New Arrivals for Tuesday Aug. 29, 2006

It's getting late and I'm short on time, so I'll just list the new beers today and fill in the details tomorrow after I've consumed one of each.

Bayern - Oktoberfest: Bayern's take on the oktoberfest style is a dark translucent reddish-brown color and exudes a wonderfully bready, caramelly aroma. The caramel and bread notes continue into the flavor, accented by a hint of bitterness. The finish is clean and dry, with a little bite to it that urges you to go back for more.

Aktien - Oktoberfest: In stark contrast to the Bayern, Aktien's oktoberfest pours a pale straw color with a small creamy head. The flavor is more "biscuity", and features a wee bit more hops to it as well. This is a fairly unique oktoberfest which should nicely compliment sausages and kraut, or stand alone as an afternoon refresher. Get it while it's fresh!

Speakeasy - Old Godfather Barleywine: The Old Godfather is a spectacularly well balanced barleywine. It's bursting with notes of toffee and raisins accented by a huge spicy aroma. The caramelly malt and spicy, piney hops roll effortlessly around the mouth with hardly any "alcohol burn" to speak of. A reasonably dry finish (for a barleywine) caps off this delightful beer. Be careful with this one, the 10% abv is masterfully buried and just waiting to sneak up on you.

Questions? Comments? As always, feel free to give us a call - 503.232.8538

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Aktien, Bayern, Speakeasy

Third Annual Fresh Hop Beer "Tastival"

Join your fellow hopheads in a joyous salute to our favorite flower. The first two years of this festival were held at the Golden Valley Brewery in McMinnville, OR, but apparently the Oregon Brewers Guild felt they'd have better attendance if the festival was moved to Portland, so the new NW Lucky Lab gets to play host to this year's event.

What's "fresh hop" beer, you ask? It's a showcase for the hop, a celebration of the harvest, and a chance to throw WAY too many hops into a beer. Quite simply, it's a beer made using fresh, "wet" hops picked from the bine and thrown directly into the beer. In many cases the hops are picked in the morning and trucked to the breweries where they're used the same day, especially here in Oregon. Living in one of the world's greatest hop growing regions gives our local brewers access to some of the freshest hops imaginable, and our hometown boys (and girls) go to great lengths to showcase these fresh-picked beauties in a variety of tasty beer styles. Most fresh hop beers tend to be pale ales, IPAs, and other traditionally hoppy beers, but some brewers are beginning to broaden the scope of fresh hop beers to produce fresh hop pilseners (look for one from BJ's in the coming weeks), brown ales, and a myriad of other styles. The process isn't cheap; using fresh hops (as opposed to dried) requires the use of 5-8 times as many hops as a "normal" beer in the same style. This can lead to slightly higher prices on fresh hopped beer, but most people feel the added expense is worth it for this once a year treat.


Here's the vital info:

Who: You and all the other hop heads in PDX
What: The Third Annual Fresh Hop Tastival, featuring upwards of 15 different fresh hop beers from some of Oregon's finest breweries
When: October 14, 2006 from 12 to 9 pm
Where: The Lucky Lab Beer Hall - 1945 NW Quimby
Why: You need a reason?
How Much: no info available, but I'd assume free admission

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Tags: Beer, Portland, Oregon, Fresh Hops, Lucky Lab Brewing Company

Stone 10th Anniversary IPA

Stone - 10th Anniversary IPA: We received our first allotment today, with several more cases to follow in a couple weeks. The 3Ltr bottles will be arriving on the second load. Please call if you'd like us to hold anything for you.

Here's the "official description" from Greg Koch, CEO of Stone:
"Stone 10th Anniversary IPA harkens back to our earlier Anniversary Ales, with abundant hopping at many stages of the brewing process. Appropriately, the aroma is over-the-top, with pronounced piney and resiny hop flavors combined with tropical fruit esters and more subtle notes of toasted malts and alcohol. Our Stone 10th Anniversary Ale weighs in at 10% alcohol by volume (perfect for a 10th anniversary beer), and has a little more color and malt character than our other IPAs. In addition to using the new Summit hop variety in the brewhouse to provide the powerful bitterness, we went back through our records and found some of our favorite hops over the years, and used them to flavor this brew, including Chinook, Crystal, and large doses of Simcoe in the dry-hop to provide a huge, complex, piney, fruity and floral hop character. This is a colossal beer, big in every sense: hoppy, malty, rich, and strong! Right up our alley."

I tried a sample of the Stone 10th on Tuesday (Thanks, John!), and all the hopheads are going to go nuts for this one. The 10% abv is beautifully masked underneath layers and layers of delicious hoppy flavors. The smooth,creamy mouthfeel and soft carbonation accentuate the grapefruity hop presence and almost forces you to roll the beer around in your mouth to expose as many tastebuds as possible to the glory of the hop. Mmmmm......hops.

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Stone Brewing

New Online Keg List

I've created a new blog page which will act as our "Kegs In Stock" list. You can check it out here. In our continuing effort to streamline the keg sales process it occurred to me that it would be easy to create a blog page and simply copy and paste the keg list I generate for the store every day. I'll try and get this posted each morning before we open, but there's no way I'll be able to update it to reflect every keg sale, so not all the kegs on the list may be in stock by the end of the day. You can assume the list is accurate in the morning, but I'd highly recommend calling to confirm your selection before driving here.


This feature is still in beta until I have a chance to tweak some things and connect it to the rest of the site, but please let me know if you have any suggestions or problems with the page.

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Kegs

Return of the Rodenbach + New Releases

A little bird just dropped in to let me know that we'll be receiving some Rodenbach tomorrow. Regrettably there won't be any Alexander, but we will have the Rodenbach Classic, the new cherry infused Redbach, and even a couple cases of the Grand Cru. I won't know the prices until it arrives tomorrow, but I'll be happy to hold bottles for anyone who's interested.

Sierra Nevada - Brown Ale: This is the first time Sierra Nevada has bottled their brown ale, and they're hoping it will fill their seasonal gap between Summerfest and Celebration. I've never had it, but based on the reviews this seems to be a great example of the smooth, easy drinking "English Brown" style. Expect more info and personalized tasting notes in a day or two.

Bard's Tale - Dragon's Gold: Celiacs Rejoice! The first in the new wave of Gluten-free beers should arrive tomorrow.


EDIT - TUESDAY 8/22 9:15am: The Rodenbach and Bard's Tale have arrived, here's the prices and other vital info:

Rodenbach Classic: $2.45 per 8.5oz bottle
Rodenbach RedBach: $2.70 per 12oz bottle
Rodenbach Grand Cru: $9.95 per 750ml bottle

Bard's Tale Dragon's Gold: $2.20 per 12oz bottle

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Portland, Oregon, Rodenbach, Sierra Nevada, Bard's Tale

He'll Be Back!

The Governator Ale, produced by Pumping Iron Brewing a.k.a. Portland Brewing, has been selling for over $10/bottle on Ebay. We have several bottles for only $3.95 each so if you want to make a little cash on eBay, or just have another piece of parphanelia to add to your "Ahnold" collection, you should come down and buy a bottle.

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Portland Brewing, Governator

New Arrivals for August 11, 2006

I'm swamped right now so I'll have to save the descriptions for later, but here's the latest batch of goodies to hit the streets:

Alesmith - Yulesmith (summer batch): This is one of the highlights of my holiday season, so you can imagine how happy I was when 20 cases rolled in this morning. Imperial IPA 8.5% abv
$6.70/btl

Lagunitas - Freak Out: I'’m a big Zappa fan so I'’m happy to see one of my favorite breweries put out something special in his honor. The label is even better than their average ones. It'’s done as a mock up of the Zappa album of the same name, with "The Brewers of Lagunitas" situated at the upper left where "The Mothers of Invention" would be. It'’s got the "hyper-exposed" red and blue color scheme of the album and some great quotes scattered around the bottle, including the classic Zappa blurb about how a country "needs" a beer (although football teams and nuclear weapons help) to really be a country.

In typical Lagunitas fashion you'’d be hard pressed to shoehorn this into a style, but it'’s got a lovely amber color, thick creamy head, beautiful spicy/grassy hop aromas, and a deep, chewy caramel malt base. I guess you could call it an Imperial Pale Ale because it has oodles of hop aroma and flavor with very little accompanying bitterness. Whatever it is, it'’s good! 7.3% abv $3.45/22oz bottle

Cascade Lakes - Pine Marten Pale: Description coming soon... $1.50/12oz bottle or $8.50/6pk

Boss Bock (from the producers of Black Boss porter): This rolled in unexpectedly, so I don't know what to say. 6% abv $2.35/500ml bottle

In other news, Houblon Chouffe and Flying Dog Gonzo Porter have returned.

In Store Specials for the weekend:

The Trappist sale is still running, see the post halfway down the page for info...

Full Sail Amber (12oz) - Reg. $8.50/6pk On Sale For $5.95/6pk

Session Premium Lager (11oz) - Reg. $11.40/12pk On Sale For $9.95/12pk

Newcastle Brown Ale (12oz) - Reg. $8.50/6pk On Sale For $6.95/6pk

All Anderson Valley 12oz beers - Reg. $8.50/6pk On Sale For $6.95/6pk

Corona Closeout - 12pk of bottles for only $12.99 Individual bottles $1.20/ea

I think that's it for now. Have a great weekend!

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Portland, Oregon, Alesmith, Lagunitas, Cascade Lakes, Boss Brewing, Full Sail, Session, Newcastle, Anderson Valley

Sorted by Style or Sorted by Region?

We're in the process of planning the "set" for the new store, and the big question is this:

Do we sort the shelves beer by style (ie. Belgian Tripels, IPAs, Pale Ales, etc), or do we sort by state/country/region like it is now?

You're probably thinking, "Why is he asking us?" For those of you who've never been to the building which is soon to be our new home, I'll give you a little info on the layout. Down either side of the store are 36 cooler doors (18 on each side), most of which will be filled with beer. Instead of asking the employees to grab the beer from the back you can stare at the coolers, ask for advice, and grab the beer yourself. As you can see, the customer will be resposible for choosing their own beer, and we'd like to make it as easy as possible to find what you're looking for.

For those who are concerned that the new glass door coolers won't be as good for the brew as the big walk-in was; rest assured we're as commited to proper storage as ever. Only 3 of the cooler doors are exposed to sunlight and they'll hold nothing but cans. The high volume microbrews will have protective tinted film on the glass, the slower moving stuff will have tinted glass AND U.V. protection sleeves on the internal lights, and the top-shelf stuff will be in the very back with tinted glass and ALL the internal cooler lights removed.

Here's your chance to help us shape the future of Belmont Station. Make your voice heard and let us know which method of organization you'd prefer.

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Tags: Beer, Oregon, Portland, Belmont Station

New Arrivals for August 8, 2006

Some new things rolled in yesterday, and a couple things have returned after extended absence.

NEW ARRIVALS:


La Face Cache de la Pomme - Neige Ice Cider: Commercial Description: "A taste of Quebec's winter... and warmth! Our apple ice wine is produced in the depths of Quebec's winter, each bottle containing a blend of 5 kg of McIntosh and Spartan apples. This golden liquid develops a complex aroma of candied fruit and achieves the perfect balance between the tart and the mellow. Enjoy Neige alone as an aperitif, or with foie gras, cheese or dessert. Serve chilled."

This stuff is amazing. Mindblowingly good. An incredible apple aroma with notes of honey and caramel wafts up from the still, clear liquid. Take a sip and your mouth becomes awash with beautiful flavors of sweet apples. A very light tannic bite from the skins helps brighten the flavor even more. Some honey notes and a bit of "pumpkin spice" round out the flavor. It has a stupendously clean finish, with almost no discernibleble alcohol burn to distract you from the glorious juicy apple flavor. At $29.95 per bottle it's a wonderful special occasion beverage that everyone should try at least once.


Allagash - Musette: I first mentioned this back in May when I heard it was coming our way, and three months later it finally arrived. Musette is Allagash's interpretation of a Belgian-inspired Scotch Ale. It undergoes a carmelization process in the kettle, where the first runnings are condensed and "carmelized", imparting a unique and subtle caramel character to the beer. Following fermentation with a Belgian strain of yeast, a portion of it is aged in Oak Bourbon Barrels for an additional three months.

Marin Brewing - Star Brew: What happens when you take a smooth and creamy American style wheat beer and crank the recipe up to eleven? You get Star Brew, a "barleywine strength" (aka Wheatwine) beer with the creamy goodness of a wheat combined with the sweet, sherry-like flavors of a barleywine. It's rich and decadent, and with an abv. 9.5% it falls into the perilously drinkable category.

Marin Brewing - Stinson Beach Peach: Marin produces some of the best American fruit beers available, and this is no exception. It's crisp and juicy, with an aroma of fresh, ripe peaches. A light sourness comes into play in the finish to help counteract the residual sweetness which results in a pleasing "sweet and sour" taste sensation.


THEY'RE BACK:

Marin Brewing - Bluebeery Ale: This light refreshing ale has a wonderfully tart blueberry flavor that seems much more natural than most Americancan "fruit beers." Whether you're looking for an afternoon refresher, or tasty dessert drink, you could do far worse than this.

Wye Valley - Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout: Commercial Description: "Wholesome Stout, which was voted Supreme Champion at the CAMRA Winter Beer Festival 2002 is produced using only the finest ingredients available. They include pale malt with roasted barley which produces a rich dark colour. Flaked barley is used to create a full and creamy head. The stout is flavoured with Northdown hops which give a dry resinous taste." That pretty well sums it up; dark, rich, full-bodied stout with a creamy mouthfeel and long dry-roasted finish.

Dogfish Head - Fort: Billed as the world's strongest fruit beer and brewed with over a TON of Oregon and Washington berries, this stuff tastes like the most intense raspberry juice you'll ever lay lips to. The body is light and "spritzy" (but not thin) and opens up with tangy berry and lemon flavors, moving into a warm finish with suprisingly little burn for a brew this strong. The alcohol begins to make itself known as the beer warms, bringing a little bit of caramel maltiness with it. At 18% (or more) abv. this is not a beer to be taken lightly, but should definitely be taken.

Urthel - Hop-it: After years of American brewers making "Belgian style" beers it seems it's time for the Belgians to reciprocate. Hop-it opens with a bready, spicy aroma reminiscent of Delirium Tremens and forms a head so think you could eat it with a spoon. The fruity/spicy/bready flavors continue throughout, leading to a unique spicy bitter ending. Get some while you can, there's no telling how long it'll last this time.

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, La Face Cache de la Pomme, Allagash, Marin Brewing, Wye Valley Brewing, Dogfish Head Ales, Urthel/Van Steenberge

Super Trappist Sale

The prices on Trappist products have remained relatively stable for the entire time I've worked here, but they're finally going up this month. Some, like Orval, will jump by almost $1.00. I know it sucks, but to combat it (in the short term) we bought a bunch of assorted Trappist beer and we'll be pricing it as low as we can for at least a week or two. This is an in-store special only as we do not have sufficient quantities to ship. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Orval - Reg. $5.45 On Sale for $4.95
Westmalle Dubbel - Reg $5.70 On Sale for $4.95
Westmalle Tripel - Reg. $5.70 On Sale for $4.95
Rochefort 6 - Reg. $6.45 On Sale for $4.95
Rochefort 8 - Reg. $7.75 On Sale for $4.95
Rochefort 10 - Reg. $8.45 On Sale for $5.95

Also on Sale - Lindemanns Framboise [750ml bottle] Reg. $10.50 On Sale for $7.95

Stock up now, as soon as we (or the distributors) run out it's all over.

Prices good through at least August 12th, or whenever the supply runs out. Sorry, no rainchecks.

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Tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Trappist beer, Orval, Westmalle, Rochefort, Lindemans

Excellent Lambic Article at Saveur.com

Here's a very well written article on Lambic for those who are interested. It's nice to see that one of my favorite styles is finally starting to get the love it deserves. After reading this I think I'll have to have a Cantillon Organic Gueuze for dinner tonight...

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Tags: Beer, lambic, saveur.com

Results from Concordia's Imperial Fest

I have a list of the 13 mystery imperial beers in my pocket. Tune in at 2:30 to find out which beer was which, and assuming I can get a hold of Brittany, which beer received the most votes.


EDIT: 3:30pm Brittany called to inform me that the blind tasting and voting will continue until Sunday (or until the taps blow) so you'll have to remain in suspense until then. Sorry to get your hopes up. The sooner ya'll get down there and empty the kegs, the sooner I can release the results.

EDIT: Tue Aug. 1, 2006 5:00pm:

I'm still waiting to hear the results of the voting, but I'll post the list for anyone who can't stand the suspense:

#1 - Terminal Gravity - "San Diego Style" IPA
#2 - Buttle Creek - Revolution X Imperial IPA
#3 - Mt. Hood - Imperial Ice Axe
#4 - Rogue - Imperial IPA (I squared)
#5 - Hale's - Aftermath Imperial IPA
#6 - Walking Man - Homo Erectus
#7 - Lagunitas - Maximus (Cask)
#8 - Laurelwood - Deranger Red Imperial (aged for 1 year)
#9 - Pike Brewing - Imperial Brown
#10 - Walking Man - JayWalker Imperial Stout
#11 - Lucky Lab -Imperial Common
#12 - --- (this was supposed to be a beer from 21st Amendment, but it failed to arrive)
#13 - Lagunitas - B3K (5 year aged Strong Ale)

Check back soon for the results of the voting...


EDIT: Thurs. Aug. 3, 2006 6:30pm

I spoke to Brittany and got the results.

Third Place: Lagunitas - B3K
Second Place: Rogue - I2PA
and the winner, by ONE vote: Terminal Gravity - "San Diego Style" IPA

She also mentioned that 3 or 4 of the imperial IPAs are still flowing, and they've also got Brasserie d'Achouffe's La Gnomette and Urthel Hop-it on tap. If you love hops you should be at Concordia right now...

Her one complaint (if you could call it that) was that very few people actually voted. The place was packed and lots of people were buying flights of samples, but apparently a large number of you forgot to pick a favorite, so there weren't as many ballots as they would have liked. Please, remember to vote next time.

In case anyone cares, I couldn't narrow it down to one choice, but my favorite IPAs were #1 and #4.

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tags: Beer, Belmont Station, Portland, Oregon, Concodria Ale House Imperial Fest

Name This Beverage...

Don Younger gave me this "beer" a couple days ago after he realized the Welsh Drinking Team had left it behind. We tried to drink it last night and I'm almost positive they left it here on purpose. Whatever this is, it's not beer. It was one of the most vile, gag-inducing things to ever cross my lips. Imagine plastic soaked in Everclear with a lovely bouquet of varnish and other toxic aromas and you'll come close to the flavor. It also has the distinct odor of really cheap sake, which leads me to believe it's some sort of rice wine or liquor.

On to the bottle; the only English writing on it is "Boon Rawd Brewery" (the Thai brewery that produces Singha) stamped into the glass itself. Between that and the script it was easy to deduce that it's some sort of Thai beverage, but without any English writing (or even an abv. listing) I'm stumped. Oh yeah, it also has an old fashioned style of bottle cap with a little ring you pull to pop the top.

So, any ideas?

Brilliant Editorial On "Minor Postings" at OBF

Jay Brooks, creator of Brookston's Beer Bulletin, has published a scathing critique of the OLCC's "minor posting" rules and the neo-prohibitionist movement in general. Read all about it HERE



The neo-prohibitionists and OLCC policy makers aren't going to read this article, and if they do I doubt they'll give it a second thought, but it's good to preach to the choir now and then lest we become complacent in our fight for sane and logical alcohol legislation. Keep up the good fight Jay!

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Tags: Beer, Brookston Beer Bulletin, OLCC, neo-prohibitionists