Category: Other Beers

Wine guide misnomers

Wine for Beer DrinkersI found a copy of Dancing Bull’s Guy’s Guide to Wine in the break room and flipped through it because my burrito had 2 minutes left. It’s a basic wine for dummies guide, but there’s a section on wine for beer drinkers. It assumes that guys know beer, and the 4 basic beer styles translate to wines. I thought it was kind of funny, so I scanned it to share.

My favorite part of the guide is the clumping of IPA and Pilsner as a style group, and their comparison to Merlot/Pinot. While inaccurate, the light beer and pilsner would be a better pairing. Second, it describes Merlot as “smooth and easier to handle than some of the big daddy reds.”

IPA? Smooth? It’s probably the only style of beer that most people excluded from their repertoire. Oh, and the Belgians.

Meet the brewer

Last night the power was knocked out just as the oven finished pre-heating so we decided to hit up Concordia for dinner. Michelle adjusted her route home to make sure they were open and had power, so we fed the baby and loaded up.

Two of the last three visits we’ve made to Concordia Ale House happened to be on “meet the brewer” nights. Last night the brewer from Stone flew in from San Diego (with nasty weather) and brought a cask-conditioned Smoked Porter, and the Double Bastard was on tap.

I’m afraid I’ll get used to Concordia and it’s awesomeness.

On the occasion of a really good beer

For my birthday this year, Scott gave me a bottle of St. Bernardus Abt 12, the 60th Anniversary recipe. I’ve been putting off having it until I could truly savor it, and had actually intended to share it with someone. Instead, I opened it last night to celebrate the completion of my fall term classes. While it was not the best choice to accompany tacos, the beer was fabulous.
My fridge runs a little cold, so when I got home, I placed the bottle in some warm water while I fed the animals, changed Ella’s diaper, and started dinner. Since I don’t have a proper tulip glass, I used a red wineglass and poured a bit to enjoy while making dinner. It was still a little cold, but exuded a horrifically rank aroma. But in the good way. A way that American brewers can’t quite recreate.

As the beer warmed, the taste and aroma improved even more – turbid funk, spicy, fruity malts, and warm alcoholic satisfaction. I’ve gotten a little tired of reviewing beers, so I’ll spare you (er, myself) the details – but it was an excellent beer. Well worth whatever Scott paid for it.

Holiday Ale Fest 2006

Joe, Lindsay, my dad and I stopped by the Holiday Ale Festival on Saturday afternoon, expecting to have outsmarted the crowds. Not quite. A 20 minute wait outside was the prelude to a 20 minute wait to get a beer. Many of the beers I wanted to try were “out until 5pm,” but there were plenty of other great, strong beers to be had.

After the first beer, we hung out in the northeast corner where warm air was being pumped in to the tent, and where two colliding lines created an people eddy and we were able to easily sample a few beers without much wait. After the equivalent of 3 and a half beers, we made our way back north thanks to the MAX and found our selves a bit… listless. Those were some strong beers.

One of my favorite things about the holidays and the beers is the great names for so many of the beers. Monk’s Uncle, Sled Crasher, Ho Ho Homo-Erectus, Blitzen, Taunen Baum, etc.

R&R – a fond farewell

The Rose & Raindrop is going to be closing in just over 1 month. As such, I’ve been twice in the last month to enjoy it while I can. Tonight Joe and I met to sample some fine cask ales – the dregs from the Portland Cask Ale Festival – and shoot the breeze. The previous visit, they had no cask ales… for shame!

I like the Rose & Raindrop. It’s in a gorgeous building (which is a curse, as it turns out), it has more history than you want to shake a stick at, and it has a robust selection of craft beers – including several cask ales. There are other “draws” that I don’t quite get; wireless internet, raw oysters, the TB clinic… but there’s also the smoking thing. R&R is one of the few great beer bars that allows smoking. As such – it’s bound to skank up anything you bring in to the bar. The skank can be so repelling that I only go maybe twice a year. And half those visits are for the cask ales.

Of the four places you can get a good real ale in Portland, half are in smoky bars, and the other half are Bridgeport(s). If you’re not a cask fan, fine; but the gentle body, sligthly less edgy flavor and wonderful overall sensation are hard to pass on. So much so that I’ll give up 24 hours of smell just to enjoy it.

If you’ve not tried a cask ale, or not been to the Rose & Raindrop – I highly recommend visiting before December 31st. And if they have the Mt. Hood Hogsback Oatmeal stout on cask – get it. And savor it. It’s not that easy to find, and it’s as perfect an ale as I’ve found so far.

chip clip

I dropped a chip clip into a keg while siphoning my fresh hop beer. The clip was holding the racking cane and slipped off the tube, falling directly into the small mouth of the keg. The break in the foam was almost a perfect outline of the chip clip. I hope it doesn’t ruin the beer – it’s quite good.

Drinking with BAs

Some enterprising BeerAdvocate members put together a Portland meet up this last Saturday starting at Concordia Ale House, then moving to a fellow member’s beer mecca. I joined briefly at Concordia to meet some of the other BAs from the community (and have some delicious beer) and had a good time. It was interesting to see the degree to which many BAs agree on some beers, and disagree on others.

There was some confusion over the tab, which happens with large groups. I think I dropped $12 on 2 pints of local craft. 90% tip! woohoo!