Updates: Last Week's Epic Baltic/Imperial Porter Tasting at Upright Brewing

Before I forget to post this...

Last week I was lucky enough to attend one hell of a beer tasting masterfully organized by Ezra a.k.a Samurai Artist and graciously hosted by Upright Brewing . I sampled some great beers, a few for the 1st time like Smuttynose Baltic Porter and Victory Baltic Thunder. There was also a great spread of snack food as well.

This event really opened my eyes to not only to a style of beer that I previously had little experience with, but also to how special the beer scene is here in Portland and how very lucky I am to be a part of it.

A big thanks goes to Ezra for putting it together and to Alex at Upright Brewing for hosting it.

For more detailed (and overall more interesting) reports on this event see these fine beer blogs:

It's Pub Night

Brewpublic

And Matt at Portlandbeer.org took some fantastic pictures of the event here.

This just in from our friends over at Saraveza:

Full Sail Session Black Release Tailgate Party
Thursday, July 2nd, 6-8pm
Come try Full Sail's new summer stubbie! Still refreshing and "sessionable", only a black lager!
Tailgate with us! Hot off the grill, we'll be serving brats and dogs and washing them down with Session Black Lager!

Session Shwag, Brewers and lots of Session Black Lager to go around!

Sounds like it's going to be a good time!

-We are on the way back from the National Homebrewer's Conference in Oakland. Look for a post on that soon...

Cheers

FredFest 2009

There are so many beer events on here in Beervana that I’m still having a hard time keeping this blog updated with the events I actually attend. There have been quite a few events we have attended lately so I will give each event it's own post in no particular  order. Also I will post few pictures on this blog and also will try to put most of them on my Flickr page. 

Saturday FredFest 2009 was held at Hair of the Dog Brewing n SE Portland. It was a blast as usual. Having attended this event once before I kind of knew what to expect. This year the event exceeded my expectations. 

As Jeff so eloquently put 

it - FredFest is more than a just a festival, it is actually a birthday party for a man who has taught us all a great deal about beer styles, food pairings, and about overall enjoyment of beer. It was also a great time to catch up with old some friends in the beer community and meet some new ones as well.

                                                                                       

                     

Teresa and I got down to the fest about the same time as Bill, just as they were letting people in.

Bill in action

The 2009 Brewery and Beer List: 

* Astoria Brewing Company - Bitter Bitch

* Bend Brewing Company - Black Diamond Dark Lager

* BridgePort Brewing Company - Hop Czar

* Cascade Brewing Company - Bain de Brugge

* Deschutes Brewery - Mirror Mirror From the Wood 

* Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom - Oak-Aged Inglemonster

* Firestone Walker Brewing Company - Abacus

* Full Sail Brewing Company - 1998 Boilermaker

* Hair of the Dog Brewing Company - Cask Fred of the Wood

* Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) - Bourbon BBL Noggin Floggin

* Laughing Dog Brewing - Dogfather Imperial Stout 

* Laurelwood Brewing Company - Organic Portland Roast Espresso Stout

* Lucky Labrador Brewing Company - Pennsylvania Swanky

* McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse - Weisenbock 2007

* Midnight Sun Brewing Company - Brewtality

* New Belgium Brewing Company - "Mystery Beer"

* New Old Lompoc Brewery - 2008 Bourbon Barrel-Aged Proletariat Red Ale

* Ninkasi Brewing Company - Sasquatch 

* Pelican Pub & Brewery - Nestucca ESB

* Rock Bottom Brewery - Super Dopple Bock

* Rogue Ales - Charlie 1981

* Saxer Brewing Company - Vintage Dopplebock

* Widmer Brothers Brewing Company - 8409 Double Alt

Here are a few stand-outs for me:

Firestone Walker Brewing Company - Abacus

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) - Bourbon BBL Noggin Floggin

Deschutes Brewery - Mirror Mirror From the Wood 

Bend Brewing Company - Black Diamond Dark Lager

Also Full Sail Brewing Company - 1998 Boilermaker was very tasty too.

The oldest beer there was a keg of Saxer Brewing Company - 1994 Vintage Dopplebock. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it held up over time. There was some oxidation, but not as much as one would expect from a beer this age.

Teresa cutting one of the birthday cakes.

With a little organized coaxing from Bill we got a picture of a few of the bloggers/writers with Fred (and Rob Widmer for some reason...)  I'm not sure who took it.

What a fun party it was!

Happy Birthday Fred!

For more on FredFest check out these bloggers sites: Jeff, Derek, & Bill's

Lucky Lab Barley Wine & Big Beer Festival

This weekend was the Luck Lab Barley Wine and Big Beer Festival down at the Luck Lab Beer Hall on NW Quimby St.  It was a 2 day event that went from noon to 10 PM both Friday and Saturday. My wife and I were able to get there Friday night and then on Saturday our friend Marc took us there again Saturday afternoon.

Friday night was pretty crowded  as was later in the afternoon on Saturday.  They had started running out of vintage beers on Friday and by Saturday the list was of "Out" beers was getting pretty long.  So really your best bet was to look up at the signs to see what was available. As with most festivals getting there earlier pays off.

Some of my favorite beer included:

2008 Speakeasy Old Godfather Barley Wine

2008 Three Creeks 8 Seconds Imperial Stout

2008 Walking Man Stumble Foot Barley Wine

2006 Pelican Grand Cru

2005 Old Lompac Old Tavern Rat Barley Wine

2008 Laughing Dog Dogfather Imperial Stout

2006 Lucky Lab Old Yeller Barley Wine

Updates/Braking The Silence

When I started this blog I mainly wrote about my beer travels.  A lot of that beer travel was to Portland, OR.  I have found an abundance of inspiration for this blog since I moved out here to Beervana. In fact, I get a little overwhelmed by the amount of things to post about and just stop updating the blog. 

I'm going to work on that and try to take a different approach to updating this blog so I don't get overwhelmed.  After all, I am just doing this for fun.

With that said, I do have a few things I want to post about. So stick around, I have plenty to say.

Fred Eckhardt recovering from open heart surgery

It has come to my attention though a Twitter posting by my friend Lisa Morrison that the "Dean of Beer Writers"  (and overall  beer guru) is in Fair condition after undergoing open heart surgery.  I don't know any other details at this point. 

I just wanted to let everyone know about this.  Please feel free to send healing thoughts or prayers (or whatever works in your belief system) Fred's way.

Thanks.

Catching Up: Day Trip Part 1

A few  weeks ago I was able to take 2 beer related day trips both with my friend (and tour guide of sorts), Marc. I have been trying to figure out the most efficient way of posting about these trips. I decided that it would be better to break them up into several post.

 

On Monday on we down to McMinnville, OR .  But we of course had to stop a few places along the way.

First stop was Max's Fanno Creek Brew Pub in Tigard, OR. We wanted to stop there and see how things were going after all the changes at the pub. Despite the changed we were happy to find that the pub is turning out some very tasty beer.  Marc had a O Holy Hop Ale and I had Dopplebock. Both were well made defiantly worth a return visit.

Next up was Golden Valley Brewer & Pub in McMinnville for lunch and a beer. The food was good but more importantly, so was the beer.

Marc had a Chehalem Mt. IPA, which was good and clean but could use some more hops in the bittering to balance the malt. I had a Tannenbomb, which is there winter sessional and, as the name suggests, is very much a malt bomb.

Jason the brewer was nice enough to talk to us and invited us back into the brewery. We had a nice chat about his brewery and these are a few of the pictures I snapped.