County Cork

A visit from one of my years-ago Austin Pub Night buddies gave me an opportunity to check out an eastside pub I hadn't been to before. Brady was in town with his girlfriend Sarah, so on Saturday we dragged Dave along and met Brady's friend Brian at the County Cork Public House after he finished his kitchen shift there. In the middle of a surprisingly tavern-free stretch of Fremont, County Cork is an oasis just west of NE 15th.

It's a comfortable place, with a pubby feel but with big windows giving lots of light. Despite the Irish theme, the 22 beer taps are skewed more toward the Northwest than the Emerald Isle. Some of the standout beers when we were there were Full Sail Keelhauler, Avery Maharaja, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Mac and Jack's Amber, Elysian ESB, and Russian River Damnation and Pliny the Elder. Dave and I swore that the Pliny was actually RR's Blind Pig -- lighter in color, body, and punch than Pliny -- but we were assured that the keg said otherwise. There are also two cask engines, though both were unoccupied Saturday -- we just missed the Lagunitas Undercover Ale on cask. Another plus: they serve Honest Pints in imperial glasses.

Two dartboards are set up nicely in stalls that prevent escaping darts, but are still visible from the rest of the pub. There's also an outdoor patio in the back -- it was too cold to sit there Saturday but as I'm writing this I'm kicking myself for not at least taking a look. The food is better-than-usual pub fare, made from scratch, with British-Isle stuff like shepherd's pie and bangers and mash taking center stage.

All in all, it's a comfortable neighborhood pub. Stop in for some darts and a pint if you're in the area.

Click here for the Beer Mapping Project's page on County Cork Public House

County Cork Public House

Information provided by Beer Mapping

Upright Brewing's First Firkin

Tuesday evening Belmont Station offered a special treat: the first public tasting of a beer from Portland's newest brewery, Upright Brewing. Upright, located just north of the Rose Garden on the tiny piece of Broadway that lies in the 5th Quadrant, is one of the growing number of Oregon breweries that are avoiding the restaurant business, choosing instead to distribute kegs and do a little bottling. The owner-brewer, Alex Ganum, is on the left in this picture, next to ex-Lompoc brewer Lem and Pub Night stalwart Charles.

The Upright brew served up Tuesday night on Belmont's cask engine was Studebacher Hoch Strong Ale, a dark, malty confection with some extra hops in the firkin. Put it in the "dangerous" category -- its smooth roastiness completely disguised its 8% strength. Alex intends to focus on more session-style beers at Upright -- 4% to 5% -- so he was dubious about debuting with the strong ale, not wanting to give people the wrong idea. The Studebacher was brewed to be aged in barrels until winter, but after his barrels were full he had exactly one keg's worth left. A friend had an extra firkin lying around, and convinced Alex to fill it and sell it to Belmont Station. It was meant to be.

The first thing you notice about the Studebacher is its maltiness. I think the beer it reminded me the most of is Eel River's Triple Exultation, but with less alcohol and hops. I fancied that there was a yeasty flavor there also, not a flowery Abbey yeast, but a little fresh-dough vapor. That might just be my imagination, suggested by Alex's open-fermentation methods -- something no one else in Portland is doing. At any rate, it was quite tasty; I'll be interested to try the barrel-aged version in a few months.

Alex said the first Upright beer we'll see around town will probably be a wheat beer made with a saison yeast. Talking about his goal of high-flavor, low-alcohol beers, he said he enjoys tweaking the noses of Portland beer geeks by saying that the beer he would most like to emulate is Widmer Hefeweizen. It's no joke: Alex says one of the best bets in town is to sit down at the Gasthaus and have a fresh, unfiltered Hef -- tasty, balanced, and not too strong -- poured right at its birthplace. He has a point. The supermarket bottles of Hef are quite dull, but fresh on tap -- with, say, your favorite Lebanese dinner -- it's another animal entirely. It will be a big win for Portland if Upright comes up with similarly food-friendly, drinkable beers like that.

The Belmont Station Biercafe has really been whipping it lately with interesting beers from smaller Oregon breweries. Even though it's just part of their priestly mission, I have to award them community service points for offering us this early preview of Upright.

For further reading, Angelo has a nice backgrounder on Alex with a short interview.

New Deal Vodka

Saturday we marched our out-of-town guests Michael and Ana down to the open house at New Deal Distillery. That's Tom, one of the founders, manning the bar. New Deal started up a few years ago with a mission of providing Portland with quality local vodka at an affordable price. At first they worked out of a cheap office in the ActiveSpace building at SE 9th and Main Street. At some point they moved across the street into more spacious digs, which gave them room for better equipment, more experimentation, and Saturday afternoon open houses (noon to 5 PM).

It's been a while since I had New Deal's eponymous 80-proof vodka, and it was even nicer than I remember it -- perhaps a testament to the new equipment. It is distilled with a few secret botanicals to add a little aromatic flavor, but not enough to push it out of neutral vodka range. I'm not a spirits expert, but that was news to me: I always thought vodka was just pure distilled hooch with no fancy additives. Next time you need some vodka, buy local! It's good stuff.

We also sampled their other wares: Portland 88, stronger and less aromatic than the flagship vodka; Hot Monkey, a pepper vodka made with five secret chiles; and a chocolate vodka that hasn't hit the store shelves yet. I didn't expect to like the chocolate vodka, and I didn't for a couple seconds, but it grew on me quickly. It wasn't half bad. The Hot Monkey was more to my liking. Carla and I argued over which pepper types are in it -- ancho was the flavor I picked up, but she claimed chipotle. More research is needed, so I bought a bottle to take home.

Distilleries have taken off in that neighborhood in a big way. We wanted to make another stop at Integrity Spirits, but no one was there Saturday afternoon. Just a few blocks south on 7th is House Spirits, and distillers Sub Rosa and Artisan Spirits are somewhere nearby.

New Deal is also producing a line of organically-grown liqueurs for a Bay Area company called Loft Liqueurs. We tried three of the Loft flavors: lavender, ginger, and lemongrass. Pretty fancy. I liked the ginger best, but I'm especially impressed at how good the lemongrass liqueur was. I love the flavor of lemongrass, but when I tried to infuse some into vodka a few years ago, it was a disaster -- an alarming chemical-solvent flavor was what I ended up with. Not so with Loft's lemongrass: its delicate herbal lemon flavor was right on. Certified organic and repels mosquitoes, should be a big seller.

If you find yourself at the Lucky Lab or the Green Dragon some Saturday afternoon, walk over to New Deal and take advantage of the open house.