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.

Snow Days

It has been snowing for 10 days now and we have been hitting the beer cellar pretty hard. The recycling bin is starting to overflow and the city has not been able to pick up for over a week now.
Bottles are starting to pile up in the kitchen as well.


Fortunately my friend Marc doesn't mind driving in this weather (a 4 wheel drive Honda Pilot helps a lot), so he saved me from rotting in the house and took me down to Portland a for a few beers.
Yesterday we started off at Hopworks for lunch, a mug of Abominable Winter Ale, and a glass of Cask Barrel Aged DOA for dessert.







From there we headed over to Amnesia for a Copacetic IPA and 2007 Sleighjerker.







After that we headed up to Saravesa for one more beer (A Russian River Blind Pig) before heading back home.



Now that is what I call a good Christmas Eve!

The Bruery Now Being Distributed In Oregon

According to The Bruery's Blog, The Bruery, located in Placentia, California is now being distributed in Oregon, and soon in Northern California. It's kind of hard to believe Oregon is getting it first! Check out their web site for more information.

I have had the chance to try most of Brewer/Owner Patrick Rue's beers at a few private tastings and most recently at this years Great American Beer Festival. Their beer is mostly Belgian inspired and very tasty. These beers are very much worth seeking out. I can't wait to get some locally!

Bottle tasting at Cascade Brewing/Raccoon Lodge

I spent the afternoon at a bottle tasting over at Cascade Brewing/Raccoon Lodge. I'd tried some of brewer Ron Gansberg's beers at the GABF this year and was very impressed by the beers that I'd sampled at their both, so I was looking forward to this tasting today. I was not disappointed as Ron was a very gracious host.
He pulled out all sorts of goodies including a 3 year old barley wine, a beer he was calling "Half Beer" which was Flanders Red blended with Cherries, and a beer I think he is calling "Shekar" (a sour spice strong blonde ale fermented with a "White Wine Grape") all of which were quite remarkable. Then he started pulling samples from the tanks in the brewery. There we tasted some truly special beers like his wonderful Apricot Flanders and very tasty and well balanced blended that I can't remember the name of (I must have been drinking). I think it might have been called P’Quad. (Edit: Vlad the Imp Aler.)
Then we went into the walk-in cooler to have some Drie Zwarte Pieten “Sang noir” which will be served at the Holiday Beer Festival this year.


Cascade Brewing is a brewery to watch out for. There are some really good beers coming out of this little gem of a brewery.






Not at all a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Beervana I think!