DR. WORT'S BUZZ-ERK BEER BLOG

McMenamins Leaders in New Brewing Revolution!

2011-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

WHAT?

That must be a misprint! Has the Doc finally lost all sense of reality?! The bastard has been gone for a year and comes back with this nonsense?

Yes, my friends, McMenamins! Home of the murky and inconsistent quality beers; Home to the McMediocre overpriced pub grub; Home to the $150 dollar a night previously condemned hotel room with no formal bathroom; Home to Brothers who'd rather tote the title 'Restaurateurs' vs. Brewers or anything else?

Edgefields German Still

McMenamins are leading the national field for being cooperative brewers and distillers. A business that has a brewery and distillery. Of course, all you Green and Carbon Foot print A-holes are probably getting spontaneous erections over this that statement! The Doc doesn't really care about that crap, but does care about Craft Distilling which is the newest Hip Revolution.

What about Beer? Eh! Been there and been done to death! While most Oregonians seem to feel that they are the cutting edge of a National phenomenon of craft brewing with their bastion of overdone ales and their 10-15 year delay of getting on the Belgian bandwagon... Beer and brewing is starting to take second fiddle to the new and hip trend of Craft Distilleries. Of course, the combo of Breweries and Distilleries works hand in hand since they use some of the same ingredients and lessen that dreaded Carbon Footprint by being combined.

While the local proprietors of passe beer blogging "enlightenment" continue with their ongoing drivel on subjects of IPA and Double IPA festivals. Ho hum.... For he past five or more years a new revolution has been brewing... Craft Distilling!

Back to the McMenamins! Locals continue to mock: Home of the Terminator Stout, Murky & Muddy Hammerhead IPA and cheap quality Pepperoni Sandwiches for $9. But! Back in 1998, just 5 years after Anchor Brewing lead the nation with America first Craft Whiskey, McMenamin opened their distillery doors at Edgefield. Trailblazing the Brewing and distillery cooperative market. Apparently, not many locals seems to notice this revolutionary start up? Probably busy sipping on those endless array of Northwest IPAs. Sigh.

While we can easily poke fun at McMenamins faults, they're shining star has become their distillates!

Edgefields German made reflux still started pumping out Pear Brandy, Gin and other distilled Eu Du Vies. Sometime later a rather disappointing first batch of Hogshead Whiskey. That was to change!

Today, McMenamins is distilling a Gold Medal Hogshead Whiskey (See American Distilling Institute 2001 awards), along with award winning Brandy and Pear Brandy.

Cornelius Pass French Alambic Charentais pot still

In September of this year, McMenamins is proving that their not sitting back on their haunches and opened a second distillery at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse & Imbrie Hall estate in Hillsboro, Or.

According to the MCM website:

Set in an old granary barn constructed by the pioneer Imbrie family in the mid-1850s, the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse Distillery boasts a century-year-old, 160-gallon Alambic Charentais pot still, gleaming a polished copper against a specially built, solid brick housing (using bricks recycled from Edgefield, the Kennedy School and the Crystal Hotel). Sourced from an old barn in Cognac, France, the still itself has a definite "steam punk" look to it - in fact, one wonders if this type of old-timey contraption wasn't the inspiration for the steam punk movement itself?

These Alambic Charentais pot stills are traditionally used to produce cognac. We here at the Roadhouse Distillery will expect a spirit that is silky in texture and retains much of the rich aromatics and flavors of base ingredients we use to craft our spirits -- a direct reflection of the elegant curves and bends of the still itself.
Guests to the property are welcome to order a pint in Imbrie Hall and stroll over to have a look inside this barn-turned-still, where distiller Bart Hance will be working some magic. We plan to release whiskeys, brandies, gins and more in the coming years, with the first batch to be released in early 2012 - stay tuned for a list of spirits to come..

A list of current McMenamin Distillates. All info, images and descriptions below are from MCM website.

Monkey Puzzle

We selected a choice barrel of our finest malt whiskey and dry-hopped it with Teamaker hops, which contain no bitterness. The mix is sweetened with a touch of blackberry honey, harvested from hives found on the Edgefield estate. The result is a bit of a puzzle itself, but a truly great one. There are strong flavors of malt, vanilla and caramel mixed in with citrus hop characteristics and blackberry honey sweetness.

46% alcohol by volume, 92 proof

Herbal Liqueur No. 7

Distilled with a blend of Edgefield estate-grown garden herbs called the Black Rabbit Magic Potion #9, the spirit is bold with flavors of cinnamon, mint and caraway, balanced with the sweetness of organic birch syrup. And what does the number seven signify? According to the distillers (with a little help from their friends), it could mean that the nectar from the wimbled birch kindles this botanical trundle wheel at seven turns...seven families of laughing botanicals. Or perhaps it refers to the seven incantations: Seven rides on the broom: Seven calls in your cups. We’re not really sure. You’ll have to taste it to figure it out for yourself.

40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof

White Dog Whiskey

Our White Dog – A version of our Hogshead Whiskey before it sees a barrel -- is produced from four unique and complementary malted barleys. The aroma is of rich grain and cereal while the flavor has layers of dark chocolate, malt and roast. The body of the whiskey is full and semi-sweet, lingering on the palate with a surprising smooth finish.

We chose to release our White Dog because we feel it stands strong on its own and is a great companion to its barrel-aged version – Hogshead Whiskey. Even in its infancy as a whiskey, our White Dog is incredibly drinkable in a specialty cocktail or served neat.

46% alcohol by volume, 92 proof

Hogshead Whiskey
American Distilling Institute 2011 Single Malt Whiskey of the Year

Hogshead is an original. Continuing the independent and innovative styles of Northwest brewers and vintners, this whiskey is distilled with only a passing nod to the great Scotch, Irish and Bourbon distillers, before striking off on its own. Boasting a palate-pleasing combination of malty spirit – reminiscent of the malted barley grain that began the process – and the smoky, vanilla sweet-wood that surrounds the spirit until bottling, Hogshead is a rich, amber-hued whiskey.

46% alcohol by volume, 92 proof

Alambic "13" Brandy
American Distilling Institute 2011 Bronze Winner "Grape Brandy - Over 10 Years"

This handcrafted brandy was distilled from Pinot Noir grapes. Thirteen years in a French oak barrel have allowed hints of vanilla, cinnamon and floral notes to soften and enrich this fine liquor. Enjoy.

40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof

Edgefield Brandy

Try this barrel-aged grape brandy, a marriage of two distilled Edgefield wines. Aged separately in French oak barrels then blended together and finished in American oak barrels, the spirit boasts a flowery aroma with hints of berries. The flavor is sweet and warm with pronounced vanilla and cherry flavors.

40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof

Pear Brandy
American Distilling Institute 2011 Bronze Winner "Pear Eau de Vie"

A pure and clean spirit, our Pear Brandy is created using 100% Hood River, Oregon-grown pears. Distilled in our Eau de Vie Pot Still, the spirit is hand-bottled, with no barrel aging. It boasts a flavor that captures the true essence of fresh pears.

40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof

Longshot Brandy

The latest version of our popular Longshot Brandy is deeper and more complex than ever. We still use Syrah grapes harvested from Edgefield's own two-acre vineyard, double-distill the wine but then we barrel-age the spirit for one year in a used Syrah wine barrel and then another year in a used Syrah port barrel. The result is a unique brackish-hued brandy that has flavors of raisin, cherries, licorice and spice. The aroma is rich in vanilla, violet and floral notes. Longshot Brandy is perfect as an after-dinner sipping brandy or in a specialty cocktail.

40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof

Penney's Gin

This American dry gin is inspired by its London counterpart that caters to the martini connoisseur. It is handcrafted using the traditional English method in which pure grain spirit is distilled alone, with its vapors passing through carefully selected botanicals. Ingredients include whole juniper berry, sweet orange peel, lemon peel, freshly zested lime and cardamom. The aroma is rich in juniper and fresh citrus, making it ideal for spring- and summertime cocktails.

45% alcohol by volume, 90 proof

Professor's Gin

Formerly known as Vintner's Gin, this spirit is more spicy and herbal than Penney's. Its bolder style is perhaps inspired by the Dutch-style genevre, yet with a brighter, more layered profile. It's an infused gin, in which botanicals are soaked with pure grain alcohol to extract their flavors and scents. The resulting aroma has distinctive juniper, herbal and cracked black pepper notes. Taste hints of coriander and juniper.

45% alcohol by volume, 90 proof

Coffee Liqueur

For all those diehard coffee drinkers looking for a little extra kick, this spirit is imbued with our houseroasted Ethiopian Sidamo coffee beans, imparting a dark, spicy flavor that marries well with the liqueur's rich, silky texture. These elegant, silkscreened bottles make excellent gifts - spot the cat in the painted label in various spots around the Edgefield estate.

20% alcohol by volume, 40 proof

McMenamins.com/879-edgefield-distillery-spirits
2126 S.W. Halsey St., Troutdale, OR 97060 Map
Local: 503-669-8610
Elsewhere: (800) 669-8610

While the majority of Oregon's Wanna-be Hip crowd are happy chugging and plugging along with the old and stale beer trends, those in the know are following the revolutionary developments in the Craft Distillery scene in Oregon.

Washington Voters Give a big "FU" to State Run Liquor

2011-11-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

Apparently our Northern Neighbors have decided to wise up and come into the new century! Finally acquiring a backbone and putting an end to some State Controled liquor laws!

Small article here.

IS it's Oregon's turn or will continue to be the ass backward laughing stock of West coast?

A True Winner!

2011-11-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales - Seizoen

Lets start by saying the Wax dipped cap and neck are highly annoying. Who ever came up with useless concept should be shot!

The beer pours a Hazy light Orange in color with a huge amount of Carbonation! This is concerning since I've chilled the beer fairly cold. After waiting for the head to fall, a nice tight carbonation emerges with a nice heavy lace on the glass.

The Aroma is sexy and seductive with an elegant floral and perfumed bouquet. Amazing! OK... for those of you who hate the flowery adjectives and want real aroma descriptions, which everyone should expect! The Doc hates reviewers who use bullshit descriptors like Sexy and seductive, as well as, Uber Good, Sublime and other ridiculous nonsensical words that tell us NOTHING! Aroma profile is as follows:

Big scent of Orange peel, Meadow Foam Honey (Vanilla), lemon/coriander, Sugary toffee, spicy hops and hint of vanilla sweetness. Beautiful. Perfume. Fresh flowers.

This beer just keeps getting better. The malt and hops are well balanced with mid range mouth feel. Hints of sharp caramel malts, maybe the use of Cara-Vienna malt? Light Stone fruits come through.. Apricot? Juicy fruits with with lots of elegant herbal hop notes. A slight pepper prickle on the tongue follows the herbs from the hops. Some coriander spice and maybe some Belgian Candi sugar sweetness.

It finishes with slick oiliness on the tongue with a nice moderate spice bitterness left in the finish. Also, some vanilla and honey on palate.

This is an amazing beer, period. Constructed and executed with the skill and art of true artisan brewer. One of the finest and well made American Belgian beers I've ever tasted.

Hoppy, Floppy & Sloppy!

2011-11-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

The Doc has managed to dig up some Beer reviews that he's done over the past year of silence. There's enough for multiple postings. Here's the first.

HUB - Secession Cascadian Dark

Amazing! Amazing, that this is what we want to call our Northwests own?! The Doc's been trying to choke down some local CDA beers. Do we really want to call these beers our own? Someone actually think this deserves it's own Style Category? To quote an old saying, "Are you high?!" Contrary to popular belief, the Doc does enjoy a hoppy beer now and then. Most of the local CDA (Black IPA) we've tried have been just Hop Bombs. So Hoppy that nothing else can be detected through bale loads of overdone hops. While I don't expect there to be a balance, I would enjoy tasting something beyond hops that coat my tongue with so much bitterness and cloyingly piney hops that I feel I need to comb my tongue when done.

HUB's beer is just a giant piny hop mess. Dark Brown in color with a thin body. The Pinesol Hop blast hits your nose like an assualt to the head with a brick. Yep, there's hops in there... but what else? Only after my palate was bombarded with hops from sip to swallow does my overworked tastebuds sense a incling of Roasted malt. Nothing else could transent the cavalcade of hop resin.

Oh... Lets not be totally negative! The hops are very fresh.... period. The astrignecy of hops and hop bitterness coats and lingers on the tongue for minutes after. What else can I detect? Not much!

As it warms, a little more roast comes through... just a little.

Maybe I could vomit it up on the floor and strip the wax off the old kitchen floor.

Rating: "A" as a floor and paint stripper. C- as a drinkable beer.

10 Barrel Sinister Black ALe

Maybe should be called Sinister Snickers?! I've heard a lot of hype over this beer, but just now got around to trying it. Wow! It's a sensory test beer for BJCP judges! This beer definitley has an identity crisis! Is it a Black IPA/CDA? NO. A Brown Ale? No. A Porter? No. For those of you ready to argue... No, it doesn't have to fit into a category, but it's NOT black and it ain't a Black IPA.

Flavors all over the board... None really work all together and some stand out rather obnoxiously. The beer has an obnoxious Chocoalte Cocoa sweetness that is never quite balanced out with any other malt of hop bitterness. It's a malty beer with an under balanced hop. I love a good malty beer and I almost like this beer... almost. The sweet Milk Chocoalte notes are just too much for me. The roastiness blazes off in a another demension verging on Black Patant burnt charcoal. Maybe that's why these guys called this beer Black? It has Black Patent in it. While in your face flavors sometimes works for me, this beer tastes way off balance and clumsy. Sweetness here; Chocolate There, Burnt Roast over there.... and then with all that malt a werid watery body.

Doc gives it a "C" rating.

Full Sail - Bump in the Night

Tastes more like a "Bump in the Road." This has an undrinkable obnoxiously hoppy bitterness! Muddy, murky, resinous.... From front to back, it's just bitter... Not spicy hops or herbal hops, just flat out bitter hops. It's murky and grating on the tongue. If I really tried I could pull out a little roastiness hidden behond the pure relenting bitterness. Can taste much else behind the bitter hops. Chocolate? De husked Dark Malts? Crystal? Don't know!! It could be dirt for all I can tell.

This is a beginner home brew brewed by someone who has no idea of how to utilize hops or knowledge of proper hopping additions in the kettle.

While hops are supposed to add a balance of bitterness to a beer, they are supposed to bring along a hop spice/herb/floral quality. When hops are just thrown into the kettle in great abundance you get nothing but pure bitterness.

Doc gives it a "D." Only an infected beer could get a worse rating.

**If you want to claim the rights to these photos send me an email and I'll post yer name.

Doc's analysis of drinkable Holiday Ale beers 2011

2011-11-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

The Doc has come out of hiding... just briefly...

As most of you know, the Doc doesn't get out much for Beer Festivals, he finds them to be repetitiously boring. The only saving grace of the entire year is the Holiday Ale fest. One of the few last bastions of the brewers art and beer innovation... or so it used to be?!

Hoping for some interesting Vintage/Limited beers or else it'll be quick trip.

Doc's thoughts for 2011 Holiday Ale Fest:

Same ol Shit!

(SOS)Alameda Brewing - Papa Noel's Moonlight Reserve
(SOS)Bison Brewing - Bbn. Bbl. Aged Chocolate Stout
(SOS)BridgePort Brewing - Vintage Old Knucklehead
(SOS)Cascade Brewing 2011 Sang Noir Barrel Aged NW Sour Style Ale
(SOS)Collaborator Hallucinator New Old Ale
(SOS)Deschutes Brewery Super Jubel Strong Ale
(SOS)Elysian Brewing Bye Bye Frost Strong Pale Ale
(SOS)Firestone Walker Brewing Vintage Velvet Merkin Imperial Oatmeal Stout
(SOS)Lagunitas Brewing 2010 Olde Gnarly Wine Barley Wine
(SOS)MacTarnahan's Brewing Barrel Aged Humbug'r
(SOS)Stone Brewing Oaked Stone Ruination IPA Imperial IPA
(SOS)Widmer Brewing Peppermint Paddy Porter Peppermint Porter

*There's 12 beers that could have been replaced with something else. I'm sure there's a huge selection of Holiday beers across this great nation of ours. What's the point in repeating these same beers...again and again and again!? Starting to feel like 21 st Amendments Watermelon Wheat's chronic appearance at the OBF!

NO Fruit! (Doc hates fruit beers!)

Breakside Brewery - Cranberry Biere de Table: Not a Fruit beer fan.
Buckman Botanical Brewery - Fruit Cake: See Above
Lompoc Brewing - Cherry Christmas: Ditto
Lucky Labrador Brewing Candied Scottish Holiday: Wow! More FRUIT!

"Not fan of the brewery!" Not likely to be good

Coalition Brewing - Lost Glove: Not a fan of brewery
Fearless Brewing - Mjolnir Imperial IPA: Not a fan!
Hazel Dell Brewpub - Goats Beard Double Bock: Not very likely to be good!
McMenamins High Street - Red Nose Rye: Yea, right?
Natian Brewery "HOLLA day" ale: Not a fan
Off the Rail Brewing - Belgian Triple: Not very likely to be good!
Rogue Ales - Rogue Creamery 75th: It's Rogue!
Seven Brides Brewing - Drunkel 2011: Not a fan!
Southern Oregon Brewing - 2010 Old Humbug: Wasn't good last year, so cant be better this year!
Vertigo Brewing - Left, Nut Brown Ale: Not a fan!

* Once again... We're beating a dead horse with some of these breweries.

SAME OL' STOUTS (The Doc picks "One" Stout a year to taste)

Columbia River Brewing - Drunken Elf Stout: Big Stout? Been there, done that!
Double Mountain Brewing - Formidable Stout: Oh... another one!
Gilgamesh Brewing - Chocolate Mint Stout '11: Ho hum... Chocolate and mint? How original is that?!
Laht Neppur Brewing - Russian Imperial Stout: Wow! Really? SEE ABOVE

Misc Grumblings

Ninkasi Brewing - Itty Bitty Critty-Small beer: A second runnings for the HAF?
Oakshire Brewing - Imperial Gingerbread Porter: Spiced Porter?! Pass. Overdone!
Upright Brewing - Biere de Garde/Provision Beer: Just not interesting enough.
Eel River Brewing - Barleywine Style Steam Lager: Really? Pass! Can you say Oxymoron? I knew ya could!

THE TASTERS!!

Bear Republic Brewing - Old Saint Chongo: Hoping this means "Tommy Chong" and will have been blessed by Maryjane!

Burnside Brewing - Barrel Aged Permafrost: "8.3% abv 77.4 IBU" Another over-hopped XMAS BEER? Worth a taste

Fort George Brewing - Kentucky Girl - Bourbon Barrel aged Coffee Stout: OK. Ill try one Stout!

Hopworks Urban Brewery - Kentucky Christmas: Good in past.

Laurelwood Brewing - Bonaparts Retreat: So vague, I'd have to try.

New Belgium Brewing - Rotating Lips of Faith: Good be great or not.

The Commons Brewery - Belgian Dark Strong Ale w/ Bbn.: I'll Give them a try!

Rusty Truck Brewing - Belsnickle's Strong Ale: I'll probably regret it, but I'll try.

THAT's 8 beers! Wow! My sampling list gets smaller every year! This could be the Doc's last year... doesn't he say that every year?

$25 might be Better spent down the road at Paddy's Bar and Grill!
A Scotch Whiskey Flight for $24 and a decent lunch Menu!

Check out the Doc's past HAF reviews:

2010
2009
2008B
2008A
2007

Boneyard Brewery - Gearheads with an eye on business?

2011-01-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

Just came across Bonehead (Ooops!) BONEYARD Brewery. Did a little research on this brewery and found some interesting info. There is NOTHING bonehead about this brewery! Tony Lawrence owner of Boneyard is a Jack-of-all-Trade in the brewing world. He started brewing for Deschutes in 1988 and then Started a Brewery equipment (whole or parts or both?) company. He's been around the Beer BIZ for quite some time and appears to have a firm grip on the beer biz. Tony understands the business of selling, branding, brewing and production. A level headed smart business approach to opening and running a brewery. Tony's a guy who knows the beer business and is trying to make calculated educated decisions for his new brewery. Gee.... Isn't that refreshing! He's far more equipped than a home brewer or some beer putz with a pipe dream of opening a brewery. He has a business plan!

If we have learned nothing else about the business world (and some people haven't learned anything); Great Marketing and advertising is key to selling a product. Pick a Branding theme, logo, mental image and run with it....intelligently! Obviously, Tony is not an idiot! He must have looked around the NW brewing world and looked at his competition. What did he see? Trees, Rivers, Mountains, animals and poor visually themed brewery. Amnesia, Vertigo, Breakside, Coalition, Burnside.... what mental images do these names paint? Does it make you think about beer? Food? Vertigo = Nauseating; Amnesia = Something you forgot; Breakside = Nothing; Coalition = Treaty with cowboys and Indians?; Burnside = A grungy street in Portland with Homeless sleeping on the sidewalk. Branding.... Placing an image in the consumers head.

So... Boneyard! Cemetery?! How is that a pretty mental image? It's not.... But let's look at the structure of this branding landscape; Motorcycles, Gearheads, Bikers, Dark, rough, gritty.... and little dangerous. The brewery is in a big industrial garage. You can visualize a razor tooth Doberman pincher guarding the gates of auto graveyard with an old rusted and creaking garage that holds mismatched parts. The kids are afraid that place! Match that with the fact that brewery was built with equipment found in other breweries Boneyard. Old used equipment that has been resurrected from the grave. Dark images, but it evokes an emotion and feeling. I can heard Black Sabbath in the background or heart stopping gearhead metal speed rock.

The beer? Well.. Hell.... this guys has all the whole theme in place, right down to the website... the Beer names and labels. Tony has his shit together! How's the beer taste? Hell.... I don't care! He's sold me before the beer touches my lips! (Not really, but he's done a great job marketing it all). The Doc could complain that the beer list is basically a juiced up version of the standard ale taplist, but I'll go beyond that.... The beer is better than average for a startup brewery. Solidly brewed beers and some with complex edge. Roll it all together and it should be recipe for success. This will be a brewery to watch....

Boneyard Beer Commercial Short for Bend Ale Trail iPhone ap. from Jesus Crust on Vimeo.

Eastburn/Full Sail Beer Dinner

2011-01-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

BEER BELLY DINNER
February 10th, 2011

On the Patio and in the Annex at The EastBurn
1800 SE Burnside, Portland OR 97214 Tel. 503.236.2876

Welcome Full Sail Brewing! Featuring Full Sail Brewer John Harris with Menu & Food Pairings by EastBurn Chef Joe Dougherty

Menu & Beverage Pairings:

Starter:
¨ Creamy Chestnut Bisque with a house-made Pizelle
Served with LTD 4-A Limited Edition Lager

Appetizers:
¨ Salmon Carpachio with a searing Olive Oil drizzle, garnished with Micro Greens and Pickled Red Onion"
Served with Full Sail Pale

¨ Duck Confit Pizzetta with Arugula and Shaved Farmhouse Cheese Served with Bump in the Night Cascadian Dark Ale"

~ Intermezzo ~
Chocolate Covered Neuske Bacon

Served with Black Gold 2009 Bourbon Aged Imperial Stout

Entrée:
¨ Pork Cheek Pastizzi - A Leek and Wild Mushroom Stuffed Pastry served over Pork Cheek Ragu with Cauliflower Cous Cous"

Served with Full Sail Amber

Dessert:
¨ To Be Determined"

Served with Black Gold 2011 Bourbon Aged Imperial Stout

Cost is $35 per person, which includes 5-courses of beer and food. All proceeds are donated to Ride On, Portland's Safe Ride Program. Tickets available in advance via PayPal or by stopping in to the EastBurn.

The Doc loves to report on any advances in Beer Cuisine. I regularly get info on the Eastburn dinners, but either a menu isn't included or I forget to post the event. Lets give kudos, where kudos are do. Lets encourage and support these local culinary educational advances!

San Francisco Beer Week Coming!!

2011-01-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

Nothing more needs to be said!

The Pseudo Craft Beer Revolution?

2011-01-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Before I start let me say, this subject has been gaining increased attention in Beer Geekdom on the Internet. It was many twists and turns with many different angles and views.

What is Pseudo Craft beer? Some may call it Gateway Beer, some say it's just a Bastardization and Misdirection of Beer styles to the public. "Gateway beer" doesn't fit the Pseudo mold, these beers may not be very exciting, but usually represent some sense of quality or sense of style profile. A Pseudo Beer is basically a Beer that pretends to be something that it's not. Lets give you an example of Pseudo Craft beers.

Here's a scenario that I'm sure many have experienced.

You invite some friends over for a party or social get together. You have a friend who knows that you are beer geek and wants to tote there knowledge or pick your brain for more info. Your friend tells you that they LOVE Craft beers, so you ask them what's their favorites. They tell you Blue Moon, AmberBock and Widmer HefeWeizen. Now being the beer geek that you are, you say well if you love those, you'll really like these. You pull out some classic of the style: a Belgian Wit, a German Bock and German Hefeweizen. Maybe, you pull out some great American renditions of these beers too! ;-}

Your CRAFT beer friend can't take the tartness and acidity of the Wit; The Bock is to Heavy and Rich; The Hefe is way to fruity and they wonder why it tastes like bananas and cloves.

You quickly realize.... Your friend is not a fan CRAFT Beers, they are fans of Pseudo Craft Beers. Whether these beers are made in a craft brewery or a major commercial brewery does not matter. Due to slick marketing and wrongful misdirection of the style name, drinkers are led to believe that THEIR CRAFT beer consumption is legitimate to the style on the label and elevates them to real CRAFT beer drinker. Disturbing?

Is this where the CRAFT Beer industry is going? Some say, this is the new revolution. Tell the consumer they're getting a banana and giving them a lemon slice. I could never figure out why Widmer serves a lemon with their beer. Then I figured it out... It's adds some taste to the tasteless beer! Label it as a bock, but give them some Red Dye #80. How about a Wit that taste like Zima with artificial Orange flavoring? Exaggerated? Yea, maybe, but I think you get the point?

There are Commercial and even Craft breweries out there as we speak promoting this Pseudo revolution. Lets be honest, there are thousands of Pseudo craft beer drinkers and there is money to be made off them. But... at what price? IS misdirection and fraudulently labeling a beer style on a label a legitimate course?

We can look locally and afar. While the Big Boys have been trying to get their fingers in the craft beer market for years with their deceptive games of creating phony breweries with new names that really don't exists.... Blue Moon (Coors), ALexander Keith's (Inbev-AB), Rickards (Coors/Molson) and the list goes on... Big Corporately owned Craft brewers are now following suit!

Here in the NW, we can't argue that Henry Weinhart's is producing boring and pathetic line up of pseudo beers! Some are brewed at Full Sail Brewery? Note: Nowhere could I find on either web site that Full Sail is brewing of any of these beer.... Hmmm?

Should we really care? Maybe that's question? With the rise of Pseudo Craft beers isn't there a fear that we could eventually homogenize the entire beer community? It's happened in the country before and it can happen again.

Currently, there is a rise in brewery and brewpub openings, but how many are catering primarily to the Pseudo drinkers and slowly "Watering Down" the craft beer industry? We have plenty of watered down chain breweries out there.... BJ's, Rock Bottom, Iron Hill, Granite Bay, RAM and so on. Oh, come on! You know what I'm talking about! Chain breweries that serve beers of different color but almost exactly the same taste. ;-} New craft breweries and even brew pubs opening are focusing more on simple craft industry beer standards with little expansion or creativity. While these breweries don't constitute Pseudo Beers, are they feeding the fire for over saturating the gateway market, but that a different argument for a different time. It's a small step from Pseudo to gateway beers. That said, there are plenty of small breweries producing quality lagers, ales and the like, but for how long?

Instead of going into more detail of this subject, maybe we should stop here and see what comments come from this post. We can expand this topic as questions and comments arise.

File Under: You've Got to be Frickin Kidding

2011-01-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

This is just to comical and hokey for words!

Elvis Beer!!! Could anyone have imagined? I think my Mom and half a zillion people over the age 60 would buy a bottle of this just because it has Elvis on the label! Marketing genius? Well... Lisa Marie's lawyers will be all over this if hits the shelves. They're want their profit cut! Worse than that.... It's ESB! Maybe put a photo of the later Elvis, all fat and bloated, call it Elvis Sloppy Bastard. Maybe they should hook up with Samurai Artist and do a Peanut Butter and Banana Beer to commemorate Elvis....or just fill it with Amphetamines! Damn.... the man was a train wreck!

Elvis?! Please! A man who had a voice, period. He was about as sharp as a Doorknob and had about zero writing or instrumental talent.

Elvis drag? Hmmm....

Quick! Run to the brewery! They plan on having Elvis related food! Holy Shit! I bet there'll be line outside the door waiting for this one! Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches, Meatloaf, Biscuits and Gravy, Cornbread? Don't forgot Elvis' last meal.... a big ol' bowl of Ice Cream and some cookies. Considering the guy died on the shitter, probably trying to push out all that solidified Fat that gummed up his colon; A bowl of prunes might of kept him alive. Wonder what'll save this beer and concept?

What's next? Sammy Davis Junior Beer? Frank Sinatra Beer? Dean Martin Beer? Maybe a Fruit Loop and Scotch beer, they can call it the Martin and Lewis Beer! Please make it stop!

2011 Beer Predictions

2011-01-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

Here we go again!

Lets' see how good the Doc can do this year.

National Beer/Booze Predictions

1. Micro-distilling will continue to rise and will be the next national Trend.

2. Beer Cocktails will continue to grow, as will Cocktail innovation.

3. Food/beer pairings/ beer dinners will continue to grow across the nation.

4. Old Fashion Cocktails will make a come back.

5. Gateway breweries and Brewpubs will pull away from Craft beer innovation to satisfy mainstream tastes rather than beer geeks. They'll be looking for the easy money.

6. Old breweries will continue to sell out to big corps.

7. There will be more defined lines between Beer Geeks and Gateway Craft beer drinkers.

8. A New Beer style or innovation will emerge this year.

9. Over saturation of Gateway beers will begin and we'll see a peak in Price and then a fall.

10. Vintage beers will come to forefront (Finally). A new appreciation of aging and cellaring beer will start to catch hold.

Local Beer Scene

1. A New Food/beer appreciation will start to take hold.

2. An Increase in small local Cheese makers will spark interest in Beer and Cheese pairings.

3. New Brew pubs will slow in NW, but gateway Brewpubs will expand in America making all NW beers look even more common place.

4. High end Beers will remain high end and followers will band in elite tribes.

5. One or two small Local Breweries and/or Brew Pubs will fail this year.

6. A large local brewery will have some major difficulties.

7. CDA will never become a Nationally named Style.

8. Spent Grains will find a new life in food or baked products.

9. McMenamins will finally open their Crystal Hotel Downtown, but it'll be a flop.

10. There will be a small resurgence of Lager beers being brewed, but will fall quick because locals can't drink anything that's not deluged in hops.

11. Someone will produce a Beer Dessert or Doughnut that becomes the rage.

12. No one will open a new Beer Pub that caters to Beer Geeks.

13. A local Blogger will show their true colors and it won't be pretty.

Doc Worts 2010 Beer Predictions - Revisisted!

2011-01-03T12:50:00.000-08:00

The late Jean Dixon.... Headache, Soothsaying or just Constipated?

It's time to review Doc Wort's beer predictions. Back in January 2010, the Doc made his beer predictions.

A copy of the perdiction's and current status in beer world.

Within the beer world (not local), the Doctor predicts an increase in Beer Dinners and new upscale Gastro Pubs.

Yes... We've seen an increase in local and national Beer dinners. Gastro pubs have been popping up all over the nation and few in Oregon.

Barrel fermented beers have run their course, but some will continue to tweak the present.

Boulevard Brewing and others have continued to brew barrel conditioned beers, but it seems to be petering out. This years Holiday Ale Fest showed a drastic decline in Barrel Fermented beers , but an upswing in Belgian and Sour beers.

Sour Beers (Oh, how I hate the terminology! I'd prefer Wild Yeast better) will continue on the rise.

Sour Beers are being produced around the nation in small batches. We have seen baby steps in some national regions and at home. Oregon has caused a tidal ripple with Cascade brewing's version of a singular Soured beer. A singular Souring agent called Lactobacillus which is usually an agent known for spoiling food and turning Wine to a rancid mess. While Lacto can be found in some Belgian Styled Sour beers, it is usually "one" of many different bacteria and yeasts that produce a complex taste profile to these beers. Initial versions of the Lacto beers were more reminiscent of Vinegar based salad dressing with hints of Fingernail polish. Thankfully, Cascade has toned and balanced out these intense negative flavor notes and the beers have become more pleasant. The Doc is still not a major fan, but has had some quasi interesting beers from Cascade. I couldn't believe a raving brain dead alcoholic would have enjoyed the original versions, but considering some of our Portland local drinkers.... I wasn't to surprised. ;-} While far from as complex compared to a Belgian Spontaneous fermented or Wild Yeast infused beers and even less complex than other national Belgian sour imitations; These beers are continuing have a strong and even new following with their simplistic linear moderate sourness and acidity. Other Belgian or American Styles Sours are few and far between in the NW.... and that's a shame. Phillie's Monk Cafe, Roots, Jolly Pumpkin, New Belgian and HOTD all have attempted successful Flanders Red styles, but most Traditional Belgian Sour styles have remained untouched by Oregon brewers. Let's not even talk about some poor NW versions of cloyingly sweet Belgian-ish styles being produced.

Remember when breweries only made standard ales?

Standard Ales will continue to be explored at nauseum..... It's all been done, so everybody will try and tweak their standards ales into funky dimensions. Not all will be satisfying!

You can see Jeff's post on unsuccessful beers that have been taken into funky dimensions. That said, NEW Brewpubs continue to open with the Standard ale fare at nauseum. Some decent New Standard ales are being produced..... but when there's 100's of Great IPA's or Porter, why do we continue to dwell on this shit? There is a vast sea to explore, lets not stop now.

We will continue to see a path of high alcohol beers. Why? It's America! Bigger must be better and we have lots of beer drinkers who are it for the buzz.

Yep.

Beer Cocktails will make a short but dying appearance in 2010.

Yep. Personally enjoy all promos for beer cocktails that do NOT include recipes. Come on! If we want to spread the word, people have to be able to enjoy them at home too.

Increase in sell outs and buy outs. Creating even more boring homogenized standard ales.

Rock Bottom/Gordon Biersch.... need I say more?

LOCALLY? That's the big questions, eh?

I'd like to say that the IPA will die a slow death like the Hoola-Hoop, the Pet Rock or the VHS, but considering the ongoing relentless barrage from IPA Nation in the NW it will be a slow and embarrassing death.

The word is getting out and glimmers of the end are coming! I've seen bloggers toting the phrase, "Yet another IPA?" YAY!

New NW Belgians?

With the interest in Cascade Brewing's lacto-infected beers and our hopeful Upright Brewing, I see more Belgian beers being brewed in 2010! This is a great thing to the doctor. How far will they advance? Lost Abbey? Russian River? Jolly Pumpkin? Allagash? Eh, I don't think so... It'll be a slow progression and Uprights Belgian entries have been moderate to unsuccessful attempts. Of note, "Turkey on Rye!" WTF was this? Some people loved it, the Doc thought it tasted like science experiment gone A-RYE. Not a lot of ground being made there.

No breakthroughs... but things are progressing.

New local brewpubs round up!

New Brewpubs continue to Beat a Dead Horse with Standard ales and repetitive banal food choices. With the exception of Burnside Brewery which promises new exciting food and beer combos, all the other new brewpubs are maintaining the status quo of crappy food and standard ales. Sandwiches, tiresome pub grub and standard ale tap lists. Why not just all get together and call yourself BJ's or Rock Bottom?

A tell-tale list of some new local brew pubs tap list:

Coalition Brewing
KING KITTY RED
5.74% ABV, 59 IBU, 11.6 SRM
BUMP'S BITTER ESB
5.5% ABV, 55.6 IBU, 7.2 SRM
MR. PIGS PALE ALE
5.0% ABV, 54 IBU, 6.4 SRM
HANSO STOUT
6.8% ABV, 71 IBU, 39.3 SRM
TWO DOGS IPA
6.1% ABV, 70 IBU, 8.0 SRM
THE WU CREAM ALE
4.8% ABV, 29 IBU, 6.0 SRM
THE LOVING CUP MAPLE PORTER
5.48% ABV, 38 IBU, 20.2 SRM

Mt Tabor brewing scores a Hit with their Stout but the rest of the taplist is rather tiresome.
Dragon Lounge Pale Ale - American Pale Ale with a Chinese twist. Custom Brewed for the Canton Grill. 5.6% ABV 41 IBUs.

Asylum Ave IPA - Bittered with Amarillo and finished with loads of Cascades, this beer will drive hop heads insane. 6.8% ABV 66 IBUs.

Amber Ale - Our interpretation of a classic American ale. Deep copper in color, balancing the line of maltiness with a focus on NW hops. 5.5% ABV, 36 IBU

Soapbox Blonde Ale - Pilsen malt with a dash of honey malt gives this beer a crisp but sweet taste. Finish that steep descent and this beer will reward you. 5.5% 28.2 IBUs.

Little Bull Stout - Dark, hoppy, and delicious, the only thing "Little" is the name. 7.0% ABV 100+ IBUs.

P5 Pale Ale - Named for the Historical Landmark located outside our brewery this Pale Ale embodies the spirit of the regions pioneers with it's look to the future. A generously hopped pale ale with a finish that leaves you wanting more. 5.8% ABV 32 IBUs

Migration Brewing Co.
*Migration Pale Ale

A smooth drinking pale ale that features biscuit and crystal malts blended with 3 different hops, this copper colored pale has a perfectly malty body coupled with a crisp hop finish.

abv: 5.6% ibu’s: 56

*Clem’s Cream Ale:

Light on the hops, big on the flavor this blond ale is made with oats which lend to the beer’s smooth creaminess. Rounded out with 2 different hops, the Clem’s is one laid back, easy drinking beer.

abv: 4.6% ibu’s: 22

*Luscious Lupulin IPA

Hoppy goodness! This dry hopped IPA exudes big citrusy aromatics followed by a well balanced blend of 3 different hops and malts that makes this beer simply luscious.

abv: 6.5% ibu’s: 77

*Old Silenus Ale

A unique twist to an Old English recipe, the Silenus is deep mahogany in color and fills the palette with a rich malt body and faint cherry & cocoa undertones. Dominated by fuggles hops and 5 different malts this is a beer that Old Silenus can be proud of!

abv: 6.3% ibu’s: 75

*Terry’s Porter

Big and bad is the way this porter plays the game! A robust deep brown body with a balanced, mild sweetness, Terry’s is the perfect compilation of 4 malts and hops making this one an instant Portland classic.

Even with the self-proclaimed gleaning descriptions, these lineup is just not very enthralling.

Lagers? Meh.

Heater Allen continues to produce some moderately good beers. Chuckanut is Washington seems to be holding the NW lager torch and running with their GABF now famed wins.

Beer and food pairing? There is great potential, but I don't feel there is the right audience for real quality. We'll see.

With the opening of Burnside Brewpub we are hoping for some quality food/Beer combos. Of course, with the opening of the new HOTD taproom, we can see a clear vision of where quality food and beer can go.

The Crystal Ball is brightly illuminating.... and what does it show? On yes! I can see it clearly! A second shameless anniversary party for one of our local blogs! Oh, the humanity! :-O

Shameless self promotion and chronic dick waving seems to be the local theme with some local bloggers. I can't be anymore embarrassed to be a beer blogger with these sell out antics and money grubbing schemes.

OK...... The Doctor is going out on a limb here!! A far off prediction! I see McMenamin's doing a premium series of beers and bottling them! Whew! That was a tough one.... anybody into that kind of gamble? What would the odds be?

Obviously the odds were pretty high, as we didn't see this come to fruition, let alone an increase in quality of their hopelessly poor quality menu's and food.

New Year Hangover Remedy

2011-01-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

Dr Wort Hangover Cure

Menudo - A traditional Mexican dish, made with beef stomach (Tripe) in a clear broth or with a red chili base. Usually, lime, chopped onions, and chopped cilantro are added, as well as crushed oregano and crushed red chili peppers. According to Mexican mystics and high standing cholos, Menudo heals the head with the rising vapors of the chili's heat... The Lime and Onions sustain the Liver, and the Tripe rejuvenates the Human stomach lining.

Lava Ash Enema Sessions - The lava ash absorbs all the toxins in your body. It is advised that you fill an enema bag with a quart of Finnish Spring water mixed with Northwest Volcanic Ash. Northwest Lava Ash seems to work best for leaching toxins out of the system, its seems to have sucked the intelligence and sense of humor out of most NW natives. Insert and fill bowels with Ash/water mixture and purge. Repeat 5 times.

Barbara Streisand's Christmas album - Because.... Well... It's a Christmas miracle in itself. Why not see if it works on your hangover.

Dog Farts - Known to increase the gag reflux with the most noxious aroma ever created by an animal who prefers to lick it's ass. Helps ya purge the post party chicken strips, mac-n-cheese and Jalapeno Popper remnants .

Hair of the Dog! - Can't be hungover if ya just stay drunk! A couple good belts of Ancient Age or Old Grand Dad will wake ya up and knock out that throbbing head in about 30 seconds!

2010 Beers of the Year? Oh, Please.... No!

2010-12-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

I love beer rating lists if I know they are reliable, which means it has to be compiled by some one who shares the Doc's personal taste in beer. This means most Beer Lists are about as entertaining as reading a People magazine. You can read through pages and pages on the web and read tons of "Best of" lists. Best IPA, Best New Brewery, Best Stout, etc. It all doesn't mean shit to anybody if you don't share the same beer preferences of those doing the rating.

The Doc doesn't like to create "Best of" lists. Nor would he make a stupid guttural statement like, "My favorite beer is the one I'm drinking right now." That's just stupid, that's implying you'll enjoy drinking anything! I'll dump a beer if I don't like it... or ask the bartender to dump it and buy another one. I can hear Bill's sphincter pucker and a yelp with that statement! ;-}

Dr Wort would definitely would NOT put a Budmilloors to his lips, let alone drink a PABST. Not saying, he's never drank a PABST! he drank a PABST long before the Brainless Hipster morons thought it was cool! It wasn't good then, and isn't any better now!

Doc tries to buy beers he thinks he'll like. Hype runs the beer world, so nothing is sure thing! On occasion he'll try some new Standard styled Ales. He'll even find a real good Porter, IPA or whatever. That said, after many years of drinking his way through 1000's standard ales, there are more than a handful of great standard ales made throughout the country and world. When it comes to standard ales, the Doc takes on the "been then, done that" mentality. A great IPA or Blond ale can be found in many breweries across the country. Find one ya like? Great! Drink it! They just don't rock my world anymore and the Doc wants to be rocked! remember, the Doc doesn;t just drink beer! He drinks Liquor and wine too! Yes! he's pretty much a drunk on every level! But, a classy drunk! ;-}

What about a session beer, Doc? There's plenty of decent session beers. Back in the day... way back. I remember thinking that Buzzards Breath Ale from Big Rock in Canada was a great session beer. I'm sure it would be considered boring by modern standards, but it was a great session beer for it's time. Buzzards Breath, Moose Drool? What the hell does the NW have going on with animal excretions? Kind of weird and maybe sexually twisted?

Jeff over at Beervana has picked his ENLIGHTENMENT beer of the year.... A 7.5% Porter called Prodigal Son Bruce/Lee Porter from Prodical Son Brewers in Pendelton, OR. WHO? WHERE? WHATEVER?! That's like saying Deschutes Abyss is a great Russian Imperial Stout, so I'll make it my enlightenment beer every year?!

So... What's the big allure with Bruce Lee Porter? You got me! I'm sure Bruce wouldn't appreciate it! It's a big Robust Porter. period. I sampled this beer at Bailey's tap house in Portland. It's creamy, silky and smooth. Big Coffee and Chocolate that lingers on the tongue. Hops are WELL balanced! Wow! What a novelty in the NW.... Maybe that deserves an award in itself. A brewer that has enough brewing skill to actually balance a beer! here's the thing.... Have you had a similar tasting beer in your lifetime of beer drinking? ABSOLUTELY! Can't make the top of any list if tastes familiar in any way. A great Porter is a great porter, but Earth moving Zen enlightenment? Come on Jeff. If the Doc is judging beer to style the game changes. If picking a beer that's best of the year..... Not going to be something I've tasted before.... It has to be unique. Nothing unique for that year? There's no TOP beer of the year.

Jeff has challenged the Doc to post a Best Beer of the Year. Well.... That's like trying to pick your favorite food! Here's a few of the Doc Top Beers of the year. Locals may be surprised at one of my choices.... and YES, it's from the NW.

UPDATE!

The Bruery - Rugbrød

This was one of the best beers of the year! Named after a Danish Rye Bread! This is like a liquid Christmas bread! Big deep pumpernickel-ish aroma with deep dark chocolate, prunes, figs and the like. Very Smooth and silky (where have I read that before?) Figgy and spicy with rich layers of dark chocolate and dark sugars. Holiday Spice.. Nutmeg and hints of Juniper berries. Truly amazing beer.... and truly original.

Monk’s Blood - 21st Amendment Brewery

A Belgian Dark Strong Ale. A successful collaboration between 21st and the De Struise Brewers in Belgium. The beer took over a year to brew, blend and complete. What they produced is a very unique beer you won't find anywhere. With a huge list of ingredients, this beer packs a major complex flavor profile. Dried mission figs, caramelized sugars, spice and so on. It's slightly on the sweet side but very complex with layers and layers depth and flavor. The beer constantly changes as it warms and morphs into a different directions, while flavors burst from every direction. Dark Fruits, Figs, vanilla, cinnamon, oak, etc. It's a wonderful drinking experience.! A true Zen experience!

Angel’s Share Grand Cru -The Lost Abbey

Strong Wood-Aged Beer. Like Firestone's 10, 11, 12 series, this beer is produced by blending old with the new. An old Belgian technique for layering flavors and complexity. I thought this years Angels Hair was just amazing. Artistic blend on many past vintages. Just getting you hands on won of these babies is like winning the lottery. A Beer Geek Orgasmic experience to purchase and drink. It's nice having friends all over the country that can acquire these beers for the Doc. Odells woodcut series could have easily made this short list, but I'm few if any have tasted it in the NW, so what's the point?

Not giving up the ghost on this one... You'll have to find it and try it yourself! Well worth the investment and time!

Oakshire O’Dark:30 - Oakshire Brewery

I'll be honest, I haven't had many Oakshire beers and Ill Tempered Gnome doesn't rock my socks either. O'Dark is an amazing beer! To the Doc, it encompasses what a CDA or whatever we want to call it this week, should be. It's roasty, it's hoppy and it has great depth. Period. Don't have my tasting notes, but it makes a statement that others should be compared too. This is the epitome of NW brewing. Big, overblown, off balance and obnoxious. Finesse, artistic balance not in the cards here.

Hair of the Dog - Reloaded!

2010-12-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

Not a surprise to anyone who is a regular reader... I LOVE HOTD! Why not? A highly Internationally renowned brewery that loves to create beers outside of the box. It has Doc Wort written all over it! We now have a HOTD brewery and tasting room. That's the understatement of the year!

The Doc made an unannounced visit to the brewery. Alan Sprints, The most talented jack-of-all-trades (Master of many!) brewer and chef in Oregon, period. This cannot be argued, although, some may try! The first Brewery in the Northwest to get 5 Stars from Michael Jackson. Who can argue with that? Brewer extraordinaire and CHEF! YES! I said CHEF! Few know that Alan is a trained Chef. Food and beer go together like Words to Music. A rarely noted combination in Oregon. Home to the Burger and Beer.... and host of other painfully overdone Pub SCRUB (I meant to say SCRUB) and beer. Rarely do we see a brewery that marries quality food with quality beer. Alan is Pioneering again! Pioneering a new Oregon Concept... Brewery Food that pairs Quality beer with quality Food. Yea, I know, it's happening else where out there in Portland, but here's a brewer who's taking a unique stand. Alan's brewing the beer and cooking the food! HOTD is making a statement... Quality Beer deserves quality good.

The Doc has read many people out there whining about the prices. All I have to say is, "You get what you pay for!" It's time for Portland's to take a walk on the Wild Side and come into the 21st Century! Combining and enjoying their quality beer with quality well appointed food. Beer has long been a Pizza and Burger partner! Get over it! Move on! That was your dads beer/food combo.... and it sucked ass!

Food. No Nachos, No Burger, No CRAP... No Shit!

Charcuterie and Cheese plate

Wonderfully Top Notch! Meats from Salumi and Framini. Salumi is owned by Mario Batali's family in Seattle. All three meats were absolutely amazing in quality and taste; Salami (Framini), Hot Coppa and Finocchia Salami (Salumi).

Cheese were all quality and interesting from Washington and other American craft Creameries. No run of the Mill grocery store Tillamook or Safeway Salami here.

Pickled, Cured veggies and olives were also excellent.

My Custom Taster

No BUDmilloors here! NO frickin trendy PBR for the moron masses!

Want something light.... HOTD has a Guest German Pils and it is clean, fresh and tasty. Can't remember the German brewery.

My taster consisted of Little Dog, Adam, Doggie Claws and Peach Fred.

Bourbon Peach Fred : Conditioned in Bourbon Barrels. Fred is married with local Peaches. My first critique was FLOATERS! The beer came with some peach pith floaters. I'm not sure if that was the intention, but there they are. the beer is is well rounded and fairly dry. Hints of malty Fred blends lightly with moderate hints of peach, Bourbon and some oak. Kind of reminded me of Southern Comfort light. A nice beer. Not very bold, but had some nice subtleties.

Doggie Claws 2010: I usually have a preview taste of the annual Doggie Claws. rarely do I or would I ever drink this beer fresh. This is a personal preference. Drinkable when fresh; This beer carries a load of sweetness and a combo of complex malts, hops and honey. For me, it just needs to age before it can be drunk. I prefer a mellower, more matured Doggie Claws. When the malts round out and hops subside into the meld of malt to become a wonderful musical dance. 2010 is great beer. Loaded with all the favorite characters. Big complex malts, Honey and some nice spicy hops.

Little Dog: I was quite surprised with this beer. It was extremely tasty! Toted as made form the Second Runnings of Doggie Claws, this beer has a firm and complex maltiness. Caramels, toast and deep fruit. The beer is well hopped but not obnoxious. Spicy hops loom above the mirage of maltiness. A beautiful little(?) beer.

The Vintage Bottle list cover all the basics: Matt, Fred from the Wood, Cherry Adam and the like. While I hear some of you out there complain about the prices, these are mostly small batch beers and are of extremely great quality. All created and bottled for aging. I chose a bottle of 2009 Michael. ($12) It was well worth the money!

Michael: Named for our late beloved "Beer Hunter" Michael Jackson. A Belgian Red style aged in Oak barrels. Wonderful complex Strong Pungent Cheese, Wood and Vinous notes. Heavenly complex nose (oh! Sorry aroma!). I could have sat there and enjoyed the aroma for an hour, but had to delve into drinking. Amber/Reddish in color and fairly clear. Nice tight lace head. Body on the thinner side. Flavor packs a nice sour punch with deep oak wood, backed up by some fruity malts. Vinous in flavor and body with some acidic notes on tongue. A little acetic acid? unlike another local brewery that buried it's beer in pure Acetic acid (Vinegar) and acetone (fingernail polish); Michael is a beautiful marriage of many wild yeasts and a hint of lactto. You can taste the barrel wood and the malty fruitiness marries well. The finish is like aroma.... Wild Yeasts, sour, some slick oily malt, puckery fruit and some acid. It's a nice beer. I have to credit as being one of only two local Flanders Reds that hold a candle to the Belgian originals. Roots Flanders Red hold the other listing.

This beer would go nice with some complex rich cheeses and a beef dish.

The PLACE

Brewery

With the exception of a new Conditioning tank the brewery i the same with the classic Campbell's Soup Bowl Kettle sitting in the center of the brew house. Albeit, the brewery looks more well organized and less Rube Goldberg like the older location. The rest of the brewery space is huge an expansive with plenty of room for warehouse and shipping space. Rooms for expansion? Absolutely!

Tasting room

Large with high warehouse ceilings and big wood beams. Bright colors and home spun lighting fixtures made by Alan himself. The bar and some table are made from the left over renovation timber form the warehouse. So, all you GREEN freaks will be happy with that! Plenty of space for congregating, eating and socializing. The bar is a large U-shaped recycled timber bar. Bright, airy and comfortable.

Bathrooms!

Oh yes! For those of your who remember the old upstairs bathroom at the Old Brewery.... The new bathrooms are 150% CLASS! Black Granite counters. Beautiful tiling and a grand lavatory experience. ;-) Has the feel of a quality restaurant. Where's the man to hand me a towel!

A wonderful new space with some great food and always great beer! Thank You Alan!

"Cascadian Dark Ale" Beating a Dead Horse?

2010-12-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

Must we continue whining like a bunch of buffoons here in the NW?

For God's Sake... Read Andy Crouch's Article on this subject! He clearly states that the NW did NOT invent the damn style. What more needs to be said? Can we please stop all the whining and protesting, you're just looking like a bunch of bleeding heart dumb asses!

Andy appears to be level headed guy who's just laying out the facts. He looks and sounds rational....

Here's a couple more little slices of life. Lets start with a positive slant on CDA.

Wikipedia generously defines:

Cascadian Dark Ale.
The Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA) (or "Black IPA") is a relatively new variant of IPA, with a characteristically dark or black appearance, due to roasted malts, while retaining the hop aroma typical of the IPA style. Examples of this style include Heavy Seas Black Cannon, Stone Brewing Company Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, Hopworks Urban Brewery Secession Black IPA, Widmer Brothers Brewery W'10 Pitch Black IPA, Laughing Dog Brewery Dogzilla, Cascade Brewing Dark Day, Deschutes Brewery Hop In The Dark CDA, Thornbridge Brewery Raven, Victory Brewing Company Yakima Glory (formerly Yakima Twilight), the Blue Star Donkey Lady, and LoneRider Grave Robber Black IPA, Garrison Brewing Black IPA. The name refers to the Pacific Northwest Region of the United States ("Cascadia", related to the Cascade Mountain Range, near where Cascade Hops are grown), where many current commercial versions are made. The style was invented by Greg Noonan in Vermont in the early 1990s, and by the mid-2000s there were several commercial versions made in that state.

Two important points stick out:

1. The Style was invented by a well known Brewer (Gregg Noonan) in Vermont. Gregg was very well known and his history is well documented.

2. Read the locations of all the examples of CDA given. It's a beer that's been and currently being brewed all over the nation. One of the oldest classic examples comes from Stone Brewing. A brewery in California.... NOT CASCADIA! NOR is Vermont in CASCADIA!

What's next NW? Wanna claim fame to Maple Syrup!!

OK.... I can hear the whining continue.... I hear, "But we have made the style popular" or "We make it better."

WRONG!! Not according to any of the Beer rating sites. Lets call them the voice of the people. Beer Advocate is based on the East Coast and RATE beer is based on West. So between the two, we can say if a FAIR voice of the beer nation.

Whether it's East Coast or West Coast, the lists looks about the same and guess what??? The Cascadian CDA's do not dominate with preference in style. In fact, favorable beers within style are all over the country.

How and why would one area even try and call it their own? Because we grow the hops??!!! That's stupid! They're using NW hops too!

Here's Beer Advocates top Black IPA/CDA's

1. Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale - Stone Brewing Co.

2. Iniquity (Imperial Black Ale) - Southern Tier Brewing Company

3. Serious Madness - Mad River Brewing Company

4. Or - Cigar City Brewing

5. Hop In The Dark Cascadian Dark Ale - Deschutes Brewery

6. Dark Hops - Beer Here

7. Yakima Glory - Victory Brewing Company

8. Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet (Black I.P.A.) - Clown Shoes

9. Otter Creek Alpine Black IPA - Otter Creek Brewing / Wolaver's

10. Either - Cigar City Brewing

11. Trout Hop Black IPA - Grand Teton Brewing Co.

12. Skookum Cascadian Brown Ale - Phillips Brewing Company

13. Flashback Ale - Boulder Beer / Wilderness Pub

14. W'10 Pitch Black IPA - Widmer Brothers Brewing Company

15. Bashah - BrewDog Ltd

16. Black Perle - RJ Rockers Brewing Co.

17. Blue Point Toxic Sludge - Blue Point Brewing Company

18. Terrapin Capt'n Krunkles Black IPA - Terrapin Beer Company

19. Back In Black - 21st Amendment Brewery

20. DogZilla Black IPA - Laughing Dog Brewing

Holiday Ale Clone Wars

2010-12-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

I love Holiday Ales. It's a brewers chance to spread their wings and do something new and interesting. At least, so you'd think!

For the Doc, it's all about something original. Who wants chronically reproduced clone beers that are trying to emulate an older established classic beer. What the hell am I talking about?! Clones my friends! Copycats... Chronic regurgitation's of the same ol shit! I hate it!

After tasting through some high quality Local Holiday beers at the Holiday ale fest, I decided I'd buy some other Oregon bottled products. What a huge mistake!

Terminal Gravity's Festivale, HUB's Abominable Winter ale and few others which will rename un-named, but you know who you are out there!!!

What's the point? They're all the same!

I remember tasting Rogues Santa's Revenge and Laurelwood's Vinter Varmer, thinking, I've had these beers before.... Long long ago. It's an attempt at a Sierra Nevada Celebration ale! A nice complex hoppy beer with a complex firm malt base. It's a Holiday ale Classic! Had it and enjoyed it many time. Why, why, why.... does everybody have to try and clone this beer and call it something different? "Complex hops and firm malt base." Sounds great! But do have to beat the shit out it into the ground!?

HUB has a little description on their bottle, " Made with Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe Hops and six organic malts." Really!!??? Is there malt in there? I couldn't tell! Tasted like that same ol Northwest standby to me... Lots of Citrus Hops and a malt base that's so hidden it might as well be Lipton Ice Tea. What a waste of time! Pinesol with alcohol. Now, I do like hops. They can add a nice nuance to the beer... Spicy, Earthy, etc. I even like Hoppy beers if done right.. That means they have enough malt to balance the hop blast. Sierra Nevada Celebration has a nice hopiness, but enough complex malt to balance out the barrage of hops. Based on this concept.. I'd say, "Dip your socks in Abomination Ale and hang it from your rear view mirror to keep they stench out of your car." A Celebration it is not, nor is it drinkable.

Terminal Gravity Festivale. Might as well be called Terminal Brewing techniques! Murky! I could end with that statement. Hops are just bitter and murky. Malt is fruity but murky and globby. Color is amber and murky. WTF? I see where they were going... and so do you! SN Celebration! Not even close.... It's a home brew gone bad.

Just so you think I'm not just picking on Oregon Beers. I reviewed 21st Amendments Fireside Holiday ale not to long ago. What did I describe? An Anchor Our Holiday Ale wanna-be.

Do yourself a favor. Buy a six pack of Sierra Nevada Celebration and forget the rest. Why drink a cheap copy when you can have the original? No new ground is being added! Just taking away from the quality you could be drinking.

No photos have been added! I'm not promoting any of these Clone beers..... ;-}

Playing with Jeff...

2010-12-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

Lets' set the record straight!

Over the years, many have enjoyed the harmless, albeit, vicious banter between Doc Wort and Jeff Alworth at Beervana. The Doc has received all kinds of nasty emails and posts, standing behind Jeff's moderate beer babble and hokey reviews. Some have suggested that the Doc and Jeff are the same person; The Doc being Jeff's evil twin personality! Jeff could and must have an evil beer twin in his brain. It must be hard for to restrain himself at times.... All those Bullshit flowery kudos he gives upon the most mediocre beers one can swill. In all seriousness, The Doc and Jeff hold no ill feelings towards each other. Sorry to disappoint the readers! We're the classic storytellers dream: Good vs. Evil. If there is any question to this statement, you can look at our Blog hits. Anytime Jeff and the Doc get into a heated debate our hits roll like the dollar signs on a gas pump!

Since it's the giving season.... The Doc was trolling some of Jeff's old posts. Going back to the 2006 Holiday Beer season. In keeping with our ongoing banter, Doc submits these Beervana treats of beer evaluation. Who loved ya baby! ;-)

Full Sail Wreck the Halls
Since Full Sail already had one winter seasonal, John Harris's cult favorite is called a "brewmaster's reserve." But make no mistake, with a name like "Wreck the Halls," you know it's a holiday beer. After Sierra Nevada's Celebration, Wreck the Halls may inspire the most fervent devotion of any winter ale, but of the two, it seems more worthy to me.

Tasting Notes
Pours out a warm bronze with a pretty white head, and bursts with aroma. Bursts, as in an orange, sending its citrus into the air like a freshly-peeled fruit. Almost every winter ale will be better six months or a year after it was bottled, but this is the exception--you want to get a bottle while those hops are still so energetic.

Wow Jeff! That's just amazing! The beer tastes and smells like Citrus, period. Don't hold back on that description! Are your describing Lemonade?

Blitzen (tripel) - Rock Bottom Brewery
Long ago there was a chain restaurant in downtown Portland with a theme--they all have themes--of beer. You could get cute little ales that tasted like soda with your mediocre food. It was so popular people packed the joint. It was the one brewery in Oregon I never wrote about when I was writting for Celebrator and Willamette Week, because I refused to recognize it as a brewery. (They were pissed, but they would have been more so if I actually wrote about their beers.) Well, all that has changed. They brew real beers now, and I actually go out of my way to try them. This offering is a very tough style, and even good examples suffer by not having the complexity you'd find in a brewery with a 200-year-old yeast strain. That said, this was one of the best American examples I've had, with a complex recipe and decent yeast character. The head was remarkable, too--like whipped cream.

This is a great post where you have to read between the lines. A pub with a Beer theme? Really, what a concept. Beers that taste like soda and mediocre food AND Popular with the locals. What does this tell you about the local palate for quality beer and food?

Beer description: You like the Beer and it has a good head. Any other descriptions of the beer? Color, Aroma or flavor? Maybe a little background on what a Tripel should taste like? A Comparison? Anything? Nope! You like it and it has a great head? Sounds like a night at Cat House.

You note that you now have a Rock Bottom beer that you can review, (Even though you didn't!) but still don't balance it out with the fact that the crappy ones still exist? No new comments on food quality.... Guess we are to assume it's still mediocre? What's next... Philadelphia's prized Ketchup dispensers?

Cuvée de Noël - St. Feuillien
No notes on this one. I recall that it emphasized the malts and was smoother and less complex than I expected. A gentler winter warmer.

This is my favorite! No notes! The beer has malts and was smoother than you expected. What did you expect? Something Jeff... anything would have been nice.

Golden Valley Tannen Bomb
When I first encountered Tannen Bomb in 1998, Golden Valley was having a little trouble with its yeast. Something in the process produced excess diacetyl, which actually made for quite a beer. It was ultra silky and butterscotchy, and you could gobble down a pint without recognizing it was 8% alcohol ... and thus did you get (Tannen) bombed. The brewery has gotten things under control, and now Tannen Bomb is a more complex ale and not nearly so stealthy (probably good).

DW: Trouble with yeast equates into BAD Sanitation and care of Yeast! Diacetyl = Poor mash temps or poor conditioning. So you like the Diacetyl off flavor and gobble it down? The reader should have stopped reading there! So, the beer is fixed, but your review is still empty and flawed.

It is about the color of maple syrup, and only just slightly less thick. The main aromatic note is alcohol--it smells big. Golden Valley calls it a strong ale, but it also tastes big, with the body and alcohol of a barleywine. It could do with a month or two of age, when the roasted malts, alcohol, and hops blend more fluidly together. But even at this stage, it's quite nice. Sally keeps sneaking over for sly sips as I write this.

Hops: Chinook, Liberty, Fuggles, alcohol:8.0% abv, bitterness units: 50, Rating: Good.

DW; Almost as thick as Maple syrup! Wow! Must have the consistency of 40 weight auto oil! Smells like alcohol and big! What does BIG smell like? Big Feet? Big Ass? Maybe Sally can tell us what the beer tastes like?

Full Sail Wassail
Full Sail's venerable winter ale has been brewed since 1988, and--full disclosure--it's long been my favorite. It's another one of the beers that is released too early, and which I buy too early, with delight. As evidence of how things have changed, it appears the recipe is now fixed (Full Sail gives very little data about what's in their beers, though they used to give all the details.) Until a few years ago, however, they would mix it up every year, using different hops, slightly differing malts--just to shake things up. I guess we've come to a "mature" phase where that kind of variability is no longer considered good business.

Wassail is a deep brown, almost tending toward porter dark. It has a pronounced roasted aroma, a bit like fresh toast. The flavor is a deep, resonant mixture, the dark malts blending with the hops for a dark, satisfying winter warmer. It also has a sweet quality somewhat akin to Cola or chocolate, drawn out by the very dry, bitter finish. In fact, that's not a bad comparison--it's liquid version of very dark, artisinal chocolate. Rich and decadent. The version on shelves now is, like Jubel, a little green, and I'll have to do a fuller review in a couple months.

Finally! We get a beer description!!! YAY!! Oh.. wait! We're lacking a little in the flavor descriptions.... What Hop flavors and aromas does the hop bring to the beer? Are the malt flavors fruity? caramel? Nutty? Roasty, chocolatey, etc? Sweet like Cola or Chocolate? Which one? All in all, not bad description. Doesn't a little green in the bottle basically mean... Bottled too soon or are you trying to say the beer needs to maturate in the bottle?

OK.... I've kept my end of our relationship. Cheers Jeff! Have a great Holiday Season.

Michael Jackson - Cred for the Master

2010-12-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

We live in a age where the beer industry is marred with elevated egos and self proclaimed beer prophets. New School, Old School? What does it matter? It does matter! Beer Style, Beer Profile, Beer Evaluation.... does any of it matter? I hear plenty of people who say NO. Blathering self ego stroking idiots, spewing out praise for crappy and mediocre beer with little understanding and definitely no sense of evaluation skills, nor vocabulary to even describe a Bud from a Bock. Where is the validity? Who do we turn to for answers? Who started it all? Who is the master? Who has what the modern generation refer to as CRED? Really only one man has the credential to be called the MASTER of Beer knowledge and reference. Michael Jackson.

I came across some of these videos on Michael Jackson. Some are "Lost Tapes" for the up and coming Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter movie. Also included is part of his Beer Hunter series. All credits go to those who created these videos.

So... The next time someone wants to flaunt their "LACK" of beer knowledge on the web, remember this is the man who had all the cred. You can't turn your back to the master or dumb down what he built for the respect of beer and brewing. Respect the beer.. don't dumb it down for your own benefit. Preach from the Masters podium, not belittle his efforts.

I remember the Beer Hunter series very well. Filmed in 1989-90. The beer scene was new and fresh. It was an exciting time when craft brewing was just coming out of grass roots efforts. Brewing wasn't hip or cool. Brewers weren't rock stars to anybody but... Beer Geeks. The original beer geeks who started a Revolution in American brewing. This was back in a time when being a Beer Geek was...geeky. I was Beer Geek and I still am a Beer Geek. It was a much more pleasant Beer World when the Geek factor was small and the Geeks were real Geeks. ;-}

Thank You Michael....

Holiday Ale Fest- Review 2010

2010-12-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Here we go.... I like to start writing while the memories are fresh and so is the buzz! I have no good and bad list. Just reading notes and copying down my thoughts.

Lets start with the Trampy logo. Why? What does this Betty Page photo have to do with a Holiday Beer fest? kind of brings a trashy feel to the event.

Moving on.... The Doc had no wait for entry. Staff was helpful and had a sense of humor. Servers were completely ignorant of what they were serving. Maybe a little taster preview for the servers would help a little? Servers had no opinion and were no help with any descriptions. Just like having a good bartender, it's nice to have a server that can steer you in the right direction. Of course , we always have the trusty (yea right!) beer descriptions which are given in program.

Tickets, Wrist band, etc. I had no problem with the rules, regulations or price.

Attendees ran from Beer Geeks to sloven morons looking for a quick buzz. More sloven drunks than beer geeks... actually.

Most beers were actually served at correct temps! A few were too cold, but for the most part an big improvement.

Everything seemed to run smooth.

One of my major complaints may be odd. The smell of the Cinnamon Spice Toasted nuts and the choking aroma of a grill, smoldering in the air. I'm trying to sample beers! I don't want to be mixing Cinna-Bon aroma nuts and fusel grill smells with my samplings.

Saw some of the local beer schmucks roaming around looking important. Overheard some trying to impress others by given some cheesy descriptions of beer. It was hysterical to listen too... most are talking out there ass!

The Birds nest was rather empty. Where's the CHEESE?! The cheese people had a small set up on main floor compared to Birds nest which had a Hot Dog vendor! Might as well driven a Carny truck up there and served Corn Dogs and some cheap ass Cotton Candy. So, food and beer were not on the order for the day. I really enjoyed the cheese vendor last year, but this year they had a small space and felt like an afterthought. I thought the fest was going into a more Foodie direction with the quality Cheese, but nasty Grill Food and Carnival Candied nuts is a clean sign they choose to stay pedestrian. That's highly unfortunate.

Annoyance number 2. These assholes who want me to take a poll or see if I'm running GREEN energy. I'd here to taste beer! Get the fuck out of my face!

I liked the change in floor set up! Big hall-o-beers; Side bar and Birds nest. Plenty of room and tables. Temperature seemed to fluctuate more. Cold spots and hot spots but never a comfortable spot. Don't see purpose of VIP entry! Go early! Place was crowded but lines were short. That damn smell of Candied nuts are still running through my nose... Damn them! If all my reviews states, 'Smell like Cinnamon and Nuts." You'd know why!

Talking or listening to other attendees, I could find very few that could describe what they like or dislike in their samples. Stood by a Couple who were so stiff and uptight your couldn't ram a pin up their ass with a jack hammer! Others were convivial and fun. Mixed bag of people which is OK.

All in all... There were some great beers and some real mediocre beers. Good outweighed the bad.

...and time for the reviews! I'm doing something different this year. I'll include the written description and compared it to my tasting notes. I don't know who comes up with the beer descriptions, but they either have a great imagination or are going based on what the brewer 'wished' the drinker would taste. Some are night and day; Some hit it on the mark. Some trump up the beers to a higher status than what you get.

Alameda Brewhouse • Papa Noel's Moonlight Reserve

English Old Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 8.5% • IBUs: 40

Kettle and dry hopping with East Kent Goldings imparts this ale with traditional British character. After fermentation it was aged with whiskey soaked French white oak spires, lending some dryness to the huge amount of Crystal malt employed in the grain bill. You may taste hints of toffee, raisins, chocolate or caramel.

DW: never been a fan of this beer, but write ups on blog sounded positive. They were 100% wrong! Don;='t waste your time! About the only thing I perceived from the description was DRYNESS. Malt was muddy and murky Caramel malt. Tasted like a poorly made home brew. Clunky Malt notes and unhinged flavors. Hops were there, but EK Goldings? Could be anything! Everything was so murky, the hops were so muddled it could have been any bittering herb... Rosemary, Thyme, Cluster Hops?. I got no Oak, raisin or chocolate. I thought White Oak was American? What I did get was a big aroma of Gingerbread.... So did all that I was tasting with. The rest was just a banal melange of murky crap. Biggest disappointment of the day.

Bear Republic Brewing Company • Ebeweesner Scrooge

Blended Sour Ale [Sour Ale] • ABV: 6.5% • IBUs: 35
This barrel aged smoked sour ale is a blend of many barrels from the Bear Republic cellar, including Smoked Red Rocket and Black Do, which was then spiked with Bear Republic's own 'spank,' a wild open fermentation beer that is the source of Bear Republic’s sour power. If you like sour beers, this one is the first of its kind.

DW: This was a very complex soured beer. I tasted many different souring yeast and/or bacteria and that's what made this beer good! It wasn't single dimensional in sourness. Not just Brett, not just Lactic and so on. It was layered with different sourness. The body was smooth and silken with an old ale hint. The blending was interesting. I didn't get the smoke because I think it bleed into the sourness. I did get some barrel flavors and beautiful Flowery perfumy aroma. It was a nice sour beer.

Block 15 Restaurant & Brewery • Figgy Pudding, Olde Stock

Brandy Barrel-Aged Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 11.0% • IBUs: 44
This haunting Strong Ale is brewed with English pale and specialty malts and molasses, then matured in freshly emptied brandy barrels and conditioned with mission figs. It's gently spiced with Ceylon cinnamon and whole nutmeg and further aged with English stock wild yeast.

DW: I was really looking forward to this beer! I was mildly disappointed. I expected a big beer... Big and complex. This beer was easier to deconstruct than I had hoped, but still a decent beer. . The beer tasted more like a beer than was improved by the additives, rather than building on a complex base. Could be a matter of opinion. My notes read: "Big Brandy Oak Wood aroma and flavor. Fig in aroma and sugary in flavor. malt and base beer not very complex but very dense with crystal (caramel) malts. No Wild yeast detected." No cinnamon or nutmeg unless it's hidden within the spice of the Brandy barrel which is very spicy. I really liked the Brandy barrel flavor but it muted most of the other beer flavors. All that came through was the dense Caramel. I enjoyed the beer, but not what I thought it would be. The figs were a wonderful addition that married well with the brandy and wood flavors.

Cascade Brewing Company • Sang Noir

Bourbon Fruit Sour Red [Sour Ale] • ABV: 9.5% • IBUs: 9
This deep, dark double red was aged more than a year in Pinot and Whiskey barrels, then blended with a barrel of Bing cherries. It's a deep, rich and complex NW double red.

DW: Don't know what the big hoopla is over this beer? I was just happy it didn't taste like gastric acids and acetone! Actually the sourness and acidity was fairly tame and barley resembled a Belgian Red. Gone are the big acetone notes from years gone past. I talked up the beer with a few people who loved it. I asked if they ever had a Rodenbach beer from Belgium. All said, NO. I recommend they taste that Classic Sour red before they make any judgement on this mildly Belgian Red tasting beer. The Cherry comes through in aroma and muted in taste. Sourness is there but rather thin and singular is stature. High is alcohol, but lacking in some character. I would never use the words "Deep, Rich and Complex." It's more like a White Zin compared to a Deep, Rich and Complex Cabernet. Its good for what it is, but far from a great Red Belgian ale. Don't know what they charge for a bottle of it, but I've had similar mach Belgian reds for about $7 a bottle. Nice Gateway Belgian Sour.... like Chapeau for Lambics.

Fifty Fifty Brewing Company • Concentrated Evil

Belgian Strong Ale [Belgian Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 28
This Belgian Style Strong Dark Ale is brewed with raisins and exotic sugars. The flavor speaks of raisins, Belgian yeast generated esters and an overall warming character from alcohol.

DW: Sometimes less spoken is best. Nowhere in the written description does it say, "Bubble Gum" Aroma and flavor. Yet, its there as plan as the nose on your face. Anybody who knows something about brewing beer knows that Bubblegum is an OFF flavor given off by some Belgian yeast. A flavor that can be attributed to poor fermentation temps and conditioning. This beer is a classic example of this Belgian yeast flaw. I couldn't get past the Bubblegum aroma and flavor. If I did, I could tell there was some interesting Candi Sugar and other sugars used. If was way to sweet. Good malt, but hidden in sweetness

Firestone Walker Brewing Company • Union Barrel Fermented Porter

Porter [Porter] • ABV: 5.9% • IBUs: 45
This elegant dark ale features robust flavors of toffee, caramel and bittersweet chocolate. It employs five specialty malts, as well as oat and barley flakes for added complexity and flavor. It was 100% produced on and fermented in the brewery's oak union system.

DW: I passed on this beer after others I was with wrote it off as a nice creamy Porter.

Lagunitas Brewing Company • Brown Mashuggana

Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 51
Shugga & Spice plus! This is a cask conditioned version of the brewery's perennial favorite - Brown Shugga - dosed with mysterious spices and a splash of Boubon barrel Imperial Stout to keep things curious.

DW: Many reviewers wrote off this beer. I think it needs aging. Mystery spice? I'm going to guess Lemon Verbena or Lemon Balm, to sweet to be lemon grass? Aroma of Lemonade and flavor noted of lemon. I like Lagunitas Brown Sugga and it comes through, mixed with the RIS. I get the dark roasted malts too. Not so much the bourbon. Might be great to serve next year Preston!

Laht Neppur Brewing Company • Toe Tingler Stout

Bourbon-Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout [Stout] • ABV: 7.2% • IBUs: 35
A heavy oatmeal addition and extended boil time make this a rib sticking delight. Just a hint of bourbon flavor blended with subtle vanilla and maple syrup undertones make this beer worth savoring. Let it warm in your hands to stimulate the aromatics to their fullest potential.

DW: First beer of the day! This was a nice beer start with! Nice subtle complexities in this one. Oatmeal comes through in aroma and all the way through flavor profile. Beautifully silky and soft on palate. Big chocolate malt, low on the roast Very subtle bourbon? Maple? Not found... and I tried hard. a short review for a nice dense and silky beer. Little Oatmeal over done, but a nice sexy smooth and silky Russian Imperial Stout.

Lompoc Brewery • Franc'ly Brewdolph

Belgian Red Ale [Belgian Ale] • ABV: 7.6% • IBUs: 50
This Belgian Style Red Ale was brewed with the Belgian Ardennes yeast strain in October 2009 and aged in Cabernet Franc barrels for 13 months. It was then blended in a tank with the 2010 Brewdolph. It has a malty and creamy body, a mild fruitiness, and a spicy, oak flavor.

DW: I had one word for this beer.... meh! Winey (Venous) in nose and flavor, but kind of muddy malt flavors with caramel and some Belgian funk. Off balanced with a Hop bitterness that tastes overdone. It's OK, but that's all I can give it. Slightly better than the Alameda entry....

Shmaltz Brewing Company • Jewbelation Blend

Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 44
This is a special one-time blend brewed specifically for the Holiday Ale Fest. Multiple re-brewed vintages of the annual Jewbelation anniversary ale were blended together to create a bold, unique and very special Strong Ale.

DW: Could have been the best beer of the day! A beautifully complex beer with rich mouth feel. Complex spicy Hops mingled well with complex Malt contingents. Concentrated fruitiness and a barrage of caramal and other malts. Well balanced with herbal and spicy hops that shine. some honey notes. Overall and masterfully crafted piece of brewers art. A tad sweet.... and the only down fall.... a tasted a hint of infection in the finish which left a slight Green Olive note.

Substitue for Firestone...

Lucky Labrador Brewing • Pavlov's Russian Imperial Stout

Russian Imperial Stout [Stout] • ABV: 10.4% • IBUs: 68
This is a big and dark winter warmer aged in Pinot barrels.

DW: I've had this beer before.... fermented in Port Barrels and it was lovely. This is no exception. Dense, rich and silky in mouth feel. Big Chocolate and oaky nose. Some of the Pinot comes through. I prefer the Port, but this is still nice. It has an almost milky texture like a Milk Stout. very dense complex dark malts and well balanced. Dark fruits come through, Currants and Plum? Very nice. It's a must try.

Holy Crap!

2010-12-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

I'm getting a bunch of emails for Holiday Ale Fest updates.....!

Sorry waiting for it to be over before I summarize and review. So much reviewing going on, I'm not sure what I'll be adding. It'll be a good challenge.

Just frickin wait!!!!!

Prepping for Holiday Ale festival

2010-11-30T13:39:00.000-08:00

Redundant bitching aside.... The Doc is looking forward to his visit to the Fest!

Just found the "Specialty Beer" list which I will include in this post. I think it's great that Preston provides a selection of cellared beers. It gives the Beer drinking public a chance to appreciate what Maturation (aging) does for a good beer. So many big beers I taste are so cloyingly sweet with flavors all over the board. Maturation helps smooth out these big flavors into ongoing subtleties and new nuances of depth and flavor.

Beating a dead horse with my next point, but....

Palate Fatigue! For those of you who are serious about beer and tasting these quality beers, there's only so many beers you can sample until your palate craps out. I recommend about 8-10 beers. Even at this number of samples I find the last 2 flavor profiles are lost or muddled by a overdone palate. Water and simple palate cleanser like bread or crackers help clear you palate in between samples. It would be WONDERFUL if these were available to the patrons... for Free. Lets not get crazy! As long as I can purchase a bottle of water and some simple bread of crackers, I'd be happy.

For the rest of local drunken slobs who are just looking to get loaded on quality beer.... Please don't drink and drive! I don't want to be killed by one of you drunken idiots while walking downtown. Oh! Please don't drink all the quality beer like a PABST.... Some of us who appreciate what we're drinking would like to try those too!

Anybody interested in identifying the Doc? Feel free to come up to me and ask! I will admit my identity. If you want to cause me bodily harm..... keep drinking and don't bother. We obviously are not on the same wavelength....;-}

Specialty Beer for HAF:

Wednesday, Dec. 1st 2010

Tapping at 2pm (ends at 5:30pm or when keg goes dry, whichever comes earlier)

Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg • Samichlaus Bier (2005)

Doppelbock [Doppelbock] • ABV: 14.0%
Samichlaus Bier is brewed only once a year on December 6th and is aged for 10 months before bottling. Samichlaus is one of the rarest speciality beers in the world and with 14% alcohol by volume, it is the strongest of its kind. It is ideal for aging, and older vintages become more complex with a creamy, warming finish; perfect for the holiday season!

Vorchdorf, Austria

New Belgium • Love (2009)

Sour Ale [Sour Ale] • ABV: 6.0%
Aged in an oak Foeder at the brewery. It is the unblended starter for all of New Belgium’s wood-aged beers (La Folie, Le Terroir, etc.).

Oskar Blues • Ten-Fiddy (2008)

Description coming soon.

Thursday, Dec. 2nd 2010

Tapping at 11am (ends at 5:30pm or when keg goes dry, whichever comes earlier)

Lompoc Brewery • 8 Malty Nights

Portland, OR

Deschutes Brewery • Osked-Aged Jubel (2000)

Bend, OR •

North Coast Brewing • Old Stock (2008)

Cascade Brewing Company • Sang Noir (2009)

Barrel-Aged Sour Ale [Sour Ale] • ABV: 10.2% • IBUs: 5
“Sang Noir” is complex dance with the barrels at Cascade Brewing. The 2009 version is a big, full-bodied double Flanders style red ale with distinct barrel notes. This double red comes from a blend of several barrel aged beers, with portions of the beer aging in Heaven Hills and Maker’s Mark Whiskey barrels, Pinot Noir Barrels, and Double red aged on 100 pounds of Bing Cherries. Some Bourbonic Plague and Blond Quad aged in Minnesota oak was added to bring some sweet high notes. And a straight sour pie blend was added to taste to bring the sourness to the front. A little bigger than last years version and available only at the Holiday Ale Festival.

Portland, OR

Friday, Dec. 5th 2010

Tapping at 11am (ends at 5:30pm or when keg goes dry, whichever comes earlier)

BridgePort Brewing Company • Old Knucklehead Batch #11 (2003)

Barleywine [Barleywine] • ABV: 9.1%
This is the 11th vintage of Old Knucklehead Barleywine. A BridgePort brewery tradition since 1989, Old Knucklehead is described as a classic barley wine, "brewed with double amounts of malts and hops to create a formidable drink that is complex and full of character." The 11th vintage label features Fred Eckhardt, a Portland-based award-winning beer and sake writer who is identified as the dean of American beer writers for his role as being one of the first people in the nation to write about beer (he originally published in 1969).

Portland, OR

Ninkasi Brewing Company • Critical Hit

Eugene, OR

Holiday Ale / Hair of the Dog Commemorative • JIM (2008)

Strong Blend [Specialty Beer] • ABV: 10.0%
JIM 2008 is collaboration between the Holiday Ale Festival's beer steward Preston Weesner and Hair of the Dog Brewer Alan Sprints. Made exclusively for the event, JIM honors the late Jim Kennedy, founder of Admiralty Beverage and a tireless promoter of craft beer and a major inspiration for many in the NW beer circles. This is a blended beer, made with Hair of the Dog beers Adam of the Wood aged 4 months in wet Elija Craig bourbon barrels, Fred of the Wood aged in new American oak, Blue Dot for hop nose and Doggie Claws to nicely round it out. Jim was remembered and toasted with a 2003 Samichlaus and 2007 Chimay Grand Reserve. It's a beer not to be missed and the Holiday Ale Festival is the only place to get it.

Portland, OR

Holiday Ale / Hair of the Dog Commemorative • JIM (2009)

Barrel Aged Old Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 10%
JIM 2009. Is collaboration between the Holiday Ale Festival and Hair of the Dog Brewing. Made exclusively for the event, JIM honors the late Jim Kennedy, a major inspiration for many in the NW beer circles. This is a blended beer, and varies with each incarnation. 2009 is in the realm of and hoppy barrel aged old ale. Made with Doggie Claws, Adam, Fred from the wood, and Blue Dot. Additionally JIM was blended with a Keg of English Brown Ale, German Bock, and American Strong ale. JIM was toasted with a few bottles; Cantillon St. Lamvinus, Scaldis Noel, Corsendonk Christmas ale, and Orval.

Portland, OR

Saturday, Dec. 6th 2010

Tapping at 11am (ends at 5:30pm or when keg goes dry, whichever comes earlier)

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery • Festina Peche (2008

Milton, DE

Fort George Brewery & Public House • North III (2009)

Belgian Tripel [Belgian Ale] • ABV: 8.8% • IBUs: 99
Brewed strong, bold and sweet with honey malt and maple syrup, then fermented with our jolliest Belgian yeast, this beer then rests in the bright tank with 60 pounds of finely chopped sugar plums until the elves can wait no longer. The resulting elixir arrives onyx in hue with hints of oak and spice and a rich complex cornucopia of cheer for your palate. This is a fruitcake that won't get tossed!

Astoria, OR

Cascade Brewing Company • Barrel-Select Baltic Porter (2007)

Soured Baltic Porter [Baltic Porter] • ABV: 9%
Cascade Brewing Barrel-Select Baltic Porter is blended from 2006 Bourbon barrel-aged Porter and 2006 French oak barrel-aged Porter and has undergone a lactic souring process in the barrel. Rich round malt flavors of toasted toffee, coffee and dark chocolate provide the foundation for a range of hop flavors. Vanilla and Bourbon mingle in the sweet malt finish. This ale is available only at the Holiday Ale Festival.

Portland, OR

Doc Worts HAF Tasting Picks

Alameda Brewhouse • Papa Noel's Moonlight Reserve

English Old Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 8.5% • IBUs: 40
Kettle and dry hopping with East Kent Goldings imparts this ale with traditional British character. After fermentation it was aged with whiskey soaked French white oak spires, lending some dryness to the huge amount of Crystal malt employed in the grain bill. You may taste hints of toffee, raisins, chocolate or caramel.

Bear Republic Brewing Company • Ebeweesner Scrooge

Blended Sour Ale [Sour Ale] • ABV: 6.5% • IBUs: 35
This barrel aged smoked sour ale is a blend of many barrels from the Bear Republic cellar, including Smoked Red Rocket and Black Do, which was then spiked with Bear Republic's own 'spank,' a wild open fermentation beer that is the source of Bear Republic’s sour power. If you like sour beers, this one is the first of its kind.

Block 15 Restaurant & Brewery • Figgy Pudding, Olde Stock

Brandy Barrel-Aged Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 11.0% • IBUs: 44
This haunting Strong Ale is brewed with English pale and specialty malts and molasses, then matured in freshly emptied brandy barrels and conditioned with mission figs. It's gently spiced with Ceylon cinnamon and whole nutmeg and further aged with English stock wild yeast.

Cascade Brewing Company • Sang Noir

Bourbon Fruit Sour Red [Sour Ale] • ABV: 9.5% • IBUs: 9
This deep, dark double red was aged more than a year in Pinot and Whiskey barrels, then blended with a barrel of Bing cherries. It's a deep, rich and complex NW double red.

Fifty Fifty Brewing Company • Concentrated Evil

Belgian Strong Ale [Belgian Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 28
This Belgian Style Strong Dark Ale is brewed with raisins and exotic sugars. The flavor speaks of raisins, Belgian yeast generated esters and an overall warming character from alcohol.

Firestone Walker Brewing Company • Union Barrel Fermented Porter

Porter [Porter] • ABV: 5.9% • IBUs: 45
This elegant dark ale features robust flavors of toffee, caramel and bittersweet chocolate. It employs five specialty malts, as well as oat and barley flakes for added complexity and flavor. It was 100% produced on and fermented in the brewery's oak union system.

Lagunitas Brewing Company • Brown Mashuggana

Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 51
Shugga & Spice plus! This is a cask conditioned version of the brewery's perennial favorite - Brown Shugga - dosed with mysterious spices and a splash of Boubon barrel Imperial Stout to keep things curious.

Laht Neppur Brewing Company • Toe Tingler Stout

Bourbon-Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout [Stout] • ABV: 7.2% • IBUs: 35
A heavy oatmeal addition and extended boil time make this a rib sticking delight. Just a hint of bourbon flavor blended with subtle vanilla and maple syrup undertones make this beer worth savoring. Let it warm in your hands to stimulate the aromatics to their fullest potential.

Lompoc Brewery • Franc'ly Brewdolph

Belgian Red Ale [Belgian Ale] • ABV: 7.6% • IBUs: 50
This Belgian Style Red Ale was brewed with the Belgian Ardennes yeast strain in October 2009 and aged in Cabernet Franc barrels for 13 months. It was then blended in a tank with the 2010 Brewdolph. It has a malty and creamy body, a mild fruitiness, and a spicy, oak flavor.

Shmaltz Brewing Company • Jewbelation Blend

Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 44
This is a special one-time blend brewed specifically for the Holiday Ale Fest. Multiple re-brewed vintages of the annual Jewbelation anniversary ale were blended together to create a bold, unique and very special Strong Ale.

Doc Wort Snubbed Again!

2010-11-29T10:12:00.000-08:00

Monday morning. Thought I'd check out the local Beer Blogs, and what do I find? Blog entries all about a Media tasting held for the Holiday Ale Festival! This is beginning to really piss me off! The Doc has run this blog for almost 4 years. Other local beer blogs have come and gone. I've provided annual positive advertising for the Holiday ale fest since 2007 and have provided readers with in depth reviews of Holiday Ale beers. I could of reviewed these preview beers and then reviewed even more at the fest! Nope! Instead local readers got to read Brainless sloven drivel reviews such as:

Coalition Lost Glove - This beer smacks you in the face with its dank aroma right from the start. I wasnt expecting the massive hop hit like you just packed a bowl. While its not an IPA it will please the hop lovers. It is also strong but not very sweet so you can drink a lot of it without getting sick of it. I predict many repeated mug fills.

Wow! Michael Jackson just rolled over in his grave!

The Holiday Ale Fest is just about the only fest the Doc still attends in NW. Sure I've had my bitches about the Holiday Ale Fest, but so has every other blogger. ;-}

I don't know what the other beer bloggers are doing to an invite, but the Doc doesn't dirty his knees for a few beer samples. :-0

Even though the Doc may not be able to attend some Media Tastings, it might be nice to at least be invited.

Feel free to send a message to the HAF Contacts to complain about the Docs unfair treatment.

BTW.... To show that I'm a bigger person than the Holiday Ale Festival wimps and whiners, I'll still be providing a review of HAF beers this year.

OH.... and $25 for the fest year??!! 10 tickets.... Your overhead much be going way up or those cheap plastic mugs have turned to crystal? AND!!!! Increased cost with less advertised beer? Where are all the limited release beers for 2010? I hear they exsist, but nothing on HAF web site. The fest is in a couple days..... are we posting a little late or just can't quite get our shit together? ;-}

Application for EGO Stroking or Profit?

2010-11-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

I love a gimmick! I love to watch the average Chump fall for the gimmick! Even though PT Barnum never really said the words, the words hold true everyday, "There's a sucker born every minute!"

Artifice

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: hoax; clever act

Synonyms: con, contrivance, device, dodge, expedient, gambit, gimmick, machination, maneuver, play, ploy, racket, ruse, savvy, scam*, stratagem, subterfuge, tactic, wile, scam, hustle, etc.

The Doc came across the this little ditty on Coalitions Breweries web site. A Home brewer program that allows home brewer to brew a beer on a pilot system and then possibly on 10 Barrel system... OK, I'll bite! What's the benefit to the home brewers other than brewing on different system? Bragging rights? "I have my beer on tap at a brewery!" Really? So what? Do we really have home brewers that are that naive and insecure?

Who's benefiting from this fiasco?

This appears more like a corporate scam to leach problem solving ideas from their employees! Management should come up with ideas and concepts to help company run smooth or profit, but in many corporations today they have set up UBT's. Anybody heard of this concept? Unit Based Teams. Make your employees solve your problems for free! Get a group of employees together and have them solve work related problems or search for profit making concepts. Sounds interesting? Have your employees come up the answers... at no extra cost! I always ask, "Why do we have Managers, Vice Presidents and the like?" Isn't this why they're paid the big money? To solve problems and come up with profitable ideas? If I'm going to solve a problem or create increased profit... where's my cash kudos? Don't give me Pin or pat on the back... This is business my friend!

Basically, where this may look like a reach out to the community of home brewers, isn't this nothing more than a UBT screw job. Someone comes up with the idea... Develop the concept with Brewer, uh, manager (or visa versa).... Company profits... Where's the monetary compensation? Is there any profit sharing on this beer? Is the home brewer paid if the beer is brewed into a 10 barrel batch? What if it becomes a standard production beer? Caveat emptor home brewers!!! They have a waiver for you to read and sign. I'm sure there's a reason.... To make sure to acquire no monetary valve or copyright of this beer.

Of course, if you have need for a little EGO stroking or Dick waving accomplishments like Winning a Blue Ribbon at the Local State Fair.... Go for it!

By the look of their standard beers, I'd say they can definitely use some help with some innovative and original beer recipes! ;-}

Here's their application for the Home brewer program:

Name: Dr. Spargamust Wort

Phone: 503 - UBL-OWME

Email: drwortsblog@gmail.com

Favorite Beer Style & Why:

Oh! It's like an interview for TEEN BEAT or TIGER Magazine! Wanna know my Astrological sign and favorite color too?

I don't have a favorite beer style. Why? Why limit yourself to only enjoying one style.

Favorite Flavor Attribute & Why:

Flavor? Beer flavor? Depends on the beer I want to brew! I'd say an IPA should have a pronounced complex hopping. A Stout should taste like a Stout... Chocolate and Roast. I have no favorite Flavor! I want malty beer beers to be complex and malty, but I want a Pilsner to have subtle and clean maltiness. Once again, it depends on the beer.

Favorite Style You Brew & Why:

WOW! Deja Vue! See above, ya putz!

3 Styles You Would Consider For The Coalator:

You tell me what kind of beer you want to make and I'll provide you with an idea. It's the "Consultant" concept. I'm doing this for you! I give you something, you give me something for it!

How Long Have You Been Brewing?

Longer than any brewer you have in house. Over 20 years.

If You Could Name A Beer It Would Be:

I've named many beers. Am I doing this for Money, if so.... It depends on the style of beer. Am I giving you a name for free? .....Blow Me Bock. Busta Nut Brown. Blond Belgian Bitch. Ball Breaker Bitter. Yet Another IPA. Porterish Stout. Ball Sweat Blond ale. Piece of Shit Pale Ale. Dancing Fairy raspberry ale. Limp Wristed Wheat.

How Do You Come To Conclusions:

With my brain! How did you come up with this stupid application?

Snickers Or Twix:

Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.... What the hell is the point to this question?

Baby Ruth... Little nutty, but has Caramel depth too. It's unconventional and not main stream. Is that what ya wanted, Junior?

Thoughts on Pellets:

They're OK for Bittering, but I prefer Whole or Plug hops for Aroma and Flavor. Wanna know why?

The First Time I Drank A Beer, I…:

.... thought it tasted like shit! It was an Olympia from the Northwest and I thought it tasted like stagnant water.

Is that it? Wanna know what kind of brewing systems I've used? Maybe interested in my knowledge of different brewing techniques I've used: Infusion, Step or Decoction? How long Ive been formulating my own recipes? Am I an All-Grain Brewer? What's my knowledge on Hop Backs, First Wort Hopping or even Hot Side Aeration? Do I prefer Forced carbonation vs. natural carbonating? Do I believe in micro filtering? So, many important questions have been ignored.

This is like a typical Psychological Profile interview. You guys know what that is?

Wanna bet I don't get an email back on my application?! I'm a highly innovative and experienced home brewer, who's done some work at the professional level! Want some new beers? Contract can be negotiated. Send me an email.

Cheers!

Doc Wort

Thanks for the info?!

2010-11-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

Every year, the Doc gets excited reading the Beer Descriptions for the Holiday Ale Festival. Kind of the same way a child loves to read the Comic Strips! Just like the ongoing satire and irony found in most comics, The Holiday Ale Fest Beer descriptions have something in common.... They kind of look and sound like descriptions of reality, but not quite there. Either lacking in true definition or exaggerating the unaccomplished wishes of the brewer. Now, don't get the old Doc wrong! I find some of these beer descriptions to be on the button. Not many, but some. Other descriptions have no comparison to the real beer! That's where I have fun.... Trying to find the flavors profiles that are described vs. what I'm really tasting.

I'm really hoping we get all the beers on tap everyday.... This "Here now" and "Gone till some unannounced time later" is highly annoying! I've gone multiple days to the same fest and never got a chance to taste some beers after 3 days of visits. There's something majorly wrong with that. I understand supply and demand, but there needs to be better communication to the public. Maybe a board that states when certain beers will be on tap.... How about using the HAF web site to have a real time list of beers with a schedule of popular beer tap openings and closings?

In preview of the fest, I'm reading the current descriptions. Here is some of my concerns and critiques of the current descriptions. WHY? WHY not!

10 Barrel Brewing Company • Pray For Snow

Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 7.6% • IBUs: 37
Dark copper in color with slight reddish hues and a light tan head, this beer features a big, malty aroma with a Munich character. A spicy noble hop aroma, medium-bodied mouthfeel, and German malt flavor profile with slight roasty notes lend a subtle toffee sweetness balanced with spicy hop bitterness and slight alcohol warming.

**Munich Character? I assume this means Munich Malt? If so, tell the public want Munich Malt tastes like! "German Malt profile?" What is a German malt profile? An Oktoberfest Malt profile? A Dopplebock Malt profile? An Alt malt profile? Helles? Or are we just saying it tastes like German Malts were used? What's the difference in flavor of German malts and American or British or Belgian or other? were German Malts used? Is this beer a Lager? DW

Alaskan Brewing Company • Alaskan Barley Wine (2008)

Barleywine [Strong Ale] • ABV: 10.4% • IBUs: 60
This 2008 vintage Alaskan Barley Wine is a full bodied ale, mahogany in color and brewed with an array of complementing malts. Multiple hop additions in the boil and dry hopping during fermentation provide contrast to the big malt character resulting in the smooth balance that distinguishes this specialty brew.

VAGUE, but they use the word Mahogany in color.... A Color Description ol' Jeff didn't know and used to mach me for using. DW

Bear Republic Brewing Company • Ebeweesner Scrooge

Blended Sour Ale [Sour Ale] • ABV: 6.5% • IBUs: 35
This barrel aged smoked sour ale is a blend of many barrels from the Bear Republic cellar, including Smoked Red Rocket and Black Do, which was then spiked with Bear Republic's own 'spank,' a wild open fermentation beer that is the source of Bear Republic’s sour power. If you like sour beers, this one is the first of its kind.

** No matter what you call this or describe it.... I want to try it!

Beer Valley Brewing Company • Ho Ho Ho Slapper

Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 50
This winter warmer is brewed with six different malts and a hint of zesty Pacific Northwest hops.

**Wow! That's just a whole lot of nothing for a description! Hell.. Lie to me and tell me Triple hopped and uses some exotic grains from Morraco! DW

Block 15 Restaurant & Brewery • Figgy Pudding, Olde Stock

Brandy Barrel-Aged Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 11.0% • IBUs: 44
This haunting Strong Ale is brewed with English pale and specialty malts and molasses, then matured in freshly emptied brandy barrels and conditioned with mission figs. It's gently spiced with Ceylon cinnamon and whole nutmeg and further aged with English stock wild yeast.

** Not a description, but an ingredient list is good enough for me! I can at least use my tasting skills to see if I can find the ingredients! Listing ingredients is sometimes far better than a shitty description! DW

Boneyard Beer Company • Femme Fatale

Sour Ale [Sour Ale] • ABV: 6.5% • IBUs: 10
This Sour Ale has been fermented with raspberries and cranberries. It's medium bodied and red/brown in color, with a somewhat fruity nose.

** Ever notice, no one ever tries to describe the sourness beyond using the word "SOUR"? FUNNY! DW

Brasserie Dubuisson Freres • Scaldis Noel

Belgian Dark Strong Ale [Belgian Strong Ale] • ABV: 13%
Three different malts give Scaldis its complexity, including a caramel malt for a rich, amber color. This beer is dry, with a clean, nutty finish. The nose is characterized by sherry, caramel, and roasted filbert aromas, complemented by some floral, hoppy notes. The finish is long and warming, but remains in balance with the flavors.

*** This beer will cost 2 tickets for a sampler and just 6 tickets for a full mug. ***

** Believe it or not.... $6 for a mug Scaldis Noel is quite the bargain! DW

Breakside Brewery • Belge d'Hiver

Belgian Strong Ale [Belgian Ale] • ABV: 8.1% • IBUs: 55
Brewed using Belgian Pils malt, wit yeast, and an absurd amount of Continental hops, this light colored brew defies easy style categories and stakes out new territory in the brewing world. It's finished with a touch of secret holiday spices for additional complexity.

** Wow! This is a lot of gibber jabber! Not a lot of info... This guy should go into marketing! Tell us nothing, but make them want to buy it! BTW, Continental Hops are NOT HOPS per sec. Continental Hops refer to any Hops grow on the European Continent. I would NEVER expect the average beer guy to know this! This term is used more in Beer judging. This means this guy has knowledge of judging but chooses to dumb the description down to a marketing POS... Shame on you! DW

Fort George Brewery & Public House • North the Fourth

Strong Ale [Strong Ale] • ABV: 9.6% • IBUs: 80
This holiday delight was made with a two pounds of candy canes, 60 pounds of cranberries, and over 40 pounds of spruce tips. Chocolate, caramel and 2-row make up the malty profile, balanced out with US Challenger and Czech Saaz hops.

** This one kind of makes me laugh.... 2 lbs of Candy Canes? Why? Peppermint extract would give ya Pepermint and sugar can be added in any form. Spruce, Peppermint and Cranberry.... Hmmm..? DW

Holiday Ale • Moore Holiday Ale

Imperial Bohemian Pilsner [Pilsner] • ABV: 7.5% • IBUs: 32
This recreation of a past Collaborator beer - Moore Maibock - was resurrected specifically for the Festival. Saaz hops were used to grab your attention so you would notice the smooth Pilsner malts refreshing your palate.

** So... Is it a Maibock or a Pilsner? DW

Migration Brewery • Nor'Easter

Belgian Strong Ale [Belgian Ale] • ABV: 10.0% • IBUs: 30
This medium bodied, light copper colored Belgian Strong Ale is made with fresh New England maple syrup. The full palette of flavor is highlighted by a slight sweetness coupled with subtle smokey, woody undertones. Built on Belgian Pilsner, Munich, Biscuit and aromatic malts and rounded out with Noble hops, this beer is robust and delicious.

** Aromatic malts!! I;m assuming they mean Belgian Aromatic Malt.... which is a Munich Malt, but they already said Munich Malt.... Woody? Where's that come from? Barrel? Smokey? Drop a cigar in the mash? DW

This is taking way to much of my time.... While reviewing all these descriptions I find many misdirected descriptions; Vague twisted marketing verbiages; Poor ingredient descriptions and some that are just lists of ingredients. I think I prefer the list of ingredients! That way I can pick out out those ingredients within the beer and see how they work or don't work together. It may be better to just tell us what's in the beer, rather than giving the public a schlocky description that may or may not live up to the served product.

Pilgrims - Pecker -Turkey!

2010-11-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

I'll let you decide which one is the Pecker and which is the Turkey.... Pilgrims are obvious!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bailey's Belgian Fest

2010-11-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

Caveat Emptor! This appears to be an OREGON brewed Belgian Beer Fest. The fest clearly advertises this point. Don't think you'll be getting any beers from Belgium. Just thought that was important to state up front.

Should be an interesting sampling of what Oregon Brewers are doing in the realm of brewing Belgian type beers. The Doc is unable to attend this little fest. Lets' hope we can all get some good beer reviews from other Bloggers. Something beyond single descriptions like: "That was tasty." " This was Stellar." " It was a big beer" "Chewy" "Belgiany." " Yeasty." "Hoppy and alcoholic".... wait that a two word description! ;-}

This SATURDAY, November 13 @ Bailey's Tap Room
4 Pm to Midnight
$15 for a glass and 5 tolkens. $1 per additional samples.

The list of beers so far: 
10 Barrel Dubbel Woody Cabernet
A deep amber brown. Spicy and complex. Aged in Leonetti Cabernet Barrels for 8 months. 7.7% , 26 IBUs
Ambacht G++
Belgian Golden Strong Ale. Slightly darker and very smooth. 8%
Astoria Blueberry Lambic
165 pounds of blueberries and an additional 3.5 pounds added to each keg. Brettanomyces was added along with oak chips soaked in wine barrels and aged for five months.
Barley Brown’s Trappist Strong Ale
Crystal malts along with some Munich Bonlander, a touch of rye malt and flaked oats. Simcoe and Amarillo hops. 8%, 50 IBUs
Beetje Blonde Beetje
A blond ale with a twist. Clean pilsner base layered with a dash of Golding and Sterling hops. A dose of lambic blend and oak chips in the secondary adds a hint of funk. 5.8%
Bend Wicked Medicine
Belgian Strong Ale. Aroma teases of ripe banannas, sweet candy and warm spices.Tastes of sweet malt, dark Mexican sugar and an underlying spicy, cherry essence. 10.6%
Block 15 La Fermé de Demons (The Demon’s Farm)
Black Farmhouse Ale aged in bourbon, Oregon oak, and Pinot barrels with Brett. Blended with a touch of Oregon tart cherry. 8.8%, 31 IBUs
Caldera Vas Deferens Ale
Belgian-style Strong Ale brewed with blood orange zest, orange bitters, and dark Belgian candi sugar. 8.1%
Cascade Sour Bain de Brugge
This Belgian spiced porter has a  rich porter flavor with soft, spiced undertones for a complex finish. Spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise and orange peel. Aged six months in Pinot Barrels.
Deschutes The Marooned Belgian
Namedfor some experimental hops which got marooned in the cooler due to their higher strength and color. This may just keep you stranded here longer than you predicted. 13.7%
Fort George ’08 North II
Grand Cru, aka Belgian-style barleywine. Canadian Pilsner Malt, Golden Promise from Scotland, Belgian Wit yeast, raw Hawaiian sugar, and oats from the mainland USA.
Laurelwood Tripel
Chad Kennedy brewed this beer exclusively for the fest. It is still fermenting, so we don’t  have much additional info yet.
Lompoc ’08 Brewdolph
Belgian-style red ale features a malty and creamy body, boasts a mild fruitiness and a spicy clove character and has been aging in Port barrels for about 1.5 years. 7.6%
Lucky Lab Doggie Kong Sour Lychee Saison
Sour mash with about 20% of the grain bill. No hops. Lychee fruit added during fermentation to give just a hint of fruitiness to help balance the sour flavor. 6.4% ABV, 0 IBU
Oakshire Oak-aged Collaborative Evil ’09
Belgian Golden Strong Ale. Aged in an Oregon Pinot Noir barrel for 15 months. Mild vanilla notes blend with flavors of cinnamon and fruit. 9.5%
Roots Brune “O”
Belgian Brown brewed for the Cheers to Belgian Beers festival early this year. One of the few remaining kegs from the now defunct Roots Brewing.
Seven Brides Abbey Dubbel
A spicy nose and a complex fruity taste that lingers for some time. Full-malt taste, with deep, smooth flavors and almost no hop aroma.7.8%, 18 IBUs
Upright Barrel-Aged Seven
A batch of Seven that has been aging in two wine barrels since August 2009, one with Brett Lambicus and the other with Brett Clausennii. This is a blend of both. 

Tis the Season to Cellar some Beer?

2010-11-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

This post is based (largely!) on an article I read in Southern Draft Magazine many years ago, written by SARA DOERSAM.

Thanks Sara! I've tried to contact ya many times to no avail. I've gotten years of mileage out of your great article! DW

As Fall bleeds into Winter here in the North West, we are immersed into the COLD season. Cold weather brings out out warmer beers. Big, deep flavors and high in alcohol to warm the body kind of beers. While many of these beers can be enjoyed at time of purchase, many of these beauties can mature and morph into a new animal. The maturation process brings out new flavors and aroma; Sometimes drying out and smoothing out flavors.

Over the years, I've had many people ask me, "Can I cellar this beer?" or "Will this cellar well?" On the other hand, I've been a big advocate for Cellaring Young high alcohol beers. Just like a young Wine with lots of gloppy tannins, big beers fall into the same clumsy category at times.

Cellaring Beers not only dries out and rounds out the beers high points, but often morphs the malt and hops into a different realm. I have to note, Big Hopped Beers could morph the Hops into a gritty ratty almost rancid flavor. Some people enjoy this flavor, I do not. You've been warned! Big malty beers, like those made by Hair of the Dog or many Belgian Beers, age extremely well.

OK.... Here's some of Sara's suggestions and antidotes for cellaring.

MASS-PRODUCED BEERS of today are heat pasteurized and filtered, which extends their shelf-life but makes them unsuitable for laying down. While pasteurization and filtering stabilize beer and destroy bacteria that are potentially harmful to its flavor, these processes also prevent beer from improving with time. Vintage beers that are appropriate for laying down have not been through these stabilizing processes and, thus, exhibit a change in character over time.

Take, for example, Thomas Hardy's Ale, the quintessential beer for laying down. A bottle of the 1995 version tastes vastly different now, some 15 years after it was produced, than it did right off the bottling line.

Several chemical and physical changes, such as the effects of oxidation, fermentation, yeast and bacteria, as well as cellar temperature and exposure to light, play a role in the aging of beer. Certainly, you could try your hand at cellaring beers without any understanding of the effects of these factors, but you would probably also discover some years later, when tasting your vintage beers, that you wasted a lot of time and money on beers that have become undrinkable. While aging beers is always a crap shoot, the more you know and understand about the process, the more success you will have when cellaring your prize beers.

**This is a very important point! You need to have some yeast still in the bottle! If you look at the bottle of the bottle and you see NOTHING but the bottom of the bottle... No yeast... It's not going to cellar well. usually these beers will just dry out into nothingness. Don't waste your time! Check those Jubel and SN Celebration ales! See any Yeast on the bottom? Nope! Just drink and enjoy, it ain't getting any better! Drier, maybe, but we're going for greatness not dryness. DW

OXIDATION

Oxidation, or the exposure of beer to air, can have a detrimental effect on beer by imparting a sherry-like characteristic or what is sometimes described as "wet cardboard." In delicate beers such as light lagers, milds or Pilsners, the effects of oxidation can dominate the flavor and aroma, but in hearty beers like strong Scotch ales and Trappist ales, the vinous character can enhance the beers by adding flavor and complexity.

Beer enthusiasts have long debated what role bottle size plays in the maturation of beers. For example, how does the flavor of a vintage Belgian Scaldis Noel aged in a 25-centiliter bottle compare to the same beer aged in a 1.5-liter magnum bottle? In larger bottles, beer has less exposure to air in the head space relative to the total volume of beer, so the larger bottle reduces the risk of excessive oxidation. Nevertheless, while large bottles may be preferred for aging beer, given no other choice, I would not reject a beer well suited for aging just because it is in a small bottle.

YEAST AND FERMENTATION

When a beer is bottle-conditioned, meaning it is bottled with live yeast suspended in the beer, the beer continues to ferment in the bottle, all the while changing in character. As the yeast feeds on the residual sugars in the beer, the beer loses some of its body and becomes drier. Even after the yeast runs out of sugar to feed on, it contributes to beer's body, aroma and flavor profile. Still, it is not imperative that a beer be bottle-conditioned to be a good candidate for laying down. There are many beers and beer styles that improve with time despite a lack of live yeast munching away on sugar in the bottle.

**Note: If you plan to Cellar your beer. Try and find beers that are unfiltered and unrefrigerated! Grab these beers from a BOX from from the refrigerated cooler. The yeast becomes more dormant in the cooler compared to the chilled version. More viable yeast, better cellaring effect. DW

BACTERIAL EFFECTS

As a rule, bacterial infection is not a desirable characteristic in beers that are best drunk fresh. Indeed, bacterial contamination can dominate a beer, rendering it unpleasantly sour and virtually undrinkable. The sourness is usually derived from wild strains of yeast or bacteria that hop aboard the beer as it's being brewed or fermented and wreak havoc on the final product.

But some styles of Belgian beers are highly prized for their distinct sour or lactic character. In particular, Belgian lambic ales employ spontaneous fermentation induced by wild yeast, which is allowed, indeed invited, into the breweries' open fermentation vessels. So while most beer is fermented with cultured yeast strains, many Belgian ales are intentionally fermented with wild yeast strains and influenced by bacteria which impart that lactic character.

If you question how lactic or sour beers could possibly taste good, consider gourmet vinegars, some cheeses, sourdough bread or yogurt, all influenced by aging bacteria and appreciated by acquired tastes. Thus, in controlled conditions, that same sourness or lactic character can surely enhance some beers.

**ALCOHOL Content

As a rule of thumb, age beers that have 7% alcohol or more. Beers less than 7% don't usually mature well or dry out much quicker. DW

CELLARING CONDITIONS

The temperature in which beer is stored or even transported plays an important role in its character. Cold temperatures abate changes to beer during aging; therefore, to reduce the effects of time on most beers, keep it cold. But if your intent is to transmogrify your beer with age, it is important to allow it to mature at cellar temperatures ranging from 50-65 degrees F with little fluctuation.

At these temperatures, the yeast, particularly in bottle-conditioned beer, is warm enough that it can remain active. If conditions become too cold, the yeast may slow down or become altogether dormant, and if too hot, the yeast may die.

Likewise, it is important to store your beer in the dark. Light can interact with the hops in beer, causing your beer to become light struck or skunky. Beer that smells like skunk is never inviting nor desirable.

A FEW OTHER RULES OF AGING

From the moment beer is put into a container, it begins to deteriorate, but if a beer is bottle-conditioned, high in alcohol, heartily hopped, smoked or a combination of any of these conditions, the effects of time can enhance its character and flavor.

High-alcohol beers like barley wines, old ales and strong Scotch ales are not as susceptible to the negative effects of bacteria. It is more difficult to detect off flavors imparted by bacteria in a robust, strong beer than it is in a delicate beer that readily reveals the most minute of flaws.

Corked beers should be stored on their side, while crowned beers are best stored upright. As a rule, corked beers run a smaller risk than crowned beers of leaking at the seal. But corks can and often do impart a slightly musty, corky aroma and flavor to beers stored on their side, and I personally find that these factors contribute to a beer's complexity.

When opening bottle-conditioned or corked vintage beers, be sure to cover the top with a towel and aim it away from yourself and your quaffing companions. Enough pressure may have built up in the bottle to blast a screaming cork ricocheting throughout the room.

Try to ensure that your beers are in good condition when you purchase them for laying down. Usually, your best bet is to buy them from a reputable beer merchant, preferably in brown bottles. Ask your merchant if the beers you want to buy are good candidates for cellaring.

Imagine the delights and rewards a vertical tasting of several vintages of the same brand can offer. Yes, there will probably be some disappointments, but it will always be interesting and educational. Half of the fun of laying down beer is the quest to find the perfect beer for cellaring. The other half, of course, is tasting it at the optimum moment, but the hardest part is resisting the temptation to drink your vintage beers before their time.

SIDEBARS:

Rules of thumb when cellaring beer

Realize that laying down beer is like playing craps. There's no guarantee that each roll of the dice, nor each beer, will be a winner, so improve your chances of winning by stacking the odds in your favor.

Best bets for laying down are beers that are high in alcohol, bottle-conditioned, high in hops, smoked or a combination of the above.

Cellar your beers in a dark, cool place with temperatures ranging from 50-65 degrees F with minimal fluctuation or disruption.

Buy your beer from a reputable beer merchant to ensure that it's in good condition coming out of the gate.

Taste your beers periodically, and if you suspect any may be getting worse instead of better, drink them as soon as possible.

Far Far Away.... That's where I'd like to be

2010-11-10T11:23:00.000-08:00

For some sick twisted individuals, the current weather condition is considered favorable: Sadomasochists, Social Deviates, Junkies, incestuous creatures with superfluous body parts, guys named Travis and Shane, Serial Killers and other psycho's who say out loud, 'I love the rain!' As I roll out of bed, I looked out the window and thought, 'Damn...Why did I think I could tolerate living with this weather?' Not even in the deep throws of winter and I curiously eyeball the serrated steak knife and my left wrist with a twisted smirk. Drizzly gloom and depressing darkness of winter is setting in! The temperatures are dropping into the 40's. What is there to look forward too? Going to work in this soggy shit and drivring home in the endless mire of coldness? No wonder the Northwest has the highest suicide rate in the nation. Not horrible in regard to temperature or snow, but just endless dreariness. Count Dracula should live on Pill Hill and fly down over the Zillion-dollar tram to nowhere!

Enough of that! Time to close your eyes..... and dream of locals you'd rather be. I like to shut my eyes and allow my brain to wander back to places I've traveled.......places I'd rather be.....

Back to California?

Naw!

California Beaches? Hmmmm?

vs. NW beaches!! Yikes!

AWAY! AWAY! AWAY from...

Local Weather!

Bicycles that are supposed to share the road but the local Government gives them more rights! These are like giant Bulls eye targets to me! Bowling anymore? Round em up and I'll knock em down!

....Useless Hipsters

...Kitschy Decor left over from generations gone by and that should have been bulldozed decades ago...

....Local White Trash... Never thought I would find White people that could be that stupid.....

NO NO NO!! Away! Far Far Far away!

Vienna!

Clear Blue Waters of the Caribbean!

Quaint old Cities like Salzberg!

Rainbow Bridge!

Lake Tahoe in the summer!

Visiting the beauty of an old Subway station in New York?

Hawaii!

Visiting the Oracle of Homers Odyssey in Delphi Greece.

Budapest

Lost on a Caribbean island

Capri Italy

Th Parthenon in Athens Greece...
yes it's on top of the Acropolis.... one that doesn't feature cheap steaks and scruffy naked women....
oh.oh oh... the pain....

Marienplatz in Old Munich

Pyramids of Giza at Dusk

Florida Keys

View from a hotel room at Las Brisas in Ixtapa Mexico

Paris at Night

Ahhh... I feel a little better...

Holiday Ale Fest 2010 - Tap List!

2010-11-03T12:44:00.001-07:00

Well.... It's finally here! The 2010 Holiday Ale Festival Tap List!

Remember.... The DOC had it first! :-O
(Oops! Ear for Beer had the list first.... but I was close!)

Descriptions are limited, but that may be a good thing! In the past, the descriptions haven't always matched the beer I've tasted. Of course, that could be due to the fact the beers are always served at Lager Temps... like 38'F. These low temps mute the subtle nuances of these complex ales. Many people have been bitching for years, these low temps are not doing any of these beers any justice; Unless the beer is so horrible, you DON'T want to taste the flavors and nuances.

Waiting to see the Limited Specialties!

Shaping up to be a great year of beer! Belgians, Blends, Sours and only a few SNORERS...... ;-}

These are big alcohol beers! The beers are served in 4 oz. tasters for a reason. It's supposed to a tasting festival, not drunken festival. Drink responsively! The life you save could be yours! Use designated drivers and public transportation!

10 Barrel Brewing Co
Pray For Snow • Strong Ale
*** Prayer should stay in church, lets hope this beer doesn't! DW

Alameda Brewing Co
Papa Noels Moonlight Reseve • Strong Ale (Olde Ale)

Alaskan Brewing Co
Alaskan Barley Wine ~ Vintage 2008 • Strong Ale (Barley Wine)

Bear Republic Brewing Co
Ebeweesner Scrooge • Sour Ale
** Hmmm.... Curious! DW

Beer Valley Brewing
Ho Ho Ho Slapper • Strong Ale
***Is this a beer for Pimps? DW

Block 15 Restaurant & Brewery
Figgy Pudding, Olde Stock • Specialty Beer (Brandy Barrel Aged Strong Ale with Figs, Spices & Brettanomyces)
** Intriguing! Brandy barrel and Figs sound like a wonderful combo! Can't wait for this one! DW

Boneyard Beer Company
Femme Fatale • Sour Ale ( sour red brown with raspberries and cranberries)
*** Curious what some of these SOUR ales are Soured with? Brett, Lacto, Pedio, etc.?? DW

Breakside Brewery
Breakside Belge d'Hiver • Strong Ale (Belgian-style Barley wine/Super saison)
***Wow! Is this a Barleywine or Saison or a barleywine with Saison ingredients? Could be very interesting or a mess! Can't wait to try it! DW

BridgePort Brewing Co
Old Knucklehead • Strong Ale (Barley Wine)
**SNORE......... DW

Buckbean Brewing Co
Very Noddy Lager • Dark Lager (Imperial Schwarzbier)
***Considering the quality of these Reno based beers, I may pass on this one! DW

Buckman Village Brewery
TA • Specialty Beer

Cascade Brewing
Sang Noir • Sour Ale (Bourbon Fruit Sour Red)
*** I was kind of hoping for more Bubonic Plague again! DW

Coalition Brewing
Lost Glove • Strong Ale

Collaborator
Aegir's Cauldron • Smoke-Flavored or Wood-Aged Beer (Barrel aged porter)
***Smoke "FLAVORED?" That scares me! I have visions of liquid smoke! DW

Columbia River Brewing Co.
Paddlers Porter • Porter ( Chocolate - Vanilla Bean Baltic Porter )
*** Another Baltic Porter??? DW

Deschutes Brewery
TBA • Belgian Strong Ale

Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom
tbd • Dark Lager

Eel River Brewing Co
2009 climax noel • Specialty Beer (strong belgian hybrid)

Fifty Fifty Brewing Co
Concentrated Evil • Belgian Strong Ale (Strong Dark Belgian brewed with raisins, exotic sugars) ***Yum! Sounds interesting! Wonder what kind of sugars? DW

Firestone Walker Brewing Co
Special Barrel Blend • Strong Ale
*** Potential greatness! DW

Fort George Brewery and Public House
North the Fourth • Strong Ale
*** Malty Goodness or another HOP Bomb? DW

Gilgamesh Brewing
Cranberry Saison • Belgian and French Ale

Hazel Dell Brewpub
Steins Chrismas Ale • Specialty Beer (Dark Chrismas Ale)

Holiday Ale
JIM 2010 • Strong Ale (Strong Ale Blend)
**** Always a HAF favorite! Wonder if there are any past years editions and wonder if I'll get to taste those? DW

Holiday Ale
Moore Holiday Ale • Specialty Beer (Imperial Pilsner)

Hop Valley Brewing Co
Festeroo • Strong Ale (Old Ale)

Hopworks Urban Brewery
TBD • Strong Ale

Lagunitas Brewing Co
Bourbon-Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout • Stout (Russian Imperial Stout)

Laht Neppur Brewing Co
To Be Determined • Stout

Laurelwood Brewing Co
Black Pepper Belgian Pale Ale • Belgian Strong Ale
*** This is sounding like a groaner before I even let it past my lips! Maybe a chili pepper, but black pepper? Yuk! DW

Lompoc Brewing Co
Franc'ly Brewdolph • Belgian Strong Ale (Belgian Red)

Lucky Labrador Brewing
Pavlov's Russian Imperial Strout • Stout
***I've had this beer before! If it's the Port Barrel version it's wonderful. If not aged in Port Barrel it's, meh! DW

McMenamins
Parson Brown • English Brown Ale (American Brown / Winter Warmer Hybrid)
*** Wow! An American Brown!! Really! Slow down there speedy, don't get crazy! DW

Migration Brewery
Nor'Easter • Belgian Strong Ale (Belgian Winter Speciality)

Natian Brewery
Winter IPA • India Pale Ale (IPA)
*** An IPA! REALLY! Can we please get through one season without the overplayed hits of the NW? I will definitely pass! I advise you to pass too! Send a message! Send them home with all these kegs! DW

New Belgium Brewing Co
Lips Of Faith mix of kegs • Strong Ale (Various beers)
***Could be great! DW

Ninkasi Brewing Co
Unconventional • Stout (Imperial Stout with Lavendar , Taragon, and Heather)
*** Last years was horrible in my book, but I'll try it again! Spices were muddled and muddy last year! tasted like a Ricola Cough drop beer! DW

Oakshire Brewing
Very Ill Tempered Gnome • Strong Ale

Rock Bottom Brewery
Blitzen • Belgian Strong Ale (Belgian Style Tripple)
*** Again!!! Why? DW

Seven Brides Brewing
Weezin-ator • Specialty Beer (Doppelbock)
*** Sounds more like Doppel Weizen Bock, but lets not be picky about names and styles.... No one else cares! DW

Shmaltz Brewing Co.
Jewbelation Blend • Strong Ale
**** This was highly praised last year! DW

Southern Oregon Brewing Co
Mrs. Claws • Strong Ale

Stone Brewing Co
Stone Smoked Porter W/ Vanilla Beans • Porter (Spiced )

Three Creeks Brewing Co
Rudolph's Imperial Red • Strong Ale (Imperial Red)

Vertigo Brewing
Special Chocolate Porter • Porter (Chocolate Porter)
*** Uh, how many frickin Chocolate and spiced Porters do we really need? Just sampled their Apricot Blond and Chocolate Porter.... Apricot was lacking in everything and Chocolate Porter was a mediocre attempt. DW

Widmer Brothers Brewing Company
Black Dynamite • Specialty Beer (Lemon, Chocolate, Peppercorn, Baltic Porter)
*** Ah yes! Good ol Widmer, always one step behind the trend.... I'll pass! Who out there thinks Lemon and Chocolate sounds like a tasty combo???? I'd go for Cayenne and Chocolate! DW

2010-11-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

WIN!!!!

Classic Modern Martini

2010-10-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

Lets start off with the basics. A Martini is made with Gin, not Vodka. It's not made with fruit juices, Fruit Liquors or God forbid Chocolate! Those a foofy drinks for girls and men who can't handle drinking a manly drink... period!

OK... Lets move on....

Pick your Gin according to Preference: London Dry or High Botanical. For me, it depends on my mood and the environment.

Sitting at home enjoying a Martini with a few Friends = Botanical
Out on the Town with lots of people in an environment with lots of aromas = London Dry

Recipe

Acquire a Martini glass. Fill with Ice.

Add 1/2 cup of ice into a filter top Shaker (*more on this later)
Pour 1/2 oz. of Dry vermouth in Shaker
Shake 3 times to coat shaker and ice.
Dump excess vermouth
Add 2 jiggers of Gin
Shake 5-6 times.

Empty Ice from Martini glass and quickly diffuse liquor into glass
Garnish with Olive or Lemon twist

* Shaken vs stirred. Stirring doesn't awaken the Botanical Aromas, but Shaken does. I want to smell the Botanicals.

My Gins of Choice:

Plymouth (England) - Nice dry Gin with Juniper Berries
Hendricks - Scottish Gin with Cucumbers and Rose Petals
Anchor Junipero Gin (San Francisco) - 12 different Botanicals. Very sharp Juniper
Citadella (France) - A wonderful combination of 19 exotic botanicals.
12 Bridges (Portland) - Made with Cucumbers like Hendricks but not quite as smooth.

Citadella Botanicals

"Boy! You gotta a REAL Pretty Mouth!"

2010-10-15T00:39:00.000-07:00

Indulge me for a moment.....

Wine reviewers get a back rap for their flowery descriptions. I recently was reading some descriptive reviews and found the descriptions quite eloquently written and true to the descriptions of said wines.

2007 DeLoach Russian River Valley O.F.S. 14.9%

Dark and earthy on the nose, with hints of cracked pepper, walnuts, vanilla, blackberry preserves, and a perfumy floral edge. Very finely balanced and polished with a soft, juicy feel in the mouth. The flavors are closely layered, slowly revealing notes of coriander, cola, dark fruit, dried figs, backing spice, and red raspberry fruit. The finish is light and about as elegant as one can expect from a Zin, ending on a lovely spiced currant note. A very autumnal, holiday-spiced Zin. 90 pts

2008 Dashe Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 14.5%

Cool and precise on the nose, with focused, restrained notes of cedar, bramble, red currant and wild berry fruit, with a hint of peach. On entry this is a touch matte, very broad in the mouth with succulent acids and fine, dusty tannin. The fruit is fresh with deep notes of red cherry and that slightly astringent edge of red currant, topped with gentle hints of vanilla, a touch of herb, and a hint of tobacco leaf that turns a touch spicier, like mace, on the long finish. The finish really pops with hints of mulberry and a long, tree bark tone on the finale. 91pts

2007 Sausal Winery Private Reserve Alexander Valley Zinfandel 14.5%

This is rather seductive on the nose, with slow-to-emerge layered notes of pressed flowers, French oak, vanilla, herb, and clay over red currant, cherry, and black raspberry fruit. Full on entry yet almost soft, with real suppleness and depth that reveals a nice touch of earth and mineral spice under the slightly creamy black raspberry and black cherry fruit. This is not a particularly large Zin, but it does fill the mouth with lovely fruit and assertive yet integrated spice notes. The long finish reveals the subtleties of the nose with wonderful citrus peel, herb, and spice tones over a final of mulberry fruit. 91pts

2006 Sbragia Family Italo’s Vineyard Alexander Valley Zinfandel 14.3%

Mocha, clove, pine cone, cigarette ash, and peach on the nose add detail to the slightly herbal, spicy raspberry fruit. Bright and silky in the mouth, with a light spice edge to the red raspberry and slightly red currant fruit flavors. The backend shows a bit more richness, but this remains a bright, even slightly austere, style of Zinfandel. Harkens back the Claret style of Zinfandel of the 1970s. It’s pretty subtle, yet complex and balanced. I like it. 92pt

Courtesy of : http://www.snooth.com/articles/wine-reviews/best-zinfandel/4/

BEER PORN FEST: Only in Oregon?

2010-10-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

OK, lets not mince words! Beer and alcohol are personal Vices. There are many vices in the world, but which are the two biggest Vices in Oregon? Easy answer! Alcohol and Porn!

Oregon has some of the most lenient Porn laws is any state in the nation. Whether you find this offensive or not, it is a fact. Here in Oregon it's not talked about very often, but Oregon (Portland) is the Porn merchandise capital of the US. No one likes to talk about it. It's treated like a dirty little secret and kind of ignored. Kind of like Oregon ass backward politics. 'Shall we address the Meth, Tax or Unemployment problems? ...Uh.... Hey! What's going on with that Spotted Owl? Who's chopping down one of those 5 Gazillion trees? What was that you stepped in.... was that someones carbon footprint?' I think you get the picture. It's easier to focus on the crunchy granola head problems. Meth violence? Soaring taxes? No money for public schools? Eh.... f*ck that! I guess you don't need a decent education to dig a hole a plant a tree! Save the frickin spotted owl. BTW, after years of trying to save this frickin bird, their number still seem to fall. Hundreds lost their livelihood over this frickin bird, and it didn't help!? Why do politicians listen to these morons?

Anyway... back to Porn and Beer!

I keep seeing Beer fests for every cause in existence, except one.... Porn! I mean come on... It's a vice, just like drinking! Who are we trying to fool here? I say, 'Lets stop hiding behind the fact that beer is a vice. Lets embrace it... We can't legitimize it. Can we? Can we convince the world that drinking alcohol isn't a vice? I don't think so! Can we convince the world that Porn isn't a vice? Uh.. No! Sex and prostitution, the worlds oldest vices!

So.... Lets put em together! We've seen sex sell Beer for decades! Why push it away! Oregon allows beer drinking in Strip Clubs! Lets have a real BEER PORN Fest! I sure there's some Strip Clubs out there that would love to increase sales with a little beer fest. Hey! Those girls are just trying to make a living too!

Who will be the first?

If you own or run a local Strip Joint and are interested in sponsoring a Beer Fest, send ol' Doc Wort an email. The same goes for your brewers! Come now, don't kid yourself! You brewers know you'd love to hang out at Strip Joint while serving up some beer. ;-}

Don't let this happen to you! Demand your "BEER PORN FEST"....... TODAY!

Jus doin it right! Yous know what I'm sayin?

2010-10-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

New York's 3rd Annual Beer Week has just come to close. The Doc has been following the online commentary from the daily events. It's been quite a polished, organized and well advertised event. They introduced "The Passport" a card that gets you beer discounts at advertising bars and pubs. Many, many bars and pubs participated Hosting beers on tap or sponsoring outside breweries for Brewer Nights. The Beer week was chalked full of Festivals, Beer Tastings, Meet the Brewers, Beer Pairing and Beer Dinners.

Sounds entertaining!

This sounds like quite an event:

A celebration of the best cask beer & local food available. Expect to have your palate rocked as you sample some of the most amazing cask beers from here, there and everywhere in between. Local chefs from over 20 NYC restaurants will whip up delicious eats for all! Learn about some of your favorite beers from the brewers themselves. 80 Casks, 35 food vendors!

Check out other Events.

Mas (Farmhouse) Brewers Dinner

Mas (farmhouse), a French-American restaurant located in the heart of New York City's Greenwich Village.

Chef/owner Galen Zamarra and Sean Z. Paxton orchestrated the amazing The Ultimate Brewmaster's Degustation

Amuse Bouche: Pacific Kushi Oyster with a Brewery Ommegang Belgian Pale Ale Sorbetto

1st course

Shrimp Crusted with Spaghetti Squash, Pancetta Foam, Upland Cress
Mizuna and Frisee Salad w/ Marcona Almonds and Horseradish Victory Prima Pils Dressing

Pairing: Victory Golden Monkey

2nd course

Medallions of Monkfish Wrapped in Mustard Greens and Roasted in Black Olive Oil Zucchini
Yellow Squash and Eggplant Sautéed w/ Candied Alphonso Olives and Capers
Fried Lily Bulbs, Micro Amaranth, Arugula, Malt Vinegar Wort Gastrique and Confit Tangerine Peel

Pairing: Goose Island Brewery Sofie

3rd course

Barrel Wood Smoked Duck Breast & 'Bordelaise' Tart - Duck Mousse w/Huitlacoche and Porccini Mushrooms, Allagash Dubbel & Thyme Farro w/Grapefruit, Bergamot, Raisin, Black Pepper and Cardamom Compote

Wort Glazed Pearl Onions

Pairing: Allagash Brewery Fluxus 2010

4th Course

Brooklyn Brown Ale Braised Beef Short Ribs and Orange Glazed Escargot, Kobocha Squash

Risotto with Parsley, Parmesan & Truffle Butter, Diced Purple Carrot, Butternut and Parsnips

Pairing: Brooklyn Brewery

5th Course

Cheese Course - Local Cheeses Served With Three Philosophers Honey
House made Brewery Spent Grain Crackers Dusted With Wattleseeds, Seasonal Fruit

Pairing: Brewery Ommegang Belgian Pale Ale

6th Course

Captain Lawrence Birra De Cicco Caramel Date Cake with a Wild Huckleberry Allagash Fluxus 2010 Sorbet
Barley Flour Shortbread, Butter 'Ommegang Cup O Kyndnes Scotch Ale' Sauce

Pairing: Captain Lawrence Golden Delicious (Tripel aged 8 months in Apple Brandy Barrels)

DW: What! No Meat Muffins, Burgers, Mac-n-Cheese or Fried Twinkies!!! :-0

Once again, the Doc is amazed at the effort, professionalism and local cooperation for this event. Still wondering how many years will it take till a CERTAIN city can get their shit together and orchestrate a professional mix of events such as this? It's like the difference between watching a Broadway Production verses watching a band of drunks banging on bongos with an empty hat on the ground.

Beer Cocktails were provided

Other than providing the public with beautiful little web site for New York Beer Week, they created the following little cooperative video.

Bravo! New York! Bravo!

GQ's Top 50 Beers

2010-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

The Doc's a little behind the media on this one, but I thought GQ had an interesting list of the '50 Beers you should drink before you die.'

I love Rag mags and even well established mags. The question will arise, "Who the Hell is GQ and why should anybody care what they have to say?"

According to Wikipedia:

GQ (originally Gentlemen's Quarterly) is a monthly men's magazine focusing on fashion, style, and culture for men, through articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books.

73% of the readership are men, and 63% are single. 65% of readers had an annual income of $50,000 or greater; and 25% had an income greater than $75,000.

It GQ has a readership of around 850,000, 650,000 are subscriptions.

Started in 1931, GQ started as a men's fashion magazine. For some of you NWers, "Fashion" is something people wear beyond Jeans, a T-shirt, Overhauls and a stupid baseball cap. "Food" is something beyond Burgers, Chicken Strips and other pedestrian cuisine. "Movies" are something other than Porn. "Fitness" is something you do rather than sitting in a recliner drinking a beer and watching mindless reality shows and 'Dancing with the Stars.' "Music" is something beyond the chronic regurgitation of the same ol shit from the 70's and 80's that seem to permeate every public space in Oregon. I think you might have the picture or maybe not? ;-}

I guess you can say GQ is a magazine for the modern man who's abreast with the cutting edge of quality within the current world market.

Is the Doc a GQ kind of guy? No, not really, but I respect their opinion and share their interests.

The Doc would love to hear your input on this GQ list. Some will ask... Why aren't there many NW beers on the list? Simple answer... If you want to be Internationally recognized, you have to get your product out on the market. Greatness comes from world wide recognition, not just locals. You can have a great product, but if you don''t get it out to the masses, it doesn't get national or International Praise. That said, where's HOTD??? There are many beers that should have made this list, but based on availability may be the problem?

Here's GQ's list and their comments:

# - Denotes beers the Doc has drank.

Allagash White
The Portland, Maine-based Allagash makes a lot of excellent, wheat-heavy Belgian beers, and this is their flagship: light and bubbly with a beguiling spice mix no one has been able to guess. #

Anchor Christmas Ale
Anchor has changed their Christmas Ale recipe every season since 1975 (along with their label design), but they hew pretty close to a classic, festive cold-weather brew: rich and fruity with subtle spice. Last year's had notes of vanilla and cinnamon. #

Anchor Steam
The one and only true example of this unique style, Anchor's Steam Beer is a lager in name only. Fermented at higher temperatures than your typical lager, it keeps the style's crisp dryness but adds fruity esters and extra hops. #

BrewDog Smokehead
The two Scots behind BrewDog look outside their homeland's long but languid beer traditions for the inspiration here, storing a pitch-black stout in smokey Scotch barrels to give it an outrageously salty, earthy tang. #

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
Dark stouts usually have hints of cocoa to them already, so the trick with chocolate beers is subtlety. Brooklyn nails it: Not too sweet, not too bitter, but chocolatey enough to make it special. #

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
Drink this one for its story, as much as for its taste: Dogfish Head's Sam Caglione traveled to the wilds of Paraguay to find one of the hardest, heaviest woods on earth and used it in a tank built to age just this beer. The dark, extra-strong brown ale gets an added kick of vanilla from the wood's unique oils. #

Fritz Briem 1809 Berliner Weisse
Fritz Briem's is Berlin's take on wheat beer: yeasty and super-carbonated but with a uniquely tart, bright finish, making it the perfect summer beer (with no need for a pansy-ass lemon slice).

Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold
Richer, hoppier, and maltier than standard American lagers-or even German ones-but crisp enough to be your new go-to session beer. (Note to non-beer nerds, a session beer is usually one that's light in alcohol, allowing you to drink several different ones during the course of an evening. Or day.) Dortmunders are tough to find even in the homeland, but thankfully craft breweries like Great Lakes are making them common fare around here.

Hitachino Lacto Stout
Skip Hitachino's more common lemonade-y wheat beer and seek out this harder-to-find stout, made with milk sugar for extra creaminess and a slightly sour, Hershey-bar-like kick. #

Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout
One of the best examples of a notoriously tricky style, this one tastes more like the foam of a cappuccino than the espresso, which is to say light, smooth, and just sweet enough to balance the stout's natural bitterness. #

Leelanau Whaleback White
Leelanau is the side project of Ron Jeffries, who also brews at Jolly Pumpkin. Their wheat beer is cidery, sour, fruity, and extra dry, thanks to aging with wild yeasts in French oak barrels. #

Lion Stout
If you only have one Sri Lankan stout before you kick, make it this one. Creamy and bittersweet, with a rich tan head and notes of fruit. Plus, it comes in cans-perfect for spicing up your next barbecue. #

Ommegang Hennepin
Earthy yeast plus lemon and clove in a supremely drinkable amber body. This is the best American saison there is. #

Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale
Packed with tons of citrus from a heavy dose of American hops, this is the quintessential stateside IPA. #

Oskar Blues Old Chub
Thick, sweet, and insanely malty; ruby-red, light on the hops, and heavy on the toffee notes. Old Chub outdoes all other Scottish Ales, even though it's made 4,000 miles from Glasgow. #

Picobrouwerij Alvinne Melchior
Melchior is a solid English-style barleywine-strong, sweet, and malty, with notes of rich, dark fruit-but the extra kick from an infusion of mustard seeds pushes it into mad-science territory. It's so crazy, it has to work.

Pretty Things Jack D'Or
They call this one a "Saison Americain" thanks to a heavy dose of citrusy, west-coast hops. Belgian yeasts give it a sour kick and a blend of oats and barley smooth it out. #

Rodenbach Grand Cru
The classic Flemish red: funky, vinegary, and dark. A blend of one part young and two parts barrel-aged beers makes it deliciously sour with notes of boozy fruit. #

Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Rogue's Dead Guy is a strong, German-style maibock-full of hearty malts with a bit of spice from Saaz hops. #

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
The classic oatmeal stout: soft and creamy, with just a touch of roasted bitterness, like the soft poke of feathers in a down pillow. #

Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
Sierra's Harvest Ale marked a new trend for west-coast brewers when it debuted in 1996, and it's still the best of the (slightly-bigger-these-days) bunch: wet hopping, in which hops go straight from the vine to the brew kettle without being dried. They use cascade and centennial, grade-A west-coast citrus bombs, with extra earthy, grassy flavors unique to hops picked and brewed right at their prime. #

Sixpoint Sweet Action
Sweet and very hoppy, with a little grass and citrus thrown in. It's mellowed a bit from the original recipe-their Double Sweet Action is closer to the roots, but harder to find.

Smuttynose Barleywine
This is one of the best barleywines around, but a bit challenging to get into. It's heavy on the caramel, and thick as syrup, like a sherry. Drink it like one, too: This is a perfect dessert beer. #

Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Heavy, thick, and midnight black. Imperial is an understatement-this is a meal in a bottle. If you can find it, try it barrel-aged for an extra level of bourbony, syrupy goodness. #

Stone Old Guardian
Old Guardian is a perfect entry-level barleywine. Not heavy and thick, like the more intense varieties, and with extra hops to balance the boozy, fruity malts. #

Trumer Pils
Forget Pilsner Urquell-that watered-down swill has nothing on Trumer. Started in Salzburg 400 years ago but now made in the Berkeley hills, it's a radically flavorful pils, bitter and bubbly and extra dry with slight floral notes from heavy hopping. #

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Cloudy, spicy, crisp, and tart, this might be the perfect wheat beer, and a summertime staple. #

AleSmith Speedway Stout
This artisanal San Diego brewery boasts a line-up that is high in quality, and often in ABV. Speedway Stout just barely edges out their other offerings with its coffee infused richness that opens up more flavors as the beer warms. #

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
This brewery's expansion may be built on the deserved growth of Racer 5 IPA, but you'll be greatly rewarded for tracking this down. Everything is on overdrive with huge hops, caramel malts ,and spicy rye, but the balance it maintains makes for an impressive brew. #

The Bruery Saison Rue
The awards and accolades just keep coming for these young brewers. The line-up is always adventurous, but perfectly restrained rather than overt. Saison Rue is a farmhouse-style beer with hints of rye and wild yeast strains that make for a deliciously complex drink. #

Cantillon Iris
The Iris is the flower of Brussels, and this annual brew is barrel-aged for two years. While it is spontaneously fermented like other Cantillon lambics, it differs in that it contains only pale malts and a portion of fresh hops (versus wheat and dried hops). It is tart but complex. Substitute this for sparkling wine and your guests will be glad you did. #

De Struise Pannepot
A vintage-released Belgian Quadruple Ale that is sent forth into the world at least two years after it was brewed. The combination of flavors is compelling and rich while the carbonation keeps the heft of the beer from crushing the palate-which makes for a surprisingly easy drinking 10% ABV. An oak-aged 2008 batch is soon to be released. #

Dieu du Ciel Route des Epices
This Montreal brewery is single-handedly raising the craft-brewing profile of Canada. This selection may not be their best known but it is probably their most intriguing, with its use of peppercorn. The flavoring is unmistakable, and pairs incredibly well with smoked meats.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA
What can we say? If the West Coast Style IPA (arguably) became the USA's contribution to the beer world and is itself an exaggerated version of the English IPA, what is the next level? How about a version boasting 18% alcohol and 120 International Bitterness Units? (Note to non-beer nerds: That's crazy bitter.) Be careful with that 12-oz. bottle. #

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
Visitors to this Dexter, Michigan, brewery could be forgiven for mistaking it for a winery. Ron Jeffries barrel-ages every release. Most batches are then blended to provide consistency, but all have wonderful tart elements that the used barrels help to impart. La Roja is a delicious sour brown ale in a line-up of excellent brews. #

Marin Brewing Company IPA
In our minds, this is the quintessential interpretation of the West Coast Style IPA. The aroma, color, malt balance, and bittering are perfect and eminently drinkable. There isn't an element that overshadows another, and it's an excellent baseline by which to enjoy other IPAs. #

Orval
Only one beer is made at this Trappist brewery, but that is more than enough. Orval is a worldwide classic Belgian Ale. Proprietary yeasts imparted during secondary fermentation give Orval its subtle and distinctive sourness. #

Port Brewing Shark Attack Red
What started as (and still is) a small pizza chain is now a full-fledged and high-quality craft brewery. Port Brewing is also responsible for the Lost Abbey line; Shark Attack Red is their Imperial Red Ale. It's wonderfully rich and balanced by intense hopping. #

Russian River Pliny the Elder
Perhaps the most well known and sought out double IPA on the planet. The reputation is well earned, as the brewers have found the magic spot between huge flavors and drinkability. This is a hop head's dream. #

Saison Dupont
The style has been making a welcome comeback, and this one is probably the best known progenitor. Saisons are traditionally delicate but flavorful, complex but not overt. They are excellent beers for food pairing, and Saison Dupont is the perfect match for a huge range of flavors. #

Schneider Aventinus
Consistently recognized as one of the top beers in the world, Aventinus is a wheat doppelbock with flavors of bread, caramel, and fruit, and a slightly bitter finish. And the carbonation level makes it a very drinkable 8%. A classic. #

Westvleteren Abt 12
This Trappist beer is available only at the source and there are strict limits as to how much one can purchase. The monks only make enough to run the monastery. Its difficulty to obtain aside (but not discounted), "Westy" 12 is widely considered one of the best in the world, and is often aged for several years. #

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
Yep, it's the color of old engine oil. (Is there not a manlier name for a beer?) And, while we haven't actually tasted old engine oil, we're going to say that it tastes nothing like it. A perfect balance of roasted coffee flavor and chocolate, with a slightly bitter finish. For a heavy beer it's surprisingly drinkable. #

Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
This medium- to full-bodied brew first hits you with a huge toasty espresso taste and then with a bitter, hoppy finish. The Colorado-based Great Divide recommends drinking it for breakfast, but with a cloying high 9.5% ABV you'll need to take a nap for lunch. #

Double Mountain Black Irish Stout
Why do we import Guinness when we have this right here? Brewed in Oregon, this has that creaminess you love in Guinness, but with real flavor-pleasantly roasty, with a hint of dark-chocolate bitterness. #

Samuel Adams Utopias
It's hard to call this a beer because it has no carbonation, has the consistency of brandy, is best sipped from a nosing glass, and, oh yeah, it costs $150 for a 24-oz. bottle. But it's worth a taste if you come across it at a bar: complexly sweet, like a port. #

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier
We can't pronounce it either, but don't let that keep you from drinking it. Simply ask for it at your finer beer store or bar as "that German Smoke Beer," and they'll most likely bring you this: a beer made with malt toasted over an open fire that gives it a pleasantly smoky flavor-like liquid BBQ. #

Russian River Valley Brewing Co. Beatification
Perhaps the wildest American Wild Ale out there. Mouth-puckeringly sour, funky like a barnyard, with a little bit of oak (it's aged in barrels). Beatification is a super-intense beer that you will either hate or become addicted to. #

Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale
This is like drinking a Sour Patch Kid. Light, with a pleasant, palate-cleansing sourness, it's the perfect partner to a pile of Belgian frites and mussels. Or anything you want to eat a whole bucket of. #

Bruery knocks one out the ParK!

2010-10-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most complex beers I've had in awhile. An amazingly malty beer that breaks new ground in brewing with complexity.

Dark Amber-brown in color. Well carbonated that falls quick in glass.

Dark malts throughout aroma. Rich caramel, almonds, figs, rum and little raisin. Toasty bread. Maybe a hint of mocha chocolate. Cocoa powder? Some Belgian notes, but hidden by maltiness. AS it warms, you get a hint of cinnamon, maybe Allspice?

Full bodied mouth feel. Rye adds a silky texture to the body.

Coats your tongue with malty richness. Toasty malt, maybe even a toasted oatmeal? A Rum and fig permeates the palate with other dark malts. Special B? Cara Vienna and Cara Munich?? Layers and layers of complex malt. Molasses, Brown sugar.

Finishes with a silky almost oily slick on tongue. Concentrated chocolate malt with rum-raisin overtones. Some herbal hops balance with a nice La Trappe Dutch yeast finish. very complex.

This is a great cellar beer. Should change with age. One of the best beers I've had in years! Buy two! One to enjoy now and one for next year!

The Bruery - Rugbrød Pronunciation from benjamin weiss on Vimeo.

A Douche by any other name!

2010-10-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

From the Beer and Whiskey web site

The Doc isn't a very spiritual man, but he found these rather interesting.

Rules to live by or rules to drink by??? Well.... There's no better way to control the masses than with some strict "Fire and Brimstone" bullshit!

Speaking of 10 Commandments, Lets talk about good old Moses. NO! This is not church! According to die hard bible bangers, the Doc would burst into flames with one step in a church; So lets all take this as a comical interlude. Moses spent 40 days and nights up on Mt Sinai.... What the hell was he doing up there for all that time??? 10 Commandments in 40 days! That's one Commandment every 4 days! Damn, that's slow! Even if God and Moses played Charades with God pantomiming the Commandments; Moses being dumb as a Rock and slow to Chisel out those tablets.... 4 days would be an extremely long time. Well.... If you follow this religious thought pattern and have done any Theological research, you probably have the answer. Moses was given like 600 Commandments and, uh, narrowed them down to 10? Even though I don't follow any of this stuff, I find either explanation disturbingly bizarre and vague. Did the All Mighty babble on for 39 days and then say, "In Summary..... here's 10 high points." Did Moses go, "whew! Thanks for narrowing that down!" or did he just say "F*ck It! I'll pick the top 10! I can't carry down tons of tablets with 600 commandments!"

OK.... Enough Moses and Exodus mocking.

Bestowing Rules or Commandants irks of control freakishness... But lets have some fun we these COMMANDMENTS.

I. Life's to short to drink bad beer. OK. This whole thing could stop right there. What more is there to say?

II. Your opinion matters most. This follows with "...everyone has their own taste." OK, so who cares about ones opinion if everybody might have different one?

III. Do not be Monogamous. Don't have a "set beer!" OK, does that means I can't be a craft beer drinker if I just drink Widmer Hefecrappin? That goes without saying. Some Bozo who only drinks Blue Moon made by Coors is NOT a Craft Beer drinker? But, they are..... just not a well rounded one?

IV. Cover new ground. Buy different beers or styles every time. OK. That works for 'different beers,' but you can easily drink every style. Basically this goes back to III or a regurgitation of III.

V. Don't pretend to know. I love this one!! Based on this concept we'd have no Beer blogs or bullshit corporate beer descriptions from mindless media and advertising dorks.

VI. Don't believe the hype. Goes for craft brewing as well as Commercial Big Boys. This is widely ignored but rather embraced which says a lot about the mentality of many craft (sic) beer drinkers.

VII. Evangelize. Well... Sounds like preaching, but I agree. Spread the word about quality and interesting beer, but don't spread the word and suggest crappy beers. This goes back to the second commandment? Does this include or exclude advertising?

VIII. Share. Are they describing sharing or forcing your chosen beer nectar on your friends. By all means, share your beer with me! I don't want to drink out your glass, but share your thoughts and buy me a beer! In an intelligent way if possible. Ever go to pub and have a self-appointed Beer genius tell you, "You must drink a certain beer" because it's great? It's like rolling dice! Does this putz know something about beer or would he drink a Bud strained through dirty underwear and call it a Brown ale?

IX. Learn about brewing. Absolutely! That said, learn to identify what you are drinking. Learn the flavor profiles of grains, hops and yeast. Understanding how to brew is tinker toys, any putz can do it... maybe not well, but they can brew. You can brew beer and still not know shit about beer. Trust me, I've run into hundreds of home brewers who spend years trying to make Budweiser!

X. Don't be a douche! This is the one that takes all the validity out of these 10 Commandments! WHY? Lets review!

I. We have to only drink quality beer. That means there is shitty beer! I guess we're a douche for acknowledging that fact . That not very PC to say something in bad or crappy. That's Douchey according to our pathetic new social standards which are created by the moral majority... who are Douche bags!

II. Give your opinion! OK.. but if my opinion is negative... I'm a douche!

III. You can't have a favorite means you can't run with the crowd, fad or moral majority of beer lovers. at the moment You have to have a favorite according to society. So, now you're an anti-social douche!

IV. Drink different styles and beers. If I go to my non-craft beer drinking friends house and he offers me a Miller MGD. I think, Oh man, really! I can't drink that! I've had that in my youth and it sucks. I need to expand! I's have to ask my buddy, "Do ya have Scotch ale? I need to expand my beer repertoire." What's you buddy think? Probably, "What a Douche!"

V. Don't pretend to know anything about beer. Please hound your local bar keep, beer store owner or beer nerd! You could read a book about beer and beer styles, but "NO" you need to annoy the shit out of busy bar keeps and store owners! Damn, what a douche!

VI. Don't believe the hype that's brought most craft brewing into the foreground of beer drinkers. Without craft beer hype to some degree there would be no interest. No interest =no craft beer. Are you trying to bring down the craft beer industry! ? What a douche!

VII. Preach the good word of craft brewing! Annoy strangers about the goodness of craft brewing, force an influence upon them! Preach on how they are stupid for drinking that Fizzy Piss Water! They have no taste! They need be hip! Drink Craft Beer, it'll make ya look cool and maybe even smarter! Damn.... What a douche!

VIII. Share your beer. See VII

IX. Learn. Nothing wrong with learning! Of course, whats the old saying, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." In turn, a little knowledge can create many self proclaimed beer geniuses..... Read some of the self proclaimed beer genius blogs! Filled with disinformation and ridiculous facts of fictitious knowledge. Oh no! Annoying beer douches who think they know something!

X. Don't be a douche? To late! If you are any kind of craft beer lover..... You're probably already a douche! The more you know about beer, the bigger douche you become!

Be a Beer Douche and be proud!

Maybe as a beer douche you can come up with a new set of Craft Brewing 10 commandments too!

Starts and Stops.... and Boredom!!

2010-09-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

The Doc can't quite get it together these days. He's constantly starting articles for the blog, then gets bored and stops. Dare he admit that its getting harder to keep the snarky edge in his writing??!! Yea, well its true! I can read dozens of Beer articles about the local brewing scene. Most are constant regurgitation's of the same old thing or unwarranted praise for half ass new breweries and their mediocre offerings. Blah, blah, blah. Arguing these points are fruitless. People apparently want to have blind pride in anything local... that's a sad state that needs no more comments.

With a Mt Angel Oktoberfest review and its comparison to the REAL Oktoberfest 90% written, completing it seems redundant. More than likely 99.9% of local readers will never go to the real Oktoberfest, so any Oktoberfest to them is probably good enough. Is the food as good? Are the beers as good? Is the groove the same? Whats different, what the same? Pretty sure no one real cares if it's outside the NW bubble. Sad? Yes, but true.

Also on the block is an article on the Holiday Ale fest. The ONLY local beer fest I attend due to it's originality and uniqueness of beers. My complaints of the fest have been echoed by many. Are those complaints addressed? No. My praise for the fest has also been well documented. Search by blog.... you'll find my praises. So.... what's the point of writing about this fest again? It would just be the same regurgitation of the same praises and complaints.

Another article compares Full Sail's Dubbel to a real Belgian Dubbel. It's like trying to compare Maserati to a Ten speed! They both have wheels and will get you where you want to go. That's where the comparison ends.

Mini-Fests and the like!? Eh! I read the offerings and say no. I hear there's a Punk Rock themed drink up coming up! Woo hoo! I have memories of Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious puking and pissing on stage. Winterland 1978. That's a regurgitation of a completely different theme. That's a 'been there, done that, bought the T-shirt and lost it 30 years ago.' Is Johnny Rotten going to be there? maybe one the non-dead Ramone brothers? Dead Kennedy's playing? Maybe Anthony Bourdain will be present? I bet there's a STRONG "NO" on all accounts, so it's not worth me going. I can spin some old records, drink beer in the living room... Maybe even throw up on my couch! I'm good, thanks!

Pub reviews? Northwest and Local Beers.... period. Oh, maybe the occasional Trendy East Coast beer. Ho Hum.

Belgian pubs? Nope..... we have none.

Maybe the Doc can review some new local Brew pubs? Once again, just like writing another repetitious article on the scene at the OBF; what's the point. No new ground or progress in the brewing world is being made. Oh! Did someone say, "What about that Maple Porter?" Well, have ya had one before? Well, I have! IPA, Pale ale, Porter, Stout and on and on. Had em in every variation possible. Who the hell wants to report on another Hoppy IPA? It's like reporting on the frequency of the stop signals on Burnside and 11th! Yep! they're there, they've been there and they aren't going to change much. The Docs concept of writing entrainment is like ambulance chasing! Did ya see the motorcycle driver who took out that Burnside light post! What a dumb ass! He left an arm on the scene and it had a beer still clutched in the hand! Now that's good media dirty laundry. ;-}

Water, water, all around and not a drop to drink.

My beer consumption has reached its lowest level in 30 years! So has my interest in beer. I'm in a waiting mode. Lets hope its not like waiting for a bus that never comes!

"BEERVANA" Seeing a lot of Bronze! CA cleans up, again!

2010-09-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

11 Bronze Medals to be exact; Some Gold and Silver. Not bad, if ya ask me! But, If anything in the world is predictable.... Oregon Beer locals bitching about "Being Robbed" and /or Complaining about the style definitions for the GABF Comp, must be at the top of the list! It's like saying, If the Titanic had a two more life boats everybody would have been saved or the boat wouldn't have sank. So... let the senseless bitching begin!

While reading through this years list of GABF winners I did notice some deja vu winners. Some surprises. California seemed to have cleaned up once again, but Colorado seems to have quite a few wins as well. I can hear it now... "It must a conspiracy! CO and CA are in cahoots!" Get over it, people! The GABF Comp is judged by judges from all over the country.

Quality vs quantity? Oregon Beer Cheer Leaders embarrassingly bellowing praises of greatness and superiority. Sometimes it's like watching the episode of Pawn Stars where the Scout Master brings in a huge box filled with stamps. He's happily hopeful and naive as he states, "There must thousands of dollars worth of stamps in there!" In the end, there were just common everyday stamps. It's like watching an accident in progress, you know it's going to happen, but those involved are oblivious. We should all be happy Oregon had some Stamps worthy of ribbons.

When all is said and done, Oregon fared pretty well.....

West Coast Stats

California: 51 Ribbons in 39 Categories

Oregon: 19 Ribbons in 18 Categories

Washington: 8 Ribbons in 8 Categories

Comp Results

Category: 1 American-Style Wheat Beer - 23 Entries

Gold: Sandy Bottom, Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA
Silver: Shredders Wheat, Barley Brown’s Brew Pub, Baker City, OR
Bronze: County Seat Wheat, Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant, Topeka, KS

Category: 2 American-Style Wheat Beer With Yeast - 43 Entries

Gold: Point Horizon Wheat, Stevens Point Brewery, Stevens Point, WI
Silver: American Hefeweizen, Flat Branch Pub and Brewery, Columbia, MO
Bronze: Hefeweizen, Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., Portland, OR

Category: 3 Fruit Beer - 75 Entries

Gold: Chardonnay Blonde, Blue Moon Brewing Co., Denver, CO
Silver: Apricot Ale, Pyramid Breweries, Seattle, WA
Bronze: Raspberry Tart, New Glarus Brewing Co., New Glarus, WI

Category: 4 Field Beer - 28 Entries

Gold: Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale, Hoppin’ Frog Brewing Co., Akron, OH
Silver: Dark o’ the Moon, Elysian Brewing Co., Seattle, WA
Bronze: Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Weyerbacher Brewing Co., Easton, PA

Category: 5 Herb and Spice or Chocolate Beer - 91 Entries

Gold: Rosemary Swamp Fox, Moon River Brewing Co., Savannah, GA
Silver: Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle, Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, CA
Bronze: Super Chili Pepper Madness, Mad River Brewing Co., Blue Lake, CA

Category: 6 Coffee Flavored Beer - 52 Entries

Gold: Baltic Coffee, Devils Backbone Brewing Co., Roseland, VA
Silver: Coffee Monster, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Bronze: Big Shot Espresso Stout, Twisted Pine Brewing Co., Boulder, CO

Category: 7 Specialty Beer - 23 Entries

Gold: Belipago, Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, Dexter, MI
Silver: Coconut Porter, Pagosa Brewing Co., Pagosa Springs, CO
Bronze: Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Rogue Ales, Newport, OR

Category: 8 Rye Beer - 32 Entries

Gold: BMB Rye IPA, Black Market Brewing Co., Temecula, CA
Silver: Portsmouth Brewery Rye Not, Portsmouth Brewery, Portsmouth, NH
Bronze: Roggenbier, Bear Republic Brewing Co., Healdsburg, CA

Category: 9 Specialty Honey Beer - 24 Entries

Gold: Blue Moon Summer Honey Wheat Ale, Blue Moon Brewing Co., Denver, CO
Silver: Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale, Back Forty Beer Co., Gadsden, AL
Bronze: Samuel Adams Honey Porter, Boston Beer Co., Boston, MA

Category: 10 Session Beer - 30 Entries

Gold: Squatters Wit, Utah Brewers Cooperative, Salt Lake City, UT
Silver: Endurance IPA Jr., Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MI
Bronze: King’s Peak Porter, Uinta Brewing Co., Salt Lake City, UT

Category: 11 Other Strong Beer - 48 Entries

Gold: Sierra 30 Jack and Ken’s Ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA
Silver: Panzer Pilsner, Port Brewing Co., San Marcos, CA
Bronze: Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Boundary Bay Brewery, Bellingham, WA

Category: 12 Experimental Beer - 43 Entries

Gold: Key Lime Pie, Short’s Brewing Co., Bellaire, MI
Silver: Estate Homegrown Ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA
Bronze: Wild Lemon Wheat, Great Basin Brewing Co., Sparks, NV

Category: 13 Out of Category – Traditionally Brewed Beer - 66 Entries

Gold: Fathom IPL, Ballast Point Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Silver: Mötley Brüe RyePA, Four Peaks Brewing Co., Tempe, AZ
Bronze: Hot Rocks Lager, Port Brewing Co., San Marcos, CA

Category: 14 Gluten Free Beer - 13 Entries

Gold: Celia Pale Ale, The Alchemist, Waterbury, VT
Silver: Gluten Free, Deschutes Brewery, Bend, OR
Bronze: 3R Raspberry Ale, New Planet Beer Co., Boulder, CO

Category: 15 American-Belgo-Style Ale - 47 Entries

Gold: Ryevalry, Bear Republic Factory Five, Cloverdale, CA
Silver: Simcoe Silly, Kuhnhenn Brewing Co., Warren, MI
Bronze: Pete’s Support Belgian IPA, FireHouse Grill & Brewery, Sunnyvale, CA

Category: 16 American-Style Sour Ale - 39 Entries

Gold: Brute, Ithaca Beer Co., Ithaca, NY
Silver: Eric’s Ale, New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO
Bronze: Red Poppy, The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA

Category: 17 Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer - 32 Entries

Gold: Velvet Merkin (100% Barrel Aged), Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Silver: Humidor India Pale Ale, Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL
Bronze: Bluegrass Brown, Thunder Canyon Brewery, Tucson, AZ

Category: 18 Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer - 77 Entries

Gold: Barrel Aged Big Island, Island Brewing Co., Carpinteria, CA
Silver: HE’BREW RIPA on RYE, Shmaltz Brewing Co., San Francisco, CA
Bronze: Melange a Trois, Nebraska Brewing Co., Papillion, NE

Category: 19 Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout - 34 Entries

Gold: Bourbon Barrel Aged Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout, Foothills Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC
Silver: Remy, TAPS Fish House & Brewery, Brea, CA
Bronze: Bourbon County Brand Stout, Goose Island Beer Co., Chicago, IL

Category: 20 Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer - 54 Entries

Gold: Le Serpent Cerise, Snake River Brewing, Jackson, WY
Silver: Temptation, Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, CA
Bronze: The Jaspers, Bullfrog Brewery, Williamsport, PA

Category: 21 Aged Beer - 30 Entries

Gold: John Barleycorn Barleywine ‘06, Mad River Brewing Co., Blue Lake, CA
Silver: Cherry Baltic, Bend Brewing Co., Bend, OR
Bronze: Bell’s Expedition Stout, 1995, Bell’s Brewery, Inc., Galesburg, MI

Category: 22 Kellerbier/Zwickelbier - 24 Entries

Gold: Kolsch, Hale’s Ales, Seattle, WA
Silver: Kellerbier, Triumph Brewing Co. of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Bronze: Summer Teeth, Columbus Brewing Co., Columbus, OH

Category: 23 Smoked Beer - 38 Entries

Gold: Alaskan Smoked Porter 2009, Alaskan Brewing Co., Juneau, AK
Silver: Yazoo SUE, Yazoo Brewing Co., Nashville, TN
Bronze: Gordon Biersch Rauchbier, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurants, Chattanooga, TN

Category: 24 American-Style or International-Style Pilsener - 27 Entries

Gold: Gold Leaf Lager, Devils Backbone Brewing Co., Roseland, VA
Silver: Random Luck, The Sandlot, Denver, CO
Bronze: Gold Country Pilsner, Auburn Alehouse, Auburn, CA

Category: 25 German-Style Pilsener - 48 Entries

Gold: Trumer Pils, Trumer Brauerei Berkeley, San Antonio, TX
Silver: German Pilsner, AC Golden, Golden, CO
Bronze: Chuckanut Pilsner, Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham, WA

Category: 26 Bohemian-Style Pilsener - 42 Entries

Gold: Boathouse Pilsner, Titletown Brewing Co., Green Bay, WI
Silver: Golden Pilsner, Morgan Street Brewery, St. Louis, MO
Bronze: Bridge Creek Pilsner, Silver Moon Brewing, Bend, OR

Category: 27 Munich-Style Helles - 42 Entries

Gold: What in the Helles?, Steamworks Brewing Co, Durango, CO
Silver: Longboard Island Lager, Kona Brewing Co., Kailua-Kona, HI
Bronze: Cowboy Lager, The Covey Restaurant & Brewery, Fort Worth, TX

Category: 28 Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest - 21 Entries

Gold: Summerbrau, Utah Brewers Cooperative, Salt Lake City, UT
Silver: Noble Stuff Export, Dry Dock Brewing Co., Aurora, CO
Bronze: Rolling Thunder Dortmunder, Snake River Brewing, Jackson, WY

Category: 29 American-Style Lager or Light Lager - 53 Entries

Gold: Miller Lite, Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI
Silver: Old Milwaukee, Pabst Brewing Co., Woodridge, IL
Bronze: Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI

Category: 30 American-Style Specialty Lager or Cream Ale - 42 Entries

Gold: Hamm’s, Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI
Silver: Rainier, Pabst Brewing Co., Woodridge, IL
Bronze: Old Style, Pabst Brewing Co., Woodridge, IL

Category: 31 Vienna-Style Lager - 35 Entries

Gold: Chuckanut Vienna Lager, Chuckanut Brewery, Bellingham, WA
Silver: Clueless Beer Writer, The Sandlot, Denver, CO
Bronze: Heavy Seas Marzen, Clipper City Brewing Co., Baltimore, MD

Category: 32 German-Style Märzen - 41 Entries

Gold: Flor Hosen, The Sandlot, Denver, CO
Silver: Oh! Fest!, Schooner’s Grille & Brewery, Antioch, CA
Bronze: Munsterfest, Three Floyds Brewing Co, LLC, Munster, IN

Category: 33 American-Style Amber Lager - 39 Entries

Gold: Manana, Del Norte Brewing Co., Denver, CO
Silver: Schell’s Oktoberfest, August Schell Brewing Co., New Ulm, MN
Bronze: Foothills Oktoberfest, Foothills Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC

Category: 34 European-Style Dunkel - 19 Entries

Gold: Dunkel, AC Golden, Golden, CO
Silver: Dunkel Lager, Triumph Brewing Co. of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Bronze: Dark Side Lager, C.B. Potts Restaurant & Brewery (Fort Collins), Fort Collins, CO

Category: 35 American-Style Dark Lager - 20 Entries

Gold: Michelob AmberBock, Michelob Brewing Co., St. Louis, MO
Bronze: Schwarzbier, AC Golden, Golden, CO

Category: 36 German-Style Schwarzbier - 31 Entries

Gold: Redrock Black Bier, Redrock Brewing Co., Salt Lake City, UT
Silver: Annie Schwarz, Haverhill Brewery, Haverhill, MA
Bronze: TAPS Schwarzbier, TAPS Fish House & Brewery, Brea, CA

Category: 37 Bock - 36 Entries

Gold: Hellats Good Beer, Pug Ryans Brewery, Dillon, CO
Silver: Troegenator, Troegs Brewery, Harrisburg, PA
Bronze: Maibock, Ram Restaurant & Brewery - Salem, Salem, OR

Category: 38 German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock - 25 Entries

Gold: Carbonator, Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co., Glenwood Springs, CO
Silver: Gordon Biersch Eisbock, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurants, Chattanooga, TN
Bronze: Dominator Dopplebock, Sun King Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN

Category: 39 Baltic-Style Porter - 21 Entries

Gold: 3 Dog Night, Chama River Brewing Co., Albuquerque, NM
Silver: Collaborative Evil - Triple Rock, Triple Rock Brewery and Alehouse, Berkeley, CA
Bronze: Reverend Potter’s Baltic Porter, The Prodigal Brewery, Effingham, NH

Category: 40 Golden or Blonde Ale - 55 Entries

Gold: Kiwanda Cream Ale, Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific City, OR
Silver: Steelhead Extra Pale Ale, Mad River Brewing Co., Blue Lake, CA
Bronze: Heavy Seas Gold Ale, Clipper City Brewing Co., Baltimore, MD

Category: 41 German-Style Kölsch - 46 Entries

Gold: Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower Beer, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX
Silver: Colorado Kolsch, Steamworks Brewing Co., Durango, CO
Bronze: Kolsch 151, Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA

Category: 42 English-Style Summer Ale - 35 Entries

Gold: 312 Urban Wheat Ale, Goose Island Beer Co., Chicago, IL
Silver: Pacific Daylight, Dale Bros. Brewery, Upland, CA
Bronze: Sandbagger Gold, Montana Brewing Co., Billings, MT

Category: 43 Classic English-Style Pale Ale - 29 Entries

Gold: Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Deschutes Brewery, Bend, OR
Silver: Summit Extra Pale Ale, Summit Brewing Co., Saint Paul, MN
Bronze: Ska Special, Ska Brewing Co., Durango, CO

Category: 44 English-Style India Pale Ale - 32 Entries

Gold: Beech Street Bitter, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Silver: Illusion Dweller, Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery, Boulder, CO
Bronze: Samuel Adams Latitude 48, Boston Beer Co., Boston, MA

Category: 45 American-Style Pale Ale - 109 Entries

Gold: Mission Street Pale, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Silver: Pale 31, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Bronze: Puddle Jumper Pale Ale, Third Street Aleworks, Santa Rosa, CA

Category: 46 American-Style Strong Pale Ale - 84 Entries

Gold: Himalayan IPA, Yak and Yeti Brewpub, Arvada, CO
Silver: IPA Nectar, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Bronze: 7 - Fity, Triple Rock Brewery and Alehouse, Berkeley, CA

Category: 47 American-Style India Pale Ale - 142 Entries

Gold: “Pseudo” IPA, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA
Silver: Head Hunter IPA, Fat Head’s Brewery & Saloon, North Olmsted, OH
Bronze: Lumberyard Extra IPA, Lumberyard Brewing Co., Flagstaff, AZ

Category: 48 Imperial India Pale Ale - 97 Entries

Gold: Doheny Double IPA, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA
Silver: Hop Crisis!, 21st Amendment Brewery, San Francisco, CA
Bronze: Decadence Imperial IPA, Trinity Brewhouse, Providence, RI

Category: 49 American-Style Amber/Red Ale - 83 Entries

Gold: Red Nectar, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Silver: Hop Back Amber Ale, Troegs Brewery, Harrisburg, PA
Bronze: Red Rock, Triple Rock Brewery and Alehouse, Berkeley, CA

Category: 50 Imperial Red Ale - 43 Entries

Gold: Lumberyard Imperial Red, Lumberyard Brewing Co., Flagstaff, AZ
Silver: Red Eye PA, The Brew Kettle Production Works, Strongsville, OH
Bronze: Deranger, Laurelwood Brewing Co., Portland, OR

Category: 51 English-Style Mild Ale - 27 Entries

Gold: Business Time Mild, Boulder Beer Co., Boulder, CO
Silver: Skidmark Brown, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA
Bronze: Ale of Fergus, Devils Backbone Brewing Co., Roseland, VA

Category: 52 Ordinary or Special Bitter - 47 Entries

Gold: Rio Blanco Pale Ale, Real Ale Brewing Co., Blanco, TX
Silver: DBA, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Bronze: Drop Top, Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., Portland, OR

Category: 53 Extra Special Bitter or Strong Bitter - 42 Entries

Gold: GAR Pale Ale, Great American Restaurants, Centreville, VA
Silver: Saint Arnold Elissa IPA, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX
Bronze: Bachelor ESB, Deschutes Brewery, Bend, OR

Category: 54 Scottish-Style Ale - 22 Entries

Gold: Highland Courage, Rock Bottom Breweries, Louisville, CO
Silver: Saint Arnold Oktoberfest, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Houston, TX
Bronze: Laughing Lab Scottish Ale, Bristol Brewing Co., Colorado Springs, CO

Category: 55 Irish-Style Red Ale - 23 Entries

Gold: Red Trolley Ale, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Silver: River Falls Red Ale, Thomas Creek Brewery, Greenville, SC
Bronze: Ragtop Red, Rock Bottom Breweries, Louisville, CO

Category: 56 English-Style Brown Ale - 46 Entries

Gold: Old Elk Brown Ale, Rock Bottom Breweries, Louisville, CO
Silver: Good Grief Brown, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Bronze: Eclipse Brown Ale, Equinox Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO

Category: 57 American-Style Brown Ale - 47 Entries

Gold: Sweet Josie, LoneRider Brewing Co., Raleigh, NC
Silver: Redrock Nut Brown Ale, Redrock Brewing Co, Salt Lake City, UT
Bronze: American Brown Ale, Big Rock Chop House & Brewery, Birmingham, MI

Category: 58 American-Style India Black Ale - 53 Entries

Gold: Turmoil, Barley Brown’s Brew Pub, Baker City, OR
Silver: Go Figure, Big Rock Chop House & Brewery, Birmingham, MI
Bronze: Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, CA

Category: 59 German-Style Altbier - 37 Entries

Gold: GestAlt, Haverhill Brewery, Haverhill, MA
Silver: Bismarck Altbier, Dry Dock Brewing Co., Aurora, CO
Bronze: Sticke Alt, Rock Bottom Breweries, Louisville, CO

Category: 60 German-Style Sour Ale - 23 Entries

Gold: Berliner Weisse, Snake River Brewing, Jackson, WY
Silver: Tiny Bubbles, Hollister Brewing Co., Goleta, CA
Bronze: Beer Gone Good, Terrapin Beer Co., Athens, GA

Category: 61 South German-Style Hefeweizen - 65 Entries

Gold: Stoudts Heifer In Wheat, Stoudt Brewing Co., Adamstown, PA
Silver: U-Boat Hefeweizen, Dry Dock Brewing Co., Aurora, CO
Bronze: Wintergreen Weiss, Devils Backbone Brewing Co., Roseland, VA

Category: 62 German-Style Wheat Ale - 29 Entries

Gold: Hefelightzen, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery, Huntington Beach, CA
Silver: Wowzenbock, Deschutes Brewery, Bend, OR
Bronze: Capital Weizen Doppelbock, Capital Brewery Co., Inc., Middleton, WI

Category: 63 Belgian-Style Witbier - 45 Entries

Gold: TAPS Belgian White, TAPS Fish House & Brewery, Brea, CA
Silver: Whale Tail Wit, Dry Dock Brewing Co., Aurora, CO
Bronze: Allagash White, Allagash Brewing Co., Portland, ME

Category: 64 French- and Belgian-Style Saison - 52 Entries

Gold: Saison Vautour, McKenzie Brew House, Malvern, PA
Silver: Colette, Great Divide Brewing Co., Denver, CO
Bronze: Belgian Summer Ale, Great Adirondack Brewing Co., Lake Placid, NY

Category: 65 Belgian- and French-Style Ale - 46 Entries

Gold: Allagash Blonde, Allagash Brewing Co., Portland, ME
Silver: Bastogne Blonde Ale, Rock Bottom Breweries, Louisville, CO
Bronze: Domaine DuPage, Two Brothers Brewing Co., Warrenville, IL

Category: 66 Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale - 33 Entries

Gold: Oude Tart, The Bruery, Placentia, CA
Silver: Coolship Resurgam, Allagash Brewing Co., Portland, ME
Bronze: Le Serpent, Snake River Brewing, Jackson, WY

Category: 67 Belgian-Style Abbey Ale - 76 Entries

Gold: Nectar Des Dieux, Bastone Brewery, Royal Oak, MI
Silver: Golden Slumber, Sun King Brewing Co., Indianapolis, IN
Bronze: Three Philosophers, Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY

Category: 68 Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale - 54 Entries

Gold: Revelations, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Silver: Brother David’s Double, Anderson Valley Brewing Co., Boonville, CA
Bronze: Hells Keep, Utah Brewers Cooperative, Salt Lake City, UT

Category: 69 Brown Porter - 33 Entries

Gold: Total Disorder Porter, Ram Production Brewery, Tacoma, WA
Silver: St. Charles Porter, Blackstone Brewing Co., Nashville, TN
Bronze: Pullman Brown, Flossmoor Station, Flossmoor, IL

Category: 70 Robust Porter - 53 Entries

Gold: Pig Iron Porter, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Wilmington, DE
Silver: Moonlight Porter, Rock Bottom Breweries, Louisville, CO
Bronze: Blimp Hangar Porter, Tustin Brewing Co., Tustin, CA

Category: 71 Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout - 23 Entries

Gold: Hyde Park Stout, Augusta Brewing Co., Washington, MO
Silver: McLuhr’s Irish Stout, Dillon DAM Brewery, Dillon, CO
Bronze: Port Truck Stout, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA

Category: 72 Foreign-Style Stout - 33 Entries

Gold: Fade to Black, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont, CO
Silver: Whiteface Stout, Great Adirondack Brewing Co., Lake Placid, NY
Bronze: Tsunami Stout, Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific City, OR

Category: 73 American-Style Stout - 27 Entries

Gold: Liberty Stout, Gella’s Diner and Lb. Brewing Co., Hays, KS
Silver: Disorder Stout, Barley Brown’s Brew Pub, Baker City, OR
Bronze: Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout, Rogue Ales, Newport, OR

Category: 74 Sweet Stout - 29 Entries

Gold: Kickstart Stout, Barley Brothers Brewery & Grill, Lake Havasu City, AZ
Silver: Oil Change Stout, Flat Branch Pub and Brewery, Columbia, MO
Bronze: Portsmouth Brewery Milk Stout, Portsmouth Brewery, Portsmouth, NH

Category: 75 Oatmeal Stout - 39 Entries

Gold: Backside Stout, Steamworks Brewing Co., Durango, CO
Silver: Naked Oatmeal Stout, Rock Bottom Breweries, Louisville, CO
Bronze: 825 State Stout, Epic Brewing Co., LLC, Salt Lake City, UT

Category: 76 Imperial Stout - 50 Entries

Gold: Russian Imperial Stout, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Wilmington, DE
Silver: Night Rider Imperial Stout, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Bronze: Anastasia Russian Imperial Stout, Weasel Boy Brewing Co., Zanesville, OH

Category: 77 Scotch Ale - 34 Entries

Gold: Reed’s Wee Heavy, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Silver: Wee Willy Scotch Ale, McCoy’s Public House & Brewkitchen, Kansas City, MO
Bronze: MacPelican’s Wee Heavy Ale, Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific City, OR

Category: 78 Old Ale or Strong Ale - 38 Entries

Gold: Fourth Dementia Olde Ale, Kuhnhenn Brewing Co., Warren, MI
Silver: Curmudgeon, Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MI
Bronze: Outback X, Bend Brewing Co., Bend, OR

Category: 79 Barley Wine-Style Ale - 57 Entries

Gold: Flying Mouflan, Troegs Brewery, Harrisburg, PA
Silver: Old #23 Barley Wine, Bristol Brewing Co., Colorado Springs, CO
Bronze: Jack Hammer, The Brew Kettle Production Works, Strongsville, OH

He's Back for One Last Pint!

2010-09-08T22:45:00.001-07:00

BEER WEEK's Cometh!

2010-08-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

While some American Beer Regions struggle to organize a cohesive BEER WEEK, let alone a decent comprehensive web site for their events... It appears BEER WEEKS are popping up all over the American Map! Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Philly, New York, St Louis, Boston, Sacramento, Denver, Detroit and so on.

Where did all these BEER WEEKS start? What the history of the BEER WEEK? It must have started in Oregon, the beer mecca we call Beervana? It must, it must!!?? According to the Doc's indepth (sic) research the first BEER WEEK was a three way tie; American Craft Beer Week, Oregon Beer Week (Yes, we "HAD" a real Beer Week!) and Ohio Beer Week all started in 2005! Ohio?! While I'm still researching the first city or state to have the first Week Long beer event (That's not a festival), the oldest I've found so far was San Francisco's Beerapolooza which started in 2003.

LA BEER WEEK and San Diego are up and coming!

Here's a list of the 2010 BEER WEEKS

2010 Schedule

San Francisco: 2/5 to 2/14

Sacramento: 2/22 to 2/28

Charlotte: 3/18 to 3/28

Craft Brewers Conference (Chicago): 4/7 to 4/10

St. Louis: 4/24 to 5/2

Seattle: 5/13 to 5/23

Chicago: 5/17 to 5/23

American Craft Beer Week: 5/17 to 5/23

Philadelphia: 6/4 to 6/13

Boston: 6/11 to 6/20

Oregon Craft Beer Month (Portland): 7/1 to 7/31

Ohio Brew Week (Athens): 7/11 to 7/17

Milwaukee: 9/12 to 9/18

Denver: 9/16 to 9/18

Baltimore: 10/7 to 10/17

Los Angeles: 10/ 7 to 10/17

Louisville: 10/16 to 10/23

San Diego: 11/5 to 11/14

Forbes Rates Brewery Tours?

2010-08-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

A 2008 Forbes article rates Brewery Tours of the World and America. Yea, it's a dated article, but I found it rather interesting. Curious to here readers thoughts on these highly rated Breweries and Tours.

Best Brewery Tours in the World

Guinness Brewery, Ireland

Chimay Brewery, Belgium

Monsteiner Brewery, Switzerland
Kiuchi Brewery, Japan
Erdinger, Germany
Buller, Argentina
Wells and Young, England
Brasserie Caracole, Belgium

Best Brewery Tours in America

Stone Brewing, San Diego, CA

Rogue, Newport, OR

Wynkoop, Denver, CO
Brooklyn Brewing, Brooklyn, NY
Mendocino Brewing, Ukiah, CA
Flying Dog Brewing, Fredrick, MD
Anchor Brewing, San Francisco, CA
Ommergang, Cooperstown, NY
Dogfish Brewing, Milton DE
Magic Hat, Burlington, VT

Corporate Buy Outs Hit Oregon..... again!

2010-07-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

"North American Breweries" is in the process of purchasing the Magic Hat/Pyramid Brewing Co.

Since many locals still haven't grasped the fact that Portland Brewing is really gone and have been replaced by Corporate brewing entity, this will no doubt be ignored by many.... or maybe just not understood?

Lets' see if we can shed some light (once again) on the decimation of local breweries...

Portland Brewing (MacTarnahans) was bought buy Pyramid Brewing (a Washington Brewery). Pyramid had a corporate merger with Magic Hat Brewing of Vermont. Now.... Magic Pyramid is being purchased by North American Breweries of New York.

per Wiki

North American Breweries is a new parent corporation established by New York City investment firm KPS Capital Partners to manage its new brewery acquisitions: Genesee Brewing Company and Labatt USA. The company is based at the Genesee Brewing Company coporate offices in Rochester, NY.

So, Pyramid will be a New York ran Brewery and Bridgeport is run by Texans? I guess we should be Happy we still have the Craft Brewers Alliance's WIDHOOK based in Portland??? There's no corporate influence there, right??? :-O

What does all this really mean other than more corporate suits dumbing down our NOT-SO-LOCAL breweries? Uh... That's pretty much what it means. ;-} Hooray for Corporate Cash Cows!!!???

OBF 2010 Highlights!

2010-07-26T11:53:00.001-07:00

Upright Revisited with a Red-n-LSD Experience

2010-07-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

photo by John Foyston

Upright brewing! What can I say? I believe there is a great possibility for brilliant beers to appear from this brewery. On this recent visit we managed to sample nine different beers. The reviews are a mixed bag; Some were very good; Some meh; Some poor. The Doc brought along three home brewers and BJCP judges from CA for these samplings. While some beers were well received, all present felt Upright needs to make some major strides if they want to belly-up to the bar next to Lost Abbey, Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin or the like. The reviews are purely Doc Worts.

I don't really mind the $1 a sample, but can't see paying a buck for beers that are only slightly tweaked versions of the originals. It's really not enough of a stretch for a $1 sample. My group all agreed, the nine samples were worth a $5 sampling at best.

BTW, can we give these beers some real names?!

Here's the reviews:

4: Subtle acidic sour aromas and fermented wheat. Wheat is detectable in flavor along with some light and balanced acidity from yeast and funk. Light and delicate. Well balanced hops with a slight herbal overtone. Nice, but seemed a little sweet compared to previous samples. The best sample I ever had of 4 was at last years Cheers to Belgian beers, all recent samples seem to be toning down the acid and yeast funky goodness.

-There were two other variations of 4. Why? I'll bite, lets try em. One had Willamette Hops and the other was hopped with a hop I can't remember. Considering the subtleties and lightness of 4, different hops shouldn't make much of a difference.... and it didn't.

4A: Willamette hops. Yep, it's 4 with Willamette Hops. A little more Earthy than the spicy Hallertauer Mitt in the original 4. Willamette, a hop derived from the British Fuggles has a nice simple earthiness. Too much and it becomes dirt like in flavor and murky. This beer was well balanced and fermented out more completely than the Original 4 we sampled. A nice beer, but not much different from the original 4.

4B: Mystery Hop. See above for the same review. The only different is a more prominent spiciness and herb in the balanced hop.

So.... what's the point of A and B?? I don't really know. Maybe an experiment. Fun to taste, but not interesting enough be considered a PAID sample. These are worthy of a Courtesy tasting.....

5: basically it's taste like 4 made with barley malt instead of wheat with a little extra crystal malt and slightly more aggressively hopped. Period. So far, I've tasted 4 beers that are all pretty much the same with only subtle differences.

6: By far the best of the standard lineup. Dark reddish in color, this beer actually has some unique and interesting nuances. Rye for texture is nice, but what shines through is the balance combo of pepper, chocolate and higher caramel Crystal. Do I note a little cherry and slight prickle on my tongue like roasted malt or is it a Carafa malt?.Nicely done with a Belgian yeast flavor. The most unique and interesting beer of the standards.

7: My last review called this a quality straight forward malty Saison. That's pretty much what it is. In the style of a Dupont Foret with a more soft malt texture with some crystal malts and hints of coriander peaking through. This sample had one flaw.... It was way to sweet! Underfermeneted?

Pils: This was just wrong. A simple description..... Over hopped and bitter. Hop spice quickly fades into palate burning bitterness. I could taste bitterness for about 3 minutes post the first sip. Not hop flavor, just plain bitterness. Malt cannot be found anywhere. This tastes like a over hopped home brewed Pils. If judging, I would tell the home brewer, "You're way to heavy handed on the bittering hops. Lower the bittering hops so that the malt can come through and allow the hops flavor to be demonstrated along with the malt."

7A: Another mystery hop version of 7. It's a better fermented out version of the standard 7 with some spicier hops. Once again, pick one and brew it. I enjoyed this one more than the sweeter original 7.

Lambicus 6: I would say it's more like a Flanders Red 6, rather than a Lambic. A fairly good Flanders Red made from the "6" beer. Acidity and sourness is well balanced. It could be more acidic and more sour, but it's nicely delicate and well balanced right now. Very approachable for a first time Flanders Red drinker.

New Old Lompoc Bourbon Barrel-Aged Proletariat Red Ale & LSD

Sidebar is a very cool space, there's no doubt about it! It has a Barrel cave like feel with barrels stacked around the perimeter of the room and a cozy fire going. A nice place to feel like you are hidden away from the world.... until they open that door to the street! That totally ruins the effect and mood. If that door was only used as an emergency exit it would be perfect. Feeding patrons through the back of the dinning room, through the brewery and storage room has a much cool groove that gives your the feeling of stealing away into a dark speakeasy. Side door? Fo-get about it!

New old Lompoc has just released their Bourbon Barrel Red. Thought it was worth a try. I was a big fan of the Bourbon Barrel LSD with it's in-your-face Bourbon and wood flavors that married well with the LSD base. I bought some bottles of the BBLSD for cellaring. Recently I pulled out a bottle to see how it was aging. Tasting notes to follow.

New OLd Lompoc - Bourbon Barrel LSD

This was bottled in January of 2010. I really wanted to hold off till 2011 before trying a bottle, but I was anxious to try this beer again. Good thing I did! These beers are ready to drink NOW! A long maturation will not do these beer well. Bourbon flavors have already melded into the flavor profile and wood has been dramatically softened. While both flavors are still present, they have diminished considerably and has left this beer fairly dry. It's a tasty beer RIGHT now, don't try and age much longer.

New Old Lompoc - Bourbon Barrel Proletariat Red

Like it's Bourbon Barrel aged brethren, this FRESH taste of Red has a big Bourbon and Wood aroma and taste. The syrupy sweetness of the higher crystals used in the red are cloying sweet and sticky on the tongue. The malt is firm enough to support the bourbon and wood, but obnoxiously fights for attention in the foreground. Bourbon!! Cloying malt!! Who will get your attention? Right now the malt is just too much.... too worty... too much malty murkiness. Dense mouth feel and syrupy. Aromas of Wood, Bourbon, vanilla and that cloying green crystal wort smell. It is Red in color but murky with strange looking particulate material in suspension. I'd say age may help this beer, but considering the aging process with LSD, not sure I'd waste my time aging.

Buy some quick maturing Bourbon Barrel LSD instead! I don't remember the price of those beers, but I wouldn't pay more than $7 for a bomber.

Oregon July Beer Update!

2010-07-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

Jeff over at Beervana seems to think the Doc went into retirement! Not true! Lack of posts do to boredom and local SOSDD. If the masses need an update.... here it is!

Haven't had much to talk about. No point in regurgitating the same ol stuff.

Want info on OBF or PIB? Look at their web site.

Don't really care whether the Organic fest pays their bills or who's upset with who. I don't even go to the Organic beer fest!

Other than the routine Beer fests, the Oregon Beer Month is pretty much a boring bust. All other Beer Weeks are smoking hot! Beervana has BORE MONTH. Mostly self promoting pandering to the masses. See DA's "Beer around Town" for similar thoughts.

Coalition Brewing is open and serving up Meatloaf Balls and Tuna melts while tapping up three similar over exposed beers, and the place is filled with people who are excited by "this"?! Not here to appeal to the masses of locals who are willing to eat tater tots and bologna sandwiches. Drowning in nationally over exposed beer styles that could be found at any market that sells Gateway beers.

Probably not going to OBF or feel like paying 5 tickets ($5) for a sip of quality beer at PIB.

Spints is bust.

Need to make it down to Apex if I can find parking for those of us in the world who DO own a car and drive.

Love to go to Puckerfest, but most events seem to be during the week. So people in the world work in the evening, Have families and can only partake in weekend events are pretty much out of luck. Maybe I'll try a Saturday.

Full Sail has a "DUNKLE" that tastes like a cross between a pale ale and Dunkle. What should we really call this, a Dark Pale ale or an over hopped Dunkle or a mistake? Maybe we should create a new national Beer Style and call it a Hood River Dark Pale??? ;-}

Roots brewing for sale. No surprise there.

Laurelwood closing one the ankle biting dens of poor parenting and snot ridden child fingers in my meal. Oooo, so broken up over that.

Green Dragon has a lot more taps and continuously crappy food.

Portland Food/Beer scene continues to grow, but still a tater tot and chicken strip nation. Apparently most local Beer drinkers have Elementary School Cafeteria Palates!

So.... Lets all go down to Widmer and get one of those huge 12 beer sampling plates where 10 of the beers taste the same, but have different colors so the help can identify the beer. We can brew a million barrels of beer and Serve a beer with a Lemon, but we can't seem to ever buy that fryer that the kitchen needs. ;-}

Maybe next week I'll write about the SPECIALTY BEER TENT at OBF! I've decided to go on vacation for most of the month of July for some real excitement.

NEWS FLASH!

Portland's Beer Month may be a BORE, but GORE loves it for Groping!

Oh! Want something positive!? Hair of the Dog's new Brewery, Tasting Room and Cafe should be opening soon.

Oregon's OLCC doesn't know the difference between JUDGING Home Brewed beers and serving Home Brew to the Public! They put the kabbosh on Home Brew judging based on a LAW that's been on the books for 30 years. I guess some OLCC members just learned to read? Maybe it took them 30 years to comprehend? When my CA friends told me that the IQ level drops once you cross into Oregon I never thought it applied to government officials! But! Here's the proof of they're level of stupidity and incompetence!

Retirement? I don't remember ever saying I was retiring, just waiting for something news worthy to post. ;-}

There.... Done till August!

German's Hit the High Note!

2010-06-02T11:53:00.001-07:00

photo from gizmag.com

Well.... While here in the NW they continue to reinvent the 'Standard Ale' wheel over and over and over and over again; The German Lager Brewers at the Schorschbräu Brewery in Oberasbach, Germany are cranking out the worlds highest alcohol beers.... using an old traditional brewing technique and style. They currently have three beers in the Top 7 alcoholic beers at 31%, 40% and 43%.

Their beers are Eisbocks. These are lager beers that are brewed and fermented, then the temperature of the beer is dropped so that the water in the beer freezes. Water and alcohol freeze at different temperatures; Alcohol has a lower freezing temp. when the water in the beer freezes, the water crystals are removed, there by concentrating the alcohol in the beer. There are many breweries in Germany that produce Eisbock Beers, but few acquire the 30-40% alcohol strength.

So.... what's the point? Healthy competition vs. creating something new and exciting? Is this a dick waving contest between Brewdog and Schorschbrau? Eh, maybe!

On Schorschbrau's web site they have a little comical poke at Brewdog in the beer blog:

The Frankonian Empire strikes back!

In our graciousness, We had decided, not to begrudge the Others, the little joy of holding the title for a few weeks. Let's not overdo this – from now on Worlds Strongest Beer again lives where it belongs to: in Frankonia!

Schorschbock 43% Vol., 'cause Frankonian Men don't dress like girls

All in fun? I'm sure. Probably a good thing they are not competing with any NW breweries who have little sense of humor and resistance to competitive banter. The return quote would be, "Oh yea! I'ma going to git my brother to run you German guys down wit his Dodge Ram! So, what state is Oberasbach in and what da hell is an Eisbock?" ;-0

Sam Adams created their outrageously expensive Utopia at 24 and 27% alcohol. I guess they figured Beer Geeks would pay big bucks for a science experiment.... and of course, they did! Not many people will admit they paid the price today, but da bottle is really pretty!

Back on the home front.... We be getting increased quantity of brewpubs with the same "Wheel." It's like having a Dog TURD collection..... Chow Turd, Labrador Turd, Boxer Turd, Great Dane turd... It's still all just shit. Other s are making money creating fancy fertilizers and we're counting the dog shit. When will they learn quality and innovation beats quantity every time?

"BUT WE CAN MAKE A REAL HOPPY BEER!" That's nice junior, time to get on the short bus!

Big Time Home Brewing Equipment - 1/2 off!

2010-06-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

For the SERIOUS Home Brewer!

Serious about Home Brewing or even a small pilot brewery for your Brew Pub? Home brewers, throw away those Cooler systems and get off the kitchen stove! Here's some quality brewing equipment for half the price!

See Craig's List: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/for/1764559615.html