The Oregon Brewers Festival witnessed a banner year with a record attendance of 60,500 beer lovers at the 20th annual festival, and the largest number of kegs poured to date. The four-day event concluded on Sunday, July 29, at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

The event kicked off on July 26 with a one-mile brewers parade on the city sidewalks, led by Portland Mayor Tom Potter and accompanied by bagpipers, drummers, and beer lovers. Upon arrival at the venue, Mayor Potter followed the Oktoberfest tradition in which the Lord Mayor taps the first keg, by swinging a wooden mallet to drive the tap into the official first keg of the festival.

The Oregon Brewers Festival served 73 different craft beers from 14 states across the country. The top sellers were the light, refreshing fruit beers, including 21st Amendment's Watermelon Wheat, Cascade Brewing's Razberry Wheat, and Eugene City's Honey Orange Wheat.

Beer lovers came from every state in the nation, and many countries around the world, to join in the celebration. One particular group flew in from Holland, volunteering as token sellers before partaking in the festivities.

The festival's minor and designated driver program, which offered participants dog tags with the logo "None Before 21," was a great success. Minors and designated drivers received access to the Crater Lake Soda Garden, which served complimentary handcrafted sodas and ice cream floats. Staff from the Wallowa Valley Together Project offered education on the potential dangers, risks, and unhealthy community norms associated with underage drinking.

The Oregon Brewers Festival was founded in 1988 as an opportunity to expose the public to microbrews at a time when the craft brewing industry was just getting off the ground. Today, that industry has succeeded, especially in Oregon, a state that has more craft breweries per capita than anywhere else in the nation. Oregon's beer production grew at a rate of nearly 17 percent in 2006, pumping more than $2.2 billion into the state's economy. The Oregon Brewers Festival alone has an estimated economic impact of $1.5 million on the city of Portland.

The Oregon Brewers Festival always takes place the last full weekend in July. The 2008 dates will be July 24 through 27. For more information, visit www.oregonbrewfest.com.

My Day Two (Saturday) of the Oregon Brewers Festival was, as I indicated, more of a social day that a "pro blogger" day: my friend Justin and I went together. I still had my notebook, camera, and pack with me, and I took notes on the beers I was sampling, though that's about it.

Read on for more of Day 2

Here's my Part 2 of that first day of the Oregon Brewers Festival. These are more random observations that I wanted to touch on before moving to my Day 2 report.

After tasting six beers at the northern end of the Brewfest, I wandered south to check out the rest of the action. Interestingly, the southern tent was obviously busier and packed with more people than the northern tent. I'm not sure about the reason behind this discrepancy. Perhaps more people were entering via the southern entrance under the Morrison Bridge?

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Even though the Oregon Brewers Festival starts on Thursday now (and, as media, I was officially invited to attend the brunch and parade that morning), I left for Portland Friday morning to attend that day and Saturday. I was able to stay with my friends, Justin and Raegan, who generously put up with me. Justin had to work on Friday, but made it down to the Brewfest after work and we went together on Saturday.

My Day One at the Brewfest, I was in "pro blogger" mode since I was there by myself: writing a lot of notes, taking a bunch of pictures, exploring the Fest and trying to beat the crowds. Day Two was more of a social day, since Justin and I were there together; my Day Two writeup will follow tomorrow or Wednesday, after I deal with Part Two of Day One..

I'm not even writing about the beers in detail yet—that's a post on its own since I took a fair number of notes. I'll list what I tried each day, though, to give an idea.

Read on for the full report

More extensive writeups will follow, of course, but I must say, the Oregon Brewers Festival was really, really good this year. Lots of good beers, a few misses, and at least one that was good but very odd.

It was also the first time I've been considered "Media" for blogging. I had a badge, even. Something I could definitely get used to.

I hit all but one of my target beers, I believe. Pretty good! A quick note on my two favorites: Red Thistle Quercus from Golden Valley Brewing (pinot oak barrel aged red/ESB) and Bourbon Barrel Abbey Dubbel from Flying Fish (just like it sounds). Both were amazing. (Though I've seen a few online reviews from people who didn't like the Bourbon Barrel. All I can do is shrug.)

More to come tomorrow and later this week.

I'm off to the Oregon Brewers Festival today—leaving shortly and driving to Portland. I'll be picking up my press kit (as a blogger, I get full media privileges—how cool is that?) and start sampling beers somewhere around noon to 1:30, if all goes well.

I'm wearing a white Arrogant Bastard t-shirt and jean shorts, and will have a black and green shoulder bag slung over me, if anyone wants to meet. I'm the brown-haired guy with the goatee.

Alternatively, you can try calling and leaving me a message—I've signed up with the free service PrivatePhone, which assigns me a phone number for anyone to call and leave a voicemail that I can check from my phone. (I don't quite feel right about publishing my cellphone number for all the world to see...) I'll check messages every hour or so (maybe more frequently), and that number is 360-362-1627.

Off I go!

Even though I won't get there until tomorrow and I think of the Oregon Brewers Festival as (traditionally) starting on Friday, it actually starts—well, started—today.

First up was the Oregon Brewers Brunch and Parade, from 10am til noon (PDF here):

The public is invited to join craft brewers from across the country to kick off the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival. The Oregon Brewers Brunch will begin at 10 am at the Rogue Ales Public House at 1339 NW Flanders St in Portland. Tickets may be purchased at the door and cost $15, which includes a traditional brunch, a pint of Rogue Ales, a parade t-shirt, and a kazoo. At 11 am, participating brewers and beer lovers will set out for an old-fashioned sidewalk parade, accompanied by kazoos and marching band music. The parade will wind its way through Portland sidewalks to the opening ceremonies of the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival.

And then the Fest opens at noon. I wish I could've made it early, but that's okay, I'll get early reports from other blogs: Jay Brooks will be there today, and Jeff promises a preview tonight. And there'll be others, I'm quite sure.

One more day for me!

Burton Baton is one of Dogfish Head's "Occasional Rarities" that I found when we were in Ashland. It's a limited edition and can pretty much only be considered one of their extreme beers: it's 10% alcohol by volume and their site describes it as

A blend of oak-aged English strong ale and our 90 Minute I.P.A.. Citrus notes from Northwestern hops meld with vanilla notes from the oak.

Which I guess classifies it as an oak-aged Imperial IPA. Or hybrid strong ale. Or something.

Oh, and don't let that image fool you. The bottle I had was a standard 12 ounce bottle.

Appearance: A nice clear copper color with orange highlights and a nice tan-orange head.

Smell: Mild, considering—flossy candy sweet; mildly spicy and clean hops. Reminds me of a barleywine.

Taste: Oh my, that's complex... brandy, sweet barleywine-style malts and sugars, grassy herb of some sort, sticky-sweet candy, definite oak/wood notes as in a cognac. By far more sweet than hoppy. Peppercorn, some spiciness that reminds me of cumin... cloying sweet with dark fruit, alcohol heat. More like a barleywine than an Imperial IPA.

Mouthfeel: Nicely smooth and syrupy. Full-bodied but lacking in hop balance.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 89 out of 100, with 99% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.7 out of 5 and is in their 93rd percentile.

Jeff at Beervana has a good Preview post up. I swear Jeff knows more about the OBF than anyone else I'm reading online... I think he must keep each year's beer list in Excel or something. If you don't know what kind of beer to try, Jeff's guide should be considered mandatory. You won't go wrong with it.

I rather liked this list of 10 Easy Steps to Enjoying the 20th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival on the Portland Metroblogging site.

2. Don't linger in the beer line - seriously - there is a huge amount of space in the area - it's not that hard to get back in line once your cup is finished. Don't crowd the lines while you're standing around drinking and socializing.
...
8. Check out some of the vendors - I'd always kind of ignored them before, but last year we bought awesome handmade wooden beers steins that you can't get anywhere else in Portland.
9. Get out of the tents - this kind of goes with #2 - but if you're standing really close to where they pour the beer, it's going to seem overly crowded - but there is really a lot of room.

Getting close to the Oregon Brewers Festival this week, and I'm thinking about what to take and carry while I'm there, wandering around the park. One thing to keep in mind is hydration—that's probably the most important thing, because not only are you (potentially) drinking a lot of beer, but you're out in the heat the entire time you're there. (Of course, they have water available—but when there are thousands of people there, I figure it's better to be safe than sorry.)

Here's a list of what I'm thinking I'll have with me:

• Light backpack or messenger bag to hold this stuff, plus room to hold extras or souvenirs I pick up
• Bottled water; at least 2 pints worth, sealed: they won't allow unsealed containers in (they could potentially contain outside alcohol)
• Notebook and pen(s)
• Digital camera with extra batteries
• Sun gear: Sunglasses, sunscreen, hat
• List of brewers and beers (with the must-tries highlighted)
• Snack food—something like trail mix or nuts; there will be food vendors at the fest for meals, but something in between to keep the carbs up and the stomach not too empty is good too
• Aspirin
• Wet wipes, or kleenex, or a small hand towel or something—hey, spills happen

As far as clothing goes, a light-colored shirt (darker colors absorb more sunlight and therefore heat), and comfortable shoes (lots of walking) are a must.

Also, I'm thinking vitamin B would be a good idea, too—before the drinking starts. A big dose of B (and hydration) goes a long way toward preventing the hangover that you may be in for otherwise.

This is a cross between a press release and commentary. First, the PR part:

Recently, Redhook has launched an opportunity for its fans to immortalize themselves—in a soggy, cardboardy way. By visiting defyordinary.com, fans can show how they defy ordinary by entering a simple picture. It will be displayed on the Web site gallery for all to admire. In September, eight coasters will be chosen as winners; thousands of copies of each coaster will be printed and distributed to local bars.

Then, eight people in America will for the first time be able to sincerely utter, “Hey, baby, have you seen my coaster?”

WHO: Redhook Ale Brewery
WHAT: Defy Ordinary Coaster Contest
WHERE: www.defyordinary.com
WHEN: Contest ends September 3, 2007
WHY: Because Redhook ales and the people who drink them are just a little different
For rules and additional contest information, visit www.defyordinary.com

Now, the commentary:

I think this is a pretty cool idea, creating coasters out of user-uploaded photos, and an even cooler idea to let people vote on their favorites. What's not as cool, though, is that the user voting doesn't actually count towards how the 8 winners are picked, apparently. Todd at BeerAdvocate was the first to point this out, I believe:

Oh, and did I mention that public voting doesn't even count? No shit. I'm sitting here voting away, only to scroll down towards the bottom of the rules to find out that the 8 winners will be picked by Craft Brands Alliance LLC and The Redhook Ale Brewery Incorporated judges. So voting is a complete waste of time and a meaningless feature.

All I can say is I hope the judges take the public voting into account when they select their winners. In the meantime, it's kind of a fun Flash app they've put together to browse through the coasters—though being entirely in Flash, it's not link-friendly. More eye candy.

I'll have to see what images I have to upload... you never know.

The subtitle to Rogue's Dad's Little Helper is "Malt Liquor" but don't let that dissuade you—as their site quotes John Maier, "This ain't your Dad's malt liquor." It's got the signature Rogue twist to it: it's good!

We picked up a bottle when we were in Ashland a few weeks ago, and though I probably didn't need to travel all the way to Southern Oregon to buy it (I've seen it here), I hadn't tried it before and what the hey, Rogue Brewing originally started in Ashland so it fits.

So, my notes:

Appearance: Certainly looks the part [of malt liquor, to me]... fluffy white head resting over a crystal clear honey-yellow beer... wheat-colored.

Smell: Spicy (slightly), hoppy. A wheaty, toasty aroma, otherwise fairly clean.

Taste: Grain, corn, a nice spicy hop that isn't too pronounced but has a nice crisp edge. Fairly simple in overall profile, but Rogue is shooting for that here, as an homage to classic American malt liquor.

Mouthfeel: Nice and medium-bodied, pleasantly so. (More body than you'd expect.)

Overall: I thoroughly enjoyed drinking this beer. I wish Rogue would sell this by the six-pack—or, better yet, stubbies.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 78 out of 100, with 74% approval—not the higher marks I'm giving it. On RateBeer it got a miserable reception: 2.53 out of 5 and is only in their 18th percentile. Really, people? Really?

I'm looking over the list of participating breweries for the OBF and coming up with a list of must-tries. 73 breweries this year! And I'm sure there will be at least one or two last-minute changes or substitutions. There's a fair number of beers I've already sampled, so like last year, I'm primarily focusing on the new (or very unusual) beers.

My Have-to-Try list is starting to look like:

• Amnesia Brewing: Dry Hopped Dusty Trail Pale Ale
• Boundary Bay Brewery: Galena Single Hop Pale Ale
• Brewery Ommegang: Three Philosophers Ale
• Diamond Knot Brewing: Industrial IPA
• Dick's Brewing: Dick's Lava Rock Porter
• Eugene City Tracktown Ales: Honey Orange Wheat
• Fifty Fifty Brewing: Donner Party Porter
• Flying Fish Brewing: Bourbon Barrel Abbey Dubbel
• Four + Brewing: Wildfire
• Golden Valley Brewery: Red Thistle Quercus
• Klamath Basin Brewing: Crater Lake Golden Ale
• Max's Fanno Creek Brewpub: Farmer's Daughter
• Ninkasi Brewing: Believer
• Oregon Trail Brewery: Oregon Trail Wit
• Siletz Brewing: Spruce Ale
• Stone Brewing: Stone 07/07/07 Vertical Epic
• Widmer Brewing: Noggin Grog (Imperial Wit???)

Of course, this isn't a final list. But it's looking good right now. As for my It-Would-Be-Nice-to-Try list, I'm thinking:

• Calapooia Brewing: Yankee Clipper IPA
• Cascade Brewing at the Raccoon Lodge: Razberry Wheat
• Fearless Brewing: Fearless Scottish Ale
• Grand Teton Brewing: Bitch Creek ESB
• Philadelphia's: Betsy Ross Imperial Golden
• Rogue: Imperial Porter
• Terminal Gravity: TG Triple

This is just wishful thinking, but three brewers I'd like to see at the OBF someday are Dogfish Head, Brooklyn Brewery, and Great Lakes Brewing.

About a year ago I pointed to the classic motorcycle Rainier Beer commercial on YouTube (found by Jeff) and wondered a bit about some of the other Rainier commercials. Today, I got an email from Ed Leimbacher (blog), who, it turns out, was key in the development of those:

For a dozen years from 1973 to 1985, I was the official writer-producer for all the Rainier Beer ads released during that stretch of time—each year three-to-five radio ads, maybe a half-dozen TV ads, up to a dozen print ads, and whatever other support material was needed.

This is a really good read (there's a follow-up here), worth reading in full, but I'll post some excerpts I like:

But I want to focus on a few TV ads that gave me some extra pleasure, or headaches, or both. The Motorcycle Spot, for example, really was the all-Northwest all-time favorite. Very simple: camera looking down a straight back-country road, nothing in sight, then gradually a spot becoming a motorcycle coming straight at the camera, passing close, flash-pan to follow it tailing off toward a looming Mount Rainier—and all the while the shifting gears have been keening/singing, distantly at first, then louder and louder, "Raaaaiiiii-niiieeeerrrr... (zoom by and receding sound) Beeeeerrrrrr..."

Looked amazingly simple, but of course there was much going on behind the scene. Building the soundtrack, for example, we found that we could not stretch the words out over the full 30 seconds, had to settle for 20-plus to be understandable—which meant the visuals had to not show any bike at first. Then trying to capture the actual motorcycle shot we found that we could not pan fast enough as the bike passed, so we had to make a hidden cut during the pan. And neither the weather nor the motorcycle itself cooperated at first—we had to go out filming on three different days to get the bike actually operating properly, at a time when Mount Rainier was also visible!

And, from the follow-up post:

Our other engineering challenge was a take-off on TV spots back then that used continuous rows of toppling dominoes which, once started, would go on tipping over sequentially, flowing in some pattern for 30 seconds. We hired an engineering firm to put a slight edge-crimp on about 2600 Rainier bottle caps that we could also stand on edge in rows. These, we hoped, when toppled and sent rippling onward, would create a giant version of the somewhat calligraphic Rainier R.

I was one of the lucky sods who had to place each and every cap painstakingly into position on the 12-foot-wide translucent surface; we "cappers" often wound up lying on our stomachs and reaching down from scaffolding above to line up the ones impossible to place from outside the circle. As I recall, the caps crew put in about 30 man-hours getting set. As a result, we all rather dreaded the actual moment of shooting, because if anything went wrong... yes, 30 more hours to set up for a second take.

And of course, there's now a ton of classic Rainier commercials on YouTube.

I am!

The Oregon Brewers Festival starts up in just under two weeks, and I plan on being there Friday and Saturday. I'll be taking notes, taking pictures, and my plan is to make it more of a "blogging" trip, if I can: try to be more involved with the overall Fest with an eye towards the writing/documenting part of things... (Does that make sense?)

So, other bloggers going again this year? If so, we should try to meet up at the Fest; I didn't do so good last year with the planned Friday night meeting, and I can't swear I'd make it to another offsite meetup—but at the Festival would work. Maybe we could commandeer a table and put a big "Beer Bloggers" sign on it?

At any rate, I'm excited about going this year (their 20th Annual!) and am going to have fun with it. I notice that at the bottom of the Fest pages they have a "Brewfest Countdown" JavaScript applet that shows a realtime countdown until the Fest starts—currently 9 days, 10 hours, 11 minute and a handful of seconds as I write this—and I like the idea so much, I'm going to be doing periodic "OBF Countdown" posts over the next week and a half or so.

Came across some quick notes I wrote down a few weeks ago for Kona Brewing's Wailua Wheat. I had it on tap here in Bend at Kona Mix Plate, a Hawaiian grill restaurant, and since I hadn't heard of it before I tried it. What caught my eye about it is that it's brewed with passion fruit—something I hadn't seen in a beer before.

Here are my notes:

Flavored with Hawaiian passion fruit. Unique flavor; light gold yellow and clear. Clean grainy smell with a hint of fruit/sour. Crisp wheat with a definite tropical sourish fruit character.

Not super expressive, I know, but it's what I was able to scribble at the time. I thought it was pretty good, a nice cold summertime beer; I'm going to pick up some at the store if I see it and and I'll do a full review when I do.

A few years ago there were only a handful of beer-related blogs, but that number has been steadily growing, thanks in large part to the availability of free weblog-hosting services such as Blogger and WordPress.com and the low barrier to entry these services have introduced

In fact, today it's easier than ever to start a beer-themed blog, and over the next several Beer Hacker articles, I'm going to cover just that. The focus will primarily be on the free online services that have sprung up around blogging to get you accomplishing this goal—writing about beer.

Part 1 of this series will focus on setting up a new blog with two of the most popular and easy-to-use blog hosting services, the ones I already mentioned: Blogger and WordPress.

Read more

19th Anniversary Golden Ale is Deschutes Brewery's first ever bottled Belgian style ale, a nice 8.7% alcohol brew that I first tasted at the pub. I was impressed then and I'm still impressed after the bottled version.

Appearance: Nice pale golden yellow... I fancy I even see a tinge of gold in the otherwise mostly white head. Fairly clear.

Smell: Sweet, slightly flossy Belgian candi sugar, with some caramel.

Taste: I notice right away the coriander spicing—I don't remember that at the pub. Light and sweet and spicy with a hint of hops. Some alcohol heat in the back. Perhaps some orange peel to accentuate the coriander, too. Pleasantly warm... very tasty.

Mouthfeel: Nice and medium-bodied with a touch of heat from the spices and alcohol.

On BeerAdvocate, they don't yet have the 10 reviews required for their usual scoring, but the running average is 3.55 out of 5. Reviewers are split 67%/33% on approval... so 3 of those reviews are below average. On RateBeer, it scores 3.09 out of 5 thus far, putting it into their 48th percentile.

Seems like there's been a lot of "Best Of" and "Top X" lists being thrown around lately... I love this stuff. Here's a rundown of what I've seen thus far:

• Beervana Bests - The Beers: Jeff kicks off a (somewhat) ongoing series of the Best in Oregon. His lists are awesome. Nobody knows Oregon and Portland beer like Jeff does.
• Beervana Bests - Best Portland Brewpubs for Beer: Jeff's three picks. I've been to one of them.
• Beervana Bests - Best Portland Brewpub Experiences: Again, three picks, and again, I've been to one of them. The Lucky Lab is awesome. I want to go. Like, right now.
• 10 beers that changed America: Stan steps it up a notch and has come up with a good list that's generated a lot of discussion.
• 10 beers that changed the Chicago area: The follow-up on Stan's blog, by guess blogger Steve Herberger.
• Oregon's Influential Ten: Jeff's on a role. This list is his answer to Stan's 10 beers, only on an Oregon scale.
• Jack Curtain presents Ten Beers That Changed Philadelphia. There's no permalink, just go to the site and scroll down to the July 6th entry.
• 100 Places to Have a Beer Before You Die: Rick Lyke's excellent list from February that I seem to have not blogged yet.

Twilight Ale is Deschutes Brewery's summer seasonal, one that is a locals' favorite that everybody seems to be drinking when it comes out. It's a nice, light, drinkable 5% alcohol brew that is, according to their website, "best enjoyed when chilled and consumed outdoors." I'll drink to that.

Appearance: Pale gold, a honey color. Not completely clear—a bit hazy.

Smell: Clean hops and toasty biscuit grain. Very clean... hops are a tiny bit spicy.

Taste: Nice bitter hop that isn't overwhelming; it frames a brisk toasty malt. Overall very clean, fairly light, a nice warm weather session beer. A bit of wheat?

Mouthfeel: Almost medium-bodied, more than you'd expect for a light summer ale. Nice quenching character here.

Overall: Another Deschutes winner.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 84 out of 100, with 97% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.18 out of 5, and is in their 60th percentile.

Flying Dog Brewery is giving away a “dream weekend” for Craft Beer Drinkers everywhere – a trip to the 2007 Great American Beer Festival in the brewery’s hometown of Denver, Colorado. Flying Dog’s “Great American Beer Festival Sweepstakes” will be held through the end of August and the Grand Prize Winner will receive airfare to Denver and hotel accommodations for two, two (2) three-day passes to the festival, and invitations to exclusive Flying Dog activities during GABF weekend.

In all, over 500 prizes in all will be awarded, including sets of Flying Dog Ales pint glasses, Flying Dog T-shirts and key chains — all sporting the fabled graphics of famed Gonzo Artist, Ralph Steadman.

Contest entries for The Great American Beer Festival Sweepstakes can be found on Flying Dog Beer displays at liquor and grocery stores and at www.flyingdogales.com.

About Flying Dog Brewery

Flying Dog is Denver’s largest brewery and the second largest craft brewery in the state of Colorado. The Flying Dog Brewery with its award-winning “litter of ales” is available in 45 states.

The Flying Dog Brewery is located at 2401 Blake Street, just 2 blocks north of the baseball stadium. Flying Dog’s core values of “purposeful, provocative and irreverent” flow through the veins of the brewery’s founding owners, George Stranahan and Richard McIntyre. George and Richard were friends with the “Gonzo Journalist,” Hunter S. Thompson, who coined the brand’s tagline “Good People Drink Good Beer” and with the “Gonzo Artist,” Ralph Steadman, who illustrates the brand’s packaging.

About the Great American Beer Festival

Flying Dog Brewery is a 2007 Featured Brewery Sponsor of the Great American Beer Festival. The GABF, to be held October 11-13, 2007, is deemed the ultimate event for tasting the beers of the globe’s greatest brewing nation. GABF visitors enjoy one-ounce beer samples from the fest’s 400+ breweries. These breweries are arranged on the festival floor by regions of the country, giving beer lovers a walking tour of the nation’s beer-blessed landscape. Many of the booths are staffed by the brewers themselves. Over 40,000 beer enthusiasts from Colorado, the US and around the world attended the 2006 GABF.

The GABF also hosts one of the world’s largest and most prestigious tasting competitions. Over 100 professional beer judges from the United States and abroad evaluate over 2,300 beers entered by more than 450 domestic breweries. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in 69 beer-style categories. (For 2007 the number of styles will be higher.)

In addition to sampling beers, attendees can sit in on some of the GABF’s popular food & beer pairing seminars that feature an A-list of America’s brewers, along with local and national celebrity chefs for demonstrations on how to cook with beer and pair different styles of beer with various dishes.

This month's Session is being hosted by the Hop Talk guys, and Atmosphere was the theme they came up with:

So, we want to know about the “Atmosphere” in which you enjoy beer. Where is your favorite place to have a beer? When? With whom? Most importantly:

Why?

Weighty topic, and one I'm quite sure I have multiple answers to, so I'll be rambling a bit.

In general, my favorites places to drink beer are the brewpubs themselves—especially when I get the chance to sample beers I haven't had before. A good brewery puts a good amount of thought and effort into their drinking space, though naturally some are more successful than others.

Portland is a great place for drinking beer, there are many great places that range from a hole-in-the-wall niche up through the large full-production restaurant. Many of the McMenamins are somewhere in between, and invariably have a great atmosphere—places like Ringler's Annex (speakeasy-style narrow basement bar), the Blue Moon (full service restaurant and pub with pool tables), or O'Kane's (intimate, dark, cozy old building with a cast-iron woodstove) here at the Bend McMenamins.

Likewise such places as Widmer's Gasthaus (Portland classic) or the Lucky Lab (beer hall style camaraderie).

But my very favorite place for atmosphere in Portland is the Tugboat Brewery. It's a tiny brewpub located on Ankeny just behind Burnside and just a few blocks down from Powells Books. If it's not the smallest brewery in Portland, it's in the top 3 for sure. Extremely limited seating, only two or three beers on tap at any given time, a small stage, and books lining the walls all give a comfortable ambiance that is equally conducive to shooting the breeze with friends, poring over your finds from Powells up the street, or relaxing with a beer and a book from their shelf. More importantly, it's extremely friendly and the kind of place that strikes you as being quintessentially Portland.

Outside of Portland, the Pelican Pub & Brewery is unmatched for location and atmosphere. It's right on the beach in Pacific City—how much better a location can you get than that? I reviewed Pelican a year ago. It's a modern brewpub, lots of wood, brick, and concrete, and sports an unparalleled view of Haystack Rock and the Pacific Ocean. Fantastic! I've been tempted to move to Pacific City just to have regular access to the Pelican Pub.

Imagine—sitting in the brewpub with two or three good friends, enjoying the beer on warm afternoon overlooking the beach. Watching the Dory boats come in—in Pacific City, they launch right from the beach at high tide. Kids are flying kites, adventurous individuals are body surfing, sea birds of all kinds are flocking and flying around Haystack Rock. After you've finished the last of your beers—perhaps an India Pelican Ale or Tsunami Stout—you can walk out the door directly to the beach and perhaps to a driftwood bonfire where a party is getting started.

On the local front, here in Bend, I rather like all of our breweries—they all have strong points—but my favorite for atmosphere is the Bend Brewing Company. I think it's the decor as much as anything; it's a hybrid of brewpub and ski lodge style, with lots of natural wood and large brick, accented with outdoor winter gear, and very airy. I think it best fits the vision of what I think a brewpub should look like, among the local places.

It's authentic, and inviting, and the good beer and good food are a plus. I like to think that it's the most local of the locals, and that's the vibe I get when I'm there.

Of course, good company is what it's all about, too. I can sit out on a patio with my brother or my best friend, drinking beer, with nowhere to be, and that's as good as any brewpub visit. Beer is a social drink, after all, and some of the most enjoyable beer drinking sessions I've had have been with both of them—both at brewpubs (the Tugboat in particular) and just hanging around the apartment or house or wherever.

As to the "why" of all this, I don't have an easy answer, but I hope some of it is self-evident. Why not? Better writers than I have expounded on beer's long history and it's social aspects and more... I kind of like to think that sometimes I just let the beer speak for itself and enjoy what I've got.

Standing Stone Brewing Company has the enviable position of being one of Ashland's (and Southern Oregon's) only breweries, and is conveniently located in downtown Ashland, right in the heart of the shopping and theater district. The brewpub (and restaurant) is open 7 days a week, offers a full menu, and has 7 different beers on tap.

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to do a full review of the brewery, as we visited between a winery tour and dinner, but I was able to get some pictures and try the sampler of their beers.

Standing Stone has a nice-looking establishment, with an atmosphere that (for me) is a cross between the modern brewpub and industrial brewery; the "public" part of the brewpub is on the main floor and immediately above, on girder scaffolding and catwalks, are the brewing tanks. Just inside the door is the mash tun and operational controls:

(This view was from our table, looking down the hall and toward the back where there's more seating. You can see the walkway and brewing tanks above.)

They also have a nice-looking, full-service bar that presents itself as you enter:

You can see it's kind of a "modern industrial" look they're going for.

Since we didn't eat, I'll go straight to the beer sampler, and present my notes.

As you can see, in this case I worked my way from right to left, starting with the lightest beers.

Lager: Pale straw color. Very light body with a crisp, hoppy flavor. Otherwise, standard light lager profile...

Hefeweizen: Cloudy yellow hefe... a bit of clove in the nose. Light and spicy—definite cloves there. A tad sour. Nice. No real banana/fruit—emphasis is on spice here.

Amber: Nice look—the brown side of amber-red. Hoppy more than malty—definitely hop-focused... kind of a spicy hop...?

Almond Nut Brown (Seasonal): Looks really good—clear and brown. Taste—malt and surprisingly, a hint of fruit. My wife says, "bitter." Light-bodied. The light and fruity aspect detracts from what a nut brown should be.

IPA: Yellow-orange. Hoppy! Good sign. Hops are the central character of this beer... malt is a bit on the light side and a little sweet, but takes a back seat to the hops. Body is a bit light—I'd like it more medium-bodied.

Double IPA: Caramel colored. Definitely hoppier than the IPA—bitter and woody. Body is firmer, too—I suspect I would choose this over the standard IPA when looking for the style. Hops still overpower the malt, though... but the malt is richer with more caramel.

Stout: (Site says Oatmeal Stout) Black. Dark and roasted, black patent there for sure. Light in the body—that's the trend I'm noticing here. Burnt grain and charcoal notes... dry.

I guess I shouldn't say we had nothing to eat—we did get complimentary bread, with a garlic butter and a marinara sauce for it, akin to chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant. It was tasty.

A couple more pictures...

Overall, I like the location and I like the general setup of the brewpub. I would definitely like to have a meal or two there to get a feel for the restaurant portion of the place. I suspect the food is pretty good, actually.

As to the beers, they're fair, but nothing stellar (to borrow a comment from a previous post). I'd be curious to know what their best-selling brew is.

Worth a visit, if you find yourself down in Ashland.

Standing Stone Brewing Company
101 Oak Street
Ashland, OR 97520
541-482-2448

Judgment Day is another Lost Abbey monster (10.5% alcohol) made with raisins. It was the third and final bottle of Lost Abbey I opened for our friends this last weekend.

Appearance: Very deep red, approaching brown.

Smell: Unfortunately, I didn't record aroma notes. Obviously we'd been through a few beers at this point!

Taste: Raisins very much prominent here (based on the previous beers with raisin). Strong and dark with dry fruit notes—more tart than sweet. Wine, brandy.

Mouthfeel: Firm, dry, alcohol heat. Sourish character from the raisins is noticeable.

Overall: Another solid beer... I bet this would do well with some barrel aging, too.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 87 out of 100, with 100% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.83 out of 5 and is in their 96th percentile.

Took the weekend off to travel down to Ashland to take in a play and just generally relax. We did visit Standing Stone Brewing Company and I had their samplers (no meals), but I notice that southern Oregon generally doesn't have much in the way of breweries. The other one in Ashland is Caldera Brewing, but they're a brewery only, no outlet other than dock sales. And there's really nothing in Medford to speak of.

So the trip turned into more of a winery trip, and that was pretty good, too. Other than that, it was a nice weekend off... we had the laptop, but I mostly avoided getting online except for a couple of times.

I'll be posting my photos and review of Standing Stone in the next day or two. Back to it!