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.