Category: Other Beers

The Lucky Lab on Hawthorne is having a Big Beers festival today and Saturday, March 5 & 6th. I think some Beer Advocate folks will be there. I think I will too.

The battle for the belt is over, and I’ve not heard who won yet. However, here are my votes:

1) Austino Amber – Mill Creek, WA – This was a fantastic amber, and if its his first, he’s got a great recipe to work with. The hop profile was excellent; bright and floral with a superb bitterness. The sweet malt body was an excellent compliment.

2) Quasar Pils – Crystal Brewery, Portland OR – The only pils this year, and a damn fine example. The pour had excellent clarity and a wonderful creamy head that lasted the entire beer. The aroma was smooth and hoppy, but a nicer floral hop than traditional Saaz. The taste was a mouthful of lager malts and left with a crisp bite. I hope this shows up again this summer.

3) Big Bully Organic IPA – Hillsdale Pub, Portland OR – In the past I haven’t thought the world of this beer, but it was by far the best IPA served. It wasn’t too overt, but the favorable hop aroma and flavors and clean malt body made it an easy drink.

There were a number of other good beers, but so many of them, mostly stouts, weren’t distinct enough to stand out. Though they were good, I couldn’t tell which I’d had once I set the taster back down. I remember the Bucket Dance Oat Stout, Sumatran Stout, Bitter Bridesmaid IPA and Ankeny Amber favorably, and will definitely have them again.

Today is the annual McMenamins Battle for the Belt. We’ve been in years past, and have had a great time trying all the myriad of locally brewed flavors. The Hillsdale pub was our neighborhood pub up until recently, but we still consider it that, and make frequent visits to sulk or celebrate in a dark corner booth. I think we’ll be taking the in-laws today to imbibe.

Rogue is hosting a Beer & Chocolate tasting with Fred Eckhart tonight. We decided not to go because of the cost, $25/person. We’ll have to do it next time around, because it sounds like a great time.

Instead, we spent most of that money on Rogue’s Garage Sale, which involves selling cases of their beer for a good discount. There were some real bargains, like Mexi-Cali Rouge and Chamimellow for $15/case, but most were $20-$25 a case. Scott and I are splitting 4 cases – Brutal Bitter (!), Shakespeare Stout, Mocha Porter, and Younger’s Special Bitter. What a treat, and at $2 a bottle!

So that’s our Valentine’s day, in Beer. I think fondue is on the menu too.

Out of curiosity, I picked up a bottle of Romulan Ale from John’s Marketplace yesterday. The beer wasn’t anything special. It was better than I expected though. Sadly, its not an ale, but rather a german style pilsner.

The novelty of the beer is what made it great. It turned my mouth blue, and I spilled some on my dog, who promptly licked it up, turning his mouth blue. As a result, the yellow lab he was playing with was left with a couple of blue streaks around the neck. What about the day after affects? Well, everything wasn’t turned blue (to my disappointment), but rather green. But that’s what you get for $1.55.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who could give a damn about carbs in their beer. The absurd fad seems to unavoidable, but the readers of Realbeer.com don’t seem to be suckers like the rest of the country.

A recent poll shows that 70% of readers are dumbfounded by the trend. The other 30%? Well, its the <10% who always worry about the carbs in their beer that have me worried. If you’re concerned, drink water.

Last night fellow BeerAdvocate weefisheads invited other Portland drunks enjoyers of beer over for a tasting. It was a lot of fun, and David (weefishheads) was incredibly generous with his beers.

Though there wasn’t a bad beer among them (I liked the precipice, but I thought it was a brown, not a pale), a couple really were stunningly good. The first beer, and my favorite of the evening, was Three Floyd’s Dreadnaught IPA. It was an incredible lesson in balance, gentleness, flavor.

AleSmith Horny Devil, Storm King Stout, and Moonglow Weizenbock (surprised me too) stood out the most, but they were all excellent.

Thanks to David for his generous sharing and it was great to finally meet some other Portland beeradvocates.

The beer I grew up around just turned 100 years of age. Miller High Life is what my dad drank in Wyoming. After finishing a case, it was traditional to take all the clear empties back to the store to reclaim the deposit. The uniquely shaped bottles still carry the signature shape, though I imagine sales of cans has far outweighed bottles lately.

My dad started drinking micro brews after moving to Washington, though he insists Miller High Life was better when he drank it back in the day. No one else seems to think so.

I have no affinity for the beer, or its previous or current owners, but I’m quite impressed that they could make a product that has stayed the same for so long. That’s quite a feat.

This weekend is Portland’s Holiday Ale Festival. As usual, its a good idea to pace yourself.

I’m hoping to go Friday evening, maybe even Saturday as well.

Family from Yakima brought news of this for Thanksgiving. Yakima Brewing and Malting is going to make a public offering for its Mandarin Hefeweisen, which is its newest and best seller.

This seems in stark contrast to the former owner and namesake Bert Grant’s possessive nature. I may be pessimistic here, but it give me the feeling of a Red Hook or Widmer type business deal. Its not to say that they don’t make good beers (they do, mostly), but their production is dominated by a single, bland beer. I suppose this is good for them, and provides the economic backing for bigger and better things, but a certain AB owns large percentages of each company. That certain AB company, though tireless in their pursuit of quality control, seems to be more interested in market share than damn fine products.

Time will tell. I wish Grant’s the best; Their cask Scottish is amazing, and the pub is one of the few remaining pieces of architecture in Yakima that has been emptied and moved to the sucker-fish of a city called Union Gap.