Random bits for you this Halloween... mostly treats instead of tricks, I hope.

I considered doing a "Halloween beers" post, then remembered I did the same this in 2005 and 2006, and I really have nothing to add to those. Well, almost; this list is pulled from the comments, and contains an impressive list of appropriately themed beers.

Speaking of treats, I should be receiving some beers for review soon... PR-related, for the most part. I got a letter from A-B indicating that I would be getting four of their Michelob Specialty Sampler beers, and I believe Flying Dog is sending out some bottles as well.

And, I just received a bottle of Butte Creek's Fresh Hop Organic IPA, straight from the brewery—what a perfect adult Trick or Treat for Halloween! It's a 22-ounce bomber with a cool label (picture forthcoming). I'll have a review on that in the next day or two.

Jeff has discovered a new microbrewery (or "pico," maybe) over in McMinnville: Heater Allen Brewing. Looks like they specialize in lagers and are a very small operation. Something to check out next time we're in "Mac" (as the locals call it)—which isn't as improbably infrequent as you might think.

This is mostly Flying Dog-oriented, but since they also host the Beer Dinners website, it's appropriate. Plus, I got a kick out of the "beerandturkey.org" domain name. I can't help it; it makes me laugh.

Flying Dog Brewery ties together American craft beer flavors with traditional holiday foods

Flying Dog Brewery is one of the many craft breweries participating in the national program called Craft Beer and Food for the Holidays. This free program organized by the Brewers Association, highlights the ways in which beer styles complement many traditional American holiday foods. The program delves into pairings such as ale with traditional American foods, a pairing frequently mentioned in reference to the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. The website, www.beerandturkey.org, is for beverage and food lovers interested in complementary flavors at the holiday dinner table.

Click through to read full press release

Yep, a Doppelbock from Anheuser-Busch. Pretty unusual—particularly one at 8.5% ABV! I'd try it.

Brew Masters' Private Reserve by Budweiser Perfect for Holiday Entertaining

Hearty holiday meals wouldn't be complete without a great beer to accompany them - particularly one that looks great on the table. Brew Masters' Private Reserve from Budweiser, a rich, malty Doppelbock now available in most states through the end of the year, offers a special recipe and unique, limited-edition packaging that's sure to bring cheer to festive meals.

Click through to read entire press release

No, this is not beer-induced (or influenced) stream of consciousness, unfortunately...

By now everyone in the beer world (and some in the "real" world too, no doubt) have heard about the "Sam Adams" flap between the Boston Beer Company and actual Portland resident Sam Adams. To wit, Sam Adams (of Portland) is running for mayor, and Boston Beer Company—the brewers of Samuel Adams beers—sent a cease-and-desist for two websites registered with "samadams" in the name, demanding that the domains be surrendered.

They've since come to their senses and backed down. For links, Jay has the best (IMHO) overall writeups here and here.

The next Session is hosted by Tomme Arthur and is themed Beer and Music.

I don't know if I'll make it to the Fresh Hops Tastival tomorrow—I'd like to, but we're pretty busy with a number of things going on. Fingers crossed.

Already started thinking about this year's Beer Advent Calendar. This will be the third year I've done it (I have a tradition!), I need to make a spreadsheet of the beers I picked the previous two years to keep track of it all.

This is interesting: Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Oregon Experience" program is debuting a beer history documentary on November 5: "Beervana".

Beer brewing has a long, colorful history in Oregon. Today, Portland is known as the beer capital of the world.

Oregonians have long been enthusiastic about their beer. In 1852, beer came to the Northwest when Henry Saxer opened the Liberty Brewery at the corner of First and Davis in downtown Portland. Many came in Saxer's wake — most notably fellow German immigrant, Henry Weinhard — to quench the thirsts of loggers, miners, fishermen and farmers who would build the region. The next installment of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Experience series looks at the history of beer brewing in the state and at the vibrant craft beer industry that exists today. Tune in to the stations of OPB on Monday, November 5 at 9pm to find out about how the adventurous tastes of Oregonians inspired a micro-brewing movement.

It's the craft beer of Oregon — made locally, recognized worldwide — that contributes significantly to the state’s economy and fuels a vibrant social culture in the form of numerous brew pubs. With its clean water, hops and barley production, Oregon is fertile ground for the beer industry. And with a population willing to try a range of styles and categories of beer, it’s no wonder that Portland, with more breweries than anywhere — including Germany — is now considered the beer capital of the world. With ingenuity and determination, the industry survived the temperance movement and prohibition, and now pumps over $2 billion into the state’s economy.

This documentary tells the story of this industry through compelling and amusing anecdotes from the fascinating characters of the Oregon beer community.

It's a half hour, premiering Monday, November 5th at 9pm. If you're in the Oregon area, check it out (on whatever your local OPB channel happens to be).

A couple of weeks ago Chris Wright was kind enough to send me a copy of his book, The Beer Journal (Amazon link), for review, and I'm finally getting around to reviewing it.

Coming in three editions (paperback, spiral-bound, and hardcover), The Beer Journal is a combination of a style reference guide and an actual journal in which to record beer tastings (as well as beer festival notes, brewery tours, and other things). The copy I received is the spiral-bound edition, which is a good format for this type of book. (At home I have several plain spiral notebooks in which I've been recording beer tasting notes and brewery review notes.)

First, the good:

The book is really-well put together, both physically (it's a self-published book from Lulu.com, which I've mused about on my other blog and now have a live example of) and organizationally. The first half of the book is dedicated to beer styles—the BJCP 2004 official styles, as a matter of fact—as well as another helpful section about tasting beer.

The second half of the book is made up of the tasting logs, the intent of which is for you to record your notes. The lion's share of these pages are for the beer tasting notes themselves, which have a logical, open layout with plenty of space for writing. There's even a line at the bottom for "Brewer's Autograph," which I particularly like, though wouldn't have thought of myself.

Other items you can track include the packaging (draft, bottle, can), brewer (to go along with the autograph), alcohol content, and awards. At the very bottom, an "Overall Rating" section gives you ten spaces to score the beer—so subsequent tastings can be tracked a bit, too.

All in all, there are 83 of these pages, one page per beer. The balance of the book contains journal pages for other types of notes:

• Festivals, for which the layout is more of a ledger style, allowing you to record notes on up to nine beers per page; there are 21 pages here;
• Cellaring notes, also ledger-style, two pages worth;
• A "beer knowledge journal", basically a place to write down book titles, websites, and such;
• Brewery tours, open-ended one page entries similar to the beer notes; eight pages;
• Finally, five pages dedicated to food and beer pairing notes.

The overall package, then, is a handy beer traveler's reference and journal (the spiral binding works really well here, portability-wise), and by and large, I think it's a well-done book.

Now, the critical:

I would spend less space on the official beer styles and more space on the note pages; nearly the first 100 pages of the book (which is 226 pages total) are taken up by the styles, pages which could be used instead for note-taking. This is an important point, because the spiral-bound edition costs $17.95 (US), which is a substantial fee considering this is something you'd need to buy more copies of as you fill it up (and, depending on how avid a beer drinker you are, this could be frequent).

Not that I'm suggesting losing the reference altogether—I think it's a valuable part of such a volume since you can compare your notes to the official guidelines. I think, though, that I would severely edit down the style copy to the bare minimum you could get away with, and reduce the overall footprint in terms of font size and page spacing this text takes up in the book.

If this style section were reduced to, say, one quarter of its current size—25 pages or so—that would be ideal, I think, and allow 75 more pages for beer notes.

Overall:

Smartly done, a sturdy book physically, I like the way it's organized, and I'll be using it for recording my subsequent beer notes. I think the price point is a little high for a notebook—but I'm aware that this is a side-effect of the Lulu.com publishing process.

This would make a good gift for a beer lover—and Christmas is coming...

Some post-Theme Week wrapup notes and thoughts...

"Fresh hops" is certainly topical right now, but I also found it a bit harder to blog about when you don't really have access to many beers to sample. Of course, that just forced me to be a bit more creative in coming up with related things to write about. Still, I'd have liked to focus on sampling and reviewing more.

Got some nice plugs from both Jeff and Stan—thanks, guys!

Next month I'm going with my pumpkin theme, which makes perfect sense because that's the week that Thanksgiving falls (here in the U.S.) and Thanksgiving and pumpkin goes together like... well, any two things that go really well together.

Earlier in the week I was ruminating on the overall number of fresh hop beers out there, but the conclusion is that it's really a moving target: many (most) are highly seasonal, draft-only batches (often one-offs) usually only available on location.

So I did deeper research, looking for breweries that bottle (or, in the case of several, bottled and have since retired) their fresh hop beers and tallying the results. The list is pretty small; of the 14 total I was able to find, two are unconfirmed, three are retired. Here they are:

The criteria by which I confirm a bottled version of the beer simply falls into the category of, is there a picture of it? Does the brewery itself offer a picture or written description that indicates it is, in fact, bottled? Not very scientific, I admit. In the two unconfirmed cases, I found reference to bottled versions but couldn't verify either way.

I'd love to be able to build on this list, so let me know if there are other bottled varieties out there. And of course I'd never turn down a sample of said bottles. :)

The problem with reviewing fresh hop beers is that they're so regional; the only one I've thus far been able to get in the bottle is (local) Hop Trip, and unless I'm willing to travel (which obviously isn't convenient), the only other ones available to me are ultra-local brews—which, unless you live in Central Oregon, you won't get to experience.

(Of course, if I make it to the Fresh Hop Tastival, I'll have broadened my horizons significantly.)

The problem, of course, is that the fresh hop beers are really too volatile to store long enough to enjoy properly, or to travel well. Jay Brooks said it best here (emphasis mine):

But more importantly, drink it right away, too. This is the very antithesis of a beer meant to be aged. Make up your own special event to drink it. Get some fresh, locally made food and cook up a great meal. Invite your favorite people over to share it with you. This is the best way to celebrate harvest time, with the fruits of the harvest, both food and drink.

Indeed.

Anyway, it's in this spirit of Drink It Right Away that I give you three reviews from Deschutes Brewery: two of which are fresh hops, the final being a cousin of one. All three were pub-only beers, on draft.

Sodbuster Pale Ale

I believe this was the first of their fresh hop beers this season. I had this at the pub a few weeks ago, and it was phenomenal: bursting with green hop aroma and flavor, really well balanced with a malty, "red" pale ale. The hops were the same as those used in Hop Trip—Crystal hops from Sodbuster Farms. They probably came from the same trip.

It was very much like breaking open a handful of fresh hop cones and burying your nose in them; floral, fresh, with that cut grass quality of freshly bruised leaves (though not "cut grass" aroma itself), strong and oily and earthy and sticky. Eminently drinkable.

Annen Golden Ale

This is a light session ale (4% alcohol) brewed with fresh Liberty hops (from John Annen's farm in the Willamette Valley). It has a delicate, floral aroma that's also green, sourish, and slightly fruity.

It's a light, refreshing beer, with lightly toasted, cereal malts punctuated by a mellow hop flavor that's incredibly fresh and clean, with an impression of fresh salad greens—arugula? There's a slight bit of grassiness there, too, almost reminding me of hay.

Ghostbuster

This isn't a fresh hop beer, but it's related to Sodbuster: it's basically the same recipe, only using dried Crystal hops instead of wet ones. I went with this not only because I figured this would be an enlightening comparison of the two techniques, but because they were out of the other fresh hop I wanted to try ("Superstition") and I liked the name, being close to Halloween and liking the movie and all.

What a difference fresh versus dried makes; the malt portion of the beer is largely as I remember from before: sweet, a tad syrupy, that tang of roasted malt (what I think of as "red" flavor) and bread dough. But the hops in this one are much spicier—the green notes are absent. Instead, they're a bit resiny, peppery, and spicy—so much so that it reminds me strongly of a holiday ale, it has that kind of spiciness (allspice, mace, a hint of cloves and cinnamon? Ginger?). The peppery bite is noticeable at the end, too.

It's quite good, and pretty surprising how such a fresh, floral, earthy character can transform into a spicy, resiny hop when dried. Definitely an interesting experiment in brewing—something I think could be turned into a "Tastival" event of its own.

I'd previously mentioned (briefly) a bit about the Fresh Hop Beer Tastival coming here to Bend at the end of the month, but I hadn't expanded upon it. Essentially, it's a traveling beer festival, dedicated to fresh hop beers from Oregon brewers, and it's been hitting a different city each weekend this month. It started in Hood River, then Portland, this weekend (the 20th) it will be in Eugene, and finally in Bend on the 27th.

Jeff at Beervana has the list of beers on tap for the Tastival, and while he didn't make it to the event itself, still managed to review some of them (and a few others, to boot).

(Incidentally, Jeff is writing some of the best fresh hops content out there right now. Go read Beervana.)

The Tastival is being put on by Oregon Bounty ("visit Oregon, stay a few nights, and enjoy culinary travel experiences that highlight the state’s bountiful food, unique lodging, restaurants and scenery"), and the Oregon Brewers Guild, and has pretty standard beer fest pricing: $5 for the glass, $1 for tasters, $4 for full pours. Aside from the $5 for the glass, admission is free. It runs from noon til 7.

Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the Bend showing on the 27th, though I've got other things going on that day also. You can be sure I'll write about it if I can go.

Here's another blogger's review, of the Portland (actually, Troutdale, just outside of Portland) Tastival. Sounds good. Although they might be running low on some of the beers; here's yet another blogger lamenting the absence of several of them at the same Portland event. I suppose that's a point—by the time it reaches Bend, half the beer might be out already!

How many fresh/wet hop beers are out there? That's what I'm wondering. One the one hand, it's a trend still in its infancy (or at least toddler years), so there's a finite number of fresh hop beers floating around out there; on the other hand, it seems like every time I turn around, there are more! It's a moving target.

Additionally, it becomes tough to track because none of these beers adhere to a particular style; while the trend right now seems to be pale-variety beers, that need not apply as it evolves. And there's no set "fresh hop" style that one can just look up. So we need to count via indirect methods.

BeerAdvocate lists 19 beers with the words "fresh hop" in the name—though 3 of those appear to be yearly variations from Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, so let's say 17. Additionally, BA is reporting that 4 are retired (I'm not counting Hop Trip since I know for sure it's not), but that's problematic too since the "retired" Laurelwood Kölsch offering was brewed this year. Let's say at least 2 are definitely retired, bringing the total down to 15.

(Further, I'm making an allowance for the 2 Pizza Port beers that have the same name... but are brewed in different locations.)

For "green hop" there are no results, and for "wet hop" there are 2. So we're back up to 17.

RateBeer reports 30 beers with "fresh hop" in the name, though the same caveats apply. Just eyeballing the list, I'll knock it down to 26. Of those, it looks like 9 were duplicated with the BA list, and at least 1 is retired, so we'll say 16.

RB then reports 6 for "wet hop" and 10 for "green hop", though those "green hop" beers don't actually appear to be what we're looking for. Of the 6 "wet hop," 3 are not duplicated from BA and 1 already showed up on the previous BA list. So, up to 19 total.

Both figures together give us 36 so far. Yikes!

You know what? This isn't even taking into account fresh hop beers with "harvest" in the name versus those that aren't actual fresh hop beers—like Dick's Harvest Ale (not a fresh hop) versus BridgePort's Hop Harvest Ale. This is a problem, because BA reports 225(!) beers with "harvest" in the name, and RB reports "more than 100."

Here's the reality: There's no reliable way to count. Besides those beers which have become a set seasonal with big(ger) brewers, many breweries experiment each year with fresh hops and produce small batches that are one-offs or that drastically change from year to year. Deschutes, for instance, in addition to their Hop Trip has had 3 other pub-only fresh hops beers on tap and an additional 2 that were brewed for the Hop Tastival.

So instead of counting every fresh hop beer out there (too many to count), let's narrow it down to something that's more feasible: only those that are bottled and are (theoretically) more widely available than the typical brewpub batch.

I'll do some more digging and have results later in the week.

Ah, Hop Trip, Deschutes Brewery's flagship fresh hop ale. My third year reviewing it, and (I think) the third year it's been brewed—this makes it especially interesting because I can track how it has evolved over time. The first year (2005) it was strongly hopped and green and potent—not unlike many of the other wet hops ales being brewed elsewhere. The thing is, anybody can (and does) make a super-hopped beer.

Last year, things changed with Hop Trip; they passed on the intensely bitter hopping of the first batch and turned out something much softer, more floral and herbal, more subtle.

It wasn't a fluke; this year's version is in much the same vein, and I'm quite sure it's intentional on Deschutes' part. It's no hop bomb; it's subtle, accessible, fresh, and clean, easy to drink and enjoyable. Is it the hops? They use Crystal hops, plucked fresh from the vine from Sodbuster Farms near Salem. Crystal is known for being a spicy (cinnamon) cousin of the Hallertauer hop family, though I didn't get much "spicy" from this... it could be interesting to measure the various differences in wet hops versus their "usual" dry presentation.

Appearance: Clear, nicely copper-colored brew with a generous light tan head.

Smell: Woody, twiggy hops, lots of resin, with enjoyable green, grassy notes.

Taste: Very hoppy yet not really bitter—it's like a lot of the floral hop character is coming through instead—a vegetable grassy quality that's not unpleasing. Malt is biscuity, light, and mild. Some powdery hop bitterness coats the back of the mouth.

Mouthfeel: Surprisingly light-bodied and easy drinking—smooth, almost soft. Very sessionable (5.5% alcohol).

Overall: It's a winner, and shows a good deal more restraint and experience than many, I think.

It's on BeerAdvocate, but they have it (oddly) listed as retired; I'll have to send them an email and see about fixing that. Anyway, the average score is 4.08 out of 5. On RateBeer, it scores 3.65 and is in their 91st percentile.

Even though the fresh hop craze has been percolating nicely across the (American) brewing scene, it has much of its origins right here in the Pacific Northwest. With Bert Grant, more specifically, according to Jeff:

In the mid-90s, he decided to take advantage of the vast wealth of hops that grew within a few miles of his brewery in Yakima (where well over half all domestic hops were grown at the time). He sent folks from the brewery out to the hop fields during the September harvest while he started prepping the mash tun. They gathered a batch of fresh hops, brought them back to the brewery, and within minutes of having been picked, were dumped into the boil.

This was radical. At the time, I recall hearing a lot of derision about this practice; fresh hops were reputed to lead to off-flavors and "gasiness." A gimmick, said the critics. Grant, who spent the last twenty years of his life proving critics wrong, proved to be the visionary.

Since Oregon and Washington are big hop-growing regions, as well as a big microbrewing nexus, it makes sense that someone would be crazy enough to try it here first. Look at the preponderance of hoppy Northwest-style IPAs, for instance.

So besides Grant, who else was first with fresh hop beers? Sierra Nevada first brewed their Harvest in 1996—which they bill as "America’s first fresh hop ale" (they bottled it for the first time this year).

I have a surprise, though. Digging back farther, I find an article by Michael Jackson, originally from 1993, profiling a brewer in England who brewed a fresh hop beer.

Trevor Holmes, head brewer at Wadworth, of Devizes in Wiltshire, was inspecting the harvest a year or two ago when he began to wonder how beer would taste if it were aromatised with hops fresh off the vine.

The practicalities are such that it could be done only once a year. Mr. Holmes tried it first last year [1992]. The 100-barrel brew was meant to last a month; it sold out in a week. This year, there are almost 300 barrels.

Mr. Holmes has used the first of the new seasons malt to make his "green hop" beer. The brewery calls it simply Malt and Hops. I can think of only one other brewery that has tried making such a "biere nouvelle," and that is in the far West of the United States.

(I can only assume the "far West" brewer is Grant.)

Of course, I'm not even speculating on the role of homebrewers in the fresh hop origins here; it's entirely likely that they were doing this sort of thing for years.

There's more to be written here, for sure; a history of the subject would definitely be a worthwhile read.

Since I announced it, it's come to pass: Theme Week here at The Brew Site, and this month's first theme is Fresh Hops. It's harvest season and the (rapidly) growing trend these past few years have been to brew beers with fresh—or "wet" or "green"—hops, literally right off the vine.

It's red hot right now—a perfect topic for the inaugural Theme Week!

So expect the majority of blogging this week to be for Fresh Hops Week.

The Great American Beer Festival wrapped up today, and the 2007 winners are announced. Naturally I've gotta highlight the Oregon winners, with a big congrats to my local breweries: Deschutes Brewery and Bend Brewing Company. Deschutes brought home 3 gold medals and the BBC brought home a silver:

• 4K Pils (Deschutes) - International Style Pilsner category (10 entries)
• Pub Bitter (Deschutes) - Bitter or Pale Mild Ale category (43 entries)
• The Abyss (Deschutes) - Imperial Stout category (44 entries)
• Outback X (BBC) - Old Ale or Strong Ale category (32 entries)

Other Oregon winners:

• Laurelwood Brewing, the gold for their Organic Deranger
• Pelican Pub & Brewery, 2 gold and a silver for their Doryman's Dark, MacPelican's Wee Heavy, and Kiwanda Cream Ale, respectively
• Rogue got a bronze for their Russian Imperial Stout
• Widmer brought home a silver and a bronze for their Brewmaster Reserve (wheat ale) and their Export Lager, respectively

11 medals in all. Go Oregon!

Ridgeway Bitter has the distinction of being one of Men's Journal's infamous picks for the best beers in the world a couple of years ago—in fact, it got the "gold" of their Ales & Bitters category. This is a true session beer, at only 4% alcohol by volume, and it's a fine representative of one of the classic English styles.

The label proclaims, "Bottled conditioned beer," and indeed a layer of yeast on the bottom of the bottle indicates it to be so. The description of the beer itself indicates that it uses Challenger hops and a new hops named Boadicea, one I've not heard of—though it's proclaimed to be aphid-resistant (something I would've appreciated!).

Appearance: Very clear, caramel-brown and orange in color. Fizzy, fluffy white head built up as I poured.

Smell: English hops and sweet malt—caramel-toffee sweet, some butterscotch.

Taste: Hops right up front, twiggy and woody and spicy. Nice and bitter, all right. Malt is mellow and crisp, a little "red" tasting, a good backbone for the hop profile.

Mouthfeel: Light and well-carbonated—fizzy in the mouth, with a bit of dryness from the hops.

Overall: Good, though hoppier than I would have expected, surprisingly. If I could get some of this on draft, cask-conditioned... that'd be the stuff.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 84 out of 100, with 98% reviewer approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.07 out of 5 and is in their 50th percentile.

No, I'm not there but I wish I was. The officially GABF starts today and I'll be watching reports coming out of it. In the meantime, here's some pre-show links:

• Flying Dog Brewery is photoblogging the GABF and taking Photo-on-Demand requests while there; read the details here.
• Stan drove(!) to the GABF, and explains why he likes to do so.
• Beer Sage and Beer Molly are first-timers this year. Expect good Beer Pix and blogging.
• Tomme Arthur has two out of four(?) posts about the various beers (and their chances of winning) the Port Brewing empire has sent to the GABF.

Oh, let's do some pre-show stats, too.

• On the floor: 408 breweries represented, pouring 1884 beers.
• In the competition: 474 breweries represented, pouring 2832 beers.
• 107 judges will be tasting from 75 categories.
• The highest-entered category with 120 beers is American IPA.

Nice to see follow-through on this. I wonder if Flying Dog would send me a bottle...?

Open Source Beer will be Available for Sampling during the Great American Beer Festival

Denver’s Flying Dog Brewery has announced the release of their Collaborator Doppelbock, the first “open source” beer to hit the U.S. market. “Open source” is a term most commonly used in the software industry and refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit In this case, Flying Dog’s Open Source Beer Project allowed beer drinkers and homebrewers to offer recommendations and feedback on the beer’s recipe via a website.

The recipe ended up impressing Flying Dog’s brewers. Head Brewer, Matt Brophy says, “The result is a Dopplebock that has a full body with a complex malt profile and a slight roasted caramel character. The knowledgeable feedback from the homebrewers and the passion they put forth really made this project a success.”

Flying Dog’s Director of Marketing, Neal Stewart is encouraging homebrewers to try their hand at the recipe. “We have posted the final recipe and a downloadable label at www.opensourcebeerproject.com giving homebrewers everything they need except the ingredients,” said Stewart.

Those making the trip to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival will have two chances to try Collaborator:

• Flying Dog Brewery Booth at the Great American Beer Festival, Oct 9-11
• Wild Dog Release Party at Flying Dog Brewery on Friday, Oct 12 at 3pm

Collaborator is the latest in Flying Dog’s “Wild Dog Series.” Wild Dogs are extremely limited edition beers that come exclusively in hand filled, corked and labeled 750ml bottles. Only 5000 bottles of Collaborator will be available.

For more information on the Open Source Beer Project, please visit www.opensourcebeerproject.com.

Yes, I admit, ever since I posted about Pyramid's new Imperial Hefeweizen, I've been itching with curiosity. I found it this weekend and was able to scratch that itch. It's 7.5% alcohol, which isn't necessarily huge these days, but it's high for a wheat ale.

I like the bottle, and what's interesting—you can see this in the picture there, too—is there is very little headspace in the bottle; the liquid is less than an inch from the top. That's unusual.

Appearance: Hazy, unfiltered "dirty" orange color with creamy, dense off-white head.

Smell: Strong, wheaty, a bit sour... sour mash-y. The sourness is actually a defining aroma; I noticed it as the bottle opened. Not sour in an infected way, more lemon or (better) lemongrass.

Taste: Strong alcohol character right up front... there's a raw wheat note lurking beneath this alcohol but it's the strength that's the big showcase. The Hefeweizen style here is the American (a la Widmer), not the traditional/German, creamy and yeasty and raw bread dough. Interesting.

Mouthfeel: Alcohol-puckering and dry in the mouth. Oddly enough, it's still smooth—the alcohol almost has a creamy quality while teetering on harsh—and a bit bubbly.

Overall: It'll be talked about, and it's definitely its own style. Different, though, and while not bad and worth trying—it's not one I would drink regularly.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 83 out of 100 with 94% approval from reviewers (only 18 total reviews so far). On RateBeer, it scores 3.44 out of 5 and is in their 78th percentile.

I've decided to start a new feature here at The Brew Site: Beer Theme Week. My thought is that the third week of each month will be dedicated to a specific theme—style, production method, whatever—and I'll spend that week writing (mostly) on the theme topic. For simplicity's sake, I've decided the "week" will start on the third Monday of the month and the blogging schedule will be Monday through Friday (though Saturday-Sunday wouldn't necessarily be out of the question, either).

"Beer Theme Week" is kind of a lame name, though, so each theme week will be named for whatever the theme is... so there isn't really a standard, cool name like "The Session" to apply here. (Unless someone has a suggestion...?)

Anyway. This month's first Theme Week I'm deciding on... I think I want to do pumpkin beer (something I know a bit about, I like to think), but I'm not 100% on that. (If not this month, then November for sure.)

This month's Session is brought to us by Captain Hops: Beer and Food.

I am looking for posts about pairing beer with food or using beer as an ingredient in food. I hope to see recipes, pictures, tasting notes, stories, menus, reviews or anything else that fits the bill of fare. Whether you write about which beer goes best with chili dogs or give your family’s secret recipe for vegan stout stew or post pictures of those ale braised lamb shanks you had last week, I want to know every mouth watering detail.

I have to confess, this isn't a topic I've spent much time focusing on, beyond a casual interest. I've not attended any formal beer dinners, nor do I generally select a beer based on what food I'm eating.

So I was wondering what I'd be able to contribute this month when I realized that I did, in fact, cook recently with beer—not something I often do, either. So I'll talk about the two recipes I made.

First, though, I have to mention Michael Jackson's awesome Ultimate Beer, because it has an extensive section on beer and food pairings—it's my go-to source on the subject (what I do know about it). He has style recommendations for most categories of food (smoked foods, fish, beef, pizza, desserts, etc.) and ones I wouldn't have otherwise thought of (salads and starters, pickles and pâtés). It's also just a beautiful book. Go buy it.

(I'll give a plug to Garrett Oliver's The Brewmaster's Table, too, because I've heard good things about it—though I've not read it yet.)

Anyway, on to the recipes.

The first of the two recipes was this one I blogged about: beer cupcakes. I followed the recipe verbatim, and they turned out to be delicious: rich and moist, the Guinness and the cocoa worked to give it a velvety, dark chocolate flavor, very decadent. I highly recommend this recipe; it's easy to follow and I promise the cupcakes will be a hit.

Beer Pairing Suggestion: Stout or Porter, particularly a chocolate variety.

The second foray into beer cooking was Sunday dinner last week and I was thinking along the lines of an Oktoberfest flair, so I went with a pot roast—using Spaten Oktoberfest as the braising liquid.

I followed a basic recipe as a guideline, but I improvised a bit as well. Here's what I did:

• 3.25 lb. beef chuck roast, seasoned liberally with salt and pepper
• Chopped onions, carrots, and celery—about 1/2 cup each
• 1 cup beer
• Seasonings (I used thyme, oregano, parsley, and a dash of sage
• Several small whole onions, potatoes (cut into chunks), baby carrots

You'll need a Dutch oven or other similarly heavy pot with a lid for this.

First I browned the beef over medium-high heat on all sides, about 10-15 minutes worth. Remove from heat, add several tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the chopped veggies for about 5 minutes, then add the beer and seasonings. Bring to a boil, add the beef back to the mixture. Cover the pot tightly, and turn the heat down to low. Now leave it for about 2 hours, then add the whole vegetables, cover and leave it for another hour. (Add more liquid as needed—do not let the pot dry out.)

When it's done, take the roast out and let it rest for about 15 minutes, then slice it up. Serve with the whole vegetables. Additionally, you can make a gravy out of the remaining liquid in the pot, but I didn't do that (this time).

Verdict: It was good—you can't go wrong with pot roast!

Beer Pairing Suggestion: Well, an Oktoberfest goes well with this, obviously. But I think any malty, more-sweet-than-hoppy beer would pair well with this; it's comfort food and deserves a "comfort beer."

Making note of things happening locally this month. There really isn't much at all; but then, it's Great American Beer Festival month, too.

• Oktoberfest Cooking
  Where: Bend Public Library
  When: October 10 (missed the 3rd's in Redmond), 6:30 - 8pm
  What:
  Joan McFadden of Sundowner Catering creates the perfect menu for a memorable Octoberfest. Food tasting and recipes included.
  
  Limited to 30 participants.
  
  Free and open to the public.
   
• Fresh Hop Tastival
  Where: Deschutes Brewery, 901 SW Simpson
  When: October 27, noon - 7pm
  What:
  A huge selection of fresh hop beers will be available for tasting. Admission is free, but the mug (required to taste!) is $5, with $1 per taster and $4 for full pours.
  
  Jeff has published (re-published, rather, but I like his formatting better) the list of beers available.

Vesuvius is the latest in the Brewmaster's Reserve series from Full Sail Brewing, a Belgian Strong (or Golden) Ale that checks in at 8.5% alcohol by volume. It's gotten some traction online lately; read Jeff's Beervana review on it, and a quick search pulls up a few others. One review calls it "one of the best American Belgians around," even.

I won't go as far as to call it one of the best American Belgians, but it's definitely a good beer. As Jeff notes, the Pacific Northwest isn't overly known for it's Belgian style beers.

Appearance: Pale gold, fairly clear, with a finger of creamy white head when I poured. It also seemed to carry a pinkish tinge to it while I was pouring (a trick of the light?).

Smell: Floral and sour in the nose. Lightly toasted grains, a tad horsey. The sour is "old" sour like a used wool blanket.

Taste: Toasty, warm, alcohol heat and Belgian candi sugar on the tongue. Grains of paradise? A little of that sourness is mixed in with the sugar sweet, and more alcohol character comes through as it warms up. A hint of pepper.

Mouthfeel: Clean medium body characterized by the alcohol strength—it leaves the mouth warm after a sip.

Overall: Good, though I find the overt alcohol character intrusive for the style. It's worth seeking out.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 80 out of 100, with 71% of reviewers indicating approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.13 out of 5 and is in their 53rd percentile.

Dragon's Gold is the gluten free beer offering from Bard's Tale Beer, and while I'd like to say it's the first such beer I've tasted, ironically enough it was the second—the first I had mere days before at a barbecue.

(That first was Redbridge, Anheuser-Busch's "mainstream" foray into the realm of the gluten free. It was offered to me by a friend who has Celiac disease, and I found that it tasted pretty much like beer. I'll do a formal review sometime soon.)

I first wrote about Bard's Tale and gluten free back in 2005, and I'm finally seeing it show up here in Central Oregon. The beer is made entirely from sorghum, a cereal grain that doesn't contain gluten. The company bills it as "the world's first gluten free craft beer."

Appearance: Clear, light brown tinged with orange.

Smell: Definite bready aroma—like a raw bread dough. Corn, raw wheat... a bit sweet. Slight grassy tang.

Taste: It's different—raw grains, dried wheatgrass... earthy, reminds me of hay. Slight metallic note. Woody, bitter dry character. [Sorghum is a grass-based cereal... does it have a strong grass/hay character as plain grain?]

Mouthfeel: Dry, light bodied... almost seems to be a film (though non-slick/oily) on the tongue.

Overall: Interesting, but ultimately, it doesn't taste "like beer" and unfortunately I think a large segment of people seeking out gluten free beer aren't craft beer drinkers or are looking for a traditional beer character. In that regard, Redbridge wins (based on my preliminary experience). I think Bard's Tale needs to work on this beer a bit more.

On BeerAdvocate, they seem to agree with me: 74 out of 100 with only 36% of reviewers giving it a thumbs-up. Same story on RateBeer: 2.34 out of 5 and only in their 13th percentile.