Category: Other Beers

Oregon Cask Ale Festival – Oct 28,29,30

The Rose & Raindrop and Horse Brass Pubs will be hosting a cask ale festival this October 28th, 29th, and 30th as a fundraiser for brewers displaced by Katrina. There will be at least 20 regional beers on cask at the two venues and the selection will rotate nightly so you’ll have to move around to try it all. I think I speak for everyone myself when I say that Cask Ale is how God Himself drinks his beer. If you’ve not tried beer on cask (with the big hand pulls), you’re missing out. The flavors and body can be more subtle, but the conditioning in the cask and the hand pull really make for the best kind of living beer experience.

There are only a few places in town that have cask offerings (relative to the huge variety of overall offerings in town) including both Bridgeports, Rose & Raindrop, Horse Brass, Full Sail Riverside and maybe moon & sixpence. Other places have a beer engine, but they don’t consistently have something on.

Mash Tun murmuring

Barley and I walked by the soon to open Mash Tun brewpub on NE 22nd this past weekend and noticed some workers inside. I inquired about a possible opening date with what turned out to be the owner/brewer. He said they’re hoping for an opening within 3-4 weeks though the brewery won’t be operational just yet. They’ll also have a dog friendly patio. Sweet.

Oregon Beers by Streetcar

I’ve put together a map of beer bars and brewpubs in downtown Portland that are accessible by streetcar. The brewpubs and beer bars were selected based on BeerAdvocate.com’s Beerfly guide (of which I’m a local guide), which only includes brewpubs or bars that focus on craft beers.

The map data comes from the metro-region’s RLIS data, tri-met’s route maps, and beeradvocate.com.

What better time to release it than American Beer Month 2005? And with the Oregon Brewers Festival (OBF) coming up, I’m hoping some out-of-towners might find it useful.

Anyway, here’s the map. Let me know if you have any comments or notice any glaring omissions.

Portland Beer Bars and Brewpubs via Streetcar

Dogfish Head at the Blue Monk

Last night Michelle and I attended the Dogfish Head dinner at The Blue Monk. The event paired Dogfish Head beers with 4 dishes that also included beer as an ingredient. 90 Minute IPA onion soup, Aprihop spinach salad, Spare ribs with brown ale BBQ sauce and Chicory stout brownie & ice cream. The food and beers were excellent, and the brewer was also there pitching his book and his beers. He shared a little of Dogfish’s history and explained how they had hoped to create unique and significant beers with a regional individuality. Which they’ve done quite well.

As a surprise, everyone got a sample of the World Wide Stout after desert. It was awesome. We didn’t stay for the show after though, being full and exhausted. Maybe next time.

Mash Tun Brew Pub

On a tip from a fellow BA, I checked out a “soon to open” brewpub on Alberta called the Mash Tun. True to word, it was indeed under construction, and the copper kettles were in place (though not functional yet). Someone had taped up a menu and beer list, and it got me excited. The beer list included a full gamut of styles; some with great names like “Watership Brown” and “Kilgore Stout.” Sweet. I’ll just have to hammer out the details of their Alberta Pale Ale.

Watching what you say

On occasion one gets reminded how small and connected this internet thing is. I just received an e-mail regarding a second review of a beer. The author basically thanked me for trying the beer again and reviewing it again because he though my first review was a bit harsh.

I was a bit shocked that someone actually read my reviews. But doubly shocked that they would take the time to thank me and explain the differences in the brewery, process and ingredients since my first review.

As I’m sure some (or one of the only two) readers would agree – it is easy to forget that other people read what you write. I suppose it helps keep you honest.

Indicative of IPA

indica IPA
Lost Coast Brewery is being sued on behalf of hindus everywhere for its portrayal of Ganesh on the label of it’s Indica India Pale Ale. The label show’s Ganesh, remover of obstacles (bottle caps?), holding a beer in one of his many hands and a beer in his trunk.

Lost Coast is willing to change the label, but the lawyer bringing the suit is going to continue to seek grievances to the tune of 1 billion dollars. Grievances against people who didn’t even know the beer existed. Um…. I hope he doesn’t go after breweries everywhere asking for grievances from the term India Pale Ale – as it was the drink of choice for the Raj during Britain’s tenure there.

Portland Brewing becomes Pyramid Brewing

Michelle and I were out taking photos of brew pubs on Saturday and visited Portland Brewing for the first time. Portland Brewing was bought by Pyramid Brewing last August, and I’ve not heard much of what was going to happen here at the brewery. Oddly enough, just a week before our visit Pyramid finally changed the facade on the building to read Pyramid Breweries.

Somewhat shocking, but we continued. The gorgeous copper kettles really give the place an air of authenticity. We grabbed a seat and were promptly offered Pyramid Hefeweisen or perhaps an Apricot Ale. *shudder* I guess change is good.

I asked about the kettles and about what the plans for the brewery were and was told that Pyramid would be moving all its brewing to the Portland facility and would be using their Seattle facility for brewing Malternatives (alchipop, etc). While I’m glad that the Portland brewery got the good end of the stick, it seems that there may be an increase in the number of breweries that seek the coveted Brewed in Oregon status. This worries me because it may draw beer marketers who may merely seek to exploit the Oregon Craft designation.

We’ll see what the future holds, but I hope that the quality of “brewed in Oregon” doesn’t deteriorate like Weinhard’s “ales” have since leaving Portland.