Somewhere along the way I got it into my head, likely around the time of my beer and cookie pairing experiments that I wanted to try my hand at pairing beer with cereal. I'm not talking about using beer instead of milk to pour on a bowl of cereal but munching on the cereal dry, snack mix style.
I generally don't buy much cereal so as I thought through how this would work I decided that those packages containing 10 or 12 mini boxes of cereal would be perfect. After some searching I determined that they must not make them anymore however I was able to find the single serving plastic bowls, the kind where you just tear off the top and can pour the milk right in. I picked up six and my initial plan was to do all of them at once. They've been on my shelf for a month so getting impatient, I grabbed a couple
One of the two - Frosted Flakes - has been around as long as I can remember while the other - Krave - was something I hadn't heard of until I picked it up. Without any sort of plan for the Frosted Flakes I somewhat randomly pulled it out when Mag had a bottle of Ballast Point Fathom opened. The style - India Pale Lager - isn't one I've had a ton of experience with. The aroma was that of honey, the flavor a little less so but came across as sweeter than most lagers and without the aftertaste I associate (perhaps incorrectly) with lagers. Drinking the beer between bites of the dry cereal Mag commented, "It shouldn't be good but it is." I agreed and was pleased that this latest experiment was off to a good start.
Krave - for those who aren't familiar with it - contains squares that are similar to graham crackers and filled with chocolate. This one I had a hint of what might work - something along the lines of a stout - so when a bottle of Breakside's Alan From the Wood was opened I dove into the second pairing. This one worked as I had hoped with the graham cracker part keeping the pairing from going into sweet overload. Next I opened a bottle of Founder's KBS, "an ale brewed with chocolate and coffee aged in oak bourbon barrels," and found, not surprisingly, that it also went well with Krave.
After two successful pairings I'm looking forward to the next four cereals I picked up - Special K, Fruit Loops, Corn Pops and Apple Jacks. Two at a time seems easily doable so check back for a couple more installments of this silliness.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Hood River Hops Fest and I know plenty of people that are looking forward to it. I have yet to make the drive out to this festival, especially when there are so many fresh hop happenings going on without leaving the comfy confines of Portland.
Already in progress is Concordia Ale House's Fresh-Hop-a-Palooza where one can get a "groovy taster tray" of 10 fresh hop beers for $12. Those who have been to their events before know to expect that the beers will be presented blindly with the names of the beers revealed the Monday following the conclusion of the event (September 30) and a people's choice winner announced from the votes submitted.
Next weekend Roscoe's throws their 4th Annual Fresh Hop Summit and the Fresh Hop Fest takes place at Oaks Park. The Summit, or if you prefer "tap takeover-style event," starts Friday, October 4th and will feature 17 fresh hop beers. Since that number is greater than the number of taps they have the beers will be presented on a rotating basis throughout the weekend with taster trays available. A partial list of breweries and beers is currently available on the Facebook event page; expect more details to be announced as the Summit approaches.
Running Friday evening and Saturday Oaks Park Fresh Hops Fest will be serving up another line up of fresh hop beers. Drink packages run $15 - $40 for glasses + tickets and can be purchased in advance or at the door. I've yet to see a beer or brewery lineup released, which is generally par for the course for this festival.
The following Tuesday (October 8 for those not following along with their calendar) is White Owl Social Club's Heathens & Hops Fresh Hop Celebration. This music venue and quietly-working-on-becoming-a-beer-bar had their first beer festival last month, Lager Fest. As I understand it, the turnout was lower than optimal, due in part to some early fall weather raining on the parade. I'm pleased to see that didn't seem to deter them as they take another stab at it with a festival featuring 15 breweries, primarily from Oregon. The brewery and beers list can be found on their Facebook event page.
Besides the festivals there are of course plenty of fresh hop beers to be found at breweries and bars all around town as well. With all the choices you're sure to find a time and venue to get your fill of bright, fresh-from-the-vine hopped beers.
September has been a busy one on this end but a good kind of busy. We had multiple houseguests, starting off with our Minnesota friends Kat & Scott who are Portland pros. Excluding the fact that we now live in Portland, they've visited more times than we did before moving here. Since they're also beer lovers each visit is about showing them new or not before visited places. We had no lack of new places to go in the Portland area but we also ventured out of town to some new to us places.
Newport was our destination and on the way we stopped at Block 15 in Corvallis for lunch. While I have enjoyed plenty of Block 15 beers this was my first visit to their restaurant and brewery where I enjoyed one of the largest salads ever (Oregonzola, figs & chicken) and Framboise Rouge, one of their sour offerings. We could have easily stayed around all afternoon but with half of the drive left we hit the road after fueling up.
Arriving in Newport we dropped our bags (at the Holiday Inn instead of the Rogue B&B we'd hoped for) and hit a couple of the Rogue locations. Rogue is Rogue and with their wide distribution we didn't find anything new to drink. But all was not lost as we were tipped off about a place called Bier One.
Bier One, a bottle shop and taproom, is larger than any of the bottle shop/taprooms in Portland due to the fact that beyond beer they have two pool tables, foosball, a couple of dart boards and a small sidewalk patio. Their tap selection offered us the chance to try beers we'd never had before and while the bottle selection was contained in just a couple of coolers, a quick look at it revealed that while the quantity might be small, the quality was solid.
After a pleasant evening there we took a longer route home the next morning, heading up the coast to Pacific City and Pelican Pub & Brewery. Although it was past Labor Day and a Tuesday, the place was packed when we arrived for lunch. A brief wait, made shorter by a pint of beer and taking in the view from their deck, and we were seated. The food and the beer were good but the setting was the most stunning part. Had we had more time I would have been first in line to slide down the huge adjacent sand dune or just hang out on the patio.
Returning to Portland we had another day before seeing them off. Then it was a short turn around and a reconfiguring of the mind before showing a Portland first timer and inexperienced, yet very willing to try any beer, friend from Iowa around town. More on that next.
