Robert Malcolm "Mac" MacTarnahan, patron saint to Portland Brewing, died Monday night. OregonLive has a pretty good article here.

In 1985, he became enamored of Bert Grant's pioneering brewery and brewpub — the first brewpub in America since Prohibition — in Yakima, Wash., and tried to buy into the business. But Grant told him that a couple of Portland guys were trying to set up their own craft, or small, brewery, so MacTarnahan met with Portland Brewing founders Fred Bowman and Art Larrance on a Saturday morning. They had a couple of beers and MacTarnahan asked how much they needed to get the brewery running, then wrote them a check for $25,000 and enlisted several friends to write smaller checks.

Portland Brewing was one of Portland's earliest craft breweries and developed a solid cadre of fans thanks to its good beers and the near-magical atmosphere of its Flanders Street brewpub. During the early years of the brewery, MacTarnahan provided the personality that identified Portland Brewing's beers. Ads made much of his athletic prowess, his 50 gold medals as a senior masters runner and wrestler, his 1999 induction into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

Following up on my earlier post about beer-related websites, here's some more.

• PubCrawler: A directory-type site that offers user reviews, decent enough brewery listings, upcoming events. Honestly, though, it makes my eyes bleed.
• RateBeer: User ratings of beer. Seems to have a better, more logical structure than the other similar types of sites; the events calendar is the best I've seen (color-coded by region: nice), with each event clickable to a detail page (as it should be).
• A Good Beer Blog: I'm gradually finding blogs on beer, and this is a winner. Particularly apropos is this entry on Other Beer Blogs, which I swear I didn't read before I started this entry...
• Topix.net Beer News: News about beer culled from a variety of sources.

This article on Silver Moon Brewing appeared in today's Bend Bulletin (our local newspaper), detailing the new tasting room opening the end of November. That's pretty cool, I know Tyler and he's done really good work with the brew shop and his brewery.

What will be different at the new space on Greenwood?

I'll have new tanks. It's like the car you've always dreamed of. The main focus of the brewery will be distribution. We make about 200 barrels a year now. One barrel is 31 gallons. The new system's capacity is 1,500 barrels a year. We are at maximum capacity here.

This is 1,300 square feet with 700 square feet for brewing. The new place is 6,400 square feet and half of that will be for brewing.

The tasting room here has seating for nine and on Greenwood it will have seating for 12-plus.

What is the relationship among the microbreweries in Bend?

It's kind of like we're on an island here. There are four of us: Bend Brewing Company, Cascade Lakes Brewery, Deschutes Brewery and us and McMenamins will be the fifth. No one hesitates to call each other for help. Craft brewing represents 3 percent of U.S. beer sales so the competition isn't against each other. The competition is against the big companies and they don't care about us.

Gary Fish (founder of Deschutes Brewery) paved the way here. He got people used to the taste of microbrew beer. It doesn't have to be translucent. It can have flavor and variety.

November is shaping up to be a big month for beer in Bend, what with this and McMenamins opening the Old St. Francis School on the 18th. Can't wait!

Sorry for not updating the last couple of days, but I'm back for tonight with some of my favorite Oregon breweries that should be visited by any serious beer hunter. You could consider this a sort of brewery tour.

Starting in my hometown of Bend, the Deschutes Brewery is the place to be. Located in Downtown Bend, it's always fairly busy and if you don't get there early in the evenings you'll likely find yourself waiting. They've got some of the best beer around, and I've never had a bad beer there. You'll definitely want to have some time to sample and enjoy the various seasonals they have on tap.

Quick hop over the mountain, to Portland. One of the smallest breweries (if not the smallest) in Oregon, the Tugboat Brewery sits in a nook and cranny of a space on Ankeny, just off Burnside and a few blocks down from the best bookstore in the world, Powell's Books. Because they're so small, they only have one or two beers on tap at any given time, and there's very limited seating. But mosey on down after spending an afternoon browsing at Powell's, and you'll love it. I guarantee it.

Also in Portland, find yourself a Mcmenamins—any one will do. Or several! Each of their places has a story and unique character behind it. They also have pretty damn good beer.

Over on the Oregon Coast, the Pelican Pub & Brewery in Pacific City has got hands-down the best location ever: literally right on the beach. Sip your beer, have some lunch, then step out the door onto the sand and walk right down to the surf. And oh yeah, decent beer too :).

Finally, we'll conclude tonight's tour with the Rogue Brewery in Newport (also on the coast). Rogue simply produces some of the best beers, period, and at their brewery in Newport's south marina you'll be able to try them out, grab a meal, see the operation and stock up on your favorite Rogue ales from their gift shop. What's not to like?

Found another pumpkin ale recipe today on Usenet, an all-grain one named "Jack's Lantern Pumpkin Ale." You can check it out here on Google Groups. Sounds like it might be pretty good.

Coming up on October 30th is the Washington Brewers Guild's 5th Annual Cask Beer Festival, held in the Alki Room at Seattle Center, next to Key Arena.

Sounds pretty interesting. More info from this TheNewsTribune.com article:

Cask beer aficionados will convene at the Washington Brewer's Guild event, now in its fifth year. It's a great setup for beer tasting, limited to a small crowd of 250 during two four-hour sessions.

"All the brewers who make the beer are there pouring at the event, so there's that ease of access," said Doug Hindman, head brewer at Seattle's Elliott Bay brewing and guild secretary. "The beers that you get at the festival are made especially for the event."

Among the 32 breweries represented are South Sound favorites Harmon and Fish, along with Seattle stalwarts such as Pike, Hale's and Pyramid and outlying brewers from Winthrop and La Conner. Select out-of-state guests include Alaskan, Oregon's Rogue and Colorado's New Belgium.

Tickets are $35 in advance, available online at the Washington Brewers Guild website. There's only 500 tickets available though, so act fast.

The other brewpub we made it to in Southern California (the first being Oggi's) was San Diego Brewing Company, which apparently doesn't have a website. Located in a strip mall (like much of San Diego), I wasn't as impressed with it as with Oggi's (read my Oggi's review), but they do have an amazing selection of beers.

That is, they have something like 50 different beers on tap, and of those, a half dozen or so are their own beers. Though tempted to try some of the other beers they had, I went with the sampler of local brews. Unfortunately, they were out of their Paddle Out Pale Ale, so I had two samplers of the nut brown. My impressions:

• Grantville Gold: Very, very light and thin. My sister-in-law likes it, but it was a little too light for my tastes.
• El Hefe-weizen: Rather bland for a hefeweizen, didn't have the fruity overtones or much wheaty flavor; I liked Oggi's better. Not terribly impressed.
• Old Town Nut Brown: This was pretty good, which is a good thing since I had two samplers! And actually, when I was done with the samplers I ordered another pint of this. Good color, it was toasty, nutty, sweet, flavorful but not too strong. Very drinkable, this would be what I would order regularly.
• Cocoa Porter: This was very good also. Chocolatey, rich, with a good thick mouthfeel and foamy head, but it didn't have the over-roasted, almost burnt flavor I've noticed in porters these days.

The brewpub itself is a sports bar, though with a cozier atmosphere than Oggi's—more of a brewpub feel than a sports bar feel. This was the night of the first Presidential debate, so the big screen in the back corner was showing that, although you couldn't hear much of it.

The service was okay but slow—our waitress disappeared a few times but I think she was busier than usual. This was a Thursday night, so I don't know if this means the place is usually that busy or something else was going on, but off the cuff I'd say don't go there if you're in a hurry.

The food was disappointing, though. Nothing was wrong with it—it was just very plain and so-so. I ordered the Irish pub steak, which has grilled onions and mushrooms on top and mashed potatoes on the side (they may have been garlic, but I don't remember—the meal was that un-noteworthy), and the best I can say is that it was entirely average, and bland. Everyone else said similar things about their food.

So, it's a decent place to go for a beer—a very good variety of them—but I wouldn't go out of my way for a meal. If you go there with these expectations, you won't be disappointed.

Contact info:

San Diego Brewing Company
10450-L Friars Road
San Diego, CA 92120
Phone: 619-284-2739
Fax: 619-284-0428

This article got me thinking about fruit beers. Love 'em or hate 'em? I've generally found that beer drinkers have the strongest opinions on fruit beer. Done right, of course, they are simply awesome (your mileage may vary). Done wrong, well...

Some notably good fruit beers I've had include:

• Pyramid's Apricot Ale—on tap, though. The bottled version is simply average.
• Bert Grant's Apple Honey Ale—also on tap. (This was many years ago.)
• Lindemans Framboise Lambic. Actually, all of Lindemans' are pretty amazing.

And of course, there's been some not-so-good ones... usually these are ones brewed by brewpubs as seasonals or special batches. I remember Bend Brewing Company once did an apricot ale I couldn't really drink (disclaimer: I haven't tried Bend Brewing's Apricot Summer Ale anytime recently). Another notably bad one was a chili pepper beer brewed by the since-closed Birkebeiner Brewery in Spokane (okay, so a chili pepper is not exactly a fruit, but it's close enough to qualify for my purposes). That one was nasty—I didn't even order it, a couple at the next table did and gave it to me instead. I didn't drink it, either.

Some of the best homebrewed fruit beers I've had were made with fruits you wouldn't expect: banana and mango, both brewed by my friend Justin. I myself have made an apple ale (which wasn't terrible) and an apricot ale (which wasn't great).

So, fruit beers—yay or nay?

Interesting little article from azcentral.com about breweriana—basically just an introductory piece. "Breweriana" is simply a more complicated way of saying "beer collectibles."

From the article ("It's all about the beer"... heh):

There are print ads, ashtrays, bottles, cans, caps, clocks, coasters, posters, tap handles, mirrors, coolers, hats, playing cards, tin signs (the older the more valuable), shirts, bar towels, drinking glasses, openers (either hand-held or the kind that attach to a wall) labels, patches, beer steins.

Do collectors zero in on any specific rare memorabilia?

"It's the rare and limited kind that we look for," Barnes said. "Pre-Prohibition items that date prior to the 1920s are really valuable."

Collectors travel all over the country looking for things such as old tin beer trays, cans from the United States and cans from foreign countries. They make several trips to swap meets in California to find these items.

From the BBC News comes this article about how Scottish & Newcastle, the biggest brewer in the UK, is going to start putting health warnings on all of their beers.

[The labels] will list the units of alcohol in each.

It will add a message urging drinkers not to exceed "three to four units a day for men, two to three for women".

The move comes as the UK Government targets binge and underage drinking, as well as trying to limit the social and health damage done by alcohol abuse.

Some Pabst history this weekend, courtesy of The Journal Times and Wikipedia. From the Glad You Asked column at the Journal Times' site:

[Pabst Blue Ribbon] was originally named Select, but people kept asking for the "Blue Ribbon" beer when Pabst brewing started tying blue-silk ribbons to the bottles in 1882. "Blue Ribbon" became part of the name in 1895.

Pabst also put beer in cans for the first time in 1934 and called it Export when sold by can. The can included a picture of a can opener on the side with instructions on how to open the can, obviously with a can opener.

Pabst painted cans olive drab in World War II, and all canned beer went to the military. Pabst wasn't sold to civilians in cans during the war because of tin rationing.

After reading that I decided to hit up Wikipedia to what they might have. Of course, since Wikipedia is awesome, it had the details from the column I quote above and some more:

• The practice of tying the blue ribbon to the bottle lasted from 1882 to 1916.
• Pabst started using caps on bottles instead of corks in 1906.
• Not only did Pabst start canning beer in 1934 (Wikipedia lists 1935), but they were the first brewery to do so.

I just fixed a technical glitch that was preventing anyone from entering comments on a post that already had a comment entered on it... the entire form was gone. Yeesh. Some days technology drives me nuts.

I noted this when it first appeared, but didn't blog it (I was still prepping for relaunching this site), and now I'm taking a second look (thanks to this post on Utterly Boring and this one on Rooftop Brew.

Anheuser-Busch is brewing beer infused with caffeine, guarana and ginseng. It's named B-to-the-E, or B^E, and will be "Well balanced with select hops and aromas of blackberry, raspberry and cherry, [and] will offer a lightly sweet and tart taste." I have to admit that despite my encouragement of experimentation in brewing lately, this sounds a bit odd. And it will be 6.6 percent alcohol by volume—pretty hefty.

I suppose I'll try it when it's released. Gotta keep an open mind, eh?

Via Bend.com this evening: Dates and rates set for McMenamins big opening. The grand opening of McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend is November 18th through 20th. Mark your calendars!

Live music will fill the hallways as the Freak Mountain Ramblers get the party started each night of the three-day celebration at 8 p.m. The movie theater will be showing recently released movies, where viewers can enjoy a slice of pizza and a pint of their favorite ale while watching the movie. The pub, small bars, Turkish-style soaking bath with its open ceiling to the stars, brewery and gift shop will all be open and ready for guests and visitors to explore.

Following right on the heels of my Imperial Beers post where I wrote about going wild and experimenting with brewing, this post on the I.M. Hammered Brewing blog is great.

Why Not:

That is the mantra of homebrewers. Why Not!!! You can't put wheat yeast in a stout wort!! Why Not???? Those two malts won't work together in a brew!! Why Not??? You can't put those ingredients into beer!!!! Why Not??? You can't put that many hops into a 10 gallon batch!!!! Why Not??? Chocolate isn't an ingredient in beer!!! Why Not??? You see, as homebrewers, we can really try just about anything in a brew. That's what makes this hobby so great. Don't tell a homebrewer no, ask him how!! That is what makes us go. Experimentation with fermentable things. Sometimes it turns out pretty good!!! I've heard of just about everything going into a beer, from cereal out of a box, to exotic sugars, to odd spices, non-traditional grains, flavored tea mix, to just about anything that might ferment (cactus pulp, odd sugary fruits, etc). So if you're a homebrewer, try something that is non-traditional in your beer. And if you're not a brewer, learn the basics on a couple of batches, and then get creative. You never know just what you might create!!!!

Here's a (non-comprehensive) rundown of some of the other beer websites out there.

• Real Beer: Probably the biggest and best-organized site around. Forums, e-commerce, events, brewery listings, news, etc. etc. However, I can't find any RSS feeds anywhere on the site (lame), the events calendar pages are highly unwieldly, and the brewery search needs a major technological upgrade (most listings don't even have links to their websites).
• Beer Advocate: I'm not a fan of the design and colors on this site, but as a community-driven site it's a winner. Ultimately the user reviews of beers drives the database behind the site; I like the way they link it all together. And a damn good source for specific beer information.
• Beer Me!: The usability on this site is terrible, but it's got the best comprehensive list of breweries I've seen online, bar none. And it's updated frequently, too. However, it seems to be done in HTML flat files, no database behind it... arrrrgh! Other problem appears to be no obvious links to the brewery websites.
• What Ales You: It's not the greatest site, but I admire the intent behind it.

Well, that's a start on that list, anyway. I'll post more as we go.

This thread on Usenet, while starting out as a review of an Oktoberfest beer, takes to task the trend of brewing "Imperial" style beers. For some background, "Imperial" originally referred to the Russian Imperial Stout style of beer, which is a highly-hopped, high gravity stout with alcohol typically in the range of 8 to 12 percent by volume.

Then some innovative American brewers took the "Imperial" characteristics and applied them to the India Pale Ale (IPA) style, creating the Imperial IPA (which is a recognized style category by the Beer Judge Certification Program). The result, of course, is an even hoppier, stronger IPA.

Naturally, the adjective "Imperial" is (rather arbitrarily) now being used to describe a stronger version of a classic style of beer that was not necessarily strong before. Hence, we see beers like:

• Rogue's Imperial IPA and Imperial Pilsner
• Avery Brewing Company's The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest (the beer that initiated the Usenet thread above—it's a whopping 9.3% ABV!)
• Full Sail's Imperial Porter

And so on.

Back to the pushback against imperial beers... Personally, I don't see any problem, they're just another type of novelty beer. Every brewer at some point has experimented and gone crazy and come up with something completely different. Hell, I've been contemplating brewing a barleywine style beer using wheat malt... Imperial Hefeweizen, anybody?

The best criteria, of course, is whether a "new" beer is any good—if it's good, it will succeed, and if successful enough, it might even grow from novelty to mainstream. Why not? Imperial IPA started out exactly the same way, and now it's an official style of beer.

And hey, I'll never have a problem with a good strong beer... :)

Alton Brown does beer! I caught the homebrewing episode of my favorite cooking show, Good Eats, this evening (which is kind of timely, I was wondering recently if there was one), and I thought it was pretty good, except for a couple of technical mistakes.

First, he mashed the crystal malt. Er, well, except the crystal malt doesn't need mashing; during the malting process, the grains are heated to mashing temperatures so the starches are converted to sugars while still in the grain. So technically, crystal malt is already mashed and trying to mash it again just doesn't work. However, steeping the grain in the water pre-boil is a good idea, because it will extract the sugars and flavors from it. I wonder if he "mashed" the grain to give the average person watching the program an idea of what the big breweries do to make beer...

The other gaffe was with the term "dryhopping". It was used here in reference to adding hops to the end of the boil, which is actually known as the "finishing hops" stage. Dryhopping is when you add the hops to the fermenter, after the boiling process.

Otherwise, a good episode. Alton Brown knows his stuff, and I was amused at the beginning when he described a "good" brewing supply shop as one that isn't decorated. Although I missed the very beginning—I caught the end of the opening monologue thing (my wife taped it for me, but started taping after she saw it was about brewing) and I thought he was talking about bees and honey, so I thought honey would play a part in the beer making. But it didn't, at all. Not even as a priming sugar for bottling. Oh well, just color me confused.

Innovation in brewing: here's an interesting article on CNN.com about a guy in Germany who has come up with a new way to brew beer.

[The brewing] process is traditionally an uncontrolled one in which the yeast "free floats."

"You throw the yeast into the vessel and say, 'Now go and work. I have prepared some food for you and it is nice and sugary, so go and do your thing'," he says.

His own process allows the yeast to work quicker and involves first fixing the yeast to the ceramic lining of a stainless steel cylinder.

The yeast fuses itself to the surface and feeds the wort at an increased rate, meaning the fermentation process takes only a few hours.

Sounds interesting, but I'm naturally a bit skeptical. Immobilizing the yeast by fixing them to ceramic doesn't make much sense to me—the yeast need to reproduce as a part of the brewing cycle—how do they do that if stuck to a wall?

There's also some interesting photos of his brewing system. Doesn't seem to take much space at all; I wonder how many gallons he can brew per batch?

Perfect for the season, this is a favorite beer of mine to brew this time of year (although I haven't brewed in a long time), and it's always good. This is mostly an extract-based recipe, though there is a short mash/rest with the pumpkin and malt. Use this recipe as-is, or as a basis for experimentation.

Ingredients:

• 6-10 pounds of pumpkin
• 1 pound of Vienna malt, 4L
• ½ pound crystal malt, 40L
• ½ pound malted wheat
• 6 pounds light or amber malt extract
• 1 cup brown suger (optional)
• ½ cup molasses (optional)
• 1 ounce Mt. Hood hops (boiling)
• ½ ounce Hallertauer hops (finishing)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ to 1 teaspon pumpkin pie spices (see below)
• Wyeast 1056, American Ale

Directions:

The first thing to say is do not use canned pumpkin! Real pumpkin is the only way to go here, otherwise you'll be dealing with a huge mess. You've been warned.

You'll first need to roast the pumpkin in the oven, similar to cooking squash. This softens the pumpkin and begins breaking it down. Cut the pumpkin into manageable pieces (should be cleaned, of course—old jack-o'lanterns work great), place in a shallow baking pan and add a bit of water to the pan. Roast in a 325°-ish oven for about an hour, or until soft. Or check a cookbook :).

There's two ways you can incorporate the finished pumpkin: a partial mash-style method or simply a soak with the grains as the water heats. For the soak method, simply add the pumpkin and the grains to your pot of water, put it on the heat to boil. When it boils, remove the pumpkin and grains.

For the partial mash, add the pumpkin and grains to hot water (between 150 and 170 degrees Fahrenheit is fine, I believe) and let rest for an hour, then bring to a boil and remove the pumpkin and grains. (Note: I don't have sparging equipment, so this removal is simply via a wire strainer.)

Add the malt extract (6 pounds is for dry, you could easily get away with 7 pounds if it's syrup), optional brown sugar and molasses, Mt. Hood hops and boil for 1 hour. After 45 minutes, add the finishing Hallertauer hops. At the very end of the boil, add the vanilla and pumpkin pie spices—these are volatile and adding them to the boil any sooner will essentially nullify their flavor.

Ferment for 1 week, or until primary fermentation settles down, and rack to a secondary for 2 more weeks. The secondary fermentation is not strictly necessary, but I like it for clarification and for letting the flavors mellow. Bottle, priming with ½ cup of corn sugar, and drink after a couple of weeks.

As for the spices, I like a typical mixture of what you'd put into a pumpkin pie: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace, maybe ginger. I'd avoid buying the generic "Pumpkin Pie Spice" from the store, and mix your own instead—you'll have more control over the outcome. This spice essence is one of the first things you notice when you open a bottle—yum!

I've heard of recipes that don't actually use pumpkin—seems weird to me. I personally think real pumpkin adds a unique flavor and texture to the finished beer that you just can't replicate otherwise.

And, a quick note about the hops. Mt. Hood is a nice spicy, slightly sweet hop (a variant of Hallertauer, actually) that seems to complement this beer well. For finishing, you don't have to stick to Hallertauer; play with it a bit. Cascade might be a nice finish, or if you want to reduce the hop bite, omit the finishing hop altogether.

Oktoberfest is already over this year, but it's still a good topic to blog about because someone at work was asking why it's over since we're still in the first half of October.

The timing of Oktoberfest is dependent upon the first Sunday in October: it always starts in mid-September, and ends 16 days later on that first Sunday. Hence, this year's Oktoberfest started September 18th and ended October 3rd; next year, it will start September 17th and end October 2nd. As to why, this is from the official Oktoberfest site:

The first Oktoberfest was held in the year 1810 in honor of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig's marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festivities began on October 12, 1810 and ended on October 17th with a horse race. In the following years, the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into September.

By moving the festivities up, it allowed for better weather conditions. Because the September nights were warmer, the visitors were able to enjoy the gardens outside the tents and the stroll over "die Wiesen" or the fields much longer without feeling chilly. Historically, the last Oktoberfest weekend was in October and this tradition continues into present times.

The king of all Oktoberfest celebrations is of course in Munich, where it originated; this year approximately 5.9 million people attended. And there's plenty of others to be found outside of Munich, too:

• Mt. Angel Oktoberfest, in Oregon
• Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest in Ontario, Canada
• Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati in (you guessed it) Cincinnati
• And more to be found via a Google search for "Oktoberfest"

Not all Oktoberfest celebrations are confined to the traditional dates; the Kitchener-Waterloo festival is going on October 8th through 16th, and the Tulsa Oktoberfest is October 21st through 24th.

Oktoberfest beer, also called Märzen, was traditionally brewed in March (Märzen means "March") and then stored (lagered) in caves during the summer until it was ready for consumption for Oktoberfest. It's a rich, malty, typically amber lager. It should be toasty but not sweet, and only moderately hoppy. The best example of this beer you can get, in my opinion, is Paulaner's Oktoberfest-Märzen.

While in San Diego we had dinner one night at Oggi's Pizza & Brewing Company in Mission Valley. Actually, we had dinner two nights: the first time we had take-out pizza at my brother's place, and it was quite good. Some of the best pizza around, or so we were told.

The restaurant itself was nice, roomy and fairly kid-friendly. Definitely a sports bar: I counted at least 20 television sets around the place (the web site claims 22!), most of which were playing ESPN or something sports-related. The usual sports and beer stuff is the decor, and in the back the brewing tanks are on display.

The food was really good. Standard pub fare and more. I had a burger, my brother had wings (sweet, not spicy, very tasty), my wife had a chicken something and I forget what else. And of course I mentioned the pizza we'd had previously—all around, definitely worth it for the meal.

But of course the beer is what a brewpub is all about :). I did the logical thing: got a sampler tray of their beers. And it was one of the best sampler trays I've seen: each glass was four ounces (instead of the usual two you see everywhere else)! Nice. Here's my impression of those beers:

• California Gold: Very light, crisp, mild. A good lawnmower beer, very drinkable.
• Sweet Spot Hefe: Hefeweizen in the traditional style: fruity, clovey, a bit tart. A little light, and the mouthfeel was thin for my taste from what I remember. Not bad.
• Sunset Amber Ale: Nice American amber style beer. Very similar to Full Sail Amber Ale.
• Torrey Pines IPA: Excellent IPA, very hoppy. My brother tells me it's the best IPA in San Diego. This would be a regular beer for me.
• McGarvey's Scottish Ale: This I think was my favorite beer of the bunch: strong, malty, earthy, hoppy. Extremely drinkable, very good mouthfeel, yummmm. Looking back, I wish I'd picked some up to go...
• Black Magic Stout: This beer, while not bad, didn't much do it as a stout for me; the flavor was a little too burnt (too much black patent grain, I think), and the mouthfeel was thin, not chewy like a stout should be. Maybe I'm spoiled by the good stuff we have here in the northwest. It's worth a taste.

On a different note, I have to give Oggi's a thumbs-down for their website: frame-based, very cluttered, ugly design, and a Java ticker applet whose sole purpose appears to be to annoy. They have one of the shortest domain names going for them, that's something—they just need to invest in a decent 21st-century design.

From their website, I count 12 locations and two more that haven't opened yet; Oggi's is like the McMenamins of San Diego. It would be interesting to compare the beers brewed at each location, and see how consistenly they're brewed, but if you only make it to one, the Mission Valley pub is a good one: great food, good beers.

Contact info:

Oggi's Pizza & Brewing Company (Mission Valley)
2245 Fenton Parkway
San Diego, CA 92108
Phone: (619) 640-1072
Fax: (619) 640-2710

The 2004 Great American Beer Festival took place last week, from September 30 through October 2. One of these days, I just have to go to this. This year, they had a record-breaking 28,000 attendees.

The three-day event brought a record number of beer connoisseurs from around the world to Denver, Colo. (a city dubbed "the Napa Valley of beer" by many of the world's beer experts) to sample 1,454 different American beers. The roster of beers was the biggest collection of American beers ever presented in one location.

The cool thing about the GABF is that it's also a massive beer competition. This year there were 398 breweries with 2,016 beer being judged. Damn. Be sure to check out the 2004 winners list, and try some of those beers.

I wish I'd know of this sooner: the Newport Microbrew Festival is going on this weekend in Newport, Oregon, at the Rogue Ales Brewery. Admission is $8, including a free mug, and will feature beer (duh!) from 20 breweries, food, arts and crafts, live entertainment, and a homebrew competition.

Welcome to the relaunch of The Brew Site as a blog! When I originally started this site, I had a grand plan to build it into the premier site and directory for beer and brewing-related information online; however, real life intruded and I never properly had the time to implement those plans. What I've since found more manageable is blogging. So, this relaunch.

Things might be a little rough around the edges for the next few days, so bear with me.

Time permitting, I will re-activate some of the original features I had planned:

• A comprehensive, searchable directory of breweries and pubs, both with websites and without
• A searchable directory of other beer-related web sites
• An events calendar, searchable, with the ability of users to input their own events

Some of this stuff I even have built out—and some had been previously active, like the brewery listings, although very much in beta. I'm sure all the search engines have that stuff cached, and will cause me no end of grief...

Stick around! This relaunch might be going somewhere...