Oregon Beer News (2021)

I was told it was 2 truckloads of HT/FB.

 

now on month 2 living in Hawaii and i havent missed much of anything about Portland...... but i must admit i have had some taplist envy lately, and some restaurant cravings have begun to creep in....

 

They still had a bunch of HT/FB at 23rd Ave Bottleshop (Thanks @John_M for suggesting it as an alternative to Zupan's in the NW district) a few days ago.

Now I have bottles of Pliny the Younger, Pliny the Elder and cans of Heady Topper in my fridge. It truly feels like I'm rocking the biggest hits of 2012 in my fridge. I think I may still have a Westy 12 in a box in the basement somewhere..

 

Grabbed a couple cans of Heady Topper at Black Squid in Lincoln City last week. Wasn’t expecting that.

 

Downtown Portland in recent years has been positively spiffy. In the late 60s I attended Portland State, so was familiar with downtown then (I also worked at the Fountain Gallery for a while). Then the downtown area wasn't trendy, but held its own with a good amount of activity. And that was a time when many city centers were deserted at night. Now Covid19 is throwing everybody for a loop. A deterioration in downtown Portland isn't unusual (similar comments about Manhattan).

 

Block 15 is releasing a new series of single-hop IPAs over the next 4 weeks. From their newsletter:

Introducing Selection Series
Four Releases // Four Consecutive Weeks

Hop Selection is one of our favorite times of the year, and each fall, after fresh hop harvests are dried and baled, our team evaluates varieties grown at the pacific northwest's finest hop farms. We eagerly tear into the bale cuts, rub the cones between our hands, and deeply inhale the aromatics; our brains analyzing the myriad of characters as we search for the perfect hop to use in our programs. Each cut is unique, as is each brewer’s evaluation of the characteristics—and each release in this series will offer a singular experience from the featured hop and the farm that it came from. This year’s lineup will feature the best cuts of Mosaic, Citra, Centennial and Strata hops from renowned farms Coleman Agriculture, Loftus Ranches and Wyckoff Farms.

This Saturday marks the first release in the series, Mosaic, featuring hops from Coleman Agriculture in Gervais, OR. With the same unobtrusive grist profile and soft water base as the canvas across all four releases, each beer is meant for its unique hop profile to shine. In this specific lot, our team was able to pick up notes of blueberry, pineapple, melon, and blue raspberry—so try it for yourself and see what you notice. That’s the fun of a single-hop sensory experience!

(emphasis mine)

 

New cans available at Wayfinder:

Märzen
(ABV: 5.5)
Malty, Smooth, Springbier Märzenbier was traditionally the last beer of the winter to be brewed. Any remaining stocks of Märzen would be drunk during the following harvest or Oktoberfest celebrations. After the invention of mechanical refrigeration, brewing only in the winter was made unnecessary. Thus, the Märzen brewing tradition continues, but is released in March as a beer to celebrate the end of winter and the coming spring. It’s highly drinkable and pleasant, with an original gravity of at least 13%. Wayfinder’s interpretation is a classic approach, employing an extensive double-decoction mashing regime and prolonged maturation. The resulting aroma is a touch of light toffee with a spicy, delicate hop. The body is warming and pronounced but finishes dry and moreish.

Kellerbier
(ABV: 5.1)
A cross-country collaboration beer with Richmond, Virginia's Ardent Craft Ales. Full flavored and exciting, this beer employs heritage malt and spicy, noble hops in harmonic balance. The complete Art of Partying. (Heads up, @DefenCorps ...)

 

I'm not familiar with Ardent Craft Ales of Richmond, VA, but the prospect of a canned kellerbier from Wayfinder sounds very good indeed.

 

I am disheartened to learn about the closure of Bailey's Taproom in Portland, OR., due to COVID-19.
I initially learned about Bailey's due to a cover photograph on a print issue of Beer Advocate magazine. The photograph presented the DigitalPour draft management system.
It showed information about not merely the brews on tap, but how much was left in each keg. A line underneath the main window indicated what brews would be tapped after a keg ran out.
This changed one's draft beer consumption.
If a brew you thought you would enjoy was the next one up; you would opt for a brew which you might not like in order to 'kill' it; enabling that next brew to go on.
You might have enjoyed that beer which you were drinking in order to consume it. That would then inspire you to try other beers which you might or might not enjoy.
You may not know that, aside from Tokyo, Japan, the metropolitan area I have visited the most is Portland, OR. The first time was the legendary "Crazy Train" from Chicago, IL. to Portland for the 1993 American Homebrewers' Association's National Homebrew Conference. I do not need much of an excuse to plan a trip there.
After noticing that draft management system, the next time I went to Portland, Bailey's was near the top of my venue list.
The snag, if you can term it that, became that Bailey's got written up by other beerwriters with a more frequent publication record.
So I did not get into print, and therefore neither did my photographs of the venue. This becomes your garden.
Here are ten photographs from three different visits of Bailey's Taproom; in 2013, 2014, & 2018. I remind you my photographs are Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA). Essentially, you can do what you wish with them; but do not try to profit from that.

 

Here is some potentially not great Oregon beer news about raising the state taxes a ridiculous amount for beer, cider and wine.

 

that tax news is not good.

what is good is that it appears Ruse and B15 collaborated on a beer called tough sledding. anybody had it??

 

I know I just posted excellent Wayfinder news yesterday, but, well, this hit my inbox today:

RETRO GOLD - West Coast Cali-Style IPA Collab with Breakside
PREORDERS START 3/1
We teamed up with the painfully handsome Ben of Breakside to concoct this one. Brewed in the classic California fashion, Retro Gold is a lean and assertive IPA that reminds us of beer before the NE Juicy IPA explosion. Big aromatics of pine and citrus.

Two of my favorite Portland breweries working on a classic west coast IPA "that reminds us of beer before the NE Juicy IPA explosion"?

Here. This is my money. Take it. Take all of it.

 

There is a petition against it. Maybe a smaller increase would be worth considering.
But I always suspected after tobacco taxes got so high and consumption began to drop they would come after alcohol big time. Then its on to fast food..

 

Most of Wayfinder's beer announcements in the past few months have come with preorder dates. I think it's more to do with balancing availability between pickup, delivery, and distribution, rather than any indication of pent-up demand.

(I could be wrong. I often am.)

 

https://www.brewbound.com/news/deschutes-brewery-acquires-neighboring-boneyard-beer-in-bend/

I guess this is a good thing. More resources at their disposal for Boneyard. Wider distribution perhaps.

 

That was unexpected.

 

Not sure about this at all.
Read the article and says better distribution . But here in Oregon I see Boneyard beers in regular bars more than Deschutes.
Anyway.. I guess we will see