Category: Beer Culture

Last night I attended the Sling Shot release party at Pyramid with friends, including one of the brewers. It was a fun time, and 2 dollar imperial pints are hard to beat. Sling Shot is a souped up lawnmower beer – really simple malt body that has a clean flavor, though it packs a wallop at 6.2% abv. I was kind of surprised that the beer is being released under the MacTarnahan’s label, but it’s a good name. While there, I noticed several GABF medals for the Saxer dark lager. I’m hoping we’ll see something like this return – Portland could still use a few more lagers. Or maybe Mac’s in cans again.

Oh, and the kettles in the brew house are gorgeous. I love copper.

I’ve got plenty of beer on tap, but tonight I felt like something hoppy. I went next door to the store and picked up the bargain IPAs. I’m not sure if this is happening everywhere, but at my grocer, prices on beer have already jumped to “hop crisis” costs. I’m not certain if these are prices determined by the brewer, distributor or the grocer, but they seem to have jumped the gun. So my prediction is this:

Thousands of bottles of beer will age to the point of spoiling because the price has been raised beyond what consumers are willing to pay.

This is a loss/loss. I love beer and the craft of brewing, but if I’m going to pay the equivalent of $10 a six pack for something I’d paid $6-$7 just 2 months ago, I’d rather spend it on draft beer. Or homebrewing ingredients. I think this coming year my dollars spent on commercially produced beer are going to go to my local brewers only. Sorry Belgium. Sorry California. Sorry Colorado.

The reason I came to this prediction is that I just spent $8 on two 22oz beers, each of which is clearly past their prime. This is not going to be a happy year for brewers. But the waste? No one wins in that situation. If I didn’t know how good Elysian’s Immortal IPA was, I’d think their product stunk. I suppose the grocer has some interest in preventing aged bottles from shipping, but the pain isn’t necessarily theirs so much as it is for the brewer. This is kind of like triple jeopardy year for brewers. So many years of wonderful grown and birth of new brewers, and now this. Maybe the “Craft Brewing Alliance” cum merger between Redhook and Widmer is just a sign of things to come.

So pour one out for your local brewers, especially if it tastes like mothballs and grass clippings. We’ve got a long year ahead of us.

I was only able to visit this year’s Holiday Ale Fest for about 2 hours, but it was enough time to try some seriously big beers and enjoy brews with some friends. I was able to eek out of work early on Thursday to meet up with a displaced Portlander who has been living in New York for some time. When his girlfriend saw him among the crowd at the festival and heard him chatting about beer with me, she realized he wasn’t a nut, he was just a Portlander.

The Holiday Ale festival is great fun if you can escape work early. Seeing the lit christmas tree and towering building facades around you while sipping custom seasonal releases of the regions best breweries is really hard to beat. However, if you overindulge or stay too long, you can wind up in a tight spot. Shortly after 3:30pm, folks started trickling in from their offices in very nice suits. All I can figure is they’re on Market time and with trading over and work wrapped up, they were ready to have a beer. It gets a little crowded, but there are still no lines and you’re only slowed down in your travel. By 4:30pm however, its starting to get a little cramped and car-heater warm. This time I left, but in years past I stayed until it was claustrophobic, sweaty, and dehydrated. Sadly, I’m left with about 8 tickets that I was unable to spend on a second visit.

There were no beers that startled me this year. I think my favorite is still Celebration, but I did enjoy the Belgian-style offering from Laurelwood, the Caldera brew, and the Bye-Bye Frost. Nothing was bad, at least that I had, so it was a good year.

Not much to report from OBF this year. I only made it to one day and I have 10 tokens left. My plan to attend part of the day on Thursday was foiled by coworkers all being gone, so I was limited to Saturday. I had a great time though. My family and a group of friends from college came in to town and we all headed down before noon on Saturday (I love you Max) and set up a base camp with the pack-n-play. Allowed for folks to wander back and forth between the beers, food, and always have a place to relax.

Beer-wise, I wasn’t as impressed with this year’s spread. I think my favorite was yet again Pliny the Elder, and there were several other great beers, but I didn’t go crazy trying to sample all the beers I wanted this year. I think there were actually more beers that I was disapointed by for a change. One in particular, the Boundary Bay Galena single-hop seemed like it could be excellent. Galenas have a wonderful spicy aroma and a strong bittering characteristic, but the beer was just a little too simple. Nice smell and initial taste, but it had no follow up, and my mouth was left wondering who had put out the flavor. Noggin’ Grog was similar. I was told it wasn’t much good by a friend, but thought he might have just been talking down the competition. Nope – it was strangely bad.

I was quite pleased to be able to take my daughter for her first OBF. It was looking like it would be a no-minors event for the first time in 20 years, but luckily prudence prevailed, and families were able to enjoy the event together. I did not get an orange “I am a minor” sticker for Ella though, which was a mild disappointment, and she had very little interest in taking a nap in the chaos. Lesson for next year though – babies need rest if you want them to be happy.

Now, what to do with the additional mugs? At least the tokens are reusable next year.