New Arrivals and Event Notices

There's been a slow, steady trickle of new beers over the last few days, and a couple of exciting special releases, so I figured it was time for a new beer round-up. We've also added a couple fun events to the calendar; details on those follow the list of new beers.

New American Craft Brews:

• Deschutes Mirror Mirror Barleywine - Arguably one of Deschutes' first (and some would say best) forays into "extreme beer", the first batch of Mirror Mirror was released back in the spring of 2006. Clocking it at 11.5%abv (up from 10% last time) and aged in a variety of barrels, it has been an elusive, sought-after beast ever since it first hit the market, causing almost hyperbolic raves on the local BeerAdvocate and Ratebeer forums. Supplies are limited, so we've instituted a 6 bottle per person limit through Saturday. If there's any left on Sunday it'll be fair game. They state on their website that it will be "best after April 2010", so try and save a bottle or two and see how it evolves...
  
• Deschutes Red Chair IPA - The newest release in the 22oz Bond St. series is big on hop flavor and aroma, but low on the bitterness. It's perfect for those times when you want to satiate a hop craving without totally blowing out your palate for the rest of the day.
  
• Widmer 84/09 Double Alt - This imperialized version of the Brothers' original brew is big, bold, and yet still refined. They didn't make much, and it won't last long, so grab it while you can.
  
• Lagunitas 2009 Correction Ale - A pale hoppy beer from Lagunitas? Who'da thunk? Seriously though, this is a great little (big) beer. Pale, clean, and with a nice fruity hop note. Call it Hop Stoopid Light, call it a tweaked version of Kill Ugly Radio, but whatever you do, don't call it an Imperial IPA.
  
• Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy - This is Leinie's take on the beer/lemonade concoction known as a radler or shandy. In Germany this blend is especially favored by bikers (radler is German for Bicyclist) and other outdoor enthusiasts because if it's light refreshing character and lower alcohol content. The Leinenkugel's version is a 4.2% lightly filtered hefeweizen flavored with lemonade and "natural flavors." While not a true 50/50 blend of beer and lemonade it hits the mark pretty well and will make a nice light yard work beer.
  
• Boulder Sweaty Betty - Boulder summer offering is a pleasant, unfiltered wheat beer with a slight citrusy character and a smooth finish.
  
• Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat - This was one of Lost Coast's offerings at the 2009 Spring Beer and Wine Fest, so some of you may have had it on tap. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but ratebeerian GodOfThunder describes it thusly, "The aroma is light and full of sweet tangerine fruitiness. The flavors are the same. Thin mouthfeel, light, refreshing, fruity and actually comforting. Reminds me of a tangerine mimosa. I like this a lot, and I am surprised. This would be great for a day at the beach. Nothing bad about it." Sounds good to me...
• Bison Single IPA (Willamette) - I can truly appreciate what Bison is trying to do with this series from an educational standpoint, but this is probably my least favorite of the single hop series thus far. Willamette hops have a very grassy, earthy, herbal aroma which usually works pretty well in understated British-style IPAs, but in this case I think the excessively grassy character is poorly suited to the Werst Coast-style base beer they've created. That said, I would still recommend that anyone with a passing interest in brewing try a bottle of this, if only to gain insight into the nuances of this classic American hop variety.
  
• Widmer Hefeweizen 5 Liter Minikegs - The same classic hefe that started the "American Wheat Beer" trend, now in a 5 liter "minikeg" that's perfect for barbeques, beach parties, or a long day of home brewing in the sunshine...
  

New Imports:

• Kostritzer Schwarzbier - This classic Schwarzbier dropped off of the distribution lists for a couple of years, but it's beack and just as delicious as always. If you've never ahd a Schwarz, this is a great into to the style. It's also a fun beer to hand someone when they give you the old "I don't drink those dark beers because they're too heavy" screed. Light on the palate, with just a hint of hops and roasty malt.
• Guinness 250th Anniversary - Speaking of schwarzbiers, Guinness has unveiled a new beer to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the lease on their flagship brewery in St. James Gate. It's supposedly a "stout", but it's actually more of a brown ale/schwarzbier hybrid with a transparent brown hue and only the slightest hints of roasty malt character.
  
• Saison 1900 - This is a pretty nice little saison. A little "bubblegummy" yeast character sets it apart from some of the others in the style, but it's pretty light and easy drinking. At roughly 5%abv it's a bit easier on the liver than some of the stronger saisons as well.
  
• Three Horses Lager - Canned beer from Madagascar. Again, it's probably a typical tropical yellow beer, but how often do you see beer from Madagascar?
  
• Saigon Lager - I haven't had this one yet, but I assume it's a typical hot weather lager. It does add one more country to the list, and we've already had a few customers snatch some up to fit their Vietnamese dinner plans.
• Rialto Lager -Tropical lager from El Salvador. It's got a cool looking silk-screened bottle with Incan ruins on it, but there's not much going on inside.
• Sam Smiths Organic Fruit Ales - We received three new "organic hand-crafted fruit ales" from the venerable British brewer today: Strawberry, Raspberry, and Cherry. I haven't had a chance to try any of them yet, but Sam Smiths is known for high quality brew, and I wouldn't expect them to put these out unless they were solid.
  

Events and Stuff:

Monday May 4th 6-9pm: Trade Route Tasting/Meet The Brewer: Join Chris Castillo as he offers samples of Dragon King Lager, Mango Wiezen, Ginger Pale Ale, Panden Brown Ale, and the Brand new Infidel Kaffir Lime IPA. Choice Trade Route Draft in the Biercafe.

Wednesday May 13th 6-9pm: Barley Browns Tasting/Meet the Brewer. If you've ever been out to Baker City you know how great their beer is. Brewer Shawn Kelso will bring us some very special drafts for this big night in the Biercafe: WFOIPA, Tank Slapper Double IPA, 18 Month Aged Double Whiskey Malt Ale, and Armstrong Double Golden. Barley Browns beer on special in the Biercafe all day.


Off Site Events:

May 1 and 2: Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers at the West Side Lucky Lab. Full beer list and details are available at the Oregon Brewers Guild site.

Saturday May 9th 2-6pm: Fredfest 2009 takes place at the Hair of the Dog brewery. Join 250 of Portland's beer community in celebrating Fred Eckhardt's birthday. Details and tickets available at the Fred Fest site.

That's all for now. Have a safe and happy weekend!

Widmer Bros Celebrate 25 Years of Beer

I just received a great email/press release from Widmer with a brief history of the company and a little tease regarding their special 25th Anniversary brew. (emphasis added by me)

WIDMER BROTHERS BREWING PROSTS 25 YEARS OF GREAT BEER

- Brothers’ quarter-life crisis venture hits its own quarter-life mark -

PORTLAND, Ore. – March 3, 2009 – On April 2, two ordinary brothers from Portland, Ore. who set out in 1984 to brew beers that people loved as much as they did will be celebrating the 25^th Anniversary of their dream – Widmer Brothers Brewing – which has become an established and revered name in the world of craft beer. The company’s humble founders, Kurt and Rob, have been instrumental in shaping the American craft brewing industry and earning Portland the well-deserved nickname “Beervana.” Here are just a few of the contributions they have made over the past quarter-century:

Widmer Hefeweizen: In 1986, Kurt and Rob took a risk and created the first unfiltered beer in the US, creating a new beer style – American Hefeweizen – and introducing what would become the company’s signature brew. Today, Widmer Hefeweizen remains one of the best selling wheat beers in the country and the standard by which all other American-style Hefeweizens are judged.

Seasonals: Widmer Brothers was the first US brewer to launch a seasonal offering when Festbier was introduced in the winter of 1985. Building upon its success, Widmer became the first US brewer to produce a year-round line up of seasonal beers, a practice which is now commonplace.

Oregon Brew Fest: In 1988 the Oregon Brewer’s Guild, of which Kurt and Rob were founding members, launched the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. Today, the event is the largest outdoor craft beer festival in the country, drawing more than 70,000 attendees.

After 25 years, Kurt and Rob Widmer continue to be hands-on in the creation of beers and the brewery’s day-to-day activities. In addition, the brothers have been supporting home brewers through the Collaborator Project for more than a decade. Each year they identify the best Oregon-made homebrew, then allow the creator to produce it at the Widmer brewery and sell it on tap at a number of Portland-area bars, including the Gasthaus.

To celebrate its milestone, Widmer Brothers will be releasing a commemorative 25^th Anniversary limited-edition brew, a double alt dubbed 84/09. Though inspired by the brothers’ very first offering, Widmer Alt, 84/09 will provide drinkers with a whole new beer experience at a whopping 9.8% ABV. The 25^th Anniversary 22 oz bottle will be available in 12 select West Coast markets* in May, with an SRP of $5.99.

About Widmer Brothers Brewing

What started as a dream for two ordinary brothers who just loved beer has now become a reality for two ordinary brothers who still just love beer. Kurt and Rob Widmer helped lead the Pacific Northwest craft beer movement in 1984 when, in their twenties, they dreamed of brewing American interpretations of authentic European style beers. In 1986, Widmer Brothers Brewing introduced the first American-style Hefeweizen; today, the unfiltered cloudy beer is the company’s signature brew and one of the best selling wheat beers in the country. Based in Portland, Ore., the brewery currently produces a variety of beers including Drop Top Amber Ale and Broken Halo IPA. For more information about Widmer Brothers Brewing, visit www.widmer.com.

Mmm...Double Alt. There's no info regarding a release date for the 84/09, but given that their official 25th Anniversary is on April 4th, I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the shelves at somepoint in the next 4-6 weeks.

My apologies if the formatting on this post is screwed up; it can be difficult to copy/paste press releases without dragging a bunch of funky html tags along for the ride. I'll fix it ASAP if it looks weird.

New Arrivals and Upcoming Events

As of 6pm (Friday 2/6) we still had a few bottles of Full Sail Black Gold left, but I doubt it'll be here tomorrow so don't delay if you're planning on coming in for some. The Black Gold may have garnered all the hype this week, but it's far from the only good beer to arrive in the last few days.

New Arrivals:

Lagunitas - Cruising With Ruben and the Jets: You may remember this beer from the Holiday Ale Fest. Then again, if you had more than a few samples of the potent libations present at the fest you might not remember much of anything. In any case, it's an imperial stout with cacao and white peppercorns. I had one yesterday and didn't get much chocolate other than the "bitter chocolate" malt character typical in most stouts, but the white pepper added a nice little zing to the finish. This is also the last beer in the Zappa series, so if you're collecting them all you won't want to miss the final entry in the collection.

Wolaver's - Pat Leavy's All American Ale: This well balanced pale is the first in a series of beers from Wolavers that seeks to focus attention on the farmers who provide them with raw materials. Pat Leavy is a hop grower from Aurora who's been working with Wolavers to produce organic hops that are otherwise unavailable or to costly to ship from over seas.

Heater Allen - Abzug: I haven't had a chance to drink this one yet, but Rick Allen describes it as "A low-alcohol (3.8%abv) Vienna lager packed with oodles of flavor." A good analogue would probably be the low abv "table beers" brewed for consumption by monks and farm workers in Belgium.

Aspall - Perronelle's Blush Cider: (commercial description) A twist on the classic Kir Royale – champagne and crème de cassis replaced by cider and a hint of blackberry juice. Named after Perronelle Chevallier‐Guild and her rosy red cheeks. Perronelle is the grandmother of Barry & Henry Chevallier‐Guild, the eighth generation family management of Aspall. Perronelle was a founding member of the UK Soil Association and was also known to pole‐vault across the moat that surrounds the family home. The color is deep blush suggestive of dark summer fruit, with a rich appearance. There is a subtle blackberry aroma with a hint of traditional cider apple. Deceptively smooth with a silky but refreshing palate, Blush offers a perfect blend of sweetness and acidity. It has a lovely mouth feel and a lingering aftertaste of berries.

Anchor - Bock: (commercial description) Bock beer, released in celebration of the arrival of spring, is an ancient and mysterious part of the brewing tradition. Over time, the term "bock" has come to mean a beer darker and stronger than the brewery's regular brew. This is the first time we have brewed a bock at Anchor Brewing Co., and we hope you will find it to be a rich and flavorful addition to our offerings. San Francisco's Anchor Bock Beer is virtually handmade by the brewers of Anchor Steam® Beer, in one of the most traditional small breweries in the world. It is brewed from a complex blend of the finest barley malts, wheat malts, and fresh whole hops.

New Belgium - Lips of Faith Dark Kriek: I think this one has potential, but it feels like it's not quite done yet. It's beautiful to behold; a dark garnet body, wispy head, and good lacing down the glass. It smells delicious too, but after that things start going south. It's too sweet for a kriek, at least compared to any traditional example, which lead one person who sampled from my bottle to refer to it as "unfermented cherry juice aged in a barrel." I'm not sure if it's bottle conditioned (there wasn't any visible yeast in the bottle) or whether a few months of age would help, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to try. It will most likely appeal to folks who love sweet, fruity drinks like the Lindeman's line of lambics, but people who want something tart, sour, and woody should look elsewhere.

New Belgium - Mighty Arrow Pale Ale:

Pyramid - Rollick: (commercial description) Smooth malty character balanced with a gracious quantity of hops make this copper-colored offering the perfect beer to celebrate your first rollicking spring adventure.

Erie Brewing - Drake's Crude Oatmeal Stout:

Buffalo Bill's - Blueberry Oatmeal Stout: I was skeptical, and I'm still not going to buy it regularly, but I've got to admit that this is a lot better than I expected it to be. The blueberry flavor tastes more natural than synthetic, and the 7.5% abv is well hidden in the roasty, fruity body

St Louis - Gueuze Fond Tradition:

Deschutes - Hop Henge Experimental IPA: I'm not sure what they're experimenting with, but it's tasty. A sweet "hop candy" body acts as a vessel for floral, earthy, citrusy goodness. The finish is sticky with resiny hops, but surprisingly it doesn't come across as cloying. One unsubstantiated claim I read on BeerAdvocate was that the beer was spiked with brettanomyces before bottling, but an IPA seems like an odd choice for such an experiment. You'd also expect Deschutes to mention something about that on the bottle in order to alert people to the fact that the beer will get funky and musty if left to age, otherwise they run the risk of angering and confusing people who pop one open and expect a hoppy delight.

Southern Oregon Brewing - Pale Ale: description coming soon...

Southern Oregon Brewing - Gold Ale: description coming soon...

Southern Oregon Brewing - Porter: description coming soon...

Sierra Nevada - Torpedo Extra IPA: At 7.2% it's slightly bigger than a regular IPA, but smaller than an imperial IPA, hence "extra" IPA. It's almost like a cross between their Pale Ale and Celebration; hugely floral and bitter, but light-bodied and easy drinking. It's been out-selling just about everything in the store since it came in, and shows no signs of slowing down. I'm curious to see where the sales will level out at, and whether or not they can keep up with demand.

Sierra Nevada - Bigfoot Barleywine: After 20+ years in production this beer needs no introduction, but I figured I'd mention it for the sake of those who haven't been in lately.

Panty Dropper Ale: You've probably seen tap handles for the Panty Dropper around town, or perhaps at the Spring Beer and Wine Fest. It's a solid pale ale, and now that there are bottles (with a provacative image) to accompany the name I'm sure you'll be hearing about it more often. I'm pretty sure we're the only place east of the river that has this in bottles, so stop on by and get some panty dropping goodness!

Laughing Dog - Alpha Dog: An imperial IPA with bite! This debuted at our Laughing Dog tasting last month, and when I tried it there it was enough to make my shiver. It's been a long time since I drank something that was so bitterly hoppy that it made the sides of my mouth pucker. At that point all I could say was, "Whoa!" I'll try a bottle this weekend and see if the experience translates to the bottled product.


Returning Favorites:

Mikkeller - Beer Geek Breakfast: Imperial oatmeal stout with coffee. Mmm...coffee and oatmeal. If someone could figure out a way to get bacon flavor into the mix it might be the perfect breakfast food.

Victory - Old Horizontal: Victory's barleywine is always a welcome addition to the line-up. It's a little hot now, but a few months in the cellar will cure that.

Victory - Hop Wallop: One of the hoppiest beers on the east coast finds it's way back to our side of the country. If I remember correctly it's kind of thin bodied, but delicious.

Fuller's - London Porter: Classic London porter, now in 16oz cans!


Upcoming events:

THURSDAY FEB. 12 6-8PM IMPORT TASTING. Acclaimed Importers Merchant Du Vin will offer up tastes of Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale, Samuel Smith's Organic Cider, Lindemans Framboise, Lindemans Pomme Lambic, Pinkus Jubilate & Westmalle Trappist Tripel. Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock on draft.

TUESDAY FEB. 17 6-8PM FISH TALE ALES TASTING & Anniversary Ale Release. Your chance to score a few bottles of this year's very limited Fish Tale Anniversary Ale (also known as Ten Squared). Plus taste the full line of Fish Tale Ales: Fish Organic IPA, Organic Wild Salmon Pale Ale, Organic Amber, Detonator Doppelbock, & Old Woody. A rare keg of Ten Squared on Draft.

THURSDAY FEB 19 6-8PM, SIERRA NEVADA TASTING. Taste 2009 Bigfoot, Torpedo IPA, ESB, & Porter. Bigfoot and ESB on draft in the Biercafe.

WEDNESDAY FEB. 25 5-7pm FIRESTONE WALKER & NECTAR ALE TASTING. Taste the Union Jack IPA, Humboldt Hemp Ale, DBA, and Pale 31. Plus Nectar Ales IPA & Red Nectar. Hemp Ale on Draft.

I think that's all for now, so have a great weekend!

Widmer Drifter Coming Soon

Last night one of our loyal customers was kind enough to drop by with a sample of the Brothers' latest creation, the new Drifter Pale Ale. It's hard to get excited about a simple pale ale, but I gotta say I thought the stuff was delicious. So good in fact that I forgot to take any notes while I was drinking and it was gone before I knew it. Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to wait until it comes out (in late January I'm told) and try it again.

In other news, we're open for business at the moment, but if you're planning on coming this evening I'd suggest calling us at 503.232.8538 before you head out.

Cheers!

The Russians Invade Portland

No, not THOSE Russians, I'm talking about Russian River Pliny The Elder and Blind Pig IPA from Santa Rosa, CA. We're only getting 3 cases of each. Yes, 3. That's a mere 72 bottles, and given the ridiculous number requests we've gotten (don't forget, we brew some tasty IPAs in Oregon too!) the boss decided to limit this allotment to one bottle of each variety per person. I realize it's less than ideal, but a little Pliny is better than no Pliny, and if we didn't restrict it some hop-crazed fiend (like me) would come and snatch it all up.

The beer will go on sale this afternoon at 5:30, so come on down after work and help fend off the invasion. If you're here between 6-8 you can also try samples of Meantime IPA and London Porter, listen to Alistair Hook (owner of Meantime) speak about his brewery, and grab a couple bottles on sale if you dig 'em.

See you tonight!

Silver Moon Comes to Portland

Bottles from Silver Moon Brewing in Bend, OR are now available at Belmont Station! What started as a home brew supply shop has slowly blossomed over the last couple of years into a full-on craft brewery. They've started by bringing us their Hefeweizen, Porter, and Amber in 22oz bottles. I haven't had a chance to sample any of their offerings yet, but I'll try them this weekend and report back soon.

I would have posted a crappy camera-phone pic, but as luck would have it my phone just died. I'll post a picture after it recharges.

New Arrivals For Tuesday 12.18.07

The Laughing Dog brews finally arrived, and we received a last minute addition to the mini-keg collection, but other than that there isn't much new to report today. We also got 15 more cases of Lagunitas Brown Shugga (the first 12 cases sold out in less than 24 hours) and this is likely to be all that we're alloted, so let me emphasize once more that if you want to have ANY hope of buying some Shugga this year you need to go out and find some today. Serious. That said, lets dig into todays' pile and see what we've got...


Laughing Dog - Cream Ale: (brewers' description) Our Cream Ale is a traditional Cream Ale fermented with both an ale and a lager yeast, which gives us the creamy smoothness of an ale with a nice dry crisp finish.

Laughing Dog - Pale Ale: (brewers' description) From out of the PAcific Northwest the Micro-brewers were born and with them came an ale that was unlike any other, the American Pale Ale. We brew our pale ale big, bold, and hoppy using five of the finiest hops from the fields in Yakima, WA. To balance the intense hop flavors, five different American grown malted barelys add malt flavor and smooth finish.

Laughing Dog - IPA: (brewers' description) A profound love of hops and big brews led to our IPA. A little over the top, it's a hophead's dream come true. An intense hop aroma and strong malt body are followed by a smooth clean finish.

Laughing Dog - Cold Nose Winter Ale: (brewers' description) After a romp in the snow on a cold winters day, this brew is just what's needed to warm you up. Dark and malty with a big hop presence, it is a great winter warmer

Full Sail - Slipknot Imperial IPA: Bracing. If I had to sum up Slipknot in one word, that would be the one. This is a serious IPA for serious hopheads. It's also a great way to get your Full Sail fix and tide yourself over until the Bourbon-aged Top Sail comes out in February...

Bayern - Dancing Trout: (Formerly known as Trout Slayer) I haven't had this beer in ages, but I seem to recall it nailing the style pretty well. If you're a fan of kristallweizen (aka filtered wheat beer) this one's definitely worth a try.

Monchshof - Weinachts Bier: What could be better for the holidays than a 5 liter mini-keg of tasty German beer? How about a 5 liter mini-keg with a picture of jolly old St. Nick on the side? A mini-keg of Bell's Two Hearted would top it, but I can't think of much else. Sorry if I got your hopes up (since Bell's isn't distributed in Oregon), but I just can't stop thinking about how nice it would be to have one of those mini-kegs in my fridge.

I think that's it for today. Remember, friends don't let friends drink crappy beer.

Laughing Dog Arrives

Here's the sample bottles, the rest should be in tomorrow. We should be receiving the Cream Ale, Pale Ale, IPA, and Cold Nose Winter Ale. If I have a chance to drink some or all of them tonight I'll try and post an update, otherwise you can stop in tomorrow and try them for yourself.

New Arrivals For Tuesday 11.06.07

Todays' delivery brings us some of the most sought after beer of the season, so let's not waste time on idle chit chat...

Anchor - Our Special Ale 2007 (aka Anchor Christmas): This one's a mystery every year, but thankfully the rep brought a sample bottle the other day (Thanks, Brady!), so we got to try it before bringing it in. This year's recipe has less of the nutmeg/clove combo and features more earthy, spruce needle flavors. Quite tasty now, and it seems like it will be a tasty vintage to lay down for a few months or more. Available in 12oz bottles, 1.5ltr magnums, and draft for a limited time.


Stone - Double Bastard: Ye shall know the Bastard, and the Bastard shall set you free! If you've never heard of Double Bastard, or the "regular" Arrogant Bastard, then this beer probably isn't for you. Clocking in at 10% abv it isn't quite double the arrogance, but it's enough to knock you down a peg or two if you're not careful. Available for a VERY limited time in 22oz bottle and 3 ltr Jeroboams.


Lagunitas - Cappuccino Stout: This welcome addition to the holiday beer calendar is brewed with Sebastapol Coffee. Big buzz, small price. What more could you ask for?


Mad River - John Barleycorn: One of my favorite barleywines, and reasonably priced too. Best of all, it's organic, so you can feel good about saving the planet while drinking it.


Beer Valley - Pigskin Pale Ale: Brand new, we'll let you know as soon as we've tried it.


Beer Valley - Highway to Ale: Also brand new. Check back soon for an update.


That's it for now. If you happen to read this in the next couple hours be sure and pop in for the first in our series of Winter Beer Tastings. Tonight's tasting includes Deschutes Jubelale, Big Sky Powderhound, Lost Coast Winterbraun, Golden Valley Tannenbomb, New Belgium 2 Below, Pyramid Snow Cap, Sam Smiths Winter Welcome Vintage 2006, and the new St. Peter's Winter Ale. As usual, we'll have sale prices on the tasting beers throughout the evening.

Heater-Allen Brewing in McMinnville

I've been hearing rumblings about this place for a while now, and Jeff's post on Beervana jogged my memory and reminded me I need to call them. After getting of the phone with the Rick Allen, the affable owner and brewer for Heater-Allen, I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that he seems to be producing some great lagers and has been selling the beer almost as fast as he can brew it. The bad news, at least for us, is that he doesn't have enough suds to support a market like Portland. On a brighter note, I was told they have plans to upgrade from their current 20 gallon (not barrels, gallons) system to a "real" 7bbl system in the next few months. This should allow them to support Portland and possibly other areas as well.

I'll do my best to bring in the beers as soon as they can supply them, but in the meantime you'll have to take a voyage to McMinnville and buy them directly from the source. Just be sure to call first as availablility is extremely limited.

Many people lament the lack of lagers in our beery landscape, especially since the demise of Saxer, so these guys will definitely be a welcome addition to the scene.

New Arrivals For Friday Sept. 21, 2007

We received a couple tasty fall seasonals today, and a few things from Baron Brewing in Washington are now available in Oregon.

First up, the seasonals:

Avery Kaiser: Billed as an "Imperial Oktoberfest", Avery's popular fall offering weighs in at 9.3% abv. One 22oz bottle of this delicious nectar should be more than enough to get you dancing in your leiderhozen. This is also a great candidate for aging, so grab a couple and forget about them until Portland gets gets hit with the annual January ice storm.

Elysian Night Owl: This is one of the tastiest pumpkin beers available, mainly because they don't overdo it on the spices. Elysian even schedules a tasting around the release of this beer involving the ceremonial tapping of a giant pumpkin full of Night Owl. Their website is a bit out of date so I couldn't find any info, but I'll see if I can dig something up. EDIT: I found something on meetup.com regarding the the Great Pumpkin Festival, but I still can't find anything from Elysian so I'd advise calling the brewery to confirm before making the trek up there.


Now it's time for the new guys: Please note - I haven't tried any of these yet, so all you get for today are the commercial descriptions.

Baron Schwarzbier: The Schwarzbier is a classic German black beer. The color is black with tinges of ruby and brown. The flavor is full and crisp. The Schwarzbier starts with a slight roast flavor upfront followed by a faint chocolate body with a very crisp clean lagered finish. A very full yet drinkable lager. Now that I think about it, I had some of this at the International Beer Festival, but it was pouring way too cold to appreciate.

Baron Pilsner: The Baron Pils is a traditional Northern German Style Pilsner. It has a fantastic malty aroma with a slight spice from the hops. The head is brilliant white and floats on the clean pale lager. The sparkling mouthfeel gives way to a soft malt sweetness that is followed by a long dry super crisp finish. The balanced clean finish taunts the mouth to take another drink.

Baron Oktoberfest: The Baron Oktoberfest is a traditional German Style Oktoberfest / Marzen. The beer has a deep copper / amber color with a sweet rich but light malt flavor. The finish is crisp and easy, leaving the mouth desiring for more. We age the Oktoberfest for a full 3 months to guarantee a fantastically smooth beer.

For more info on Baron's beers, or the brewery, please visit Baronbeer.com

New Beer For Friday Sept. 7, 2007

The holiday flood begins...


New Arrivals:

Serafijn Celtic Angel: There's no commercial description, so click the link to read some reviews or wait until I drink one and report back...

Serafijn Donker: This dark brown Serafijn has a spicy herbal character and a soft bitterness. The Achilles brewery has a unique way of achieving an even heating of the wort: using no direct flame or steam, the wort is pumped through a spiral that sits in a tub of hot water!

Serafijn Tripel: There's no commercial description, so click the link to read some reviews or wait until I drink one and report back...

Serafijn Grand Cru: There's no commercial description, so click the link to read some reviews or wait until I drink one and report back...

Hemel Nieuw Ligt Grand Cru: Translated from Dutch, on the painted label: "heavy beer, 12% ABV, for long cellaring. Full, dark, aromatic. Now ready to drink, but around 2008 at its peak. Store cool and dark. Drinkable until eternity." English bottles: Exquisitely brewed by Browerij De Hemel - "Heaven" in Dutch - and gently accented with spices lovingly picked from the Garden of Eden. It is specially brewed to give pleasure for all Eternity. Keep it in your cellar as long as you can. It just gets better as time goes by.

Gouden Carolus Noel: For the Christmas and New Year festivities the Gouden Carolus range is now extended to include this seriously heavy strong brown ale. Het Anker are thus rekindling a long lost tradition from the days of yore when they marketed Cardinal Christmas and Anker Christmas. The commercial description doesn't really say much, but I remember it being like a heavenly spiced dessert in a bottle. Take that for what it's worth...

Sam Adams Imperial Pilsner: This is easily the best brew I've ever had from Sam Adams, even better than the much maligned Triple Bock. Clear, golden, and medium bodied with a billowy white head. There's some malt in there somewhere, but this beer is all about the hops. Earthy, spicy Hallertau hops permeate every drop of this beer leave a lasting impression on your tongue. It won't be around for long, so try some while you can!

Six Rivers Bluff Creek Pale Ale: Citrus notes, well balanced, crisp with a hoppy aroma. Honestly, that commercial description leaves a lot to be desired, so I'll post something more thorough in a couple days.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale: A crisp and refreshing wheat beer with delightful aromatics and gently spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale : Punkin' Ale is a full-bodied, spiced brown ale brewed with baked pumpkins, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale is named after the annual Punkin' Chunkin Festival held near Lewes, Delaware the weekend after Halloween.



Long Lost Friends:

Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue) 1.5 Ltr Magnums: It's the same Chimay Blue you know and love, but in a larger bottle that's perfect for holiday gatherings or family dinners.

Piraat 1.5 Ltr Magnums: Piraat has been out of stock for so long I'd almost forgotten the wonderful blend of sugar and hops it provides. At 10.5% abv its another great beer for gatherings or a really, really long solo session.



Note: Most of these descriptions came from either the bottle or the brewers' website. I take no responsibility if something doesn't live up to the flowery marketing-speak they use to describe it.

Have a good weekend!

New Arrivals For August 31, 2007

First off the truck is Sierra Nevada's Anniversary Ale. Brewed to celebrate their 27th year of producing some of America's most consistently delicious beer. Here's the official description:

Anniversary Ale is an American-style IPA featuring Cascade hops, the signature hop used in our Pale Ale. The beer has a pronounced pine and citrus hop aroma balanced by the sweetness of two-row pale and caramel malts. The result is an unusually well-balanced IPA that proves an IPA can be both assertive and elegant. Anniversary Ale is a medium-bodied, well-hopped ale that finishes with a slight malt sweetness.

I'm envisioning a SNPA on steriods, or maybe a cross between the Pale and Celebration. Either way, I can't wait to get home and try a bottle.

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Next to arrive is Widmer's popular fall seasonal, Okto. It's smooth, it's malty, you know you want it. Widmer would like you to know the following:

The full body and malty flavor make Widmer Oktoberfest an ideal beverage for the Fall season. As the style dictates the hopping is delicate enough to allow the malty character to dominate, yet still provides a floral aroma and finish.

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And then the big one came in. The last load of the day has a couple new beers, and a few long-lost favorites that have been conspicuously absent for a long time:

New Guys:

Pyramid Imperial Hefe: (description coming soon...)

Big Sky Troutslayer: (description coming soon...)

Returning Favorites:

• Petrus Oud Bruin
• Piraat
• Gulden Drak

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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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.