A new interpretation of an old law came to light when the Oregon Liquor Control Commission cancelled the homebrew contest at the State Fair, causing quite a stir in the Oregon Beer Community.  In fact, I was fielding questions from as far away as North Carolina once news of the issue spread across the country.  The problem revolves around the legality of homebrewers being exempt from requiring a manufacturers license when there beer is sampled in a venue other then their home.  This essentially limits any home-brewed beer from being tasted or judged anywhere, well, anywhere away from home.  As a state that enjoys year-round homebrew competitions, thousands of people are now scratching their heads as to what’s legal when it comes to homebrewed beer.

It appears that this look upon the books may have been instigated by Deschutes Brewery checking to make sure if one of their events was compliant under OLCC regulations.  Gary Fish, president and founder of Deschutes Brewery says this in a press release issued today: “The real story is that Deschutes Brewery contacted the OLCC to ensure that a homebrewers forum we were planning during American Craft Beer Week was legal.  Given the rules we are bound to as licensee of the OLCC and as a responsible member of the brewing community, we always want to make sure that we understand the intricacies of the OLCC’s regulations.  After a three-minute conversation with an OLCC representative, we were told that the agency would call us back with further information.  This never happened, and the planned event was dropped as a result.”

The press release went on to talk about Deschutes Brewerys’ long-standing relationship with the homebrewing community: “Now it seems that the OLCC has resurrected a dormant law regarding homebrewers, much to the dismay of the brewing community, including Deschutes Brewery. We have always felt that passion for craft beer starts at home and we support homebrewers all across the United States. We are always happy to fulfill homebrewer requests for clone recipes, hops and raffle items for homebrew competitions. We also sponsor the Porter category at the American Homebrewers Association’s National Homebrew Competition each year.”

Update: @pdxLance (via Twitter) Points to the OLCC’s response to the issue here (from Beer and Coding).

Related posts:

1. Bridgeport Brewing Company WinsTwo Medals at 2008 World Beer Cup
2. Oakshire Brewing to release bottles of Watershed IPA and Overcast Espresso Stout
3. Organizers call off All Oregon Ale Festival

So, we’ll wrap this sad tale up with an official statement from Deschutes.  It’s true, no Black Butte Reserve Series in bottles this year.  While it is a loss of one of the most anticipated beers of the year, it’s great to know that a company like Deschutes Brewery won’t  just push out beer that doesn’t meet their high standards.  There is a very limited amount on draft at both Bend Pub and tasting room as well as the Portland Pub.  I had some on Sunday, and all I can say is: go get some now!

Statement from Gary Fish, founder and president, Deschutes Brewery:

We will not be releasing our Reserve Series Black Butte XXII in 2010.  This Imperial version of our popular Black Butte Porter has helped to commemorate Deschutes Brewery’s June 27^th anniversary since 2008.

The experimental chocolate used in this year’s formulation is coming out of solution and is forming a butter-type layer on the surface of the beer.  While the beer tastes perfectly fine, the visual in the bottle is not up to our long-held commitment to quality and positive customer experience.

Pushing boundaries like we do means that things don’t always turn out the way we expect.  However, we promise to never back away from the line, even when the risk is great.

There will be very limited amounts of Black Butte XXII on draft, only available at the Bend pub, Portland pub and the Bend tasting room.

Related posts:

1. Beer of the Month – Deschutes Black Butte XX [May 2008]
2. Fermented Photo: Black Butte XXI
3. Upcoming Bottle Releases from Deschutes Brewery

Some beers are simply brewed and bottled.  Others take a different route, a route that beings almost two years ago, in a land far, far away…

In October of 2008, Deschutes Brewery introduced the first version of it’s Hop in the Dark, a Cascadian Dark Ale.  Though it wasn’t know by that moniker quite yet, this first generation IPA brewed with dark malts was a hit with the masses and brewer Larry Sidor decided that Deschutes should start on the journey of finding the perfect recipe for this style of beer.  While the first iteration was good, he thought it could be something great.  Little did he know that the beer would go through 22 revisions before ending up in a bottle almost two years later.

Experiments with dark malts included: black malt, dark rye malt, asidulated malt, dark malt syrup, chocolate malt, chocolate wheat malt, and caramel malts.

The overall plan was simple: create a few versions, test them in the Bend and Portland pubs, find the winning recipe, and bottle.  The reality, however, was that the style had a mind of it’s own.  ”Hop bitterness and dark malts do not want to play together well,” explained Larry during Deschutes Brewery’s first webinar for the press.  This difficulty forced the brewery to play with a wide variety of ingredients to find the perfect match.  Experiments with dark malts included: black malt, dark rye malt, asidulated malt, dark malt syrup, chocolate malt, chocolate wheat malt, and caramel malts.  Pairing these malts with hops was no easy task and included trials with around 15 different hop varieties.  Some noted failed experiments included trying hops with a pine characteristic like Chinook.  Noble hops (Hallertau, Tettnanger, Spalt, and Saaz), which are low in bitterness and high in aroma did not work either.  Other recipes included hop additions with: Topaz, Brewers Gold, Centennial, Sterling, Tettnanger, Northern Brewer, Saaz, Willamette, Chinook, Citra, Millennium, and Hercules.  It’s easy to see how this recipe went through 22 trials.  According to Larry Sidor, the early recipes came out too astringent from the dark malt or too bitter from the hops, all across a very thin middle beer body.   Due to the complexity of getting this balance correct, a few batches were dumped.

The key to success for this beer was cold steeping the dark grains.   This technique is employed in Schwarzbier recipes, a style that uses dark grains to color a pilsner.   Many dark grains get their color from being heavily roasted, to the point of burning the outside.   Adding these grains during a high temperature mash extracts much of that roasty and burnt flavor into the wort.  This is great for some beer styles like stouts with small hop footprints, but for a Cascadian Dark Ale, this can destroy the beer.  By steeping the darker grains at 55° F before the boil, the result takes on much of the color, but little of the flavor.

For Hop in the Dark, black barley, chocolate wheat, and caramel malt were all cold steeped before the boil and then the liquid was added during the traditional pale malt mash.   Flaked oats were also added to the grain bill to fill out the middle body of the beer.   For hops, it turned out that citrus-style hops like Cascade, Nugget, Citra, and Amarillo married well with darker malts.   Once the final recipe was realized, the beer was brewed on the the fully-automated Huppmann, 7 vessel brewing system at Deschutes Brewery’s man facility.   Well, with one exception: this time the process was not automated.   Larry Sidor notes that the Hop in the Dark process was so unique, that it was 100% manual operation with three brewers where a traditional process would be fully automated and manned by a single brewer.

Hop in the Dark is part of the Bond Street Series, beers that began at the Bend Pub.  The line of beers that now represents some of their hoppier creations like Hop Trip and Hop Henge actually started out with beers like Broken Top Bock, 18th Anniversary Pilsner, 19th Anniversary Golden Ale, and 20th Anniversary Wit.  As with the Jubel Ale, this series’ beer labels are created by local Oregon artists.  Adam Haynes designed the labels for Hop Trip and Hop Henge and Casey Burns is responsible for the artwork on Hop in the Dark.

Hop in the Dark is available now in 22oz bottles, but it’s a seasonal, so it won’t be around forever!

Related posts:

1. Beer Release: Hop in the Dark, Deschutes Brewery
2. Upcoming Bottle Releases from Deschutes Brewery
3. Beer Release: Hop Henge Experimental IPA

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)

Related posts:

1. Upcoming Bottle Releases from Deschutes Brewery
2. Press Release: Deschutes Brewery Releases Reserve Series Jubel 2010
3. Hop in the Dark, the Challenge

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!

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.

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).

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.

Related posts:

1. Beer Release: Hop in the Dark, Deschutes Brewery
2. Press Release: Deschutes Brewery Releases Reserve Series Jubel 2010
3. Upcoming Portland Beer Releases

Just got this press release and I thought I’d pass it along.  How nice of me, right?  But this isn’t just any release: it’s a collaboration between Deschutes Brewery and Hair of the Dog!  And it’s not just a collaborative brew in the usual sense: it’s two new brews from each brewer that will be barrel-aged separately and then blended in early 2011!  I’d pre-order right now if it were possible, but I just passed out from the excitement!

Here are all of the juicy details:

April 29, 2010- Bend, Oregon– Deschutes Brewery and Hair of the Dog Brewing Company today announced that they are working together on an exciting new beer. These two Oregon companies have taken a completely different approach to developing their companies since their founding, and are looking forward to blending their two styles together for a new beer to be released in 2011.

“When we started talking about collaborating on a project, Alan Sprints at Hair of the Dog was the first person I thought of working with,” said Gary Fish, president of Deschutes Brewery. “We’ve known each other for a long time and partnering on a project like this was the perfect way to be able to do something original and unique together. When you have two creative companies embarking on a creative project together, something fun is bound to result.”

“We have no idea how these four beers will taste blended together, but we do know that the total will be greater than the sum of its parts.” Gary Fish

Sprints came over to Bend in early March to brew two of his beers at the Deschutes Brewery brewhouse. Then it was Deschutes Brewery brewmaster Larry Sidor’s turn to brew two of his own beers. These four beers (which will remain unnamed as yet) will be aged in various wood barrels and then blended together sometime in early 2011 in a ratio yet to be determined as part of the creative process. Over the next several months, Hair of the Dog and Deschutes Brewery will be meeting to sample the aging beer and contemplate the blending process.

Sprints said, “This partnership was born in an effort to express the vitality of today’s American brewing community and push the boundaries of what is commonly known as beer. Both of our companies share a pride in Oregon products and I have long admired the level of professionalism that Gary brings to the brewing industry. My idea was to do a blend of beers that we already produced, merging our products and passion for beer, hoping to create a beverage that will be deep, complex, earthy and beguiling.”

This is the first collaborative beer for each of the companies, and everyone is excited to see how the new beer will develop. Fish continued, “We have no idea how these four beers will taste blended together, but we do know that the total will be greater than the sum of its parts.”

About Deschutes Brewery
Located in beautiful Bend, Oregon, Deschutes Brewery is in the business of daring people to expect more from their beer. That’s why we started off in 1988, on the banks of the Deschutes River here in Bend, Oregon, by selling Black Butte Porter at a time when others were sure a dark beer would never catch on. Our brewers love to push the envelope, especially if it makes someone nervous. But for us, the highest praise is a raised glass and a toast of “Bravely Done!” For more information about Deschutes Brewery and its courageously crafted beers, please visit www.DeschutesBrewery.com.

About Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Hair of the Dog Brewing Company is located in Portland, Oregon and was created to produce bottle-conditioned beers that improve with age. The main focus is to provide the beer lover with new and unusual beer styles, and is known for its barrel aged and high alcohol beers. Hair of the Dog is one of the world’s smallest Breweries, producing a mere 120 gallons per brew, last year’s production was about 15,000 gallons. For more information about the brewery and our beers, check out hairofthedog.com.

Related posts:

1. Fermented Photo Flashback: Alan Sprints, Hair of the Dog
2. Oregon Craft Beer Production Tops One Million Barrels
3. Full Sail Brewing Celebrates Oregon Craft Beer Month

Twilight Summer Ale from Deschutes Brewery. As a summer seasonal, Twilight Ale will be available from April until September in 6-packs, 12-packs and on draft.

Beer Geek Information: 5% ABV, 35 IBUs.

Related posts:

1. Fermented Photo: Deschutes Red Chair NWPA
2. Fermented Photo: Jubel 2010, Deschutes Brewery
3. Fermented Photo: Ace Of Spades Imperial IPA, Hopworks

Jubel 2010, Deschutes Brewery. Every winter, I track this beer down—which sometimes requires a trip to bend. As noted below, it’s usually around every winter on draft as Super Jubel, but it’s finally making it’s appearance in Deschute’s Reserve Series bottles (though it was bottled ten years ago before the Reserve Series was born).

Jubel 2010 is a deeply dynamic presentation of the flavors found in our festive winter seasonal, Jubelale. Available on tap around the holidays at our pubs as Super Jubel, February 2010 marks only the second time we have ever bottled this immortal libation. As some of you may remember, the first and only other time this special brew was bottled was to celebrate the new millennium as Jubel 2000.

Related posts:

1. Press Release: Deschutes Brewery Releases Reserve Series Jubel 2010
2. Fermented Photo: Deschutes Red Chair NWPA
3. Fermented Photo: 2009 Deschutes Abyss

BEND, Ore. – Deschutes Brewery, the sixth largest craft brewery in the nation, announces the release of its first Reserve Series beer for the New Year and decade, Jubel 2010. Jubel 2010 is a deeply dynamic presentation of the flavors found in its festive winter seasonal, Jubelale. Available on tap around the holidays at its pubs as “Super Jubel,” February 2010 marks only the second time the Brewery has ever bottled this immortal libation. The first and only other time this special brew was bottled was to celebrate the new millennium as Jubel 2000.

Jubel was discovered by accident two decades ago when a clumsy burglar didn’t realize the weight of his stolen keg of Jubelale. He dropped it outside to freeze in the season’s sub-zero temperatures – only to be discovered the next morning by Gary Fish, Deschutes Brewery owner. More than half the liquid in the keg had frozen and the remaining beer was a very cold, highly concentrated “Jubelale on steroids.” It was so good that the brewers set about recreating it, coming up with an annual “Super Jubel” that is aged in Oregon oak pinot barrels.

A limited amount of Jubel 2010 will be available in 22 ounce wax-dipped bottles and on draft all over the west this February.

Beer Geek Information:

• 10% Alcohol by Volume (ABV)
• 55 International Bittering Units (IBUs)
• Serving Temperature: 50-55 degrees F
• Glassware: Snifter or Goblet
• Drink one now and cellar one to enjoy a year from now.

About Deschutes Brewery
Located in beautiful Bend, Oregon, Deschutes Brewery is in the business of daring people to expect more from their beer. That’s why we started off in 1988, on the banks of the Deschutes River here in Bend, Oregon, by selling Black Butte Porter at a time when others were sure a dark beer would never catch on. Our brewers love to push the envelope, especially if it makes someone nervous. But for us, the highest praise is a raised glass and a toast of “Bravely Done!” For more information about Deschutes Brewery and its courageously crafted beers, please visit www.DeschutesBrewery.com.

Related posts:

1. Fermented Photo: Jubel 2010, Deschutes Brewery
2. Press Release: Full Sail Brewing Company Releases Top Sail Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter
3. Upcoming Bottle Releases from Deschutes Brewery

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.”

Related posts:

1. Beer Release: Hop in the Dark, Deschutes Brewery
2. Beer Release: BridgePort’s Highland Ambush Scotch Ale
3. Beer Release: Widmer Brothers Sunburn Blonde Ale