Block 15 Brewery was the primary brewery I was interested in visiting for this trip (though we were lucky to also visit Flat Tail and Oregon Trail, which will be their own blog posts), so I’d emailed ahead to owner/founder Nick Arzner to find out if he would be around and if I could get a tour of the brewery and famed barrel room(s). Nick is out of the country right now but was kind enough to email back and get me in touch with Erik Salmi, who also works in the brewery, to make arrangements for that tour.

We got to town around 12:45, just in time for lunch, so headed straight to Block 15 at 1:00 to check in with Erik and grab a bite to eat (plus beer, of course!).

Continue reading “Block 15 Brewery” »

The main plan was to visit Block 15 Brewery, with a possible stop at Flat Tail Brewing as well; I had emailed ahead of time to Block 15 and was able to get the tour (their barrel program is indeed amazing!), and we were just going to see what are time looked like for the rest.

It turned out to be a great trip: not only Block 15, but we checked out Les Caves as well (Block 15′s next-door Belgium-inspired beer bar), then stopped in to Flat Tail for the sampler tray and appetizers, and then made it over to Oregon Trail Brewery, Corvallis’ oldest brewery (since 1987) for a bonus stop! These three breweries are all within a couple of blocks of each other in downtown, easy walking between them.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting my notes and reviews of each. And if you haven’t been to Corvallis lately, what are you waiting for?

“We want people to think ‘craft beer’ when they hear ‘Central Oregon,’” said Garrett Wales, COBG President and partner of 10 Barrel Brewing Company. “We have this amazing camaraderie and talent among the Central Oregon Brewers, so a local Guild makes perfect sense for our region. We’re creating a craft beer culture because we’ve become one of the industry’s flourishing brewing communities in the United States.”

According to Wales, The COBG will serve as the Central Oregon voice for the industry, providing local representation, education, promotion and collaboration. The Guild is set up to advocate for local brewers’ needs and establish positive partnerships with industry leaders, community members, retailers and legislators. The brewers of Central Oregon will continue to support the Oregon Brewers Guild while building the local organization to help cultivate and strengthen the region’s craft beer culture.

The COBG website is here, and is still being fleshed out.

Long-term implications? I don’t know yet. More events, more advocacy certainly; more beer I’m quite sure!

The United States Department Of The Treasury Alcohol And Tobacco Tax And Trade Bureau approved our Brewers Notice to open a second brewery in Baker City. Cheers!

This is great news, it means Barley Brown’s can (definitely) move forward with opening the 20-bbl brewery directly across the street from their existing brewpub. I don’t know how this impacts the (early) estimate of being up and running by mid-July (if that’s still a valid target), but a summertime trip to Baker City’s sounding pretty good!

Beautiful weather this week, there’s been progress:

Worth Brewing construction, west of lot, facing east

Worth Brewing lot, southwest(ish) corner

Of course, Worthy has been posting some good-looking construction images over on the Facebook page as well, which are better because they’re “inside access.” I’m definitely more blogger-on-the-street.

I had emailed ahead of time to see about a brewery tour during our visit, and co-founder Jeff DeSantis was kind and generous enough to spare some time to chat during our visit, but regretfully with the Brewfest going on that weekend we were all busy and didn’t get time to do the tour. However we were at least able to visit the Tap Room and try all the beers (though it was right before the Brewer’s Tasting Dinner so we didn’t eat anything to spoil our appetites for later).

Continue reading “Seven Brides Brewing” »

The beers they’re pouring are:

• Caldera IPA
• Ft. George Vortex IPA
• Boneyard RPM IPA
• Lompoc Valley of the Hops
• Double Mountain Hop Lava
• Laurelwood Gearhead IPA
• Three Creeks Hoodoo Voodoo
• 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA
• Terminal Gravity IPA
• Beer Valley Delta 9

Each came out in a 4-ounce sampler which amounts to 40 ounces—two full imperial pints. Overall it was a really interesting side-by-side sampling, and I will mention the importance of sipping some water (or taking a bite of food) when switching from one IPA to another, as I found they tend to cancel each other out (or at least, cancel out the hoppiness).

All good IPAs too; surprisingly, there were only three that I hadn’t had before: Lompoc Valley of the Hops, Laurelwood Gearhead, and Beer Valley Delta 9. I’m not sure I could pick a favorite, but what I will give you is the opinion that they all complemented my lunch of fish tacos pretty well. (However, take note that this is a lot of beer to be sampling with a meal; I actually boxed up and brought an extra taco home with me which is rare).

Overall a really cool idea, and Three Creeks is continuing this through Sunday if you get the chance to stop by.

And one thing I can’t iterate enough: if you haven’t been out to Baker City and visited Barley Brown’s in person, then you need to find time to make the trip! Yes, they’re located on the far eastern end of Oregon but it’s worth the trek: both for the Brewpub and for the historic, picturesque town of Baker City (population about 10,000). Plan to go soon.

Read on to get caught up on all the latest Barley Brown’s news

Sidor sent me the press release last night, which talks about the new (and a bit unconventional) name:

We’re really excited about how quickly the beer world is evolving. It wasn’t that long ago when IPAs hit the scene and took everyone’s taste buds to a place many of us weren’t sure we were ready for. Today, beers like the Abyss, Pliny the Younger, the Dark Lord, and many others, are unapologetically blowing up taste profiles with their complexity and creativity. Our team will focus primarily on these beers—it’s at the heart of what we do, pursuing the next great beer. To achieve this, we’ve designed the brewery to deliver beers that take us on a journey. From decoction mashing, open fermentation, barrel aging, crazy yeast varieties, and the use of experimental hops we hope our project delivers beers that will take you on a ride!

Crux…what does it mean anyway?
crux: noun, 1. a vital, basic, decisive, or pivotal point. “The crux of the matter.”
2. something that torments by its puzzling nature; a perplexing difficulty.

Our name, Crux, celebrates the moment where tension and conflict meet. It’s that critical do or die moment where everything comes together— striking that perfect balance. Some people perform their best in these moments, and surely the moment inspires innovation and creativity to push through. We’re not pursuing convention— we want to face the “crux of the matter” and push through to the other side. What’s there? We can’t wait to find out.

Fermentation Project also has meaning for us. Fermentation lies at the “crux” or “the pivotal point” of the brewing process. And Project best describes the process we’ve experienced in sharing our dream with friends, families and a wide variety of beer lovers from both inside and outside the industry. With each step, more and more people have joined us and contributed to the vision. We had an ah-ha moment— we realized this will always be a “project”— experimental and collaborative at its core.

Open fermenters, decoction mashing, barrel aging, crazy yeast varieties… there are a lot of interesting things to get excited about and there’s really no one else in Bend with the exception of Paul Arney at The Ale Apothecary doing this type of almost-experimental, artisanal-yet-commercial type of brewing. And the plans that they’ve laid out for the brewery itself are just as open as the fermenters:

How will our beers be offered?
Your best bet is to come to our Tasting Room and take in the brewery and a variety of beers first hand. We’re working hard to create an experience that connects beer lovers to the brewing process— when you visit us you’ll get to hang out in an actual operating brewery. You’ll take in the rich aromas of the mash, the waft of warm spent grain and, of course, the fruits of all the labor in all the exciting new brews. Beers will be served in 500ml and 300ml pours. Bring your growler (1,900ml), too.

They are located at 50 SW Division Street in what you could consider the center of Bend: Division Street (and now the Bend Parkway) is the east-west dividing line for the City, while Colorado Avenue (just to their immediate north) is roughly the north-south dividing line. They’ve taken over an old Aamco Transmission building in the northeast corner of the old Willamette Industries industrial park (the looming buildings of the former Willamette/KorPine particle board plant is just across the street) and though close to both downtown and the Old Mill District, there’s no obvious easy access—you have to weave around from the west of the industrial park to find your way in.

Of course that helps the appeal of “discovering” a new brewery. I think it’s a really good location, myself.

Some additional details:

• They are going all metric for their measurements. You will hear bottles in terms of milliliters and instead of “barrels” for capacity, hectoliters.
• Pricing (as of what they expect right now, but this could obviously change):
• $6 for 500ml bottle (lower-end)
• $16 for 750ml (more complex)
• $13 for 375ml (high-end, barrel-aged that won’t be available for a year or 2 at the earliest)
• Finally, their goal is to be pouring beer by June

Worthy Brewing construction, northeast corner looking southwest

Worthy Brewing construction, west end looking east

Yes, it’s just construction right now, there is no beer flowing out of the ground (yet). And mostly boring construction too, just grading and surface preparation. It’ll start getting interesting when foundations are being poured.