I was able to attend, getting a ticket at the door (rather than reserved ahead of time), and I’m glad I did: it ended up being a terrific event for only $25, which was a great deal for what amounted to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink showcase of Central Oregon’s beer scene.

The breweries that were in attendance were:

• Deschutes Brewery
• Bend Brewing
• Silver Moon Brewing
• 10 Barrel Brewing
• Cascade Lakes Brewing
• GoodLife Brewing
• Phat Matt’s Brewing
• Seven Brides Brewing

Astute readers will note that one wasn’t actually local: Seven Brides Brewing is based in Silverton, Oregon (outside of Salem on the other side of the mountains); however, their rep in Bend, Aiden, is one of the brothers of the owners (they have a partnership of “three dads and two uncles” as the primaries) so it worked out well with the event.

Overall I think it was a good, successful beer event: the Pine Tavern is one of my favorite Bend restaurants, and they put together a delicious “bites” menu and did a great job organizing the (mostly) local brewers together to pour some terrific beers. I didn’t take advantage of the food as much as I could have, but what I did try—blue cheese-infused sliders, coconut breaded prawns, goat cheese and olive bruschetta, Dungeoness crab beignets—was delicious and I wish I’d helped myself to more.

But no matter— I was able to sample some beers I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of trying, and had the chance to talk to a number of brewery reps, and that alone was worth the price of admission. I started out my night with some Ching Ching from Bend Brewing (a fantastic beer, a sour Berliner Weisse-style infused with pomegranate and hibiscus) and a plate of food, and then moved into serious beer tasting and discussion.

• 10 Barrel: Founders Chris and Jeremy Cox and Garret Wales were present, and I chatted with them for awhile, along with sampling their Oregon Brown (a really nice, crisp and hoppy brown ale, malty with toffee character) and Pray For Snow (their winter ale, which is a strong ale with a lot of bourbon character this year). Among discussing their various “brewer acquisitions” (Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing and Shawn Kelso of Barley Brown’s) we talked about their 50bbl brewhouse expansion which is coming right along; the actual 50 barrel brewing system should be in by Tuesday the 17th and Chris invited me to come tour the new brewery anytime after that.
• Seven Brides: I had not tried but perhaps two Seven Brides brews before this night so I made it a point to sample the three that were available and introduce myself to Aiden Kelley, their Bend rep. On tap were Frankenlou’s IPA (ironically I have a bottle of this in the fridge that I have yet to open), Becky’s Black Cat Porter, and a Kölsch. The IPA was decent but not as hoppy as the IBUs on the label (105!) would suggest, the Kölsch I really enjoyed (a little rough around the edges which I kind of like in this style and a touch yeasty) and the Porter was great, with vanilla and licorice notes. I definitely need to make an effort to get over the mountains to Silverton to visit the brewery and try a lot more of their beers.
• Silver Moon: It had been ages since I’ve had the chance to chat with owner Tyler Reichert, whom I knew from Bend’s old homebrew club before he started the brewery, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit and drink some Silver Moon beer, which for my money is some of the best beer being brewed in Bend right now. Among other things we chatted about the “IPA showdown” I participated in awhile back, the local brewery explosion, and beers I’d love to see on tap again at Silver Moon (particular the session Scottish Ale they had on tap way back in 2008—at 3.6% abv I really liked that beer). Also, Silver Moon currently has on tap “Trainwreck”, a bourbon barrel-aged barleywine that was brewed in 2010 and is 11.4% abv—which if you read this blog, you know a barleywine like this is catnip to me. I’m going to make an effort to get some of this beer this weekend.
• Phat Matt’s: Other than their Golden Ale which I tried very early on, I hadn’t had the chance to really sample Phat Matt’s other beers—an IPA and a Red Ale, both of which were pouring. I was able to meet Paul Mercer, one of the partners, and chat with him a bit about the brewery and beers and what’s coming up. The big news: Phat Matt’s bottled beers are now being brewed entirely in Redmond. Previously, only the kegged beers were coming out of Redmond: the bottled beers were being contract brewed from (I believe) a U-brew facility in Belmont, California. However, Paul assures me that the very day of the Pine Tavern event was the first day that the beers were bottled in Redmond, so they were as fresh as they could possibly be. And they are decent beers: the IPA is an English-style IPA, more of a subdued, earthy and spicy hoppiness than the usual American citrus sucker punch; the Red Ale was my favorite of the two, having a nice, slight roastiness and malt backbone with a solid but complementary hopping. And, coming up, Phat Matt’s is developing a Pale Ale and a Pilsner for summer seasonal release.

I wish that I’d had more time to chat with the other brewery reps that were there, but sometimes that’s how it goes. As it was, I considered it a productive evening and well worth the $25 entry fee. I hope the Pine Tavern (or other restaurants in town) do this type of event again, I would easily attend future “Bites & Brews” pairings.

Of the seven beer cocktails that will be featured tonight, three are hot (Wassail, Hot Scotchy, Hot Choklat) and four are cold (Trade Winds Punch, Euclidean 75, Furburger, Smoked Vanilla Bean Flip). You can see the descriptions at the event page. There’s no cover charge for entry; each cocktail is individually priced.

One of these days I’ll have to make the trip to Portland to check out a Brewing Up Cocktails event, they sound really good—or perhaps I can convince Ezra to bring the event to Bend at some point(!).

Come join us on Wednesday, November 30th from 5pm-9pm to celebrate St. Andrews Day, which is the National Day of Scotland, and the release of Scottish Heart Scotch Ale. St. Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland, and Scots celebrate this day around the world. Bag pipers will be on location to create an authentic Scottish feel and an experience that you will not forget.

This caramelized, malt forward Scotch Ale is brewed in honor of St. Andrew and is a brave, collaborative effort of two brewers, Tonya Cornett of Bend Brewing Company & Curt Plants of GoodLife Brewing Company. This beer is fantastic – Slainte Mhath! (Cheers or Good Health in Scottish Gaelic, pronounced “Slanchay Va”!)

The release party takes place from 5 to 9pm tomorrow evening (the 30th).

promotes San Diego’s thriving craft beer culture by sponsoring a ten-day countywide festival that attracts beer tourism, fosters knowledge of our regional brewing heritage, and serves as a showcase for San Diego’s breweries, restaurants, pubs, and other businesses with ties to the craft beer community.

SDBW is one of the “big” beer weeks out there, with an amazing number of events planned, and, in its third year, strikes me as being one of the best organized beer weeks as well (right up there with Philly Beer Week). Unfortunately so far I’ve only been able to observe from a distance, but one of these days I’ll make the trek.

You can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and RSS; last year they had over 300 events and this year there’s certain to be more, so keep an eye on one of those channels to stay current on what’s happening.

We are very pleased to announce the 2012 North American Beer Bloggers Conference will be July 13-15 in Indianapolis, Indiana. To make it even better, we are arranging a pre-conference excursion in nearby Chicago. Registration is open now.

Indianapolis now has over 40 breweries in the state and this is growing quickly within another dozen or so expected to open within the next year. Sun King Brewing in Indianapolis was the recipient of eight medals at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival. Not only did Sun King lead the field in total medal count, its four Gold Medals were the most won by any single brewery.We have the support of the Brewers Guild of Indiana, which is hosting one of our conference dinners, and World Class Beer, a two-time conference sponsor that has arranged for dinner and a tour in its million-case-strong Monarch Beverage warehouse.

Surprising, but very intriguing. It will definitely be an easier destination for bloggers from the East Coast to reach, and it’s probably not terribly difficult for West Coasters, either.

What does everyone else think? Good, bad, indifferent?

Field Beer: Subcategory of Category 5, “Field Beer or Pumpkin Beer”: Now I’m all for a Pumpkin Beer category, but “Field” beer? Apparently it’s what happens when you separate “vegetable” from past “Fruit or Vegetable Beer” category… but why not just “Vegetable Beer”?

Field beers are any beers using vegetables as an adjunct in any of the mash, kettle, primary or secondary fermentation, providing obvious (ranging from subtle to intense), yet harmonious, qualities. Vegetable qualities should not be overpowered by hop character. For purposes of this competition, coconut is defined as a fruit, and beers containing coconut would be appropriately entered as fruit beer or fruit wheat beer, unless they are highly experimental. Beers containing a fruit (e.g. juniper berry) or vegetable (e.g. chili pepper) with herbal or spice qualities would be more appropriately entered in the herb and spice beer category. Beers containing pumpkin would be more appropriately entered in the pumpkin beer subcategory. Clear or hazy beer is acceptable in appearance.

Indigenous Beer, Category 15. Now, I’d like to think I have a pretty good handle on what “indigenous” beer means, at least as far as American beers go; I’m not sure this is it:

There are many excellent and popular beers that are brewed with either non-traditional or traditional ingredients and processes yet their character may distinctively vary from all other styles currently defined or included in these guidelines. These beers are brewed reflecting local beer culture (process, ingredients, climate, etc.). This category recognizes uniquely local or regional beer types and beers distinctively not defined in any recognized style in these guidelines. They may be light or dark, strong or weak, hoppy or not hoppy. They may have characters which are unique to yeast, fermentation techniques, aging conditions, carbonation level or higher or lower levels of profound characters normally associated with other beer types.

Aged Beer, Category 24. Ummm can we say “generic”? This just sounds like a last-minute catch-all category.

These are beers aged for over one year that do not exhibit qualities or characteristics typical of wood aging. Generally beers with high hopping rates, roast malt content (in some darker examples), high alcohol content and/or complex herbal, smoke or fruit content may be entered in this category. Any type of beer of any strength may have its character enhanced with extended and creative aging conditions in bottles, kegs, tanks or any type of food grade vessel, although entries that exhibit qualities of wood aging, Brettanomyces characters or microbial souring should be entered elsewhere.

International-Style Pale Ale, Category 48. I guess anything that is hoppy but isn’t using American or English hops?

International-style pale ales range from deep golden to copper in color. The style is characterized by wide range of hop characters unlike fruity, floral and citrus-like American-variety hop character and unlike earthy, herbal English-variety hop character. Moderate to high hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma is evident. International pale ales have medium body and low to medium maltiness. Low caramel character is allowable. Fruity-ester flavor and aroma should be moderate to strong. Diacetyl should be absent or present at very low levels. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures.

There are some other eyebrow-raising categories but they are still mostly along the lines you’d expect for such a thing. But if they’re going to have these extra categories, why not have some for some more established styles like Sahti, or Kvass, or Gruit?

So, as the results roll in live(ish), I’ll be trying to update this post as soon as possible with Oregon winners.

Category 1, American-style Wheat: Barley Brown’s wins the silver for Shredder’s Wheat.

Category 9, Specialty Beer: Rogue Ales wins gold for Hazelnut Brown Nectar.

Category 18, American-style Sour Ale: Bend Brewing Company wins bronze for Ching Ching.

Category 20, Wood and Barrel-aged Beer: Deschutes Brewery wins bronze for Pinot Jubel.

Category 22, Wood and Barrel-aged Strong Stout: Deschutes Brewery wins gold for Bourbon Murder.

Category 26, Smoke Beer: Rogue Ales wins gold for Smoke Ale.

Category 27, American-Style or International-Style Pilsener: Silver Moon Brewing wins bronze for Legacy Lager.

Category 38, American-Style Dark Lager: Full Sail Brewing wins silver for Session Black.

Category 46, Classic English Style Pale Ale: MacTarnahan’s Brewing wins silver for MacTarnahan’s Amber Ale.

Category 47, English-Style India Pale Ale: Deschutes Brewery wins bronze for Down and Dirty IPA.

Category 48, International-Style Pale Ale: Ninkasi wins bronze for Radiant Ale.

Category 54, Imperial Red Ale: Laurelwood Brewing wins bronze for Organic Deranger.

Category 75, Classic Irish Style Dry Stout: Breakside Brewery wins silver for Breakside Dry Stout. (I think this was the name?)

Category 76, Foreign Style Stout: Silver Moon wins gold for Darkside Stout.

Category 77, American-style Stout: Barley Brown’s wins bronze for Disorder Stout.

83 categories of beers, almost 4,000 beers to judge. I’ve got APA, Imp stout, Session Beer!, schwarzbier, and all 3 rds of robust porter.

Almost 4000 beers to judge? That was a number that suddenly seemed to bring home just how daunting a task judging a huge event like GABF must be. And sure enough, from the facts and figures page, we have these numbers: 3900 beers entered for the competition, across 83 categories, representing 522 breweries, and there are 169 judges.

With 169 judges, that actually equates out to just over 23 beers per judge—by itself not an extraordinarily big task to accomplish over several days. But still, getting through 3900 beers in only three days seems more than a bit Herculean. Honestly that makes going to the GABF as a judge seem like work.

On Saturday we headed over to Sisters to check out the Sisters Fresh Hop Festival, the first of the Fresh Hop Tastivals that are taking place around the state. I’m calling this a “mini-review” because as festivals go, it was fairly low-key with relatively few beers (which is actually rather nice) so we were only there a few hours plus I only took two actual photos.

Overall it was a really nice event, though the town of Sisters itself presented a snag: apparently in the wee hours of the morning a truck hit a power pole outside of Sisters which forced crews to shut of electricity to the entire town for most of the morning—power didn’t come back on until about 11:30. As a result, only two food vendors were able to show up and even then due to the power outage they had a very limited menu. Fortunately the rest of the Festival itself didn’t require much power.

They had a single tent erected to hold the 11 breweries pouring beers. It was a hot day and we actually enjoyed it more outside of the tent (in the Park) in the shade, as the tent got progressively warmer and stuffier as the afternoon wore on, with more people inside and not much cross-breeze.

The rest of the Festival was about the fresh hop beers, of course. They had a handy flyer with the participating breweries listed (minus Silver Moon Brewing who was also there) with space for notes. Here are the beers I had, from those notes (in order that I had them):

• Three Creeks Cone Lick’r: Not terribly fragrant, but has a nice green flavor, somewhat spicy, and seems pretty fresh.
• Full Sail Lupulin: Got a bit of an off-note, almost paint thinner-ish. Bitter like maybe nettles or dandelion sap, but harsh. [I don't know exactly what was going on with this, but it was off and really the only one I didn't care for.]
• Lucky Lab The Mutt: Sour nose, almost funky; but flavor isn’t sour at all, it’s full of woody, strong hops, resin, not super “green” but potent. Really cloudy as well (the others were fairly clear).
• McMenamins Old St. Francis School Thundercone: Aroma full of grass, wildflowers and sage. Amber (flavor) with an herbal note, and more fresh-cut grass.
• Fort George Co-Hoperative Ale: Super mellow nose, with some “green” deep in there; got some dandelion bitterness and earthiness.
• Cascade Lakes Harvest Ale: Dandelion deep in the nose, that’s almost all that it is, aroma-wise. Lots of caramel with a green presence behind, but this really highlights the malt it seem.
• BridgePort Hop Harvest: (This was being served from bottles, the only beer not on tap.) Floral nose, kind of Hop Trip-y, fruity and green. Not as fresh as the draft beers.
• Deschutes Fresh Hop Chainbreaker White: Basically the same as “regular” Chainbreaker—fresh hops don’t have a prominent presence here—it’s a bit bright but more of the “white IPA” (think Conflux #2) character comes through.
• Ninkasi Tricerarillo: (The hoppiest and strongest beer at the Fest, at 8.8% abv.) My friend’s Paul’s pour was super minty on the nose, mine was fruity, it’s very odd how that changed. Big and sweet flavor, with a fruity green hop punch. Pretty sweet.
• Silver Moon Hoppapotamus: Sweet, graham cracker aroma, and floral. Viney, cleanly bitter, a bit of resin, and the biscuit/cracker notes come through in the malts.

Another nice aspect of this Fest is that, with the exception of Ninkasi’s beer at 8.8%, all these beers were fairly easy drinking and sessionable at 6.7% abv or less (I’m pulling that 6.7% number from Silver Moon’s Hoppapotamus strength—at least, last year’s version, I haven’t seen the numbers for this year’s yet) and many were in the 5% range. So you don’t walk away feeling like you’ve had too much to drink.

All in all I thought this was a good Fest, a nice “harvest” type of event showcasing the fresh hop offerings out there right now. If you get a chance to attend any of the other Fresh Hop Tastivals coming up in Hood River, Portland, and Eugene, I highly recommend it.

This is the list the organizers provided:

• 10 Barrel
• BridgePort
• Cascade Lakes
• Deschutes
• Fort George
• Full Sail
• Laurelwood
• Lucky Lab
• MacTarnahan’s
• McMenamin’s
• Ninkasi
• Three Creeks

Even though specific beers weren’t listed here, Spence over on Bend Oregon Beer has the scoop on some of them:

• BridgePort Brewing Company – Hop Harvest
• Full Sail – Lupulin & Session Black Ale
• McMenamin’s – Thunder Cone Fresh Hop & Father D’s Kölsch
• Ninkasi – Tricerarillo
• Three Creeks Brewing Company – Cone Lick’r

And for the rest, we can extrapolate/speculate about what they might bring. Deschutes, for instance, has some three fresh hop ales on tap at their Pub now (Twilight Ale, Oktoberfest, and Chainbreaker White) so it wouldn’t be surprising to see one of those at the Fest. 10 Barrel recently released their Crosby Fresh Hop Ale, and Cascade Lakes has an annual Harvest Ale that seems likely to make an appearance.

Fort George, out of Astoria, has posted recently on Facebook about a Fresh Hop Vortex IPA. And the only one that comes to mind (the timing would be right) for Lucky Lab would be The Mutt which they just brewed late last month using “community” hops (i.e., whatever variety people donated).

The Fresh Hop Festival takes place from noon until 9pm under the tent at Village Green Park in Sisters, and all aged are welcome. Admission is free, but the souvenir taster glass is $5 and tasters are $1 each. Incidentally, dogs are welcome in the Park but not allowed under the tent, but you will be able to take beer out of the tent and into the Park generally.