The Best Walk Ever

Having lived in the ‘burbs for the past 10 years, walks have been relegated to the “to do” list, something necessary to keep Cleo’s energy in check and therefore keeping the humans sane.

One of the things I was looking forward to about our move to Portland was living somewhere that walks could be more meaningful. Maybe to the grocery or other such errands, or maybe to an even better destination…say a good bar or brewpub.

As it turned out, our new home is .97 miles from Hopworks Urban Brewery. Although we pulled into town on Monday afternoon, a few days went by before we were actually able to embark on The Best Walk Ever.

Yesterday, however, there were no obstacles in the way so out the door the three of us went. A mere 20 minutes later we were seated on the HUB’s patio, the first round of beers in hand and Cleo trying to decide if she was thirsty enough to have a drink from the communal water bowl.

A few hours and a few pints later, a little buzzed, we retraced our steps. The only thing missing was a sugary, luscious donut from the joint across Powell, Acme. Oh well, there’s always next time…

Good Beer - Find it Around Every Corner

We survived our cross country drive and have officially landed in Portland. Like any new home, there are plenty of mundane settling in tasks. However after living under the tyranny of Minnesota law for the last 10+ years, the usual trips to the gas station, Target, and the grocery store have taken on a new shine. You guessed it – much more liberal laws give these stores the ability to sell beer, and not just that 3.2 stuff, as well as the delightful availability of many coveted beers not available in Minnesota.

At a gas station: Stone, Alaskan
At Target: pretty decent variety for a national chain, including the very tasty Deschutes Inversion IPA
At Safeway (grocery): plenty, but I restrained myself to only picking up Stumptown Tart, one in Bridgeport’s Big Brew series, which is 50% ale aged in oak barrels and 50% ale brewed with raspberry

Here's a look at Safeway's "good beer" selection. Yes, it's not huge, but it's the grocery store.

The next two are things I wanted to pick up, but figured I'd better wait until we purchased a dedicated beer fridge or in no time there wouldn't be room for food in the fridge.

Yeah I Get It But I Don't Have To Like It...Or Do I?

'Twas out with some beer drinking friends about two weeks ago doing what beer drinking friends do best, namely drinking beer and talking at an unreasonable volume about inappropriate things, when I came across Something Curious. Now, those of you who've made a go of it behind a bar may have seen This before and probably didn't think much of It. Frankly, the concept behind This makes a lot of sense from a business perspective. The Curiosity in question is a "leave-behind" produced by a brewery and likely provided by a distributor to a bar owned by a friend. I'll remain silent on the brewery and the bar. I took numerous pictures of said Curiosity, but alas, only one picture survived my ham-handed attempts.

The Item was a Little Guidebook on serving beer. Sorry, my photo sucks. The section in this Book that caught my attention was about how to manage the foam levels in a beer in order to enhance profits. By pouring a pint glass with 1" of head, versus no head, you can get 145 16 oz. glasses of beer out of a keg. With no head, you can only get 128 16 oz. glasses of beer from a keg. Assuming you sell one keg of beer a week, this can result in about $3,500 extra gross profit to a bar per year.

Now, to be fair, this book did explain the virtues of head. Namely, foam is an important aspect of the presentation, releases aroma and helps with the overall tasting experience, and also apparently helps drinkers from getting a "filled up" feeling (no, the brewery was not MillerCoors). But given that the title of this section was "Foam and Rising Profits," I can't help but feel that these benefits were provided simply to assuage any guilt that an honorable barkeep might have regarding purposefully pouring a heady beer, a 1 inch heady beer at that, and possibly causing a patron to grumble about getting shorted a bit on the product for which they are paying.

I'm a bit torn. I like a bit of head on my beer. But I also like the places I frequent to profit from my being there. I guess I just don't like thinking that my bartender might be pouring my beer with head so as to eke out that extra $68 of gross profit per keg and not because he/she wants to ensure I have have an enjoyable product. I think seeing this Little Book was akin to Dorothy's seeing that man behind the curtain. Gah, what a hypocritical, fantasy-dwelling rube I am!!!