Oregon Beer Week: Believer Double Red Ale

Oregon Beer Week: Believer Double Red Ale

Ninkasi Brewing, over in Eugene, has only been brewing since mid-2006 but in that time they’ve become one of Oregon’s most talked-about breweries. But with good reason; Jeff declared their Believer Double Red Ale the Best Beer of 2006—his highly-coveted Satori Award—and I’ve literally heard nothing but good things about … Continue reading

Oregon Beer Week: Black Bear XX Stout

Oregon Beer Week: Black Bear XX Stout

Alameda Brewhouse, in Portland, is another brewery that (like Laurelwood) has recently started bottling their beers. (Or again like Laurelwood, if they’ve been bottling longer, they only just arrived here in Bend.) Alameda been around since 1996 and aside from producing some funky, notable beers (Burghead Pictish Heather Ale, Spring … Continue reading

Oregon Beer Week: Vinter Varmer

Oregon Beer Week: Vinter Varmer

Laurelwood Brewery in Portland is on a roll. They opened in 2001, became certified organic in 2002 (the first brewery in Portland to do so), have expanded into five restaurant locations, and just recently started bottling their beer. Or, more correctly, I should say their beer became available here in … Continue reading

Oregon Beer Week: The Oregon beer tax

Oregon Beer Week: The Oregon beer tax

Right now the big news in Oregon beer is the proposed tax hike on that same beer: a Draconian 1900% increase is the proposal. According to KGW (quoting Laurelwood’s Mike De Kalb), that would end up raising the price of a pint of beer to $6. Other good coverage: The … Continue reading

Oregon Beer Week: HopHead Imperial IPA

Oregon Beer Week: HopHead Imperial IPA

Bend Brewing Company is Central Oregon’s second-oldest brewery (after Deschutes)—though technically they are a brewpub, only brewing and serving on-premise and not (usually) bottling their beer for sale. Established in 1995, the brewpub developed a loyal following among the locals, and when Brewmaster Tonya Cornett took over brewing duties in … Continue reading

Oregon Beer Week: Full Sail 21

Oregon Beer Week: Full Sail 21

Full Sail is one of the “old guard” among Oregon brewers; they were founded in 1987 in Hood River. According to their Wikipedia entry, Full Sail was the first craft brewery in the Pacific Northwest to bottle their beer for retail—something I did not know, actually. In 1989 they won … Continue reading

Oregon Beer Week

Oregon Beer Week

As regular readers are no doubt aware (thanks to my incessant blogging last week on the subject), this past Saturday, February 14th, was the state of Oregon’s 150th birthday—its sesquicentennial. I’m a pretty big fan of this state—I was born and raised here, after all—and given that Oregon is one … Continue reading

Bourbon County Brand Stout

Bourbon County Brand Stout

For the 1000th batch of beer produced by the original Goose Island brewpub, they went all-out and brewed a huge imperial stout that was then aged for 100 days in bourbon barrels. The result is their Bourbon County Brand Stout, a big 13% alcohol monster that, in the quote on … Continue reading

Deschutes Brewery’s sesquicentennial beers

Following up on the Oregon Sesquicentennial beer notes, Deschutes Brewery posted on their blog today the details on the two beers they brewed for Oregon’s 150th: Maiden Oregon Ale, brewed at our Portland Brew Pub by Cam O’Connor, is a Belgian amber ale that was brewed using Crystal hops from … Continue reading

Some other Oregon Sesquicentennial beers

I mentioned several weeks back that Rogue is brewing an official Sesquicentennial Ale to celebrate Oregon’s 150th birthday, coming up this February 14th. I also noted that Deschutes is brewing two as well, and I wondered what other Oregon brewers may be up to. So I started emailing them. I … Continue reading