[BW] Beer Blog

I’m going to deviate from my normal format and instead do a few quick reviews of some awesome brews I had last weekend.

Casked Deschutes Fresh Hopped Mirror Pond Pale Ale
This cask-conditioned ale I had at Deschutes’ new Public House in the Pearl District of Portland. As a huge fan of cask-conditioned ales, this didn’t disappoint. Much, much smoother than regular Mirror Pond with a way higher floral aroma. I could have drank this all night if I had the opportunity. A colleague of mine also enjoyed it, which was surprising since he doesn’t really like regular Mirror Pond.

Block 15 Chocolate Porter
Block 15 is a brewery and brew pub in Corvallis, OR that I haven’t even remotely written enough about. Block 15 has quickly become one of my favorite breweries period and definitely my favorite brew pub. Their Chocolate Porter was exactly what it claims to be. Very similar to Rogue’s chocolate stout offering, yet just a tad thinner in body. Definitely grab a pint while it’s still available.

Block 15 Ridgeback Red
Ridgeback Red is one of Block 15’s standard offerings and has claimed quite a bit of success as a beer almost everybody will enjoy. This red takes the standard west coast twist on reds in that it leans much more towards hoppy than malty. I had the opportunity to enjoy this from a pony keg that Josh from The Oregon Wine Blog brought to a recent show our rock band played. If you want to play it safe visiting Block 15 for your first time, then perhaps consider ordering a pint of Ridgeback Red.

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Brewery: Full Sail Brewing
Style: Winter Warmer
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: 86
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.54 (87th percentile)
Serving: 12oz Bottle

This brew comes to us from Full Sail Brewing Company in Hood River, Oregon. Wassail has been brewed annually since 1988 and because of Full Sails large distribution volume, this brew can be found in most supermarkets across the Pacific Northwest at the very least.

A deep mahogany color, Wassail is brewed with four different malts and a blend of Pacific Northwest hops, giving it a malty full body and a pleasantly hoppy finish that appeals to both hop and malt lovers alike. In other words, a Christmas miracle.

A miracle huh? Let’s find out!

Appearance - Looks like a standard brown ale. Only a very thin head appears and quickly dissipates. A tan lace is left throughout the entire pint.

Smell - Mildly hoppy with hues of malt coming through. Smells a lot like Deschutes’ Jubelale, only a little less malty.

Taste - Absolutely delicious. At first my palate was taken over by lots of hops. After a few seconds I was pleasantly surprised by hues of chocolate and coffee. The alcohol content of this brew isn’t nearly as apparent as other winter warmers. The mouthfeel is also much lighter.

Overall this is a very delicious beer. If you’re a fan of hoppier beers and want to try one of the new scary winter releases at your local market, give this one a shot. I know I’ll definitely be picking up a few more six packs before the season is over.

BONUS: Tour of the Full Sail Brewery
Recently I had the opportunity to tour the Full Sail brewery. Located right by the Columbia River in Hood River, Oregon, the Full Sail brewery is a must-see for anybody road tripping across northern Oregon.

The building itself hosts their primary brewing facility as well as a restaurant/bar area. I didn’t have the opportunity to try any food at the restaurant, so I’ll focus on the brewing facility.

My first reaction walking into the brewing facility was noticing how pristine everything looked. From what I’ve seen at other microbreweries, cleanliness usually isn’t a priority. Sure the tanks will be sterile and all, but I usually expect to be sprayed with something or walk through puddles. Not at Full Sail!

Aside from all of their fancy pants equipment, what impressed me the most is how sustainable they are. The brewery is powered by wind power, they try to purchase locally as much as possible, and they even absorb the cost of transporting mash waste to farms across Oregon so it can be used as livestock feed.

The main facility in Hood River is where they brew the more widely-distributed brews, so here is where beers like their Amber, IPA, Pale Ale, Rip Curl, etc. Their auxiliary brewery in Portland is where they brew the rest. What I didn’t know is that Full Sail also has a contract from Miller to brew Henry Weinhard’s. While they don’t brew all Henry’s ale, they do brew the Organic Pale Ale as well as the Hefeweizen and seasonals.

Where my tour guide lost points with me is after complaining about the process they had to go through to be USDA certified as an organic brewery, he used the opportunity to shoot down the entire organic brewing movement. You brew Henry’s for Miller and you’re lecturing me on the credibility of brewing techniques?

In an apparent attempt to buy back my love, we were all given a token good for a free Full Sail pint glass at the bar. To test my glass’ ability to hold liquid, I first had to sample a pint of Wreck the Halls before I left. Turns out my glass works just fine and with a pint of incredible beer in me it was time to head home.

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Today has been a fantastic day. For the first time I had the opportunity to visit two places I just hadn’t had an opportunity to check off of my list of places to go: Belmont Beer Station and the Horse Brass Pub.

Belmont Beer Station
The Belmont Beer Station is THE beer store in the Portland Metro area. At any given time they have over 1000 different kinds of beers from countries all over the world. While not as physically large as University Market in Corvallis, the variety is definitely larger; especially in the international beer arena.

Also notable about Belmont is they have a Biercafe. Located in the back half of the store, the Biercafe is where you can enjoy any of the beers available to purchase, partake in tasting sessions, have a pint of select beers they have on tap, and even enjoy food from their deli.

Here’s a list of what I ended up walking out with:
-Bison Gingerbread Ale (2×22oz bottles)
-Bison Winter Warmer (1×22oz bottle)
-Laurelwood Vinter Varmer (1×22oz bottle)
-Laurelwood Tree Hugger Porter (1×12oz bottle)
-Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown (1×22oz bottle)
-Rogue Santas Private Reserve (1×220z bottle)
-Nøgne Ø Winter Ale (1x 1pt .9oz bottle)
-Hale’s Troll Porter (1×220z bottle)

Looks forward to reviews for all of these. Also, check out Belmont’s Beer Blog. It’s definitely a blog to check even if you don’t live in the Portland Metro area.

Horse Brass Pub
The Horse Brass Pub is an English-style pub located on the east side of Portland at 4534 SE Belmont. This is definitely one of the more popular pubs in the Portland area for beer enthusiasts due to not their awesome selection of beer from around the world, but the great atmosphere as well. They’re also the only pub I know in the area that shows English Premier League soccer.

What especially caught my eye was their selection of cask-conditioned beers. However, I didn’t see this section of the beer menu until after I ordered. You see, their beer menu is a standard menu consisting of five pages of beer (three of spirits), a supplemental menu that’s four pages of guest beers on tap and beers to come, and then two hand written boards at the front of the pub showing even more beers they have. I guarantee you’ll find something you like.

I showed up for lunch, so I also had the opportunity to try their cuisine. Their menu consists of traditionally English-style food ranging from the quintessential fish and chips to beef and kidney pies. I ended up ordering a chicken pot pie and it was very delicious. To wash it down I had a pint of Willamette Brewing Espresso Stout. From the menu:

With the equivalent to one shot of espresso in every pint, this stout is surprisingly light and refreshing and the perfect pick-me-up for those long winter days

This appealed to me as I was kind of dragging ass and needed a pick-me-up. While I wouldn’t call this beer a masterpiece of craft brewing, I will say it is exactly what it claims to me. Espresso espresso espresso! Went down incredibly smooth and could have had a few more if I wanted to make an afternoon of it.

Final Thoughts
All in all it has been a great day so far. If you ever get a chance to visit Portland or live in the area and just haven’t gotten around to Belmont or Horse Brass, take an afternoon and head on out to the east side. Thanks to everybody at both Belmont Beer Station and the Horse Brass Pub for being so friendly and doing what you do.

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Brewery: Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Stout
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: Retired?
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.78 (95th Percentile)
Serving: On Tap

Last night my friend Tim and I decided to check out Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company’s alehouse in Moscow, Idaho. Pullman (where we currently live) isn’t exactly a beer Mecca, so we were incredibly relieved to go to a real public house and try some hand-crafted, local beer.

I decided to try their Vanilla Bourbon Stout and wow, I was really impressed. Here’s what I wrote down while tasting:

Color - Incredibly dark brown, not quite black with only a thin lace of head. The lack of head may be due to a lag in getting the beer from the tap to my table.

Smell - Smells of roasted coffee and vanilla. Very inviting.

Taste - My nose is getting really good at this. Tim described it as “coffee with vanilla ice cream.” While I don’t completely agree, there is definitely a slight coffee hue that balances perfectly with the vanilla. The bourbon comes through afterwards very slightly and lightly floats over your taste buds for a few seconds. While this may be a stout, this brew is incredibly drinkable. It’s not very heavy and I had no problem drinking two pints.

Beers like this are the kinds of gems you can only find from local microbreweries. These are the brews that show how hard working and how creative brewers can get when they’re not forced to brew inoffensive, mediocre beers that are supposed to appeal to everybody. Coeur d’Alene Brewing has a new fan and he definitely plans on picking up a growler next time for the incredible price of only $15 and $7.50 for refills.

I also had the opportunity to order their Blue Cheese Burger. This hamburger was topped with blue cheese, two huge onion rings, and all the standard burger veggies. Served with some seasoned fries and combined with the beer, Tim and I had one very delicious and much deserved dinner. I highly recommend you visit the alehouse if you happen to be in the Palouse area, want some good food, and crave a local brew.

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While I may not have a new beer to review, I do have this picture I took of the pint I’m currently drinking. Why? I felt like it, so there.

I also thought this would be a good opportunity to plug the store labeled on the pint glass; University Market in Corvallis, Oregon. What’s so great about “The Orange Market?” Well for one the building is painted orange. Ok, so that really has nothing to do with beer, but it makes it way easy to find.

The awesomeness of University Market starts with the fact that they carry around 500 different kinds of beer and I believe over 800 kinds of wine. All but a handful of beers reviewed on this site has come from University Market, so if I’ve reviewed it, you can most likely buy one for yourself.

Other perks is their excellent selection of glassware, their super helpful staff, and the ample supply of snacks. You owe yourself a visit to University Market if you’re ever in Corvallis.

University Market
1149 NW Van Buren Ave
Corvallis, OR 97330
(541) 753-7391

But wait, there’s more! I’m feeling all artsy enough to write a haiku:

Oh Orange Market
Where I buy all of my beer
They’re in my belly

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I know, I know. I keep saying I’m going to update more often and I don’t. Well summer is by far my favorite beer season in addition to me having the most free time. I promise this site will rock as hard as it did in the past.

As for the purpose of this post, yesterday I had the opportunity to take a tour of the Rogue brewery and the chance to visit their garage sale.

First off, if you ever hear about Rogue having a garage sale, GO THE FIRST DAY. I ended up going on the last day of the sale and there were slim pickings. However, I still managed to pick up a full case of 12oz Buckwheat Ale bottles and four pint glasses for a combined $36. I was especially excited about picking up the Buckwheat Ale as it is only available in Japan aside from buying it from the brewery. Look for a full review of this brew within a couple days.

The brewery itself isn’t the prettiest or fanciest place in the world, but that’s the point. Our tour guide referred to themselves as “stingy elephants” and you can tell. All of their machinery, aside from the bottling line, is purchased used or traded for. Their offices are even a big particle board box. Had I known ahead of time I would have taken pictures.

One of the coolest aspects of the tour is I purchased a pint of Eugene City Brewery’s 100 Meter Ale, which I was allowed to take along with me. This brew was a delicious combination of what tasted like a pale ale meets a bitter. Specifically, imagine Deschute’s Mirror Pond mixed with Rogue’s Brutal Bitter. Either way I highly recommend trying it if you get a chance to visit one of Rogue’s public houses. For more information, here’s a link to Ratebeer’s page.

The tour ended in what was essentially a trophy/awards room. It’s amazing to see all of Rogue’s awards in one room. There are also all sorts of cool pictures and news clippings of various Rogue-related events around the world. We were also sworn in as members of the Rogue Nation and given ID cards to get discounted pints. If you can’t make it to the brewery, you can also get one by visiting any of their public houses.

Overall the tour was a ton of fun. If you’re ever in the Newport area, do yourself a favor and take a tour. You’ll get to meet a lot of cool people and have the opportunity to taste all sorts of brews you probably won’t find at your local pub.

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I don’t really have any new beers to review or anything real ground breaking to share at the moment, but let me share a little story with you.

So, a couple nights ago a few friends of mine invited me to go out and have a couple beers with them. I was tired and didn’t really feel like going out, but they convinced me anyway. The kicker was they wanted to go to this bar (which I won’t name) that I’m not a fan of at all. It’s just your typical stupid college bar where the classiest beer on tap is Widmer Hefeweizen or A-B Beach Bum. Lo and behold, that bar was incredibly full and after waiting a good 15 minutes without getting to the bar, we left.

Enter Squirrel’s Tavern. Squirrel’s is probably my favorite place to get a brew here in Corvallis due the incredibly awesome bartenders and the plethora of delicious beer. Then, suddenly, my friend Cindy decides to purchase something that I have yet to ever see surpassed in terms of awesomeness; a pitcher of Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar.

Hazelnut Brown Nectar is at this point my favorite beer, however it had never even occurred to me to purchase a pitcher of it. I guess I just associated pitchers to be full of crappy macros as every experience I’ve had with a pitcher has been so. I almost shed a tear for its sheer beauty.

So, in conclusion, the easiest way to my heart is a pitcher of Hazelnut Brown Nectar, that pitchers aren’t evil when full of good beer, Cindy is awesome, and Squirrel’s Tavern rocks my face off.

-Rick

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Yesterday we took a trip up to Portland and decided to hit up the Rogue Public House for the first time. Let me say that this was definitely worth the trip.

Seating is available either indoors or outdoors, but we sat inside because it was too damn hot to sit in the sun. Upon entering you can either go left for all ages sitting or right to the bar. The all ages section is a sea of random tables and booths with a ton of Rogue-branded flags hanging from the ceilings. The bar is a pretty standard looking bar, but with a bazillion bottles of Rogue 22oz bottles all over the place for you to take home. There’s also a glass cabinet that shows the history of Rogue brews in the form of bottles.

The service and food was awesome. Our waitress (I wish I would have gotten her name) was really cool and knew her stuff. The food was amazing too. I actually ended up getting the Brutal Rueben, while my roomy got a Kobe beef bacon cheeseburger. While a little pricey (something like $15), the look on his face said it was worth it.

The first brew I ordered was a Morimoto Soba Ale. I had already had it in bottles before and I was very excited to try it on tap. I wasn’t let down at all. When I was about 80% through my first pint our waitress came by with two sampling glasses full of American Amber because I guess they were sampling that beer for free that day. Awesome! I’m not going to write a full review on it based on a sample glass, but it kind of tasted like Widmer Drop Top Amber Ale, but about a step above. The next pint I ordered was the Honey Orange Wheat, which I already did a review of.

It came to our attention that Rogue was having a Garage Sale and tons of stuff was 25% off. While getting a case of Hazelnut Brown Nectar for $40 was REALLY appealing, I had to take advantage of this situation and satiate my curiosity by buying a bunch of brews I had never had before. I ended up getting the following:

-22oz Bullfrog Ale (Issaquah Brewery)
-22oz Half-E-Weizen
-22oz Smoke Ale
-22oz Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale
-Ceramic 26oz Morimoto Imperial Pilsner
-Ceramic 260z Old Crustacean Barley Wine
-2 t-shirts

I’m going to apologize ahead of time if this blog turns into a review site for Rogue brews, but we’ve got a ton of it now and we couldn’t be happier. If you’re ever in Portland then you definitely need to hit up the Public House. It was a great time and go while the Garage Sale is still going on. $35 for a case of Shakespeare Stout, anyone?

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