Quick List of Today's New Arrivals

Dinner beckons, so this needs to be a short post. If/when I have time tomorrow I'll get back to this and elaborate on any of the new things I try this evening.


New American Craft Beers:

• Rogue - Maierfest: description comiong soon...
  
• Southern Tier - Jah-va: The first S.T. beer to hit Oregon, the Jah-va is a decadent imperial stout infused with Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. Fairly limited, so don't delay.
  

New Imports:

• Mikkeller - Single Hop (Nugget) IPA: description coming soon...
• Mikkeller - Czech-style Pilsner: description coming soon...
• Ise Kadoga - Pale Ale: description coming soon...
• Ise Kadoga - Brown Ale: description coming soon...
• Ise Kadoga - Stout: description coming soon...
• Ise Kadoga - Genmai: description coming soon...
• Ise Kadoga - Triple Hop Pale Ale: description coming soon...
• Sam Smith's - Yorkshire Stingo: description coming soon...
• Brasserie Lefebvre - Barbar Belgian Honey Ale: description coming soon...
• Fantome - Saison: Not really new, but we haven't had any in stock since March so I figured it was worth mentioning.

That's it for toady, have a great night!

Craft Beer Month Preview

A month of beer drinking, liver straining, palate bending fun is almost upon us. In addition to the NAOBF this weekend , there are over 120 beery happenings scheduled for the Month of July.

Roll Out the Barrels!

We'll be kicking things off one day early with 5 oak or barrel-aged beers going on tap at 5pm, Monday June 30th. 3 of the 5 beers are from Oregon, so I guess you could call it an Oregon beer event, but we'd prefer to think of it as the pay off for waiting several months for our new walk-in and draught system to be installed. Click here for more details...

Oregon Craft Beer Month Begins!

The festivities begin in earnest on Tuesday July 1 at the Horse Brass Pub. The folks at the Brass have searched high and low for the best that Oregon has to offer, including several rarities like Oak Aged Jubel and Bridgeport Hop Harvest.

Here's the details and a partial list of beers. Knowing Don, I'm sure he'll have a couple other surprises up his sleeve.

Tuesday, July 1st at 5:00 p.m.
Horse Brass Pub
4520 SE Belmont
Portland, OR 97215

• Bridgeport Brewing Co. 2007 - Hop Harvest Fresh Hop IPA
• Deschutes Brewery - Oak Aged Jubel
• Double Mountain Brewery and Taproom - Molten Lava Double IPA
• Eugene City Brewery - Track Town IPA
• Full Sail Brewing Co. - 2007 Vesuvius
• Hopworks Urban Brewery - Washoe Weizen
• Laurelwood Brewing Co. - Belgian NW Red Infrared
• Lompoc Brewing Co. - 2007 C-Son’s Greetings
• Mia & Pia’s - Whiskey Barrel Aged Barley Wine
• Mt. Hood Brewing - Wee Heavy - Cask
• Ninkasi Brewing Co. - Tricerahops - Dry Hopped in Keg - Cask
• Rock Bottom Brewery - Kolsch 55
• Rogue Ales - Imperial YSB
• Terminal Gravity Brewery - Tripel

Also on Tuesday July 1:

Rogue Ales kicks off the month by tapping a firkin of Latona Ale, the newest John's Locker Stock release. The Latona is a hazy, unfiltered amber ale brewed with a variety of specialty malts and hops for a delicious, complex flavor. The firkin gets tapped at 5pm, so you might want to head down there before going to the Brass.

Portland Distillery and Public House
1339 NW Flanders St., Portland
503-222-5910
www.rogue.com

Friday July 4th:

If you're heading to the northern section of the Oregon coast next weekend consider stopping by Astoria for some tasty beer and exploding things. Fort George Brewery will be hosting a 4th of July Parking Lot Party. "Join us as we celebrate the Nation's birthday! The city of Astoria puts on a display of fireworks on the waterfront which will be visible from our parking lot celebration!" The party starts at 6pm and runs until after the fireworks display.

Fort George Brewery and Public House
1483 Duane St., Astoria
503-325-PINT
www.fortgeorgebrewery.com


I think that's enough for today. For a huge (almost complete) list of Craft Beer Month events, pop on over to John Foyston's Oregonian blog. Tune in Monday for more highlights!

Last, but not least, we got our allotment of Deschutes Black Butte XX. It's going fast, even in this heat.

Deschutes Black Butte XX and more...

Greetings beer lovers! Just a couple quick notes for today:

Deschutes 20th Anniversary Releases - The Deschutes Black Butte XX and 20th Anniversary Wit will be arriving tomorrow afternoon. Due to incredibly high demand (and low production) for the XX we'll be implementing a 3 bottle per person limit for the first few days in order to spread the beer out as much as possible. The 20th Anniversary Wit will not be subject to any restrictions, and with the weather predicted to be in the 90's it strikes me as a perfect beer to beat the heat this weekend.

North American Organic Beer Festival - The NAOBF kicks off at 3pm tomorrow. With 70+ beers to sample you could spend most of the weekend sampling organic goodies without drinking the same thing twice. I should also mention that we still have a limited number of voucher/ticket combos left. As previously noted, they are $15 each (1 mug + 10 drink tickets) and we are only able to accept cash for the vouchers. Remember, purchasing a mug and tickets in advance allows you to skip the regular line and speed your entry into the fest.

The Rogue XS Family is Growing - The XS Imperial Younger's Special Bitter ( aka XSIYSB?!?) is coming back as a year-round product, and the new XS Imperial Porter will be making it's bottled debut. We should have several cases of each available tomorrow afternoon.

That's all for now. Tune in tomorrow for a weekend round-up, and the first in a series of posts highlighting some of the best events coming up in July. Check out the Brewer's Guild site or the new (so new it's not quite live) oregoncraftbeer.com for more details on the 120+ events taking place during the next month. Remember - Think Oregon, Drink Oregon!

Shhh...Keep This On The Down Low...

Rumors have been swirling for a few days now about a second wave of Abyss arriving in Portland this week, and I can confirm that there are a couple hundred more cases dropping tomorrow and Friday. As far as I know, every place that received some of the first wave should get another small allotment, and a few places that got screwed the first time will be getting a some as well.




We won't be getting anywhere near the amount we received on the first batch, so in order to spread the joy a bit we're going to limit people to 3 bottles per person (per day) for at least the first week.






As if that wasn't enough to motivate you to stop in on Friday, we should also be receiving Full Sail Bourbon-aged Top Sail, Stone Old Guardian Barleywine, and maybe (it's a slim chance) some Oregon Trail Bourbon Porter. Even if the Oregon Trail Porter doesn't show up that still leaves you with 3 world class beers arriving on the same day!

Throw in a few other things we've got in stock like Great Divide Oak-Aged Yeti, Orkney Dark Island Reserve, Beer Valley Black Flag Stout, or Rogue Russian Imperial Stout, and you've got the makings of one heck of a beer tasting. Just a thought...

Just be sure to take it easy on Friday night. Trying to drink all three (maybe 4) of these 10%+ monsters in one sitting is a recipe for disaster, or at least a nasty hangover.

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.

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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