Friday, June 10, 2011

First Annual Portland Fruit Beer Festival Tomorrow Saturday June 11th & Sunday The 12th




There has been a lot of coverage of this festival and rightfully so. There is not much else I can add but to say this is going to be a very  fun and innovative festival! I'm looking forward to enjoying some of the beers on Saturday. And I'm really looking forward to serving some of these cool Rare Fruit Beers on Sunday! 

Here is the tap list for both the "Regular" Outdoor Beer Garden and for the Rare Fruit Beer. Highlighted are my picks of beers I'm looking forward to trying or have already tried and recommend.
Outdoor Beer Garden Tap List:


Alameda Brewing: Huckleberry Hound
Yellow Wolf Imperial IPA aged and "dry-hopped" with huckleberries.
ABV: 8.2% IBU's : 103


Beetje Brewing: Zure Krenten
A blend of fresh farmhouse ale, and a pale ale stored in
a Pinot Noir barrel with champagne currants and dosed with lambic
blend. Brewed with Pilsner, 2-row, wheat, crystal malts, and light
touch of noble hops. ABV: 6%



 Block 15 Brewing: Psidium
Rustic farmhouse ale matured with guava fruit. Brewed with Belgian Pilsner, French Pale & Wheat malts; Saaz & Citra hops; French farmhouse yeast. 6% alc/vol


Breakside Brewing: Mango IPA
Our flagship IPA brewed with a twist: we tweaked the recipe on our best selling beer to suit it to the flavors of fresh mango. Mango additions in the mash, kettle, hopback, and conditioning tank allow this otherwise-mellow fruit to complement and enhance the Citra, Cascade, and Ahtanum hop profile of this IPA. OG: 1.063 FG: 1.010 ABV: 6.8% IBU: approx. 55

Burnside Brewing: Gooseberry Berliner-Weisse
A slightly tart wheat beer with a mild fruitiness. This brew is lowly hoped ( 2ibu's ) and fermented with a lactic bacteria in addition to the German ale yeast resulting in the slightly sour finish. A percentage of this beer was put into french oak barrels and aged with 50 pounds of Washington grown Gooseberries. ABV: 3.35% IBU'S: 2.1

Dogfish Head: Festina Peche
A refreshing neo-BerlinerWeisse fermented with honest-to-goodness peaches to (get this!) 4.5% abv! Because extreme beers don't have to be extremely boozy!

Fort George Brewing: Badda BOOM! Cherry Stout
Coming in at 6.9% abv, rich and dark as a moonless night in the orchard, Badda BOOM! has 40 pounds of raspberries and Cherries mingling famously with the Belgian yeast esters and black barley bitters. 

Hopworks Urban Brewing: Red Delicious Belgian Applebiere
An Abbey Ale crossed with a Cider and fermented with Chimay yeast.
51% Organic Wheat 49% fresh pressed Organic Apple Cider 6+% abv

Laurelwood: TBA
Pale Ale brewed with Southeast Asian Fruit and Spices

Lompoc Brewing: Cherry Wheat
A golden ale fermented with sour cherries.

New Belgium: Ooh La La
Ale brewed with Rasberries 8.5% abv

Ninkasi Brewing: Pinot Barrel-Aged Oatis with Cherries
Oatis Oatmeal stout with cherries aged in Pinot Noir Casks. 7.2 % and 50 ibus.

Oakshire Brewing: Blind Date 
An Oat Brown Ale made with Organic Dates
Blind Date is a medium bodied Belgian Brown Ale with a balanced bitterness from Calypso Hops.  It is crafted with juicy Organic Dates. It has hints of fruit, a touch of roast and a smooth silky texture from the oats. The beer finishes with a mild sweetness from the dates. 6% Abv

Upright Brewing: Barrel-Aged Pure Wit with Orange
A single cask version of our seasonal Belgian-style wit with a pound of dried sweet orange peel added to the barrel. This tart and hazy wheat beer has a tremendous nose but remains light and snappy on the palate. 4.5%

Widmer Brothers Brewing: Himbeere Gose mit dem Eibisch
Gose with raspberries and hibiscus ABV: 5.3% OG: 11.7P AE: 2.3P





Rare Fruit Beer Taplist:

Oakshire: Gin Barrel Aged Blackberry imperial Stout
Our Imperial Overcast Espresso Stout was aged with  for two months in an Old Tom Gin Barrel from Oregon's Ransom Spirits. Oregon grown blackberries were added giving the finished beer hints of Gin botanicals and a mild blackberry fruitiness which balances the sweet chocolate and roast flavors from the beer. 9.5%

Upright: Gin Barrel-Aged Four with Strawberries
Upright's flagship wheat beer aged with Oregon strawberry puree in a Ransom Distillery Old Tom Gin barrel. The otherwise straightforward brew picks up a mix of the fruit character and the unique botanical notes that only come from the one of a kind local gin casks. 5%

Hopworks: Chili infused Survival Seven Grain Stout
Hopworks Head Brewer Ben Love added a unique blend of chili peppers to 3 small kegs of their Survival Seven Grain Stout. Each keg picked up its own flavors off the different peppers isolated. Those kegs were later blended to taste for the ultimate chili pepper infused stout made just for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival.

Lompoc: Cherry Fechter
Our Fools Golden fermented in a Maryhill Vineyard Cabernet Franc barrel with 35 pounds of sour cherries. It is clean crisp with a bright pink color and a slight sourness in the finish.

Widmer: 2009 Cherry Oak Doppelbock
Cherry Oak Doppelbock is a rich ale, cold-fermented with dark sweet and red tart cherries, then conditioned on new, heavily toasted American oak. The result is a dark lustrous brew with up-front malty sweetness and cherry fruit notes completed by caramel, dark chocolate, and toasted oak undertones. The complex flavor profile balances the impressive 9% ABV and 40 IBUs.

Coalition: Wheat from the Tree
An American style wheat aged 2 months in a St. Josef's chardonnay barrel, this beer has light notes of bartlett pears and wine grape, with a sweet and tangy finish of fresh mandarin and tangelo.  Starting at 4.4% abv, this beer spontaneously fermented to ~5.2% with the addition of 60 lbs of fresh fruit.  

New Belgium: Peach Love
Love is the base beer used for New Belgium’s sour series of beer like La Folie. This super sour single barrel beer was aged in Whiskey Barrels with Peaches. 8.5%Abv. Ultra rare!

Block 15: 2010 La Ferme’ de Demons (the Demon’s Farm)
Black farmhouse ale brewed with Belgian Pilsner, French Wheat, Candi Sugar, roast malt and farmhouse yeast.  Aged for over 8 months in three barrel types; Pinot Noir, Oregon Oak, and Bourbon with Brettanomyces.  After barrel aging and blending, this dark ruby black ale is further matured with a touch of Oregon Tart Cherry. A demonic brew to quench only the most sinister thirst. 8.75%alc/vol 31 IBU’s.

LOLA/Lucky Lab: Cherry Kolsch
This brew is a first for the Ladies of Lagers and Ales (LOLA) crew with no less than a dozen women breaking a sweat on a sunny day in April at the Lucky Labrador Beer Hall on NW Quimby. Under the watchful eye of Lab Brewdog Ben Flerchinger, this beer was originally brewed with Golden Promise and flavored with Munich, Wheat & Honey malt. Then CTZ hops were added for bitterness and Fuggles for aromatics. A Kölsch yeast was used to give it a bready, lemony, and mildly dank character.

Cherry LOLA is the side project of the LOLA Kolsch. Five gallons of LOLA Kolsch were kegged off and conditioned with black cherry juice for a delightfully sweet and mildly tart flavor.
This beer was brewed by the ladies to be enjoyed by everyone!

Cascade: Apricot
Our Apricot has the intense aroma of Goldrich and Rival apricots, slow-ripened before being introduced to the beer. Based on a Belgian Tripel, this beer went through 16 months lactic fermentation and aging in French oak wine barrels, then rested on the fruit for four months before finishing. 8.5% ABV

Cascade: Kriek
Our Kriek spends over six months in lactic fermentation and aging in oak barrels. This NW style sour red ale is fermented for eight months with fresh whole Bing and sour pie cherries. 7.3% ABV

Double Mountain: Devil’s Kriek
It is with great pleasure that we brew Devil's Kriek once a year at cherry harvest, and let it develop its intensity for a full twelve months, until it's time to do it again. This year's batch is intensely dark and fruity, thanks to over 70 lbs. per barrel of Bings (twice what we used last year) from Matt's orchard in Odell. The light sourness comes not from sour cherries, but from Brettanomyces "wild yeast", which slowly add the tang and a host of other funky flavors. A brown ale base provides a tasty counterpart to the fruit. 8.3% ABV 

Breakside: Brewer’s Bramble
Inspired by the classic bramble cocktail, this beer was aged in an Old Tom Gin barrel with blackberries, lemon peel, and juniper berry.

Breakside: Whiskey Ginger 
This beer finds its origins in a cocktail called Six Lengths Ahead, which was on the original drink menu at Portland’s cocktail hotspot Beaker and Flask. This beer also aged in a Whippersnapper barrel and has blueberries, fresh ginger, lime peel, and a touch of grenadine. 

He’ Brew: Origin Pomegranate Ale
Brewed with the juice of over 10,000 luscious pomegranates, ORIGIN is a complex, rich and balanced Imperial Amber Ale with a truly unique character. The pomegranate juice is added during fermentation, leaving only the residual sugars, which serve to balance the hop bitterness. 8% Abv








Here is a rough tapping schedule of the Rare Fruit Beer kegs as posted yesterday evening on the festival's Facebook page:
Ok here is the very rough rare beer tapping schedule. How fast we go through these is another story so we may get ahead of our sched or behind it but this is the tapping order. We will have 2 on tap at a time unless another jockey box frees up to tap more. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for the live updates on taplist changes:

Tapping at 11am on Saturday 6/11:
Coalition Brewing: Wheat from the Tree (Chardonnay Barrel-Aged with Bartlett Pears and Tangelo)
Breakside Brewery: Whiskey Ginger (Whiskey barrel-aged with Blueberries, Lime Peel, Ginger and Grenadine)

Next Up:
Burnside: Marionberry Berliner-Weisse
Cascade: Apricot Ale
Hopworks: Chupacabra Chili Stout
Lompoc: Cherry Fechter
Double Mountain: Devil's Kriek
Cascade: Kriek
Fort George: Hellcat (Belgian Pepper Ale)
Oakshire: Gin Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout with Blackberries

Tapping at 11am on Sunday 6/12:
LOLA & Lucky Lab: Cherry Kolsch

Next Up:
Upright: Gin-Barrel-Aged Four with Strawberries
Breakside: Brewers Bramble
New Belgium: Peach Love
Widmer: 09' Cherry Oak Doppelbock
Block 15: La Ferme de Demons
He' Brew: Origin Pomegranate Ale 



Go to http://burnsidebrewco.com/FruitBeerFest.php for more details on the festival.


Here are some great posts on the subject with some great information from other Portland Bloggers:


It's Pub Night
Brewpublic
portlandbeer.org
Beervana
Not So Pro Beer Blog
Portland Beer and Music
And of course the organizer's guide to the fest:
The New School

Hats of to Ezra Johnson-Greenough and the folks at Burnside Brewing for pulling all this together. Judging by what I've seen (and tasted), it's going to one a hell of festival!

I hope to see you there. I'll be pouring the Rare Fruit Beers 1st shift on Sunday. Come by and say hi.

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