Donnie the Elder Muskmelon Gose Withdrawn

You're used to seeing announcements on social media about new beers, or this year's release of an old favorite.  Here's a new one, a beer cancellation.  Usually breweries don't need to specifically note that they will no longer make a certain beer, they just stop making it.  So I was surprised to see a local brewery — you can figure out which one — announce on Facebook that they will no longer be brewing their love-it-or-hate-it Donnie the Elder double gose flavored with muskmelon.

Muskmelon — another word for cantaloupe — gave the beer its distinctive orange color, but the taste wasn't for everyone.  The double gose (sometimes abbreviated "doge" on the blackboard) had a small but vocal minority who liked it, but wasn't popular enough to keep in the rotation.  The brewers had briefly experimented with a lighter-bodied version that wasn't as sharp, and not as pungent or orange-colored, that was called Donnie the Younger.  But it turned out no one liked that one, not even fans of Donnie the Elder.

The first time I saw Donnie the Elder on tap at the brewery, I asked where the name came from.  I mean, obviously it is an homage to Russian River Pliny the Elder, but I wondered who Donnie was.  The head brewer happened to be standing behind the bar, and he laughed when he heard the question.  "That's a good story!" he said.  Here's a paraphrase of what he told me:

Donnie was this scruffy orange cat that used to hang around the brewery parking lot.  The first time we saw how orange the cantaloupe made our gose, we knew we would name the beer after the cat.  Come to think of it, almost no one liked Donnie the cat either — terrible personality, fur sticking up in bizarre ways, peeing on everything.  There was this one weird and unpleasant assistant brewer named Leon that was here for a while, and one of the weird things about him was, he actually liked the cat.  He's the one who named it.  I think he named it after Donnie Darko, but maybe it was Donnie from the Big Lebowski.  Anyway, Leon got Donnie neutered and deflead, but he was still a terrible cat.  We weren't too sad when Leon left with Donnie.  I wonder where Leon is now?

Don Younger, R.I.P.

The Horse Brass Pub announced Tuesday that it would be closed for regular business on Sunday, February 13, 2011 for a wake to honor its owner Don Younger, who died January 31.

The Celebration of Don's Life will be held from 2 to 6 PM at the Horse Brass. The back parking lot will be tented to allow for more people to attend.

"Hundreds, if not thousands, of people around the world who knew Don and loved Don aren't able to be there in person," says organizer Lisa Morrison. "So we are having a worldwide toast -- a virtual wake, if you will -- to help bring us all together, at least in spirit."

Whatever you are doing, and wherever you are at 3 PM your time on Sunday, February 13, make sure to hoist a glass to Don.

Here's a picture of Don that I dug out of the archives -- it's from May 23, 2008. I think he's awarding the Glen Falconer Brewing Scholarship to Patrick Miller (far left) and Vasilios Gletsos (next to Don). Also pictured are the winners of the scholarship from the previous year, Jacob Leonard and Corey Blodgett.

Just goes to show you that Don's involvement in the Oregon beer scene didn't end with bringing the notion of a taphouse to town, or with encouraging the beginnings of regional powerhouses like Portland Brewing, Widmer, Hales, and Bridgeport.  He never stopped contributing, as with the Falconer Foundation, which enables local brewers to further their professional education at the Siebel Institute.  Think of the brewing ferment (pardon the pun) that is reflected in that picture:  since it was taken Jacob has left Walking Man for Widmer, Corey has left McMenamins for Maritime Pacific, Vasili has left Rock Bottom for MacTarnahan's, and Patrick has been involved in the Oregon Brew Crew collaboration with Rogue at the Green Dragon. That picture is a tiny window into the legacy that Don left -- a legacy that will live on for many years.

I didn't know Don well myself.  Maybe one reason is that I started spending more time at the Horse Brass after Oregon's ridiculous smoking ban kicked in, at the same time he started spending less time there.  While it is sad to see him go, the outpouring of love and admiration that followed his sudden hospitalization and death has been truly inspiring.  Most of us will be unable to touch as many people as Don did.  But we can strive to live a life that, when it's over, leaves people reminiscing about the good times, and about the good we've done in the world.

See you at the wake. If you're participating in the worldwide global toast, put something up on Twitter with the tag #DonYounger.