Picks for OBF 2018

The 31st Annual Oregon Brewers Festival kicks off on Thursday at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. For those paying close attention, you'll notice that it's one day later than in recent years. The festival has scaled back from a five-day event to a four-day event for multiple reasons but has added a couple wine and cider options. 

A perusal of the beer list shows plenty of IPAs and a fair number of fruited beers that are made with guava. It's going to be a warm OBF so those lighter beers took on a particular shine as we compiled our hit list. Taking into consideration the number of beers we anticipate being able to consume during one visit, we divided our list of 45 beers (of the total 80+) into Tier 1 and Tier 2 (and further divided them by South and North tents). Our plan is to make it through as many of the Tier 1 beers we can and count ourselves lucky if we are able to return for a second day to take on Tier 2.

Tier 1 - South Tent
Backwoods Brewing Dreamsicle Kolsch - beer debuts at OBF, oranges and vanilla, 5%
Breakside Brewery Limon Pepino - lager conditioned on lime zest and 225lbs of cucumber, 4.9%
Heathen Brewing Raspberry Rhubarb Sour Ale - the description is all in the name, 5.7%
Zoiglhaus Brewing Company Elderberry Berliner Weisse - again, the description is all in the name, 2.8%
Caldera Brewing Company Coco-Nutty Blonde - golden ale brewed with toasted coconut chips and rolled oats for body, 5.6% 
Boneyard Beer Pinot Pulp - pale ale inoculated with Brettanomyces and aged six months in Oregon Pinot Noir barrels, 7%
Oregon City Brewing Company Guavador Dali IPA - NE-style IPA with pink guava, 7%
RiverBend Brewing We Found Barb in the Strawberry Field - imperial milkshake IPA with lactose, vanilla and strawberry and rhubarb purees, 8% 
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Do You Even Zest?! - limited release imperial IPA with freshly zested citrus, 7.5%
Gigantic Brewing Magnificent 527 - IPA with Experimental Hop 527 that displays pineapple, mango, lemon and subtle strawberry aromas and flavors, 6.3%
Fort George Brewery It Takes Two to Mango - NE-style mango IPA, 7.5%
Everybody's Brewing Guango Deep - imperial hazy IPA with guava, mango and fruity hop flavors, 9.3%

Tier 1 - North Tent
Boundary Bay Brewery and Bistro Currantly Hip Sour - American-style kettle-soured ale with a house blend of Lactobacillus and flavor of black currants and other forest fruit, 4.9%
Freebridge Brewing Summertime Radness - kettle-soured Berliner Weisse infused with rose of Merlot grapes, 4.3%
Fremont Brewing Limeshine - Pilsner with German malts, Yakima hops and lime, 5.5%
Fortside Brewing Company The Real Slim Hazy - hazy IPA, 5.5%
Natian Brewery 1306 - milkshake IPA with citrus backbone and juicy hop profile, made specifically for OBF, 6.8%

Tier 2 - South Tent
Insurgente Juan Cordero - Baja Calfornia, Mexico brewery made Pale Ale, 5.5%
Ecliptic Brewing Flamingo Planet Guava Blonde Ale - 100% pale malt, lightly hopped Blonde brewed with guava, 4.7%
Pelican Brewing Company To Peach Their Own! - lager infused with 500lbs of Oregon peach puree, 6%
Upright Brewing Berliner Weisse - soured with Lactobacillus in the fermenter and finished with Brettanomycs, brewed in February to allow the beer to develop, 3.6%
Portland Brewing Tart Me Up! - Berliner Weisse with grapefruit, mango and pineapple purees, 4.4%
Kells Brewery Mezcal-a-Gose - fruity, salty and smoky kettle-soured Gose inspired by the Mezcal cocktail, 5.5%
Ninkasi Brewing Company Fruited Gose - traditional unfiltered wheat ale with raspberries and lime, 4.2%
Widmer Brothers Brewing Lemonic Possession - imperial IPA brewed with lemon-nuanced hops and lemon zest, 8.8%
GoodLife Brewing Company Long Acronym - dry-hopped wine barrel-aged mixed fermentation blended Brettanomyces India Pale Lager, 7.8% 
Old Market Pub & Brewery Punchy Peach - imperial wheat ale aged for seven months in French oak Pinot barrels topped off with 250lbs of Oregon tart peaches, 7.8%
Cascade Brewing Belmont Street Bramble - blended Northwest-style sour ale aged in oak wine barrels with red raspberries and tangerine peel, 6.5%

Tier 2 - North Tent
Perennial Artisan Ales Bridge of the Gods - dry-hopped Grisette, 4.7%
Rogue Ales Pinch - imperial Gose, brewed specifically for OBF, 7%
Sasquatch Brewing Company American Aquarium Drinker - Gose brewed with squid ink and seaweed, 4.5%
Agua Mala Sirena - Baja California, Mexico brewery made Pilsner, 5.2%
Great Northern Brewing Company Big Mountain Tea - Pale Ale with subtle notes of Earl Grey tea, 5.2%
Silver Falls Brewery Wisp - raspberry wheat beer with raspberries added to the end of fermentation, 5.5%
Thunder Island Brewing Company Fuzzy Wit - Wit with generous mid-fermentation additions of Oregon peaches, 5.5%
Gilgamesh Brewing CBD Pale Ale - generously hoped Pale Ale with 5mg CBDs per 12oz serving, 5.6%
Transpeninsular Cerveceria Playitas Cali Pale Ale - Baja California, Mexico brewery made "double session IPA," 5.4%
Wendlandt Cerveceria Perro del Mar - Baja California, Mexico brewery made West Coast-style IPA, 7% 
Deschutes Brewery Fruit Fight - NE-style IPA brewed with six hop varieties, 6.7%
pFriem Family Brewers Mango Milkshake IPA - hazy and juicy IPA base with lactose, vanilla beans and mango puree, 7.9%
Oproer Refuse//Resist - Netherlands brewery made fruity double IPA, 8.5%
Border Psycho Brewery Pervesa - Baja California, Mexico brewery made imperial IPA, 9.3%
McMenamins Edgefield Brewery The Jester's Nightcap - imperial stout, 9%
New Holland Brewing Company I Like Pretzel Day - stout made with soft pretzels in the mash, bourbon barrel-aged for three months and balanced with extra salt and caramel, 8%
Heretic Brewing Company Goo - imperial milk stout, 12%

For ease of checking in when we're at the festival we've created a wish list in Untappd. Following our check ins and comments there will be the quickest way to see what rings our bell. We will also try to get a quick post up here or on Facebook after our first visit. No promises though because, well, you know how attending a beer festival can reduce one's motivation. 

Oregon Brewers Festival
Tom McCall Waterfront Park
Thursday, July 26 - Sunday, July 29
Opens at Noon daily, closes at 9 pm Thursday - Saturday, 7 pm Sunday

Impact of 2017 Oregon Brewers Festival & Changes for 2018

Image courtesy of the Oregon Brewers Festival

It's an annual tradition that a study of the economic impact of the Oregon Brewers Festival is done, the legwork and analysis by Jeff Dense, professor of political science and craft beer studies at Eastern Oregon University and his team of students. They interviewed over 900 festival attendees to come up with their estimates. It's a bit geeky, unless of course you're one of the festival organizers or perhaps one of the tourism-related businesses that benefits from the total $23.9 million impact the 2017 festival had on Multnomah County.

Those who lean geeky, especially numbers geeky, may be interested in the one-page executive summary. The rest may be satisfied knowing:
- 48.7% of attendees were out-of-town visitors, 30% of which stayed with friends or family, leading to a 38% decline in lodging expenditures
- 44.2% of attendees were women, who Dense says "are the key to the future of the craft beer industry"
- 47.2% of attendees were attending the festival for the first or second time, a number that speaks to the vitality of the festival in its ability to attract new visitors
- 28.3% of attendees were 50 years of age or older, a population segment that is highly desirable due to their high level of disposable income

Now about those changes for the 2018 festival:
- The festival will revert to a four-day event, taking place Thursday, July 26 - Sunday, July 29, 2018.
- The tent that in recent years has featured specialty or international beers will go away.
- Replacing the departing tent will be two ciders and some wine offerings, designed to address those with celiac issues as well as to be more inclusive of equal opportunity and non-beer drinkers.
- There will continue to be a map of the festival grounds but no longer the extensive, multi-page printed program. An electronic listing will be made available.

Whatever your personal thoughts on the changes it's important to note that change, for anyone, for anything is essential. It would be foolish to think that a festival looking down the barrel of their 31st year could have lasted this long without making changes along the way. We congratulate the festival on the 30 years under their belt and raise a glass to another 30.

It's Nearly Time for OBF

This time next week the 30th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival will be in full swing at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Featuring over 90 independent craft breweries from 13 states plus one from The Netherlands and a Specialty Tent (which replaces the International Tent from the last couple of years) with 80 rare, bold and experimental beers that will rotate throughout the duration of the festival.

In total, that's 170+ beers and try as we might, that's probably more than we can manage even if we camped out open 'til close all five days (which would make neither our livers nor our bosses very happy). With a mindset of pairing that incredible list down to something manageable we focused on scouring the Main Festival Beers. We'll definitely stop in to the Specialty Tent but won't be basing our festival plans around what's on tap when. Those will just be bonus.

The review of Main Festival Beer list brought to light a couple of trends, and being they are to our liking, we decided to make them the focus of our drinking plans. Beers that were also listed as "unique to the fest" garnered greater pull in our decision making. The result is a list of 31 beers that even for us feels a bit daunting. But we'll give it our best!

Trend #1 - Lime

1. Coalition Honcho - An untraditional Kolsch made with Jacobson sea salt, fresh lime zest and fresh lime juice sounds like a perfect summer beer. Besides, Coalition knows what it's doing with zests and juices.
2. Coin Toss Toss Tonic - Listed as an herb and spice beer this didn't initially catch our eye but then we saw "a deconstructed gin & tonic." We're looking forward to being the judge on that.
3. Ecliptic Espacio Mexican Lager with Lime Zest - John Harris makes great beer, no question, and while there's no lime juice used, the fresh lime zest might be the perfect compliment to the base beer.
4. Ex Novo Cal Estupido - Great name (meaning "lime stupid") and fresh lime juice and sea salt added during the lagering.
5. Gigantic G & T - Nothing inspiring about the name but Gigantic has a way with botanicals and we'll be intersted to see how prominently they stand out against the lime.
6. Rusty Truck Tequila Lime Lager - We're not sure if the use of tequila oak spirals added post-fermentation will overpower the delicate lager base but if so hopefully the lime juice added at the end will balance it.
7. Sasquatch KGB - A "Kremlin Ginger Blonde" it contains fresh organic ginger, lime and lime zest. Sounds like we should bring a copper mug to drink it out of.
8. Heathen Mojito Sour - A take on another lime-focused cocktail, mint comes into the mix in this kettle soured beer (but also runs the line with our next category).

Trend #2 - Sours/Fruit

1. Backwoods Blueberry Sour - Kettle soured with Nancy's Yogurt (based in Eugene) and using Rock Creek water (from Stevenson, WA) that is "some of the best water in Washington."
2. Base Camp Brett Livin' - A "true lacto soured, Brettanomyces fermented ale, with raspberry added as puree late in fermentation" and get this, NO HOPS.
3. Boundary Bay Raspberry Radler - A German-inspired, kettle soured beer with Oregon raspberry puree and dry hopped with Citra.
4. Deschutes Overnight Phenom - A kettle soured ale with black raspberry puree added during conditioning
5. Druthers The Dare - We're unfamiliar with Druthers (which hails from New York) but this gose took gold at the 2014 World Beer Cup in the German style sour ale category so it seems that it should be worth a taste.
6. Eel River Organic Tropical Blonde Ale - While neither the brewery or the base beer does much for us it's the passion fruit and kiwi concentrates that caught our eye here.
7. Elk Horn Siberlin - We've visited Elk Horn (in Eugene) just once but quite enjoyed their beers and this kettle soured Berliner-style Weisse with lychee fruit will hopefully back our initial impression up.
8. Ghost Runners Chasing Fluffy Pink Unicorns - What a name!!! Then there's description that it's a "lightly fruited raspberry gose." Game on.
9. Ghostfish Dry Hopped Sour - A gluten-free, kettle soured gose? This could be the best GF beer ever...or not. We'll let you know.
10. pFriem Guava Saison - pFriem has been hitting high notes with us lately so we'll take a chance on a base beer (not so much our thing) with guava (more of our thing).
11. Three Creeks Dry Hopped Apricot Stonefly Session Ale - Both apricots and peaches often lend mild, smooth fruit flavors to beers and we hope that's the case with this "golden, light bodied ale."
12. Hopworks Kiwi Sparkle & Pop - Combining both elements of this category, it's a tart wheat beer, kettle soured beer with a dose of kiwi, a fruit that is innately tart on its own.
13. McMenamins Tropic Heat - McMenamins one-off beers tend to be great and a kettle soured ale brewed with pink guava puree, coconut and habanero peppers will hopefully find the perfect balance among its components.
14. Goodlife Secret Stash #004 - The sour beer path takes a turn here with a kettle soured IPA. As for more details, those are secret.
15. Baerlic Dropping Acid Psychedelic Sour IPA - Another kettle soured IPA, this one with El Dorado hops in the boil and dry hopped with Comet and Amarillo.
16. Ordnance Raspberry SIPA - A SIPA? That would be a kettle soured, blended IPA with an infusion of raspberry flavor.

The Rest: A catch-all category of beers that caught our eye because of their ingredients and/or because of the brewery that made them.

1. 54 40' Art AllAzaccas - We love Bolt and the 54 40' crew but rarely make it up to Washington to visit them. Plus we quite enjoy Azaccas hops, the only hop used in this 6.1% IPA.
2. Boneyard Enzymatic IPA - Because we know we're going to need a good IPA to throw into the mix and Boneyard knows what they're doing with hops.
3. Double Mountain A River Runs Through It - An IPA made in collaboration with Fort George with lactose added in the boil, will this be the sleeper IPA hit of the fest?
4. Burnside Cannonball! - An 8.3% strong ale is a bit of a daunting thought for beer festing but it sounds pretty damn interesting. C'mon, a triple hop-dosed beer aged in red wine barrels with tart cherries and pineapple, how can you pass that up?
5. Widmer Collaborator Kentucky Kolsch - Kolsches aren't a particular love of ours but they're a good summer style and we're fans of the whole Collaborator idea. Increasing our interest level is the fact that homebrewer Charles Macaluso used dehydrated strawberries at the end of the fermentation process.
6. New Holland Dragon's Milk: Thai Curry - An 11% bourbon barrel aged stout is the exact opposite of a summer drinker but a unique-to-the-fest Michigan beer seems like a must-try.
7. Upright Heirloom Saison - Saisons aren't our favorite but this blend of a vintage strong Saison aged in barrels for 18+ months and a carbonic chardonnay cask version of Saison Vert (a black lime wheat-based brew) will probably be fantastic based on Upright's superior blending talents.

Oregon Brewers Festival

Tom McCall Waterfront Park

July 26 - 30 open at Noon daily

$7 souvenir tasting mug, $1 wooden tokens

Observations from Day 1 of the Oregon Brewers Festival

One of the many beautiful & tasty
beers to be had

Wednesday dawned overcast and dreary but by the time the parade was marching across the Hawthorne bridge to open the 29th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival the skies had cleared and a stunning summer day was upon Portland.

During the couple of hours I was able to attend I sampled 16 beers, starting off with Berliner Weisses and fruit beers before moving to a couple of hoppier beers and settling into the area of the International Beer Garden to try as many of the beers on tap at the time that were on my list, knowing there would be a good chance they wouldn't be available tomorrow.

Of the Berliner Weisses I tried (about half of the ones I hope to), Uber Osten from Terminal Gravity was my favorite. The 4.8% beer is balanced and just right for the style. Along a similar style vein, Nancy Cherrygan from Sasquatch offered up a bit of tartness, plenty of cherry flavor and was a beauty to look at. At 6.9% I might get myself into trouble if I were allowed to drink as much as I want of it (which would be plenty).

While I didn't have much in the way of hoppy beers I was impressed with Organized Love IPA from Riverbend, one of the newer breweries on the Oregon beer scene. In the International Beer Garden both the IPA from North Island Beer and No. 10, a 7.5% imperial IPA from Shiga Kogen Beer, are worth trying (if they're available when you're there).

Finally, two big, dark beers that were on my list were definite winners: New Holland Dragon's Milk: Mexican Spice Cake and Lost Abbey Serpent's Stout. The former is just what it sounds like, a liquid version of a spiced cake, and it is stunning. Serpent's Stout is a blended beer, with a portion being aged in bourbon barrels, which comes across without being overpowering and finishes with a coffee/dark chocolate aftertaste. Both are 11% beers so drink with caution but if I was looking for something to slowly sip while wandering the grounds I'd splurge on a full glass (4 tokens) and enjoy every last drop.

TIPS:
- Bring water (it's allowed), use the rinse stations or buy a bottle from one of the food vendors.
- Drink water. My rule is "drink your swill" and by that I mean that I carry a water bottle so that I can dump some in my tasting mug between each sample. It not only rinses it but drinking that beer-ish flavored water helps keep me hydrated.
 - Visit the International Beer Garden early on and continue to check back periodically as the beers will rotate.
- If there is a line for New Holland or Lost Abbey (both in trailer #2) the wait is worth it.
- It's going to be a warm one so take advantage of the shaded areas and/or the "free rain."

Locked & Loaded for the 29th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival

2015 festival tasting mug

The granddaddy of beer festivals in Oregon, the Oregon Brewers Festival, starts Wednesday and I for one am ready. Last week I made my way through the full list of 100+ beers from breweries across the U.S. and the world, identifying 49 that I'd really like to taste.

In an effort to put some organization in place I first listed them by general style/ABV, starting with fruit and sours beers, ending with a few imperial stouts (the order in which I'd like to drink them in an ideal world). While it'd be foolish to waste time going in that exact order this will help ensure that as much as I want to try those big, bold beers I'm better off waiting. Because I do in fact want to taste the beers on the list, not just drink them.

Next up, because I'm a die-hard user, I created a Wish List on Untappd. For those who haven't done so before, it's a huge time-saver for check-ins during a festival, especially for those foreign beers whose brewery or beer names might be listed slightly differently in this app than on the festival list. Keep in mind that the first beer put on the Wish List gets pushed down as the others "stack" on top of it. Therefore I entered one of the last beers I plan to drink, New Holland's 11% Dragon's Milk: Mexican Spice Cake, first. (FYI - It's far easier to do this on a computer than phone.) As with the overall list it's not foolproof but it is helpful, including to identify beers one may have already tried. I found two on my list that I'd had before.

The final step, when the listing of the trailers the beers would be pouring at was released Monday, was to assign trailer numbers to the beers on my list. In the past I've then reshuffled my list by trailer number. This year I'll be attending the festival for multiple days so left the original order intact. I won't be running from trailer #9, down to trailer #5 and then over to the International Beer Garden to stay in exact order but it will give me some guidance as I wander through the festival.

Speaking of the International Beer Garden, for those new to the festival, this is a feature that was added three years ago to be "part of a cultural exchange of ideas, knowledge and the celebration of craft beer." What's more important logistically is to understand that the 25 beers coming from Japan, The Netherlands, China and Germany will not all be pouring throughout the festival. They will rotate so don't set your heart on trying all of them unless you intend to be there from open until close all five days. Definitely take advantage of this unique opportunity though and try what's on tap while you're there.

Things to keep in mind:
- The beer starts pouring at noon each day (gates open at 11:30am).
- It is a cash-only event (although ATMs will be available...for a fee of course).
- Entrance itself is free; drinking requires a tasting mug ($7) and tokens ($1/sample).
- Besides the obvious silliness of operating a vehicle post-fest, parking in the area is horrible. And expensive. Use public transit, take a cab/Uber/Lyft or hoof it.

Oregon Brewers Festival
Wednesday, July 27 - Sunday, July 31
Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland
12-9pm Wed - Sat, 12-7pm Sun

Five Kiwis and Their Beer: Part II

Continuing our look at the five New Zealand brewers that were in town for OBF in Part I, we'll pick up with a look at ParrotDog's beer, Riwaka Secret.

The double IPA they brought to town, Riwaka Secret is named for two unique New Zealand and Australian hop varieties, Riwaka which is very hard to come by and not exported outside of New Zealand, and Victoria Secret which now goes by "Vic Secret" after a cease and desist letter from that lingerie company. Using at least two hops in every beer is Matt's M.O. as he admits that he's not a single hop beer fan, perhaps because he feels like he's never brewed a good one. DIPA and hop-forward fans will enjoy this beer.

Those into Harley Davidson motorcycles may recognize the name "Panhead" as slang for one of the old HD engines and Panhead Custom Ales is a brewery that likes to tinker, to customize and to make accessible, drinkable beers. Founder Mike Neilson expanded on Carl's comments about the challenge of getting his beers into bars with the update that today the challenge is less about fighting for tap handles with the big guys and more about getting into the good beer bars. In Wellington there are only about 15 of those, which have anywhere from eight to 40 taps. To the brewers' benefit, those taps turn fairly frequently and those bars tend to give New Zealand brewers 75% of their handles, a percentage that would please most craft brewers and drinkers anywhere. Replacing the challenge of fighting the big boys has perhaps been the challenge New Zealand brewers have with capacity. Looking at the US market, they're heartened that craft beer drinkers will be eager to fill their pints with as much as can be produced.

The final representative of the New Zealand craft beer scene to speak was Stu McKinlay of Yeastie Boys. First off, I have to give huge kudos to Stu for soldiering on after breaking both his forearms during this trip (neither of which required a cast, but only one of which was bandaged and in a sling). Stu is a self-described "yeast-head" that got his start after receiving great praise for his homebrewed porter, which in turn became Yeastie Boys' first commercial beer. Initially they were only brewing every three months while Stu continued to work his day job. Recently he's been able to quit that and move to the UK where brewing operations will be based.

In creating a beer for the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular, Stu cupped 20 teas to find just the right one. That right one is Earl Gray Blue Flower, a tea that reminds Stu of his childhood, and is used so heavily in the beer that it is described as "dry-leafed" (a counter to "dry-hopped"). Named Gunnamatta, this is also the beer that they brought to OBF. Not being a big tea fan myself, I wasn't sure how well I'd like it and I was pleasantly surprised from the first sip all the way through the last, at which time the beer was warm and may have been even more enjoyable than when it was first poured.

If you didn't run into any of the brewers or drink the beers that they brought to OBF, the opportunity to taste their work hasn't completely passed. While the group was in town, each of them teamed up with a local brewer to make a collaboration beer. When exactly those beers will be released I have not yet heard but keep an eye on the local breweries - Cascade, Ecliptic, Gigantic, Lompoc and Widmer - for more details.

Going Abroad at OBF: International Beer Garden

I drink very few imported beers for the simple fact that there is so much good beer locally and nationally that I don't feel the need to look abroad. Therefore things like the Portland International Beer festival hold little interest for me. Following that line of reasoning I was not as interested initially in the offerings in the International Beer Garden as the rest of the beers at the Oregon Brewers Festival. With that said a few reasons gave me pause to reconsider.

1. There are not just New Zealand and Dutch beers in the International Beer Garden some of the actual brewers here.
2. I heard good reviews of the beers early on in the festival from fellow beer geeks that I trust.
3. Hold onto your shorts for this one...the beers were only one token each. That's right, none of the two and three token business like back when it was the Buzz Tent.

During the first two days of the festival I tried eight beers (out of a total of 15 that will be poured during the run of the festival), with only one being a disappointment. That percentage is on par with my general festival ratio. And don't forget, these beers have traveled quite a distance, probably enduring less careful handling than those kegs that only had to travel a few miles to get to the festival.

Beyond the beer itself I attended the "Meet the Kiwis" last night at Belmont Station where five New Zealand brewers were on hand to talk about their breweries plus one of the most influential people in the malt business in New Zealand, David Cryer of Cryermalt, and one of the key figures in this cultural exchange, Doug Donelan of New Zealand Hops and the Brewers Guild of New Zealand. Putting a face and a story to the beer in my hand has always been one of the things I enjoy most about craft beer. Listening to them talk, with great enthusiasm about their craft, proves that craft brewers are craft brewers the world over.

This experience was particularly interesting due to the non-US perspective. I'll go into more detail in the next post about the five breweries - Tuatara, Garage Project, ParrotDog, Panhead Custom Ales and Yeastie Boys - but for now, just know that during your time at OBF, you definitely need to stop in at the International Tent.

In the meantime, take a gander as Stu McKinlay of Yeastie Boys talks about his decision to become a brewer.

Coming Up: The Pinnacle of Oregon Craft Beer Month

The granddaddy of beer festivals in Oregon, the one that started it all, the Oregon Brewers Festival, kicks off next Wednesday. Celebrating its 28th year, it was started in craft beer's infancy, when there were just seven craft breweries in the state.

Expected attendance at this year's festival is 85,000, with beer lovers from Oregon, across the U.S. and all around the world converging on Portland's waterfront. Similar to last year when Art Larrance brought nearly a dozen Dutch brouwerijs to town, the festival is hosting 13 brewers from New Zealand and The Netherlands as part of a cultural exchange.

As is my M.O. I'll be heading to the festival early during the five-day run, early in the day. Of the 105 beers that will be poured in the main festival and International Beer Garden I've compiled a list of 29, 18 that I definitely want to have and an additional 11 that I'm going to do my darnedest to get to.
Of those, the ones I'm most excited about are:
Burnside Brewing Co. Smoked Berliner Weisse - I don't understand it but have high hopes.
Claim 52 Brewing Runnermass - Essentially a radler blending a Kolsch style pale ale with lemon-lime soda, I'm intrigued to see how well they pull it off.
Fort George Summer Stout - A stout with secondary fermentation on organic peaches?!?
Oedipus Brewing Vogelen - An international offering, I'm down to try a dry-hopped Berliner Weisse.
Oersoep Brettalicious - Another international offering, let's see what they do with Brett
Sixpoint Brewery Little Raspy - I'm a sucker for a Lacto beer with raspberry puree.
Uiltje CC: Porter- Even if it wasn't one of the international offerings, a coffee beer described as liquefied Mounds bar sounds delish.

For those of you that are social media geeks like me, you'll appreciate something new that was included in the press kit I received this year - a spreadsheet of all of the participating breweries' Twitter accounts. And speaking of social media, what I'll be doing and what I encourage others to do, is to utilize the Wish List feature of Untapped for easy-peasy check-ins at the festival.

Finally, in reviewing the lineup there were some listings that popped out to me, some because they are debuting at the festival, some for personal, warm fuzzy reasons.
Ambacht Brewing, OR - Debut; profiled in my Dec 2014 piece for the Oregon Beer Growler.
Bent Paddle Brewing Co., MN - One of the newer MN breweries, impressive to be selected & able to produce the number of kegs required to participate.
Collaborator Project - From Oregon Brew Crew member Jodi Campbell (the first solo female winner) & Widmer, offering Valley Vanilla Pale Ale.
Fremont Brewing, WA - Debut
PINTS Urban Brewery, OR - Debut; rock on, Alan!
Sprecher Brewery, WI - Not their first OBF rodeo but it makes my Midwest heart happy.
StormBreaker Brewing, OR - Debut
The Lost Abbey, CA - Debut

Oregon Brewers Festival
Wednesday, July 22 - Sunday, July 26
Beers pouring daily at 12:00 pm
Tom McCall Waterfront Park
$7 tasting glass, $1 wooden tokens

2014 OBF's Soggy Start

Taken through my phone's ziplocked protection

There's no denying that the first day of the 27th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival was the soggiest in its history. Good beer lovers that we are, however, we weren't going to let a little, ok a lot, of rain stand in our way of getting our hands on beer.

I arrived as planned, just as the gates were opening, following the parade in. Choosing to skip the opening beer tapping (Super Duper Dog from the Lucky Lab) I plowed straight into my beer hit list. As it turned out the rain actually helped me stick to by game plan a bit more than usual as I was content to stay on the south end of the festival, getting a beer, scurrying back to the tented area and repeating until I was nearly out of beers I wanted to try from trailers 1 - 5.

By that time the worst of the rain had passed and I deemed it "safe" enough to venture to the north tents to continue knocking my list down. A couple beers there and the sun actually started to show its face. I gratefully soaked up its delicious warmth while enjoying a few more beers before calling it a day.

All's well that ends well

Of the 23 beers on my list, I gamely made it through 16, about what I figured I would be able to accomplish. There were some surprises, more good than bad, and although that is just a drop in the pail of the 88 beers (+100 specialty tent offerings) I give you my top two of the day.

Paradise Creek Huckleberry Pucker - This is the first beer I've had from Paradise Creek, a four year old brewery located in Pullman, WA. It was a great introduction to them and a wonderful surprise to find that this beer was as puckery as I was hoping for.

Sixpoint Barrel Aged 3Beans - The biggest surprise, since I was pretty sure I would enjoy it, was to hear how much Mag, generally a non-barrel aged beer fan, enjoyed it. At 10.3% this is amazingly easy drinking and easily the best "deal" of the festival, going for the "base rate" of one token per sample.

I suspect that attendance numbers may have been down for the day but with four more days, with better weather predicted, I'm guessing there won't be any problem making up for Wednesday's deficit. Whether I'll return remains to be seen. Even with the rain, it would be hard to top the great day I had sampling beers and hanging out with countless familiar faces.

It's that Time Again - OBF Prep!

Tomorrow kicks off the 27th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival and per my tradition, not to mention the need to narrow down the list of 88 beers that will be pouring throughout the festival, I recently spent some quality time with the beer list.

Even before I was halfway through perusing the program, however, I knew I was in trouble. Sure, there were some easy cuts to make but many, way too many beers that sounded interesting. By the time I got done with my first round list there were 23 beers. That's still plenty but factoring in that I'll be going with friends there's a chance I'll get through them, but not without taking the next step.

That next step was to look at the listing of where those beers would be found (thanks to the wonderfully handy tent/trailer listing in the program). Really geeking out I grouped them by trailer, by general group (fruit-containing or IPA, the two groups the vast majority of the beers on my hit list fell into) and then tried to plan a low ABV to high ABV, lighter flavor to more heavily flavored path that didn't have me bouncing between trailers like some beer crazy pinball.

In the end I had to cut the list to a top 16 (the most I could fit on one side of my cheat sheet), allocating the remaining seven to the B Side. Those interested can check out the full game plan; for the rest just interested in my top five, the ones I'd be really sad if I left the festival without having, they are....drum roll....

• Fitger's Hoppulujah IPA - This MN transplant is looking forward to having beer from this fine brewery again.
• Gigantic Who Ate All the Pies? - Strawberry. Raspberry. Gose. Enough said.
• Paradise Creek Huckleberry Pucker - I'm hoping for hugely pucker.
• Sixpoint Barrel Aged 3Beans Baltic Porter - A fan of regular 3Beans, it has the potential to be great.
• Old Market Cherry Derive - Their fruit beers have hit the right notes for me in the past, may the trend continue.

While it's unclear if the weather will be cooperative for opening day, I'll be there rain or shine. Perhaps I'll see you there. Cheers, Beer Friends!

2013 Oregon Brewers Festival Kicks Off

For the first day of the 2013 Oregon Brewers Festival Portland put on its summer best - clear blue skies, warm temps and a refreshing breeze coming off the water. From atop the Morrison bridge the bright white festival tents beckoned.

In typical festival fashion, I arrived shortly before the gates opened and found a short line at the south entrance waiting in the cool shadows under the Morrison bridge.

As I made my way to the middle of the festival grounds to get my glass and tokens the tail end of the parade was making its way in. I had time to grab my first sample before the official toast and subsequent tapping of the complimentary Blueberry Belgian from BridgePort.

After that I got down to business, making my way from one end of the beer trailers to the others ticking off beers on my hit list while enjoying talking to the many, many friends I ran into along the way. Tops on my list were:
Boulder Beer Co Pump Up the Jam - Not as visually appealing as many fruit beers, there was a great berry/jam aroma, a surprising mouthfeel similar to drinking apricot juice and a flavor that was pleasantly fruity without being too sweet.
West Highland Brewing Mango Moon Ale - Have you ever had those peach rings candies? You know the gummy ones? This beer smelled like a mango version of that and followed with a fruity flavor that was slightly tart and overall very good. I don't know if I've had a mango beer or anything from West Highland before but this first experience with both was very good.
Old Market Pub & Brewery Dilution of Grandeur - While I've been to Old Market once, and with a huge sampler tray their beers were all over the board for me, their version of a berry Belgian lambic turned out quite well. Not as tart as some lambics but one of the better beers I've had from them for sure.

I didn't quite get through my whole list but there's still four more days of the festival. Perhaps I'll make it back for another round of drinking and chatting with friends. Perhaps I'll run into you and we'll talk about some of your favorites (or feel free to leave them in the comments).

Oregon Brewers Festival
July 24 - 28, gates open at noon daily
Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland

The Next Big Festival: OBF

Last week I talked about my beer festival must-haves and now it's time to talk about The Portland Beer Festival. Yes, it's none other than the Oregon Brewers Festival, the big kahuna lounging along the Willamette at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland.

Now in its 26th year, the festival has expanded to a five-day event. As in past years the festival kicks off with the Oregon Brewers Brunch (which if you haven't gotten tickets for yet, you're SOL) and parade. Three things are notably different however. First, the festival now starts on Wednesday instead of Thursday. Second, no longer will attendees be subjected to drinking great beer out of plastic mugs. This year the festival glasses will actually be glass, 12.8 oz vessels. Third, there will not be the Buzz Tent or the Sour Tent that the festival has seen in the past few years. I'm on the fence about this change - there were some great beers poured out of both tents but there were also plenty of problems associated with them including the high cost of the beers (some that were worth it, others that were not) and getting the information out about keg turnover. Hopefully a year off from these tents will allow festival organizers to come back with new and improved versions.

The beer however is the star and after a perusal of the beer line up, I managed to narrow down the impressive list of 80+ beers to a short list of 20. Many of them are fruit beers, which seems to be a trend for me lately. The rest are interesting sounding beers of styles I don't usually drink and a festival is the perfect place to give them a try. See you there!

Oregon Brewers Festival
July 24 - 28, gates open at Noon daily
Tom McCall Waterfront Park
Free admission, $7 tasting glass, $1 tokens (cash only)
Beer list

Looking Ahead to Festival Season

This past weekend, Memorial Day, was the unofficial start to summer and while the weather in Portland has been slow on the uptake, the beer festival scene is moving forward regardless.

June kicks off with the third annual Portland Beer Week, which includes the Rye Beer Fest and the Portland Fruit Beer Festival. Rye Beer Fest will celebrate its second year with a new venue, more beers and expanded hours. Held at EastBurn on Friday, June 7th, you can find a full beer list and additional details on their website.

Portland Fruit Beer Festival is in its third year, as a two-day festival taking place at another East Burnside establishment, Burnside Brewing, June 8th and 9th. "Main Stage" beers will be available for most of the festival (although going the first day is your best bet to make sure you don't miss out on anything) while the "Rare & Rotating" beers will be on two to four at a time, being replaced as the kegs are emptied. If you think are fruit beers are fru-fru, just take a look at the beer list and you'll soon find out otherwise.

After two festivals focused on beer flavors, the North American Organic Brewers Festival shifts focus and invades Overlook Park in North Portland. The festival, in its ninth year, offers three days filled with organic beer and ciders, live local music, organic food and more. Starting on Friday, June 27th and running through Sunday, June 30th, the festival bridges the gap between the younger, shorter duration festivals that started June and the larger, longer, more established "Big One" in July.

That "Big One" is none other than the Orgeon Brewers Festival which comes at a time when summer *should* be in full swing. Now in its 26th (!) year, the festival has expanded to a full five days running Wednesday, July 24th through Sunday, July 28th at Waterfront Park. Over 80 craft beers will be available, hailing from across the U.S., and for the first time those beers will be poured into glass tasting glasses. These replace the plastic mugs that are so prevalent at Oregon festivals, a move which I'm hopeful will continue to spread.

These four festivals are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of beer events, especially during Portland Beer Week, but they offer a chance to try a multitude of beers that are often not available elsewhere. So mark your calendars, put your liver on notice and enjoy the bounty of the Portland summer beer scene!

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.

OBF: Round One

My first day attending the Oregon Brewers Festival I went, as usual, with a fairly well outlined plan of attack. Cheat sheet in hand, I was determined to cover many of the fruit beers first so as not to muddle my palate with the delicious hops I was sure to find in the IPAs that I love. Of the 12 I'd identified wanting to try I made it through 10 of them with minimal "interruptions" - a few of the "here, try this" variety, two IPAs and a visit to the sour tent.

Of those 10 fruit beers there were a few I would politely refer to as, "refreshing, like a cold glass of water is refreshing." There are bound to be some of these in any offering of fruit beers, ones where the fruit flavor just didn't come through as strongly as I was hoping (and maybe not even as strongly as the brewer was hoping for...who knows though?). The one that easily topped my list was 10 Barrel's Raspberry Crush. The raspberry flavor was well rounded, not too sweet and of course, the beer was visually breathtaking. One of my drinking companions suggested that it would make a great sorbet. I think he's right however I'm not sure I could part with any of it to make sorbet.

Also high on my list was Old Market's Cherried Alive. This 7.8% beer could be a dangerous one as it drinks more like a 4%. If you like fruit beers this will probably provide the most bang for your buck.

My only trip into the combined Buzz/Sour Tent yielded utter happiness in the form of Deschutes' Blackberry Sour Ale. I'm generally hesitant every time I plunk down two tokens, wondering if what will be poured into my glass will really be worth the heftier price. This most certainly was!

I mentioned that I had deviated, briefly, from my fruit beers first plan, inserting two IPA on my list. Both Elysian's Space Dust IPA and Flying Fish's Exit 16 Wild Rice IPA were of the delicious, stanky IPA variety that is my most favorite. They were so good that after each one I was tempted to ditch my original plan and go after more hops.

By the end I hadn't made it all the way through my list, but I'd had my fill for the first round. So I guess that means there will have to be a round two. Stay tuned for more.

Looking Ahead to OBF

The Oregon Brewers Festival starts next week and just like any good beer geek I've taken a fine tooth comb to the beer line up. One very exciting, new addition to the festival this year is the Sour Tent. Like the Buzz Tent, the offerings here are special and specially priced at two tokens each, samples only (no full pours available). They'll be trying to tweet out when new beers go on in each tent but I'll probably also be keeping my eye on Untappd check-ins as a supplemental source of information.

Being a Minnesota transplant I was particularly interested to see two Midwest breweries represented - Summit Brewing hailing from St. Paul, MN and Sprecher Brewery from Milwaukee, WI. As far as I know these breweries are new to OBF this year and are not currently distributing to Portland. That begs the question, "Are they considering it?" Summit EPA used to be one of my go-to beers, a beer you could find in my fridge virtually any day of the year. I'd be awfully happy to see it nestled in with my Oregon favorites in the future.

IPAs, double IPAs and special/mystery beers will be high on my list of ones to try and I'll likely be dropping plenty of tokens in the Sour and Buzz tents. The beers I can typically find around town, even the ones I really enjoy, I'll leave for the out-of-towners, which make up 56% of the estimated 80,000 people expected to attend. What beers are you looking forward to drinking?