Regret

Regret is one of the downsides of being a beer geek and it showed its ugly head this morning. As I opened my email to see the results of Concordia Ale House's Beer Brawl VII and began perusing the names of the 12 beers that had comprised the taster tray a wave of regret swept over me. Sure, I'd had things going on but it wasn't like there hadn't been any opportunities for me to swing up to CAH for a tray. Rather I knew about it, kept thinking about going and in the end just didn't get around to it.

This is a different kind of regret than, for example, last June when we took a beercation to Colorado during Portland Beer Week. The trip was great fun - four days of delicious beers with friends from Minnesota. Nevertheless I regretting missing out on the Fruit Beer Festival, one of my favorites, and some of the other goings on that were happening in conjunction with PDX Beer Week for those four days.

I presume if you're reading this that you, too, are a beer geek and as part and parcel you experience regret from time to time. What has been a recent regret for you (perhaps missing out on a Pliny the Younger tapping)? How about one of your biggest regrets (maybe not yet going to GABF after planning to for years)?

P.S. After drafting this post, I did my morning Facebook feed check in only to see a post from a beer geek that is currently living overseas. He was feeling a bit sorry for himself that he didn't have any hoppy beers in the fridge. What he did have was a bottle of Cantillon. Regret or feeling sorry for one's self takes many forms.

Snow Brawl at Concordia Ale House

With the Holiday Ale Festival going on concurrently I'll take a wild guess and say that this Brawl at Concordia Ale House is getting a lot less love than most of them. However after visiting HAF twice early in its run and being asked by a buddy to join him at Concordia yesterday I found no reason not to do just that.

For those unfamiliar with Concordia's Brawls, they are basically blind beer tastings where each tray has 10 - 12 beers and people vote for their favorite. Sometimes the beers are all one style (i.e. IPAs), sometimes the beers are specifically from physical locations (i.e. half from Oregon, half from Washington) and sometimes there is a combination of things going on. Snow Brawl, unsurprisingly, was a tray of winter beers - 10 beers representing breweries in Oregon, Washington, California and Colorado.

Overall I was unimpressed with the majority of the beers, which is a departure from most Brawls I've been to. However winter beers tend to go lighter on the hops than I'd like so there is a good chance that's the reason. That's also the reason that I chose #1 as my favorite. It was the hoppiest of the bunch and I unabashedly chose it.

Concordia is great about getting the results out, usually in the wee hours separating Sunday from Monday, and I'll be even more interested than usual to have the beer and brewery names revealed. If you haven't stopped in yet you still have all day today. As a bonus, breakfast will be available until 2:00 p.m. and football will be on the TVs.

Fresh Hop Beers All Over Town

Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Hood River Hops Fest and I know plenty of people that are looking forward to it. I have yet to make the drive out to this festival, especially when there are so many fresh hop happenings going on without leaving the comfy confines of Portland.

Already in progress is Concordia Ale House's Fresh-Hop-a-Palooza where one can get a "groovy taster tray" of 10 fresh hop beers for $12. Those who have been to their events before know to expect that the beers will be presented blindly with the names of the beers revealed the Monday following the conclusion of the event (September 30) and a people's choice winner announced from the votes submitted.

Next weekend Roscoe's throws their 4th Annual Fresh Hop Summit and the Fresh Hop Fest takes place at Oaks Park. The Summit, or if you prefer "tap takeover-style event," starts Friday, October 4th and will feature 17 fresh hop beers. Since that number is greater than the number of taps they have the beers will be presented on a rotating basis throughout the weekend with taster trays available. A partial list of breweries and beers is currently available on the Facebook event page; expect more details to be announced as the Summit approaches.

Running Friday evening and Saturday Oaks Park Fresh Hops Fest will be serving up another line up of fresh hop beers. Drink packages run $15 - $40 for glasses + tickets and can be purchased in advance or at the door. I've yet to see a beer or brewery lineup released, which is generally par for the course for this festival.

The following Tuesday (October 8 for those not following along with their calendar) is White Owl Social Club's Heathens & Hops Fresh Hop Celebration. This music venue and quietly-working-on-becoming-a-beer-bar had their first beer festival last month, Lager Fest. As I understand it, the turnout was lower than optimal, due in part to some early fall weather raining on the parade. I'm pleased to see that didn't seem to deter them as they take another stab at it with a festival featuring 15 breweries, primarily from Oregon. The brewery and beers list can be found on their Facebook event page.

Besides the festivals there are of course plenty of fresh hop beers to be found at breweries and bars all around town as well. With all the choices you're sure to find a time and venue to get your fill of bright, fresh-from-the-vine hopped beers.

Beer Brawl VI Results

The people have spoken. The results are in. Oregon kicked some BIG beer butt outpacing their nearest competitor, Colorado, by a nearly 2-t0-1 ratio in Concordia's Beer Brawl VI. Each of the 590 taster trays contributed three votes (one in each category) to come up with the following totals.

Oregon 720

Colorado 425

California 365

Washington 260

And now, so that we're on the same page as I muse over some of the results, here are the beers in the order of the taster tray.

 

#1 Pfriem Mosiac Pale Ale (OR)
#2 Stone Pale Ale (CA)
#3 Georgetown Manny's Pale Ale (WA)
#4 Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale (CO)
#5 Hale's Super Goose IPA (WA)
#6 Good Life Descender IPA (OR)
#7 Great Divide Titan IPA (CO)
#8 Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA (CA)
#9 New Belgium Imperial Chocolate Coffee Stout (CO)
#10 Black Diamond Rampage Imperial IPA (CA)
#11 Boneyard Hop Venom Double IPA (OR)
#12 Elysian Manic Series Savant IPA (WA)

The first thing that struck me was learning that #1, a beer that knocked my socks off, is made with the same hops, Mosaic, that I learned through a bottle share on Saturday I really, really enjoy (if you follow me on Twitter you may have seen the tweet).

The next observation was that #4, which I felt was a strong runner up to #1 in the Pale Ale category, was Dale's. I know that this is a beer I've thoroughly enjoyed in the past but it's been quite some time since I last had one. I'm glad to see it still makes my taste buds sing.

My blindly chosen favorite in the IPA category, #6, turned out to be Good Life Descender IPA. I haven't had a lot of Good Life but with this information I'll have to see about having more in the future.

#9, the oddball of the bunch, is a beer I know I've never had before and although I didn't choose it as my favorite in the Open category it was good. Now that I know its identity I hope to find it again as I'd like to have more of it.

I was not surprised at all to learn that my favorite, #11, was Hop Venom. Interestingly, however, #11 did not take receive the most votes overall. That honor went to #6 Good Life Descender IPA while the second most popular beer overall went to #1 Pfriem Mosaic Pale Ale and third place to #9 New Belgium Chocolate Coffee Stout.
With that bit of fun done I'm looking forward to the next "drinking game" Concordia presents to the thirsty Portland masses.

Concordia's Beer Brawl VI

Concordia Ale House's Beer Brawl VI is in full swing as the four-state battle pits beers from Oregon, Washington, California and Colorado against one another in three categories: IPA, Pale Ale and Open on a 12-glass taster tray. In a departure from our attendance at recent "Cup" events, we hit it up early in the week meaning we'll have to wait longer to see how our favorites stacked up to the crowd favorites but that's the way the beer pours.

As our taster trays were brought out smiles overtook our faces as we could immediately smell the hoppy goodness without even needing an up close inspection. Starting off with beer #1, in the Pale Ale category, I was absolutely delighted. The huge grapefruit/tropical fruit aroma and flavor were a siren's song, hitting high, bright hop notes. It took my vote for best in the category although #4 was a solid second choice.

Moving on to the IPAs (#5 - #8) #6 stole the show for me with a lovely, stinky hoppiness. Then it was on to the final category, Open, with the first beer (#9) being strikingly different that the rest of the beers in this group. Either a stout or a porter, it was very tasty but for me couldn't compete with the others, of which two I suspect were Double IPAs. My final vote of the night went to #11 with #10 being an even closer runner up than #4 had been in the Pale Ale category to #1.

Overall it was a very tasty taster tray and if I were to be given the option to vote for my single favorite on the tray that honor would have to go to #11. But since that isn't part of the voting I did the next best thing and ordered a pint of it.

Beer Brawl VI runs through close of business on Sunday leaving you plenty of time to stop in and cast your own vote. I'm looking forward to Monday not only to see if my winners were echoed by the majority of the voters but also to have the identities of the beers revealed. Thanks to Concordia for creating such delicious drinking games!

Colorado Cup at Concordia

This week Concordia Ale House is holding their Colorado Cup to determine Colorado's Captain for Beer Brawl VI which will take place in February. The 10-beer taster try included multiple styles, my guess being IPAs, pale ales, a porter and one that had some fruit in it. My favorite of the group was #8 followed by #1. Mag's tastes didn't overlap mine with is top two being #5 followed by #4.

While we didn't have any guesses during the tasting of which beer might be which, afterward I consulted my go-to source for what's available in the area, Belmont Station's bottle list, and found that we get Avery, Oskar Blues, Great Divide, New Belgium, Boulder Brewing and New Planet (gluten free beers). Armed with that information I have a few guesses about what some of the beers were:

• #6 - Oskar Blues Mamma Pils
• #9 - New Belgium Frambozen 
• #10 - Avery New World Porter
• I was also tipped off that #1 was a New Belgium product but I won't spoil the unveiling of the results by giving you more than that. 

If you haven't been, you have until Sunday evening to get your own taster tray. As always the results should hit your inbox Monday. Until then if you go I'd be interested to hear your favorites and any guesses you might have on the beers' identity.

Update: In case you didn't get the email with the results, here they are. Clearly I'm not very good at guessing.
1. New Belgium Ranger IPA 4th place
2. Boulder's Hazed & Infused
3. Oskar Blue's G'Knight
4. Great Divide Titan IPA
5. Deviant Dale's Imperial IPA Tie 2nd place
6. Oskar Blue's Dale's Pale Ale
7. Boulder's MOJO IPA
8. Hercules Imperial IPA Tie 2nd place
9. Blue Moon Impulse10. New Belgium 1554 1st place

California Cup at Concordia

With no plans for Saturday we decided to head up to Concordia Ale House for their California Cup to sample 10 California-brewed IPAs. We'd enjoyed the Fresh Hop-a-Palooza in October (regardless of some of the offerings not truly being fresh hop brews) and looked forward to another "drinking game."

We opted to share one 10-beer sampling tray figuring it would free us up to order pints of our favorite(s) after making it through the tasting and identifying the ones that spoke to us the most. Mag ran the tray backwards, starting with #10 and working his way down, while I went with the traditional route starting with #1 and working my way up. Halfway through the tray I suspected he might have done it "right," either that or there was a tray full of beers of which none would be of the variety of IPA I like best.

Thankfully the second half of the tray was much better. There we both found our favorites. #9, full of grapefruity goodness, took top honors from me with #7, offering up stank in both the aroma and flavor, my runner up. Mag chose #8 as his favorite (not hoppy enough for me) with #10 (boozy sweet but drinkable to my palate) his runner up.

The results will be emailed out from Concordia Monday and I hope they'll also include the names of the beers. I'll be interested to see how my blind tasting palate compares to my previous, "eyes wide open" opinions of the beers have been. Four of the beers tasted familiar but only my favorite would I hazard a guess as to what it might be (Hop Stoopid from Lagunitas). If you went to the California Cup, what was your favorite? Any guesses on naming any of the beers?

Results Update: While I am clearly no good at guessing the name of my favorite, I did vote for the crowd favorite. It turned out to be Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA which I have had, and enjoyed plenty, in the past. My runner up was another favorite frequent flyer - Stone IPA.

Neither of my favorites surprised me but what did was that I did not enjoy #5 which was revealed to be Green Flash West Coast IPA. I usually LOVE that beer so I wonder why not this time. Anyone else agree with me? Any ideas on why?

Fresh Hop-a-Palooza

It was a whole new take on fresh hop beers Concordia Ale House offered last week. Instead of choosing your selection of fresh hop beers off a list, for $12 a tray of 10 unmarked beers was presented. In this way there was no opportunity to be influenced by the name of the brewery or whatever you may have heard about a specific beer. It was just your taste buds and the beer.

Of the 10 beers provided the clear favorite in my book was #5 with #8 coming in second. Mag preferred #7 with #1 being his runner up. Although I couldn't be for certain I was pretty sure that none of the 10 tasted familiar. Going on the last day of the Palooza meant that I only had to wait about 12 hours to find the results waiting in my inbox, a timeframe when the beers were still quite fresh in my mind.

F->A->S->T-> F->O->R->W->A->R->D->

My favorite also turned out to be the crowd favorite, Ninkasi Total Crystalation, a fresh hop version of Total Domination. New Belgium Hop Trip X took 2nd, Rogue Oregasmic took 3rd and Mag's favorite, Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere came in 4th. Reviewing the full list I think my initial impression that I hadn't had any of them previously was correct. With any luck, even though fresh hop season is winding down, I do hope to get a few more pints of Ninkasi's deliciousness!

If you attended Fresh Hop-a-Palooza how did your favorite stack up? Was is something you'd had before?

Note: Concordia included a couple of corrections along with the results visual. #10 was actually New Belgium Trip X, not VII and Ninkasi's beer name is correctly spelled Crystalation.

Brawlin' - The Follow Up

While I wasn't correct about the brewery that made my favorite beer at Concordia's most recent Beer Brawl, I was part of the majority that voted #11 most often in the Brewers Choice category. The beer was in fact Hop Venom from Boneyard Brewing. Of the 674 taster trays that were ordered during the week-long fest, 342 people besides me voted for this beer in the category. That's pretty impressive but it should be noted that it just barely edged out Nectar IPA, my favorite in the IPA category, who had 334 votes. So while voters weren't given the opportunity to vote for their favorite out of all 12 beers (as Tracy suggested) it still speaks to the appeal of the beer.

The Pale Ale category contained Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Fremont Pale Ale (my choice in this category) and Hopworks Organic Pale Ale. Looking back at my tasting notes, I'm surprised to see my unfavorable comments regarding Hopworks as I generally enjoy their brews.

The IPA category contained Pelican IPA, Nectar IPA (my choice in this category) and Hale's Supergoose IPA. My notes also surprised me here as I noted a big "uck!" for Pelican.
The Stout category contained North Coast Brewing Old Rasputin Stout, Elysian Dragon's Tooth Stout (my choice in this category) and Deschutes Obsidian Stout. Here my notes, when paired up with the beers didn't surprise me a bit. I noted that Old Rasputin was "boozy" and Obsidian had "very coffee aroma."
The Brewers Choice category contained Walking Man Homo Erectus, Boneyard Hop Venom (The Best!) and Firestone Walker Double Jack. Now that I know the final beer was FW Double Jack I'm not surprised in the least that I noted it gave Hop Venom "a good run for favorite."

This was the first time I had participated in a Beer Brawl and I believe the first time I've ever done a blind tasting. Going back and referencing my notes (yes, I am an uber-geek) after finding out what I had been drinking was interesting. My only regret was that I hadn't taken more detailed notes. Ah well, there's always a next time for me to sit, with a tray of beer in front of me, scribbling notes instead of interacting with my fellow drinkers.

Beer Brawlin'

Concordia Ale House is in the midst of another one of their Beer Brawls. In the current incarnation of the Brawl, they're offering up 12 beers divided into four categories: Pale, IPA, Stout and Brewers Choice (which happens to be imperial IPAs). All of the beers hail from either Oregon, Washington or California and it's up to you after tasting your way through the sampler tray to choose one favorite from each of the four categories.

At this point you might be thinking, "So, I'm just supposed to pick my favorite? Why exactly would I do this?" I'll tell you why: The beers are merely numbered and put in one of the categories. There is no beer name. There is no brewery name.

Once the week-long Brawl is over Concordia will announce the winners from each category. They'll also reveal the names of the beers and the breweries. While I probably won't have a good memory of most of the beers, I will most definitely remember #11, the middle beer in the Brewers Choice category. Last night I was fairly certain of the beer and the brewery who made it. Today I noticed that the Brewers Choice category contained imperial IPAs, which meant I couldn't be right on the beer. But I'm sticking with the brewery - Green Flash. Check back next week to see if I guessed right. In the meantime, hightail it to Concordia Ale House to cast your own vote.

This looks like fun, doesn't it? PLUS, you get oyster crackers!