Sail's Founder and CEO. The second beer in the series is "Lizama Summer Weizen" and was developed by Full Sail brewer, Greg Lizama. The brewery will launch this special beer during Oregon Craft Beer Month, (July) an event that is celebrated annually and highlights the industry and culture of craft beer in Oregon.

Full Sail invites you to "Meet the Brewer and the Beer" at their Riverplace Brewery in Portland on Tuesday, July 8th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm or at the Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub in Hood River, on Thursday July 10th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

"This is a great way to give our customers a chance to meet the brewer who crafted the beer and gives the brewers a chance to show off their mad brewing skills," said Jamie Emmerson, Full Sail's Executive Brewmaster.

So come celebrate 21 years of brewing history and Oregon Craft Beer Month with Full Sail and raise a pint or two of Brewer's Share Lizama Summer Weizen with brewer Greg Lizama.

"At Full Sail we believe it is always good to know who makes your beer. That is why we are so proud of being employee owned. Making the commitment to our customers that everywhere in the process you have an owner's passionate involvement. Now we would like to take that belief one step further and to introduce our individual brewers by name and beer," continued Firmat.

According to Lizama, his summer weizen is patterned after the American dunkle-weizen style, but with a Greg Lizama twist.

When asked what his inspiration was for this beer Lizama replied, "I wanted to make something new that Full Sail had never brewed before and I really like wheat beers."

Lizama Summer Weizen is brewed with 35% wheat malt. This smooth, drinkable wheat beer gets its color from de-bittered chocolate malt. German Hersbrucker hops give it a nice balanced bitterness and classic character. Lizama promises that each pint will be full of flavor and refreshment. He recommends serving his beer unfiltered to allow the yeast to contribute to the taste and aroma. 5.0% ABV, 22 IBU 22 Available July 2008 until gone.

The birth of Full Sail's Prodigal Sun IPA, part of their Brewmaster Reserve Series.

Full Sail's Brewer's Share beers will only be available on tap at Full Sail's Tasting Room and Pub in Hood River, Oregon, and at Full Sail's Brewery at Riverplace, in Portland, Oregon. Each Full Sail brewer will take a turn hand-crafting a small single batch recipe of their choosing. The brewery will present a single Brewer's Share at a time. A new beer will be released approximately every six weeks. "The brewer's have been keeping their Brewer's Share recipes close to the vest, each new recipe will be announced only upon its release," added Emmerson. The next Brewer's Share will be crafted by Full Sail brewer, Phil Roche, and is expected in September.

The independent and employee-owned Full Sail brewery is perched on a bluff in Hood River, Oregon, overlooking the most epic wind and kite surfing spot in the world. At this very moment 47 specialists in the liquid refreshment arts are crafting barley and hops into your next beer. The Full Sail crew has been fermenting godlike nectar since 1987. Their award winning brews are now available in nineteen states. The Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub is open seven days a week. Swing by for a pint, grab a bite, tour the brewery, or just soak up the view.

July is Oregon Craft Beer Month!

Wow, we just got the events list from the Oregon Brewers Guild and holy #%@%%$, it's good to be a beer drinker in Oregon! I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. Walking you through this one step at a time would take hours, and neither you or I have that kind of time if we're going to seriously prepare for July...

July

First of all, there is something going on every single day in July. There are bars that are specializing in rotating Oregon Craft Beer taps, food and beer specials, tastings, and brewery tours.

Here, There, and Everywhere

Many of the breweries in Portland will also be releasing special seasonals to commemorate the event, so check the list, find a beer, and show up for the tapping. Awesome, but not out of the ordinary for a town that doesn't need an excuse to release almost 100 seasonals each year. What's great about the beer scene out here in Portland is that breweries are not afraid to support other breweries. There is no "I, me, mine" attitude out here as you'll find places that not only release there own seasonals, but also call in kegs from other breweries around Oregon to showcase outside beer as well. There aren't many industries who display this kind of comraderie.

Oregon Craft Beer Month Beer Releases

Here are some of the beers being released this month:

• Double Mountain: Double Mountain Pils
• Hopworks: Washoe Weizen, Kentucky Christmas, Bourbon IPA, Bourbon DOA, Sunset Ale, Whoop Whoop Wheat
• Laurelwood Brewing Company: Double Oregon Hefeweizen, One Day at a Time Weizenbock
• Lucky Labrador: Winter Ales in July
• New Old Lompoc: Lompizer
• Rock Bottom: Blitzen Belgian Triple, Black Peter, Congo Queen, Belgian Wit
• Rogue Ales: Latona Ale

Also, along with their many seasonal releases both Rock Bottome Brewery and Hopworks Urban Brewery are having blending events. As a flag-waver and marcher in support of beer blending, these events are at the top of my list.

Events

There are also a lot of beer trivia events, dinners, the Concordia Cup (battle of the Oregon Imperial IPAs!), and a lot of Meet-the-Brewer events. Hell, there will even be a Festivus Pole at one of the parties! Who said you can't mix beer and religion?

Not Portland

We've been concentrating mostly on Portland events, but if you find yourself in one of these cities, check out the events in the area:

• Ashland: Standing Stone Brewery
• Astoria: Fort George Brewery, Rogue Ales
• Bend: Deschutes Brewery, McMenamins
• Corvallis: Oregon Trail Brewery
• Eugene: Rogue Ales, Ninkasi
• Hillsboro: McMenamins
• Hood River: Full Sail Brewing Company
• Lincoln City: McMenamins
• Newport: Rogue Ales
• Troutdale: McMenamins

Conclusion

If you live in Portland and step out of your front door in July, you'll be at a beer event. It's that easy. If you're visiting Portland, as soon as you step off the plane, you'll be at a beer event. There is so much going on in this town, you may need to take the month of July off.

Photos: Behind the Scenes at Rock Bottom Brewery

Here is the next set in our series of Portland Brewery photography. Last week, we hit Rock Bottom Brewery in downtown Portland. Thanks to Van Havig and Vasili Gletsos for letting us poke around the brewery and step on their toes!




Check out the rest of the photos here.

Photos: Behind the Scenes at Deschutes Brewery in Portland

Here is the next set in our series of Portland Brewery photography. This time, we are at Deschutes Brewery in Portland. We know you love the beer, now see where it is made!

Some samples from the set are below. The whole set is available here.




Check out the rest of the photos here.

Website Update: Searching for Portland Beers

Beer, sweet beer.

With 235 beers listed in 58 style categories, we've got a lot of info to get through. Sure you can sort beers by styles, breweries, name, etc., but why stop there? Now, in the blog section of the site (uh, you're here now) and the home page, you'll find a search box at the top of the page. You can put in your favorite beer term and see what we've got to about the subject. Search for different types of hops, locations, whatever you want (caveat: searching for the word "boobs" does not bring up much--not that I tried).

If that wasn't enough, we've also changed the format on how we display beer descriptions. On the beer page, the descriptions and stats are now listed directly below the beer, without all that fancy cursor-hovering-crap.

We know, there's a lot going on with the site. That's because there's a lot going on in the Portland beer scene. We'd just be cheating you if we didn't try to cram it all in, but this time, hopefully it's a little easier to find! As always, your comments help drive the direction of the site, so leave a comment or get in touch with us through our contact form and let us know what you think!

Upcoming June Events

June Beer events in Portland.

You can't complain about a lack of beer things to do this month. First of all, Belmont Station has some great tastings this month which include draft and bottle selections. As always, they also run specials during these tasting so it a great time to stock up on your favorites:

• Hale's Ales: June 3rd, 6-8PM
  
• Dick's Beer: June 10th, 6-8PM
  
• Grand Tetons: June 16th, 6-8PM
  
• Fish Tale Organic Ales: June 26th, 6-8PM

There are also two festivals going on. The Sasquatch Brew Festival is in Eugene, OR this Saturday, June 6th. On the other end of June, Portland is holding the 4th Annual North American Organic Brewer's Festival. It's outside, easy to get there, oh yeah, and a lot of great organic beer from all over the world! Unlike some other brewfests, breweries can bring more than one style of beer, and with the list not yet finalized, we've counted 70+ beers!

Beer of the Month - Hopwork's Original Red [June 2008]

Hopwork's Original Red [June 2008]

OK, it's officially beer season! I know, beer season here is year round, but you've got to shout it out once in a while. It's time for the Winter vampires of Portland to finally get some sunshine and visit the outdoors without layers of protective rain gear. One of your first stops should be to Hopworks Urban Brewery to check out their new seasonal Original Red.

Brewer's description:

"This full bodied NW Red is hopped to the rafters and sanded smooth like mahogany. We are stoked to bring this former full-timer back for a reunion. Look for dry-hops, 5.6% ABV, 55 IBU, and a little attitude."

Reds were my first stop after my IPA obsession of 2001-2002. Northwest reds are still hoppy, but balanced out with a nice malt backbone. With these beers, the malt tends to desaturate the bitterness, while leaving behind a bit more of the floral and citrus quality of hops. This is much more evident when reds are dry-hopped like this one from the HUB.

I'm not sure how long the seasonals at the HUB last yet, so get out there as soon as you can. If you miss it, you'll be able to substitute your sadness with another seasonal as the HUB hasn't been slouching and tends to have 3-4 seasonals on tap.