Best. Delivery. Ever.

Holy Crap! Where to begin...Danish? Norwegian? English? So much good beer, so little liver capacity...

New Danish Beer:

Norrebro Bryghus - North Bridge Extreme: North Bridge Extreme is the brewers gift to Anders on the 1 year aniversary for the opening of Nørrebro Bryghus. It is inspired from the South-West Californian triple IPA's. It is brewed on English ale-malt, adjusted with different colormalt and spiced with enourmous amounts of hops. A dark golden extremely bitter ale with a distinct hop aroma.

Norrebro Bryghus - Skargaards Porter: An authentic Porter at 6% ABV. The name refers to this being the second Nordic guest brew, that is developed together with Lasse Ericsson from Nynäshamn Ångbryggeri, south of Stockholm. The beer is top fermented and added honey before the fermentation, which results in a soft and creamy coffee black porter with a soft aroma of chocolate, coffee, and nuts. The flavor is dry, light, and elegant with notes of liquorice and dried fruits. The bitterness is low and the harmonious aftertaste is dominated by liquorice.

Mikkeller - Stateside IPA: Mikkellers tribute to american micro-brew. This IPA is brewed with three kinds of american hops (chinook, cascade and amarillo), fermented with an american ale yeast strain.

Olfabrikken - 100 Gram IPA: This is the second in a range of Ølfabrikken special ales.
Starting with the rich and slightly sweet malt profile of a Belgian triple we have added a hop charge every five minutes for full duration of the boil - each hop charge 100 grams larger than the previous one. The result is an immensely bitter ale - a 100 IBU's of course. Ølfabrikken 100 gram IPA is, of course, unpasteurized, unfiltered and bottle conditioned like all of our beers.


New Norwegian Beer:

Nogne-O - Saison: Saison fra Nøgne Ø er flaskemodnet, dvs. upasteurisert og ufiltrert. Denne flasken bør derfor få anledning til å stå rolig slik at ølets naturlige sedimenter kan samles på bunnen. Saison kan nytes både med og uten disse sedimentene. Husk på dette når du heller ølet opp i glasset. Server ølet ved 8 grader C, og la det få bygge en god skumtopp i glasset. Vi anbefaler Saison til sjømat og oster. Translation? It's good.

Nogne-O - Batch #100 Barleywine: A celebration of Nøgne Ø achieving batch #100. We do this by brewing a particularly uncompromising double IPA. With Columbus hops and 80 IBU we can guarantee that this is a beer for connoisseurs!

Nogne-O - IPA: 17,5 degrees P, 60 IBU, 7,5 vol% alk. : Semi-dark, malty and very bitter ale. Copious amounts of Cascade hops gives a long finish of grapefruit and spices. This beer is so robust, it should be enjoyed by itself, but it cam be recommended with mature cheese or with a cigar. Recommended serving temperature 8 degrees Celsius.

Nogne - O - Dark Horizon 1st Edition: Dark Horizon is a ’hybrid’ - an ale that pairs the roasted bitterness of coffee with a wine-like complexity. Dark Horizon is indeed a global brew - with inspiration from the USA, malt from England, bottles from Germany, the name from Japan, sugars from Mauritius, hops from the Pacific Rim, yeast from Canada, coffee from Columbia, and, of course, our brewing skills here in Norway. Do yourself a favour and share this bottle with those you deem worthy. (At 16.5% abv and just over $20 a bottle it's probably best to share...)

Haandbryggeriet - Norse Porter: This beer is a robust porter with lots of dark malts of various kinds with a smooth taste and a nice fruitiness from the hops and a dryish aftertaste that lingers. 34 IBU's


New Belgian Beer:

De Ranke - Pere Noel: A fantastic Christmas beer, but one that defies the universal custom of a stronger, spicier beer for the holiday season. At 7% alcohol by volume, this one is relatively lighter in alcohol than the Guldenberg, and does not pack the hop punch of the XX. It combines some of the best elements of those other two beers – with a fine balance of malt and hops, complex character, a refreshing dryness, and a gorgeous cellar aroma – but is distinguished by its festive copper color. The 1999 Père Noël was a bit of a departure, with a very appealing yeasty tartness that was not readily discernible in earlier years.

Chimay Gift Packs: These great gift packs contains three bottles (1 each of the red, white, and blue label) as well as a Chimay chalice to enjoy them from.


New English Beer:

Ridgeway - Warm Welcome Nut Browned Ale: Yeeow! Especially for the holidays, a brown ale with real attitude! The malts used to make Warm Welcome are roasted to give a hearty amber-brown color and a warm, rounded nutty taste. This fine ale is dedicated to all you curious brew-lovers out there who ever had serious questions about Santa's supposed arrival by way of the chimney. (How does he do that, anyway?)

Ridgeway - Bad Elf: Olde England meets the New World in this strong, warming golden ale, brewed by Peter Scholey. Master brewer for the late and much-lamented Brakspear Brewery of Henley-on-Thames, England, Peter started his own brewing operations in 2003. Bad Elf is a hop-lover’s dream, balancing a generous amount of famous English malt with an astounding 45 ounces of fresh hops – including American Cascade – per barrel.

Ridgeway - Very Bad Elf: "Is it just my imagination," queried old Santa, surveying the scene, "or is my Elf only getting worse and worse every year? What's next? Seriously Bad Elf, I'll wager. Mark my words." This Very Bad Elf is one fine ale - rich, hardy, and flavorful, brewed to an original 1795 Thames Valley recipe, with a very special pale amber malt that is rarely used nowadays, and balanced by a modest addition of English Fuggle aroma hops. 'Ere's to your elf!

Ridgeway - Seriously Bad Elf: "A Rather Serious English Double Ale"

Ridgeway - Santa's Butt Porter: his special holiday porter is made for winter - rich and warming, the way they like it at the North Pole. It was inspired by this famous line from a well-loved children's storybook:

"And Santa sat on his great butt, enjoying a hardy brew..."

In case you find that amusing, the brewer hastens to point out that in England, "butt" refers to a certain sized barrel, in fact, holding 108 Imperial gallons. Back in the day it was quite a normal thing for a brewery to put its beer up in a large butt for storage. Still snickering, eh? Get your mind out of the gutter, or Santa will be skipping your house entirely this year.

Ridgeway - Lump of Coal Stout: Looking forward to a depressing holiday? Here is liquid consolation. This 8% bittersweet chocolate stout is the best you could hope for in these dark times. Come to think of it, considering how bad you’ve been this year, this little coal-black gem is more than you deserve for Christmas.


New German Beer:

Mahr's - Jubelfestbier: I haven't had this one since last year, and other than being classified as a Dunkel by ratebeer I can't find much of a commercial description. Here's a quote from Degarth, one of the people who's ratings I always find pleasure in reading: "Huge concentration of coffee, chocolate and roasty malts. Sort of a german porter in aroma, but with that fresh scrubbed German aroma you get in a lot of bocks and dunkels, offset by the dry fruti notes of cooked prune and raisin. Dark brown with a fluffy tan head that is mostly lasting. Cocoa, coffee, chcolate...all muted followed by toasty grains and a clean water/smoke (think hooka) finish. Very damn good. It just hits me right. I could drink a lot of this."

That's it. Now the hardest thing I'm going to do all day is decide which one to drink first...

BridgePort Announces Contest Winners

BridgePort Brewery's 2007 Hop Harvest Home Brew Challenge Winners


First Place: Tom Litwin

Prize: Brewing supplies for a year – up to 200 lbs of grain and 5 lbs of hops, a BridgePort Brewpub + bakery gift card, a bottle opener, coasters and a t-shirt.

Second Place: Ken Ammerman

Prize: Brewing supplies for a year – up to 100 lbs of grain and 2.5 lbs of hops, a BridgePort Brewpub + bakery gift card, a bottle opener, coasters and a t-shirt.

Third Place: The Bad Dads Brewery (Steve Munch, Ray Berardinelli, Dean Duncan, and Steve Carter)

Prize: Brewing supplies for a year – up to 50 lbs of grain and 1.25 lbs of hops, a BridgePort Brewpub + bakery gift card, a bottle opener, coasters and a t-shirt.

Honorable Mentions: Brett Thomas, Seth Vore


About BridgePort Brewery's 2007 Hop Harvest Home Brew Challenge

To celebrate Hop Harvest and encourage home brewers to embrace the season, BridgePort Brewery hosted its first hop harvest home brew competition. Home brewers were invited to compete for the 2007 Hop Harvest Champion Brewer title by brewing up their tastiest Fresh Hop ale or lager brew.

New Arrivals For Friday Oct. 19, 2007

Holy mother of beer! The seasonal flood intensified today and we're still trying to dig out from under it all. A few of these aren't actually "new beers", but they've been absent from the Portland market long enough that they might as well be. Many of these will just have commercial descriptions, but if I find anything exemplary over the weekend I'll try to capture the flavors in a more in-depth post later. So, without further ado, I present today's tasty additions:

Bavik Premium Pilsner: A light flavored beer, smooth and malty. Clean finish, with a light malt aftertaste. Pretty much a classic pilsner, from a consistently good brewery; a great alternative to Stella.

Wittekerke: This witbier veers from the standard set by Hoegaarden by having just a touch of tartness to balance out the coriander/citrus spice profile. Fall seems like an odd time of year to bring out a wit beer, but apparently the distributors know what they're doing.

Sam Smith's Winter Welcome: The commerical description leaves much to be desired, so here's a couple random quotes from ratebeer.com: Creamy white good mostly lasting head. Dark orange color. Heavy malty and moderate hoppy aroma. Powerful bitter flavor. Long nice moderate bitter finish. Creamy palate. Sounds like a winter warmer to me...

Flying Dog Double Dog: Double Dog Double Pale Ale marks Flying Dog's 10th Anniversary and the launch of the Wild Dog series. A deluxe collection of limited release beers from our brewmasters, the series will showcase some of the boldest styles from around the world.

At 10.5% Alc By Vol and 85 IBUs, Double Dog Double Pale Ale is the stuff legends are made of.

Lagunitas Imperial Red: Lagunitas says: This Special Ale is, in reality, a reconstructed exhumation of the very first ale that we ever brewed way, way back, in 1993. Brewed with a big head, a muscular malty thorax, a silky texture & all strung together with a hoppy sweet nerve sack... yum. O.G. 1.072 84.2 IBU

Golden Valley Tannenbomb: Tannenbomb is one of my personal favorite beers, regardless of the season. Dark reddish amber and aggressively hopped, it will appeal to those who like Arrogant Bastard, Dick's Danger Ale, or any of the new "Cascadian Dark Ales" that have started popping up.

Midnight Sun Obliteration Imperial IPA: This one's brand new, so I can't find any info on it. All you need to know is that it's got several varieties of hops and 8+% abv, so it should soothe the nerves while simultaneously wrecking your taste buds...

Sierra Nevada Celebration: Ahhh, Celebration. This is probably THE most anticipated beer of the season, with the possible exception of Alaskan Smoked Porter. This garnet-red beauty of an IPA is a pleasure to look at, and even better to sip. It holds up well for several months (some would say years) so don't be afraid to buy an extra case or two and stash them in the basement until spring.

Great Divide Fresh Hop: They say: Brewing with fresh hops is a big endeavor, requiring four to five times the hop volume compared to using pelletized hops. Although the process is complex, it brings impressive results: Fresh Hop is an American-style pale ale with moderate hop bitterness marked by a unique and intensely grassy hop flavor and aroma. Fresh Hop is a superbly refreshing, medium bodied, light-copper colored pale ale weighing in at 55 IBUs and 6.1% ABV. I say: Fresh Hop is consistently delicious, but the shipping costs make this the most expensive of the fresh hop brews available, so if the price tag scares you off just wait until we put it on tap and come in for a pint.

HeBrew Jewbelation 11: These guys crack me up, and the beer lives up to the schtick. Brewed with 11 malts, 11 hops, and soaring to 11% alcohol, Jewbelation Eleven is the most extreme Chanukah beer ever created.

Sam Adams Winter Lager: Winter Lager is a weizenbock, a dark bock brewed with generous quantities of malted wheat, a style that is usually enjoyed as a warming drink from late fall through to spring.

Van Steenberge Gift Packs: The first of the gift boxes arrived today. This is one of the only packages that doesn't include a glass, but it does feature a couple of beers which aren't otherwise available in Oregon: Bornem Dubbel, Bornem Tripel Bruegel Amber, and Augustijn Ale. Gulden Draak and Piraat round out the 6pk and provide some hops to balance the other, maltier brews in the collection. The beautiful part about this, and most gift packs, is that the package costs less than buying all the individual beers would. Save money by drinking beer!

New Arrivals For Wednesday Oct. 17, 2007

A rare Wednesday delivery brings us a few new things, including a pumpkin beer for our tasting this evening.

Butte Creek Fresh Hops IPA: Another brand new, untasted arrival. We'll let them describe it thusly: "We celebrate the hop harvest by brewing with freshly picked wet hops. This IPA has grassy, floral & citrus notes from the use of freshly harvested, unprocessed hops." This one's pretty limited, so if you need a couple bottles to round out your collection of fresh hop beers you should come in soon.


Butte Creek Revolution XI: This one's brand new, and I won't be able to try it until later, so here's what the folks at B.C. have to say: "Revolution XI, the hop monster that celebrates our 11th Anniversary, is a fat & chewy Imperial IPA that is over the top on hop flavor and aroma. The piney hop character is derived from a blend of five different hop varities: New Zealand Hallertau, Magnum, Chinook, Amarillo, and Simcoe." Um, fat and chewy aren't descriptors I'd generally think of when describing a beer, but they make it sound like a good thing. We'll see if it lives up to the bar set by Revolution X.


Bison Gingerbread Ale: Bison puts out not one, but two beers during the colder months of the year. Gingerbread is a well-balanced porter accented with ginger and spices to give it a flavor reminiscent of fresh ginger snaps. It's tasty on it's own, and delicious when poured over vanilla ice cream. Seriously, try it.


Bison Winter Warmer (vintage 2006): Bison's second "gray weather" beer is simply called Winter Warmer, and at 9% abv it certainly makes you feel toasty. Loosely brewed to the style of an abbey dubbel, but tweaked a bit with organic raisins to increase the dark fruit flavors and boost the fermentables without resorting to dumping sugar in the brew.


Lakefront Pumpkin Lager: Commercial Description: "Pumpkin Lager is brewed with pumpkins in the mash, spices added during the boil, and lightly hopped. The rich specialty grains and lager fermentation combine to produce the taste and the texture of pumpkin pie." Stop in right now and try it for free!


Lakefront Cherry Lager: Commercial description: "An American style fruit beer made with Wisconsin's Door County cooking cherries and lager yeast. The tartness of the cherry is balanced witht the sweetness from the 2-row barley and the flavoring of Mt. Hood hops." Very little of this brew made its way to Oregon, so be sure to grab some on your next visit.


Lakefront Variety 8 packs: Each box is a mystery, and this is the only way you can try some of their esoteric offerings like Riverwest Stienbier, a unique beer based on an old technique that involves throwing hot stones into the kettle to heat the beer and caramelize the sugars.

That's Firkin Hoppy!

Please join us on Wednesday, October 10, as we celebrate the harvest season by tapping a firkin (gravity-fed cask) of BridgePort's delicious Hop harvest Ale. One of the brewers will be on hand to lead the tapping and answer any questions you may have about brewing with fresh hops.

Who: You, me, and all the folks who love cask beer
What: A very special keg of BridgePort Harvest on cask!
When: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 @ 5pm
Where: The BierCafe at Belmont Station
Why: Did I mention the cask???

This cask holds only holds five gallons (roughly 40 pints) so be sure to arrive early or you may miss out!

New Arrivals For Tuesday Oct. 2, 2007

All kinds of stuff rolled in today; fresh hop brews, winter warmers, even an organic farmhouse ale. We're buried up to our eyeballs in fresh stacks of beer, so I'll save the descriptions for later.

• BridgePort Hop Harvest - Fresh Hop Imperial IPA
• Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale - Fresh Hop IPA
• Deschutes Jubelale - Winter Warmer
• BridgePort Ebenezer - Winter Warmer
• Alaskan Winter - Pale Ale brewed w/ spruce tips
• Pyramid Snow Cap - Winter Warmer
• Rogue Newport 125th Anniversary - ?
• Wolaver's Organic Farmhouse - Saison
• Henry Weinhard's Belgian Wheat - Belgian-style witbier

One last minute note: the Horse Brass is holding a Jubelale release party tonight, so if you're in the neighborhood be sure to pop in there and have a pint. If you need more motivation they also have a bit of the vintage Adam left from the Michael Jackson toast on Sunday. Go. Drink.