Hellshire Day 2015

March 14 was Oakshire's annual release of Hellshire, its signature barrel-aged beer that's a bit different every year. It also marked the 2nd Hellshire Day, a local gathering that's quickly turning into one of the best local beer festivals in town.

Hellshire Day most obviously compares to Fort George's excellent Festival of Dark Arts, which I wrote about in more detail here. Its focus is also primarily on strong dark beers - but Hellshire's conceit is that all the beers it's serving are barrel-aged in some capacity.

The weather wasn't great - most of the available beer was being served from a tent behind Oakshire's public house, and it was raining pretty much the entire afternoon - but spirits were unquestionably high, as there were many excellent beers to choose from.

Those seeking great food didn't have to go far, either. Oregon Wood Fired Pizza was there slinging pies alongside Kun Fusion's excellent blends of Asian, Latin, and Mediterranean cooking.

Thanks to attending with a bunch of friends who were happy to pass around their samples for the benefit of everyone, I was able to try a small amount of a large number of the festival's beers.

Some highlights:

Logsdon Oak Aged Seizoen Bretta. This saison is so refreshing, lively, and tasty. The beer poured hazy due to keg issues, but the flavor was thankfully unaffected. And the oak aging adds another welcome layer of wooden complexity. This was made all the more special by its lightness and the fact that it wasn't a stout.

New Holland Dragon's Milk Reserve. Speaking of, this was one of my favorite stouts at the fest. It's made with the sort of coffee I like - sweet and roasty, but still balanced enough to be enjoyed by a non-coffee-drinker like me.

Hair of the Dog Bourbon Matt. At first taste, this imperial stout is far too hot and alcohol-spicy. Then it mellows out into an incredibly decadent caramel whiskey finish that I had to sample several times to be sure I wasn't imagining things. Probably the best use of a bourbon barrel among all the fest's beers - and that's saying something.

Haymarket Clare's Thirsty Ale. Whiskey and raspberries in a stout? It sounds like madness. But amazingly enough, this beer works really well. The acidity of the raspberries balances delicately against the woody caramel of the whiskey. I'd have been happy to drink this beer exclusively.

Cigar City Hunahpu's Imperial Stout. This is the beer everyone was hoping to try. There was a constant line to get a sample from the moment it was tapped until the keg blew. And why not? Cigar City's known for their excellent barrel-aged beers. This one wasn't to my taste, though. It's undeniably complex - cinnamon, whiskey, roast, malt sweetness all vie for attention. But to me, the cinnamon and spice dominated the beer's profile, making it more interesting than good, in my opinion.

I was really pleased with Hellshire Day. The Oakshire crew and other organizers did a fantastic job putting together a wide variety of beers, diverse both in origin and in style. I hope that next year's features better weather!

Beer Bars of Portland: Bailey's Taproom

Bailey's is one of the first places I visited when I came to Portland for the first time several years ago. So I've got a bit of a soft spot for it. It was one of my formative experiences in terms of knowing good beer through the lens of a small bar with a well-curated taplist. Also, they're the first place I visited with an electronic, real-time taplist courtesy of DigitalPour.

But I've experienced a lot of beer bars and brewpubs in the last 5 years. How does Bailey's hold up?

Pretty well, as it turns out. I visited twice in the course of a week, as part of my statewide beer odyssey last month.

In many ways, Bailey's now reminds me of the Bier Stein's old location - it's too small for its location. Consequently, it's too crowded and loud, there's not enough seating, and having conversations is a challenge. This isn't really a problem Bailey's can do anything about, realistically - it just means I'd probably rather be elsewhere, most of the time.

Unlike the Bier Stein, Bailey's doesn't seem to have a cohesive approach to picking their beers. The taplist is eclectic - you might see a 2009 vintage double IPA next to a 4% mild next to a super-acidic lambic. It appears that when a keg runs out, the next keg in line is simply swapped out. Maybe I just like Bier Stein's structure a little more - having a few taps marked out for generally popular styles seems to do them well.

It didn't help that most of the beers I tried at Bailey's during my 2 visits were pretty lackluster. This isn't directly Bailey's' fault - beer quality can vary from keg to keg, even among the same beer from the same brewery. Maybe I'd get a better picture if I visited them more often.

Still, being across from Tugboat's excellent atmosphere and having access to Santeria's formidable burritos brings the whole experience to a different level, and I'll probably happily visit all 3 again next time I go to Portland.

Breweries of Portland: Tugboat

Tugboat's one of my favorite places in Portland, but it has nothing to do with the beer.

Simply put, Tugboat has one of the best senses of atmosphere of any bar I've visited in Portland. And it happens to be located right across the street from Bailey's Taproom, an excellent beer bar. Too, there's Santeria next door, which makes killer burritos.

So the fact that Tugboat's beer is totally forgettable isn't actually a mark against it. Here's what I had when I visited a couple of weeks ago, just for future reference:

Chernobyl Porter. At 13%+ ABV, this is a ridiculously strong porter, and it pulls no punches - booze is front and center for the entire experience, with some sweet malt and astringency rounding out the flavor. 

Flower Power IPA. I wouldn't know what kind of beer this was if I was tasting it blind. It's really astringent and not a pleasant experience.

Amber Lamps Pale. Quite a bit milder in every respect to the other beers, this is nevertheless not a great ale by any means. It's got a lesser case of the IPA's astringency and not much other flavor.

Tugboat is a fantastic place to just hang out - there are books spilling off of wall-mounted shelves, weird nature documentaries on the TV, and a front door that has to be closed manually - so you can easily tell the first-timers from the regulars. Everything about the place oozes character and grime. I feel like Bukowski would've been happy here - it's warm, lived-in, and inviting.

I can't, in good conscience, recommend visiting Tugboat with the express purpose of trying its beer. It is, however, a great place to slow down, do some excellent people-watching, and enjoy living moment-to-moment. I'm struggling to think of any other brewpub I've visited that creates this feeling - its closest kin is probably Brewers Union in Oakridge. If you like one, you'll probably like the other. 

Breweries of Albany: Deluxe

As part of my recent beer quest, my friends and I visited every brewery in Corvallis, Albany, and Salem on our way to Portland. Albany's two small breweries neatly served as a buffer between Corvallis's craft and refinement, and Salem's experimentation and energy. Today I'd like to talk about the first of these, Deluxe.

Deluxe, like Cascade, is run by folks with vision. Specifically, they've chosen to restrict themselves to brewing only lagers, while also working on making gin and whiskey with Sinister, their distilling subsidiary. It's no secret that I admire brewers who boldly choose a narrow creative path and mine it for everything they can. Deluxe is definitely walking that path.

Their brewing and tasting space is large and airy, with ping pong, cards, popcorn, and lots of tables. Most days, there's a barbecue food cart outside. It's a casual, low-key sort of place, nestled right by the river.

But of course, the beer is what matters most. Their liquor's not quite ready for prime time, so a review of that will have to wait for more licensing. Being that there were only 5 beers on offer, I thought I'd provide my impressions of all of them.

Resurrection Pre-Prohibition Pilsner. This is a light, refreshing pilsner, with plenty of chewy malt and some nice American hopping. I can see it being quite popular come warmer weather.

Wild Beaver Amber Lager. Definitely the standout, this is also quite a light lager, but with a heavier-hitting malt profile - more on the caramel/toasty spectrum. The hopping is remarkably similar to the pilsner's, but the heavier malt profile emphasizes different aspects of it. It's a delight to drink and I wish I'd had time for a whole pint.

Pure Sin Schwarzbier. A well-done black lager can be incredibly delicious. Unfortunately, this one's not quite there yet. The malt's been over-roasted to the point of astringency, and with a light-bodied lager like this one, that means the beer itself becomes a one-note affair. I'm hoping they had a bad batch of barley and this'll improve with further iterations.

Hoppy Lager. As the recent trend towards India Pale Lagers has shown, there's definitely a calling for light lagers with big hop aroma and flavor. As I understood, this is an lager using an experimental hop. I'm sad to report the experiment hasn't gone terribly well - the major flavor I took away from this one is green apple.

Marzen. With my trip last fall to Germany, I hoped I'd acquire a better understanding of the Marzen style - but as it turns out, the Oktoberfest beer served there is much lighter than the malty amber-colored lagers Americans tend to associate with the style. This beer definitely follows the American sensibility. It's got some interesting toasted biscuit/caramel malt going on, but is not all that interesting or memorable.

I think Deluxe is on the right track - 2 of their 3 year-round lagers are quite good, and the seasonal stuff is competent and/or interesting. We see kegs of their lagers here in Eugene on occasion, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what else they come up with. I'm also wishing them luck with their gin and whiskey, whenever that appears.

Breweries of Portland: Cascade Barrel House

Cascade Barrel House is one of Portland's most distinctive breweries - well-known for its single-minded focus on creating interesting sour and barrel-aged beers.

They also hold the honor of being the brewery I've visited with the most beers on tap at once - there were a total of 23 at the time of my most recent visit.

What really impresses me about Cascade isn't necessarily the beer itself (although there are plenty of excellent and worthy beers on offer). Rather, I'm much more interested in the crazy passion that drives a brewer to make such strange, niche-market beers almost exclusively. Lots of breweries will make the occasional sour, gose, or lambic, but I've never seen a brewery like Cascade that seems to approach things the other way around - mostly sours with the occasional IPA.

Here are some highlights from my visit:

Raspberry Wheat. Hands down Cascade's best non-sour beer, this is a lovely light ale with great raspberry flavor and just a hint of acidity.

2014 Gose. Probably the best American gose I've had - this is the closest a beer's come to rivaling Cantillon's world-class gueuze. It's crisp, salty, and well-balanced against the finishing sourness.

2013 Strawberry. Strawberry sours are sadly rare, but this is an excellent example. It's sweet and jammy, and finishes quite tart, inviting another sip to refresh the sweetness - a delicious cycle that could easily carry me through a pint or two.

2014 Blackcap Raspberry. The standout among a field of mostly excellent sours, this sour's darkness is in stark contrast to its light body, wonderful dark raspberry sweet/bitterness, and a potent sour hit on the finish.

Honestly, I could write glowing remarks about another half dozen of these sours and still not be down to the ones I thought were merely good. Cascade Barrel House would be an excellent place to take a sour novice - there's likely something for everyone here. Too, it'd be a great way to introduce non-beer folks to a type of beer that's very different in conception and execution.

About the only negative thing I can say about this place is that trying all 23 beers probably ruined my palate for the beers that followed - but that's in no way their fault. When in Portland, this should be among the first stops for those wishing to try truly excellent beer.

Breweries of Portland: Base Camp

As part of my ridiculous beer journey, my traveling companions and I stopped into Base Camp Brewing for the first time. I'd had a few of their beers in the past, but didn't remember much about what I tasted.

The bar and tasting area are cozy, with an emphasis on wood and outdoorsy activities. There was a good mix of patrons, young and old. A couple of interesting food carts were parked outside - I don't remember the exact offerings, but definitely some sort of Asian/Latin fusion that sounded quite good.

As always, the beer is paramount, and I'm sad to say that I didn't find Base Camp's offerings to be all that wonderful. There was great variety and some interesting experimentation, but these tended to misfire more often than not. Some highlights:

Camp George DunkelHef. A collaboration with Fort George, this was easily the most interesting and remarkable beer on offer. As the name implies, this is a dunkelweizen - but the catch is, it's hopped in the PNW style. So there's this strange and compelling blend of juicy, piney hops and smoky, wheaty malt.

Hop in the Pool Helles. A cleanly malted helles lager with a really piney hop kick. It's overhopped in true Oregon style, but I enjoyed its lack of subtlety just the same.

S'more Stout. A definite winner for presentation - this beer was served with a toasted marshmallow as garnish, which actually works pretty well with the beer. It's chocolate-heavy, sweet, and malty, with not much going on in the way of hops. In a way, it's unbalanced in the opposite direction as the helles lager.

Base Camp's one of those breweries I respect more than I like. The branding is pretty well done, and I really like their innovative aluminum bottles. I just wish their beer were a little bit better.

2014's Oregon Beer Sales Numbers and Eugene's Role

Tuesday, I saw a Beervana post that I found pretty interesting - in it, Jeff analyzes the recently-released 2014 in-state sales figures for Oregon breweries. It's a great bit of info - definitely check it out. You should take a look at the figures - they're available in PDF form here.

What most interests me about this sort of analysis is assessing how a brewery's change in sales might give some insight into their long-term goals.

As I live and drink in Eugene, seeing its three largest (and best) breweries listed in the top 20 is heartening. The really interesting number here is Hop Valley's - its in-state beer sales have nearly tripled since this time last year, while Oakshire and Ninkasi have experienced small declines. Without having more information, I'd venture this simply means that Hop Valley's been pushing in-state sales expansions really hard, while Oakshire and Ninkasi are currently more focused on selling more beer out of state.

Of the other breweries in town, only Hop Valley's Springfield brewpub and Falling Sky sold more than 1000 barrels of beer in Oregon last year - everyone else has done significantly less than that.

It's also a neat exercise (with the obvious disclaimer that excluding out-of-state sales necessarily skews the numbers) to comprehend the relative size of local breweries. Roughly, Ninkasi is twice the size of Hop Valley, which is itself twice the size of Oakshire. We can also probably say that Falling Sky, Steelhead, and Hop Valley's brewpub are all about the same size. The same is true of Claim 52 and Sam Bond's. Rogue's since-closed Eugene pub and Viking also made about the same amount of beer last year.

The true value of having all this information publicly available is that it allows folks like me to create narratives to flesh the data out into an interesting story. So here's what I'd like to say.

It's clear that Eugene's craft beer movement is still gaining steam - pretty much every brewery in town grew in some capacity last year. Hop Valley is definitely leading the pack in terms of aggressive growth - they installed lots of new fermentation tanks over the course of the year, and are really starting to fill the large warehouse space that seemed so empty when they opened. But Ninkasi's drive to essentially own their little corner of the Whit is continuing unabated, with their new production facility, office building, and the fact that they hosted last year's Sasquatch festival.

Claim 52 and Viking have both really come into their own in the last year - their beers have become much higher quality and much more consistent, and I'm starting to see them around town quite often. And of course, there's the new guys - Elk Horn and Sam Bond's - which still have quite a long way to go but are making strides in the right direction.

There's also Mancave Brewing, which looks to be on track to open sometime in the summer, and I'm sure there's plenty of other breweries in various stages of completion.

It's certainly an exciting time to be a beer lover in Eugene - the sales numbers are a concrete reminder of this reality.

Breweries of Portland: Hopworks

I'm kind of surprised I've not yet written about Hopworks - it's one of my favorite breweries to visit if I find myself in Portland. There's a lot of good reasons for that.

The number one draw for any pub should be the beer, and Hopworks has always made interesting, varied, and high-quality brews. The brewers seem equally adept at making crisp light lagers as they do heavy barrel-aged sours and stouts. Hopworks is one of those rare breweries where I haven't had a single misfire. There's definitely been some beers I didn't care for, but it's always been because they're not to my taste, not that they're conceptually flawed or poorly made.

Here are some highlights from my most recent visit:

IPA - Has fantastic dry hop aroma and is exceptionally well-balanced. A really fine blend of malt and hops that finishes slightly bitter.

Abominable - This is what winter ales should taste like. Definitely more malt-forward than the IPA, but it still has prominent hopping, and it nearly balances out on the finish, with a slight lasting sweetness.

Totally Radler - I was really surprised by this. I've had plenty of shandies and radlers in the past, but nothing quite so good. This uses Hopworks' lager as the base, which is an excellent beer in its own right, and adds lemonade. It's a very sessionable 3% ABV, and the beer adds a bit of bitterness and character to the lemonade. Even on the cold blustery day of my visit, it was still incredibly refreshing.

Seven Grain Survival Stout - Somehow I'd never noticed that this stout is made with coffee (as well as the eponymous seven types of grain). It's definitely on the roastier, acidic side of the coffee beer spectrum, but remains quite enjoyable even so.

Of course, with all this great beer, one needs equally great food to pair it with. Hopworks here does nothing especially flashy, just consistently above-average and reasonably-priced pub fare like burgers and pizza. My criterion for knowing if the food is worthwhile is whether I could bring a non-drinker here and have them come away happy with the experience. By that metric, Hopworks succeeds handily.

Finally, there's the sense of atmosphere. Hopworks is a very industrial, spare setting, with plenty of seating on multiple levels, and a definite bike theme running through the whole restaurant and brewery. I also really like the design choice of having the brewery proper set below the restaurant - it's clear a lot of thought went into the design of the building.

On the whole, Hopworks remains one of the best overall food-and-beer experiences in Portland - no easy feat, as there's lots of great options around the city. It's definitely worth a visit.

'Slow Ride' and Brewery Litigiousness

Earlier this week, I was informed of a legal dispute between New Belgium Brewing and Oasis Texas Brewing, a small operation out of Austin.

A good article on the issue can be found here.

The specifics of the dispute aren't particularly interesting - essentially, New Belgium's introducing a beer called Slow Ride, and filed a trademark to that effect. Oasis was first to market with an identically-named pale ale, and they've been hashing out a compromise for the past couple of months.

This argument brings up a couple of interesting points, but first I'd like to provide a bit more context.

Craft beer, since its resurgence almost 30 years ago, has been a strangely cooperative industry, with brewers often working together - sharing ingredients, recipes, and equipment - and often informally agreeing not to compete locally with similar styles. The reasons for this are myriad and vary from brewery to brewery, but I think the biggest is simply that craft brewers haven't really been competing against each other. Rather, their aim has been to siphon off drinkers of large macro-based breweries such as SAB MillerCoors or AB Inbev. And someone who gets hooked on one small brewery's IPA is probably more likely to try another's.

So the general aim of craft breweries hasn't been to create rabid, exclusive fans of specific breweries. Instead, they want to create generalist craft drinkers who might feel like a pint of Stone one night and an Oakshire the next. In this sense, by growing the total base of craft drinkers, the craft industry as a whole has benefited. And by all accounts, this strategy's been wildly successful - craft beer is posting national double digit gains for something like the 10th year in a row, and this seems to show no signs of slowing down.

This rapid growth is beginning to have consequences, though, as this lawsuit illustrates. With something like 3000 breweries and pubs operating in the US, each producing many distinct beers, it's probably inevitable that lawsuits and disagreements like this would happen. What's remarkable to me isn't that these are happening - it's that they're not happening more often.

I wonder what things will look like when breweries start seeing each other as true rivals and begin to behave accordingly. I think over the next several years, we'll start to see a definite shift as craft beer stops stealing chunks of the macro-based market and has to grow by competing on its own terms.

Breweries of Eugene: Plank Town

My recent trip through most of Eugene's breweries brought an interesting series of omissions to light: I haven't holistically reviewed several of them. Well, time to change that.

Today I'd like to talk a bit about Plank Town, over in Springfield. I've visited them several times since their opening in February 2013.

As the only brewery located in downtown Springfield proper, Plank Town could probably get away with being mediocre in every respect while still being quite successful. Thankfully, they've consistently aspired higher - focusing on above-average pub food, a cozy, wood-centric atmosphere (as befits the name), and most importantly, British-inflected ales and lagers that never fail to surprise and delight.

On my most recent visit with a whole bunch of friends, we decided to sample every beer available at the time. Here're a few highlights:

ESB - It's sad to say, but I can't think of a brewery in Eugene or Springfield that regularly makes a good extra special bitter. Plank Town is up to the task, and this is a sweet, malty take on the style, with just enough earthy hops to balance everything out.

Dry Irish Stout - Although their Foggy Scotsman Porter and Streetcar Stout are both worthy dark ales, this was the true standout for me. It's light and dry, with an excellent roasted character, and finishes extraordinarily clean, inviting further investigation.

Riptooth IPA - Proving that it's not just traditionally British styles Plank Town does well, this is a very fine Northwestern IPA with characteristically tropical and piney hop flavors and aroma. It finishes with a big hit of bitterness before mellowing out on the aftertaste.

Luckily for me, Plank Town's just a short (and scenic) bike ride away, so I expect I'll be visiting them quite often as the weather warms up. I recommend y'all do the same.

Crowlers: A Viable Replacement for Growlers?

A friend recently linked me to this article about Oskar Blues selling their crowler machines to other bars and breweries.

I've made my feelings known about the utility of growlers in the past. To summarize briefly: growlers are awkward, cumbersome, difficult to clean and fill properly, and only keep beer fresh for a very short time. Their great success is, I think, owed more to a lack of viable alternatives than any inherent virtues.

So, enter the crowler. A crowler is essentially an on-demand 32oz can of beer that can be created using a modified tabletop metal seamer. It's half the size of a standard growler, but the benefits are numerous: it stays as fresh as a brewery-canned beer until opened, doesn't require cleaning (as the can is recycled like any other aluminum product when it's empty), and can be taken places glass growlers can't (like on camping trips or river floats).

The downsides? Well, unlike glass growlers, once you open a crowler, you've got to drink the whole thing - there's no way to reseal it and save some for later. It also requires the bar or brewery to invest in the tabletop seamer machine and have the canning materials on hand, which I imagine would raise the cost to the consumer a little bit.

But overall, I think it's pretty clear that having an on-demand, keg-fresh 32oz can of beer is vastly superior to the growler experience. I've had many a second-day serving from a growler and thereby suffered through a flat, oxidized mockery of the beer that was great just a day before, and I'd be willing to give that up, no questions asked.

So here's hoping that crowlers or similar on-demand canning technology takes off and quickly supplants growlers as the preferred way to take keg-fresh beer home.

Breweries of Eugene: Falling Sky

I've got a love/hate relationship with Falling Sky.

They break my heart every time I visit them. They've got great ideas, two well-designed pubs, friendly, attentive staff, and they got their start by running the most comprehensively-equipped brewing supply store in town. I want to like them so badly..

But the sad truth is, their beer is terrible. Whether due to ill-conceived recipes, poor cleaning practices, or simply the belief that what they're making is 'good enough' - the vast majority of what they serve just doesn't work.

I visited their Deli last week with a couple of friends from out of town, and experienced nothing to change my mind. We tried 14 beers, most of which were new to me. One thing you can't fault Falling Sky's brewers for is a lack of willingness to experiment - they've brewed hundreds of different beers since opening 3 years ago. Whether this is a deliberate choice for variety's sake or because they've not come up with a recipe worth brewing twice is unclear.

Of the beers on tap during my visit, most were nigh-undrinkable. A couple were decent, average - but I'd pass them up in a heartbeat for anything coming out of pretty much any other brewery in town. Heck, I know several local homebrewers who make beer that's way more flavorful, interesting, and thoughtful than anything I've had from Falling Sky. And though we didn't have any food on our visit, in my experience it suffers from the same problems as the beer - good ideas ruined by careless or sloppy execution.

And yet, despite all this, Falling Sky's been very successful somehow - they opened their brewpub to great fanfare at the beginning of 2012, with the Deli following just a year and a half later. And I've met people who enjoy both the beer and food very much. Perhaps it's just an issue of personal taste.

What I can say is that my party of 5 people couldn't finish a single 4oz taster of beer between us. We left almost all the beer behind in favor of walking over to Hop Valley.

Beer Bars of Portland: Belmont Station

Somehow, in my many beer-related trips to Portland over the past several years, I've never made it to Belmont Station.

That changed last week thanks to a visiting friend new to much of Portland's beer scene - we stopped in late on a Tuesday to check it out.

As it turns out, Belmont Station's Biercafe is a nice - if small - low-key beer bar in the vein of Eugene's 16 Tons, with the same well-curated taplist, knowledgeable staff, and muted atmosphere designed to foster good conversation. The tap selection included beers from Ex Novo, Sixpoint, Heathen, and Epic, with some interesting-looking ciders also available.

We definitely had an enjoyable time for the short duration of our visit, and I like its residential location with ample street parking - and its proximity to Horse Brass (easy walking distance) doesn't hurt, either.

Unfortunately, the bottle shop had closed by the time we arrived, so I wasn't able to check that out. I've also heard the on-site food cart Italian Market is quite good, but it was similarly already done for the night. It's clear I'll need to make a daytime return trip to Belmont Station sometime soon to get a fuller picture of what they do.