We drank a ton of great beer last week! And like last week those beers fall squarely into to two quite dissimilar categories - stout and sour.
Barley Brown's Don Vanuchi 2017 - This first beer is one we were lucky enough to drink thanks to Chris' recent trip to Eastern Oregon, which included a visit to his favorite brewery, Barley Brown's. In past years this Russian Imperial Stout has been barrel aged and while we enjoyed that, it really shines without the addition of the qualities the barrels imparted. It drinks bitter, like really good dark chocolate, which pleasantly masks the 9.5% ABV.
Adroit Theory B/A/Y/S (Ghost 546) - Another Russian Imperial Stout, its cocoa-bitter flavor is balanced with just a touch of sweetness making for a very drinkable 10%.
Belching Beaver Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout - Formerly called Viva La Beaver and Living La Beaver Loca, the aroma is predominately peanut butter with the flavor speaking more to the chocolate/cocoa part of the name with just the slightest bit of heat. It's no surprise that it is Belching Beaver's highest rated beer and that it has been awarded numerous gold and silver medals.
Allegory Fresh Pints!!! - This 4.2% fresh hopped sour ale starts with a great sour aroma, followed by a pleasant, drinkable sour flavor with just a touch of the characteristics from the fresh hops coming in at the end. A refreshing beer and a refreshing take on a fresh hop beer at a time when so many places default to an IPA, pale ale or red ale base.
O'so Tuppen's Demise - Shared by another Chris (who also goes by Tappan, not to be confused with the name of this beer), it's an outstanding blended barrel aged tart beer that's lightly effervescent and displays a gorgeous rosey color from the Michigan blueberries in it.
Flat Tail Dam Wild Raspberry and Lime - Flat Tail continues to impress us with their sour beers, this one full of berry flavor tempered every so slightly by a splash of lime. Clocking in at a surprising 7.5%, it's easy drinking and perfect for Indian Summer days.
Urban Family Zested - A newer beer from another brewery that excels at sour beers, the best way we can describe this is as the love child of lemon curd and beer. If you dig on bright and lemony, you should dig on this.
Earlier this month we joined our friends Chris and Lyn on their annual camping trip at Farwell Bend State Recreation Area in Eastern Oregon. We all know that camping tends to involve plenty of beer but this time was different than our usual hope-we've-packed-enough-booze-because-once-we-get-to-the-campground-what-we-have-is-what-we-have.
Farewell Bend is about 45 minutes past Baker City, where Barley Brown's is located. It might be Chris' favorite brewery so of course he was planning to visit again and this was a prime opportunity for us to visit for the first time. Arriving mid-afternoon, shortly after they opened we set about to trying a number of beers we hadn't had (although we'd had quite a few both because they're fairly well distributed in Portland and anytime Chris visits he always brings back growlers to share). Leaving while we were still in a position to finish the drive to the campground, we arrived with plenty of daylight to set things up. The evening was a typical camping one - a hearty dose of food and beers around the campfire - but nothing to crazy as the next day was the big beer day.
Boise, Idaho likely isn't one of the first places that pops to mind when thinking of beer destinations but we knew there was enough there to be worth the three hour round trip drive. It's something Mag and I wouldn't have undertaken on our own however Lyn doesn't drink so the four of us piled into their van mid-morning knowing we'd have a sober driver to bring us back at the end of the day. We didn't have a detailed itinerary but had identified a few places we definitely wanted to hit and mapped out others. From there it was a matter of trying to visit places in roughly a geographically sensical sequence taking into account what time each place opened.
Starting out on the western side of the Boise metro we rolled into Powderhaus Brewing and ordered up three pints to share - First Turns IPA, Haus Bier (cream ale) and Deadfall Ale (red ale). While enjoying our tasty first beers of the day I wandered around the interior, with seating open to the brewery, and "backyard" area with a small stage and creek running behind it. Both the IPA - woody and pleasantly hoppy - and the Red - hoppy and a bit nutty - are beers I could drink plenty of, the cream ale only getting a slight down grade due to style.
Next up was Crooked Fence Brewing, just a short jaunt down the road, where we decided that since it was a full service restaurant it would be a good idea to grab lunch before we got too far into our day. Crooked Fence is fairly well distributed in Portland so it was another round of pints with my choice being the Gose of Davy Jones - a version with a lovely, pronounced salt characteristic and a surprisingly rounded mouthfeel - along with a mighty tasty quesadilla. Mag and Chris opted for Hither Brown and Welcome to Idaho Amber.
Set with a good base for the rest of the day we continued east towards downtown with the next stop being Payette Brewing Company. An impressive facility in size and accommodations - a taproom that could fit a hundred people easily, multiple cooler doors of beer to go and a "backyard" outfitted with picnic tables, cornhole, a disc golf hole and hammock. Ordering our pints - Recoil IPA, Experimental IPA #2 and Payette Pale Ale - our server invited us to go through the glass door to the observation deck overlooking the brewery, something I found to be a good solution to letting people see the brewery without them getting in the way or requiring staff to attend to. The Recoil, a juicy IPA, was my favorite of the three and one I'll be keeping an eye out for in Portland as we see a fair number of their beers around town.
Then it was time to head downtown for our next three stops and here is probably a good place for a break in the story. Check back in a day or two to see what the rest of the Boise adventure entailed.
I don't know what kind of magical powers Dave Fleming possesses but somehow both last year and this year he has arranged for the day in January of his beer festival to be one of the warmest, most beautiful days of the whole month. Kudos to him for taking a risk on an outdoor festival (albeit tented) in the middle of winter and for creating a festival that couldn't be more Pacific Northwest themed. Coffee beers aren't for everyone but apparently there are more than enough of us that are interested in seeing how some of our favorite breweries incorporate locally roasted coffee into their beers.
This year there were 16 beers available, up from 12 last year, and being brutally honest I only enjoyed about half of them. But the actual enjoyment of the beer in my glass is only part of the equation. I'm a good beer geek, always on the search for the new thing, the beer I've never had before and I know that they're not all going to be winners. Some just weren't for me, some I think could have been better crafted, yet I give everyone an A for effort for creating something I haven't had before.
It's hard for me to pick my favorite but the four that were the cream of the crop in my opinion were:
Barley Brown's Barley's Imperial Breakfast Stout - An oatmeal stout using beans from Sorbenots Coffee in Baker City, this definitely tastes like chocolatey breakfast in a glass. I'd had the regular version of the beer before and it was good but this bigger, 8.5% ABV version, really does go to the next level.
Chetco Brewing Company Black Thunder - I'm a big fan of CDAs and for me this was the love child of a CDA and a stout. Brewed with Signature Coffee from Humbolt it was a more roasty version of a stout.
Fire on the Mountain Spanish Coffee Mudd - FotM is one of our favorite eateries in town so I'm familiar with most of their beers and have had their Electric Mud chocolate oatmeal stout on many occasions. I've also been known to enjoy a Spanish coffee from time to time and they nailed the flavor profile, with beans from Spella Café, while containing the booziness to beer range.
Elysian Brewing Cthulhu Imperial Oak Aged Coffee Stout - I won't go back on my word, this beer was brewed before the recent hubbub, but as soon as I saw it in the lineup I said to myself, "This will be the last Elysian beer I drink." And it was a hell of a good-bye beer with great coffee aroma and flavor, in part from the Stumptown Cold Brew used, and that's what I want to remember about Elysian.
Besides the beer I had a great time seeing friends from some of the participating breweries and plenty of fellow beer geeks. Gathered around the sunniest of the tables (we were first in line so we quickly snagged it) it was a great afternoon chatting about the beers and what everyone had been up to since we'd last seen one another.
The unexpected highlight was having brewer/owner Mike Frederick of Chetco Brewing Company out of Brookings, OR join us. His beer is distributed by Alebriated, which is owned by a friend of mine, and he was able to stop at the festival as part of a larger trip around the area. For brewing out of a 468 square foot facility he's doing good work. The fact that his beer made my tops list had nothing to do with meeting him yesterday, that was just the icing on the cake.
