Recent Trip To Texas In Pictures Part 1

Here are some pictures from our recent trip back to Austin, Texas. We started off the 1st day with a tasting of mostly NW beer that we had brought for sharing. The next set of pictures is at Uncle Billy's Brew & Que to hang out with our good friends Amos Lowe and Brian "Swifty" Peters. Then we hit Red's Porch  for some food and beer then on to Billy's On Burnet to enjoy their great happy hour with more friends. We did hit Draught House(which is my favorite beer bar/brewpub in Texas) but for some reason didn't find it necessary to take any pictures there.

Part 2 coming soon...

Beer Tasting

Fun At Uncle Billy's With Swifty & Amos

Now I Get  In On The Action

Swifty Grading My Work

Amos In The Brewhouse

Adding Amarillo Hop Too Hop Zompie 

Dan & Joelle Want To Work Too

The Line Up At Uncle Billy's

Checking Out Red's Porch

At Billy's On Burnet For More Beer

LOLA Kölsch Release Party Tonight at Lucky Lab Beer Hall

Just a quick post about the LOLA Kölsch Release Party tonight at the Lucky Lab Beer Hall at 1945 NW Quimby starting at 4:30pm.

Here are some details on the beer and LOLA as written by LOLA founding member Margaret Lut:

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 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. This beer was brewed by the ladies to be enjoyed by everyone!   

About LOLA: Started by Margaret Lut in 2010, when she got together with friends and realized other ladies may want to joing them.  LOLA is a social group made up of females that enjoy craft beer, including people working in the industry, homebrewers and craft beer drinkers.

Check out some of the great pictures Margaret posted on Brewpublic of the brewing of this beer.

Hope to see you there!

Texas Beer Tasting '11

Anybody who knows me (or has read older post in this blog's archives) knows my wife and I are originally from Texas. We moved here almost 3 years ago and finally had our first tasting in our Portland home last Saturday. We decided to have a Texas tasting after our friend Margaret Lut of Brewpublic and Ladies of Lagers and Ales (LOLA) fame spent a week in Texas for work. She brought back some beers from some of the newer breweries in the state and had mentioned the idea of having a Texas tasting. My wife Teresa, a fellow LOLA member, offered to have the tasting at our house. This gave us an opportunity to raid our cellar of some of our aged Texas beers we had amassed over years like several vintages of Real Ale Brewing Sisyphus Barley Wine and Saint Arnold's Brewing Divine series.

Below is a collage and a slide show of pictures we managed to get throughout and after the party.

Angelo over at Brewpublic has more details of the beers we tasted in his Weekend Review post. Check it out!

Thanks to everybody who came and brought beer and food. A special thanks to Bill of It's Pub Night (who also moved to Portland from Texas) for the great homemade salsa and to Wildwood Sous Chef Paul Kasten for cooking up some kick-ass smoked pepper vegan chili!

Anderson Valley's 15th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Fest (in Pictures)

Loaded up and hitting the road.

First stop: Caldera Brewery in Ashland, OR

Caldera's gleaming brewhouse. The second tank on the right is filled with Hop Hash!

Angelo and the Oakshire crew are ready to roll.

The magnificent Mt. Shasta.

Obligatory stop at In-N-Out in Redding, CA.

The Oregon caravan is almost there!

Time for a beer with the Marin brewers.

Camp Eugene (Oakshire's Missing Link and Ninkasi Double Dry Hopped Tricerahops on tap).

Angelo, Lucas, Matt, King C, Amy, 2 friends, and Paul repping Oregon.

Found a jawbone down by the creek, loving nature.

Playing in the creek, not deep enough for a good swim though.

Travis showed up in his newly modified Element.

The hydraulic grill!

Uncommon Brewers made the trip up from Santa Cruz.

Russian River and Washoes at the campground.

Nice old car in beautiful Anderson Valley.

Time to head to the fest (Double Mountain representing OR again).

Break for some quick holes on the brewery Disc Golf course.

Camp Moonlight.

Matt and Bryan from Oakshire with the Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton.

Triple Rock is pouring beer and loving it!

Troy Potter bolstering excitement for Eugene beer!

I had to run and hide shortly after taking this picture, no mullet for me today!

Saw this guy on the way out enjoying a cigar and corndog.

Clear Lake, CA.

Stopped at Sierra Nevada on the way back for some beer and lunch: Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Bigfoot, and Ghidorah Double IPA

A little snow in May coming back over the CA-OR border pass...

and then a rainbow outside of Eugene, OR, what a trip!

Beer Of The Year? Perhaps.

Cascade Maker's Mark Single Barrel (Straight) Bourbonic.

Ladies and Gents I give to you my nomination for beer of the year: Cascade Maker's Mark Single Barrel (Straight) Bourbonic.  Cascade Barrel House tapped it last night as part of their "Tap It Tuesday" program. Last night my buddy Marc and I made out to the Barrel House to try this amazingly balanced and tasty beer.  If you live here in Portland and haven't been to Tap It Tuesday you owe it to yourself to go! They usually have the barrel on for at least a week (I think, maybe 2).  Get down there and try it!  What a great Christmas present from Cascade to the patrons of the Barrel House!

Nicole (and her husband Paul) over at Portland Beer And Music were bestowed the honor of tapping the barrel and wrote a nice post about it.  Check it out. I know there are going to be a lot of lists of best beers of the year soon, this beer and Cascade's Gluek Kriek (served hot with an orange slice studded with cloves and a sugar cube)  sits at the top of mine.  What beers are on your list?

 We also made it over to Belmont Station last night where they had all the ('05 thru '09) Epic beers from the now closed Roots Brewing.  It was rare treat get to try these beers again.  My favorites were the '05 and '06. If they still have them on tap you should head over there and try them!

Of course the only picture I got was of the Bourbonic (even that was an after thought)! Too much great beer to taste! It was truly a great night to be in Portland!