Now I wish someone would tell the breweries that we don’t need so many types of IPAs, and that maybe, just maybe, they could bring an interesting specialty beer or two instead of the same stuff they bring every year. If I can buy it in a bottle at New Seasons, do you really need to have that as your OBF entry? I think not.

The wort is chilling in the kitchen sink at this moment, and I’m hoping that I added enough ginger. The recipe was simple enough that if I need to increase the ginger for next time it’s no big deal – it’s only 6.6lbs of bulk light/wheat malt, 3/4oz of hops, a vial of liquid yeast, plus however much ginger I want to use. The ingredients cost roughly $30, so that’s a $3.60 6-pack. Nice!

I based it on “Lovebite Weisbier” in the Joy of Homebrewing. I’ll pitch the hefeweizen yeast before I go to bed, and we’ll see what the fermentation fairy brings in the morning!

Here are the ones I’m really looking forward to trying:

• Cascade Brewing (not to be confused with Cascade Lakes Brewing) is bringing a Barrel Aged Double Flanders Style sour Red ale called “Drie Zwarte Pieten ‘Sang noir’”
• Firestone Walker Brewing Co’s Barrel Aged Imperial Stout “Velvet Merkin Stout”
• Hopworks‘ “Noggin Floggin’ Barleywine”
• Lagunitas Brewing’s “Black Pepper Chocolate Stout”
• Stone Brewing’s “Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans”
• Track Town Ale’s oak aged rum stout “Track Town Shot Put Stout”

Of course, there are 30 other beers to taste, but these are my top 6 must have beers of the season. I’ll report back after December 5 with reviews of the event and beers.

Now back to my Kona Brewing Pipeline Porter…

In general, I’m not a huge fan of super hoppy beers, so a Fresh Hop beer extravaganza could be treacherous for me. The good news is that there are a lot of brewers out there that know the difference between a good beer and a beer with just a crapload of hops added.

To cut to the chase, here’s what I had:

Cascade Lakes Warrior Fresh Hop Ale
First ale of the afternoon, it was crisp, medium-bodied, and surprisingly not floral or bitter. A good start!

Lompoc Octobock
Another non-hoppy choice, this was smooth with notes of caramel and malt the way a bock should be. Well-balanced, though, and not too sweet or strong.

Hopworks Parsec Pale Ale
I couldn’t resist an ale with a Star Trek bent, and the Parsec Pale is an improvement on their regular Crosstown Pale. Not as bitter, smoother, and certainly more alcoholic (6.9%!). Still on tap at Hopworks as of 10/22!

Lucky Lab’s The Mutt
I picked this because the hops was a homegrown mix, but the beer wasn’t that impressive compared to the other offerings. At the time, it seemed a little watery and mild. But I had a pint at the Lab two days later, and the beer had more body and caramel flavor.

Deschutes Fairweather
This was a pretty standard golden ale, nothing super exciting, but generally drinkable and tasty. I’d like to try it again, and I definitely liked it better than the Anniversary Wit they had at the Oregon Brewers Festival.

Fort George Cohoperative
Another beer a I picked because it was brewed with homegrown hops, it was decent but not noteworthy.

Hopworks Fest of Fury
To be fair, I had a sample of this a couple of weeks ago and said “Damn, this is good!” back then. Well damn, it’s still good! Caramel and malt flavors, but not super sweet, and so darn smooth. I wish it were still on tap, because I would drink this every freakin’ day.

Pelican Elemental Ale
Usually, I avoid all the IPAs, but I tasted this when a friend got it and decided to try my own. It was good stuff! Not overly floral, biting, or bitter for an IPA, it was surprisingly well balanced and refreshing. I’d actually order a pint of it if I had the chance!

Beer Valley Black Flag Imperial Stout
I saved the stout for lasting, knowing it would kill my tastebuds if I had it too soon. This was good stuff! Not as sickly sweet as some imperial stouts, it had delicious dry chocolate and coffee notes with a hint of roasted nut flavor. So good! Maybe I should move to this magical “Beer Valley”…

In Summary
In the end, Fest of Fury was the standout beer for me. Something about the smooth caramel flavor just sang to my tastebuds. If you missed the Portland tastival, you have one last chance in Eugene this weekend! I love a three-weekend festival with changing locations. I’ll definitely go to this again next year!

With 72 beers on tap it would be difficult to try them all. So I make a short list of beers I must try, then beers I wouldn’t mind trying. This year I got through 14 beers before my tastebuds pooped out on me. And so, the beers:

Surly Brewing’s Coffee Bender
Oh man, this is the beer I want to have for breakfast. It’s rich and hearty like good black coffee, but it’s a beer. Not at all bitter the way cold coffee can be, not sweet, but perfectly balanced like the perfect cup of joe. Plus, they have a great logo!

Bell’s Brewing Porter
It’s hard to follow a stout coffee like Coffee Bender, so Bell’s Porter seemed a little weak and watery. As it warmed it improved, with stronger coffee notes and a little bitterness.

Deschutes Brewing 20th Anniversary Wit
After some palette-cleansing water, I decided it was time to move on to a Belgian style. Deschutes was serving from their crazy keg-shaped trailer, which was pretty awesome. The wit wasn’t awesome, but it was pretty good. Banana and cloves in the nose, but lighter than the average wit. We decided that it would make a good beer on a hot day when you didn’t want something sweet or high in alcohol. A fancy Pabst, if you will

New Holland Brewing Dragon’s Milk
Who could turn down a beer with a name like that? An ale aged in oak barrels, with that sweet oaky aroma, taste of alcohol at the back of your throat (8.5%), the flavor of chocolate that’s just bitter enough to balance the sweetness of the beer. Not a great hot day beer, but in the winter? Oh yes, I’d drink me some more!

Caldera Brewing Ginger Ale
Not the ginger ale you might expect! This was a pale ale brewed with a whole bunch of ginger in it. A crisp ale with a good malt flavor, but the zesty aroma of ginger and a tangy ginger flavor up front and a citrus finish. Really refreshing! I’d drink this all day on a hot day. It was so good that at the end of my drinking day, I got a full glass of it.

Kona Brewing Mac Nut Brown
I’ve grown to love many of Kona’s beers, from the porter to the lager, so the nut brown sounded like a good bet. It was a classic brown ale with a slightly bitter finish. I was disappointed that it had almost no flavor of macadamia nut honey. Decent beer, but not a stand out.

Standing Stone Brewing Almond Nut Brown
Well if you’re going to have one nut brown, why not try another? It was great to compare the two browns at the festival side by side. The almond nut brown was wonderfully smooth, had a great nutty flavor but wasn’t sweet, and had a creamy mouthfeel. Next to Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown, it’s my favorite nut brown out there!

Roots Organic Brewing Calypso Ale
And now for something completely different! Billed as an apricot and chili beer, this was really a chili beer. It smelled like pepperjack cheese, spicy and delicious. The scotch bonnet peppers added an interesting savory dimension, overwhelming the hops and apricot. At first I didn’t think the beer was spicy, it just tasted like peppers. But then WHAM, it was spicy! A warm tickle at the back of my palette. I was impressed that they pulled off a drinkable and tasty chili beer.

Iron Horse Brewery Quilter’s Irish Death
I had to try this one based on the name. Too much of this might be your death indeed! It’s an imperial sweet stout, so it’s 7.8% and quite hefty. It was almost warm and comforting like a quilt, and would be delicious in the winter.

Fifty Fifty Foggy Goggle White
Another wacky beer, this was like a hefeweizen meets a white. Cloudy and citrusy like a hefe, but flavors of clove and orange like a white. The addition of rosehips in the brew made for a tart finish like a geuze. Definitely and interesting beer!

Fearless Brewing Cream Ale
I love a cream ale, the interesting caramel and vanilla flavors of a good one just make my day. The Fearless version had a good malty aroma and flavor, but fell flat on the caramel and vanilla notes. The finish had a light citrus flavor. Pretty good, but not as delicious at Pelican Brewing’s Kiwanda Cream Ale.

Pelican Brewing Surfer’s Summer Ale
Speaking of the Kiwanda Cream Ale, I had to try Pelican’s summer seasonal. It was a crisp, malty ale with a lightly hopped finish. Tasted like the delicious spray off an ocean wave, refreshing and light. Not extraordinary, but a nice change from some of the more hefty beers of the day.

Goose Island Brewery Matilda
There were a lot of Belgian styles at the brewfest this year, and Matilda was one of the better ones I tried. It has a spicy sweet flavor with no floral hops note or bitterness, a cereal aroma (think Grapenuts), and a solid banana and spice flavor as it warms.

Old Market Pub Hopcask Triple Tripel Organic
I knew I was getting into a hoppy beer with this one, but I had to try an organic tripel anyway. This had a strong hops aroma, but not a floral one. The flavor was a little sweet on my tongue, but over all surprisingly well balanced. Of course, the finish was strongly of hops, so the takeaway was that it was overhopped for the style. But hey, I knew that when I ordered it! And interesting take on the tripel style, at any rate.

In Summary
At the end of the day, Surly Brewing’s Coffee Bender and Caldera Brewing’s Ginger Ale were my two favorite beers. While at opposite ends of the beer spectrum, they were the two I could still taste from memory and wanted to have again. I’m definitely looking forward to next year’s brewfest!

First, someone didn’t tell them that “brunch” is served at a different time than breakfast; or mainly that 9am is really early for brunch. Ugh. You don’t set the alarm to go to a brunch!

Kathy and I got to PGE park, locked up our bikes, and waited in line with Ben and LK to get our mugs, tickets, and shirts. Since Ben had purchased the tickets, his was the only name on the list. At no point did they make sure any of us were actually 21! Plus, we got wristbands that would allow us into the festival without being carded! Nice little OLCC age-check loophole for those that would abuse such a thing.

The mug came with three orange tickets and a blue one. Nobody told us what they were for. We opined that the OBF had finally moved away from wooden tokens and gone to paper tickets just like the Winter Ale Festival. We figured that our tickets would also be good at the festival. Not so! They were only good for Widmer beers served at breakfast!

An interesting discrepancy: our t-shirts called it the “Brewers Lunch” not “brunch.” What’s that about?

Now, a brewers brunch should have beer, right? Maybe special beer that nobody else will get, or at least early samples of beer that will be at the festival? Yeah, not at this brunch. We could have Widmer Hefeweizen or Halo IPA. Not even their OBF beer was on tap! What gives, man? What did my $20 get me?

At least the food was pretty decent. Your basic eggs, sausages, potatoes, and fruit brunch with some muffins and danishes. Nothing fancy, but the fruit was really good. Dining at the Widmer beer garden in PGE Park was a little weird, what with the folks at the MAC Club exercising overhead and watching us, but it was a sunny morning so that’s not too bad.

All in all, I wouldn’t spend the money on the brewers brunch again. It was fun to hang out with my friends, but we were going to do that all afternoon on the waterfront anyway. The shirt is nice, and the parade afterward was pretty fun, but I didn’t need to get up early to get a shirt, a mug, and go for a walk downtown.

Next time, I’d like to see the beer tickets be transferrable to the OBF for beer there. Who needs to ruin their tastebuds early in the morning on boring beer you can get any day of the year? I’d also like to see more communication around what’s going on and what the brunch is about. And for god’s sake, start the brunch at 10am at the earliest! By the time we got to the waterfront and entered the festival, it was 11:30 and none of the breweries were able to serve beer until 12pm. Brunch could last an hour and a half, then we parade, then we enjoy delicious beer.

The lesson learned is that I can use the time to sleep in and prepare myself for a day spent trying interesting beer and hanging out in the sun.

Maybe next year we’ll try the Brewers Dinner…

I was worried that Roots was too small a location for the event, but it turns out that they’ve taken over the retail storefront and warehouse next door, so there was plenty of room. The breweries set up a long table with taps in the warehouse, and people milled about sampling beers or found tables in the main Roots dining space. We found a table just on the edge of the crowds, so we could still hear each other talking.

The way the Cheers to Belgian Beers event works is that last year’s winner (Roots) is the host of the next year’s event and gets to choose the yeast strain that all the breweries use. Neat! 15 breweries used the same yeast strain to create different Belgian-style beers. I got through 9 of the 15 beers before my taste buds tired out and all the beer started to taste the same.

Up first was Lompoc Brewing’s Le Diablesse, a Belgian Red Ale. I have to admit that I started with Lompoc because Jon, the brewer from the Fifth Quadrant, was pouring so it was a great chance to say howdy. I play soccer with his wife and get to sample Jon’s homebrews from time to time, which are pretty awesome. La Diablesse was a lovely ruby brown, with a malty flavor and clove, banana, and coriander notes. The finish had a mild coffee bitterness, and almost a dry chocolate flavor to it.

For something completely different, I tried Philadelphia’s Flemish Brown next. It was much as expected; a tart, sour beer with an increasingly sharp flavor as it warmed. While nearly true to the style, there were some strangely chocolate notes to the flavor that made it taste like a mix of of a Flemish Brown and a regular ale. I think it just wasn’t quite fruity and sour enough for my liking. It was exciting to see a local brewery trying out the style, though!

Back to the malty side of things, I had the Lucky Lab Malt Bomb. It’s just that! A very strong, sweet vanilla nose, malty flavor, and very smooth. What it wasn’t is very Belgian. It lacked any of the esters or spicy flavors and aromas I associate with Belgian-style beers. I did enjoy it, and would certainly have it again, but it wasn’t a winning brew for the event.

Lompoc Brewing brought two beers along, so I had to try their second option. Mon Cheri is a Belgian Golden ale, and it truly exemplified the style. Lovely clear, golden color, banana esters in the nose, plenty of clove and coriander flavors and aroma. Malty and sweet, but balanced, warmed nicely. It went down like smooth liquid gold and I wished I had more of it.

Since Roots was the event winner last year, I had to try their brew for this year. Sadly, the Farmhouse Bruin was pretty lackluster. Some sweetness and clove flavors, but ultimately not that exciting. It was kinda just a beer, more farmhouse than Belgian, and not even an interesting farmhouse style.

By 3pm, Hopworks had finally arrived and set up their keg of El Diablo. I hadn’t tried that last week when I went to Hopworks, so now was my chance! They served up a very generous taste (nearly a full glass) of lovely golden elixir. It had a strong cereal and malt aroma, plenty of banana and clove esters, and was quite drinkable. For an 8.9% beer it went down awfully easily. Dangerous!

Alameda Brewing’s Lucky Devil Belgian Golden Strong ale was pretty good. I don’t typically love their beers, but this one was better than most. Sweet, malty, a light citrus flavor and aroma to it. The sweetness was stronger as it warmed, which I didn’t love. It was a touch cloying.

By my 8th and 9th tastes, my taste buds were pretty fatigued. Max’s Fanno Creek Brewpub brought The Reverend’s Daughter, and it was simply thin and unimpressive after the Lucky Devil. And BJ’s Redrum Belgian ale just tasted like plain ol’ beer. That’s when I knew it was time to pack it in and ride my bike back home.

In the end, I cast my vote for Lompoc Brewing’s Mon Cheri as the winning beer of the event. It was the most authentically Belgian, enjoyable, and memorable of the bunch. I hope it wins!

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!