The Best Things We Drank: September 18 - 24

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. 

#10 For You, #2 For Me

This year marks the 10th Annual Oregon Garden Brewfest and our second year attending it. While last year everything was new and shiny to us, this year we had a better idea of what to expect and were eager to experience it again.

The first thing we knew to expect was that the later in the day we left to get down to Silverton Thursday afternoon, the more traffic there would be. We planned accordingly and found ourselves already nearing the Salem exits from I-5 just after 3 pm. After a quick look at options for ways to spend the hours between then and dinner, we decided to pay a visit to Vagabond Brewing. I'll be telling you more about that soon, but for now, just know that it was worth visiting and if you're in Salem don't pass up the opportunity to go yourself.

Once we arrived at the Oregon Garden Resort and got checked in we headed over to the Fireside Lounge for some pre-dinner drinks. There were plenty of familiar faces but this time instead of getting our beers and finding a seat on one of their comfy couches we opted to stay at the bar. We talked to quite a few people, including owner and brewer of Boring Brewing, John Griffith. I'd exchanged emails and phone calls with John the previous summer in the course of setting up a BREWVANA tour but this was my first time meeting him in person. Not only that but as I was to find out the next day, his Hot Scotch Scottish Ale (brewed with Scotch Bonnet peppers) was outstanding. Enough jumping ahead, a bit on the six-course Brewer's Tasting Dinner first.

The dinner offered a wide range of beers - from well-known breweries (Bridgeport, Stone and Cascade) to younger, less proven ones (Golden Valley, Rusty Truck and Salem Ale Works). Of the six courses there was only one where I didn't enjoy the beer, the food or the pairing and a second one where the beer was excellent but the food was by far my least favorite of the night. As is often the case there was one pairing where I didn't particularly enjoy the beer on its own (Golden Valley Pinot Noir Barrel-Aged Geistbock, pictured) but when paired with the hazelnut crusted goat cheese fritters, I found it much more enjoyable.

Both the second course - Rusty Truck Simcoe CDA with smoked sausage potato cakes - and the fifth course - Cascade Honey Ginger Lime with pork confit-stuffed artichoke - offered great beer, great food and a great pairing of the two. Going into the dinner we told ourselves that since we were staying two nights this year we should take advantage of the post-dinner drinking but alas, our bellies full of beer and food overruled our determination to "stay out" and by 10 pm we were both zonked out.

The next morning we enjoyed the rare opportunity to sleep in. After building a good base at breakfast and a stroll around the gardens there was still some time to kill before it was time to embark on the festival, just enough time for a session in the resort's hot tub. Then it was off to drink!

My plan for this festival, as it is at many, was to avoid the brews I had tried before regardless of how much I like them, and work on trying new-to-me beers. Four beers easily rose to the top: Boring Brewing Hot Scotch, something we had learned about the night before from John, Feckin Brewery Irish Oatmeal Porter, Flat Tail Brewing 6 am Stout and Goodlife Brewing Evil Sister, an imperial version of their Little Sister ISA.

Evil Sister was a heavenly citrus bomb but at 9% a bit to big to drink a ton of. Hot Scotch, while being the most delicious pepper beer I've had, still had more heat than I could drink more than a pint of. That left, when it came to the time in the festival when I still had tickets but had tried all the beers I wanted to, the porter and the stout. Enjoying them alternately until our tickets were exhausted and our bellies starting to grumble for a proper meal made for a great end to the festival.

The festival continues today (Saturday) until 11 pm, with live music starting at 5 pm, and tomorrow 12 - 5 pm. With only an hour's drive between Portland and Silverton, if you're looking for something to do this weekend, it's still a do-able option. Otherwise, keep the last full weekend of April open next year and consider attending the 11th Annual Oregon Garden Brewfest.

Brewer's Tasting Dinner at the Oregon Garden

Last night's Brewer's Tasting Dinner, on the eve of the Oregon Garden Brewfest, brought brewers and beer lovers to the table for a six course meal. One cider and five beers, each introduced by their brewer, were paired a mix of traditional plates and those with surprising components.

First Course - Flat Tail Blended Beer with Fontina, Boursin and dill Havarti with dried fruit and crostini

The dinner started off with a very successful pairing of a blended beer from Flat Tail that was part pre-Prohibition pilsner and part sour beer.

Second Course - Fort George Roses on Roses Belgian IPA with blackened shrimp martini with fresh pico salsa and crab meat

After a big first course I was pleased this was a smaller portion of food. Belgian IPAs are not a style I enjoy and the boozy, barrel aged flavors were appreciated more by others at the table than me.

Third Course - 2 Towns Traditions Ciderworks 2012 Vintage Amity Rose - Willamette Valley Traditional Dry Cider with pork and baby apple bruschetta

The cider was more like a wine, dry and not sweet at all to my palate, but it was delicious with the apples and pork.

Fourth Course - Alameda White Peppercorn Saison with spinach salad with smoked pears, walnuts and lemon vinaigrette

The Saison was "dry hopped" with peppercorns and was delicious with the walnuts alone. The most impressive part of the dish was the smoky aroma and flavor from the pears. Had I not known it was a smoked pear salad I would have thought that there was delicious smoked meat on it.

Fifth Course - Falling Sky Who Loves the Sun Winter Spice Ale with Cornish game hen with grilled strawberries and root vegetables

I didn't anticipate liking a winter spice ale but it surprised me with a sweet, hoppy aroma and a completely different, amazing tropical fruit flavor. Another surprise was in store for me with a bite of grilled strawberry and a piece of bacon. I could have eaten a whole plate of just these two components.

Sixth Course - Santiam Sangre de Cristo Oak Barrel Aged Cabernet Stout with flourless chocolate cake with black cherry compote

The barrel aging of the beer was very prevalent and very pleasant and paired with the dense cake...nothing short of f*$%ing amazing. Really.

The evening - the food, the beer, my dining companions - were a great start to my first visit to the Oregon Garden and the Brewfest. Although the dinner is now just a delicious memory and I can't do anything other than suggest you get a seat next year, the fest awaits, running both Friday and Saturday. It's going to be a gorgeous day so hop in the car and make the short drive to Silverton for the Oregon Garden Brewfest.

Change of Plans

Our plans for Saturday looked like this.

In case you don't recognize it, that's the front gate of the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire. Living in Minnesota previously we were supremely spoiled by what is likely one of the best renaissance festivals in the country. That version runs for approximately six weeks at a site where there are permanent buildings, stages, etc. The Shrewsbury version is a two-day affair on what they hope is the driest weekend of the year. While it was good to scratch that itch and check it out, we were ready to leave after a couple hours and therefore had to formulate Plan B.

 

So our plans changed to this.

Being so close to Corvallis we couldn't pass up checking out Flat Tail Brewing. I've been very pleasantly surprised with the sour beers they've been making, most recently enjoying Cool Hand Cuke, a cucumber Berliner Weiss, at Bailey's. Fortune (or maybe Fate, as apparently it was Sour Beer Day) shown on me as during our visit Flat Tail had that one and another sour, Vallee Blanche, available. Like Cool Hand Cuke this was a great, light sour and the epitome of why Flat Tail has become a favorite of mine. I also really enjoyed their White Heat Wit, a wit made with pink and white peppercorns. For those who aren't into spicy beers, not to worry. The pepper profile is most certainly there but not in a hot, spicy way. Rather the peppercorns work with the wheat base to give it a very distinct yet drinkable flavor.

It would have been nice to saunter down to Block 15 for a few pints but it seemed to make sense to hit the road before Beavers fans streamed out of the stadium. Guess we'll just have to make another trip soon.

Flat Tail Does Sours

You know about my love of sour beers. And if you live in, or are familiar with, Portland there's probably one brewery that springs to mind when the topic of sour beers come up: Cascade. That's a perfectly understandable association since that's what they specialize in. That doesn't mean there aren't other brewers making sours. In fact, there are others that are doing a mighty fine job at it and Flat Tail Brewing is one of them.

Thursday night head brewer Dave Marliave brought three of his beers, including one sour, to The Guild for a Meet the Brewer event with #pdxbeergeeks. Their Wild 5 Amber is a blended, 9 month old sour beer and convinced me that Dave knows what he's doing when it comes to sours. I decided right then that if I came across another sour Flat Tail creation I'd make sure to order it.

As it turned out, that opportunity came the next evening at The Beermongers. They were tapping two brews, two different ones than had been available at The Guild: Put a Bird on Wit and Jarabe Caliente! After a quick scan of the beer descriptions, I knew I wanted to try the Jarabe but it took a subsequent, closer read to realize that although the other was a wit, a style I don't particularly enjoy, it was in fact a SOUR wit. That sealed the deal and I couldn't wait for the keg to be put on.

While Put a Bird on Wit was a completely different sour, as one would expect a wit to differ from an amber, I enjoyed it as thoroughly as I had the Wild 5 Amber. I sure hope Dave will be making plenty more of both because I'll be looking for and drinking them as often as I can.