Widmer Taps 11.8.08

Just a quick post for Widmer beer selection as of last night. On their specials list was a solid schwarzbier called Black Beer, balanced with a fairly bitter hopped finish for a schwarz, and a excellent doppelweizen called Double River Doppelweizen. I think the doppel will be available around town soon, it might be part of the Collaborator project, but i'm not 100% on that, either way, make sure to give this a try.

Beers on tap:
Brrrr
Alt
Fest Wit
X114 IPA
TeaserX Fresh Hop
Dormunder
Black Beer
Double River Doppelweizen

Election Night 2008

As the states begin to report I sit back, battling the excitement, beer in hand, looking forward waking up tomorrow with a renewed enthusiasm for our country. For this evening I pulled a bottle of Unibroue 15 from my cellar. No significance to it, not the best beer I have on reserve, just a overall delicious beer. Soft dry fruitiness up front, subtle hints of wild honey, dried pineapple, and sweet pear. Highly carbonated like most Unibroue beers, lively and fizzy on the palate helping to emphasize the spiciness. Between the beer and the results coming in things are looking good.

7:10pm - As of right now Obama 207 / McCain 135 / Beer 75% remaining. They just called Ohio for Obama, big gain. Hope my uncle in Hamilton, OH helped out on that one.

8:00pm - Obama 207 / McCain 141 / Beer 50% remaining. A few states have gone McCains way, no worries though as they were favored towards red from the start. Getting close to calling the west coast states.

8:01pm - ABC just called the election for Obama, congrats America!


Now to celebrate with the remainder of my beer. Here's to tomorrow's America.

Cheers!

J.W. Lees Manchester Star Ale

I passed this up the first time I saw it, luckily I ran into Angelo who informed me that this was a joint venture between J.W. Lees and Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing. If you don't know Garrett Oliver, go pick up the book "The Brewmaster's Table", one heck of a good read about pairing beer with food. Next go out and trade beers with someone from NY and get a Brooklyn Black Chocolate stout, trust me, you won't forget Garrett Oliver again.

Back to the beer at hand. As you can see in the photo above this thing pours like a bowling ball, pitch black, heavy like old motor oil, with a tall khaki head. The nose on this is filled with molasses and black licorice, bitter bakers chocolate seems to clog up the sinuses. Manchester Star drinks like an anvil, heavy and unrelenting, like a mini La Brea tar pit in your stomach. Burnt chocolate flavors flow into an earthy, roasted malt, almost meaty flavor. I'd like to see what Garrett Oliver would pair this with, maybe a dish of smoked ham or a big charred texas steak. Overall this beer is delicious, allbeit very heavy, don't plan on going running or doing anything productive for that matter, after you drink this just relax for the rest of the evening while catching up on "The Brewmasters Table".

Block 15 Brewery

This weekend we took a drive down to Albany to catch up with some friends. Albany, aka "fun town USA" made a really good excuse to drop into Corvallis and try out Block 15 brewery. After a nice drive down I5 and a quick stop at the corn maze, to appease the fall gods, we arrived at Block 15. From the outside this place looks small, but upon entering quite a difference to say the least. Good amount of seating, more up above the bar, brewery tucked back in the back room. I hadn't had a chance to try any of their beers yet, so I was fricken shocked to see about 15 beers on tap, needless to say I couldn't try them all, so a trip back is in order.

I scrambled through the menu to find the sampler plate, discovering they only do a 5 beer sampler, so I loaded that up with all of the seasonal brews and a few others. Included were a belgian tripel, pumpkin beer, chocolate porter, ipa, and nebula stout. I was really impressed with the quality of brew from this place, excellent spicy citrus ipa, rich roasty smooth stout, the pumpkin beer was delicious without being over-the-top spicy sweet. The belgian tripel was excellent, dry and crisp, with a nice estery spice. The only beer I didn't care for was the chocolate porter, a bit sweet and overdone, kinda like sweet icing added in. After those I had a red and aboriginale that were also quite nice. Overall the beer and food top notch, good atmostphere with an impressive selection of beers. I'll be back for sure.

201 IPAs

I keep track of most of the beers i've had, and I noticed that sometime last week I broke the 200 mark of different IPAs. Another great reason to love the Pacific Northwest! Now with 201 IPAs behind me I thought it would be fun to look back at my top ten.

Top 10 IPAs i've had:
1. LaConner IPA Bottleworks Edition - ummm... dryhopped in bottle
2. Diamond Knot IPA - so good on tap
3. Bear Republic Racer 5 - always a solid favorite of mine
4. Terminal Gravity IPA
5. Southern Tier IPA
6. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
7. Rogue Integrity IPA
8. Bells Two Hearted Ale
9. Walking Man IPA
10. Alesmith IPA

Sure, I'm bias to the Pacific NW, half are from the PNW, 8/10 are from the west coast, oddly none from Portland though. But... the quantity of IPAs we have available in the PNW is amazing, so we have quite a few samples to pick from, so it may give us an edge.

What are everyone's favorites?

Hopworks Fresh Hop Tastival

Portland sees its first full scale fresh hop fest, and well what do you expect, they oversold the hell out of it. I think the organizers grossly underestimated turn out, and if they didn't it was a cruel joke.

Me, being the beer geek I am, always show near opening, so thankfully they had everything still available. Sadly anyone arriving at, well lets say a normal beer drinking hour (maybe you had lunch first and arrived at say 2pm), arrived to empty taps and long arse lines. I just don't understand advertising a beer fest and running out of most of your beers half way through, poor planning? or were they thinking.. the hop heads of Portland probably won't turn out for a hop festival? come on really... I hope they refunded people.

I'm an introvert and don't like crowds, I show up opening day to festivals so my agoraphobic tendencies don't get the best of me, and I could only stand about an hour of this fest, even at opening, people crammed into the front parking lot showing all to well the desperate need for a full on fall beer festival between OBF and the Holiday Ale Festival.

Sure there were some nice beers, most of which I had the Hood River fest, I thought the Laurelwood Fresh Nuggs really stood out and the Deschutes Fresh Hop Mirror Pond was very subpar. Overall I just want to see a fall beer festival on the size scale of Holiday Ale or Spring beer... Please?

Heater Allen Bobtoberfest

If you haven't had a chance to stop in to Belmont Station lately don't miss Heater Allen's Bobtoberfest. From what I've gather, Belmont Station is the only place to get their bottles so far, aside from the brewery in McMinnville. I've tried all but one of their brews and been more then impressed so far. Their fall seasonal, Bobtoberfest (5.4% ABV), is a true to form Oktoberfest, big warming toasty malts up front, rich caramel. Finish provides ample balance, even a bit on the bitter and hoppy side for an oktoberfest. Pours a fiery copper, perfect clarity, with a soft off-white head. Overall a delicious brew and one of the best oktoberfests I've had from the Portland market. Drop in to Belmont soon and make sure to grab a few of these before they are gone.

Anyone else have any favorite Oktoberfests in the Portland market?