The BeerMongers Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Nine years ago this summer we arrived in Portland, after a multi-day drive from our former home in the Midwest. As we settled in to our new surroundings in SE PDX we naturally gravitated to places with good beer and The BeerMongers was one of the first we stumbled upon. At the time they had been open just over a year and from the start we were warmly welcomed. Today we count many of our friends as people we met there and are thankful to be part of “The Mongers Community.”

Thursday, September 5 marks the 10th anniversary of The BeerMongers' opening and their 3,652nd consecutive day open. Owner Sean Campbell said, “We never planned on being open every day, it just happened organically. The community that has developed around that idea has been inspirational, allowing The BeerMongers to host community potlucks annually on major holidays when most establishments aren’t open. We all felt like our community needed a place to gather on holidays.”

To mark the milestone they have collaborated with some of their brewery friends to create 11 unique and creative beers, all on draft with some being canned/bottled as well, for the September 5 main celebration. In addition, daily events will take place September 1 - 8 highlighting the The BeerMongers’ greater role as a beer-loving community space.

The Beers

Barley Brown’s Cascadian Dark Pilsner (Draft)

Trap Door & Stormbreaker “Flip Ya For Real” Hazy DIPA (Draft/Cans)

Block 15 “The Pitch” Oregon Amber Lager Conditioned in Pitched Barrels (Draft/Bottles)

Wayfinder & Breakside American Pale Ale (Draft)

Von Ebert Kumquat Farmhouse (Draft)

Alesong The BeerMongers Biscotti (Draft/Bottles)

Upright & Danodan Extra Special Herbs (Draft/Bottles)

Alvarado Street West Coast IPA (Draft)

Ex Novo & Level Rustic English Old Ale (Draft)

Modern Times & Baerlic Coffee Vienna Lager (Draft/Can)

Ruse & Indie Hops Fresh Hop IPA (Draft)

The Events

Sunday, September 1 - Cellar Sale, featuring carefully-chosen aged beers from The BeerMongers’ extensive cellar stock

Monday, September 2 - Labor Day Cookout & Potluck, where friends and family (21+) are encouraged to bring a dish to share and gather for food, fun, and festivities

Tuesday, September 3 - High Stakes Cribbage Tournament at 6pm, plus 1st Annual Russell Awards in memory of Russell Riebesehl

Wednesday, September 4 - G.O.A.T. Bottle Share (Greatest of All Time), starting at 6pm

Thursday, September 5 - The Big Day! 3,652 Days in a Row! 11 Beers for 10 Years!

Friday, September 6 - Trappist Beer Appreciation Day (Cheese too!)

Saturday, September 7 & Sunday, September 8 - Outdoor Beer Garden and Games

(more details on all events here)

The BeerMongers

The Big Day: 10th Anniversary

Thursday, September 5th 11am - 11pm

1125 SE Division

See you there!

The Best Things We Drank: July 24 - 30

Last week was The Big Show aka the 30th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival and some of the best beers we drank were consumed on our two visits to it. The other portion were had at our Cheers aka The BeerMongers.

At OBF
Boundary Bay Raspberry Radler - One of the first beers consumed at this year's OBF, it was as delicious as it was gorgeous. A radler in name, this beer is a combination of raspberry puree and kettle soured beer fermented with an ale strain and house bacteria and dry hopped with Citra. It was bursting with fruit flavor and just the right amount of fruit tartness.

Baerlic Dropping Acid Psychedelic Sour IPA - The kettle souring with lactobacillus provides a sour-in-a-good-way aroma with a pleasant hop stank flavor from the El Dorado, Comet and Amarillo hops used. At 5% one could drink many of these.

Upright Heirloom Saison - Complex beers are Upright's thing and this blended beer starts with delicious wood on the nose (from the Saison part that spent 18+ months in barrels) and offers a bright, slightly sharp but refreshing flavor contributed by the black lime wheat component.

New Holland Dragon's Milk Reserve: Thai Curry - The biggest beer at the festival, an 11.7% imperial stout, was arguably the best beer of the festival as well. It's a meal (or at least dessert) in a glass with a coconut, mild spice and cocoa-y flavor. The elements combine to create a dangerously drinkable combo.

At TheBeerMongers
Bellwoods Farmageddon  - A true treat and a reason why generous beer people are so cool - they are happy to share great stuff with those that will appreciate it. Our buddy Chris recently visited Vancouver, B.C. and brought this back. Perfectly tart and delicious, this is a special edition of their classic Farmhouse Saison which is a blend of young and old barrels ranging from 6 months to 1.5 years. If you should see a bottle DO NOT hesitate to buy it. We guarantee it will be worth the price.

Off Color Hell Broth - Listed as a "Danish style American Wild Ale" and is a collaboration with Amager Bryghus, it possesses the aroma of cider with a light, drinkable beer flavor.

Schilling Cider Road Trip Peach Citra - It's coincidental but appropriate that the next beer on our list is in fact a cider. Whereas Schilling's grapefruit cider is just a fruity cider, here they've bridged the beer gap by finding the sweet spot between the fruitiness of peaches and the bitterness of hops.

If you attended OBF we'd love to hear what you thought topped the taps. If you didn't what has recently filled your glass with delight?

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Tap Takeover

If you've been beer shopping lately you may have noticed Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp mixed 12-pack (10 bottles + 2 cans). The beers contained within come from 12 breweries across the U.S. that Sierra Nevada partnered with, all of which are probably familiar names even if they aren't generally available in your market.

The Beer Camp Across America tour starts this Saturday in Chico, Calif. with tour stops in seven cities. Portland wasn't chosen to be one of those cities (or anywhere in Oregon actually) but that didn't stop my favorite watering hole from getting in on the action. Last night The BeerMongers had a tap takeover in which they had all 12 of the beers available - and not just pouring from those 12-pks, oh, no, they were All. On. Tap.

I won't bore you with a blow by blow account of each beer but two of my favorites were Ninkasi Brewing Double Latte Coffee Milk Stout and Bell's Brewery Maillard's Odyssey Imperial Dark Ale. Ninkasi doesn't get a lot of love from me these days but they really hit it out of the park with this coffee beer. And Bell's, well I'm happy whenever I can get my hands on a beer from this upper Midwest mainstay and their Dark Ale was right up there with some of the best they make.

Two others I feel compelled to mention are Victory Brewing Alt Route Altbier and Asheville Brewers Alliance Tater Ridge Scottish Ale (made with sweet potatoes). Neither are styles I gravitate towards mostly because they tend to be too malty for me but both of these were nice beers that I'd happily order again.

If you get a chance to try these beers on tap, do it. Even if not, grab one of the 12-pks, a couple of friends and sample your way through all the offerings. I bet you find at least a couple you'll want more of.

Not Your Dad's Beer & Popcorn

I'm a big fan of bar popcorn. You know the stuff. The popcorn machine sits in one of the dim corners of the bar supplying an endless amount of salty, buttery goodness. Get me going on that stuff and I'll power through a couple bowls of each with each pint. The popcorn I had last night was of a completely different ilk.

The BeerMongers is one of my favorite places in town and last night they had a beer and popcorn event. Representatives from Ballast Point were in town and Mongers had seven of their beers on tap ranging from ones I'd had before, like Sculpin, to new-to-me Indra Kunindra, a coconut curry stout. In addition they had local popcorn makers Masala Pop on hand sampling and selling popcorn with flavors like saffron rose and coconut curry.

I didn't have the time to sit down and have every beer paired with each of their popcorns so I went with the most intriguing beer, Indra Kunindra, which Masala Pop paired with saffron rose popcorn. I was skeptical that the flavor of the popcorn would be powerful enough to stand up to the delicious but assertive coconut curry. Thankfully I'm the trusting sort when it comes to pairings because this was a good one. Indra is a meal in a glass with a fair amount of curry heat and the popcorn, while not strongly flavored in one direction, is some of the best "caramel corn" I've ever had and tempered the spiciness nicely.

Those familiar with Mongers know there's a good chance at least some offerings from an event will still be available the next day. They also keep a supply of the savory masala popcorn available for purchase by the bowlful. In addition Masala Pop is available at a number of stores around town and since Mongers doesn't mind if you bringing in your own food, you could pick some up for your own pairing experiments. Not a bad Friday night plan, huh?

Get Wild at The Commons

Open to the public for nearly a year now on Friday and Saturday nights, The Commons has built sufficient momentum to add Thursday night tasting room hours to their regular schedule. As an added incentive to come visit them they're offering a seven-beer line up of the wild variety tonight.

Mike, Sean and Josh were in attendance at the Sean/Shawn/Shaun Killer Beer Week event at The BeerMongers last night, bringing with them two of the seven. An avowed fan of wild/sour beers as well as The Commons I had to have both Seani Tibi (aka Bene Tibi) and Plum Bretta. Tibi is a 100% Brettanomyces Lambicus fermentation with sour cherries and fresh apple cider that was aptly described by a fellow beer drinker as a cidery Saison. It's very tasty but it was the Plum Bretta, a farmhouse ale aged in a Pinot Noir barrel with Brettanomyces, finished with 80 lbs of hand-cut Italian plums, really knocked my socks off. Boasting a beautiful color, a tart aroma that made me too happy before the first sip and flavor that made it hard for me to order any other beer after this was a beer everyone I talked to thoroughly enjoyed.

Even before last night's two-beer preview I was excited about the line up. After? All I can say is that 5:00 pm seems like ages away and my face is puckering in anticipation.


All of the beers will be available in 12 oz glasses and sample sizes. Expect glasses to run $4 - $5 each. Photo courtesy of The Commons.

 

Weekend Recap

The weekend turned out to be a busier one than I had anticipated, and not because I was Christmas shopping. No, I was on a far nobler mission, the mission of good beer.

  

Friday night I managed to drag my still-sick-with-a-head-cold-can’t-taste-much husband up to NE to check out the newest Fire on the Mountain outpost. I’m a serious addict of their wings, and didn’t anticipate this would change that, but the one, two punch of offering both house brewed beer AND pizza was too much to pass up.

They are currently offering four beers, The Eleven NW Pale Ale, which I had tried a few days earlier at the Burnside location, X-Tinguisher Wheat, Hoosier Amber and Shocks of Sheba IPA. It will come as no surprise to hear that I liked their IPA the best. Part of it may be that I’m a hop head and pitted against three less hoppy beers, the outcome was nearly assured. Part of it may have been that those other three beers were simply styles that generally don’t impress me. I’ll leave any further speculation up to you.

Saturday night I got beer geeky at Brian’s place, where he dipped into his cellar and fellow beer lovers brought delights to share. One of the highlights was a vertical tasting of Anchor Christmas Ale, a beer which has never screamed out to me. While I still won’t be going to any lengths to acquire my own, the vertical tasting was very interesting. The 2005 was my favorite (and upon closer inspection, the only bottle with a screw-off cap), the 2007 & 2008 similar to one another, the 2009 & 2010 also similar to one another but a departure from the previous two and the 2011 nothing to write home about (maybe it needs a couple years in the cellar). There was also a magnum of Our Barrel Ale, which was a delicious blend of beers.

Three other beers of note from the night were Breakside Brewery Soursop Wheat, New EnglandBrewing Company Imperial Stout Trooper and Three Floyds Brewing Arctic Panzer Wolf. These three probably couldn’t have been more different, ranging from a delightfully, light sour beer, to a chocolate, roasty imperial stout to a huge hop bomb.

Sunday afternoon I had my second chance to get beer geeky at The Beermongers’ Cellar Dip. Sean brought out some treats, as did the other beer geeks that showed up. There weren’t any verticals but the vast majority of beers were ones that were not possible to get here. Some were personally brought back, others had been sent by friends and others came as the result of trades. Three Floyds once again came in my top three, this time with their 2009 Behemoth Blonde Barleywine, along with the now closed Roots Organic Brewing Epic Ale and HoppinFrog Brewery Barrel Aged Naked Evil Belgianesque Barleywine.

It was a busy weekend for this beer geek. Thanks to everyone that helped make it such a good time.



A New Favorite

Last night we did a very uncharacteristic thing for the McDs, we opted not to go to a beer fest, the Fresh Hop Tastival at Oaks Park. Instead we hit Fire on the Mountain for the most delicious wings on the planet and even though being stuffed, decided to stop by The Beermongers on the way home.

It had been too long since our last visit but as always, we were welcomed back with open arms and a chalkboard full of interesting choices on tap. With it being fall, Mag ordered up an Oktoberfest from one of the newest Portland breweries, Occidental, and with me being me, I couldn’t pass up the black IPA. I am in agreement that they are not black IPAs, but CDAs, however that’s the official name of the beer.

Beyond the pull of a black IPA/CDA, it was also from Uinta, which is a new-to-this-market brewery, out of Utah of all places. To date I’ve only Punk’n, and while it was fine, it didn’t knock my socks off. However, I’ve continued to hear good things about their other beers and I’m always interested to try something new.

The imperial pint poured black as night and the aroma hinted strongly that I was going to be pleased with my selection. Taking my first drink, “pleased” was an understatement to the degree of saying bacon tastes fine. No, bacon is one of the most delicious foods and this beer, Dubhe (pronounced Doo-bee) Imperial Black IPA, is one of the most delicious black IPAs ever. Not only does it offer the strong hop hit of an IPA, but it’s also a full bodied beer that coats the mouth and lingers. To get something this intense I would suspect there would be a corresponding sweetness that would make it difficult to get through. Not so. What made this pint last so long in front of me was that with each drink I savored it and enjoyed the aftertaste nearly as thoroughly.

The cherry on top of it all was that not only did The Beermongers have this on tap, but in bottles, too! Of course I had to take a couple home with me and as I was preparing to write this morning, the thought did actually cross my mind to crack one open. It’s that good.

Substitutions

In the last week I have stumbled upon replacements for not one, but TWO of my favorite Surly brews that I’ve been missing dearly.

The first was Green Flash West Coast IPA at The Beermongers.  This great place only has four or five beers on tap at a time, but they are always quality ones and like usual, this evening I was having a hard time deciding which one…first.  Having been pleased with the Green Flash beers I’ve had in the past, and not one to shy away from an IPA, that one got the nod.  However, it was with Mag’s assistance that I realized that both the taste and aroma were strikingly similar to Surly Furious.  Hazzaah!

Fast forward a week when I decide to visit The Eastburn for their can’t-be-beat Tuesday deal: $2 pints all day.  After a too-malty-for-me IPA at their main bar, I headed down the steps to their second bar, which carries a completely different set of beers.  Once again I gave into my IPA infatuation, going for Bear Republic’s Fresh Hop IPA.  The first sip tickled my brain, urging me to take another sip and another whiff.  Low and behold, this IPA had the same odd but loveable tea characteristics I firmly associate with Surly Bitter Brewer.  Score!

For all the wonderful beers I’ve found out here, I nearly cried with joy in finding these Surly substitutions.  Like Bitter Brewer, the fresh hop is likely in waning supply but I’m hoping I’ll be able to find Green Flash IPA on a more consistent basis to feed my Furious cravings.  Now if I could only find a Coffee Bender substitution…that’s probably dreaming a little too much, huh?