I got an email notifying me of a new beer-related social networking site: the Kegerator Social Network. I haven't checked it out yet but at first blush it looks fairly standard as far as the social networking scene goes: members, photo sharing, events, groups, etc.—everything we've come to expect thanks to the likes of MySpace and Facebook.

It got me to thinking of other existing beer social network sites out there, too, and right off the top of my head there are:

• The Aleuminati - the best-organized one I've seen
• BrewSocial - the site that's building a database of people's beer ratings and preferences, presumably so it can help you discover new beers you might like

At least, those are the two I'm familiar with (and have memberships with, somewhere). A quick search also reveals Coastr, which I'd heard about once but never really checked out.

Is there much of a need for such a niche social network site? I don't know, but I'm curious as to what else might be out there, so consider this your chance to pimp your beer-themed social network site—let me know or leave a comment below.

I'm finally digging back a bit on the older reviews I have notes on but haven't written up here. Tonight it's Jolly Pumpkin's Bam Bière, a Farmhouse Ale from the Michigan brewery.

Jolly Pumpkin has been making a name for themselves by brewing in a style that I guess I'd call "rustic Belgian"—something unusual for American brewers. They employ open fermentation vessels and are liberal with their use of yeasts—Brett-liberal, I want to say.

Bam Bière, at 4.5% alcohol, is described as, "An artisan farmhouse ale that is golden, naturally cloudy, bottle conditioned and dry hopped for a perfectly refreshing balance of spicy malts, hops and yeast."

Appearance: Very bubbly, straw-orange in color with a rocky, active white head, one finger thick, not collapsing as it's replenished from the active carbonation.

Smell: Light, fruity, tart and effervescent aroma, very farmhouse-y in character. Musty, green berries, green grass...

Taste: Very tart! Earthy, sour, a zing of green bitterness cutting through the middle... Some green apple, some bitter woody/twiggy notes; that earthy character is strong throughout.

Mouthfeel: Light and crisp, thin and puckery—tart. Very drinkable.

Overall: I thought some of the upfront bitterness was at first a bit harsh, but overall a pleasant, sour, drinkable beer.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.66 out of 5, and is in their 92nd percentile.

Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere

On Saturday we finally made it over to Sisters to visit Three Creeks Brewing Company. It's the newest microbrewery to open in Central Oregon (I'd been reporting variously on it) and the first to be established in the small town of Sisters (population: 1706). So I took my camera and my notebook along and have the official review.

We were meeting our friends Paul and Sandi (and a friend of theirs from out of town) there for lunch and in fact they beat us by ten minutes or so—long enough to have ordered the sampler tray and have it arrive by the time we got there.

On the tray were the six house beers plus two seasonals; I tasted each one (we were all sharing) and jotted down some notes on each, and ordered a couple of pints with lunch. Here's the sampler tray (their friend Chris was holding the menu):

The six beers on the "outside" arc are the house beers, and the two in front are the seasonals. Here's the lineup (with my notes):

• Knotty Blonde: Light and golden, with a flavorful grain note, well-done for the lighter style (for macro drinkers). 4% ABV.
• Stonefly Rye: Interesting. A light, crisp rye ale, with a slightly fruity zest to it. Wheaty and grassy (Paul contributed "grassy" and didn't care for it). Crisp and refreshing, and different. The second pint I ordered was of this. 4.6% ABV.
• Old Prospector Pale: Essentially an English bitter, though hoppier than you'd find around here for the style. 5.3% ABV.
• Anvil Amber: Fairly typical Amber Ale but with a strong presence of black patent or roasted barley. Dry. 5% ABV.
• Firestorm Red: Pretty standard Northwest Red ale, but with some sort of unusual hop I think. Drinkable, enjoyable. 5.7% ABV.
• 8 Second IBA: "India Black Ale"—Good, unusual. More "black" than an IPA in body (i.e. lighter/thinner), but nicely hoppy and worth another look whenever I go back. 6.6% ABV.
• Oatmeal Porter: Some sort of seasonal, I believe, unusual enough to order a pint of it. It's good, a bit smoky, roasty, with a nice current of sweetness in the middle. Lightly medium-bodied.
• Organic Special Golden Ale: The other seasonal-ish. Decent but not entirely memorable... light with some hint of fruity character to it.

As noted, I ordered first the Oatmeal Porter and then the Stonefly Rye over the course of the visit:

Overall, we all agreed the beer is decent and drinkable, and I think they're doing some interesting enough things (like the IBA and the Rye) to keep them noticed and fresh.

Beers are $4 per pint, and growlers and apparently bottles are available to go as well.

Now, some notes on the food and service and overall atmosphere/decor...

To be honest, the service when we first arrived was less than stellar, but some of that may be because we arrived after our friends who already had the sampler tray in front of them. We waited longer than we should have for the waitress to come by and ask us what we'd like to drink, and longer to get the drinks.

However, once we'd ordered our food, things turned around and the service was good, which is why I'm inclined to not be as bitchy as I could be and chalk it up to confusion over the two groups arrival and general Saturday lunch busy-ness (which lightened up noticeably as we were there).

The food, though, was good all around. Paul kept raving about his "Chicken-bacon-tater" meal, which was essentially all those ingredients in a flatbread taco thing smothered (I think) in cheese and stuff. Decadent, you know. I ordered fish and chips, which is pretty standard for me whenever I first visit a brewpub—I figure it's a good measure of the place—and it was a solid plate:

My only complaint is that the breading was a bit greasy-oily (good deep fried food shouldn't be oily), but I can live with that and otherwise the fish itself was succulent and not overcooked. The fries were standard but tasty.

Oh, and the coconut-breaded onion rings were really, really good.

Here are shots of the interior of the brewery:

The main dining room area. A door out of frame on the left leads to the patio and an outside dining area. You can see it was pretty empty as we were leaving.

The other half of the brewery, the "bar" (no hard liquor). No minors allowed in here, which is a shame because this, in my opinion, is a much nicer area, more what I was expecting to see/be seated in. Hardwood floors (versus the poured concrete in the main dining area), nicer layout (not that you can tell from my pictures), and a clear window-wall view of the brewing facilities:

So I don't know why this area is closed off—anyone with kids will miss out entirely, and it's this kind of ambiance (decor, layout, atmosphere) that, in my opinion, really makes for a nice brewery experience.

But there are nice touches in general. Like this fireplace with open seating (two leather couches, out of the frame) that would be nice and relaxing to kick back at with a couple of beers:

And finally, a parting shot: the merchandise corner (actually by the front door as you arrive):

Final verdict: it's a pretty solid brewery and restaurant, with decent beers, and is definitely a good thing for Sisters. Though I honestly don't know how often I'll be able to visit, since it's a bit over 20 miles away (considering the plethora of brewery options much more local to me here in Bend). Worth visiting if you're in the area.

Three Creeks Brewing Company
721 Desperado Court
Sisters, OR 97759
(541) 549-1963

It's Fermentation Friday today—a homebrewing-themed group blogging effort that takes place on the last Friday of the month. Somehow I missed the announcement and lost track of the days and nearly missed participating.

This month's topic is brought to us by the FinalGravity blog: What indigenous brewing ingredient have you used or would you like to brew with and what style would that beer be?

The special ingredient may be something that grows wild, is a (unique) agricultural product in your area or maybe you grow it yourself. ...

Please provide some history and description of ingredient.

For me, the answer depends on the scope of the term "indigenous." If I define indigenous to mean, for instance, North America, then I would classify pumpkin as such an ingredient, and one that I've brewed with quite a bit (as regular readers no doubt know).

Narrowing the field down a bit, I can safely say I've brewed with hops that were grown either by me or my mother (for instance).

But, to pick something more interesting, there are a number of ingredients that are (relatively) indigenous to Central Oregon that I would like to someday try. Number one on that list is sagebrush.

Not the woody parts, or the toxic parts, but I've read that the flowers themselves can be used in the beer as a replacement for hops. The only commercial inkling of such an experiment that I've seen was on this Beervana post (read the comments for the meat of it). Sagebrush by itself is bitter and (as I mentioned above) toxic though there is a history of medicinal uses by Native Americans, hence avoiding all but the flowers.

If I were to pick a style for my hypothetical Sage Beer, I would probably work within an American Pale Ale boundary; though I could see experimenting with more Belgian-esque styles as well. My thinking is you'd want a solid malt backbone to support the sage, but not go too dark or heavy (thus overpowering) with it. Nor would you want wheat or something excessively light—I suspect the sage would impart its own strong presence and you'd definitely want the balance.

So that's what I'd like to work with sometime. Any other homebrewers (or commercial) out there ever experimented with sage?

Late yesterday I received a sample bottle of this year's Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale, the fall seasonal offering from Anheuser-Busch. I reviewed this beer last year as was lukewarm on it, but even so, I get all excited when the pumpkin beers come out and yes, I'm anxious to crack this one open and see how it is.

It's probably not an exaggeration to say that Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing is one of the country's best-known brewers—largely for his extreme-beer cred. (In fact I might go so far as to say he's a rock star of the brewing world, but people seem to cringe when terminology like that gets thrown around...)

Anyway, CHOW magazine is running an interview with Cilurzo that's a good read; it gets into some of the behind-the-scenes at Russian River and also highlights some of the, er, dangers in working with wild yeasts.

You’re known in the brewing world for being adept at using this challenging type of yeast, Brettanomyces, that’s used in many Belgian ales. What’s the appeal?

Brett creates a rustic, unique flavor, like leather or barnyard. It’s really distinctive. But it’s extremely aggressive. Some winemakers won’t even come in here because they’re afraid to get it on them. I’ve had brewery owners call me and say, “My brewer wants to start brewing with this yeast; what do you think?” Then I tell them all the risks—the wild yeasts, bacteria floating around your brewery, and it’s dangerous from a brewing standpoint [because it can infect other beers]. Then usually the brewer calls me up all mad, because I’ve talked the owner out of it.

This brewery is not that large. How do you keep the yeast from spreading into the other beers?

We keep two of everything, if not more. And what I mean by that is, we have a separate pump just for the funky beers. Different hoses, different valves, different gaskets for hoses and doors, and even the rubber gloves we use for cleaning and handling. And we keep the barrels of aged beer in a separate room.

For 19 years, the arrival of Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale has heralded shorter days and the end of the warm months. Winter Welcome’s rich honey-amber color; creamy, complex flavor and firm strength; the incomparable Samuel Smith signature of great balance and refinement... these are reasons to look forward to fires, warm sweaters, and the cozy days of fall and winter.

In England, "winter warmers" — beers of deep richness and higher alcohol — have tempered winter’s chill for generations. Winter Welcome, the first imported winter ale sold in America, is the perfect beer to serve when friends get together to enjoy the season. It adds cheer served alone, but it is wonderful with roasted and smoked foods, hearty root vegetables, fresh pears and apples, even with cake and eggnog. Look for Winter Welcome starting around the first of October.

Samuel Smith's Old Brewery, in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, was established in 1758. The hard crystalline brewing water is still drawn from the original well sunk 250 years ago, and the yeast strain has remained unchanged for over 100 years. All Samuel Smith ales are still fermented in stone "Yorkshire Squares," the traditional open-topped vessels made of locally-quarried slate.

Merchant du Vin and Pinkus Brewery are proud to announce the introduction of Pinkus Jubilate, a rich dark lager that is Certified Organic by the USDA. First brewed in 1966 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Pinkus Brewery, Jubilate has not been exported to the US until now. Look for Pinkus Jubilate nationally starting in September.

Before the second half of the 19th century, all beers were dark. Jubilate pays tribute to the classic and traditional German lagers of old, with a captivating amber-brown color and a deep, rich flavor with caramel and toffee nuances. The finish is subtle, featuring elegant German Hallertau hops. Jubilate pairs especially well with hearty fare and classic German cuisine: smoked meats, potatoes & sauerkraut; hearty bread and deli sandwiches; or root vegetables.

Pinkus Brewery, founded in 1816, is located in the city of Munster, in the northwest of Germany. It’s still family owned and made a commitment to full organic production in 1980, becoming the first modern brewery to do so. All malt and hops used in Pinkus beers are organic, certified by the USDA-accredited ABCERT GmbH.

September is Organic Harvest Month, designated by farmers, restaurant operators, and stores to enhance awareness of organic farming and food production, where no chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used, thereby reducing the possibility of unwanted side effects in the environment. Organic producers must follow strict rules, they must buy certified organic ingredients, and they are also inspected by certifying agencies. Organic production represents a decision to do the right thing for the planet, even if it takes more work and has additional costs - Jubilate Dark Organic Lager can be your way to help save the planet this September.

We made it down for the Jubelale Launch Party at the Deschutes Pub this evening, and even though I didn't get there in time for the toast, I took a few pictures and it was a Jubelale-themed dinner for sure.

As promised, there were three variations of Jubelale on tap, plus a bonus: the regular, nitro, and cask conditioned, and on the X-Tap, they had their 2007 Super Jubel—last year's edition that's 11% alcohol (double the malt), barrel-aged in bourbon barrels, and dry hopped.

I started with the cask conditioned Jubelale (this year's edition). On cask it's dangerously drinkable—creamy, smooth, buttery, lively, delicious. If this is available to you, you should definitely go with it.

My next pick was, naturally, the 2007 Super Jubel. At 11% alcohol, they serve it up in a snifter, half-size the normal pint (ten ounces). This is strong and complex; all the Jubelale spicing is there, but there's a powerful bourbon presence from the barrel-aging and a powerful fruity presence—black cherry, plums, figs, like that. (Our friend Paul pointed this out.)

I had one of their specials for dinner, too (Jubelale themed): Bison meatloaf, which was:

Oven Roasted w/ a Brown Sugar Jubelale Wort Glaze
Served w/ Malt Infused Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes & Steamed Snow Peas
Topped w/ a Jubelale & Wild Mushroom Demi-Glace

It was very, very good.

Finally, they were giving out posters of this year's label painting—and by "giving out", I mean they were free. And yes, the artist, Pam Jersey Bird, was on hand signing them as they were handed out. (Signature in the lower left corner.)

My picture of this is crappy—that's really supposed to mostly be white there, not light-flesh-color. But you get the idea. Overall, I think this is my favorite label of recent years.

Tomorrow evening, the 23rd, Deschutes Brewery is having a launch party for the 2008 Jubelale release, at both their downtown Bend and Portland pubs. At the Bend pub, three variations of Jubel will be on tap: regular, cask conditioned, and nito. Plus, there's a special menu planned for the evening (it's a restaurant too, after all).

But what intrigues me the most is the fact that Jubelale is 21 years old this year... and, according to the website, it was the first beer ever bottled by the brewery. Wouldn't it be cool to do a vertical tasting?

Anyway. Here in Bend, the artist who painted this year's label, Pam Jersey Bird, will be at the pub during the launch party signing posters; I don't know if they're for sale or for how much, but I would assume they are.

The toast is at 5pm, and I imagine the festivities will go on for the rest of the evening.

Today is the first official day of Oktoberfest, and right now thousands of people are milling around Munich right now and the first keg has been tapped.

(In fact, according to the official festival site, it's the 175th Oktoberfest. I wish I could say I planned Theme Week to coincide with such an anniversary, but it was all happenstance.)

Since many of us can't be there (I'll get there someday...), at least the internet gives us the next-best thing: on-the-spot photos.

Here's a Flickr search for "oktoberfest munich" which seems pretty close to being updated with photos in realtime.

Here's a more generic Flickr search for "oktoberfest", which includes pictures from all over.

And while they're not quite realtime, YouTube easily has a few thousand Oktoberfest-tagged videos.

Enjoy!

Various items of an Oktoberfest nature to ruminate on.

First up, Kevin McCloskey submitted this a couple of weeks ago:

I've never heard of this combination before so I gave it a try. Sam Adams Octoberfest with Guiness. Like a black and tan but changing out the Bass with Octoberfest. These two brews are perfect together in my opinion. I call it simply a "Black October". Give a try, I think you will be hooked like I am.

Sounds intriguing, for sure. Of course, there's no reason you couldn't use any other combination of Oktoberfest and stout (though Guinness is traditional).

Next, I found this article on KYPost.com which is a quick and amusing read: "Oktoberfest Fun Facts".

During this year's events, festival goers will eat eight miles of metts, 15 football fields of sauerkraut balls, five tons of potato pancakes, more than eight Boeing 747s of cream puffs, 5K of strudel, 1.3 tons of jumbo pickles, one ton of German potato salad and 700 pounds of Limburger cheese. Let's hope there are some breath mints in there, too.

It also points to Oktoberfest Zinzinnati which starts tomorrow in—you guessed it—Cincinnati. It takes place this weekend, the 20th and 21st, and admission is free. This is one of the big festivals: it started in 1976 and has since grown to 500,000 participants, and they claim to be the largest in the U.S.

Other U.S. 'Fests coming up:

• The Fremont Oktoberfest which started today and runs through the weekend, based in Seattle.
• Oktoberfest USA in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which started way back in 1961.
• Capital City Brewing is hosting an Oktoberfest in Arlington, Virginia (their 9th annual) on the 4th of October.
• And of course, my own hometown, Bend Oktoberfest, which is taking place downtown next weekend, the 26th and 27th.

That's right, a new beer review tonight rather than a rerun. I found Bayern Oktoberfest Lager today and of course picked some up. Bayern Brewing, based in Montana, bills itself as "the only German microbrewery in the Rockies" and brews strictly according to the Reinheitsgebot.

Check out the beer's pedigree, according to their site:

This beer is not just called Oktoberfest-it is Oktoberfest beer. It is brewed according to the standards of the Brewers' Guild of Munich which was established when they brewed this beer for the first time in 1810, in Munich...

This "dark Marzen" has an alcohol by volume of 6% and is available from late August through late October.

Appearance: Dark brown color, relatively clear. Light tan head, but not very substantial. There are deep ruby highlights when held to the light.

Smell: Roasty, malty, some thick dark aromas, a hint of spice. Leather, licorice, brown sugar, spicy-earthy hops.

Taste: Dark, malty, roasted malts but not the burnt astringency you sometimes get. A bit of blackstrap and also some more lightly-toasted notes. Hoppy notes come through more in the aftertaste, along with some fruity-sweet malt flavors.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, pretty clean.

Overall: Pretty good, nicely malty, but reminds me more of a dark lager (Dunkel Lager) than a straight Oktoberfest.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. RateBeer, unfortunately, still has the "bad site" warning from Google, so I can't point to them right now.

Last year about this time I reviewed another classic example of the Oktoberfest style: Spaten Oktoberfest (green bottle version).

Even though there's a brown bottle edition, the green is what seems to be the most widely available, at least around here—Costco is currently selling it by the case and it's all green.

Here's my original review:

Appearance: Super clear, the color of a shiny new copper penny. Bubbles beading and rising from the bottom to a nice head.

Smell: Malty, though less so that what I'm expecting. Noticeable hops. A little bit of "green bottle lager" syndrome of Euros. Caramelized malts, "red" malts.

Taste: Soft on the tongue... pleasantly rich malts with more of a bite of roasted malts. Bready—a darkish rye bread. Noble hops and crispness are reminiscent of a Pilsner.

Mouthfeel: Nice bite, lower-medium in body... very pleasant.

My conclusion was that I liked it, but it was lighter for the style than I expected. Even so, I'm thinking about picking up a case at Costco here pretty soon, just because.

On BeerAdvocate, it's currently sporting an overall grade of B.

Another past review of an Oktoberfest beer, this one from 2006: JosephsBrau Oktoberfest. The JosephsBrau line of beers is the one contracted by Trader Joe's and brewed by Gordon Birsch; generally I find they have varying quality and I found this one lacking for the style—though at the time it was cheap so worth it.

(I very much doubt you'd find it as cheap as $3.99 per six-pack any more.)

My original review:

Appearance: Very clear dark gold-orange. Very little head.

Smell: Subtle, clean—malty like a whole grain bread.

Taste: Clean, crisp, kind of neural. Mild. A little more bitter than the style should be. Has a mega-commercial-beer quality.

Mouthfeel: Thinner than it should be (for an Oktoberfest). There's more body than a mega lager, though not much. Sparkly carbonation on the tongue.

Sadly, I don't have a decent picture of the beer, and I'm not going to rip it off another site. However, you can find it on BeerAdvocate's page, and another over here at A Roughneck's Take on Beer.

Speaking of BeerAdvocate, over there it scores a grade of C+. I'd like to point you to RateBeer, but the site's still down as of this writing; two years ago they scored it into their 47th percentile.

This week as part of Oktoberfest Week I'll actually be re-running some past reviews of various Oktoberfest-style beers—it turns out I've written reviews on at least seven beers in the style already. I know, I know, it feels a bit like cheating, but I figure, it's a good, available resource, and there are probably a bunch of readers who haven't gone and read through all my archives. So where I'm posting a rerun, I'll note that.

It turns out I've reviewed one of the world class examples of the style, Paulaner Oktoberfest-Märzen, twice already: in 2006 and in 2007. From my 2007 review, my "Overall" note reads: "Like I said, it exemplifies the style. One of the best."

I'm not sure if I was aware of my 2006 review when I wrote the 2007 one, so it's interesting to compare the two separated by a year to see the similarities and differences. So here's a geeky thing; I'll run the reviews in a side-by-side to compare. (I've edited down for brevity; you can read the full reviews at the links.)

It seems fairly consistent to me, which really should be no surprise—this truly is one of the world classics.

On BeerAdvocate, the up-to-date overall grade it receives is B+, and it's on their Top 10 beers for the Oktoberfest style. On RateBeer, well, I can't give you their current rating because as of this writing, the page is down and Google has the site red-flagged as a "site that may harm your computer." Uh-oh.

Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen

Tonight I opened up one of the promotional bottles of Beck's Oktoberfest that I received last week (though not the one with the snap-on stein handle).

All of the Beck's line of beers are brewed by Brauerei Beck in Germany and imported to the U.S. by Anheuser-Busch. According to the label, it's brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 (the famous German Purity Law) though there's no mention of alcohol content (I would guess in the neighborhood of 5% by volume).

And it comes in a green bottle, which always makes me leery. What is it with these European imports (at least the ones imported by the big macrobrewer corporations) coming in green bottles?

Appearance: Deep orange to amber, very clear. Head didn't last long, and was fizzy and tan.

Smell: Nice malty and toasty aroma, almost fruity. Reminds me of fall and pumpkins.

Taste: Dry, more of a roasted malt character than I expected. A bit of sweet barley and bitter in the back. The roasted malts lend an astringency to the dryness.

Mouthfeel: Fairly light-bodied with a crisp edge to it. Leaves you a bit dry in the aftertaste, too.

Overall: Easy drinking and goes well with food (it accompanied my dinner nicely). I'd like a bit less bitterness and more rich, malty notes though.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.84 out of 5 and is in their 31st percentile.

It's Oktoberfest Week here at The Brew Site! All this week the blogging will be related to the world's biggest and best-known beer festival, culminating in the actual start of this year's Oktoberfest, September 20th.

Of course, people always wonder why Oktoberfest starts in September when the name clearly implies a festival dedicated to the following month. To answer that, I'll go back to a post I originally wrote way back in 2004:

The timing of Oktoberfest is dependent upon the first Sunday in October: it always starts in mid-September, and ends 16 days later on that first Sunday.... As to why, this is from the official Oktoberfest site:

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

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

Old habits and names die hard. Plus, "Oktoberfest" has a nicer ring to it than "Septemberfest."

The announcement for the next Session is up over at Bathtub Brewery (can you believe it's going to be the 20th Session already?!?): Beer and Memories.

Is there a beer that reminds you of a specific memory?

If you’re thinking, “Huh?” then you might want to craft your response along the lines of “Whenever I drink [insert brew here] it reminds me of that day …” Or perhaps it’s the reverse. Oooooh.

I wonder how many jokes will be made along the lines of "one time I had so much beer I don't remember..."

I've been enjoying The Brew Basement blog for a while now and one of the things I've always wondered is what the actual "basement" looks like and (for lack of a better term) how it works (what capacity, anything special done to cellar the beers, etc.). Wonder no more! The other day Jason at TBB posted some pictures and details explaining just that.

I'm completely jealous. And awed.

The setup is pretty straightforward, but the beers! The number of beers! (800 or so.) There's not much more I can say that the pictures themselves don't convey better. Go look at them.

“But now they feed them with good cheer,
And what they want they take in beer,
For Christmas comes but once a year,
And then they shall be merry.”
– George Wither, A Christmas Carol

Holiday Ale Festival celebrates the season with 40 specialty and vintage winter beers from across the nation

The winter season holds many gifts for beer lovers in the form of big, bold ales designed to fend off the cold chill of a long winter night. The Holiday Ale Festival has gathered together 40 of these winter warmers, most of which cannot be tasted outside of the event, for a joyous weekend celebration. The 13th annual Holiday Ale Festival will take place Dec. 4 through 7 at Pioneer Courthouse Square, located at 701 SW Sixth Ave. at the intersection of SW Broadway and Yamhill Streets, immediately on the MAX Light Rail line.

Hours for the event are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thurs. through Sat., and 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sun. Admission into the venue is free. To taste beer, the purchase of an initial $20 tasting package is required, which includes a souvenir mug and 10 beer tickets. It takes four tickets for a full mug of beer, or one ticket for a taste. Additional beer tickets can be purchased for $1 apiece. The festival stops selling beer tickets one-half hour prior to closing.

Read full press release

Today I received another promotional beer package, this time being Beck's Oktoberfest—which will be perfect for next week's Oktoberfest Week. Beck's is of course the German beer which is imported and managed by Anheuser-Busch here in the States, but I didn't know they made an Oktoberfest (although in retrospect it should have been obvious).

I received two bottles, and one of them has an enormously amusing and clever gimmick attached: a plastic handle that looks like the handle from a big Germain stein. It can be attached to any bottle of beer, basically, and it's the first time I've seen something like this.

Check out the picture:

Yep, it just snaps right on. I'll be putting that on other bottles, you can be sure.

Look for my review of the beer during Theme Week next week.

The end of last week I received a package promoting Kona Brewing, for their seasonal Pipeline Porter. In it were two bottles of the beer and a package of Kona coffee. (Picture below, of course.) The connection being, that Pipeline Porter is "brewed with freshly roasted 100% Kona coffee grown at Cornwell Estate Plantation, just a few miles from the Kona brewery on Hawaii’s Big Island."

The coffee was very good; I haven't tried the beer yet.

Incidentally, the bottled Kona beers we get here in the mainland aren't actually brewed in Hawaii—they're produced in Portland. Here's the official word:

All of the mainland Kona beer comes from the mainland where it is brewed under the supervision of the Kona Brewmaster in Portland. This done for environmental reasons and the desire to deliver fresh beer to consumers. However, the Kona coffee used in the Pipeline Porter is shipped over from Cornwell Estates. The brewery in Kona produces the draught beer for the islands, but the bottles found in Hawaii come from Portland as they don’t have a bottling facility on the islands.

As much as I'd love to taste beer brewed in Hawaii, this makes sense. (I'll just have to visit Hawaii in person sometime.)

Here's that photo, too:

It's that harvest time of year again, when the fresh hop beers are beginning to show up, and the Oregon Brewers Guild is teaming up with Oregon Bounty again to bring us the Fresh Hop Beer "Tastivals." I guess they must have been a hit last year, because this time around I got notices from two different PR people about them.

First, the shorter note that came in via the contact form:

The Fresh Hop Beer "Tastivals," produced by the Oregon Brewers Guild, will highlight the seasonal beers created with fresh hops from the September harvest instead of traditional dried hops. This year's Tastivals will feature samples of more than 20 beers from across the state crafted using just-picked hops. Admission is free; glasses are $5 and sample tastes are $1.

• Oct. 4 - Downtown Hood River, Noon - 9 p.m.
• Oct. 18 - Hopworks Urban Brewery, Portland, Noon - 9 p.m.
• Oct. 25 - Ninkasi Brewing Company, Eugene, Noon - 9 p.m.

Those dates are all Saturdays, by the way—mark your calendars.

But wait! There's more! I received a full-length press release from Oregon beer PR person extraordinaire, Chris Crabb, which contains more detail and more background:

(Click through to read full press release)

By "abroad", I mean other blogs are picking up the Theme Week baton, and of course, I will tongue-in-cheekingly take credit for inspiring the trend (though of course I didn't).

The Geistbear Brewing Blog has been running an "Italian Beer Week" after discovering a source of Italian craft beer. I've been hearing bits and pieces of the brewing renaissance emerging in Italy, but I have yet to see any such craft beers. Should they arrive, however, I'm totally stealing Italian Beer Week and running it here.

And then today Dave over on Champagne of Blogs announces that it's Bacon Week all next week. Not directly beer related, no, but it is a beer blog and it's a themed week, so I'm good with it.

And then here on the Brew Site, September 15th (the third Monday of the month) starts Oktoberfest Week. (You had to see that coming, right?) Most posts that week will be Oktoberfest-themed, and the Week will end on the 20th—the actual starting day of Oktoberfest. I like how that works out.

It's the first Friday for September (already!) so that means it's time for The Session, the monthly beer blogging event that pulls in bloggers from all over the web to write on a common topic.

This month's topic comes from the lootcorp 3.0 blog: Deutsches Bier:

In honor of the start of Oktoberfest, I’ve decided to make September’s topic Deutsches Bier - German beer. I want you all to focus on the wonderful contributions our German neighbors have made to the beer world. You can write about a particular German style you really enjoy, a facet of German beer culture which tickles your fancy, or any other way in which Germany and beer have become intertwined in your life. Bonus points for Bavarian-themed posts.

When I think of "German beer" in the context of (world) beer culture, one of the first things that come to mind is the Reinheitsgebot. I won't go into great detail—I really couldn't do it justice (see Wikipedia instead)—but you all know the drill: the German Beer Purity Law went into effect in 1516 and stipulated that beer could only be made from four ingredients: barley, hops, water, and yeast. (Yeast was in fact added later.)

Almost nothing says more about culture and influence in beer like the Reinheitsgebot. I mean, every beer aficianado and homebrewer today is familiar with it—and I've even had people who drink nothing but light American macro lagers tell me about it!

All the more remarkable, then, that Germany developed so many of the world's defining styles, and some of the best beer in the world is German. This in spite of—or perhaps because of—the Reinheitsgebot.

...I didn't really have a beer to drink and review this month, so as a bonus, I'm pointing to past reviews of German beers that have appeared here:

• Aventinus Weizenbock
• Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel
• Uerige Alt
• Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
• Spaten Oktoberfest
• Paulaner Oktoberfest-Märzen
• Celebrator Doppelbock

It's September, kids are back in school, and the cooler weather we've been having here lately all seem to be angling toward "Fall", so this evening I opened up the bottle of Late Harvest Autumn Ale I received from Redhook (press release).

This is definitely hearty enough to be an "Autumn Ale", and comes in at 5.9% alcohol.

Appearance: Amber-orange in color with a light tan head that looks nice.

Smell: Richly malty with caramel and a hint buttery, I think. Reminds me of an Oktoberfest, but that's not surprising since that's on my mind...

Taste: My nose didn't lie—it's rich and malty with roasted malt notes (no burnt/astringent) and a warming essence. Hops are earthy and spicy and a nice, underpowering complement to the malt backbone.

Mouthfeel: Nice, full-feeling—a chewy medium-bodied feel. A warming sensation in the aftertaste, and finishes clean.

Overall: I like it; it's my favorite of the Redhooks. It definitely fits the bill for a Fall beer, with an Oktoberfest vibe going on. In fact, it reminds me of Widmer Okto, which I really like as well.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.04 out of 5 and is in their 46th percentile.

Flying Dog Brewery hosts annual throwdown with beer, music and purposeful, provocative irreverance

Flying Dog Brewery announces GonzoFest 2008 to occur on September 13 at the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Maryland from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The annual throwdown will feature live music and host the Hard Times Café Chili Cook-Off for the Maryland State Chili Cook-Off Championship. In addition to the eclectic sounds of four different bands and the taste of competition caliber chili, attendees can enjoy a variety of Flying Dog beer and tours of the Flying Dog brewery. A complementary souvenir mug and beer samples are included in the price of admission.

“GonzoFest is really a representation of Flying Dog's core values which are "purposeful, provocative irreverence," explains Neal Stewart, director of marketing for Flying Dog.” This year’s event will definitely be provocatively irreverent with tons of live music and samples of our award-winning beers. But it will also be purposeful with a portion of the proceeds going to the Heartly House which serves Frederick County residents who have been impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse."

Admission to GonzoFest is $12 in advance and $15 at the door. For more information, visit www.flyingdogales.com or call 301-694-7899.

Click through to view event poster

I actually didn't know Beck's made an Oktoberfest beer, so this was educational for me. Warning: their website tries to resize your browser window and asks for age verification. I don't like either of those behaviors.

Authentic German Brew Now Available for a Limited Time;
Perfect for Fall Entertaining; Pairs Well With Brats, Stews

Celebrate the arrival of Autumn and Oktoberfest season with Beck's Oktoberfest - an authentic German Oktoberfest import beer brewed especially for this time of year and now available nationwide in bars, restaurants and grocery stores.

Caramel in color with a rich, full head, Beck's Oktoberfest perfectly complements traditional German foods such as sausage and bratwurst, or other fall favorites such as stews or hearty chili. It can also be used for marinades or sauces, and to add extra flavor to stews.

Read full press release

We had family come into town this weekend for the holiday and ended up spending a fair amount of time visiting the breweries; here are some observations and notes.

We didn't make it out to Sisters for Three Creeks Brewing or over to Cascade Lakes Brewing (based in Redmond but with a strong Bend presence on the westside). On the other hand, we did visit every other one in town; for those counting, that's Deschutes, Bend Brewing, McMenamins, Silver Moon, and Wildfire (at their main JC's Bar & Grill outlet/location downtown).

The Dissident is on tap at Deschutes—has been on tap since Saturday. I don't know if it's truly showing up elsewhere yet, but you bet it was the first beer I had on arrival on Saturday. Now, I hate to say it but my experience with Oud Bruins (Flemish sour browns) is very limited, but by my estimation, this is a good beer. Lots of nuances here, especially in the cherries. I look forward to seeing more reviews (and officially reviewing it myself).

I also had the Rooster Cream Ale on tap at the Deschutes Pub. It's quite good, too (and more of a session ale at 5% alcohol).

Over at Bend Brewing, they're experimenting again with stout: this time, it was a Nitro Ginger Stout. A smooth, creamy, dry stout with lots of interesting notes from the ginger.

Silver Moon currently has the most session-able of session beers on tap: 70-Shilling Scottish Ale, which comes in at only 3.6% alcohol by volume(!). I had several pints of this, it's very good and flavorful with a nice body—you wouldn't even guess that it's so low in alcohol.

Also, Silver Moon is going to be brewing up a pumpkin ale for an October seasonal! I'm just about beside myself; I think they may be the first local brewery to produce one. Apparently they made it last year, too, and used 100 pounds of roasted pumpkin in the mash. Awesome, I can't wait.

Finally, the best beer deals at the breweries are to be found at Silver Moon and JC's (Wildfire): Monday night at Silver Moon is Locals Night where the pints are $2.50 (and the pool and foosball is always free), and Monday through Friday at JC's, happy hour is from 3 to 6pm and all Wildfire brews are $2. Yes, only two dollars, you read that right. That might be the best beer deal anywhere in town for micros.