And now, some pictures I took at this year's Oregon Brewers Festival. Ten. After the jump.

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More Oregon BrewFest goodness! While I was there Friday, in addition to taking notes on the beers I was sampling, I took some time (before my friend Justin arrived) to jot down notes in "real time" in my notebook. Sort of a low-tech "liveblogging" that only goes, er, live when I transcribe it. Anyway, here are my notes, pretty much word-for-word (with times, too!):

1:25-1:30-ish: Fellow two seats away is smoking a cigar... a big cloud of smoke just drifted over me and it's sweet and good...

It's a perfect day—partly cloudy and cool so you don't swelter, but the sun keeps coming out to warm you up. Nice breeze. The crowd is thin, there's lots of seating, and I have my pick of beers as I wait for Justin. Perfect, perfect... I couldn't have picked a better day. I already pushed a pin into "Bend" on the "Where are you from?" maps (and took a picture).

Fellow with cigar just got busted... a red-shirted official with a grey mustache just told him he'd have to take it out of the tent area... fellow denied having it, but moved on. He was with his wife(?).

More kids than I'd have figured. They (parents and kids) have some sort of official fluorescent green stickers...

1:51: I've noticed several other people with notepads, writing. The ambient noise is the soft yet throaty roar-murmur of a crowd... I keep hearing laughter, some guy with a particularly distinctive—birdy?—laugh...

MyElephantEars.com—for real?

2:05: A hop booth for info all about hops... has hard candy made with hops! It's all green of various sorts... I grabbed a piece of Simcoe. Very unusual. The sugar-sweet of hard (rock) candy and the absolute (bitter) hoppiness of the hops... not sure what to make of it. Could you prime bottles with pieces of it?

2:25: The south tent is busier and noisier than the north... I don't know if that's because it's later in the day or just more popular. As I started to write this, a vocal equivalent of the "wave" (a "whoop") cascaded through... I briefly joined in, of course.

Still waiting for Justin to call/arrive...

This 10th Anniversary Farmhouse is disappointing, but the people watching is prime. People of all sorts are here, all of them (excepting the kids, of course) carrying a mug and/or drinking beer. Lots of couples and women... never let it be said that Portland isn't a beer town, judging by the number of beer-drinking women...

Cops with guns, too.

2:40: Justin called about 2:33... he's hopping a bus and should be here in ½ hour. I think I'll stop at the Rogue [beer taster] and wait for him. Also, I should look into eating. (Maybe after he gets here.) I've got a comfortable buzz going, not too strong, and I want it to stay mild. I've had seven tasters so far... nine tokens left ($20 initially).

The child stickers (green) say they have to leave by seven p.m., essentially.

2:50: Beer Chips...got a bag for $1, and a weird foam hat to go with it... Moved out to the central area so as to enjoy the sun. For food, there's a "Horn of Africa" booth selling African (East) appetizers... Gustav's Pub and Grill with German brats and such... A fish and chips ($6.95) booth... Greek Cuisina. Elephant ears and curly fries, too.

These beer chips are pretty good... like thick, sweet Kettle Chips... the packaging says they're made with beer, but I don't taste it.

We'll have to see how time goes, but at this point I'm thinking I'm going to blow off the blogger meetup (sorry guys).

4:30: Old man eating a sauerkraut hot dog with chopsticks.

You can tell that after Justin arrived (around 3), I pretty much stopped writing. Except the guy eating the hot dog with chopsticks was too good/odd not to note. Besides visiting with Justin, the other reason I had mostly stopped writing was the place was filling up, seats were being taken and it's a pain to try to write standing up with a mug of beer in one hand and people jostling all around.

That, and the alcohol was giving me just enough of a buzz that my handwriting and dexterity were getting worse...

The problem with a beer festival as big as the Oregon Brewers Festival is there's no easy way to sample many beers... without getting wasted, of course. You could spread it out over two or three days, but it's still no mean feat.

The Oregon BrewFest has 72 different beers on tap. A good number of them I've already tried or just didn't sound interesting to me, and that combined with the fact that I only had one day to visit, I'd made up a list beforehand of the beers I definitely wanted to try. I was able to try all of them, plus a few others... so, here are my notes from the BrewFest for those beers (in order that I tried them, and pretty much transcribed word-for-word).

Watermelon Wheat (21st Amendment Brewing): More wheat than watermelon. Light. Watermelon in the nose... a little too bitter for expectations. [I was hoping for something very light and fruity and melon-y.] Pale yellow. Some fruit in the back of the palate...

Sunrye (Rye Ale, Redhood Brewery): Billed as an "Unfiltered, dry-hopped festival recipe." Not very hoppy. Rye is grainy but understated... like a mild bread. "Unfiltered" is relative. (It's fairly clear.) Is this rye? Kind of plain... not strong. Looking forward to the other ryes...

Hop Rod Rye Ale (Bear Republic Brewing): Now this is more like it! Darker, hoppier, definite grainy rye character here... very good. Strong, too. Brown with some red... mouthfeel is medium but chewy... kind of like a thick, grainy dark bread. Beer is rich and smoky without any actual smoke character (hard to describe).

Farmhouse Ale (Saison from Jack Russell Brewing): 6.7% alcohol. Aroma is sour, farmy. Very light... has that saison character—fruity and musty/musky and spicy... it's a bit light/thin for my tastes, but still good. I'm liking it overall... refreshing.

Honey Orange Wheat (Eugene City Brewery): Not on the normal schedule. Smell of orange blossoms. Taste is witbier-ish... orange instead of orange peel though. Color is like pale honey. Interesting... light clean honey character is there, along with fruity orange (blossom) and a hint of coriander and spices... Very thin-bodied and light.

10th Anniversary Farmhouse Summer Ale (Flying Fish Brewing): Very mild aroma, not like the other... Pale yellow and relatively clear. Taste is less saison (although there ARE saison elements) and more hoppy "summer" ale. It's okay, but compared to what I was expecting in a saison, disappointing.

Brewer (Rogue): Rogue's festival-specific ale. 7.33% alcohol. Dark... molasses brown. Aroma is very, very hoppy. As is the taste! Wow, it's like a hop syrup... the hops are drowning out almost everything else. What are we looking at here? Willamette? It's not fruity/grapefruity enough for Cascade. Medium-bodied. Wow... eau-de-hop.

[At this point my friend Justin had arrived, so I was focusing less on writing notes and more on visiting and enjoying beer.]

Double Dry Hopped Pale Ale (Boundary Bay Brewing): Very good. Hops in the nose and palate, but not syrupy like Rogue. Malty and dry.

Sirius (Lagunitas Brewing): (Imperial cream ale?) Strong and different... almost its own style (Well, it is!). Fruity without being specific...

White Lightning Whiskey Stout (McMenamins): Coffee, whiskey, sour mash... very good. Nice body. Long line—popular! Smooth, rich, dark.

Raging Rhino Red (Steelhead Brewing): Hoppy and astringently malty. An off-bite.

Zon (Boulevard Brewing): Belgian wit style. Light in character and mouthfeel—good.

Stone Pale Ale (Stone Brewing). [Didn't take notes.]

Powderfinger Rye (Big Time Brewing): Malty, grainy. Not as strong as the other ryes, but good. Mild. Some hop kick.

Pliny the Elder (Russian River Brewing): [Didn't take notes, but I remember this being very strong and hoppy... it's a double IPA. Very good, I'll have to find some in the bottle.]

And there we have it. I think my favorite beer of the day was the Whiskey Stout from McMenamins, of which I got a final full mug's worth before we left. It was that good. As I remarked to my friend Justin, McMenamins in general make decent but often mediocre beers, but this one really stands out.

Other highlights had to be Rogue's Brewer, which to my mind right now is probably the hoppiest beer I've ever had, the Hop Rod Rye, and Jack Russell's Farmhouse.

The worst beer? Well, I didn't try all of them, of course, but Justin got the Ned Flanders Red Ale from Rock Bottom Brewery and it was simply terrible. He didn't like it, and let me taste it to see. Weird sour off-aroma, similar taste which was just way off... I don't know what went wrong with it, but something definitely did.

So overall, I tasted 15 beers and got a final full mug of Whiskey Stout. Not bad for almost five hours on a Friday.

So I made it to the Oregon Brewers Festival on Friday, but not to the blogger meetup that was happening that evening. Sorry guys! I had been hoping to make it, but the day had turned out so nice, and I hadn't seen my best friend Justin for a long time, that I just couldn't pull myself away. Perhaps a better idea would have been to meet at the Brewfest itself? Hopefully everyone else made it, at least.

I've got at least three posts (after this one) on the OBF... I think I managed to sample all of the beers I'd planned to, and I wrote down notes in general. And took some pictures. Bottom line: it was the perfect day for the Brewfest, and while I couldn't make it for the full weekend, I'm really glad I got to go on Friday. So stay tuned!

Looking over the list of breweries and beers at this year's Oregon Brewers Festival, I thought I'd make some notes on the ones I'm going to make sure to try.

• Watermelon Wheat from 21st Amendment Brewery
• Hop Rod Rye Ale from Bear Republic Brewing Company
• Powderfinger Rye from Big Time Brewing Company
• Zon from Boulevard Brewing Company
• Double Dry Hopped Pale Ale from Boundary Bay Brewing Company
• 10th Anniversary Farmhouse Summer Ale from Flying Fish Brewing Company
• Farmhouse Ale from Jack Russell Brewing Company
• Sirius Ale (an Imperial Cream Ale?) from Lagunitas Brewing Company
• White Lightning Whiskey Stout from McMenamins

This is a preliminary list of beers that caught my eye, of course... I'll likely be adding to it.

The other beer I got from the Roslyn Brewing Company was Roslyn Beer, a dark lager that complements the pale lager I reviewed previously. The Roslyn website indicates that they use "four types of malted barley and three hop varieties" in this beer. I'm not sure I totally buy into that (sounds a bit hype-ish), but it's possible...

I didn't care for this one as much as the previous beer, their pale lager. I think that's more because I don't care as much for dark lagers generally unless they are Bocks... But, the beer itself is technically well-done. On to it.

Appearance: Bottle has sediment (like the last beer). It poured ruby brown—dark with red highlights. The head was light tan and dissipated quickly.

Smell: It has that distinctive (to me, anyway) aroma of darker, roasted malts. A bit of molasses. Earthy.

Taste: Roasty, earthy, metallic? or steely? which comes from the hops, usually. There's an astringency that comes from the dark (burnt) grains. It's very clean, though. The hops coat the palate, you can taste them for a bit afterwards.

Mouthfeel: Thinner in body that the pale lager... I'd prefer a bit thicker for a darker beer. Astringent and a slightly metallic bite.

On BeerAdvocate, seven reviews have given it a score of 84 out of 100, with 86% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.19 out of 5, in the 55th percentile overall.

It's decent. Like I said, I'm less a fan of dark lagers, but I certainly recognize when one is well-brewed. And I always appreciate free beer. :)

This is one of those stories I like to call "the definition of irony":

Beer company executive, chief commercial pitcher and former Senate candidate Pete Coors confirmed Thursday he was cited in May for driving under the influence of alcohol after leaving a friend's wedding celebration.

"I made a mistake," Coors said in a prepared statement. "I should have planned ahead for a ride. For years, I've advocated the responsible use of our company's products. That's still my message, and our company's message, and it's the right message.

"I am sorry that I didn't follow it myself."

But was he drinking Coors?

A little while back a coworker was passing through Roslyn, Washington and happened upon the Roslyn Brewing Company, and was kind enough to bring me back a bottle each of their two beers, Brookside Beer and Roslyn Beer. Brookside (the first I've drank so far) is a pale lager in a 22-ounce bomber. No indication of alcohol content, but I'd guess fairly standard around 5%.

Of course, the deal was I had to blog about the beers as I drank them. Who am I to turn down such a deal? As long as I'm not ending up with some sort of Russian jet fuel (I actually have an old bottle of Russian beer that looks to be just that... kept as a collectable only, never intended for consumption), it's all good.

Appearance: Pale orange and nice and clear. A slightly off-white head rose rapidly, and dissipated just as quickly. At the end of the bottle a bit of sediment came off the bottom, clouding things up a bit.

Smell: A surprisingly fruity and sweet (honey?) character. Clean. Hops are there, but understated, not really florally.

Taste: Clean, grainy, steely and grassy-ish from the hops. There's that sweet hint of fruit on the palate. The hops that are there are assertive without being strong... mellow. Well-balanced for a lager.

Mouthfeel: A little thin, but otherwise medium-bodied—more substance than I'd expect to see in a pale lager of this sort. Smooth. It's a bit dry, sort of biting.

On BeerAdvocate, there are only six reviews, but of those, all six give it a thumbs-up and score it 84 out of 100. On RateBeer there are only slightly more reviews—nine—and it scores a solidly average 2.69 out of 5.

Overall, I found this to be a tasty beer. It'd make a good session beer, it's not that strong in alcohol, and I could see grabbing a bottle or two while barbecuing steaks and chicken on the patio on a hot summer day.

The ironic thing about these photos from the Deschutes Brewery tour is that I didn't go... my wife did today (a special showing). So that sucks for me. But the photos are pretty cool. No commentary, just check them out after the jump.

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Okay, technically it wasn't quite a 4th of July brew, since we brewed on Monday the 3rd instead... but you get the idea.

I had taken Monday off so my friend Paul (hardcore homebrewer) and I could get together to brew up an all-grain batch of beer. The plan was to brew a Scotch ale (designed to tip the scales at something like 9% alcohol by volume) and then a second-runnings from that. We brought Paul's equipment over to our house (I'm thinking now that I should have taken pictures of it... d'oh!) and set up for a long day of brewing.

It wasn't that long, overall, though. The first batch (the big one) started out fine, the mash went well, no problems until it was time for lautering... apparently the mesh screen filter at the bottom of his mashtun had popped loose, resulting in a stuck spigot. We were able to mostly unstick the spigot to get the wort out without too much grain with it, but the sparging probably lasted about an hour longer than was necessary.

The rest of the brew went well. I ended up with about three gallons of second-runnings ("two-penny" ale, is what Paul called it), Paul had four or five or so gallons of full-strength wort, and it's all percolating away. All in all a good brew day... and we ended the day with an impromptu barbecue with a bunch of friends.

I also picked up ingredients for a batch of bitter. More as the Two-Penny ferments and I brew up the other...