Quick Note: Abyss Release Date

I just received word from my Deschutes rep that the "Official Release" date for the new batch of The Abyss will be January 14, 2008, and not in December as previously reported. Not surprisingly, I've been told to expect a price increase as well. No word yet on how much of an increase, but I wouldn't be shocked to see it retailing for closer to $10 per bottle this year. Even at that price it's an amazing value for one of the world's best Imperial Stouts.

In other Deschutes news, the next beer in the Bond St. Series will be the new Green Lakes Organic Amber. Deschutes Founder Gary Fish describes it as "a classic amber ale using caramel and Munich malts for a nice color and six different varieties of hops. The reddish colored brew has a nicely balanced taste with a distinctive but restrained hop profile that includes Salmon-Safe certified Sterling hops."

More on Green Lakes on John Foyston's excellent blog.

In even more exciting news, keep your eyes peeled for Dissident, a Flemish Sour Red/Brown ale, scheduled to be released at some point after The Abyss. People will be freaking out over The Abyss, but I have a feeling Dissident is going to be the one to stock up on. I may be wrong, but I have a strong feeling that the crew in Bend is going to blow people's minds (and palates) with this one.

EDIT: I just received "real" pricing info from the distributor. Pricing is always somewhat variable once it hits the distributors in different states, but based on what I was quoted you can expect the beer to retail for $10-12 per bottle.

Dangerous Toys

Dangerously fun, anyway...

I don't recall who pointed this auction out to me, but this is quite possibly the perfect marriage of technology and beer. The Gamerator plays over 180 retro arcade games while dispensing your favorite draught beer from the built in tap handle.

It's probably best that I don't have room for one of these, it's hard enough to find the motivation to leave the house in the winter, and this thing would turn me into a total hermit. Or a drunken (video game) master. Hmm, on second thought, maybe I DO need one!

New Art and Live Music Friday 9.14

Friday the 14th @ 8PM in the BierCafe.

The Belmont Station BierCafe will be hosting a reception party for my newest artwork. Everyone is welcome to come and check out the art and maybe even buy something.

In addition we are expecting to have a keg of the very hard to find Walking Man Jaywalker Russian Imperial Stout!









We'll also be featuring live music from Belmont Station's own Scott Wray:

Deschutes Abyss v2.0

It's been almost a year since the first release of Deschutes' amazing imperial stout, and we still get calls almost daily asking if we have any left. Sadly, you'd be hard pressed to find a bottle anywhere other than someone's cellar, but good news is on the horizon.

A little birdie with good connections informed me that the new batch of Abyss will be ready in time for a December '07 release, meaning you've got less than 4 months of waiting before you can lay your anxious little paws on them!

I'm going to make a prediction right now; every beer geek in Oregon (and many from outside the region) will have this baby on their holiday wish list, so be sure to snatch it up quickly or you'll be left out in the cold.

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Tags: Beer, Deschutes, Abyss

Lemon Your Widmer?

Alright, I'm going to put aside whatever feelings I may have about extraneous fruit slices garnishing my beer because this is pretty darn cool.




You can check out more videos, or submit your own, at the Lemon Your Widmer homepage.

Beer List For FredFest 2007

You may recall my previous post about FredFest 2007, and I promised an update when I knew which beers were pouring, so without further ado I present the initial list of beers scheduled to make an appearance during the fest.


1- BridgePort Brewing - Cask Old Knucklehead
2- Deschutes - Coffee infused 20K Imperial Bourbon Porter
3- Full Sail - TBA
4- Hair Of The Dog - Cask Fred
5- Laurelwood - TBA
6- Lucky Lab - Russian Imperial Stout
7- New Old Lompoc - Oak aged LSD
8- Max's Fanno Creek - Belgian Dubbel
9- Pelican Brewing - Gran Cru
10- Racoon Lodge - Sour Wild Blackberry aged in oak
11- Rock Bottom - Ned Flanders Red. ( the original!)
12- Rogue - Dad's Little Helper Malt liquor
13- Roots Organic - Pinot-barrel aged Epic
14- Widmer - Collaborator Continuum Brown

Whoa. Seriously, if that list doesn't get you excited enough to drop $20 I don't know what would. Remember, all the proceeds from the event go to help longtime craft-beer supporter Merle Gilmore, who has been battling leukemia and faces astronomical medical and prescription bills. Gilmore has been an inexhaustible volunteer at beer fests and often assisted Hair of the Dog owner Alan Sprints in bottling and other duties around the brewery.

Cost for the event is $20 in advance or $25 at the door and includes a souvenir glass. To get on the list for advance-purchase tickets, e-mail fredfest@comcast.net.

Go. Buy tickets. Now.

Special Thanks to John Foyston for the great picture of Fred!

EDIT Tuesday, May 8, 2007: Just Announced! Laurelwood is featuring Green Elephant Organic IPA (2006, I believe) and Full Sail will be pouring the 2006 GABF silver-medal winning Black Gold Imperial Stout.

Beer In A Box?

Everyone's heard of wine in a box, but beer? After spending a couple years here quoting people outrageous sums to ship heavy (yet fragile) glass bottles around the country, I began thinking about alternate approaches to packaging for beer. The thought of plastic bottles crossed my mind, but it's been done and no one seems to like it except for maybe the recycling guys at sporting events. The thought of beer in a box crossed my mind several times, but the issue of carbonation and potentially explosive bags of beer always stumped me.

Today I fire up my machine and begin scanning various news outlets and beer geek sites to get a read on what's happening in the world and I come across this: Beer In A Box.

They've solved the carbonation issue in a method so simple (high tech, but simple) I probably never would have thought of it; package the beer flat and recarbonate at the point of dispense. Brilliant. Think of the cost savings, especially on beers that have to be shipped from over-seas.

I'm sure the technology required to package the beer in a bag is quite expensive and would put the process out of reach for smaller breweries, but I think if this technique were widely adopted it would definitely help curb the rising costs of transporting kegs which often cost more to ship than they do to produce.



Part of me is bummed that they beat me to it, but I'm glad to see someone thinking outside the box (sorry, I couldn't resist) in regards to packaging and ways of reducing costs that don't involve skimping on the ingredients. Of course, the true test of this system is how the beer tastes and feels. If the "recarbonation process" leads to a harsh, prickly mouthfeel similar to the feel of a fountain drink then I think I'd pass, but if they can reintegrate the CO2 in a way that "feels" natural I'd be all over it.

At this point it appears as though only one brewery is using the technology, but I'm curious to see if this process takes off.

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A Conspiracy is Brewing in the Northwest

Release Parties Scheduled in Portland, OR

Portland, Oregon • 14 March 2007 — The Pelican Pub & Brewery (Pacific City, OR) and Midnight Sun Brewing (Anchorage, AK) are inviting beer fans to join them in their Conspiracy:

Conspiracy is a collaboration brew between Midnight Sun Brewing and Pelican Pub & Brewery. During a trip to Alaska for the Great Alaskan Beer & Barley Wine Fest, Ben Love of Pelican conspired with Gabe Fletcher and Ben Johnson of Midnight Sun to brew a Belgian-Style Black Beer. Conspiracy features a rich, spicy aroma with hints of dark fruit, raisin, roast and caramel. A toasted and slightly roasty flavor lead into caramel and a super smooth finish. Debittered black malt was used to get the jet-black color and tan head without adding significant roast flavor. The brewers also added Belgian candi sugar and Mexican Piloncillo sugar (a maple-sugar-like brown sugar) to increase fermentability and depth of flavor. Conspiracy comes in at 8.5 percent ABV and 25 IBUs.

"We had a great time brewing Conspiracy in Alaska, and I’m really looking forward to hosting Gabe here in Oregon,” said brewer Ben Love.

A release party is scheduled for Thursday, April 5 at 7 p.m. at the Horse Brass Pub, 4534 SE Belmont St. Gabe Fletcher (Head brewer at Midnight Sun) is making the trip to Portland for the release party and is also bringing along kegs of Midnight Sun's Envy Imperial Pils (9% ABV), Gluttony Triple IPA (11%) and FH Double IPA (9%). This will be a one-time-only chance to try these beers on draft outside of Alaska. All the beers will be tapped at 7pm. Conspiracy and Envy will be available at $3.50/glass & FH will cost $5/pint.

There will also be a bottle release event on Friday, April 6 from 5-7 p.m. in the new café at Belmont Station. Gabe Fletcher & Ben Love will be there to pour and talk about Conspiracy. Guests will be able to purchase a 4oz taster or a bottle to enjoy there or take home.

Bottled Conspiracy will be available in limited edition 22oz bottles. The bottles will be available at selected bottle shops in Oregon and Alaska.

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Fermented Clothing?!?

The geek in me is grinning from ear to ear after reading this:

Bugs Make Dress Smell Like Old Wine

Here's a brief excerpt:

Australian researchers have combined art and science to make dresses from fermented fabric, using bacteria to 'grow' slimy dresses from wine and beer.

"We're looking at [the dresses] to provoke some discussion about future fashions, about the possibility of other material we can use instead of our normal cottons and silks," says Gary Cass, who works on the Micro'be' project at the University of Western Australia.

Cass is a laboratory technician at the university who, among other things, writes science fiction.

He says he was inspired to grow the dresses when he was working in a vineyard many years ago.

He noticed that when oxygen got into the vats and turned the wine into vinegar, a slimy, rubbery layer grew on top.

This layer was cellulose, produced by acetobacter bacteria as a waste product when they convert wine into vinegar.

To ferment fabrics, Cass and his colleagues deliberately let vats of wine go off to produce cellulose.

And to get the shape of a dress, they lifted the layers of slimy cellulose off and laid them over a deflatable doll.

After each dress was complete, they deflated the doll and removed it, leaving the dress intact.

"It's the bacteria that are weaving all these fibres together," says Cass. "We're not using any machines, sewing machines and so forth."

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Just think, if they can figure out how to polymerize the fibers to increase their strength and rigidity they could theoretically create a bottle made of cellulose and package the beer inside of itself. Plus, since it would be made from cellulose (aka plant fiber) it would be biodegradable. How cool is that?

Double Mountain Opens This Weekend

Deep in the Gorge, in the shadow of the mighty crew of 47, a tiny new brewery has been growing (fermenting?) quietly for close to a year, and they're finally ready to open the taps. The local beer geeks have been salivating at the thought of all the new breweries (at least 4) scheduled to open this year, and it seems as though Double Mountain is going to be the first one to see the light. Like the first big blockbuster of the season, all eyes are focused on them. Will the beer be great? Will the place be comfortable? Will it give me another reason to drive to Hood River?

According to Charlie Devereux, you can find out this weekend:

Hi everyone,

Just want to give you the official heads up that Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom is indeed opening this weekend! Sorry for the late notice -- we had to keep things on the down low in advance of final inspections and whatnot. But now we’re in the clear and ready to roll.

Here are the basics: we’ll be open this weekend from 12-10pm on Saturday and 12-9pm on Sunday, then catch our breath for a few days. Our regular hours will start as Thursday and Friday 4-10pm, Sat 12-10pm and Sun 12-9pm for a few weeks, at which point we’ll add a weekday evening or two. Our location is 8 Fourth Street, between Cascade and Columbia in downtown HR and about a block-and-a-half from Full Sail. The pub is cozy at 40 seats, and will feature sandwiches, salads, sausages and some good pizza. Local musicians Scott Sparks and Brian McGeeney will be playing at 7pm on Saturday, so be forewarned it might be really packed that night. Phone number is 541-387-0042 in case you need more info.

As for beers…we’ll have our very first two batches on tap. The first is a brown ale featuring Gambrinus organic pils malt and specialties from Simpson and Crisp. The second effort, codenamed “India Red Ale” (aka “The I.R.A.”) combines a ruby red color with a generous charge of whole flower Simcoe and Brewers’ Gold in the hopback. Both ales were fermented with a versatile ale strain from Belgium supplied by our friends up the valley at Wyeast Labs, and will be served unfiltered.

Basically we're looking to stretch the norm a bit and make some beers that true craft beer fanatics, i.e. you guys, will hopefully find interesting and unique. Hope you enjoy our 'work-in-progress'.

There’s a lot more to share but I’ve already babbled long enough...I'm really looking forward to meeting some of you soon, either at our place or at a local Portland establishment in the very near future.

Thanks,

Charlie Devereux

Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom

www.doublemountainbrewery.com

Organic malts? Unfiltered, Belgian-style ales? I'm liking the sounds of that. We'll have to send one of our crack reporters out there this weekend to see what's happening.

The Silence of the Blog

I apologize for the lack of posts recently but it has been incredibly busy (and chaotic) in my little corner of the beer world.

We've gotten a few new beers this week as well as a handful of returning favorites:

Local:
Alameda - Beaumont Bock

U.S. Micros:
Midnight Sun - Arctic Devil Barleywine
Midnight Sun - Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter
Hale's Ales - Nut Brown Ale
Bayern - Killarnny Red Irish Lager
Avery - Maharaja Imperial IPA
Boulder - Mojo Risin Imperial IPA
Marin - Tripel Dipsea (Belgian-style tripel)
Dogfish Head Pangaea (funky hybrid) and Fort (18%abv raspberry beer)

Imports:
St. Louis Framboise
Delirium Tremens returns after a long absence

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New Arrivals For The Week

There's been a huge flood of new beer arriving in town this week. In addition to the Rogue 10K and Pelican beers we've gotten a dozen new products and a handul of things that haven't been seen around here for years.

This post would be gargantuan if I wrote descriptions of everything here, so I'll leave you with a brief rundown of things and suggest calling us or checking Ratebeer.com if you have questions.

From Bison Brewing in California:

Reunion - A Beer For Hope

From Butte Creek Brewing in California:

Trainwreck Organic Barleywine

From Sea Dog brewing in Maine:

Hazelnut Porter

Raspberry Wheat

Wild Bluebeery Wheat

Old East India IPA

From Shipyard brewing (also in Maine):

Single Hop Fuggles IPA

Export Ale

Old Thumper

From Morland's Brewing in England:

Old Speckled Hen

Hen's Tooth Strong Ale

Tanner's Jack Bitter

From Eisenbahn Brewing in Brazil:

South American Pale Ale -actually a Belgian-style pale

Smoked Lager

Dark Lager (Schwarzbier)

Brazilian Golden Ale

Unfiltered Wheat Doppelbock

LUST (a Belgian strong ale which has undergone methode champanoise)


It's going to be a busy weekend for my liver...

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Coming Soon: Rogue Ten Thousand Brew Ale

From the Rogue Nation Wire Service:

On May 18, 1989 John maier brewed the 1st batch of Rogue Ales. On November 14th, he brewed the 10,000th batch at the Rogue Ales Brewery. Rogue began as a brew pub in Ashland, OR in 1988. The first brewery was in the pub’s basement and then relocated to a garage on the Yaquina Bayfront in Newport. And through it all was Rogue Brewmaster John “More Hops” Maier. Over 18 years he has created and brewed 40+ different ales including: American Amber, Brutal Bitter, Chipotle Ale, Chocolate Stout, Dad’s Little Helper, Dead Guy Ale, Half-e-Weizen, HazelNut Brown Nectar, Festivale, Honey Cream Ale, Imperial India Pale Ale, Imperial Stout, Juniper Pale Ale, Kells Irish Lager, Mocha Porter, Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale, Morimoto Imperial Pilsner, Morimoto Soba Ale, Old Crustacean Barleywine, Oregon Golden Ale, Saint Rogue Red, Santa’s Private Reserve, Shakespeare Stout, Smoke Ale, Uberfest Pilsner, Younger’s Special Bitter, Oyster Cloyster Stout, Mogul Madness, Love & Hoppiness, Monk Madness, Glen, SchwartzBier, Skull Splitter, Integrity IPA, Imperial Porter, Artisan Lager, Charlie, Coho Harvest Ale, Cran-NCherry, Kriek, McRogue Scotch Ale, Rogue-N-Berry, Rose Festival Ale, Squak Valley IPA, Waterfront Lager, and many more.

Born in Riverside, CA in 1955, John was employed by Hughes Aircraft Co. as a Senior Electronic Technician where he worked on the F-14 Tomcat Radar System. In the Fall of 1986, John attended the Siebel Institute of Technology and graduated from their 50th course in Brewing Technology. That same year he brewed a Barleywine that won the American Homebrewer Association’s Homebrewer of the Year Award. He worked as Assistant Brewmaster at the Alaskan Brewery before coming to Rogue.

So what style is the special Brew 10,000? “It’s not any style,”said John, “but it’ll be good.” It’s made with 7 ingredients: Vienna, French Special Aroma, and Maris Otter Pale Ale Malts; Yakima Summit and German Saphir Hops, Free Range Coastal Waters and Top Fermenting Pacman Yeast. No chemicals, preservatives, or additives were added. It has a big earthy malt flavor balanced by lingering hoppiness, with hints of citrus--22 Plato, 78 AA, 60 IBU, 30 Lovibond. The brew will be packaged in 750 ml Black ceramic bottles with swingtop closures. 10,000 serigraphed bottles will be produced and available at select retailers across the country.

When asked if he has considered retirement after 18 years and 10,000 brews John said, “This is what I was born to do. I’m looking forward to 10,000 more.”

With any luck this will arrive tomorrow. I'll update this post with pricing info as it becomes available.

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I'm Back, and Bearing Tidings of Great Beer!

It's been a long, lonely three weeks since I had my cat5 umbilical cord severed in the move, but they've finally plugged me back in to the intrawebs so I can resume rambling about beer and other stuff in a semi-coherent fashion.

I want to start things off on a good note so I'm going to put aside my tirade on the OLCC's new ruling regarding the OBF and the hypocrisy of not "punishing" the big wine events in the same manner, but rest assured I've got plenty to say about that decision.

New Arrivals:

Sierra Nevada - Big Foot 2007: Year after year, this is one of the most consistently delicious and reasonably priced barleywines on the market. If you like your barleywines big, hoppy, and aggressively flavored you NEED to buy a case of this before it disappears. Yes, a whole case. If you don't I can almost guarantee you'll run out and suffer withdrawal symptoms sometime in March or April.

Sierra Nevada - IPA: This limited release spring seasonal is supposed to fill the gap between Big Foot and Summerfest, but they seem to have gotten ahead of themselves and released them both at the same time. Oh well, no complaints here. This 6.9% English-style IPA has lots of nice earthy hop flavor and a wonderful malt backbone that helps separate it from the current batch of west coast IPAs that seem to rely entirely on the "Big C" hops. Quite tasty, and quite limited, so grab a 6 pack while it lasts.

Rogue - Dry-Hopped St. Rogue Red: Not to be confused with Salmon Nation, Santa's Private Reserve, or any of the myriad other red ales from Rogue, this is in fact a NEW beer from the venerable Newport crew. This tasty little concoction can be summed up in only a few words: Clean and neat, with a well-defined hop character. Unfortunately I haven't seen any of the 22oz bottles of this yet (and the small bottles don't list the ingredients), but if I had to guess I'd say it was brewed with a singular hop, probably Crystal. That's my amateur speculation of course, but the hop flavors remind me of Fish Tale IPA and Rogue Brutal Bitter, both of which are 100% crystal-hopped beers.

Coming Soon:

The Danish/Norwegian invasion has begun. Denmark and Norway are rapidly making a name for themselves in the brewing world with cutting edge nano- and microbrewers popping up across the country. The first of the new breed to be imported are Nøgne Ø and Ølfabrikken.

I haven't even had a chance to see the bottles, much less try them, but given the reviews I must say I'm excited. With any luck they'll bring me samples today so I can have a write-up prepared for everyone when the cases arrive tomorrow. Since these are new, relatively-unknown beers, the first batch will probably be limited to a couple case of each variety, so don't delay...

Nøgne Ø - Imperial Brown Ale: description coming soon...

Nøgne Ø - Porter: description coming soon...

Nøgne Ø - Imperial Stout: description coming soon...

Nøgne Ø - Pale Ale: description coming soon...

Nøgne Ø - Winter Ale: description coming soon...

Ølfabrikken - Porter: OK, I just cracked a bottle (kindly delivered by the distributor) and all I can say is, "Wow!" They've taken the classic porter formula and added a nice dose of roasty, coffee flavors (presumably from the malt and not actual coffee) and one heck of a lingering aftertaste. This stuff pours dark, thick, and opaque with a tight creamy head that lingers for quite some time. It should be priced in the $5-6 range, which I'd gladly pay for something like this. It's not quite Speedway Stout or Peche Mortel, but it's awfully close and it costs a lot less. I can guarantee this brew will go fast, so we may have to impose a 4 bottle per person limit until we find out how much is available.

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Here's a few beers that you might be interested in trying (These should all be available at Belmont Station.) :

Oregon Trail Bourbon Porter--The old timey bourbon bottle label does this warming big beer justice. This is the second year Corvallis' Oregon Trail has produced this annual brew. Dark brown with a prevalent flavor of bourbon up front, other subtle notes come forth after the beer settles in your pallet. Creamy vanilla to chocolate is evident in this 9.1% beaut. This beer should age well as last year's did.

New Belgium Springboard Ale--Before trying this beer, I must admit I was a tad skeptical of it for a few reasons. You see, I am not the biggest fan of New Belgium beers for the most part. Fat Tire never really did it for me (though I must admit to being quite fond of their 1554 Dark Ale). This coupled with the fact that I had never experienced a beer with Goji berries, wormwood or other Chinese herbs. Now this isn't the same (arromatic) wormwood used to make absynthe, that would be toxic lunacy. Infact, this beer turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. As the bottle warmed up some, the bitterness induced by the ingredience became more noticable and the complexity of the beer became more apparent. The color was very pale and there were lager-like flavors in this crispy concoction. It was slightly citrusy and those who like adding lemons or oranges to their hefeweizens might consider doing the same with this one.

Marin Mt. Tam Pale Ale--The commercial description of this beer reads "This pale ale has a bright golden color, a medium body and a smooth taste." Ok, so it doesn't sound so exciting. But let me tell you, this beer is well constructed. The description is in fact logical and founded, but what I found with this gem is that it is composed of an almost perfect balance of Northwest hops that provide a citrus flavor, grainy malt leave with a miniature touch of carmel malts that make it almost (dare I say) perfect. Especially for a hop head who is getting burnt on monsterously big IPAs, this pale is sharper and bolder than something like Deschutes Mirror Pond or Full Sale Pale. I might even go as far as to call it a golden hoppy ale or a mini IPA. The color is a beautiful array of orange-yellow with a foamy white head. I gotta have another one now!

Deschutes Hop Henge--Everyone in Portland has been gaggling about the idea of a new Deschutes ale house or brewery coming to town. When I first moved to Oregon nearly ten years ago and discovered the microbrews of this fine state, I was extremely impressed with the beers of Deschutes. Mirror Pond, Black Butte Porter, Obsidian Stout, etc. Lately I've not been as big on their beers either because the bottle conditioned beers have disappeared or because a new brewery seems to be popping up almost daily to challenge my views and palette. Either way, a recent trip to the Deschutes Bond Street location in Bend reaffirmed my early opinion of the brewery. It kicks ass! With the Abyss Imperial Stout out of stock at Belmont Station, the newest arrival is this imperial IPA, Hop Henge. Over 8% ABW and very IBU-ed up, this is a gentle beast in a season of doublebarrel assaulting hopped brews (See the next beer to catch my drift). If your not a hop head, this beer is not for you, but if you are a head, you can't beat this beer, especially for a pricetag of under $4 for 22-oz.

Fishtale Ten Squared Barleywine--My co-worker Chris summed it up when he described this beer. 10 % alcohol+ 10 hops= 100% delicious. This deep amber hued beer from the organic Fish of Olympia, WA makes Moylan's Hopsickle come off like a sessions beer. Not really, but it is one maganormous gigantuan universe of hops. Depending on who you talk to, there's so many differnt flavors prevalent in this brew of brews including mango, lemon, grapefruit, menthol, and crackers. It's not likely to mellow out anytime soon do to the absurd quantity of hops and the high alcohol level. It is recommended that you take your time with this guy and share it with a friend or three.

Avery and Russian River Collaboration Not Litigation Ale--This is one interesting story. This Belgian Strong Ale is infact two beers from two breweries combined. As the name suggests (Collab not Lit) Avery and RR each had a nice brew called "Salvation". Instead of running to court over the rights to its nomenclature, the two forced linked up and put forth this big badboy. Now I must admit, that I am nowhere close to being a guru of beer, especially Belgian styled American ales. In fact, I think the American Belgian-styled beers are usually too funky and unbalanced for my liking. And while this one is both funky and unbalanced, for some reason, it was quirky enough and quaffable enough to work for me. With a deep and rich chestnut bruin color, this beer is fruity, sweet, malty, dry, rich, and sensually complex as hell. That's all I can say. Sorry, but you are just gonna have to pick one up for yourself (while supplies last) and make your own call. Love it or hate it, this beer is definitely one of a kind.


That's all I have in me for now. Come by the new location of Belmont Station--4500 SE Stark (SE Stark & 45th Avenue) and grab your own preferred pleasure.

New Store, New Beer

I'm on my way out of town to go sample NW Washington's finest beers this weekend, but I wanted to fire off a quick note about a couple of exciting new arrivals.

The Konigshoeven Trappist beers have returned! The only Trappist brewery outside of Belgium hasn't been available in Oregon for a while now, but the Tripel and Quadrupel have finally reappeared. I haven't had a chance to try them lately, but I'll most likely try them this weekend and post on Monday.

Roots Organic Brewing is bottling! The first beer to hit the market is their excellent Woody IPA. I'm sipping on one as I write this, and it tastes just as good as it does on tap at the pub. As good as it is I'm sure we'll see it popping up everywhere in the near future, but for now we're one of the only places that carries it.

You'll also find a bunch of things that aren't neccessarily "new", but they're "new to us." We hope to become a become a welcome member of our new neighborhood, so we've added a few beers that didn't really fit the scope of the old store: Heineken, Grolsch, St. Pauli Girl, etc...Things that aren't quite "specialty" products, but since we're at least a 1/2 mile from the nearest grocery store we thought we'd try to offer a few of the more popular "mainstream" beers. We don't want to be perceived as snobs, so we're also beginning to offer 12 packs of PBR, Coors Light, and other assorted "mainstream" beers. My philosophy has always been, "I'll try anything once and after that it's up to our customers", so we'll give the big guys a chance to earn a spot in our coolers. However, I don't want slow-moving things taking up space that could be used for other things, so if the neighborhood doesn't want Bud and Miller they probably won't last long.

Quick Note: Widmer W'07 and Copperhook

I just got a heads up from the fine folks at the Craft Brand Alliance (Widmer/Redhook/Kona) informing me about upcoming specials for the spring. There were a couple interesting tidbits to be gleaned from the marketing materials:

~This years' addition to the Brewmaster Collection, simply called W'07, is a Summit-hopped Pale Ale. Look for it to hit shelves in late January or early February. It will most likely be included in the variety packs later in the spring as well, but that's speculative...

~Redhook is releasing (you could say re-releasing) Copperhook, a re-branding of the popular Chinook Copper Ale. Look for it to be included in the variety pack and in 6 packs beginning in February.

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We Are Moving! (finally)

December 11, 2006
For Immediate Release

We Are Moving!
Belmont Station is relocating just 3 blocks away to
4500 S.E. Stark St Portland, OR 97215
January 4, 2007

After grueling months of waiting on City Hall, construction is complete. On the first week of the New Year we'll be pleased to welcome you to a new, expanded and updated Belmont Station. What's going to be different?

THE STATION CAFE! The new Belmont Station is two spaces in one. On one side, a bottleshop. On the other, a great little bier cafe. On the menu: any of our bottled beers, plus a few very special beers on draught. It will be a comfortable, neighborhood place to while away the hours tasting the best beers on the planet. We will feature soups, sandwiches, and cheese plates for your nibbling enjoyment.

MORE SPACE MEANS MORE BEER! Lots more space! Our beer selection is just shy of 700, but we're looking to increase our selection to around 900!

SELF-SERVE COOLERS! No more waiting while we fetch your bottles. Our knowledgeable staff will continue to assist you with your selection and any questions you may have. We'll have UV protection on the cooler lights to prevent skunky beer, and we'll be religiously rotating and stocking as usual. Belmont Station will continue to be the place for the freshest beer in town.

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