Portland needs more great year-round Brown Ales. It’s an often neglected style here, with many breweries opting for the hoppier Red Ale to fill in the color spectrum of styles. In fact, over at Laurelwood, their Free Range Red has long held the title of being their biggest seller. But this did not dissuade them from creating one of the best Brown Ales in town: Hooligan. Rich, malty, complex, available year-round at the brewery, and soon in bottles!

I wish I had more to say about Lompoc Brewing’s 8 Malty Nights, but last year’s inaugural release completely passed me by and I didn’t even get a sip. If you got the chance to sample this the last time around, please post your thoughts in the comments section. I’ve had a lot of beer in my life, but I don’t think I can yet check the box that says Whiskey Barrel Aged Chocolate Rye Porter. Yet. This year, it might be a little easier to get you hands on it when it’s released 22 ounce bottles.

No release dates yet announced by the breweries, but we should be seeing these as we creep toward the winter months.

Related posts:

1. Upcoming Bottle Releases from Deschutes Brewery
2. Old Lompoc Blasts Portland with Six Holiday Seasonal Beers!
3. Paul’s Boutique: Single Hop Red Series at Laurelwood

Summer in Portland, Oregon means a different beer fest every weekend. Usually these festivals are laden with lines that last thirty minutes, tents crowded with shirtless boys whooping every ten seconds and all of the unique beers disappearing on the first day.  Keep in mind, I am not complaining.  I enjoy any event centered around drinking new beer.  I am merely putting my new love for the Hopworks’ BiKETOBEERFEST into context.

While I strolled through the fest, I saw kids and adults mulling about, enjoying the weather, the music, and all of the bike-centered events.  Bands played throughout the day on top of a keg supported stage.  Participants took turns racing in a stationary bike race.  Possibly my favorite and in hindsight the most dangerous event, was the Huffy huck-off, wherein people tried their hand at tossing a Huffy bike as far as possible.  Mind you, this took place a mere few feet from the onlooking crowd.  BMX troupe, The Flatlanders, performed a variety of BMX bike tricks that were astonishing.  Overall, it was a nice change of pace from the usual hectic crowds that show up to beer fests.

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about the beers.  Hopworks has amazed me since they first opened in 2008.  They have a knack for producing beers that are tasty and well-balanced.  They had fifteen beers on draft for the fest and each one was delicious.  Here are a few that I tried for the first time and found to be tasty.

Piledriver

This beer was unveiled at the fest, and it’s hard not to wonder why Hopworks kept this one in hiding.  That is until you learn that it was allowed to age for eighteen months in four different barrels (Heaven Hill Bourbon, Maryhill Sauvignon with sixty pounds of sour cherries, Maryhill Cab Barrel with Brett Bruxellensis and Maryhill Cab Barrel with Brett Lambicus).  This Belgian Ale has all cherries in the aroma, but the first sip brings a tinge of bourbon.  All of this quickly vanishes when the ale itself is allowed to come up front.  The finish is just the right amount of tart.  This ale comes out a deep red color that deserves almost as much attention as the brew itself.  8.5% ABV 18 IBU

Velvet Underground

You don’t see the category of Imperial Black ESB very often, and after trying this beer, I have to ask why not?  The beer pours a deep black with a light brown head.  The aroma hits the back of the nose like a porter.   Coffee and nutty scents come at you even as you take the first sip.  The flavor is light and a little bitter.  This beer reminded me of the recent Cascadian Dark Ales we have been seeing, but this beer was more complex.  This beer finishes smooth.  Be on the lookout for this one this fall.  8.7% ABV 56 IBU

Galactic

This Imperial Red Ale has a light red color with a deep Carmel scent.  The Centennial and Cascade hops contribute a floral, fruity taste that is there from start to finish.  This ale has a great taste for an Imperial Ale.  An all around balanced ale that was a pleasure to drink on such a warm day.  9.3% ABV 100 IBU

Noggin Floggin

I tried this Barleywine late in the day, and as often occurs when most of the beers are over eight percent, my notes are almost indecipherable and my memory is a little fuzzy.  All I can truly tell you, is that this beer was delicious.  I remember that it had a nice Carmel malt flavor, and and it didn’t taste heavy with alcohol.  Highly recommended.  9.7% ABV 70 IBU

Related posts:

1. Hopworks’ BiKETOBEERFEST
2. Portland’s Not-So-Secret Society of Beer Geeks Gathers in Secret
3. Scenes from BiKETOBEERFEST 2010

As if Oregon Craft Beer Month didn’t give me enough to do, I decided to enjoy a self-imposed Imperial Birthday Beer Week: on each of the seven days surrounding my birthday, I sought out an Oregon brewed imperial beer.  I didn’t give much preparation to the challenge, I just woke up Sunday and decided to give it a try.  How hard would it be to find (and drink) one imperial beer each day for a week?  Well, it turns out that the difficulty was in only drinking seven.  By the end of the week, I had worked my way through tasting 16 different imperial beers.

The proverbial feather in the cap of this week was Concordia Ale House’s Concordia Cup, featuring twelve different Oregon Imperial IPAs.  This obviously helped me put a dent in my goal for the week.  The only drawback to this type of event is palate fatigue.  Imperial IPAs are a palate destroyer and while it is a fun event, after twelve 3 ounce samples, it’s very hard to pick a clear standout.  The first few can be distinct, but then it’s just an enjoyable assault of bitterness and alcohol.

Other highlights included Widmer’s Bourbon Barrel KGB Russian Imperial Stout.  If you think the name is a mouthful, try the beer.  I’ve been waiting for this beer to be re-released for about six years, and it did not disappoint.  This beer also made a short appearance at the Buzz Beer tent at the Oregon Brewers Festival this year.  Rob and Kurt: please don’t make me wait another six years!  The Green Mammoth is a great experience and the Ace of Spades is always a welcome release.  Wait a minute, my whole week was a highlight, so maybe it’s just better to give you a list.  The point is, in Portland, event when you make up your own beer events, they can exceed your expectations.

• Sunday: Laurelwood Brewing’s Green Mammoth (IBU: 68,  Plato: 16, ABV: 6.9%) “The Green Elephant is big, strong, and green- organic that is. A relative of the American IPA, the Green Elephant takes big hop flavor to the next level. Brewed with 100% organic malt, Cascade, Amarillo and Ahtanum hops, this is a unique and beautiful creature. The Green Elephant’s smooth and subtle malt character gives way to a bold, aggressive hop flavor. But be warned, this is one elephant that can sneak up on you.”
• Monday: Widmer Brothers’ Bourbon Barrel KGB Imperial Stout
• Tuesday: Deschutes Brewery’s Black Butte XXII (ABV: 6.9%) “First brewed to celebrate our 20^th anniversary, our extreme cousin of Black Butte Porter is back for a third performance in 2010. Generation XXII melds cocoa nibs, dark chocolate, orange peel, and chilies all aged in bourbon barrels to create a masterpiece of creative brewer whimsy.”  and Hopworks Ace of Spaces Imperial IPA (IBU: 100, Plato: 21.5, ABV: 9.2%) “This hopped out beast had Amarillo, Cascade and Centennial hops, added at every point; mash tun, first wort, kettle, and dry hop. All the green goodness results in a beer with a huge citrus hop aroma, flavor and deep clean bitterness.”
• Wednesday: Concordia Cup
  1. Hopworks Ace of Spades (2nd Place)
  2. Laurelwood Green Mammoth
  3. Deschutes Hop Henge Exp. Batch #8 (1st Place)
  4. Ninkasi Tricerahops (6th place (T))
  5. Cascade’s Imperial IPA
  6. Terminal Gravity Imperial IPA
  7. Rogue’s I2PA (4th Place)
  8. Silver Moon’s Hoptagon
  9. Double Mountain Molten Lava (5th place)
  10. Widmer’s Deadlift (3rd Place)
  11. Caldera’s Hoppertunity Knocks (6th Place (T))
  12. Beer Valley’s Leafer Madness
• Thursday: Lompoc Brewing’s C-Note Imperial Pale Ale (IBU: 100, ABV: 6.9%) “Centennial, Crystal, Cascade, Cluster, Chinook, and Columbus make this double IPA a hophead’s dream.”
• Friday: Deschutes Brewery’s 2009 Abyss “The Abyss has immeasurable depth inviting you to explore and discover its rich, complex profile. Hints of molasses, licorice and other alluring flavors draw you in further and further with each sip. And at 11% alcohol by volume, you will want to slowly savor each and every ounce.”
• Saturday: Widmer Brother’s Deadlift Imperial IPA (IBU: 70, ABV: 8.6%) “It has the strong hop flavor you’d expect from an Imperial IPA, but no heaviness that could weigh down your desire to take another sip. The unique flavor stems in part from the Nelson Sauvin hops imported from New Zealand. These hops have an intense citrus, berry like aroma and flavor not found in any other variety. Deadlift’s simple but fully braced malt backbone muscles up enough malty sweetness and caramel character to spot the incredibly robust hop aroma and flavor.”

Related posts:

1. Concordia Cup 2010 Results
2. The Biggest and Baddest Oregon Imperial IPAs: The Concordia Cup
3. Deadlifting Imperial IPAs

Recent summer days have seen the patio at Migration Brewing brimming with all kinds of Portland beer drinking enthusiasts.  This is what co-owners Mike Branes, McKean Banzer-Lausberg and Colin Rath hoped for when they opened Migration in February of this year.

When it first opened, the brewpub saw a slow start.  Beginning with only guest taps, Migration remained wrapped up in bureaucratic logistics until April, when they were finally cleared to serve their own brews.  They worked with only two fermentation tanks for the first few months of brewing, before receiving a third tank earlier this week and word of a fourth arriving later this month.  Now, they hope to begin brewing more varieties — Mike tells me that he’s in the process of finishing a fourth recipe by the end of this month — and possibly distribution.

If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by Migration and grab a pint (Happy Hour is from 3p.m. – 6p.m. Monday thru Friday).  You’ll probably find one of the owners pouring beers behind the bar. I stopped by earlier this week to try the brews they currently have on tap.  I’m looking forward to seeing what brews will be coming out of Migration in the future.

Clem’s Cream Ale

This beer has a nice milky texture with a light finish.  It’s pale in color and even-balanced in taste.  It has a nice sweet aroma.  This is a light beer with a great flavor.  4.6% ABV 24 IBU

Honey Dew Ale

This is no ordinary Northwest Pale Ale.  Brewed with Noble hops and honey malt, this ale has a subtle hoppiness that contributes to its light floral aroma and crisp finish.  6.2% ABV 54 IBU

MPA (Migration Pale Ale)

This ale performs a tight-rope balancing act between an IPA and a Pale Ale.  The aroma is crowded with Cascade Hops, but the flavor comes out subtle.  It’s a mild amber in color.  This ale is brewed with English Hops and English Malts.  5.5% ABV 55 IBU

Related posts:

1. Old Lompoc Blasts Portland with Six Holiday Seasonal Beers!
2. Portland Beer Photo of the Day: Laurelwood’s Workhorse IPA
3. North American Beer Awards Deliver Three Bronze Medals to Bend Brewing Company

What a way to end Oregon Beer Craft Month: twelve unmarked Oregon Imperial IPAs in 3 ounce tasters for $13!  Of course, not everyone out there is a hophead, but for those of us that love big imperial IPAs, this is a fun event every year.  Work your way through the tasters, take some notes, and mark your top contender on the ballot.  Concordia Ale House does heavy lifting when it comes to counting the votes.  And very importantly, does it with a smile!  In a town where service can be mediocre at best, Concordia Ale House is a great stop for friendly and knowledgeable staff.  If anything can test the staff, it’s five days of pouring 12 beer sampler trays, and still smiling on the other end.  Thanks Concordia!

While the event may be over, you still have a chance to try all of the contenders as they are currently available on draft.

Results:

1. Hopworks Ace of Spades (2nd Place)
2. Laurelwood Green Mammoth
3. Deschutes Hop Henge Exp. Batch #8 (1st Place)
4. Ninkasi Tricerahops (6th place (T))
5. Cascade’s Imperial IPA
6. Terminal Gravity Imperial IPA
7. Rogue’s I2PA (4th Place)
8. Silver Moon’s Hoptagon
9. Double Mountain Molten Lava (5th place)
10. Widmer’s Deadlift (3rd Place)
11. Caldera’s Hoppertunity Knocks (6th Place (T))
12. Beer Valley’s Leafer Madness

Related posts:

1. Concordia Ale House’s Washington Cup Results
2. The Biggest and Baddest Oregon Imperial IPAs: The Concordia Cup
3. Photos: Concordia Ale House Beer Brawl II

Ah, Brew Fest, my favorite weekend in Portland.  The temperature rises exponentially throughout the day, and just when it is about to become unbearable, a nice cool breeze rolls in from the Willamette.  Breweries haul out their best work in order impress both beer drinking amateurs and aficionados.  Friends gather to drink good brew and make new friends.  It truly is an experience.

So why does this wonderful weekend have to end?  Mostly because if it didn’t, Portland would no longer function as a town.  But there are certain aspects of the Brew Fest that continue on well after the kegs have been packed up and the tents collapsed (I’m not just talking about the splitting headache the next day).  One of my favorite parts of OBF is discovering new breweries and ales that I can devour over the course of the next year.  In a way, OBF determines what I’ll all be drinking for rest of the summer and into the winter months.

From the notes I gathered—many of them texts messages I was sending to a friend who couldn’t attend—I have compiled a list of brews that everyone should be on the lookout for this summer.

Ninkasi’s Maiden the Shade: According to the Brew Fest guide this beer contains seven different hops in the boil and another five used as a dry-hop. This is by far the most complex beer I tried. This IPA borders on too many flavors, but in the end, its palate comes out well-balanced. I’ll definitely be searching out this IPA.  ABV: 6.8% IBU: 70

Bayern Brewing’s Dump Truck Extra Pale Summer Bock: This brew took me by surprise. It smells like a lager, but it tastes like a pale ale. Bayern went through several processes to make this beer unique, from heating a portion of the wet grains and re-mixing them into the mash to long lagering, and Bayern’s hard work shows. This beer is perfect for patio drinking on a summer afternoon.  ABV: 6.9% IBU: 28

Double Mountain’s The Vaporizer: There was a mildly long wait for this brew on Friday afternoon. By Saturday night word had spread and the line was one of the longest. The Vaporizer is a Pale Ale that kicks a bit of a florally punch. In the end, what you have as a very clean ale that leaves you refreshed.  ABV: 6.0% IBU: 15

Pyramid Breweries’ Outburst: This beer boasts an ABV of 8.5% but the taste comes off smooth. Don’t let the dark amber color fool you, this beer does not finish malty. That’s probably because Pyramid puts more than four pounds of hops per barrel.  ABV: 8.5% IBU: 80

EDITOR’S NOTE: Just wanted to say welcome aboard to Marcus!  This is his first post as a contributor to the site, so look forward to an opinion other than mine!  I know, a collective sigh of relief…

Related posts:

1. Obligatory Year-End Thingy
2. Oregon Brewers Festival bucks the economic downturn, celebrates banner year with record attendance and sales
3. Roots Three Year Anniversary Party

I’m feeling very sentimental after the opening day of this year’s Oregon Brewers Festival.  Maybe it was the beer.  Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older.  Maybe it was listening to Elliot Smith’s XO on the Max ride home.  Maybe it was the beer.  Wait, did I say that one already?  Yeah, it was definitely the beer.

As most of you know, some select media gets treated to a festival preview in order to taste some of the beers, learn about the styles, and get some information to pass along to the public.  This year, we sampled an astronomical seventeen different beers before being set loose to choose our own path through the festival.  Yep, seventeen–I just recounted my chickenscratch list.  Before I talk about some of these beers though, let’s take a peek at what goes on behind the scenes at one of these previews.  Let’s draw back the curtain and reveal what lies inside.  Well, that’s overly dramatic for a tent with some tables inside.

Festival organizers give out a media kit with facts about the city, the beer, the breweries, and the festival’s history.  In it, you’ll find quotables, such as:

• 16 states are represented; 36 breweries hail from Oregon
• Number of volunteers at the festival: 2,000+
• There are 53 breweries employing sustainable practices when brewing their beer.

After we find our seats, we sit behind our empty mugs awaiting out first pour of the day.  Tasting seventeen beers in one sitting isn’t a task for the faint of heart.  Or faint of liver, for that matter.  Presented by Oregon Brew Crew‘s Noel Blake, we dove headlong into the beers, starting with the lighter offerings.  Over the next 90 minutes, we sampled, took notes, and gossiped like little schoolgirls.  One of the best aspects of any media preview is just hanging out and catching up with other people covering the Portland beer scene.  It’s a great community made up of people devoting a lot of time to beer: drinking it, photographing it, writing about it, and socializing over it.  Portland now has a new blogger for each beer released.  In fact, that’s one of the new OLCC requirements.  But like the brewers themselves, Portland’s beer media, while competitive, are just a semi-well-organized a big group of friends.  Of course, we have our own versions of East Coast/West Coast rap wars, but usually, no one gets shot—and that’s for another post altogether.  I spent most of my brewfest time with these writers, so check out their blogs, bookmark ‘em, and keep a wider eye on what’s going on:

• Jason, from Portland Beer and Music
• Angelo and Margaret, from Brewpublic
• Bill, from It’s Pub Night
• Paul, from Northwest Beer Guide
• Dave and Bruce, from BS Brewing
• John, from The Beer Here
• Jeff, from Beervana (technically, he wasn’t at the media preview, but I did finally get a chance to meet him at the festival)

Since there are 81 beers pouring this year at the festival, I didn’t get to try them all yesterday.  Factor in about 8 rotating taps at the Buzz Beer tent (speaking of which, Oakshire Brewing’s Very Ill Tempered Gnome and Maui Brewing’s Heaven and Hell Barleywine were fantastic!), and there are about 90 different beers to sample.  Of the beers at the Media Preview, below is a list of my recommendations, representing a wide variety of styles (Thanks to Gary Corbin for the beer descriptions):

• Cascade Gose: A high portion of this beer’s grist is wheat, lightening its body and color. A Belgian yeast provides this golden, light-bodied beer’s moderately sour/acidic aroma and flavors, making it a refreshing alternative on a hot summer day. Citrusy notes blend with a fair amount of residual sugar to provide a balanced, lightly hopped brew.  4%ABV, 11 IBU.
• Collaborator: Created by Portland home brewer David Hayes and brewed in Widmer’s Rose Quarter brewery, Sunstone Pilsner combines a traditional German Pilsner with a twist. Inspired by the grain bills of the Wallonian Farmhouse ales, the brewers blended European Pilsner malt with about 35% American wheat, which adds a zesty “snap” to the finish and lightens the body. A bracing dose of Tettnanger hops balances all that rich, bready malt. Lagering makes it smooth and crystal clear.  5.6% ABV, 32 IBU.
• Widmer Brothers Captain Shaddock IPA: People sometimes describe the aromas and flavors of hoppy IPAs as “grapefruit.” Hell, why not use some then? Widmer’s brewing team used a simple IPA recipe and added a generous amount of dried grapefruit peel to the end of the boil. The aroma is a melody of citrus, with a slight spice undertone, accentuated by the use of Citra hops. The flavor is that of nice hop forward IPA with the bitterness of grapefruit. 6.5%, 60 IBU.



The beers, kindly awaiting us.
• Terminal Gravity Single Hop Double IPA: In a marked departure from Terminal Gravity’s tradition of mixing several different hops in every brew, this brew begins a new series of special brews. Only Columbus hops are used in three additions to balance the simple grain bill of 2-row Pacific Northwest pale malt and Belgium Special B malt. 7.9%, 104 IBU.
• Oakshire Brewing Overcast Espresso Stout: Five types of grain, including rolled oats, chocolate malt and roasted barley, give this beer its rich, malty taste and deep black color. Chinook hops in the boil and Willamettes at flame-off provide hop balance. Locally roasted organic espresso coffee is cold-pressed after a 13-hour steep and added to the finished stout. This won a silver medal at the 2009 GABF. 5.8% ABV, 37 IBU.
• Upright Brewing Reggae Junkie Gruit: Safe to say, this is the least-hoppiest beer at the festival. That’s because there are zero hops in this beer. Instead, the sweetness of the beer’s organic pale and Munich malts and organic spelt berries is balanced by bitter orange peel, Sichuan peppercorns, hyssop and lemongrass.  5.2ABV, 0 IBU.

Of course, there are a lot of beers I didn’t get to, and I can’t make your whole freakin’ list for you.  The best solution:  just get out there and try some beers and styles that you’ve never had before.  Many of these beers aren’t available or distributed in this area, so challenge yourself, venture outside your favorite styles, and enjoy the 23rd Annual Oregon Brews Festival!

Check out the rest of the photos here.

Related posts:

1. Fermented Photo: 2009 Oregon Brewers Festival
2. Photos: 2007 Holiday Ale Festival Media Preview
3. 2010 North American Organic Brewers Festival

It is no surprise that I’m a sucker for big, hoppy beers.  Actually, after exploring what are possibly hundreds of different styles, style variations, and free-form brews, I don’t really discriminate.  But one style I return to over and over is the elusive Imperial IPA.  I know, elusive?  In a city somewhat defined by hops, these beers pop up often, but are they often done right?

Obviously, you’re going to want all aspects of hops: aroma, flavor, and bittering.  You’re also going to want a sturdy malt backbone to sustain a high ABV, a medium body, and enough sweetness to balance out all those hops that were thrown in early in the boil.  Those are the big building blocks behind an Imperial IPA.  Getting those right is a difficult job.  It’s easy to end up with a beer that’s way too bitter, or a beer whose malts aren’t up to the job of creating the right mouthfeel, or even a beer that’s too sharp with the taste of alcohol.  These have been the outcomes of my own homebrewed Imprial IPAs as well as some failed experiments at breweries around town.

Standing in line at Fred Meyer yesterday, I realized that one of my “heavily researched” beers has been Widmer’s Deadlift Imperial IPA.  There I was again, another 4-Pack in hand.  From their site: “Deadlift Imperial IPA is unlike any Imperial IPA you’ve ever lifted from the beer aisle. It has the strong hop flavor you’d expect from an Imperial IPA, but no heaviness that could weigh down your desire to take another sip. The unique flavor stems in part from the Nelson Sauvin hops imported from New Zealand. These hops have an intense citrus, berry like aroma and flavor not found in any other variety. Deadlift’s simple but fully braced malt backbone muscles up enough malty sweetness and caramel character to spot the incredibly robust hop aroma and flavor. The result will surely be a welcome workout for your taste buds.“  Other hops include: Alchemy, Cascade, and Willamette.  The beer weighs in at a hefty 8.6% ABV and 70 IBUs.  All of these pieces add up to create a great year-round addition to Widmer’s lineup.

Other favorite PDX Imperial IPAs include: Lompoc Brewing C-Note (Year Round), and Hopworks’ Evelyn’s Sunshine (Seasonal), and Laurelwood’s Organic Green Mammoth (Seasonal).  This list is bound to expand though, keep reading.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, if you want to try some different takes on Imperial IPAs, you don’t want to miss Sareveza and Brewpublic’s Imperial IPA Fest at Saraveza.  It starts today!

DRAFT LIST:

WEDNESDAY, 14th: Oregon (& More!) Night #1

• Organic Green Mammoth: Laurelwood, PDX (2010 debut)
• Leafer Madness: Beer Valley, Ontario, OR
• Black Madness: Beer Valley, Ontario, OR
• Glen’s Hop Vice: Oakshire, Eugene, OR
• Mega Monster: Gilgamesh, Turner, OR (debut)

Wednesday’s Bullpen:

• Hercules: Great Divide, Denver, CO

Tapped @ 5pm on THURSDAY, 15th: Washington (& More!) Night

• Pike Double IPA: Pike, Seattle, WA
• Extra: Lazy Boy, Everett, WA
• Hop Wallop: Victory, Downingtown, PA
• Unearthly: Southern Tier, Lakewood, NY
• Hop Stoopid: Lagunitas, Petaluma, CA

Thursday’s Bullpen:

• Oaked Unearthly: Southern Tier, Lakewood, NY
• Racer X: Bear Republic, Healdsburg, CA

Tapped @ 5pm on FRIDAY, 16th: H.U.B. (& More!) Night

• Evelyn Sunshine: Hopworks Urban Brewery (H.U.B.), PDX
• Ace of Spades: H.U.B., PDX
• Galactic: H.U.B., PDX
• Maharaja: Avery, Boulder, CO
• Imperial Wheat: Cascade, PDX

Friday’s Bullpen:

• Mendocino IIPA: Mendocino, Ukiah, CA
• Blue Frog DIPA: Blue Frog, Fairfield, CA
• 90 Minute: Dogfish Head, Gaithersburg, MD

Tapped @ 5pm on SATURDAY, 17th: Oregon (& More!) Night #2

• Frankenlou’s: 7 Brides, Silverton, OR
• Deadlift: Widmer, PDX
• Tricerahops: Ninkasi, Eugene, OR
• Yellow Wolf: Alameda, PDX
• Super-Duper Dog: Lucky Lab, PDX
• Pliny the Elder: Russian River, Santa Rosa, CA

Saturday’s Bullpen:

• Hoppe: Southern Tier, Lakewood, NY
• Double Daddy: Speakeasy, San Francisco, CA

Tapped @ 5pm on SUNDAY, 18th: the Gorge (& More!) Night

• Molten Lava: Double Mountain, Hood River, OR
• Big Phat Homo: Walking Man, Stevenson, WA
• Big Brother: Everybody’s, White Salmon, WA (debut)
• I Beat yoU: Mikkeller, København, DEN
• Lenny’s R.I.P.A.: He’Brew, New York, NY

Sunday’s Bullpen:

• Gordon: Oskar Blues, Lyons, CO
• Steelhead DIPA: Mad River, Blue Lake, CA

Related posts:

1. The Biggest and Baddest Oregon Imperial IPAs: The Concordia Cup
2. Fermented Photo: Widmer Brothers Deadlift Imperial IPA
3. Imperial Birthday Beer Week

I stopped into the Lompoc Sidebar on Saturday to see what beers have been sitting on wood.   The Bourbon Barrel Big Bang Red was released the night before and available on draft and in bottles.  Both versions were very good, but I picked up an extra bottle to store for a few months—if I can hold onto it that long.  Sidebar tender and brewer Zach also reached into the secret cellar and pulled out some tastes of ’09 Old Tavern Rat and a yet unnamed Bourbon Barrel Scottish Ale (room temperature and uncarbonated, it wasn’t in perfect tasting form, but I could sense a great beer in the making).   Zach said that there is only one barrel of this creation, so it’s gonna go fast.   And it’ll be released: when it’s ready.

Lompoc Sidebar
3901A N Williams Ave.
503.288.3996
Hours: Fri-Sat 2pm-10pm

That’s the great thing about the Sidebar.   You don’t often know what’s going to be on the board when you arrive and when it’s gone, well, it’s gone.   Sure, they may brew another batch down the line, but with so many variables going into a complex, small-batch beer, it’s probably going to be a little different each time.  A single barrel release of any beer is quick to disappear in Portland, so keep your eyes on the Sidebar as they quietly release beers into the wild.

While I was there, I picked up some notes on what’s been on tap at the Sidebar recently.  Most of the following are nowhere to be seen as they’ve already come and gone, but this will give you an idea of variety of styles available at the Sidebar.  I am planning on missing as few future releases as possible!

• Springbock
  An amber colored strong lager with a smooth malty flavor profile and a sweet finish.
  8.1% ABV
• Drunken Robin
  Our Condor Pale Ale fermented in bourbon barrels with 35 pounds of sour cherries.
  5.2% ABV
• Peregrine Imperial IPA
  Brewed for the 2010 Sasquatch Brewfest, this hop bomb pours a medium orange color with a hoppy aroma reminiscent of tropical fruit and pine needles. Flavor is massively hoppy but balanced by Golden Promise, Crystal and Aromatic malts.
  8.3% ABV
• Pre-Dawn Imperial Stout
  This incredibly rare imperial stout is the coffee-less version of our Black Dawn Imperial Coffee Stout. Brewed in October 2009, Pre-Dawn pours oily black with a thick dark brown head. Full-bodied with huge chocolate notes and a lingering roastiness, this is a beer to be savored.
  8.9% ABV
• Bob’s Memorial Braggot
  Brewed in the summer of 2008. Blended and bottled in March 2009. It is 2.25 parts mead to 1 part brown ale. Think of Bob when you are having one.
  7.0% ABV
• Lompoc Sour Draft
  Our LSD brewed in February 2008. Aged in Maryhill Vineyard Merlot barrels for two years. A sour ale that has an oak aroma and a lot of cherry and berry flavor.
  6.9%ABV
• Arctic Blast
  Lompoc’s Northwest style winter warmer. Dark crimson color with a fruity crystal malt aroma. Medium to full bodied with nice dark fruit flavors balanced by Northwest Cascade and Golding hops.
  6.4% ABV
• Fool’s Golden Ale
  A light refreshing blend of malt and hops. We use Crystal hops and malted wheat to balance this great session beer.
  5.0% ABV
• Crazy Dave’s Imperial Stout
  Pitch black color with hints of chocolate and coffee.
  8.0% ABV
• Saazall
  The baby brother to Saazilla. It is a Czech style Pilsner that is light in color and features Saaz hops.
  4.9% ABV
• Organic Flower of the Gods
  An IPA brewed with all organic malts. It is light in color and has a spicy hop bitterness which comes from Simcoe and Tettnanger hops.
  7.0% ABV
• 2008 Pagan Porter
  Brewed in August 2008. Black in color, there is a soft roastiness in the nose and a rich chocolate flavor.
  6.4% ABV

Related posts:

1. Old Lompoc Blasts Portland with Six Holiday Seasonal Beers!
2. Lompoc Lager Night hosted by Bailey’s Taproom
3. Beer of the Month – Lompoc Old Tavern Rat [December 2007]

One feature that dropped off of our site in the redesign was the beer to-do lists.  It wasn’t an accident, it just wasn’t incorporated at the time.  Our designer (me) and our developer (me) were butting heads when we were deciding on which features to roll out with the first iteration of the site.  Our developer won the fight and was able to shorten his own to-do list by dropping this feature and concentrating on the long list of other upgrades.  Unfortunately, our community relations director (me) had to deal with the backlash and finally got it back into the programming rotation.  So now, we re-present: Beer To-Do Lists!

The idea is simple: go to the Beer List Page and create your own custom list by styles or breweries.  Then, just click on the “Save current list to PDF”  icon on the right.  You’ll get a custom PDF listing the beer name, style, stats, brewery, and a ultra-tiny notes area.  We can change the format based on the feedback we receive, so let us know what you think!

One thing to keep in mind, is that while we are trying to track every single beer in Portland, it’s a tough job—especially since we tend to try and drink them all as well.  We keep our lists as up to date as possible, but a lot of seasonal releases slip through the cracks.  We also strive to serve as a type of beer historical record, so you’ll see a lot of one-time-only releases on the list that may have popped up a long time ago, never to be seen again.  We decided to leave those on the list as it gives a good indication of what the brewery is all about, regardless of whether all the seasonals on the list are currently on tap.

Related posts:

1. Find Beers Like This One!
2. Portland Beer Tools
3. Portlandbeer.org’s New Beer Finder