North of the Border

We were on vacation this week in British Columbia. In Victoria we got to have a beer with Carla's cousin Kelly and his wife Carol. The beer prices were very alarming to us: $6.50 a pint in pubs and $13 a 6-pack in liquor stores (yikes!).

The granddaddy brewpub in Victoria is Spinnaker's. It has a fine waterfront location, but we found the beer and the food both to be bland. The best beer in town was at Swan's Buckerfields -- the cask bitter and cask stout were both very good, as was the seasonal Wit. Right around the corner is the Canoe Brewpub, with acres of harborside seating and a cool atmosphere inside. The bitter there was OK.

Two other local brews I enjoyed on tap were Hermann's Dark Lager from Vancouver Island Brewing and the IPA from Phillips Brewing. I also plunked down $13 for a 6-pack of cans of Race Rocks Amber from Lighthouse Brewing. It was pleasantly malty -- I'd have it again.

Uerige Alt

It has been awhile since I made it across the hill to John's Market, but Clark was interested to see it while he was in town, so we went. I was finally able to procure a couple bottles of Uerige Alt and Uerige Doppelsticke -- true Dusseldorf Altbiers -- which I had been wanting to do for some time. They weren't cheap -- about $4.50 for a little 11 oz. bottle -- but the bottle is kind of cool looking, with a stopper cap. Maybe someone will fill it with homebrew for me.

My ragged German-English dictionary doesn't have the word "sticke", and neither does Google Translate. So we turn to the Uerige website itself, which says it means "whispering" in an older dialect. I think they're implying that Uerige Sticke is a seasonal that people talk about a lot; or maybe you can interpret it as a secret beer, and hence the Doppelsticke is a double-secret beer. Despite the exciting prospect of a double-secret Alt, I prefered the 4.5% regular Alt to the 8.5% Doppelsticke, which I found to be too syrupy.

The regular Alt was pretty nice: richer than the Widmer Alt available at the Gasthaus. It has a very long and agreeable bitterness -- I'd say the Widmers mimicked that bitterness very well. You want to drink this pretty cold. The flavor did not improve as the beer warmed up towards room temperature. My guest tasters had some good insights:

• Dave: malty but dry; not as sweet as it tastes
• Clark: taste reminiscent of limburger cheese
• Carla: chalky
• Milena: malty
• Tammy: likes the long bitter finish

When I recently rediscovered my notes from the 2007 PIB on Lee's blog, I noticed that I had tried the Doppelsticke and been disappointed in it, describing it as "sweet, not long". I had forgotten all about it by the time I got obsessed with alts this spring. If I have another Uerige it will be the regular Alt, not the double. In Portland it's probably wiser to go with the fresh local stuff at Widmer.

Man, it was fun to go to John's Market. I love the selection at Belmont Station, but John's Market turns it up to eleven.

Bridgeport Repeals Prohibition

The Bridgeport Ale House on Hawthorne will now fill growlers from other establishments! A few days ago I got this email from the restaurant manager:

I want to thank you for your input.

After you posited the growler idea on the portlandbeer.org blog last week, I did indeed research the issue.

What follows is our revised policy (I can't speak for the Pub downtown, so this is representative of the Ale House on Hawthorne.):

Starting immediately, we will fill other brewery’s growlers as well as our own. We will charge the price of our growler refill ($11.00). We will not fill mason jars, and the price is subject to change at any time.

I’m really excited that our policy is expanding--thanks in large part to your input--so please come in and fill those growlers!

That's right, I was whining in a blog comment about their Bridgeport-growler-only policy. It wasn't the first time: I complained on Lee's blog last year during fresh hop season when they wouldn't fill my mason jar with Hop Harvest. I even fussed about it a few weeks ago to a poor Bridgeport brewer at a Green Dragon meet-the-brewer, knowing full well that he had no idea who made rules like that, and even less of an interest in getting involved in it. But this time I bounced it off the right person, and she took care of it.

I wouldn't mind if they filled mason jars also -- those wide mouths are easier to fill -- and for the sake of the west-siders I hope the Bridgeport Mothership will also lighten up. But personally, I'm all set now. I can just take my Roots growler down the street and get the fresh stuff from the Ale House.