Archives for September, 2010
When I first moved to Portland and began exploring the local craft beers, there were two early favorites that seemed to grace my fridge most frequently. One was Bridgeport IPA, which remains a standard, especially in the summer when barbecue season is in full gear. The other was Mirror Pond, which I’ve yet to review [...]
GABF was just a few days away when I finally got to work on the booth. 33 Beers is, as you can probably tell, a DIY kind of operation, so I gave a lot of thought to something that would match that spirit. Inkjet-printed vinyl is really chemically (I’ve done quite a few tradeshow booths [...]
When you drink a different beer every day, you start to appreciate unique beers that come in smaller bottles, and that are sold singly. Specialty beer stores sometimes sell single 12 ounce bottles (almost never single cans), and Belgian 330 mL bottles are almost always sold singly due to price, no matter where you are. [...]
Wow, it wasn’t until I typed the date in below that I realized I had a beer called Nostradamus on the 9th anniversary of September 11th. What does that mean?!?!? I won’t go into a memorial post (it seems inappropriate for a beer blog somehow), but will just go ahead and dispel the myth that [...]
I had this at Holiday Ale Fest in December 2009, along with the Jim 2008 and Jim 2007. As I recall, the 2008 was my favorite, with more distinction between the flavors than the 2007, but very little of the alcohol burn or hop bite of the 2009. It was fun to taste it again [...]
I didn’t read the label before opening. I don’t know if it was the can’s color, or maybe I confused “Gordon” with “Dale” somehow, but I was expecting a light beer when I popped the tab. I set the beer down at one end of the coffee table, and a minute later, it was like [...]
Took a night off from GABF prep, and I had to peer pressure myself away from the computer, where I was in the midst of designing receipts, wholesale info sheets … all kinds of crazy marketing-y stuff. I had a list a mile long, but decided that beer’s supposed to be fun, too. “All work [...]
Most times I choose the beer I’m going to drink for the day by style. Increasingly, it’s something I pair with dinner. For no. 249, I went with IPA + spicy food, a tried and true combination. But some days, it’s something more symbolic. The night I sampled this beer, I was heavy into wrapping [...]
I bought this beer for part of Oregon Craft Beer month, but I spent a little more time out of the house during the month than I thought. I didn’t need to open this beer in July, so it languished in the fridge for awhile. I’m not a huge fan of Pyramid generally (they’re kind [...]
I was lucky enough to visit the Boulevard Brewery when I was in Kansas City. Because the tour is free, and the beer is so popular, you actually have to make reservations to tour well in advance (thanks again to Jeff for doing so). I’ve been on a lot of brewery tours (I lost count [...]
Here’s three interesting things that come to my mind when I think about bison. There’s a lot of talk now about farmed fish, and how more and more fish consumed in the US is no longer wild, but farmed. Crazy, right? But a recent NPR story made a pretty interesting paralell: before 1800-something, there were [...]
I tried a pretty cool pepper-laced beer at Lukas Liquor, where my brother-in-law Jeff took me to stock up on Kansas and Missouri beers. It was easily the most distinctly pepper-flavored beer I’ve ever tried, with a really fresh-roasted flavor and nice, consistent and present heat. I picked up a bottle from the Weston Brewing [...]
By my confirmed itinerary, I should have been enjoying a Kansas City beer on my vacation by 7 PM at the latest. Instead, I found myself ordering a Heineken at 30,000 feet due to a cancelled flight and some totally inept Delta employees. I won’t bore you with all the details (who doesn’t have a [...]
And … I’m on summer vacation. I wouldn’t normally tackle a 10% abv beer on a Wednesday night, but I have a flight to catch mid-morning tomorrow, and this seems a fine accompaniment to packing. It’s also a delightful sipper on a cool and rainy Oregon evening, but likely a terrible match for the humidity [...]
I’m heading to the midwest in a few days (I’ll be touring Boulevard Brewing on Sunday), so I thought I might acclimate my tastebuds by sampling this Minnesota beer (from the last stash provided by my generous, beer-smuggling mother-in-law). I was expecting something a little less hoppy than a Northwest Red, but I was very [...]
I attended Portland’s monthly “History Pub” for the first time a few nights ago with a history buff friend. History Pub is a production of the Oregon Historical Society, and usually includes historical presentations in the theater at McMenamins Kennedy School. If you’re not an Oregonian, you may not be privy to the McMenamins story, [...]
Once more I dipped into the four-pack of Tallgrass beers I received from the brewery. Reading a bit more on their website, it seems there’s a reason most of the beers I’ve tried from the brewery don’t neatly fit an established style – some are at least in part based on brewer Jeff Gill’s homebrew [...]