Oregon Beer News (2020)

It is. However, they only do 16 or 19.2 ounce cans to go.

You should come down for the Orval. At present, they're including a small pour of green flash Belgium Bouroque (which I've badly misspelled) # 3. The green flash would be right up your alley Dyan. Even a sour hating drinker like myself was very impressed.

 

Yes. So I was told by the owner here.

 

I don't know if it was the bottle age or what, but I thought it was pretty fantastic. I think the owner mentioned that the bottle he was pouring was around 5 years old.

 

LOL! Yes, I heard that as well.

Still too rich for my blood, but a veritable deal when compared to the normal list price at the tasting room.

Isn't Dave close to 20 years old at this point? Really have to wonder how well it's holding up after all these years.

 

Just my two cents while I'm still reasonably coherent (in other words, before I head out to see what more FH goodies I can sample).

I guess I'm a bit surprised by the size of the discount. My guess is that bottles of Dave would have sold just as briskly if Alan had priced it at $1000 or $1500. So why such a sizeable discount?

I've never had Dave, but I did help a friend back East procure a bottle some years ago. As I was somewhat instrumental in his getting the bottle, I was curious as to what he thought about the beer. I think he cracked it open at some high end share 3 or 4 years ago. His opinion was that it was still quite good, but starting to show signs of age. He mentioned that it was almost still at this point, and seemed slightly oxidized (but still very enjoyable as an after meal sipper).

Getting back to HOTD and Alan Sprints... I've always found him to be quite intelligent, with fairly high principles as well. He may say that still bottles of CAFTW and Matt aren't flawed, but he clearly realizes that not everyone who drinks those beers is going to share his opinion, and so he reduced the price. He didn't have to do that... my guess is the beers still would have sold at the normal retail price, but it's at least an acknowledgment that not everyone is going to be entirely satisfied with flat bottles of Cherry Adam or Matt.

So that leads to my comment about current bottles of Dave. I assume Alan and his crew periodically open bottles of Dave to see how the beer is doing/tasting (in fact, I've been told he does this), and I wonder if the relatively steep discount is the result of a recent tasting at the brewery. My guess is that the beer has likely peaked at this point, and likely needs to be drunk up before it fades any more. If so, that would explain both the recent, sudden online sale, as well as the significant discount.

Or perhaps he was just feeling particularly altruistic and philanthropic.

 

I wouldn't be at all surprised. Which was all the more reason I was surprised by the discount price. Bottles still would have "flown out the door" at $1000 a bottle I think.

 

It's a good question. I still remember attending the FFTW 2008 release at the old SE Holgate location, and being shocked to see Dave selling for $90 a bottle. I assumed then that HOTD was likely selling the last of it, and in fact was told they had just run out of it when I got up to the cash register (not that I planned on buying any, but I was curious if anyone was buying it).

Since then I think I can recall HOTD having at least two advertised sales of bottles of Dave to go, along with periodic sale of bottles in the tasting room. As I alluded to above, I suspect the beer probably needs to be drunk up before it completely falls apart.