Barleywine Festival 2011

I spent an even shorter time than I usually get to at the Lucky Lab Barleywine Festival last Friday, but still had tastes of some amazing beers.  One thing that kept the quality high was that I was lucky enough to sit down with some skilled palates who were about an hour ahead of me, so Ritch, Eli, Sanjay, and Lisa guided me towards the hits and away from the misses.  Don't you love beer people?

As always, it helps to arrive early, though if you only hit the festival once, you'll miss some of the offerings, since they have more kegs than taps. That's part of the fun, though.  The organization was the best I've ever seen at this festival: the program was accurate and complete from the get-go, the beer was at the right temperature, and everything went really smoothly.  Nice work, guys.

Here are my favorites, in order:

• Lucky Lab 2007 Old Yeller: classic gigantic barleywine, light fruits, long finish
• Butte Creek 2007 Train Wreck: bitter, slightly oxidized, delicious
• Ninkasi 2010 Critical Hit: strong, hoppy, well done
• North Coast 2010 Old Stock: too smooth, rounded and sweet
• Laht Neppur 2008 Blackwater: dry, light mouthfeel, mild hops, very nice

Old Yeller is always a favorite, though the early tasters at our table rejected the 2009 barrel-aged version.  The 2007 was exactly what I want in a barleywine, big flavors of every kind, including a kind of caramel or maple sweetness.  The Butte Creek and Ninkasi offerings were in the same vein.  It was kind of amazing how hoppy the Butte Creek still is 3 or 4 years old -- it must have been off the charts when it was fresh.

Old Stock is a little different variation on the barleywine theme, with the hops toned down more like English versions like Thomas Hardy or J.W. Lees.  The 2010 was delicious; I skipped the 2009 on Eli's recommendation.

Laht Neppur has turned in some not-so-good barleywines to this festival in the past, though a year or two ago at the OBF they brought a lighter beer that wasn't too bad.  The 2008 Blackwater at the festival this year was very good, and an interesting change of pace.  Lisa told us that she heard it was brewed with a wine yeast -- the brewer had originally moved to the Walla Walla area to make wine.  I don't know if that was what made it so different, but it was noticeably drier than most barleywines.

The routine was different this year than in the past.  Instead of the pub providing small taster glasses, you bought a little taster glass of your own on the way in, $9 for a glass and two tickets.  Extra tickets were $2 each.  That seems more expensive to me than I remember from years past, but maybe it's just due to the expense of the glass.  The single glass and $2 samples definitely slowed down the pace a little bit, which -- intentional or not -- is a good thing for beers this big.

The near-misses and misses for me this year were as follows:

• Oakshire 2010 Very Ill-Tempered Gnome: very malty, needs more age
• Ninkasi 2009 Critical Hit: cloudy and oxidized, didn't age well even for a year
• Upright 2009 Just Another Strong Ale: dark plummy fruit flavors, but a vinegary taste creeping in
• New Old Lompoc 2010 Upsetter Belgian Barleywine: no, no, no

That only covers about 20-25% of the beers that were at the festival!  For a little extra coverage, check out these wrap-ups from Sanjay and Jeff.  For some past perspective, here are my reports from 2009, 2008, and 2007 (did I miss it last year?).

Preview: Holiday Ale Fest 2010

It's hard to believe that it's already time for Portland's Holiday Ale Festival, which runs this Wednesday December 1 through Sunday December 5. This year, there are 47 beers on the "standard release" list -- though they're anything but standard -- bolstered by a few one-offs on the limited release list. There are more interesting and once-only beers than you'd suspect could fit into Pioneer Courthouse Square. If you don't attend the Holiday Ale Festival, then the terrorists win.

The price has gone up $5 since last year: you'll pay $25 to get your plastic mug and 10 tickets. Additional tickets are $1, and as always they will not fill mugs from earlier years. If you're really stingy, the festival website has a link to buy a ticket in advance for $20, but since that also includes a $2.60 "convenience fee", it seems a little silly. Or, if you're a real sucker big spender, you can buy a mug, 20 tickets, and a VIP wristband for $49.60. The VIP band doesn't get you any different beers, it just lets you cut to the front of the line, provided you can elbow through the boneheads that get their beer and then just stand around in front of the counter.

Here is your survival checklist for the HAF:

• Bring lots of water. In years past, there hasn't been free tap water, though you can buy bottled water.
• No minors allowed. Period. Don't even try it.
• Entrance is on SW 6th Avenue.
• Go early. The space is pretty small and fills up quickly after work. The festival opens Wednesday at 2 PM, and at 11 AM on the other days.
• Keep watching for the special tappings. Even the regular beers are special, but some of the special ones are really something.
• Don't drive. The beers are strong, the parking and traffic are ridiculous. Best bet for bike parking: NE corner of Broadway and Morrison.
• Warm up your beer. These are some flavorful beers, but because of the weather they can't help but be poured awfully cold.
• Samples, not full pours. A full pour is between 3 and 3 1/2 times the volume of a sample, but costs 4 times as much. Typical bass-ackwards festival pricing.

As always, there is a stunning lineup of beers, and I say that without having seen the one-off list yet. Festival impressario Preston Weesner presented a few of the festival beers at a media preview yesterday. Here are my favorites from what we sampled:

• Cascade Brewing Sang Noir: A rich bourbon-aged cherry double red ale. Sour, but only in a good way, with lots of malt and fruit to back it up. Even better than last year's Sang Noir: there's more cherry and less funk. [Update: Oh cool! The 2009 version will be on the special taps Thursday after 2 PM. Compare the vintages.]
• Columbia River Brewing Paddler's Porter: Well-done chocolate-vanilla porter -- no really, it's good -- from the folks who took over the old Laurelwood Pizza location.
• Lompoc Franc'ly Brewdolph: A twist on Lompoc's usual seasonal -- partly aged in wine barrels. Think aged Jubelale, with a Belgian nose and a hint of red wine.
• Alameda Papa Noel's Moonlight Reserve: Good NW winter warmer with roasty bitterness. Like a slightly richer Full Sail Wassail.
• Coalition Lost Glove: Another classic cold-weather beer. Malty, hoppy, straddles the line between old ale and barleywine.
• Vertigo La Nina: A coffee porter. Big coffee smell; mild coffee liqueur taste.
• Gilgamesh Cranberry Saison: I was dubious about cranberries in beer, but this was just right. A little fruit, and I think the cranberries were a nice cover for the saison funk. This will be a nice change-of-pace beer.

Some beers that I was a little disappointed in:

• Block 15 Figgy Pudding Olde Stock: Lovely fig/molasses aroma, but I found the flavor too boozy, and surprisingly bitter. Not bad, but couldn't live up to its hype. You're going to try it anyway, maybe you'll like it more than me.
• Bear Republic Ebeweesner Scrooge: A blend of smoked and sour beers, partially open-fermented, with every kind of alcohol-producing critter thrown in. But for all that effort, not much flavor beyond the raspberry tartness.
• Seven Brides Weezinator: I thought this was way too bitter for a doppelbock, even though I like doppelbocks and bitter flavors.
• Natian Old Grogham: A big strong IPA, starts off nice, but has too much lingering aspirin bitterness. Think Lagunitas Undercover Brown + aspirin.

Don't take my word for it. Here are some other previews:

• New School
• Brewpublic
• Portland Beer and Music
• Not So Pro Beer Blog
• 999 Beers

I'll put up more beer opinions once I get to the festival. There are a lot of intriguing things on the list. What's on your list to try?

4-4-2 Soccer Bar

Another place that has opened recently in SE is the 4-4-2 Soccer Bar at 18th and Hawthorne. Okay, okay, it's not a Portland beer geek paradise and probably never will be, but there are a few qualities that immediately endear it to me. First off, no Bud/Miller/Coors is served at the place -- the furthest down the ladder you can get is the Heineken tap. I asked the proprietor what he would say if a thirsty soccer fan demanded a Budweiser. "Not in my bar, some other place," he said. When I was in there the other day, the taps were Heineken, Spaten Pils, Paulaner Oktoberfest, Caldera Pale Ale, and Ninkasi Total Domination. A third tap reserved for Oregon beers was empty, but kegs from Deschutes, Lompoc, and Laurelwood were in the cooler waiting to be hooked up. There is also a decent selection of mostly German bottled beers -- Aventinus and Paulaner Salvator are what I remember from the top of my head.

Another thing that 4-4-2 has got right from the very beginning is Honest Pints. My Ninkasi came to me in a Spaten mug with a 0.5-liter line that left plenty of room for a head on the beer. Bravo! Remember folks, every time a new brewpub or taproom opens in Portland serving beer in shaker pints, a unicorn loses its horn. And yet here is a simple sports bar that gets it, and not only serves a full portion, but uses marked glassware. "I'm not stingy," says the owner.

The third reason you might stop in even if you're not a soccer fan is the delicious Bosnian food on the menu. I used to occasionally have lunch here before the remodel, when it was the European Market grocery store. There are an assortment of sandwiches, including a few vegetarian models, but I never get past the Ćevapi -- seasoned grilled ground beef -- served simply with onions and ajvar (red pepper relish) on homemade bread.

The three TVs are loaded up with every soccer channel the satellites can shower down upon us, and the pub regularly opens at 6:30 or 7 in the morning for important games -- where important has a meaning that I am not enough of a soccer fan to fully understand. It's not a very large space -- probably a half-dozen large tables and about the same number of small ones, plus space at the bar -- but I think a bar dedicated entirely to soccer is an idea that should succeed in Portland. Another welcome addition to the neighborhood.

Cascade Barrel House

The recent spate of pub openings in SE Portland has overwhelmed our tiny newsroom here at It's Pub Night. Plus, we wanted to give you round-the-clock coverage of the Fresh Hop movement, and give a fair and balanced assessment of the angry, hard-drinking Real Portlanders who are rising up against what they call "FINO beers" -- short for "Fresh-hop In Name Only" -- in other words, beers that are sold as Fresh Hop beers but which contain 100% dried hops. Aren't we dried enough already?

But now it's time to catch up with some of the new places around the neighborhood, starting with the Cascade Barrel House, which has been in the works for well over a year. It finally opened a couple of weeks ago, and it's a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

I'm not as big of a sour-beer fanatic as a lot of the beer geeks out there, but Ron and Curtis and the gang at Cascade have risen to national prominence with their barrel-aging program, specializing in fruit beers. The Kriek is my favorite -- something about cherries and beer -- but there are a staggering number of masterfully-done beers on the lineup: Noyaux, with apricots, raspberries, and roasted apricot pits; The Vine, with grapes; Sang Rouge, a blend of lots of crazy stuff. Extra credit to Cascade for not intentionally or unintentionally mangling the French names like many places do.

Since I'm also not a fan of driving across town, one black mark on my record is that I have never been to Cascade's Raccoon Lodge pub. But I held out long enough and they broke down and opened their Barrel House and pub within walking distance of my house. I haven't tried any of the food yet, but they have an impressive lineup of 15 or so Cascade beers on tap -- about a third of which are more traditional ales for you non-sour people -- plus two rotating taps that pour straight from the barrel. The atmosphere is relaxed and casual. A lot of the seating is barbecue-place picnic tables which can be moved out to the front patio in good weather; there are also a few booths, bar seating, and a couple of tall barrel-top tables.

The Barrel House also has a constellation of familiar faces working the bar or behind the scenes: Angelo from Brewpublic, festival impresario Preston Weesner, and former Green Dragon/Grand Central bartender Cody. Another great thing is that they open for lunch every day at 11 AM. Minors are allowed until 10 PM.

[Update: Nice post from Charles with some behind-the-scenes photos.]

Produce Row Makeover

As I noted last August, the end-of-the-line location of the Produce Row Cafe is a two-edged sword: it's either a brilliant hideaway, or a place you forget is there.  I usually end up in the latter category, but it does have a loyal clientele.  The cafe reopened this week after an extensive remodel, which owner Alan Davis told me took only seven weeks. 

It's an amazing transformation inside and out. In the main seating area, pastel murals and tiled walls have replaced the drab tan walls, giving the place a lighter look. A more open feeling has been created by moving the bar from the back wall to the side wall. The non-descript wooden tables and chairs have been replaced by nicer tables, cloth-backed chairs, and velvet couches in part of the space. The pool table -- which was primarily an odd obstacle on the way to the patio -- is now gone, giving the little side room with its deep circular booths a darker, more private feel. Outside, the worn wooden deck has been replaced by a paved patio with more open space and more covered seating. Even the facade has been spruced up.

Here are before and after pictures of the interior ("before" photo credit: Samurai Artist):

← Before

After →

And the patio:

← Before

After →

For some better photos of the new furnishings, look at John Foyston's writeup or Ezra's report.

The new bar added 3 beer taps to bring the total to 24. About half of those will be comforting Northwest standards, with the other half rotating in some variety. Since Alan describes himself as a whiskey guy, he improved the selection of bourbons and scotches when he bought the place a couple years ago, and added a menu of beer/whiskey pairings. The food menu is looking good: about a dozen sandwiches between $6.50 and $8, a few $12 entrees, good soups and salads.

To get to Produce Row by bicycle, turn on to SE 2nd from Ankeny or from the continuation of the Water Avenue bike path after it turns into Stark. It's just a little too far from the new Hair of the Dog location to qualify as a beer district, but there are some nearby options for a pub crawl or progressive dinner. On the beer side, you could hit the Grand Avenue cluster of bars like Slow Bar and the Side Door; places with interesting food but limited beer include Olympic Provisions just a couple of blocks away and Montage a little beyond that.

Alan said that the entire staff has returned after the remodel. It will be interesting to see if the regular customers also approve of the changes. Will it be like the grumbling about Bridgeport's makeover? You know, something like, "Oh man, I used to go there when it was this excellent grungy place, and now it's all Pearl District and overrun with hipsters/yuppies/lawyers." It would be too bad if that was the attitude; on the other hand, Bridgeport's business doesn't seem to be suffering, so hopefully this revamp of Produce Row will be a similar success.

A Peek at Apex

It's not as though we lacked choices for beer bars in Southeast Portland, but the newly opened Apex at 12th and Division has generated a lot of excitement in town. And for good reason: owner Jesse McCann promises 50 taps of craft beer, reasonable prices, hours from 11:30 AM to 2:30 AM every day, meticulously clean tap lines, and tons of bike parking. Whew! Sounds good.

I've been to Apex a couple of times now, and I really like it. It's probably going to be one of my most regular haunts, especially since Los Gorditos taqueria next door makes it a fast, cheap lunch option, and Beermongers is conveniently located right across the street. The beer menu on the bar's website is kept up to date in real time: in fact the menu in the bar is a big-screen TV that shows the website.  What a simple yet brilliant idea. One disappointment is that Apex didn't hit the ground running with honest pints. Some Belgian and European beers will be served in correct glassware with marked volume lines, but the standard pints are just in regular conical pint glasses.  Also, it would be nice if the beer was served a little less cold.

According to Ezra, Apex's atmosphere is inspired by San Francisco stalwarts Toronado and Zeitgeist. You can see the similarities: like Toronado, the focus is entirely on good beer at reasonable prices with no food service but loud music; like Zeitgeist there is a lot more seating outside than in, and you park your bicycle right in the beer garden. However, there are noticeable differences: unlike its SF cousins, there are lots of windows and light inside Apex, and the outside seating is right out on the street, not hidden in the back. Also, the no-smoking policy on the patio makes it quite different from Zeitgeist. Not to be negative, but the "No"s kind of define Apex:

• No smoking anywhere.
• No food.
• No table service.
• No kids.
• No dogs.
• No credit cards.
• No car parking.
• No dartboard.
• No toilets.  Just kidding, there are two: one Men's and one Unisex.

All of those make good sense to me, except I do wish there was a dartboard.  If kids or dogs were allowed, I would sometimes show up with one or the other, but there are also times when you'd like to be away from everyone else's kids and dogs, so I don't count those as negatives.

The place is open now, but the Grand Opening celebration will be May 7th.  Obviously I'm a little late reporting on Apex.  For further reading, check out Ezra's insider's guide to Apex (he's working there), or these eyewitness reports from Angelo, Jason, and Jeff (pedXer).

The Cask Saga Continues

As part of my obsession about the correctness of cask ale in Portland, I resolved to go sample some of the cask nectar at Rock Bottom. If you're skeptical of chain pubs, I understand, but Van Havig brews brilliant beer at the Portland RB branch, very worthy of your patronage. In particular, the cask-conditioned ales are treated with appropriate care at Rock Bottom. Just make sure you sit at the bar when you visit -- most of the waitstaff is in an extreme state of blissful ignorance about the beer, but the folks behind the bar will keep you informed.

Charles was good enough to meet me there for lunch yesterday. Unfortunately, only one cask was pouring -- the Amber Ale -- and Charles and I got the last two pints of that. I asked, "Oh, are you going to throw another one on?", a trick question that was correctly answered "No". I should have followed up to find out how long they do let the casks settle before serving, but I can only think of one trick question at a time. The Amber Ale was lovely, a little nutty and sweet, like an ESB with a little more floral hops. Quite a head on it for a cask ale, maybe because it was pulled through a sparkler.

As you can see from the picture, the Rock Bottom setup is with real firkins, with filtered air coming in the top, as opposed to pumping beer out of a standard-issue keg. What got me jonesing for a Rock Bottom cask ale was this article on the Brewers Union 180 Blog, about the first firkins Ted has allowed to be served by someone other than himself. Block 15 in Corvallis has met his stringent handling requirements, so he sold them some of his ale after they sold out of their own cask-conditioned offering. The Block 15 blog itself has a very nice writeup of their cask system. Give it a read. Kudos to both pubs -- I've got to hit the road soon and visit them in person.

Back to Rock Bottom: they are serving a fabulous barrel-aged version of last year's Anniversary Ale (an Imperial IPA). Aged in Woodford Reserve barrels, tons of vanilla and bourbon flavor on top of a very lovely beer. This year's Anniversary Ale is also on tap, but wasn't very impressive. However, the Black Peter -- labeled as a Belgian Porter -- is wonderful. It's got the delicious Belgian floral-yeast flavor on top of a dark, strong, smooth porter.

Collaborator CXI

The current edition of the Oregon Brew Crew/Widmer Collaborator Project is called CXI Pumpernickel Ale. It's brewed with an interesting adjunct: 60 pounds of pumpernickel bread from La Petite Provence bakery. I had a pint with lunch today at It's a Beautiful Pizza next door to Stumptown Coffee on Belmont.

CXI is a nice big beer for winter. It's a beautiful mahogany color with a yeasty, bready nose; the flavor is boozy on top of a nice dark roasted malt. There's a kind of herbal aromatic thing that creeps into your nose as you drink it -- it might be largely due to the alcohol, but you can also imagine the rye bread contributing to it. The beer has a long malty finish, with lots of bitter hops; not at all floral, just kind of a coffee bitterness. Despite the big booze -- it's 8.5% -- and the malty flavor, it's not a sweet-tasting beer. It's good stuff -- try it while it's available at Beautiful Pizza, the Widmer Gasthaus, and eventually the usual beer-snob taverns. I can't think of a beer to compare it to; the closest category I can shoe-horn it into is "winter warmer".

It's a Beautiful Pizza has a respectable set of 10 beer taps, plus a Blackthorn Cider tap. Today a couple of taps were off, but in addition to the Collaborator, they had Eel River Amber, Lagunitas IPA, Victory Prima Pils, and a few other Oregon beers. In the past I've always seen a Lucky Lab tap there, but maybe it was one of the blown kegs today. Plenty of bike parking in the corral on Belmont, and they've recently added a no-minors section with some vid-poker, if you want to get away from the ankle-biters.

For a firsthand report on the making of CXI, listen to Lisa Morrison's Beer O'Clock show from last week. Lisa has an interview with Widmer brewer Ike Manchester and OBC member Noel Blake.

Deschutes King Cone Fresh Hop Ale

Deschutes has had a Fresh Hop beer -- King Cone Pale Ale -- on at the Portland pub for a few days. So it's not like I'm breaking new ground here, but I finally got my first taste of it today at lunch. Pretty good, a solid pale ale is the foundation for lots of resinous hoppy flavor. The green vegetal fresh-hop flavor that I require is detectable but a little overpowered by the general hoppiness.

I'd say it reminds me of the first batch of Full Sail Lupulin that John Harris brewed last year. In other words, very worthy, but not quite to the pinnacle. I can't help it, there's a specific thing that I'm seeking in these fresh hop beers, and I get very picky. Deschutes promises many more fresh hop ales in the coming weeks, and if past performance is any indication, some of them will be stellar. Hop Trip is always a favorite, and the fresh-hopped Mirror Pond they did last year was fabulous.

Gosh this is an early start to the season. Why is this happening, that the beer seasons get pushed earlier and earlier all the time? I shouldn't complain, fresh-hop time is something that I eagerly await each year. Now I don't have to pester my local pubs about it, they're beating me to the punch.

Mark your calendar, the Portland Fresh Hop festival put on by the OBG and Oregon Bounty is at Oaks Park this year, October 10! Another fun thing to do is help the Lucky Lab pick hop cones off the vine: Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 8). I had a blast last year.

Produce Row Cafe

Tucked away on the wrong side of the tracks on the eastside, close to the river with only a roaring jumble of expressway lanes in between, is a gem of a pub: the Produce Row Cafe. It's also a part of Portland's craft beer scene history: it was the first bar owned by the McMenamin brothers, before they launched their sprawling brewpub/hotel/concert venue empire. Don't worry, there are no garish faces painted on the walls or hour-long Grateful Dead jams on the stereo -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- it hasn't been a McMenamins joint for many years.

Produce Row has that British Isles pub feel about it, with about 20 nicely chosen beers on draft, a decent whiskey collection, and hearty pub food. The beers are mostly Northwest selections. When the Pub Nighters were there Tuesday evening, there was a good selection including a couple beers from each of Laurelwood, Lagunitas, Terminal Gravity, and Anderson Valley, plus Hales Cream Ale and Stout both on nitro. There were five lagers available, one of which was Miller High Life, in case there are some drinkers of wimpy downstream beers in your party. There's also a reasonably-priced menu of beer and whiskey pairs ranging from $6 - $9 -- that gets you a pour of a designer whiskey plus a little 5-ounce glass of beer.

The interior is a very cozy place to hang out, but a lot of people consider the back courtyard to be the best real estate on Produce Row. It's so popular that there were several tables full on Tuesday night, even though it was so rainy that the tables and benches must have been soaking wet and the barmaid refused to venture out onto the slippery planks of the deck.

With a somewhat hidden location, out of sight sometimes leaves Produce Row out of my mind. That's part of its charm: it's not part of any trendy pub district, so it feels kind of like a hideout in among the warehouses and off-ramps. But it's not that hard to get to, and there's even pretty good bike access from most parts of town, since the Water Avenue bike lane dumps you off at Stark just a block away. It's also open for lunch, if you'd rather visit the warehouse district during the daytime. Check it out for a relaxing pint and a taste of local beer history.

Click here for the Beer Mapping Project's page on Produce Row Cafe

Produce Row Cafe

Information provided by Beer Mapping

Roots Changes

I noticed on Tuesday that Roots is no longer open for lunch. It's a little disappointing. I had been excited a year ago when they started being open for lunch, since that's the time of day when it's easiest for me to sneak off for a pint of blog research.

On the other hand, it's not a huge loss, because lunchtime service was terrible. A few months ago I got all the way through a pint waiting on a club sandwich... on my next visit I made the mistake of ordering a hamburger, and waited -- I'm not exaggerating -- one hour for it. On both occasions, there were only five or six patrons in the place, so it's not like the kitchen was slammed. Not long after that I bravely wandered in around 1 PM to spin the wheel again. When I got there I joined three people waiting at the bar to order their first pint; when no one showed up to slake our thirst for all of 10 minutes, I tucked my tail and ran.

The lunch closure may have something to do with the "Roots closing" rumor that Derek wrote about a couple weeks ago. Of course, the other component to that is the recent departure of co-owner Jason McAdam owing to artistic differences with Craig Nicholls. I was sworn to secrecy about this fact a couple months ago, but I don't mind blabbing it now that Ezra mentioned it in a comment on Derek's post:

They did go through rough times but not because of the economy. I am guessing this got started with Jason Mcadam the co-owner and head brewer leaving Roots recently. I have not heard this publicized anywhere. But he has to get bought out so a lot of money is owed to him and others but Roots is basically hunkering down to pay off their bills. Also they were hit hard with the distributor shake-ups and mergers.

They are becoming more of a brewpub and you will see less of the beers distributed around town.

The lunchtime closure kind of goes against Ezra's "more of a brewpub" comment. I also have to wonder if moving away from distribution is a good idea. It was one of the notable things about Roots when they first opened: their beer was everywhere in town. I'm not an expert, but you would think that's got to be good insurance against the ups and downs of the tavern business.

We may get a two-fer here. Hopefully Craig will weather this rough patch and keep turning out burly organic beers at Roots; meanwhile Jason will undoubtedly put down roots of his own, it will be interesting to see what his next venture is.

Organic Brewers Festival 2009

Beer festivals are hitting Portland right and left now that summer is officially here. Friday I was able to squeeze a trip to the North American Organic Brewers Festival into my lunch hour thanks to the earlier Friday start time of 12 noon. That's not bad: exercise (biking to and from Overlook Park), lunch, a little socializing, and some beer tasting all rolled into one. And if anyone asks, I just say I'm at lunch.

The NAOBF has a lot of things going for it. Good organization, starting with arranging brewery stations in alphabetical order. A venue that has a more open feel than the cramped confines of the PIB or the narrow, dusty half-mile of the OBF. A format that allows breweries to exhibit more than one of their beers.

Last year I was actually complaining about the venue, mainly because the lone tree in Overlook Park provided too little shade on such a hot day. I closed my report by saying "Hopefully next year it won't be 100 degrees out". My wish came true: the weather for the NAOBF was perfect this weekend. Even if it had been hot or rainy, the addition of tables and chairs under a good-sized tent made for a much better setup, and suddenly Overlook Park seems like a great place to hold a festival.

The fact that a brewery can bring more than one beer to the festival may not seem like a huge deal, but I think it makes it possible to please beer snobs and more casual festival-goers at the same time. For example, Hopworks hit three targets at once by bringing their popular IPA, their entry-level Lager, and a new offering: Secession Cascadian Dark Ale. Something for everyone.

My favorites from Friday were:

• Standing Stone Double IPA (cask-conditioned): rich and flowery IPA from the firkin
• Hopworks Secession Cascadian Dark Ale: malty and smoky with flowery hops
• Upright Reggae Junkie Gruit: fabulous lemongrass flavor
  
• Nelson Brewing After Dark Mild: caramelly and satisfying but light
  
• Roots Gruit Kolsch: lovely and yeasty, less citrusy than Upright

My first sample of the Roots gruit had me very confused: the tap lines had been crossed, so for the first couple hours of the festival the Roots Pale Ale was being served as the gruit. It tasted suspiciously bitter for a hop-free beer, and I had to wonder what herb they had used for that: dandelion? quinine? Once the mistake was corrected, the world made a lot more sense, and it was fun to compare the Roots gruit with the Upright gruit, which it inspired. The gravity-dispensed Standing Stone IPA was a real treat. The Cascadian Dark from Hopworks was the only beer I went back for a full cup of: it presses all my hop and malt flavor buttons. I hope it becomes a regular part of the HUB lineup.

Upright and Captured by Porches were at the NAOBF for the first time this year. But what happened to Hair of the Dog -- which won the People's Choice Award last year for Blue Dot -- and Walking Man? Surprising to see those fine breweries drop out of the lineup. Another gripe is the double-token charge for some of the bottled beers. I would certainly have tried the low-alcohol hefeweizen from German brewery Lammsbrau, but I couldn't bear to part with $2 for a tiny taste. Surely the cost of the bottles can be recovered on $1/sample. Or you can consider the festival's charge of $6 for a disposable plastic cup as a way of subsidizing loss-leaders like that.

Last year was my first time to attend the NAOBF, and I was kind of lukewarm towards it. I definitely got a better impression this year. The weather played a role in that, but I think the addition of the tent was a good move, and giving the hard-core snobs an earlier opening time on Friday was nice also. I'll be looking forward to it next year.

[Update: The People's Choice Award winners at the festival were 1. Standing Stone Double IPA; 2. (tie) Crannog Backhand of God Stout / Hopworks Secession; 3. Oakshire Watershed IPA.]

Mirror Mirror Mirror Mirror

Take Deschutes' very drinkable Mirror Pond Pale Ale, and double everything in the recipe except the water. Now take two different vintages of that, and see if you can find your way out of the hall of mirrors. Dave and I went down to the Deschutes Portland pub for lunch today, so I could check out the two vintages of Mirror Mirror barleywine they have on tap: this year's and 2005's. Dave was there last week, and reported that the 2005 they were serving was excellent. I don't know if you tried the 2005 at last year's Holiday Ale Fest, but the sample I tried had gone around the bend, and I heard the same about the 2005 MM at this year's Barleywine Festival.

So it was a delight to have a well-preserved sample of the 2005, and even more delightful to try it next to this year's model. The 2009 has the classic barleywine flavors of dense malt and strong alcohol -- without being out of balance. It's on the hoppy end of the spectrum, and in fact the fragrant hops are the main thing you get in the nose. The finish is very bitter. It's a delicious aperitif right now; give it a couple years in the basement and it will be even better.

By comparison, the hops in the 2005 had mellowed quite a bit. They were definitely still present in the flavor, but the aroma was all whiskey -- most likely from the bourbon barrels that part of the batch was aged in. It was a delicious drink, the flavor beginning to get a little dusty, but not spoiled at all. In the picture above, the 2005 is the paler, cloudier snifter on the left; the 2009 is the darker clearer one on the right.

I like this technique of doubled recipes from Deschutes. Mirror Mirror, Double Black Butte, Double Cinder Cone.... Is Abyss a Double Obsidian?

The wife-proofed wax-dipped bottles of this year's Mirror Mirror are stamped confidently with a "Best After" date: April 2010. I agree, but I would also advise against keeping them too long. My current hypothesis is that two years is the right amount to age big beers. That's enough to let the ingredients mellow and interact, but not enough for the beer to decline. Whether it's this year or next, make sure you take a look in the mirror.

Philadelphia's Steaks and Hoagies

My thinking got confused a couple weeks ago when I was writing about the Portland Democrats who want to raise the excise tax on beer by 2000% -- or tax kegs at 50% of wholesale, if you want to look at it that way. The stress of thinking that my state senator would sign on as a sponsor of such a Satanic piece of legislation had me all worked up, so that when I tried to enumerate the five small breweries in her district, I mentioned "Milwaukie's" as one of them. An alert reader -- thankfully there's one -- drew my attention to the fact that there is no such establishment in Portland.

Of course what I meant was Philadelphia's on Milwaukie Avenue. One reason for my unfamiliarity was that I had never been there. Carla and I rectified that one evening recently by walking over there while our name slowly drifted to the top of the waiting list at Saburo's Sushi House around the corner on Bybee.

As you'd guess by the "Steaks and Hoagies", Philadelphia's is primarily a sandwich shop, and most of the clientele is there for the Philly cheesesteaks. But they also sell half a dozen kinds of beer they brew themselves on a small system. This is another piece of evidence that we do indeed live in Beervana: a mom-and-pop sandwich shop decides to quietly brew their own beer on the side. They've been doing so for fourteen years.

Since we had an eye on the clock that night and were saving our appetite for Saburo's, we took the rare action of ordering samplers. For the $4.25 price of a pint, they'll serve you three little 6-ounce tasters. Our favorites tended to be the darker beers: the Ben Franklin Brown was the best beer in the house. The Mummers Imperial Stout was Carla's favorite, and the William Penn Porter wasn't bad. We weren't impressed with the Independence IPA or the Spectrum Amber.

They also have a few rotating guest taps, which had a southern Oregon bias during our visit -- Mia and Pia's Double Chocolate Stout and Klamath Basin's Drop Dead Red were joined by Laurelwood Tree-Hugger Porter and Cascade's Defroster. It seems like Klamath Basin beers are appearing at more and more places since I originally rewarded community service points for KB beers to SuperDog -- for instance, Claudia's was serving Klamath's Brown a couple weeks ago. But it's been a few years since I've seen Mia and Pia's on a smaller taplist like this, so I'll give CSPs to Philly's for that.

The laid-back atmosphere was also very appealing. We weren't in a position to try the sandwiches -- or the Tastykakes -- but the grill area behind the counter was meticulously clean, and the diners looked happy. If you're down in Sellwood, it would be a great place to stop in for a sandwich and a pint.

Nick's Coney Island

Yesterday, Carla and the girls and I trudged up Hawthorne in the snow and had lunch at Nick's Famous Coney Island. It was the kids' first time there, and they liked the old-timey atmosphere -- even our family vegetarian, who survived happily on an order of nachos.

We were really aiming for the Bridgeport Ale House, since we had spent a very cozy lunch there Saturday, watching the falling snow and the strolling shoppers, enjoying imperial pints of root beer and Raven Mad barrel-aged porter. We were dismayed that the weather kept Bridgeport from opening yesterday -- Angelo ran into the same problem, though his solution was more ambitious than ours.

The gut-bomb chili, excellent french fries, and friendly service and surroundings are the reasons to go to Nick's. Sometimes you just gotta have a hot dog smothered with chili, cheese, and onions. It's not really a beer destination: the beer of choice there is Bud, though to their credit they throw a bone to the Portland beer snobs:

• Southern Oregon Brewing porter
• Nick's TKO Amber
• various Coney Island bottles from Schmaltz

I'll give Nick's community-service points for pouring the S.O.B. porter. I've seen it a couple times at the Green Dragon, but it's an interesting choice for a small diner like Nick's to serve (leave a comment if you know other good places in Portland where Southern Oregon beer is served). I didn't notice the 22 oz. Coney Island bottles until we were leaving, otherwise I probably would have tried one of them -- Schmaltz is the brewery that makes the He'Brew beers, which are gaining a little following.

The TKO Amber is brewed on contract for Nick's by RedHook (WARNING: noisy website). I wasn't impressed; it had a dark color, but the light head and macro-lager flavor gave it away as a beer made for people who don't like beer yet. It is cheaper: $3 a pint vs. $3.75 for the S.O.B. or Widmer Hef. In the picture above, TKO is on the right, the Southern porter on the left.

More Holiday Ale Fest

Some updates from the Holiday Ale Fest:
get the awesome Three Creeks Red, the dry-hopped Full Sail Wassail, and the Deschutes Double Cinder Cone. The Firestone last night turns out to be Parabola Stout - look for the rest today - it's awesome.

[Update (later Thursday): Some surprising missing breweries: Double Mountain, Caldera, Roots, Walking Man. What gives?]

Rogue Distillery and Public House

Sometime in the past year, the Rogue pub in the Pearl vastly expanded the number of taps they have -- to 36, according to the website. Right before they did that, a bartender told me that they would have a lot more guest taps, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Today they had Guinness, Lindeman's, and something forgettable that I forgot.

Instead of guest taps, what they offer is an awesome selection of Rogue beers, including several of the "Track Town" ales from their Eugene brewery, and a couple from their brewery in Issaquah, Washington. Today they had 4 or 5 of their XS brews on tap -- extra-strong, served in a 10-ounce goblet -- including the Imperial Younger's Special Bitter, the Imperial Red, and a couple of other imperial this and that.

It's a nice place to pop in for lunch -- a little bit pricey, but hey, you're in the Pearl district, and the burgers are made with Kobe beef. There's a choice of seating -- some tables outside if weather permits, a non-smoking restaurant area inside, and a bar area without table service. Even though it allows smoking (until January 2009), I usually end up in the bar to be close to my beer. The smoke has never been too bad when I've been there.

The small distillery currently produces a decent gin and a couple flavors of rum. If you're there around 2 PM on a weekday, you can take a tour of the distillery, which is pretty interesting and includes a couple tastes. By the way, the pub can sell you a bottle of the homemade spirits, and it's open long after the liquor stores have closed in Oregon. Say it's midnight Saturday and you just realized you have to have a beer martini, but you don't have any gin. Well, hurry on down to the Rogue pub, and buy a bottle of gin -- they'll even sell you the beer. I'm not sure about the olives.

My main reason for hitting Rogue today was to try the Independence Fresh Hop Ale, made with hops from Rogue's own farm. Independence was a solid beer, not in the top fresh-hop ranks, but I was quite happy with it at lunch. Speaking of happy, that's how I felt about catching the tail end of a Rogue "garage sale" at the pub: I walked out with a growler of American Amber for $6 (six-pack equivalent price of $6.75, or if you deduct the $2 price of an empty growler, it's like a $4.50 six-pack).

Thumbs Up for Lupulin No. 3

I'm sitting here in the Pilsner Room with a pint of the third batch of Full Sail's 2008 Lupulin Ale, this one made with Nugget hops. Lighter in color than batch number one, the flavor reminds me much more of last year's awesome brew, more vegetably and less bitter than the batch made with Mt. Rainier hops.

Get it while it lasts -- it looks like the second batch (Cascade hops) went on while I was out of town, and it's already gone (though I hope to catch it at a Tastival).

Happy 25th, Barley Mill

Every year the Barley Mill celebrates its birthday right around the summer solstice. This year Carla and I finally stumbled the six blocks from our house, figuring the 25th anniversary was special enough to show up for. As befits the Barley Mill, it was a pretty low-key event, at least when we were there around 2 PM, but we did get some birthday cake and pints of this year's version of the wacky Anniversary Ale as we withstood our dose of live Grateful Dead recordings.

McMenamins' pubs operate on a kind of buddy system, each pub with a brewery supplying beer to a single non-brewing pub in the chain. My understanding is that it's done that way to most profitably comply with the helpful regulations the state of Oregon has set up to protect its citizens from drowning in locally-made beer. Although the Barley Mill was the first pub in the ever-expanding McM empire, it opened before on-premises brewing became legal, and it was never a brewery. Instead, it is supplied by the chain's first brewpub, the Hillsdale Pub.

Right on the company website, it says "the pub's the thing". There are excellent brewers working for McMenamins', but the beer itself takes a back seat to real estate and atmosphere in the country of McMen-istan. Thus, the Barley Mill isn't where you go to revel in Oregon beer quality; rather, it's where you can take your kids and their grandparents for lunch and keep everyone happy without breaking the bank. Personal anecdote: my daughter chose to have her sixth birthday party at the Barley Mill. It was our first year in Portland, and as someone who grew up in the Bible Belt it felt a little strange to me that we were inviting a handful of kindergarten girls to have dinner at a bar. But why not? It's non-smoking, serves tater tots, and it's dripping with colorful artwork and crazy things for kids to look at.

The past year has brought a few changes to the Barley Mill. The dartboard is gone! It was in pretty bad shape and poorly lit, way back in a corner, but it occasionally came in handy and I hate to see the demise of any steel-tip dartboard. Also, for some reason they have draped a huge Grateful Dead flag over the excellent back-wall mural of old-fashioned Germans drinking Miller Beer under the protective gaze of a reclining nude woman. Everyone should hate to see the demise of any mural with a nude woman. And the menu seems a little different, though the only change I can put my finger on is that the Triple Play -- soup, salad, and garlic bread -- is gone.

Because the focus isn't really on the beer, the McMenamins' standards aren't of great interest to beer snobs -- though the CAMRA guide to the West Coast puzzlingly singles out Terminator as the best example of a West Coast stout. But it's not all bad. Corey Blodgett has a loyal following out at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse for his imaginative beers. I was also impressed the other day at Ringler's by the Belgian Trippel and the Decent IPA (which supposedly got its name after one of the weekly papers complained that McMenamins' didn't brew a decent IPA). And for the last couple weeks the Barley Mill was serving an interesting little number called "Hemmerhoeff'd": the Hammerhead recipe brewed with a Belgian yeast.

That brings us to the Starvation Army Pale Ale, the pleasantly fruity pale brewed up for the anniversary. John Foyston has an entertaining article [Confidential to John: who does your spell checking?] about the ritual gathering where each participant adds something -- beer, wine, spirits, herbs, pieces of paper -- into the mash. And you know, it turned out pretty tasty.

The state of Oregon would be a far different place if there were no McMenamins'. That's especially true outside of Portland, where they serve as lifesaving oases for caravaning urbanites. Even here in town, the landscape would be far different with no Kennedy School, no Bagdad, no Crystal Ballroom. And it all began right here in Southeast. Happy Birthday, Barley Mill!

Roots for Lunch

Sometimes lunchtime is the only part of the day when I can sneak off for a beer. That always left Roots out of the equation on weekdays, since they didn't open until later.

So there was much rejoicing when John reported that Roots would start serving lunch. For now it's just Wednesday thru Friday, but next month they'll open every day. Mind you, the food is still a bit basic -- mainly sandwiches with potato chips -- but I'm glad the beer menu is accessible at midday now.

Dave and I headed down there today. He had little Vaughn along, and he couldn't help but notice that a couple other Mr. Moms also showed up for lunch with the little ones in tow. Way to go, Dave, you're in a demographic now!

Something I don't recall seeing at Roots before today: a guest tap. They had Alameda Juniper Porter on tap.

[Update(2009/06/30): Roots has cut off the weekday lunch hours. Open at 3.]