Category: Beer Culture

I created a PDX Beer layer for Google Earth using data from my PDX beer shape file. Fun, but not as useful as Beermapping, which uses Google Maps.

I love beer. But I also love bikes. I’ve been trying to think of a cool synergy like when we did wheelies up and down grant street on cheap lager, but this is even cooler. (and safer)

Hauling kegs on bike

This shouldn’t be funny, but it is. Beer labels that would appeal to kids

Another study, this time from OSU, has been released suggesting that some compounds from (xanthohumol) in ho9ps are excellent anti-oxidants and are excellent in fighting cancer. When the local news covered the story and went looking for public opinion, who did they find? No, not me but a co-worker enjoying himself at Widmer Gasthaus. Nice cameo Curtis.

The important part of the report – you’re not going to get this compound from Macro or European Lagers/Pilsners – so make sure you’re enjoying that *healthy* Oregon ale.

A new blog has popped up to catch comments for the Portland on Tap column. Portland Beer Blog hopes to get ideas and thoughts from the community about how best to grow the column. Give ’em a shout.

Part two of my presentation was a led tour of Portland Beers. The logistics of the tour were quite frightening, so we had to limit the group size to 10. The queue filled up quickly, and I forgot to pick up the list to make sure there weren’t any impostors in the group. We met in the Lobby, and there were 10 people, none of which admitted to not being on the list. So we left.

First stop was Full Sail Riverside in the McCormick & Schmick Harborside. Yes, technically Full Sail is from Hood River, but they also have a brewery on site that brews the brewmaster releases – which are excellent. Amazingly, all twelve (Michelle joined me) were seated easily and grabbed a pint. I had the Sunspot IPA on Cask, and damn if that wasn’t a great beer. It was actually my first visit to the pilsner room and I am definitely going back. The selection was great, and I think a menu or two might have been liberated for the purpose of showing off to friends when the conference goers returned home. From the Riverside we walked to the terminus of the Streetcar line and hopped a ride north to Rogue.

The Pilsner Room was happy to accommodate 10 or more, but I was a little concerned finding another pace that could do that on a Saturday night. Henry’s and Rogue were my next picks because they were both within the fare-less square and were large enough for a group. So I called Rogue to see what we could do. As luck would have it, the Tiki room was open and they saved it for us, so when we rolled in, wet and thirsty, we had a place to sit around a gorgeous hardwood surfboard table. The beer was great, which surprised no one, and a few people got samplers, others picked up pints, and others still were surprised when the beer they ordered showed up in a 10oz glass …. until they took the first sip. I think everyone was pleased with their beer. Somehow, we missed the official 7pm end of the tour and pushed on through to 8pm before we decided to get some dinner. The lure of 100 taps and good food brought us to Henry’s, but the 2-3 hour wait and absolute lack of standing room pushed us out. So, we walked to the streetcar, rode for only one stop, then walked down to Rock Bottom, which seemed like the most logical place to get dinner for 9 people (we had burgeoned to 16 at one point as phone calls were made revealing our location).

I’ve not been to Rock Bottom for 3 years, but they were a little crowded because of a Ducks game, but there was room to have beer in the bar while we waited for seating. The group was quite willing to have a beer and wait, and the wait was surprisingly short. They had a dry-hopped IPA on cask ( “Hoppy Daze”) that was excellent, and the food was good. The group had become old friends by this point, and dinner was a lot of fun. We finished around 11:30, only 4 and a half hours after the tour officially ended, and the group all seemed to think this was the best session of the conference. So at least 2% of the conference got a chance to taste Beervana.

Today I gave a presentation to the Consortium of College and University Media Center’s annual conference titled Tasting Beervana. It was a larger group than I expected (maybe 250+ people), and while I expected to be a stuttering mess I quickly found my pace because, after all, it was about beer.

The presentation was to share about Portland’s rich brewing history and encourage them to get out and try some of it. I started by explaining the concept of Beervana, gave a brief history of brewing in Portland and the Northwest, the craft brewing movement and the flourish of artisan and beer destinations, and finally my streetcar/brewpub map which my boss placed on the “things to do” list for the conference. To finish, I mentioned a sign up sheet for 10 folks for a tour I would lead on the streetcar route. I looked up to laughter as a few people darted for the sign-up sheet.

Afterwards I got a few compliments about the presentation and I felt like it went well – I didn’t notice any frowns in the crowd, only smiles, and they were a captive audience. The list filled up quickly too. By the time I had made it out of the room, I was informed that it was full, and was surprised to find several inquisitive beer lovers with questions. One of them was my former boss from when I was in school. Bizarre.

Here’s a copy of the ppt. Not that interesting and lazily referenced.

Ned sent me a beermail yesterday asking if I’d heard about the closure at Grant’s. I was startled and poured over Google’s news page, the Herald Republic, the Seattle Times, and Real Beer and couldn’t find anything and was curious if it was just a rumor. I went to sleep thinking things were still alright.

Today however, courtesy of the Brew Crew listserve, I got a link to the actual Cease and Desist order from the State Securities office. It seems that the brewery was bought by a couple scofflaws who issued bad stock and misrepresented their potential value.

Oddly enough, just 3 weeks ago we were having a beer at Bob’s Keg & Cork in Yakima and reminiscing with Bob, the proprietor. We talked about the glory days of Grants, the ground-breaking beer, the vision, the social outlet and legacy which all seems to have wavered in the last couple years. I know I’ve been hard on the Mandarin Hefe, but I think it is the official beer of the downfall of one of the greatest brewing legacies. Not to mention moving from the train station. I know they didn’t have money, but still. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

So while I consider this a small tragedy, it was by no means unexpected. Goodbye fair Scottish, I’ll miss you cask Imperial Stout and Perfect Porter, a bitter farewell to the first truly hoptacular IPA.