Adventures in Portlandia: Day 4 - Eugene & Corvallis

After a productive day in Portland, it was time to head south to Eugene. We'd be spending much more time in Portland during the last few days of our trip. From what I'd heard about the town, it was likened to a west coast version of Asheville, NC. With a name sounding more like it belonged to your dorky uncle who wears checkered shirts, outdated slacks, and has a bad haircut than with a hip, Bohemian-style town with a penchant for attracting hippies with counter-cultural ideals, we were curious to see what Eugene had to offer. And we're all about digging deep! With only around 156,000 citizens, Eugene is still the third largest in all of Oregon. When all is said and done, they have more than enough breweries to keep the thirsty citizens of Eugene quenched. Although its official slogan is "A Great City for the Arts and Outdoors," we were more interested to dig into its beer culture.

First on the agenda today: Oakshire Brewing. It reminded us of the new NEPA brewery we'd visited recently called North Slope. However, the beers were much better at Oakshire. Overall, I'd probably go as far to say that Oakshire was my favorite brewery we visited in Eugene. With lots of beers on tap that sounded great, we opted for sampler trays. We typically share one tray, but we decided to each get one, as it was early enough in the day and we would be confined to a pretty small area, as Eugene isn't too terribly big of a town. With so many breweries, though, you'd think it was the size of Philadelphia!

Breweries always employ artistic folk!

My sampler flight contained the following beers:

• Watershed IPA, a core beer and its flagship IPA.
• The Perfect Storm DIPA, brewed with 7 different varieties of Pacific NW hops.
• Overcast Espresso Stout, another core beer, this one features locally roasted coffee that is cold-brewed at the brewery.
• Sun Made Cucumber Berliner, another core offering combining melon juiciness with a hint of refreshing cucumber.
• Vintage 2015 Barleywine
• Vanilla Oak Barleywine, their standard barleywine soaked in oak chips and vanilla.

Pleeps loves flights!

What a way to start off our day! Everything we sampled was great, and we hoped that all of the breweries in Eugene would be this solid. That's the problem with starting out on such a high note. Where do you go from there? Perhaps it was a good omen. We'd have to wait and see.

Coffee and goats... right up my alley!

As soon as we pulled up to park the car before heading into Oakshire, I looked up and saw a sign for Wandering Goat Coffee Co., which was situated right across the street. Well, I guess we wouldn't have to search Google for a coffee spot in Eugene! There was no way we weren't stopping here for coffee!

I was wearing my goat shirt that day, too. How serendipitous!

This place was very metal and goth-like compared to the typical hipster or yuppie establishment. I felt right at home. It was almost like a hole-in-the-wall bar in a major city, except they served coffee. I actually think they had a liquor license, because I noticed beer for sale in a cooler adjacent to the main bar area. Either way, the name of the place had "goat" in it, so naturally I loved it!

Outside Hop Valley. So green!

After getting my goat on with some tasty coffee, it was time to hit up Hop Valley. Upon entering, I took notice of some really cool merch adorning the walls. We parked ourselves at a high-top table near the bar and took a gander at the beer menu. With tons of IPAs on tap, I said, "Looks like samplers again." Overall, we really liked this place. The beers were all very good, and I enjoyed THE BEST chicken pot pie I'd ever had (seriously... I kid you not)! Hop Valley also had the distinction of employing the cutest bartender of the trip. Aside from being quite attractive, she was also chipper and super friendly, too.

Sampler flight at Hop Valley.

We ordered our flights at the bar and returned to our seats each with a tray of six different beers. Here's the run-down:

• Citrus Mistress, an IPA brewed with grapefruit peel. This one was quite possibly my favorite!
• The Oneness #8, a single hop IPA brewed exclusively with El Dorado. 
• Alpha Centauri, a big DIPA with intense pine and citrus notes. 
• Proxima, a straight-up IPA brewed with eight different hop varieties. 
• Alphadelic IPA, a true Northwest-style IPA. 
• Delicate Thunder, a sessionable Pale Ale with hints of orange marmalade and passionfruit. 

My selections. I just liked this picture, that's all.

Notice a trend? All in all, it was a great flight. I'm also glad we decided to eat, because the food was bangin'! After we'd returned home, I heard from a friend that MillerCoors actually bought out a majority stake in Hop Valley. I won't generally go out of my way to visit a brewery that "sold out," but I won't boycott them either. As long as they still make good beer, so be it. Case in point: Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. 'Nuff said.

Ninkasi taps.

At Ninkasi Brewing, our next stop, we decided on full pours as their selection wasn't as extensive as neither Oakshire nor Hop Valley. However, we chose wisely, because both beers exceeded my expectations. I've had Ninkasi on one or two previous occasions and wasn't wowed with their offerings. The two beers we ordered - Maiden the Shade and Hop Cooler - were damn tasty! Both were IPAs (surprise) with distinct flavors. Maiden the Shade was a lighter summer-style IPA brewed with eight different hop varieties (perhaps a bit too much Amarillo for Brewslut). Hop Cooler was bright and tropical with notes of orange and tangerine.

Pleeps is always one to pose with a beer.

Overall, we enjoyed the vibe of Ninkasi and reminded us of San Diego's Pizza Port for some reason. They had a sweet dog-friendly patio out front and a relatively small interior tasting room with high ceilings and plenty of colorful branding and merch options.

Up next on the itinerary was Falling Sky. I must admit that I hadn't heard of any of the Eugene breweries prior to our trip with the exception of Ninkasi. Upon entering Falling Sky, I saw the potential. I liked the long community tables and atmosphere of the space. I also dug their logo. Even the name was cool. The beer? That's where it gets tricky. We shared a sampler tray of the following beers:

• Fallen Sky Juniper Rye, an Amber Ale with notes of juniper and spicy rye.
• ACBW Biggest Small Porter, an American-style porter brewed for American Craft Beer Week.
• Exposure IPA, dry-hopped with Mosaic, Simcoe and Cascade.
• Polar Melt Pale Ale, brewed with Glacier hops.
• Chester Copperpot ESB... great name, but they lost the key to One Eyed Willie with this one.
• Robin's Honey Kolsch, a Kölsch style ale brewed with honey (reference to Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh... he's got nothing on Eeyore!)

Falling Sky sampler flight.

These ran the gamut of pretty good (the juniper rye) to undrinkable (Chester Copperpot). The latter was a real disappointment because I was so excited to see that name on the beer menu, as both Brewslut and I are huge fans of the movie Goonies. Unfortunately, this was a bit of a diacetyl mess. I didn't HATE the other beers, I just felt their weren't up to snuff with what we'd had on the trip thus far. Hey, they can't all be great! Honestly, I think we would have the place a bit more if not for the circus of little mongrels sitting at the community table behind us. Do you remember the TV show Romper Room? If you do... congratulations, you're old. NOTE: The following was drastically edited after I calmed down a bit.

To make matters worse, there was a toddler's birthday party going on at one of the community tables. Wait a minute? Where am I?! I felt like I was at a bowling alley or Chuck E. Cheese. Now, I understand why beer-loving parents take their kids to breweries. I get it. But a toddler's birthday party?! Come on, parents! You may want to re-think your birthday plans for your infant to toddler-aged child. There were no fewer than six little rugrats taking up valuable drinking space, and - here's the kicker - they made a mess too. "Eh, whatever... the staff will clean it up. That's what they're paid to do, right?" And honestly, all of this hostility isn't really geared towards the children, it's the parents. Kids don't know any better. I was a little asshole when I was a kid (it can also be debated of me as an adult), just like 98% of kids today, 10 years ago, and most likely into perpetuity. In my advanced age, I've come to realize that kids are just like adults: there are a few good ones and a whole lot of shitbags.

Little mongrels and oblivious parents aside, it was coincidentally our least favorite place of the day. Sadly, I couldn't drink my beers fast enough to get out of the infant zone. Suddenly I had that Cars song "Shake it Up" stuck in my head, because if I felt one more diaper bag brush up against me, I was going to grab the nearest baby and shake it! Not really, but you catch my drift.

OK, enough grumpy old man rage. Let's get back to our regularly scheduled program.

Our next stop was Coldfire. I always like something with the same name as a Rush song or reference, regardless if it was the intention of the brewery. We arrived at a busy time of day, but we eyed up two vacant seats at the small bar up against the right wall of the crowded room.

Coldfire sampler flight. Pleeps dug into the box of games at the bar!

They had lots on the menu, so another sampler flight was in order. Here's the run-down:

• Red Saison
• NW Ale, flagship Pale Ale offering. 
• Pale X Series: Galaxy, a single-hopped Pale Ale with Galaxy hops.
• NW Pale w/ yuzu fruit (see below for a description of yuzu fruit).
• ISA, an India Session Ale (aka Session IPA).
• Imperial Stout

Not very clever with the beer names compared to some of the other local competition. Still, the beers here were all solid and quite good. The one that stuck out was the NW Pale with yuzu fruit. I was unfamiliar with this particular variety of fruit, so it piqued my interest. According to my buddy Wikipedia, yuzu is a citrus fruit originating in East Asia. It has the appearance of a grapefruit and is believed to be a hybrid of a sour mandarin and an Ichang papeda (a slow-growing, fruit-bearing plant also of Asian origins). Yuzu fruit added a tart grapefruit-like character to the beer with hints of mandarin orange. Surprisingly, I liked the straight-up version a little more, but it was nice to sample both side by side and compare similarities and differences.

As for Pleeps, well... he was in quite the jovial mood by now and got into my Imperial Stout. It didn't end well for him, as you can see below.

After a fun visit to Coldfire, we were off to our next stop on the list. Claim 52 had one of those brewery names that intrigued me. There had to be a story, right? Upon further investigation, I discovered that the name Claim 52 refers to the donation land claim settled by pioneer William Luckey in what is now part of South Eugene and where the brewery's first recipes were developed. Pretty cool, eh? I thought so. They also had some cool beer names, such as Fluffy, Frumunda Fruit, and Horchata-be-kidding-me. The latter, a Berliner Weisse based on a drink several types of traditional drinks know as "Horchatas." Again, my trusty sidekick Wiki informed me of this as well as the fact that these drinks are "made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, tigernuts, or melon seeds." You don't see that every day!

More fun chalkboard art at Claim 52.

Aside from the Horchata beer, we rounded out our sampler flight with Frumunda Fruit (IPA), Area 52 (DIPA), and Fluffy (aromatic IPA with hints of passionfruit, mango and citrus).

Surprisingly, Pleeps was pretty spry by the time we got to Claim 52.

Up next, we swung by Viking Braggot to see what they were all about. The tasting room itself was dark and reminded me of a warehouse-style brewery in California. I imagined the dimly-lit ambiance would be appreciated by a group of vikings after they'd just finished plundering a village of unsuspecting peoples... in THATCHED ROOF COTTAGES!!! Sorry to get derailed by my good buddy Strong Bad.

With a penchant for brewing braggots (obviously), sours, and interesting beers with non-traditional ingredients, Viking Braggot featured numerous selections brewed with different kinds of honey, which were all listed on the chalkboard along with ABV, IBU, etc. If you're not familiar with the term "braggot," it is basically a form of mead made with both honey and malted barley. Think part mead, part beer. The style isn't too common among American craft breweries, which means the probability of finding one on a draft list somewhere is pretty scarce. Viking Braggot, however, takes pride in hand-crafting distinctive ales with honey, organically grown grain, and a variety of ancient herbs. While they had a variety of other styles available, I had to dig into some more interesting sounding selections on the beer list.

Taps at Viking Braggot (courtesy of Google Images)

The first one that caught my eye was a Grapefruit Pineapple Braggot. They had a pretty vast assortment of beers, the majority of them brewed with honey to keep within the realm of the braggot style. The use of honey sweetens the pot considerably, although I feel it kind of mutes the hop character a bit. This one had more pineapple character than grapefruit (perhaps because it is a sweeter fruit and the honey brought it to the forefront). I rounded out my 5-beer sampler with the following selections:

• Battle Axe, a dry-hopped DIPAbrewed with light wildflower honey and lots of "C" hops.
• 5k Runner's Brew, a limited IPA-style offering with hints of pepper and citrus rind. 
• Fenrir, an American-style Stout utilizing a regional blend of wildflower and orange blossom honey. 
• Kriek, a Belgian-style barrel aged cherry ale. 

Up next on our agenda was Steelhead, and I must admit that I had to Google them to jog my memory. As I was writing this, I seem to recall having reviewed Steelhead Stout many moons ago back in my Beer Advocate review days. (Aaaah, the good old days when I used to sit in the corner with a pencil and notepad and wax poetic about the aromas and flavors that weaved their way across my palate like a labyrinthine maze.) Poetry aside, the place reminded me of a non-descript brewpub chain from the 90s. Turns out, they ARE a chain, with multiple locations throughout Oregon and California. I think I knew this already. Maybe not. :-) Either way, I always have doubts about a brewery when they have stuff like Miller Lite or Budweiser also available as alternatives to their house beers. I'm pretty sure I spotted one or two macro tap handles near the back of the bar. I can see having some craft guest taps, but I'm always a bit skeptical when I see this. Fortunately for us, Steelhead's pretty were pretty good.

Interior of Steelhead (courtesy of Google Images)

We ordered a pair of pints to share: Twisted Meniscus, a NW style IPA brewed with honey malt and seven different hop varieties; and Guavalicious, an unfiltered IPA brewed with tropical guava fruit. While we worked on our beers, we eventually got a hankering for some grub, so we perused the menu. I noticed fish tacos (another thing I'm hesitant about getting outside San Diego city limits), but I thought, "Why not?" They were actually quite good and hit the spot.

After a one-and-done visit to Steelhead, we decided to hit up another McMenamins on our way out of town. This time, it was the East 19th Street Cafe location. Being a chain, they have a few of the same beers on tap at all locations. However, they do give their brewers some latitude and allow them to flex their brewing muscles and stretch out a bit. Of course, we never really saw anything unique or über-crazy on the beer menus, mostly variations on styles like IPAs, Pale Ales, and Stouts, as well as a Gose or something slightly off-kilter. Still, every beer we had was well done. Plus the ambiance of these brewpubs was enjoyable.

Interior of McMenamins East 19th Street Cafe location.

We settled on a pair of pints: Dog Days Double IPA for me, and Ruby, a light ale (and one of its core beers) brewed with 42 lbs. of Oregon-grown and processed raspberry pureé per batch, for Brewslut. I must say for a brewpub chain, their beers were solid across the board and we were impressed with each of the locations. McMenamins has really carved out a nice niche for themselves in the Pacific NW region. Next time, we hope to spend the night at one of its locations that offer overnight accommodations.

After our pints at McMenamins, it was time to shove off from Eugene and get a head start on our drive to Lincoln City for our day of coastal driving and brewery hopping. Earlier in the day, we had decided to stay in Corvallis, home of Oregon State University. Fun fact: Corvallis is the westernmost city in the lower 48 states with a population greater than 50,000. Upon further investigation of our hotel's location, we discovered it was about a mile from Block 15 Brewing Company. Score!

I'm embarrassed to say that I was unfamiliar with Block 15 prior to the trip. What a travesty, because this place may have been my very favorite place of our entire trip (if not #1 then certainly tied with Great Notion). Again, the beer menu sounded so appetizing that I wanted to sample as many offerings as I could. Keep in mind, this was the end of a looooong day of brewery hopping in Eugene. Nevertheless, I'll say it again. We're professionals. Well, we don't get paid for this, so I guess we're not. At any rate, we're far from amateurs!

Our only pic from Block 15. We were enjoying the beer too much!

Here's what I sampled during our visit. Check out this laundry list of amazing beers on tap!

• Peach Pit Wit - A Pinot Noir barrel-aged Witbier? Wha-wha-whaaaaaat?! Oh yeah, this one was conditioned on a shit-ton of juicy peaches. As if that all wasn't enough, they blended a young batch with 3- and 4-year aged versions to arrive at this amazing concoction. God damn, was this a great beer! Pithy, peachy, and puckery! 
• Ferme de la Ville Provision - Tasty and complex Farmhouse Ale brewed with rye, wheat, golden naked oats and local honey. This one was blended with various barrel and Brett matured ales aged between 9 and 12 months, then cellared for an additional 3 months. Labor intensive!
• Anthem of the Sun - A delicious, thirst-quenching sour golden ale brewed with citrus peel and dry-hopped with Amarillo, Azacca and Citra. I'm salivating about this one as I type. Really enjoyed this beer!
• Peach Punch (You in the Eye) - Cool Phish reference, bros! This summer IPA packed with fruity hops, peaches and apricots is a collaboration with Portland's Great Notion (my other favorite brewery of the trip) and was undoubtedly my favorite beer of the entire trip. I had it four times over the course of the week. Can't say enough great things about this beer. 
• Fluffhead - Another Phish reference! This hazy IPA, despite featuring English yeast (not my favorite) boasted tons of Mosaic, Azacca and Chinook hops for a blast of tangerine, papaya and spruce. 
• Cassidy - Another Farmhouse Ale, this one aged in Sauternes barrels with Brett and spring flowers. This was my first encounter with Sauternes, which is a French sweet wine from the Sauternais region of the Graves section in Bordeaux... all places I've never been, nor could point out on a map. Of course, we did do a Chateaux tour of the French countryside on our honeymoon, but that was back in 1999... a lifetime ago!
• Sticky Hands - described as a "hop experience" ale, this sticky, resinous DIPA is packed with tons of Pacific NW hop buds. 

I seriously could have closed this place down, but I was at the point where I didn't even want to drive the mile back to our hotel. I could have drank myself into Peach Punch oblivion, but it was time to retire for the evening. I wanted to buy a shirt, but the one I really liked was not available in my size. Oh well. Not like I need any more beer shirts! Back at the hotel, we capped off an amazing day with a bottle of Oude Kriek from Pfreim Family that we picked up earlier on the trip in Mt. Hood. Mmmmm!

Stay tuned for more adventures in Portlandia. Next up... scenes from Coastal Oregon including visits to Pelican and De Garde, among others. Until next time...

Adventures in Portlandia: Day 3 - Portland

We were eager to begin Day 3 of the trip in Portland proper with the one-two punch of two of our very favorites: Hair of the Dog and Cascade Barrel House. Both were in close proximity of each other (hell, there were FOUR breweries all within walking distance just in this part of town), so it made hopping around from place to place decidedly convenient for us. But first! Yup, you guessed it. Coffee. Our first of two coffee stops today took place at Upper Left, a local coffee roaster in Portland. We ordered two cold brews and sat at their modern bar overlooking the roasting equipment. I felt like I was at a small brewery as I watched the roaster do his thing. He was kind enough to strike up a short conversation with me, which dispelled any myths about coffee drinkers being snobs or pretentious. We chatted about breweries, and I was surprised that he hadn't heard of Hair of the Dog. Coincidentally, it was our firs stop of the day.

During our one-and-only previous trip to Portland (I gave you the link to that blog last time), you may recall they were closed for a bar mitzvah when we arrived. Luckily, we had time to visit the following day, and I'm glad we did. Hair of the Dog crafts some of the best strong ales I've come across in our travels. They also make an insanely underrated DIPA called Blue Dot. If you ever see a fresh bottle on the beer shelves, do yourself a favor and buy a few bottles. 

Gotta love them dogs! 

While they don't brew a ton of different styles, they've carved out a niche for themselves over the years as a pioneer of barrel-aging and brewing tasty strong ales in the vein of... well, themselves. Founded in 1993, I was surprised to learn that Hair of the Dog only produces about 600 barrels of beer each year. This absolutely floored me, if only for the sole reason that I'd heard of them and enjoyed their beers for so long. It's refreshing to see a veteran brewery that's not all about world domination these days. 

Now, onto the beer. We perused the beer menu and realized there was much to try. Quickly, we realized that most of our afternoon would comprise of Hair of the Dog and Cascade. First up, we chose two beers: Pig Dog (from the Stone... huh?) and Cherry Lila. Upon further investigation of the beer menu, I discovered they featured a rotating roster of beers "fermented or aged in a concrete egg." The bartender (who waited on us five years ago... good memory Brewslut) informed us that this process adds interesting earthy and mineral-like qualities to the beer. Sold. Give it to me. Cherry Lila is a cherry version of their Maibock, which is also dry-hopped with Saaz hops. Two down, several to go. For our next selections, we went with the aforementioned Blue Dot as well as Bourbon Matt from the Wood. I've had a few beers "from the wood" in the past, and they have been fantastic. Obviously "from the wood" indicates the beer has been barrel-aged. Here's the description of Matt taken from the HOTD web site:

Matt was inspired by Matt VendenBerghe and Matt Bonney (Bottleworks and Brouwers in Seattle), who personify the spirit and dedication that has helped craft beer become the vibrant industry it is today. This beer was originally brewed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Bottleworks, and will be released every few years from the brewery. Matt is made with two Munich malts, two smoked malts and two types of Belgian candy sugar. It is aged in Kentucky Bourbon and Apple Eau de Vie barrels from Clear Creek distilling.Matt is deep and lush with notes of apple, chocolate and smoke. Alcohol: 12.5% by volume.

The deliciousness that is Matt.

Finishing my pour of Matt was laborious, but in a good way. I mean after all, this is a beer to be savored. I'm really glad I got to sample this straight from the source! After checking out the bottle list, we settled on Otto from the Wood. With its price tag of a measly $1500, we couldn't afford a bottle of Dave. Because their beers are so intense and high-octane, we could only handle so much (especially given our heady itinerary). Below is the description of the beer that sucked me in to the vortex that is Otto:

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

And here's the pour (a half pour, anyway; Brewslut had the other half). Apparently, Otto is a variation of HOTD's flagship beer, Fred, aged in oak barrels with peaches and cherries. I didn't get a whole lot of peach character but the cherry, vanilla and oak were all prominent. Despite being strong ales, most of their beers are quite stealthy. This one weighs in at 13% but you'd never know it was so potent. Don't get me wrong, you definitely experience some moderate alcohol heat (especially after the glass warms up a bit), but Otto and Matt are deceptively smooth for their ABV.

It drink pretty good, don't it?

Another favorite from our last trip, Cascade Barrel House is home to some serious sour beers. I must admit that sour beers have been hit or miss for me over the years. Brewslut, not so much. She loves 'em! But this place is legit and I will say that I was in a rare mood for sour beers this afternoon. What better place to be when your craving sours than Cascade? Exactly.

What to choose? How 'bout all of 'em!

With such a diverse (an enormous) list of beers, we obviously had to limit ourselves to taster-sized pours of each. I opted for both of the "live from the barrel" selections: Cherry Bourbonic (a spiced bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Porter aged on sour pie cherries) and Black Light (a wheat ale aged with red and blackcap raspberries). Live from the barrel means just that: the beer is tapped directly from the barrel rather than a foreign vessel such as a keg. Cherry Bourbonic was easily a highlight of the entire trip. So damn tasty and complex! We then proceeded to dig into many other sample-sized sour treats, including: 2015 Kriek; 2013 Sang Royal (aged in Cabernet and Port wine barrels with Cab Sauv grapes); Floregon Follies #1 (barrel-aged Quad and collaboration with Dunedin); Nectarine Dream (nectarine sour ale); The Vine (white wine barrel-aged wheat ale with Gewürztraminer grapes); and Cranberry (wheat ale aged in wine barrels with cranberries, orange peel and cinnamon). I also sampled the amazing Oblique Black & White Coffee Stout, a blonde stout brewed with Oblique Coffee Roasters' Landauer blend. I foresee these blonde stouts and blonde coffee beers gaining in popularity in 2017 and beyond. Both this and the one I had at Pfreim Family were fantastic!

Pleeps digs his sours, but he's waiting for a banana sour.

After bludgeoning our palates with a barrage of sour beers, we headed to our next spot. Green Dragon, which also cohabitates the tiny Buckman Botanical Brewery, was situated in the same neighborhood as Cascade. We opted to sit outside in the courtyard area, which had a small greenhouse that customer could walk through. Green Dragon features quite a lot of guest taps and unfortunately only a handful of house beers (which also include Buckman Botanical beers). Both are cooperative breweries owned by Oregon's own juggernaut, Rogue Ales & Spirits. I settled on the Summer Wood, a bangin' wood-aged Pale Ale that exceeded my expectations. Slightly bitter with subtle oak and substantial boozy warmth, this was still quite refreshing due to hints of vanilla and citrus. It was almost creamsicle-esque in its underlying flavor. Further investigation led me to find it was aged in a Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey barrel for three days, which sounds like it was just the right amount of time. Well done! 

My kind of decor. I found this cow udderly intriguing.

The other beer, Sour Kumquat IPA, was from Buckman Botanical. As you might imagine, this was was pretty tart but still boasted a moderate hop character. Kumquats are tiny, seasonal citrus fruits that elicit spicy, woody, and - obviously - tart flavors. Sounds like the perfect fruit for a sour IPA, doesn't it? Four out of five beer bloggers agree. 

After a pleasant one-and-done visit to Green Dragon, it was off to The Commons, a relatively new brewery just down the street. This place had a great rustic vibe to it, with a lot of weathered wood, exposed brick, and high beam ceilings. Indeed, an ideal atmosphere to match its well-crafted beers. Sadly, this was the only photo I snapped while we were there:

Our only pic of The Commons. Fail!

Born out of the ashes of Beetje Brewery (a 1-barrel nano system in the garage of owner Mike Wright), The Commons emerged in 2011 with a brand new 7-barrel brew house and a new location. This eventually led to its current location in Portland's Central Eastside area complete with a commercial 15-bbl brew house. With a knack for brewing rustic farmhouse ales and sours, The Commons has established itself as a favorite among Portland's ever-growing craft beer scene. Both of the beers we samples - the Hibiscus Barrel Saison and Lemongrass Berliner Weiss - were outstanding. We wanted to try more, but we were a bit fatigued from our lengthy visits to both Hair of the Dog and Cascade Barrel House (and rightly so). But a longer stay at The Commons during our next visit to Portland is definitely in order.  

The wall at Base Camp.

Next, it was off to Base Camp. I just liked the name of this place, so it made the cut. I'm glad we stopped in, because I really liked the space and the brewery's branding. Their logo has a distinct retro outer space appeal (at least to me), which intrigued me. Brewslut was psyched they had logo patches! We decided on small pours of the following beers: 

• Ultra Gnar Gnar, a popular IPA I found to be a bit underwhelming despite its bitchin' moniker. 
• S'more Stout - If you like S'mores (who doesn't?!) this beer is for you.
• R.C.T.I.D. (an acronym for Rose City 'til I Die... I don't get the reference), an Imperial Milk Stout aged on Oregon white oak with Burnside bourbon featuring coffee beans from Trailhead Roasters and Ranger Chocolate cacao husk. Damn. Sounds like the credits of a rap album!
• Bretta Livin', an American Wild Ale brewed with apricot, provided some sour relief amid two rich, potent stouts.

Pleeps chillin' at Base Camp among his throng of fans.

Pleeps got recognized at the bar by a trio of younger guys, who we struck up a conversation with soon thereafter. Pleeps has proven to be a great natural lubricant (OK, that just sounds dirty) when it comes to talking to strangers at breweries. So he not only serves as Brewslut's photo stand-in; he also helps us meet regulars and other fellow pour travelers wherever we go. 

Roundabout this time, we were in need of some refueling. Caffeine, that is. We found another cool local coffee roaster - the aptly named Good Coffee - situated in the same neighborhood as the breweries we were visiting. In addition to drinking a lot of water while imbibing, it's also a good idea to stay awake. Coffee helps. 

We're almost done for the day... I promise! Up next, we hit a cool place called Hopworks Urban Brewery. With its bike theme and yellow logo, it reminded us of Crank Arm, one of our favorite breweries from a recent trip to Raleigh/Durham, NC. (Sorry, but you can't read about that particular trip due to the fact that I was on beer blogger's hiatus at the time.)

We perused the chalkboard and noticed a veritable cornucopia of different IPAs. Surely we had to try a few. On our agenda was four beers: Massive Peach, Survival Stout, IPX Azacca, and POG IPA. Three of the four were listed as IPAs. Massive Peach was described as "a big IPA with loads of peach." Sold. To quote Polonius, "Brevity is the soul of wit." Sadly, I've been seldom described as "wise" according to Bill's old, long-winded character. But I digress. POG was pretty damn tasty too. This one was brewed with a truck-load of tropical fruit including orange, pineapple, and guava. IPX was a single-hopped IPA featuring the relatively new American hop variety called Azacca. We've used this one quite a bit recently at Tröegs (most famously in our brand new DIPA, Nimble Giant), and it's becoming a favorite of mine. On the palate, it is a bit spicy with plenty of musky tropical fruit and hint of citrus. Despite being an American variety, it has been likened in nature to some New Zealand-bred varieties. 

Feelin' good at Hopworks Urban Brewery!

The odd man out - Survival Stout - is a year-round offering from Hopworks. Described as a "multi-grain stout," it's brewed with barley, wheat, oats, amaranth (an ancient grain rarely cultivated in modern times), quinoa, spelt, and kamut (another ancient grain twice as big as wheat and known for its rich, nutty flavor) as well as 1 lb. of cold-pressed organic Stumptown coffee per barrel. Whoa! 

Bike frames as far as the eye can see at Hopworks!

We had it in us to make one more stop before we took to the road, so it was off to Gigantic, and I'm glad to say that this was a great last stop of the night! The locals here were extremely friendly and chatty (as was the bartender), and we felt right at home chatting about everything from beer to extreme metal to travel. I always enjoy sitting at the bar and getting lost in conversation with fellow patrons. It's one of the best things about visiting local breweries while traveling. I find you can learn a lot about a specific region just chatting with the locals on the bar stool next to you. 

Beer-wise, we enjoyed poured of Scrilla (hoppy pale ale), Amerikölsch (Kölsch with Citra hops), and Pipewrench (DIPA aged in Random Old Tom gin barrels for 3 months). I'm not a gin guy at all, but I was intrigued by the Pipewrench and ordered it. So glad I did, because this beer was delicious! The botanicals from the gin barrels played nicely with the citrusy hops and subtle woody and vanilla tones from the barrel. Super complex!

Pleeps visits Scrilla Villa. J-ROC, baby!

Before we retired for the evening, one of them (the metal guy) bought us a bomber of Gigantic's bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout... but more on that beer later! Sadly, our day had come to an end all too quickly, and we were forced to vacate Gigantic despite having an awesome time. We still had about an hour's drive to our hotel in Salem. We decided to get a head-start on our 100-odd-mile drive to Eugene the following day. Brewslut picked up a shirt from the bargain bin before we shipped off to our hotel for the evening. 

We arrived at the Quality Suites in Salem pretty late that night, but we felt we still had one more beer in us. So, we cracked open the bottle of Devil's Cuvee Kriek we picked up the day before in Hood River at Double Mountain. Nothing like a complex sour beer poured into a plastic hotel cup. We probably should have saved this for another night, but we knew we had to finish it before we headed back to PA, so what better time than the present, right? So down the hatch it went! 

Kriek out of a plastic cup?! The Devil made me do it!

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more of our adventures in Oregon! Up next: Eugene and Corvalis. Until next time...

Adventures in Portlandia: Days 1 & 2 - Hood River & the Columbia River

Five years ago, Brewslut and I visited the Pacific Northwest, which included Seattle and Portland as well as coastal Oregon and a few other areas. With my mother in tow, we were only able to scratch the surface of the region's mature beer scene. If you care to go down that rabbit hole, you can read about our excursion HERE.

Now, anyone who reads our blog regularly is surely aware of our mutual affection for San Diego, CA. While we've visited frequently over the last decade, we have wanted to get back to Portland and really dig into its beer culture. Portland and the surrounding area boasts a diverse craft beer landscape and an insane amount breweries, so needless to say, we had our work cut out for us. Over the weeks leading up to the trip, I assembled a pretty ambitious itinerary of breweries I wanted to hit on the trip. These include Portland proper, Hood River and the Columbia River area, Eugene, Corvallis, and coastal Oregon as far north as Tillamook. All in all, we were hoping to visit about 50 breweries over the course of just seven days. I know, right?! I thought we were up for the challenge.

Our flight was scheduled to depart from Philly International Airport around 6:30 p.m., so we had some time to spend in the City of Brotherly Love. Since we were leaving on a Tuesday evening, we were limited in our options of where to do a bit of pre-gaming. Most of the breweries in the city are either closed on Monday and Tuesday or don't open until 4 p.m. Same with a good bit of area beer bars. However, one of our old reliable favorites - Devil's Den - was open at 11 a.m. We decided to have an early lunch there before shipping off to Portland (well, Houston... we had a layover at G.W. Bush International Airport; oh, what strategery those airlines display in planning flights)!

I started off with a peculiar choice for me: a Belgian IPA from Short's called Celestial Critter. I'm typically not a big fan of Belgian yeast mixed with American hops, but I like Short's quite a bit and thought I'd give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. The yeast character was pretty subdued and had more of a crisp apple character than banana, clove or bubblegum. It was probably one of the best examples of the styles I've had to date (Flying Dog's Raging Bitch also comes to mind), so I was glad to have taken a shot with it. Brewslut went with Unite, a Gose brewed for International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day by the women of Yards, Victory and Malteurop, the latter an innovator in the world of malt. We also shared Ommegang Shadow Brewer, a big, chewy imperial stout before heading down the street to Hawthorne's.

Pleeps posing with our pour of Shadow Brewer.

We hadn't been to Hawthorne's in quote some time (they'd suffered through a fire a few years ago, which forced them to close for quite some time), so we were excited to see what had changed. While they added a very small bar area and reduced their take-out beer selection, not much had changed since our last visit. After perusing the coolers, we took a seat at the tiny bar and ordered a pair of beers. I opted for the oddly named Smells Like a Safety Meeting by another favorite Michigan brewery, Dark Horse, while Brewslut went with Symzonia, an imperial stout from a Swedish brewery called Omnipollo. Conditioned on Ethiopian coffee, Madagascar vanilla beans, Brazilian cocoa nibs and "carefully weighed" cinnamon sticks, this was pretty tasty. Not mind-blowing, mind you, but tasty nonetheless. 

Chillin' with my main monkey!

We had time for one more stop before we had to deal with the inevitable hassle of airport security, so we decided on the good ol' POPE (Pub on Passyunk East). I was ecstatic to see James Bean, one of my very favorite (and rarely seen) beers from Allagash on tap. This is a barrel-aged, coffee-infused strong ale, and it never disappoints. Even the description has me salivating for more:

    "James Bean is a bourbon barrel aged, Belgian-style strong ale that is infused with cold press 
    coffee, post fermentation. Coffee, vanilla and bourbon dominate the aroma. Flavors of caramel, 
    coffee, bourbon, and oak present themselves throughout this full-bodied beer. The coffee used in 
    James Bean is Speckled Ax, roasted right here in Maine. The beans used are Ethiopia Amaro 
    Gayo and are known for their lush blackberry and blueberry fruit flavors." 

Brewslut chose Grobe Teufel, a Lichtenhainer style beer (a tart, German-style wheat beer similar to a Berliner Weisse but with a hint of smoked malt) from Hardywood out of Richmond. This is a brewery I need to get to in 2017 (or sooner!) because I really like what they're doing. The smoked character was pretty subtle, so she liked it quite a bit.

At the airport, we swung by Chickie's and Pete's for a quick one, and I was surprised to see Fat Head's Headhunter IPA on tap. Bartender, we'll have two! Man, what an awesome IPA. Seriously, this is as good (or dare I say better) than a lot of the trendy New England-style hazy hop bombs that have become all the rage over the last two years. And Hop Juju? Damn, son! That's one of the best DIPAs I've ever had. PERIOD! So take that, you lucky so-and-so.

I won't bore you with the details of our flight (including uneventful layover in Tejas), but I will say it was pleasant enough. Upon arriving in Portland and walking off the plane, we were excited to stumble upon Laurelwood Brewing's Public House. Since we had about an hour's wait until we picked up our rental car, it was a decidedly convenient and serendipitous finding. Even better was the fact that Portland exercises stringent pricing on beer, so you won't pay any more than you would at a brewery in the city. I went with the flagship Workhorse IPA, which hit the spot after being trapped in a speeding airborne tube for several hours. Brewslut opted for a limited Gose, which was also quite tasty. Both offerings were solid and proved a good start to to our official first day (as it was now past midnight as we drank our first beer in Portland). A good omen, indeed, as we were able to chalk up  double digit brewery visits on our inaugural day in Oregon.

After a good night's sleep at our hotel, it was off to Hood River. Our 75-minute trek included a beautiful scenic drive along the Columbia River. I wish the interstate roads in PA were as breathtaking as what we experienced along the way. Green landscapes and rocky crags decorated the scenery, which made for a quick, leisurely drive. All in all, it was probably my favorite drive of the entire trip.

We decided to hit the furthest place from our hotel and work backwards, but when we arrived at our first stop - Logsdon Farmhouse Ales - we found we drove to the production facility, which did not allow visitors. So, we did an about face and headed into the town of Hood River. First on the agenda was a stop at the granddaddy of the Hood River beer scene - Full Sail.

But first thing's first; we needed coffee! There's certainly no shortage of local coffee shops and roasters in Oregon. As a matter of fact, they seemed to be as abundant as the breweries we were visiting. My goal (aside from hitting 50 breweries) was to visit at least one local coffee roaster each day of the trip. Google to the rescue! We settled on Doppio for some iced coffee before heading to our Full Sail.

Founded in 1987, Full Sail has been a staple of the Oregon beer community for years. We planned our arrival to coincide with opening, so we could maximize our playing field for the day. Lucky for us, Hood River is a relatively small town packed with a wealth of small breweries.

Full Sail boasted a wide variety of beer on tap, as well as a full bottle shop and a few limited releases. I love the smell of hops in the morning, so I went with the one-two punch of Full Sail IPA and Hot Pursuit, an Imperial IPA. Both were very good and a great way to begin the day. We ended our visit with a small pour of a tasty bourbon barrel-aged wheat wine, which was a highlight of the trip. I rarely see wheat wines on beer menus when we travel, but when I do, I will typically order it. This one was aged in Wild Turkey barrels for 10 months. This rich honey-colored treat featured plenty of oak and vanilla character amid a chewy caramel base with hints of toffee, marmalade, and dates. Yum!

Pleeps gettin' his wheat wine on!

We were off to a great start for our first day. Full Sail was better than I had anticipated. I felt like I was in San Diego the whole time we were there. I'm not sure why, I just got that particular vibe from the location and the ambiance. Our day was just getting started, and it was time to move on to brewery #2 of the day.

 
If I had to pick a favorite brewery for Day 1, it is probably Double Mountain (although #4 was a very close second... or even a tie)! Double Mountain came with a very high recommendation from Deuane, so it was on my list of places we absolutely had to hit. My thirst for hops continued, so I started with Molten Lava DIPA, a 9+% citrusy hop bomb. Brewslut chose the Randall Knife, an IPA brewed with Mosaic and Citra hops with Kolsch yeast. God damn! I was soon wishing I would have ordered a full pour of this succulent ale. Mosaic hops have such a distinct flavor, and the addition of Citra really pushed it over the edge with an ass-load of orange and tangerine. This sucker was easily on my Top Ten list of the entire trip!

Wall of artistic beer signs at Double Mountain. Reminded me of Mac's Hoagies (RIP).

We were enjoying our visit so much that we decided on two more pours - more IPAs - Vaporizer and Subcontinental IPA, the latter a collaboration with Portland Brewing Co. (a brewery we weren't able to squeeze into the itinerary). Seems as though I was working backwards from DIPA to IPA to Pale Ale (albeit a hoppy one with Challenger hops). Subcontinental was actually the official beer of Portland Beer Week 2016. However, I found it to be my least favorite of the bunch. Still enjoyable, but lackluster compared to the other stellar offerings.

From Double Mountain, we took a short uphill stroll to our next destination, Big Horse. After walking two blocks uphill, we were required to walk an additional few flights of stairs to get to the brewpub. This was fine with us, as we wouldn't have many opportunities to exercise or exert any kind of effort, save for lifting beer to our pie holes. Upon our arrival, we perused the floor plan, located the bar, planted ourselves on two stools, and ordered a pair of beers. This place reminded me of a ski lodge with lots of wood and a warm feeling about the air. The selection at Big Horse was pretty scant compared to our first two stops, so we opted for Lazuras Pale Ale and Nightmare Stout. Both were good but not memorable in the grand scheme of things. Still, the space had some charm and the bartender was friendly and talkative, so we were glad to have stopped in for a beer.

Brewslut and I outside Big Horse.

Logsdon was just down the street, but they weren't opening for another hour, so we headed on over to another of Deuane's recommendations (although I believe he'd never visited) - Pfreim Family. Pfreim is relatively new to the scene. Opening in 2012, Pfreim handcrafts artisanal ales inspired by classic Belgian brewers while recognizing their homegrown Oregon roots. Match made in heaven, right? Upon arrival, I commented to Brewslut that the place reminded me of Greenbush Brewing out in Sawyer, MI. This place was right up my alley. Cozy bar, lots of locals, and good conversation. Oh yeah, the beer was pretty good, too. Not just pretty good, but pretty freaking phenomenal, in all honesty! There were too many good-sounding beers on paper, so we had to get sampler trays. All in all, we tried a wide variety of beers running the gamut of a kettle-soured mango Berliner Weisse to a golden coffee ale. Everything was enjoyable! The Gose was spot-on, the Frambozen (a raspberry Lambic style) was mouth-puckering, and the aforementioned Golden Coffee Ale was a highlight of the day. I enjoyed this much more than the similar Calm Before the Storm by Ballast Point. The guy next to us (who we talked to for a while but whose name escapes me) was also digging this one quite a bit. It reminded me of straight cold brew coffee with a hint of vanilla cream. Man, this was an awesome beer! I enjoyed it so much that I ordered us a full pour to share. I rounded out my sampler with a blonde IPA that was solid as well. We mentioned to the guy sitting next to us that we were off to check out Logsdon next, and he said he'd meet us there. Sometimes a third wheel is a welcome addition to a duo.

Pleeps agrees: Golden Coffee was da bomb!

After an enjoyable visit at Pfreim Family, we backtracked to Logsdon Farmhouse Ales. A Belgian-inspired brewery, Logsdon was founded in 2009 on the family 10-acre estate, complete with the huge red barn where the actual brewing takes place. They also host a variety of farm animals and even grow their own cherries on-site to use in their sour beers. Kriek, anyone? With a penchant brewing for sour ales, we allowed for a sampling of a few choice offerings. I decided on the trio of Wilde Appel, Oak Aged Bretta, and The Conversion - Series 2 (a sour Witbier). The Wilde Appel, a cider, was made using a blend of local Oregon-grown apples with wild crabapples. Then, the cider was aged in oak with a wild yeast strain. The Oak Aged Bretta is made with Seizoen Bretta aged to develop a unique woody character. Our tagger-along mentioned he'd join us at our next destination, which was actually in the state of Washington. Score! Two states in one trip!

We took a slight detour across the Columbia River to the small town of White Salmon, WA for our next stop: Everybody's Brewing. Upon scanning the beer menu, a low ABV sour red ale brewed with hibiscus caught my eye. Plus its name was kind of cute and memorable: Sprinkles. Brewslut chose Cash Stout, a pretty tasty oatmeal stout and one of its core beers. We sat at the bar and soon our third wheel rolled in. However, after a few minutes, he got a phone call, excused himself and we never saw him again. Perplexing, indeed. Nevertheless, we were on a mission! I must admit that I had to seek out some Google images to jog my memory about this place. Once I did, however, the visions came flooding back. OK, maybe not flooding... trickling, perhaps. After this one-and-done stop, we headed to stop number... um, by this time we lost count.  

We arrived at Walking Man after a 20-odd mile drive along the Columbia River on the WA side for another non-Oregon brewery visit. It was a pleasant day, so we decided to sit outside on the patio. I'm typically an indoor guy, but something provoked me to enjoy a bit of sunlight at that particular moment. I went with another lighter option, this time a beer called Littlefoot ISA (ISA meaning "India Session Ale"). Brewslut took to the Chocolate Cherry Stout. I think we ordered a snack here too, but since there isn't an app called something like "Unsnackd," I can't recall what we ordered. Sometimes my mind is a sieve.

Chug monkey: Pleeps after taking a huge gulp of my Littlefoot ISA.

In an effort to squeeze in one more brewery along the river, we consulted our trusty map and list of breweries and came across Thunder Island. By now, we were back in Oregon but still along the beautiful Columbia River in the town of Cascade Locks. We got there a few minutes before last call and just chillaxed outside at a picnic table enjoying the weather at dusk. We chose a pair of IPAs for our "last beers" of the day: Galaxy Pale Ale and Dry Creek IPA. I opted for the Galaxy but actually preferred the Dry Creek a bit more, if only for the bolder aroma. Both were fine offerings, though. There were even some ducks wading about in the water a few feet from us, which made me smile.

Thunder Island at dusk. We made it just in time before they closed!

It was soon time to head back to Portland after an eventful day in Hood River and along the Columbia River. We ended the night at McMenamins Edgefield, which was near our hotel for the evening. McMenamins is a popular brewpub chain throughout Oregon and Washington since 1983. In addition to beer, they also craft their own cider, spirits, wine, and coffee. Wow! They have about a dozen locations just within the Portland city limits. Their schtick is renovating old building and turning them into brewpubs. Except "schtick" in this context is a good thing. Some of the McMenamins locations were among the coolest places at which I've ever enjoyed a beer. It was a long day, but we were good for one more each. Brewslut went light with a Gose cleverly named Boom Gose the Dynamite. Me? I decided it was a good idea to end our first day of ten breweries with the tasty Mango Unchained Double IPA. End with a 9% DIPA after a full day of drinking? Sure, why not? I'm a professional, right? Don't answer that.

Stay tuned for more Adventures in Portlandia! Up next: Day 3 - Portland, Phase 1. 

Magic... Under Where? now available!

Many of my readers (all seven of you) are probably aware of my Ffej of July party/festival/shindig/thingy that I stage each year. For the past few years, Al and Terry of Pizza Boy Brewing have been beyond generous in brewing and donating beer for the event. Past FOJ beers have been available on tap at Al's of Hampden, but none have ever been packaged for off-premise consumption...

UNTIL NOW! 

I'm happy to report that this year's FOJ beer, Magic... Under Where? is now available in 6-packs of pounder cans at Al's shop in Enola, PA! 

This dank-ass Pale Ale was brewed with 3lbs. of Simcoe hops per barrel for an intense smack of citrus fruit and pine. It's proved to be a smash hit at FOJ14, and the keg kicked very quickly. I was only able to get about six ounces! 

At any rate, you might want to pick up your cans ASAP, because it likely won't last too long. Thanks again to Al and Terry for providing another awesome beer for this year's FOJ attendees!