Vote Asheville for BeerCity, USA

First of May, First of May, BeerCity voting begins today! (Photo credit: rbatina.)

This thing is very simple.  For the last couple of years a bunch of people in Portland and a bunch of people in Asheville, North Carolina have all got their panties bunched up trying to sway the vote in Charlie Papazian's online poll to choose BeerCity USA.  Tiny Asheville always wins, and Portland always comes in second, and no other city in the country even notices.

Portland folks:  please don't take the bait this year and try to churn out PDX votes for this silly poll.  Even though Portland and the much smaller Asheville combined for about 14,000 votes last year, the voting was a non-event in much larger cities that have respectable beer scenes:

• Chicago (metro: 9.6 million): 190 votes
• Boston (metro: 4.6 million): 114 votes
• San Francisco (metro: 4.3 million): 171 votes
• Seattle (metro: 3.4 million): 362 votes
• San Diego (metro: 3.1 million): 884 votes

Portland is a great beer city.  Wherever you go in this town, from the crunchiest granola store to the dingiest gas station, from the humblest dive to the snootiest restaurant, if there is beer at all, there is something good on the list.  Asheville must be pretty nice also.  But to say that either of them is 50 times better than the cities I've listed above is simply ridiculous.  This year, let's bring Portland into the ranks of the other great beer metropolises by minimizing the number of Beer City USA votes we get.

One reasonable approach for Portlanders is to ignore the poll.  But just to make sure we don't lose by a hair as in past years, I urge you to do as I've done:  cast a strategic vote for Asheville, NC, for BeerCity USA.

Beer City, USA

The laughable spectacle of Charlie Papazian's online poll to determine Beer City, USA has ended in only the second-worst outcome for Portland.  The most terrible thing that could have happened would have been for Portland to edge Asheville, NC by a few votes, so that it would have been us wearing the propeller beanie and not them.  (Photo credit: rbatina.)  In a contest to see who has the most insecure beer fans, it's better that we should come in second place than to suffer the humiliation of actually winning the prize.

Please, please, please, I beg of you Portland beer people: don't take the bait next year.  If this poll was moored in reality, you would have seen more people voting for one of the larger population centers with a decent beer scene.  Instead, it was just a wankfest between 7400 people in North Carolina and 6600 from hereabouts.  Check out how much interest this thing attracted in other beery places:

• Chicago (metro: 9.6 million): 190 votes
• Boston (metro: 4.6 million): 114 votes
• San Francisco (metro: 4.3 million): 171 votes
• Seattle (metro: 3.4 million): 362 votes
• San Diego (metro: 3.1 million): 884 votes

If Portland had barely lost to a real adversary, like any of the cities listed here, or even had we been blown away by one or two of them, there would be some honor in that.  Instead, we only look pathetic, jumping up and down for attention on the internet.  The only consolation is that tiny Asheville -- which for all I know is a fine place with wonderful beer -- looks even more pathetic than we do.

Fred Fest 2010

About 11 months from now, when you're asking yourself, "Self, should I pony up the $X to go to Fred Fest this year?", make sure that you do whatever it takes to make yourself answer in the affirmative.  This is the kind of right-place, right-time beer festival that you should absolutely attend if at all possible.  I'll remind you of a few of the good reasons:

• It's your chance to chat with craft beer legend Fred Eckhardt, and pick up some of his off-the-cuff homespun wisdom.
• You get to taste several one-off or otherwise rare beers, limited only by the laws of supply and demand.
• There is copious excellent food prepared and served under the supervision of Hair of the Dog brewer Alan Sprints.
• You'll be surrounded by a jovial and convivial crowd that is dense with Oregon brewers, publicans, retailers, beer experts, and beer scenesters of all stripes.
• All proceeds go to charity.

Last year I was on-the-ball enough to jot down a couple of the witticisms that Fred tossed my way; this year I failed to take notes of that kind, but just talking to the man for a minute or two put a smile on my face and put a new perspective on whatever mundane worries were in the back of my mind.   Go to Fred Fest, be patient, and at some point you'll get a minute to talk to Fred.  He doesn't have a halo, but he's something of a saint, or maybe a Zen master, but not the kind of Zen master that cuts your fingers off.

One of the most ridiculously rare beers this year was a keg of Wild Duck Barleywine brewed in 2003 by the late, lamented Glen Falconer.  As if that wasn't enough backstory, the keg had been stashed away by the similarly late and lamented Toby Day.  With no disrespect intended at all, Brian pointed out that this beer was really a Double Dead Guy Ale.  It was the first beer that many people headed for at the festival, and it was worth it -- a classic strong barleywine, with lots of hops, a brown-sugar palate, and a little bit of papery oxidation.

Another once-in-a-lifetime beer was brought by Fred himself, and if you were standing in the right place, at the right time, you got a taste of it.  Here's Fred's description of it:

I have two big gallons of Sierra Nevada pilot brew on their Thirtieth Anniv.... Charlie Papazian and I were s'pozed to have designed this beer for Ken, but Charlies plan was way beyond mine. This is a magnificant, but very dark, Helles-bock lager. 16.8Plato, 7%abv, 35ibu.

As you can imagine, once Fred's growler was opened, it went fast, but most of the people who got their tasting glass underneath it were generous and poured it around for other folks.  In fact, that's how I got a taste, and I am forever grateful to the young fellow -- a complete stranger to me -- who kindly slopped half his glass into mine.  It was an interesting brew: grainy (like you'd expect a Helles-bock to be) with mildly citrusy hops.

I foolishly missed the Firestone Walker Parabola and the Rock Bottom 3-5 year old Maude Flanders, but here were a few other noteworthy beers:

• Deschutes Wood-Aged Double Black: strong, slightly tart, and malty
• Barley Brown's Cherrywood-Smoked Rye Whiskey Beer: mesquite smoke, like candied BBQ pork
• Cascade The Vine 2010: smooth delicious winey sour (Sharon said it was like a stronger Berliner Weiss)
• Bridgeport 2008 Fallen Friar: sour wine notes, smooth, floral yeast (2 years aging has helped this a lot)
• Bend Brewing Rocksy Stein Lager: bitter, caramelly lager -- I'd been wanting to try this lager brewed with hot stones for a long time.

This was also a first glance at Hair of the Dog's new location at Water and Yamhill.  There's definitely still work to be done there, but there are at least three exciting things about the new place:  1. Alan is no longer renting: he owns the building; 2. There will be a Hair of the Dog pub for the first time; 3. It's a lot easier to get to than the old super-secret location.  It looks like there's quite a bit more space there also.  Very exciting.

For further reading: check out Angelo's writeup at Brewpublic, Jeff's at the Beer Cave, and Lisa's at the Hop Press.  And remember:  next year when faced with the question of whether to go to Fred Fest, don't even hesitate.