Oh yeah, and have a beer while you’re there!

AVB does seasonal ales right!

What I love about it is that it’s flavorful and interesting, but so drinkable that you could have several pints of it in a day and not mind the repetition. On pouring, it has a clear coppery golden color with a light head that quickly disappates. I love the velvety smooth mouthfeel, the malty, light cream soda flavor that brings a mild but not overwhelming sweetness. The finish is clean, smooth, just enough hops to keep the beer from being sweet. And it gets better as the beer warms up a little, allowing the maltiness and creaminess come through, with the sweetness taking a back seat.

It’s certainly not a beer for everyone, though! I convinced a friend to try it at a bar and she thought it was too weird—too much like cream soda. I hate cream soda, yet I love that taste in this beer. Go figure!

If you happen upon the Summer Solstice at a pub or in the store, really do try it! It’s delicious and unlike any other beer on the market. It will also cost a pretty penny at $9.29/6 pack, but it’s worth the money!

Entering the building, it’s total chaos. To the right is dining room seating, to the left is the bar. And let me tell you, avoid the bar for a good month or two. Madness! I got my name on the list, spent 10 minutes trying to get a beer at the bar, then fled to the deck outside of the dining room to wait for my name to be called. There’s an upstairs area I couldn’t even access because there were too many people blocking the route to the stairs. Thank goodness for the deck! Quiet, spacious, I could hang out here and not feel like I was going to be crushed to death by other beer geeks. And once the hail started, we had the deck to ourselves!

We got seated after an hour or so, with very friendly service and pretty good attention to our needs. I had the chicken tenders appetizer, which reminded me of Krusty’s Ribwich in all the best possible ways: tasty sauce, breaded exterior, seemed to contain chicken breast meat. The home style fries are good, too.

Oh right, and the beer! My first was the Survival Stout. Grainy, coffee notes, slightly bitter amaranth finish. Pretty good. The second beer I tried was the Abominable Winter Ale. Amber color, honey tones in the flavor, fruity nose, slightly hoppy finish that kept the beer from being too sweet. The last beer was their doppelbock, which was pretty tasty and drinkable, but nothing special to my taste. I’ll have to try it again and see if I like it better.

Next time I’m there, I’d like to try their El Diablo, which Ben reports is like a strong tripel. I did have their Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Olde Ale at the Holiday Ale Festival, and while it was tasty, it’s just too sweet for more than 4oz of beer.

We did get to flip through their construction picture book, and they did an amazing job of rehabbing the old Sunset Heating & Fuel building. You just can’t go wrong in supporting an organic and sustainable brewery and brew pub! Since Hopworks is a 5 minute bike ride or a 15 minute walk from my house, I’ll surely be back! Especially in the summer when it’s nice out on that back deck.

Now if they’d just add some more bike parking…

I’m just excited to see worthwhile, stripper-free, quality beer-oriented establishments move in on SE Powell.

On opening the bottle, a lovely malty aroma wafted out and nearly fooled my nose into thinking I was going to have a regular beer. The Quest pours nicely, with finer carbonation and a decent (but not truly Belgian Tripel-quality) head — not nearly as airy and, well, huge as what I’m used to seeing. In under a minute it went from a 1″ head to a .25″ head, as you can see in my photo. But the color is a nice honey gold/red and very clear, though probably not what I’d describe as a “blonde.”

As with the Endeavour dubbel, this beer needs to warm a bit to taste good. My first sip was tart and a bit off-tasting. Not tart and weirdly fruity/grapey, more tart like a dry cider but without the apple taste. Not even lambic or geuze tart, which still has a fruitiness to it. Gone, though, is the up front acrid sorghum bitterness and metallic flavor in my mouth.

Once Quest warms up, it tastes moderately like a traditional tripel — definite spicey aroma, warm feeling in the mouth, honey tones to the sweetness. But there’s a slight bitterness to the finish, just a little bite that’s not quite right.

So far, this is the most convincing “Belgian” style gluten-free beer I’ve tried. I don’t think it’s an every day drinker like the New Grist ale could be, but for the price it’s worth the occasional splurge. And again, if I hadn’t had regular beer within fairly recent memory, this would probably be sweet ambrosia on my lips!

Fortunately, Widmer has saved the day, which is cool of them though I’m not so sad about my beerlessness if Widmer is providing the beers.

1. They’re owned by Anheuser-Busch
2. Their beer isn’t that awesome anyway
3. You can get Drop Top anywhere in town, and I bet they won’t have SnowPlow tonight

All the same, thank you Widmer Brothers for donating beer to us! It’s great to see companies step up on such short notice.