Visiting Portland (Spring 2013 update)

I almost forgot Ponzi, but since you mentioned it I thought I'd throw in a vote for their wine bar in McMinnville. They have beer and coffee as well, so it makes a nice change of pace from the wine-only spots in the valley. Plus, they have one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a tasting room: a huge table with probably 50 different herbs, flowers, dried fruits, bits of leather, gravel, and other things for you to smell so that when someone mentions a certain character in a wine (like leathery) you can sniff the actual item and help draw the connection.

edit: sorry Brian, You posted while I was in the middle of typing this. I'll bring it back to beer now.

edit 2: back on the beer/food combo, be sure to try the new food cart we've got at Belmont Station. They are making incredibly tasty food, and since I have no involvement with them I don't feel bad pimping them. Their pretzels are awesome, and I could probably eat one of their meatballs subs every friggin day.

 

Well, you'll never see FF that cheap anywhere in the US. They are charging somewhere in the realm of a 2.5-3x markup, which is on the high end of wine markups, but not at all unheard of.

For Pliny and other beers you want to move quickly, it doesn't make sense (other than that people will pay it, apparently). For Cantillon, it makes perfect sense. They don't have a limitless supply of the stuff either. Say they priced it at $40-50. I promise you someone would just swoop in there and buy it all. $75 keeps it around for a while, and allows them to have an un-matched bottle list.

In contrast, the bottle list at Les Caves is generally priced only a couple dollars over original retail and you know what? It's gone considerably downhill since they opened because people snatched up all the good stuff.

 

I'm not a particular fan of Apex overall, but I think they are playing a long game here. The relevant question is more: what will people think in 5-10 years when they still have beers available (for a price) that no one else has.

Honestly, I'm surprised that no one else in Portland seems to be doing this. Other major beer cities all have places where you can drop $$$ if you want aged rarities. Why this doesn't exist here, I don't know. (As I mentioned already, Les Caves seems to have been going for this but, IMO, they made a mistake in their pricing and it may take a while now for their list to recover to it's initial quality.)

 

That's a two dollar increase in just the past year or so. Disappointing.

 

You can sit on expensive beer much more easily when you don't have food costs/kitchen labor to make up for, and when a much higher volume of craft beer drinkers are sucking down your draft list . If we had a B15 bottle release every weekend, it might be a different story haha.
I agree with the APEX model when it comes to beers that age well. I'm also surprised more people don't do it.

 

Going to hit Hair of the Dog on my way to Seattle this Friday!

 

$99 for a bottle of Rare sounds pretty good right now. What would you pay on ebay? How much would you have to trade for it?

I don't imagine Apex has very much Cantillon. In the last couple years, no store in town that I know of has gotten more than a case a couple times a year. Most of it gets snatched up by employees and favorite customers and never even hits a shelf. Again, I'm quite sure that if Apex priced theirs at $40 they would have exactly zero bottles.

As an aside, while in Copenhagen, I had the opportunity to check out the cellar at the Mikkeller bar. They have a very impressive selection of beers available on their bottle list. However, with a few exceptions, they have only one or two bottles of each.

There's no shortage of stores doing exactly what you describe. But, how would a DHvL ever come to be if everyone did that? (At 20 years old, they are perhaps just a flash-in-the-pan by European standards, but I imagine most Americans would consider them a successful long-term business.)

 

I personally do not go to apex for the bottle list. I take it as something interesting to peruse once or twice and if you have not had it and cannot find it, it might be worth splitting w some people.
Apex has a great tap list and brings in some some wonderful beers on a regular basis, add in the great outdoor area and knowledgeable staff and you have a very solid bar.

Now if Jessee would just step up and get a tent and heaters for the winter/ rain they'd be set!

 

the ready availability of tacos from gorditos makes me not worry whether the pliny is $6 or $8.

 

Can anyone comment on the online bottle list for John's Market Place? Mostly interested in understanding how accurate the list is and how their prices are. Their online list shows some large format and vintage HotD.

 

Well, they have Grant's, Siletz, and Nor'wester on the list, all of which have been out of business for several years. That should tell you everything you need to know.

Just noticed they also have Flying Dog and Wolavers on there as well, and neither of them has been distributed here in at leas at a couple years.

 

I've found them to be more expensive universally than the other must hit bottle shops.

 

They're hit or miss, just like most places.

 

i've seen ipas two years past date in there before so maybe that list is up to date. also watch out for the lake in the back

 

Anybody ever do the BrewCycle brew/bike tour?
http://brewcycleportland.com/