Beer Cocktails: Oktoberfest & Vodka Edition

This year we've been getting more exposure to liquor and the experiences have opened our eyes and palates. We're not afraid to admit that the hard stuff has been intimitating, probably not too dissimilar to when we started drinking craft beer. What is actually good? What is worth the cost? What do we enjoy?

One of our partners on this exploration has been Annebelle, who has a great palate, a taste for cocktails and an eye for presentation. We came up with the idea to try our hand at making beer cocktails, getting together on a monthly basis to test out various combinations of a designated liquor and a style of beer each time. And while having more cooks in the kitchen isn't the best of plans, having another set of taste buds for our experimenting seemed prudent. Insert Lee who has a wealth of experience with tipples - being a mead maker, brewer and distiller - and is just as adventurous as we are.

Since fall is here it felt fitting to use Oktoberfests for the beer style and being our first go around, we chose one of the easier liquors to mix - vodka. What we came up with were a handful of cocktails, that may be subject to a bit more refining in the future, but we quite enjoyed and felt were worth sharing.

Fest-bier-tini
- Occidental Festbier
- Olde York Farm micro batch ramp vodka from Hudson, NY
- pickle brine
- lemon juice
- togarishi, salt, sugar, cayenne rim
- lemon slice and pickle garnish
All of the splashiness of a cocktail visually, this creation used a special vodka Lee hand carried back from a trip out east and a house-made version of togarishi in the rimming mixture. Reminiscent of a Bloody Mary in flavor without the heaviness from tomato juice.

Red Oktobier
- StormBreaker Stomtoberfest
- Belvedere vodka
- Apeol
- orange bitters
- lime garnish
Light and bright were the first words that came to mind upon trying this negroni-inspired beer cocktail. Using Apeol, similar to Campari but with a lower ABV, and beer made for a less bracing cocktail and the bitters filled in for Vermouth. 

Hipster Beerlini
- StormBreaker Stormtoberfest
- New Deal vodka
- peach juice
- peach slice garnish
A bellini can be a simple cocktail, just sparkling wine and peach juice or schnapps, and it's that simplistic take that we used to create our cocktail. Drawing on the beer for the carbonation sparkling wine would contribute we balanced the sweetness of the juice with just enough vodka to keep it feeling cocktail-ish. Using a perfectly ripe peach slice as garnish conjured up the aroma of being in the orchard at the height of harvest. 

Passion of the Beerlini
- StormBreaker Stormtoberfest
- New Deal vodka
- Amoretti passion fruit puree
- La Croix passionfruit
- lime
- muddled red raspberries
Taking the inspiration of a bellini further afield, we switched from peach to passion fruit for the juice component and added to the carbonation with flavored sparkling water. Muddling red raspberries gave it a rich color, with the lime providing a citrus brightness.

Although we had decided to make our concoctions with Oktoberfest beers and vodka after a few attempts with Spaten's beer we agreed whiskey was the way to go with it. Thus the final cocktail to come out of this installment uses a local whiskey and a majority local ingredients.
Go Westward, Spaten
- Spaten Oktoberfest
- House Spirits Westward whiskey
- Raft Botanicals smoked tea vanilla
- orange bitters
- The Barreled Bee whiskey barrel-aged honey rim
- orange peel

Stay tuned for the next installment!

Zwickelmania Eve

Some people will call today Valentine's Day, which we all know is a made up holiday from the purveyors of jewelry, chocolates and flower arrangements. You my dear craft beer lovers likely have another name for it: Zwickelmania Eve. Less than 24 hours from now locations across the state will be flinging open their doors. I'll be staying in Portland and while I haven't quite decided my plan of attack for the day, here are some places that after going through the official Zwickelmania page, have caught my eye.

13 Virtues Brewing - 5 oz tasters of their beer will be available for purchase starting at $1.25.
Breakside Brewery - Draft release of five beers, including the Suburban Farmhouse I told you about earlier this week.
Coalition Brewing - To go beer specials and the release of their coffee IPA, Night Cap, which if you weren't able to make it to the NW Coffee Beer Invitational, is a tasty beer.
Ecliptic Brewing - Their new CDA, Coalsack, will be available.
Occidental Brewing - A canning demonstration by Craft Canning.
Portland Brewing - Free appetizers and bottle openers, plus a blind beer tasting.
(The above notes are in addition to the facility tours and sampling that are staples of the day.)

Another one that I feel compelled to mention is Kells Brew Pub. While they are listed on the Zwickelmania page, they didn't include that they will be pouring samples of their ISL (India Session Lager). Earlier this month I had a chance to try it and I'd recommend you do the same.

Brewed with lager yeast, it was warm-fermented and then dry-hopped with Mosiac hops. Although cloudy, the color is bright and it has a great citrusy aroma that carries through to the flavor. At a mere 4.2% ABV you'll be able to enjoy multiple pints.

Shuttles provided by Kells, Rogue and BREWVANA will be running throughout town making getting to multiple locations easier. Whatever your plans are, enjoy Oregon's statewide beer open house!

Bottle Caps

Some bottle caps are plain, some are utilitarian in design, while others are unique and distinctive to a degree that at a glance one is able to recognize the brewery and/or specific beer. Those in the latter category, like the labels and artwork on some bottles, are great marketing tools. But once the bottle has been recognized, purchased and the time comes to drink the beer most bottle caps are simply pried off and tossed aside. That is unless the person prying the cap off has a future crafty/artistic project in mind.

One application that I've seen with increasing regularity is using the bottle caps to create interesting bar or table tops. Both Saraveza Bottle Shop & Pasty Tavern and Occidental Brewing have done this and I never fail to take some time looking over the bottle caps in front of me whenever I visit.

Another use is for jewelry. Beer Babes Bottle Cap Art makes very cool earrings out of bottle caps - ones they've collected or you can supply your own. I currently have two pairs and can't wait to have the next pair made.

Photo courtesy of Double Mountain

A third use is to make a piece of wall art. Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom in Hood River recently posted a picture of the wall art version of their logo they crafted out of bottle caps.

If you're a bottle cap saver like I am, regardless of whatever those bottle caps might be used for in the future, prying them off with minimal damage is the best policy. I was given the heads up about how to do this by the Beer Babes. Go to Home Depot or your favorite home improvement/hardware store and pick up one of these. I swear it'll be the best $.50 you've spent in a long time, or possibly ever.

OBF: 2012 Wrap Up

As I mentioned in my Round One post my first visit left me with plenty more beers to drink at the Oregon Brewers Festival this year. As it turned out it took me not one, but two more visits to feel like I'd covered as many bases as I needed to feel satisfied and that I hadn't missed anything.

Although I did have some additional, non-sour beers, overall it was the offerings from the Sour Tent that I found most pleasing. Those included Mt Emily Pear, an effervescent brew with light pear aroma and a slightly cloudy appearance, 10 Barrel Go Go Boots, a session sour that the brewer described as Sour Patch Kids with grapefruit and McMenamins Black Cherry Sour, a darker, heavier sour beer that I would swear is the cousin of Rosie's.

Probably the most outstanding non-sour, non-IPA beer to cross my lips was Occidental's Kellerbier. I've said these things before and I'll say them again: 1) I typically don't like German beers and 2) Occidental is turning out some great beer, regardless of the fact that they primarily make German styles.

Once again OBF offered a great time and great beers for beer geeks as well as non-beer geeks from near, far and everywhere in between. You can bet I plan to be there next year; hopefully you will, too.

A Weekend in Pictures

A picture's worth a thousand words, right? Well, here are a few thousand words of deliciousness from my weekend.

Lucubrator Doppelbock - Occidental Brewing

The whole hog, a hog raised on spent Occidental grains.

After a slow, 24-hour cook, it was tender and delicious.

Not the greatest picture, but what a rockin' glass! Ball jar fused to candlestick will keep your grubby little hands from warming your beer.

Pizza and beer are always a winning combination. Mellow Mushroom makes great 'za (with green olives!) and has a boatload of beers on tap.

Wrapping up the weekend relaxing in the sunshine with a Red Chair (and a happy dog).

Occidental Brewing

You won't get to Occidental Brewing by accident, being nearly tucked under the St. John's Bridge and bordered by a rail line. Those familiar with seeking out small, new breweries will find the location familiar - light industrial and marked by small, unobtrusive signage. While you may have seen a couple of their beers around town, to get the full impact of their work it's worth an intentional drive to NoPo.

The brewery, open less than a year and operated by Ben and his uncle, Dan, is producing a somewhat rare breed of beers for Portland. They're not hop bombs. They're not barrel-aged. They are solid, sessionable German-style beers. Five beers were available during our visit and even though I'd had two of them before (at The Beermongers a couple months ago) a sampler try seemed prudent. As we started our way through the beers I tried to recall which of the ones I'd tasted before had been my favorite. Knowing my memory to be faulty I consulted my "external hard drive," Untapped.

After tasting all five offerings: Hefeweizen, Cloudy Summer (Kolsch-style), Altbier, Dunkel and Dunkelweizen, the Kolsch-style remained my favorite. Although not a German-style beer fan in general all of the brews were solid and I had no problem following the samples up with a full pour of Cloudy Summer. Besides, it was a drizzly Portland day and leaving after only a sampler seemed rude. Continuing to enjoy beer while chatting with the friendly staff and other patrons was a much better plan of action.

In case the proceeding description hasn't prompted you to plan a visit, perhaps the event Occidental is hosting next weekend will provide you with the necessary shove in the right direction. Yes, it is being held on St. Patty's Day, but think of it as a way to get started on a nice, solid base for whatever the rest of your day has in store.