Archive for the ‘Beer Release’ category

Looking Ahead: Laurelwood and Old Lompoc 22 Ounce Bottle Releases

September 2nd, 2010

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!

Hooligan Brown Ale

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.

8 Malty Nights

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

No comments »

Posted in Articles, Beer Release, Matt Wiater

Tags:

Looking into the Crystal Ball: Widmer Brothers Releases

July 1st, 2010

Sled Crasher
Although summer got a late start this year, we are already peering around the corner to Fall, with some notable releases slated for Widmer Brothers Brewing. While there is no release information on the Sled Crasher label, this beer is classified as a Winter Warmer, so I doubt it will be released until the Fall.

Widmer Sled Crasher

This is part of Widmer Brothers Collaborator series. From the Oregon Brew Crew page: “The Collaborator Project is a collaboration between home brewers in the Oregon Brew Crew and Rob and Kurt Widmer of Widmer Brewing. It all started when the Widmers and fellow Oregon Brew Crew members were talking about how few craft beer styles were available. At the time, craft brewing was holding to the popular styles. If you lived in America and wanted a Belgian Wit or Schwarzbier, you had to depend on beers from Europe. The fact was that these esoteric styles would never be profitable for commercial breweries in the US.

Kurt and Rob looked at that as an opportunity and challenged the Oregon Brew Crew to have an annual competition where the best of the club’s beers, regardless of style, would brewed and served by Widmer Brewing. In the spring of 1998, the first beer chosen was Scott Sander’s English Brown Ale but for whatever reasons, the Milk Stout was the first to be brewed by Widmer Brewing and was served in the summer of 1998.

This Stout became known as the Collaborator Stout and was an instant success. Over the years, this Collaborator beer has probably been brewed more often than all of the subsequent Collaborator beers combined. Its popularity was further boosted when it became the AHA’s Big Brew recipe for National Homebrew Day in 1999. That was surpassed when Widmer tweaked the original recipe and introduced the Collaborator Milk Stout as Snow Plow Stout in 2004 as their annual winter seasonal and won a GABF gold medal. Snow Plow Stout is Widmer’s best selling seasonal beer. Rob and Kurt honored the Brew Crew by including a short history of the Collaborator project and a Brew Crew Logo on the six pack holders.

All of this is not even the best part of the Collaborator Project. With every barrel of Collaborator beer that Widmer sells, they donate $1 to the Bob McCracken Scholarship Fund which supports students at the Oregon State University Fermentation Science program under the direction of Dr. Thomas Shellhammer.

To date, Widmer Brewing has donated over $5,000.”

Brrrbon
Brrrbon is the result of marrying Widmer’s successful Brrr release with bourbon barrel aging. The original beer weighed in at 7.15% ABV and the label on this bottle reads 10% ABV, so we’re bound to taste a big delicious difference!

Widmer Brrrbon

No comments »

Posted in Beer Release, Matt Wiater

Tags:

Beer Release: Hop in the Dark, Deschutes Brewery

May 26th, 2010
Hop in the Dark, Deschutes Brewery

What takes 22 brews and more than a year of experiments to reach perfection? Deschutes Brewery’s newest Bond Street Series release: Hop in the Dark Cascadian Dark Ale (C.D.A.). C.D.A. is a new style of beer that emerged recently in the Pacific Northwest, more widely known as a Black I.P.A. There has been a significant movement and debate in the region to call the style C.D.A., and Deschutes Brewery leads the way with Hop in the Dark.

This ominous looking liquid combines prominent Northwest hops with roasted malts to create a black tinted India Pale Ale type beer. Hop in the Dark aromas come from Cascade, Amarillo, Citra and Centennial hops that float over a gentle undercurrent of velvet malt complexities.

Deschutes Brewery invites beer lovers to take the plunge – a hop, if you will – into this new Dark Cascadian Ale.

What:  Bond Street Series (22-ounce bottles and draft)
Where:  Available in all 15 states where Deschutes is sold.
When: Available May – September 2010

Beer Geek Information:
6.5% Alcohol by Volume (ABV)
70 International Bittering Units (IBUs)

2 comments »

Posted in Beer Release, Matt Wiater, Press Releases

Tags:

Beer Release: Widmer Brothers Sunburn Blonde Ale

May 20th, 2010
Widmer Brothers Brewing

Widmer Brothers Brewing, based in Portland, Ore., has introduced its new summer seasonal, Sunburn Summer Brew, initiating the unofficial start of summer.

“We crafted this beer with summer in mind, wanting to create something perfect for long, hot days,” said Rob Widmer. “It is a crisp and refreshing beer that is an anticipated addition to our seasonal lineup.”

Sunburn is a blonde ale with a light caramel body and subtle, refreshing hop aroma. This brew uses Citra hops, a new hop variety that only a few breweries have access to. This unique hop helps create a balanced and flavorful beer with little bitterness. Sunburn is one of four seasonal brews that Widmer Brothers will release this year, providing variety that highlights the tastes of each season. Beginning in 1986, Kurt and Rob were the first U.S. brewers to release a year round four beer seasonal lineup.

Beer Stats

  • Bitterness: 15 IBU
  • Alcohol by Volume: 4.3% ABV
  • Original Gravity: 10.5° PLATO

Sunburn is available from early May through August on draught and in six-packs at select retailers on the West coast. Six-packs have a suggested retail price of $8.99.

No comments »

Posted in Beer Release, Matt Wiater, Press Releases

Tags:

Bottle Release: Organic Rise Up Red from Hopworks

May 14th, 2010
Organic Rise Up Red, Hopworks

Well, you don’t have to take my word, last year the GABF bestowed a Gold Medal in the American Style Amber/Red Ale on this beer.  I haven’t had this beer since it was out about a year ago and after trying again tonight, I’d have to agree with the GABF.  This beer is an amazing representation of the style.  Now, through a 22 ounce bottle, it’ll be easier for you to get your hands on some.

From the press release: “Organic Rise Up Red is a classic Northwest red ale featuring a rich mahogany color with organic malts providing a mild caramel sweetness and smooth, bready flavor.  An ample dose of locally-grown Cascade and Centennial hops delivers a floral and slight citrus flavor.  The beer checks in at 60 IBUs and 5.8% ABV.”  Anyone who knows hops, understands that Cascade and Centennial can easily bring a hop bite to almost any style.  While this is definitely a hoppy red in taste and aroma, the feat pulled off in this beer is the great balance between sweetness and bitterness in its base.   “The challenge in crafting a great red ale lies in striking a balance between the style’s assertive malt characteristics and our Northwest drive to ‘amp up’ the hops. We love this beer and are pleased that the judges at the Great American Beer Festival did too,” said Christian Ettinger, owner and brewmaster of Hopworks.

Organic Rise Up Red, Hopworks

Christian Ettinger, owner.

Hopworks is well know for their sustainable practices and organic beer.   Even though the love of beer is the driving force behind their business, it’s just as important to find balance within the community and environment.   For example, the greatest varieties of organic hops are available in Germany and New Zealand.   Purchasing these hops toward a 100% organic beer creates a large carbon footprint just to ship the hops from where their grown all the way out to Portland.  Getting the exact ingredients at any cost is not part of the decision making process at Hopworks.  Figuring out how to make the same product with a lower environmental impact and remain cost effective is complicated, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.  While other brewers are dealing with costs and shipping logistics, Hopworks deals with many other layers of complexity when choosing the ingredients and the process for their beer production and distribution.

This attention to details and focus on sustainable practices is at the heart of the Hopworks business model.   In fact, the milk served to the kids in the restaurant comes from cows fed on the spent grain from the brewery!  Luckily, delicious, award winning beer is also at the heart.  You can always find ten organic beers (plus two cask varieties) on tap at Hopworks.  Of course, you can fill up your kegs and growlers to go, or grab a 22 ounce bottle from their selection in the fridge.

Check out the rest of the photos here.

1 comment »

Posted in Beer Release, Matt Wiater

Tags:

Upcoming Bottle Releases from Deschutes Brewery

May 5th, 2010
Deschutes Brewery, Portland

Just got some information from Deschutes about some upcoming beer releases over the next few months.  While Hop in the Dark will be debuting in bottles on the shelves this month, Black Butte XXII will be out at the end of June and The Dissident will be out in September.  More details as the release dates approach and I can get my hands on some.  For now, here’s plenty of information so that you can get the dates on your calendars and money in your account!

Hop in the Dark Cascadian Dark Ale

When: Available May – September 2010
Where: Available in all 15 states where Deschutes is sold
What: Bond Street Series (22-ounce bottles and draft)
Beer Geek Information: 6.5% ABV, 70 IBUs
Info: What takes 22 brews and more than a year of experiments to reach perfection? Deschutes Brewery’s newest Bond Street Series release: Hop in the Dark Cascadian Dark Ale (C.D.A.). C.D.A. is a new style of beer that emerged recently in the Pacific Northwest, more widely known as a Black I.P.A.  There has been a significant movement and debate in the region to call the style C.D.A., and Deschutes Brewery leads the way with Hop in the Dark.  This ominous looking liquid combines prominent Northwest hops with roasted malts to create a black tinted India Pale Ale type beer. Hop in the Dark aromas come from Cascade, Amarillo, Citra and Centennial hops that float over a gentle undercurrent of velvet malt complexities.  Deschutes Brewery invites beer lovers to take the plunge – a hop, if you will – into this new Dark Cascadian Ale.

Black Butte XXII

When: June 27th
Where: Available in all 15 states where Deschutes is sold
What: Reserve Series (22-ounce wax-dipped bottles and draft)
Beer Geek Information: 11% ABV
Info: First brewed to celebrate our 20th 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.  Released on Deschutes Brewery’s anniversary, this beer will help us celebrate at the parties we are holding in Bend and Portland (see below).

The Dissident

When: September
Where: Available in all 15 states where Deschutes is sold
What: Reserve Series (22-ounce wax-dipped bottles and draft)
Beer Geek Information: 9% ABV
Info: Eighteen months in isolation, The Dissident is a distinctive Flanders-style brown ale, with a fruity aroma and flavor.  Our only wild yeast beer, brettanomyces and lactobacillus impart its characteristic sour taste.  Lavished with whole western Washington cherries – pits, stems and all – (which, by the way, our brewmaster picks out personally during family vacations, to the tune of much eye-rolling from his children).  It’s our wildest, most expensively pampered beer.

No comments »

Posted in Articles, Beer Release, Matt Wiater

Tags:

Bridgeport Brewing Company Unviels Third Generation Stumptown Tart At May 6 Release Party

May 3rd, 2010
Stumptown Tart

PORTLAND, Ore.  – BridgePort Brewing Company, Oregon’s oldest craft brewery is releasing its third generation Stumptown Tart. The new brew is a Belgian Style Framboise infused with 2,000 pounds of Oregon Red Raspberries grown at Willamette Valley Fruit Company in Salem, Ore. This year’s Stumptown Tart varies from years past as it blends an aged oak barrel and a fresh Belgian Tripel. Stumptown Tart is touted as a brew that hits the drinker upfront with fresh fruit flavor and finishes with the spicy, oak flavors of the two blended ales. Don’t be fooled by this pretty face as each bottle is 7.7 ABV (alcohol by volume) while still staying light on the tongue, making this a great summer brew.

BridgePort will host a Stumptown Tart release party Thursday, May 6 at 5:30pm at the BridgePort BrewPub in the Pearl at 1313 NW Marshall St.  Free and open to the public, attendees can be among the first to try free samples of the new brew while supplies last and purchase a limited-edition 22-ounce bottle of Stumptown Tart. Guests will also be given the opportunity to meet the Stumptown Tart herself, bottle model Bernie Dexter, as we celebrate another year of this tasty brew. Bernie will be at the BrewPub to sign bottles, posters, and provide festive eye candy to all in attendance.

BridgePort’s Stumptown Tart Stats:
IBU’s: 14
ABV: 7.7%
Color: Reddish-Pink
OG: 17.6

Ingredients:    Pacific Northwest pale malted barley, Pacific Northwest malted wheat, German hops, 2,000 pounds of Oregon Red Raspberries, Belgian yeast.  50% Belgian Tripel aged in wine barrels one year blended with Belgian Tripel and Raspberries.

Description:       A Belgian Framboise style Ale infused with Oregon Red Raspberries.   A strong, fruit driven Framboise with hints of raspberry, oak and spicy Belgian yeast flavors with a light, refreshing finish.

About BridgePort Brewing Company
Oregon’s oldest craft brewery continues to evolve from a microbrewery to a regional leader in the craft brewing market, while remaining faithful to its commitment to producing high-quality, innovative craft ales.  The BridgePort family of ales includes IPA, Hop Czar, ESB, Ropewalk Amber Ale, Blue Heron Pale Ale, Haymaker Extra Pale Ale and Ebenezer Ale.  BridgePort Brewery is located at 1313 N.W. Marshall St.  For more information, call 503-241-7179 or visit www.bridgeportbrew.com.

1 comment »

Posted in Beer Release, Matt Wiater

Tags:

Beer Release: BridgePort’s Highland Ambush Scotch Ale

January 20th, 2010

BridgePort's Highland Ambush Scotch Ale

So much beer, so little time. I know, I lead a rough life.  Living in Portland and writing about beer is a sweet gig–as long as you don’t enjoy being paid for it.  But for each snide comment and bit of sarcasm that comes out of my mouth, everywhere I turn, there’s beer, beer, beer: new releases, more events, budding breweries, more bloggers, and new friends in beer.   From startup breweries to those entering an era where they—god forbid—make a nice profit, the Portland beer scene in 2010 is not a stagnant business.  While we still reign as Alpha Kings, a new breed is pushing back the pendulum to get yet another trick out of this ten trick pony (I think we’re on trick five at last count).  Established breweries are still blending and aging (and finally getting some well-deserved notoriety), while others push towards new Northwest open fermentation styles, perhaps a gluten-free lifestyle, or simply a neighborhood respite.

“But why all of this philosophical waxing, isn’t this just a post about some BridgePort beer?” you ask.  Okay, I’ve wandered a bit from the point.  The truth of the matter is that in trying to stay on top of the latest news here in PDX, some things can fall through the cracks.  Like BridgePort’s Highland Ambush Scotch Ale.  Released on December 17th, this beer sat in my fridge and eventually wound up in the back as newer beers came in.  I finally stumbled across it last night and cracked it open.  Immediately, I realized that this was a double edged sword.  On one hand, this is a damn good beer.  On the other hand, the bottles have had a lot of time to disappear off of the shelves–will I still be able to get a few more?

This beer has the low hop, high sweetness of traditional Scotch Ales with the addition of oak bourbon barrel aging.  33% of this batch was aged in barrels and then blended back with the non-barreled lot, giving it a light oak and bourbon flavor which compliments this beer nicely.  This beer is a great addition to BridgePort’s Big Brews Series, which styles are widely varied from Barleywines to Belgian Style fruit-infused beers.

“First brewed in the 1980s as a special beer for the BrewPub at BridgePort, Highland Ambush is making its triumphant return more than 20 years later. Stuart MacLean Ramsay, then pub manager, conceptualized the brew to pay homage to his Scottish heritage. This year’s Highland Ambush takes inspiration from the original ale using NW pale ale malt along with a Scottish crystal and roast malt.  The hopping rate of Highland Ambush has been toned down to help highlight the complementing vanilla from the American oak bourbon barrels and caramel-toffee malt nuances. Reddish-Brown in color, Highland Ambush will warm the coldest of toes and noses this holiday season.”

BridgePort’s Highland Ambush Scotch Ale Stats:
IBU’s:  40      ABV:    6.8%    Color:  Reddish-Brown
Ingredients:    Pale and Carmel Malts.  UK Golding Hops.
Description:    This beer will have a rich malt taste complementing vanilla flavors from the American oak barrels along with a bitterness attributed to the UK Golding hops.

2 comments »

Posted in Beer Release, Matt Wiater

Tags:

Beer Release: Hop Henge Experimental IPA

January 19th, 2010

Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA

Deschutes Brewing has released the next version of their Hop Henge Experimental IPA.  As you’d expect, this monster is big on hops: huge aroma, giant floral taste, and a whopping bitterness to balance out the malt blend.  This is an IPA pushed to the edge of balance supporting  8.75% ABV and 95 IBUs.  For an IPA lover, this is a great creation, and fairly complex rather then just a hop bomb.  Sure, it’s a showcase for hops, but to make the most of this type of beer, you’ve got to display these hops on a great stage.  With this beer, the stage is set with crystal, pale and carastan malts, driving up the yeast fuel and leaving a residual sweetness in the finish.  But enough words, go and get some!  It will be available January through April on draft and in 22oz bottles.

“Hop Henge Experimental IPA is our annual exercise in IBU escalation, combining several new hop processes and techniques to create a unique and unexpected beer. An outrageous amount of Centennial and Cascade hops are added to each barrel, with a heavy dry-hop presence as well. The blend of crystal, pale and carastan malts creates an overall biscuity characteristic, dense and muscular, building the alcohol base to support the truly monstrous hop profile.”

No comments »

Posted in Beer Release, Matt Wiater

Tags: