Oregon Beer News (2020)

I actually like almost all of them. The comment was meant to be a joke, as Dyan (@DefenCorps) is well aware that I'm a big fan of HOTD beers and always have been (and in fact had a bottle of Bourbon Fred with dinner last night).

 

Yeah, it was very much an inside joke. I've been a HOTD fanboy for years. I can even recall back when Blue Dot was still an outstanding DIPA, and I still remember when Trader Joe's briefly sold magnums of Fred (back in the 90's when I lived in Sacto).

 

Yepper. Though at the time, I wasn't sure that was the case. This was back when I was buying SNPA and red hook by the pitcher at my local sports bar, and when on sale, I could get 6 packs of SNPA for $4.99. I think magnums of the Fred were around $10 ($8.99 or $9.99, as I recall), which was expensive enough that I had to think about it. I wasn't all that familiar with HOTD at the time (this was roughly 25 years ago, if memory serves), and so I just wasn't sure if I really wanted to grab a bottle. I talked to some employee about the beer, and he wasn't a great deal of help either. He wasn't entirely sure how or why they'd gotten the bottles (some sku problem or label damage was his best guess), but he was fairly certain they'd likely have them available for a while. I had pretty much decided I wouldn't buy a bottle right away (I had to think about it), but as luck would have it, I was in a fairly long line at TJ's, and the more I thought about it, the more I decided I should just go ahead and grab a bottle. Which was a lucky thing. I ended up drinking the entire magnum on the couch that Saturday afternoon, and was so enamored with the beer (after I recovered from a decided lack of good judgment), I went back on Monday to grab another couple of bottles. Naturally, they were long gone at that point, and I was told they sold out the same afternoon I bought my one bottle (apparently, several customers had come in and bought multiple bottles).

It was that beer that really got me interested in HOTD, and I've been pretty much a fan ever since.

 

I totally agree, but I'm not sure I was even aware the abv. was that high when I got it. Very few places even listed the abv. at most tap houses back then, and it wasn't something I normally bothered to check on the label (which I now do routinely). Of course as soon as I took the first sip, I was struck by the obvious strength and sweetness, and that's when I checked the label (and did a complete double take when I saw the abv. - 10% was unusually high back then).

Could not agree more about how tasty it was. Hence my decision to head right over to obtain a couple more bottles. In hindsight, it was probably just as well Tj's was out of it (not sure my then GF would have tolerated too many more Saturday afternoons with Fred as my co-pilot on the couch).

 

Not sure which John's you went to, but the new place on SE Powel had a pretty sizeable pile of both the Lila and Bierweek this past weekend. Pretty clearly the beer is available at more than just local MofC's, and frankly, it never did make any sense to me why HOTD would restrict distribution to just MofC stores.

 

Weird.

 

I confess I haven't been all that enamored with Ferment beers so far, but this sounds very, very intriguing. If it's available at the MofC up on Cedar Mill, I would have to think it's got to be available other places in town as well. However, I haven't been up that way in a while, and a trip to Cedar Mills isn't out of the question (if I can't find it more locally).

Thanks for the tip Dyan!