Last Saturday saw the sixth installment of the NW Coffee Beer Invitational beer festival take place at Goose Hollow Inn in SW Portland. Once again festival organizers Dave and Jean Fleming were blessed with a dry January Saturday, although as thoughtful stewards they provided a fully tented and heated space for beer lovers to enjoy creations of 20 breweries.
With the exception of Kiitos Brewing, all of the participating breweries hailed from Oregon and southern Washington. "What’s the deal with Kiitos then?", one might ask. The answer is that they took home gold at GABF in 2018 in the Coffee Beer category with their Coffee Cream Ale. Had Bend Brewing not been at this festival with their Coffee N Cream Coffee Blonde, Kiitos would have gotten our nod for “best light coffee beer.” As it was, Bend Brewing offered a beer that had a great coffee cream aroma and a perfectly balanced, mild flavor and was more to our liking.
Two of the beers at the festival spoke to this imbiber saying, "I'm meant to be drank with food." The first was Von Ebert’s Hegel Sipped Coffee in Bamberg, a Roggenbier (smoked beer) with beech and cherry wood smoked malts. The smokiness of the malts came through and although a bit more body might be nice, what would be really nice would be to have this with food...like Von Ebert’s delicious wings.
The second food beer in our mind was from Fire on the Mountain Brewing. While we didn’t find much coffee character in the beer, the flavor spot-on matched its name: Mole Stout. The fact that they committed to the assertive flavor profile is to be commended and we think that although FotM is known for their wings, this might be mighty tasty with tacos. Or perhaps a taco pizza special at their Fremont location.
The remaining three beers that we particularly enjoyed were all on the darker end of the spectrum.
Sunriver Brewing His Dudness - Inspired by The Dude and his love of White Russians, this was the embodiment of a beer White Russian.
Wild Ride Brew Co. Nutty Joe Jr. Porter - Hazelnut isn’t a flavor we often see in beer (or at least used well in beer) but we still have a soft spot in our heart for it that goes back to our early craft beer explorations and Rogue Hazelnut. That beer and this beer likely taste nothing alike but Joe Jr. reminds us of the feeling we got back then drinking Rogue’s beer.
Ruse Brewing The Stages of Dawn - For having the highest ABV of the beers at the festival, 9.4%, it most certainly did not drink like it. The creamy imperial oatmeal breakfast stout came close to feeling as though it was being served on nitro, enough so that we would really hope to find it being poured that way in the future.
Thanks to all the breweries and coffee roasters that participated in this festival! It's one of our favorite and a great way to start a new year of beer festivals.
With the first week of the new year under our belts and a more normal rhythm resuming we figured it was a good time to share some of the things that we are most looking forward to in 2019.
Beer Festivals
No matter how many beer festivals we've been to or the abundance of them we are fortunate to have in this area, there are still some that get us excited about what will be poured and we make a point to attend. Here are three that take place in the first quarter of the year that fit that description.
- NW Coffee Beer Invitational - This will be the sixth year of the festival and with the exception of 2017, we have been at every one. Dave Fleming's festival has grown in prominence among beer drinkers but has remained true to its original location - Goose Hollow Inn. This year 20 brewers will be showing off their collaborations made with locally roasted coffee on Saturday, January 26. It has historically been the literal bright spot in one of the darkest times of the year and with any luck, that day will be another sunny one.
- Festival of the Dark Arts - For us this festival is about more than just what one finds in their glass. It's the whole experience of getting out of Portland and making an always overdue trip to Astoria for a long weekend. Besides the festival, and staying at our favorite B&B, we do our best to hit old favorites in Astoria and along the way, as well as anything new that may have popped up since the previous year. The mid-February festival is sold out and overnight accommodations are likely in short supply but there always seems to be a few last minute tickets available for those who look hard.
- Brewstillery - Just a year younger than Coffee Beer and taking place two weeks after Dark Arts, this festival is hosted by StormBreaker Brewing and showcases the delicious flavor combinations that can occur when beer and spirits get together. When we first attended we had little experience with spirits but it has been part of the process that has opened our eyes to a world that we are coming to realize is as vast and complex at beer.
Beer Cocktails
Dovetailing on our anticipation of Brewstillery, we are excited to continue the adventure we started last year creating beer cocktails. So far we've experimented with vodka and rum and we've found ourselves paying more attention to cocktail menus, looking for new sources of inspiration. The year end crush of the holidays threw off our plans for December but we've got a late January date on the calendar to start up anew.
Beer and Food Pairings
Whether attending formal pairings put together by professionals or the happy-go-lucky pairings we dream up (Easter candy, Doritos, Kettle Chips, Girl Scout cookies, even coffee creamers) finding what goes together is a source of delight. Even the missteps we make are palate-educating and we are all on board with learning.
Beyond what we are looking forward to finding in our glass this year is those we will be sharing the experiences with. The craft beer community - from brewers to consumers - is overall incredible. The generosity, the creativity, the willingness to explore is unique and we are thrilled to be part of it.
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Cheers to 2019!
