Mighty Mites at Coalition

On Saturday one of our favorite haunts, Coalition Brewing, hosted “Mighty Mites: A session beer festival” on their back patio. This was the second such festival of the summer with Blitz Ladd putting on “Summer Session” the last Saturday of the July. We didn’t make it to that one, having out of town beer lovers and houseguests to tour around Beervana, and had it not been the case that my better half is a greater fan of session beers than I am, I might not have made it to this one either.

Perusing the offerings as set up ran past the official noon start time*, I crossed off the beers I’d had before, setting my course to hit a couple lighter hopped beers before diving into ones I expected to have a bit more bite, like Stone Levitation. I also had to set Fort George Working Girl Porter back in line a few places, not wanting the anticipated chocolate/coffee flavors to coat my palate too early in the game.

Throughout the afternoon, which was sunny, toasty and perfect for drinking session beers, I made it through all of the beers I wanted to try and then settled in for repeat fills of Block 15 Berliner Weiss. Not the most attractive of beers, especially through the cloudiness of my OBF mug, it more than made up for it with a light and mildly tart/sour flavor that cut through the heat of the day.

Besides the beer and the great weather, there was plenty of beer talk to be had. A number of the #pdxbeergeeks showed up, we reconnected with some folks we had met at another fest and got the chance to talk to a few new acquaintances as well. Not much more one could ask for, if you ask me.

 

 

*I have come to the conclusion that it must be a rule for all Oregon beer festivals to start late. Therefore no offense aimed in any specific direction.

Two Loves, Combined

I did it. Finally. On a Monday night no less. That’s right, I’m no longer a Roscoe’s virgin.

What pushed me over the edge? What temptation was it I could no longer resist? Sushi. Not just any sushi, but sushi paired with the bittered nectar of the gods, beer.

Although my love of sushi is strong and my love of beer uncontested, combining the two in a planned way was something I found to be intimidating. If done improperly, instead of complimenting one another one might overpower the other or they might clash in a horrific way. I’d be left unsatisfied and resentful of squandering two things that are exquisite on their own.
Of the eight pairings Roscoe’s, and their neighbor Miyamoto Sushi, offered, four passed my lips.

Those four were chosen based more so on the sushi side of the equation, with the beer pairing barely taken into consideration. In fact it’s unlikely that I would order a pint of any of these four beers on their own. Both the Gratzer and the Flora Rustica and not styles I tend to prefer, Kolsches don’t generally do much for me and the Hibiscus Ginger, while intriguing, would get the most cred in my book by the fact that Caldera makes it.

As is to be expected when ordering sushi, the presentation was beautiful. After tasting each of the pairings it was clear that the thought put into the beer selections were equal to the care put into the making of the sushi and I thoroughly enjoyed all four. I could have easily been convinced to order those same four again or taken on the next four were it not for the 82^nd Po-boy with tots patiently waiting on the table, which turned out to be delicious as well. (As a side note, if you are a Taco John’s potato ole fan, these tots are the closest thing I’ve ever had – yum!)

Left to right: #3 Escolar Roll w/Upright Flora Rustica, #8 Black Tiger Roll w/Burnside Gratzer, #6 Hamachi Roll w/Caldera Hibiscus Ginger, #1 Sexy Magic Roll w/Oakshire Daily Dose Kolsch

If you weren’t able to make it to this event, I’m sorry. It was a great time and at only $15 for all of that food and beer you see in the picture, an absolute steal. But don’t be too sad. Miyamoto sushi can be ordered and eaten along with beer at Roscoe’s any evening until 1 am. And keep your eyes open for me because this first visit is the kind of visit that ensures I’ll be making my way back for more.

A big thanks to all the folks that worked hard and worked together to put this on. You did great!

Perspective, Perception

Warning: This post is only sort of about beer. It’s more about beer people.

Having not posted for a few weeks I’ve been feeling a little stressed, like I’m letting the handful of loyal readers who bother to keep coming back down. I’ve been drinking good beer as usual but nothing has inspired me quite enough to tell you about it. But a beer related musing has popped into my mind, triggered in part by meeting up with some #pdxbeergeeks at the Green Dragon earlier this week.

I’d met a couple of these people, who I’ve found through the Twitterverse, in person before. The rest however I’d just seen through whatever picture they’d chosen to represent themselves with. Many of those pictures, including mine, obscure part of the face so one only has a partial idea of what the person looks like. This leaves one’s mind to make up the rest and it’s unlikely that the mind will get it exactly (or even remotely) right.

I was told by one person (not last night) that I look taller in my Twitter picture. When I heard that I thought it was kind of odd but since then that exact thought has popped into my mind about someone else. Weird. I don’t have an explanation so if you do, I’d love to hear it.

Anyway, I find it interesting to see what picture people chose to represent themselves with after I’ve met them in the flesh. I know many of mine have as much to do with how I look in the picture as what was actually going on when the picture was taken.