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FredFest 2008 Beer Lineup

May 8th, 2008

I would be remiss if I were the only beer blogger in Portland that neglected to post the ridiculously awesome beer lineup for FredFest 2008:

BridgePort Brewing: Bourbon Barrel aged Old Knucklehead Firkin
Laurelwood Brewing: Bourbon Barrel Aged Olde Reliable Barleywine
Widmer Brewing : Altbier!!!
Lompoc Brewing : Oak aged LSD
Deschutes Brewing: Br. Abe Belgian ale
Rockbottom Brewing : Oak aged IIPA
Cascade Brewing: 2006 Wild Blackberry ale ( Flanders red style)
Lucky Lab: Brewing Double Alt
Hopworks Urban Brewery: 2007 Kentucky Christmas
Hair of the Dog: Cask Fred from the Wood
Full Sail Brewing: Bourbon BBL aged 1998 Old Boilermaker
Rogue Brewing : Brewer Ale
Roots Brewing: 2006 Pinot Noir Oak aged Epic
Ninkasi Brewing: Dry Hopped Cask Tricerahops
Firestone: ?????
Jim 2007 Holiday Ale Fest Collaboration with HOTD

Not only will there be a great tap lineup, but some killer food as well — rumors of “HOTD Fred-cured pastrami” was enough for me to sign up.

This year’s FredFest is a fundraiser for Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon, an affiliate of the National Parkinson Foundation. It runs from 2 – 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 10 (Fred Eckhardt’s birthday) at Hair of the Dog Brewing, 4509 SE 23rd Avenue in Portland. I’m not sure if there’s any tickets left, but you can try begging and pleading with Preston here.

There’s also a simultaneous online auction at Liquid Solutions with rare beers like HOTD Adam #1, a cool lot of Lost Abbey beers, and the ever-elusive Westvleteren 12. It starts 3 p.m. PDT Friday, May 9 and finishes up by 3 p.m. PDT Sunday, May 11. And if this works anything like eBay, it’ll be interesting to watch the price wars when there’s :30 seconds left on the auction. Definitely worth checking out.

…just don’t blame me when you blow your whole stimulus package on rare brews.

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Tags: FredFest

Hair of the Dog Earth Day Dock Sale > Dark Lord Day

April 26th, 2008

Here’s what HOTD’s Earth Day Dock sale line looked like at 9:50am today:

Totally respectable, considering the madness that is going on right now in Muenster IN. I say forget Dark Lord Day — it’s overhyped and overcrowded, not to mention half a continent away.

A table set up with cheese, meats, doughnut holes, plus several bottles of beer was all the breakfast I needed on this bright, warm April morning. Meeting fellow beer geeks in a strange industrial park and waiting for the HOTD garage door to fly open was a really nice way to start the day. Then came the samples for people waiting in line — this is hospitality! Don’t call me a localvore, but a less crowded HOTD Earth Day sale is where it’s at.*

Walking into the actual brewery, beer prices were a bit high, but fair. HOTD isn’t known for its budget brews — it’s famous for high quality, high octane beer, and in those categories, the brewery didn’t disappoint. Add to that the fact that you could go in the tasting room and sample all the styles before (and after) you committed to a full case, and the price ends up being well worth the experience. And really, what else are you gonna do on a Saturday? Mow the lawn?

Fred, Adam, Ruth, Fred from the Wood, and Blue Dot by the case, and some rarities like Adam Batch #1 and some .375s of Dave from 1995 which were gone by 10:15am. All of the above were on tap, minus the rarities and Ruth, add Doggie Claws and Greg (a squash beer made exclusively for Higgin’s). I grabbed a case of Blue Dot and a magnum of Adam — a kindly gentleman traded me in the parking lot for a few bottles of Fred from the Wood & an Adam, so I walked away with a nice diversity of beers for… well I’ll just let you do the math.

It was obvious that the entire family was involved in this event, from mom and pop handing out beer samples, to the kids ringing up the credit cards. I found it really endearing that everyone works together for a big event like this. Always makes me feel good to patronize a family business. Cheers to HOTD staff for a great event!

*Admittedly, Dark Lord Day is one of the most fun beer events I’ve ever been to. No offense meant. Respect to FFF.

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Tags: Hair of the Dog Brewing

Waffles and Stout Breakfast @ Besaw's

April 9th, 2008

Waffles and Stout Breakfast

Last week, a job interview brought me to the Northwest side of Portland. The discovery of a nail in my front left tire causing slow leak kept me there for a few hours. After dropping the car off at Mr. Schwab’s, I wandered the neighborhood for a while, hunting for early-morning sustenance. I walked by both the New Old Lompoc and the Tavern & Pool McMenamins — neither was open yet, but Besaw’s was!

Besaw’s was hopping with a moderately full dining room, so I did what I normally do in an unfamiliar place — I found a seat at the bar. It’s a small place, but not cramped, with a beautiful wood bar, and I believe they had a little patio in the back for dining when the weather gets nicer.

The breakfast menu runs until 3:00pm, which I really dig. I had a Belgian waffle which was decent, but not crispy enough for a rave review. The three tap handles were all local-ish beers, and I chose the most breakfast friendly brew, Anderson Valley’s Oatmeal Stout. It was nice and smooth, easy to drink, and the roasty flavor offset the sweetness of the real maple syrup on my waffle.

I must somehow exude beer-geekiness, because soon, the bar manager chatted me up and enlisted me in an impromptu early-morning beer tasting. She was admittedly “not a huge beer drinker,” and wanted me to give her some notes on how to describe the beers to customers, so she set me up with a sample of each. I love it when anyone is eager to learn more about beer, but especially servers, because no matter how much advertising (read: money) a company puts behind their brand, a bartender or waiter is the person who has contact with the customer, and the more they know, the better.

So, it’s been a week, and I haven’t heard back from the job interview. I still have the nail in my tire because they’re too worn to patch, and I don’t really don’t have the cash flow for four new tires, so I settled for a can of Fix-A-Flat as insurance.

But at least now I know another good place for breakfast and friendly service when I’m on the NW side.

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Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers 2008

April 8th, 2008

Walking into the craziness of the “back room” of Roots last Saturday went something like this:

So many Belgian beer fans! And even better: so many Belgian beers!

For those of you not in the know, this year’s “Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers” was a mini beer festival (I dislike the word “tastival”) where all the breweries used the same yeast strain (Ardennes/ La Chouffe), but could make any type of beer they liked.

Now, I am a big fan of the Belgian beers — especially dubbels — so I was pretty hyped for this event, looking forward to some fruity, estery goodness. I walked up, paid my $10 bucks for a commemorative cup (I think I was one of the last to get the official glass) and five beer tickets. Read on for my unprofessional and highly unscientific reviews.

I started with the HUB El Diablo, which I guessed was supposed to be their interpretation of Duvel. It was fairly sweet and had a deep green hop presence which I found a little too aggressive for the style. Good, but given a choice, I’d rather have the HUB 7-Grain Stout.

Next was Rock Bottom’s Floreal, which must have been fairly subtle, because I couldn’t taste it at all after the Diablo. After a trip to Roots’ self-service water station to cleanse my palate, I got a lot more out of the Rock Bottom beer; very smooth bodied, slightly dry finish, and not as fruity as some of the other entrants.

Next down the line was Laurelwood’s Saison d’Arduinna which was absolutely killer. It poured a wonderful clear gold with perfectly sized bubbles. A light citrus tang was the perfect complement to the fruitiness of the Ardennes yeast. Not too fruity, not too malty. I could drink this all day.

Further down the line I found the Full Sail Dubbel, which I found somewhat thin bodied. The aroma and flavor were all there, but it had a strange acidic finish which I found kind of unpleasant.

After that, it was the Roots Bruin, Lompoc’s Diablesse, something from Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, but by this time I started forgetting to take notes and some strange ingredient in the beers was affecting my memory. This has never happened before!

Anyways, I enjoyed the majority of the brews, but like Jeff over at Beervana, I got a “squash” character from several of the beers; one I wrote down as tasting like a “pumpkin beer.” Though some of the beers didn’t quite hit the high notes I thought they would, I highly suggest you put this on your calendar for next year.

:::edit::::

The winners are in!

1st: Lucky Labrador’s Malt Bomb

2nd: Laurelwood’s Saison du Arduinna and Lucky Devil from Alameda Brewhouse (tie)

3rd: El Diablo from Hopworks Urban Brewery

Honorable Mention: Roots Farmhouse Bruin

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Posted in Articles, Zak Rotello

Tags: Cheers to Belgian Beers Events

Incurring the Scorn of Beer Geeks – Spring Beer & Wine Fest 2008

March 31st, 2008

Judging Sheet for Spring Beer & Wine Fest 2008

How I was chosen to be a judge at this year’s Spring Beer & Wine Fest was serendipitous to say the least. As I was happily browsing through the German beer section of Belmont Station, I was approached by a certain Oregon Brewers Guild member who inquired if I could be bothered to wake up early on Saturday and judge some beers.

…as if I’d say no. Are you kidding?

I arrived early, and helped my OBG friend carry a few items into the hall, whereupon some of the other judges started showing up. Some I recognized, most of them had been at the Fest the day before, and from the looks of their faces, quite a few had been up late celebrating with brewing buddies. But beer waits for no man, and we soon took our seats.

I was assigned the Lager category, and I was lucky to be paired up with some seasoned industry folk who knew their way around a tasting. Dave and Jamie were throwing out tasting notes left and right, while I chose to take notes and stay a little quieter, lest I be looked at funny for not knowing the difference between German and Czech style Pilsners.

Though our experience levels were quite disparate, we all had relatively similar things to say about the beers. We all agreed that the top two beers were the American Light Lager and the Dortmunder. Though not what we’d normally order at our favorite pub, the American Light Lager won out, being spot-on for style and drinkability.

PBR Traveling Art Gallery

So after my breakfast of beer, the sheets were turned in and tallied, and the winners were announced. Much to our surprise, the beer we awarded the gold medal to was…

…Pabst Blue Ribbon?

Yes, you read that right. Hipster beer of choice, PBR. And yes, the other tables booed us.

Now before you begin crying about our how our tastebuds must be malfunctioning, remember that judging is mainly based on specifically defined style points, and the PBR simply met all the criteria, whereas the other beers all had notable detractors.

So read ‘em and weep Portland. I love me some locally crafted beer, but there’s a blue ribbon on the label for a reason.

Beer Chips & Chicks

…And now, a totally gratuitous shot of the Beer Chips girls, who apparently shop at party outlets for their mylar bodysuits.

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