Saturday at OBF

July 29, 2006 By Jay Brooks

With so many evens going on Saturday, I didn ‘t make it to the festival itself until almost five.

The third day of the evolution of Chris Crabb in photographs.

Christian Ettinger, who recently left Laurelwood to open his own place. Construction is coming along nicely he told me, but he’s still struggling with finding that perfect name for the brewery.

Relaxing behind the Celebrator/Oregon Brewers Guild booth, Christian takes his son on a flying trip.

Chris Crabb and Celebrator publisher Tom Dalldorf.

Full Sail Smoker

July 29, 2006 By Jay Brooks

Full Sail Brewing has been hosting a smoker at the Pilsner Room, their pilot brewery at Riverplace in McCormick & Schmick’s for many years. Our host, brewer John Harris, opens his brewery/laboratory to the brewing world: brewers, media and those in the know with great beer and cigars. It’s always a great time and a chance to talk with friends and colleagues away from noise of the crowded festival.

The Willamette River at Riverplace.

Full Sail employee/owners Autumn and Barney, with their newborn daughter.

Autumn and Barney’s five-month old.

Alan Sprintz, from Hair of the Dog, and Full Sail brewer — and our host — John Harris.

Jim Parker and me.

Fellow beer writer Abe Armstrong-Goldman and Jeff Smiley, owner of Baron Brewing.

Mark Campbell and me.

Larry Bell, from Kalamazoo Brewing, and Alan Sprintz.

Rose & Raindrop IPA Festival

July 29, 2006 By Jay Brooks

After the Horse Brass, we stopped briefly at the IPA Festival the Rose and Raindrop was having in the parking out back from the pub.

We arrived early so there weren’t too many people there. They had about a dozen beers, a few of which I hadn’t tried.

One of our servers, wearing Jamie Floyd’s new Ninkasi Brewing t-shirt, which was the shirt of the festival. The back reads “Jesus Was a Homebrewer.”

The barbecue guy had a six-week old dog with one brown and one blue eye. He was very cute.

Brunch at BridgePort

July 29, 2006 By Jay Brooks

I was invited to brunch at BridgePort Brewing and was keen to see the newly renovated space. The brewery had been under construction the last time I’d been in town and had reopened earlier this year. I must say I was a little disappointed that the brick and ivy exterior was gone and in its place a sallow stucco. Inside, though thoroughly modern, was spectacular, if a little too polished for my tastes. But it does seem to fit with the Pearl District’s overall new look and feel. The food was excellent and they had all of their beers on tap, including many of the older ones I hadn’t tried for quite some time. I enjoyed a smooth Blue Heron Pale Ale with breakfast and sampled the wonderful Old Knucklehead, BridgePort’s barleywine.

This beautiful sign hangs above the bars and gives some great info about each beer, but it will make it pretty hard to change lineups, won’t it?

My table, with Stephen Beaumont, Paula Johnston (marketing manager for BridgePort), Tom Dalldorf and Marie Oliver, a Portland-based beer writer.

Channeling Belgian artist Rene Magritte, this painting seems right at home against the interior brick.

Friday at OBF

July 28, 2006 By Jay Brooks

I finally made it over to the festival itself mid-afternoon, and things were in full swing.

People waiting in line to buy mugs and tokens to sample the beers at the festival.

Tom Dalldorf, Lisa Morrison and Stephen Beaumont.

Chris Crabb having one of those days.

Inside one of the festival tents.

Stephen and me.

Festival grounds.

Lisa and Mark with Brian’s baby.

Contemplating her beer, a festival goer looks lost in thought.

Hair of the Dog

July 28, 2006 By Jay Brooks

After the Brew Am, I paid a visit to one of my favorite Portland breweries, Hair of the Dog. Luckily, I was traveling with people who knew exactly how to get there, because even having the address is no help if you don’t know how to navigate the labyrinth-like back alleys that lead to the brewery. The first time I visited the brewery — which was on my honeymoon ten years ago — it took us a very long time and many wrong turns before we finally found it. But like their beers, it’s very worthwhile to make the effort. For many years now, they’ve been having a open house Friday afternoon during the festival and it’s always a fun time.

Almost all of their beers were pouring, including their delicious new Blue Dot Double IPA. Released in bottles this year on Earth Day, the blue dot refers, of course, to mother Earth. As with everything Alan makes, this too is a quite tasty example of an Imperial IPA. Big hops with citrus notes such as grapefruit abound. Thick and chewy, with a great mouthfeel.

Alan Sprintz owner/head brewer of Hair of the Dog Brewery.

Alan shows off the food he prepared for his open house.

Me showing off Alan’s grill outside the brewery.

The Brew Am 2006

July 28, 2006 By Jay Brooks

The 2nd annual Sasquatch Brew Am took place Friday morning at McMenamins Edgefield Pub Course. It was for a very worthy cause and sponsored by the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation. I also sponsored a hole at the tournament.

Nico Freccia, of 21st Amendment, tees off.

A view from the hills. McMenamins Edgefield Pub Course.

Me at Hole No. 2, the hole I sponsored.

Hole No. 2.

Shaun O’Sullivan and Nico, co-owners of 21st Amendment, at Hole No. 12, the hole they sponsored. They’re holding the imaginary cans of their beer they forgot to bring.

The McMenamins gardens with the ballroom and water tower behind them.

Shaun teeing off.

Lisa Morrison, Paul Walker, Abe Goldman-Armstrong, Noel Blake, and two golfers from Lompoc Brewery in Portland.

Lisa Morrison and Bob Brewer look on as Quentin Falconer, organizer of the Brew Am makes a toast in the ballroom after the tournament.

The tournament participants relax in the ballroom.

Thursday at OBF

July 27, 2006 By Jay Brooks

I arrived in Portland around 3ish after ten and half hours in the Celebrator van, just in time to help set up the booth for the festival which began at four.

Tapping the Collaborator keg at the festival.

Fred Bowman, co-founder of Portland Brewing, Tom Dalldorf, Celebrator publisher and Jack Joyce, owner of Rogue.

Tom with Cathy and Sean, Stephen Beaumont’s sister and brother-in-law.

Chris Crabb, who runs thing for the festival.

Jamie Floyd, whose Ninkasi Brewing is almost open, but the beer is pouring now.

Jamie Jurado, head brewer for Gambrinus.

Beer Can Regatta

July 23, 2006 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 32nd annual Beer Can Regatta, a boat race in which all the ships are made entirely of beer cans. It takes place in Darwin, Australia, in the Northwest Territories, which looks to be about in the center of Australia on the northern edge.

A couple of beer can regatta boats, made entirely of beer cans.

The history of the event is a great example of creative problem solving:

The Darwin beer can regatta started as an unusual by-product of the devastation caused to Darwin by “Cyclone Tracy” in 1974.
Owing to the considerable damage caused by the cyclone, large quantities of materials and manpower from interstate were brought to Darwin to assist in the rebuilding of the city.
As many of the rebuilding work force personnel were from the southern states, and were not used to the humidity, the consumption of canned beer increased dramatically.
This resulted in an abundance of empty beer cans littering the many work sites around Darwin, and as there were no recycling programmes in effect at the time, the beer cans became a litter problem.
A Darwin citizen, Lutz Frankensfeld, came up with the suggestion that they should hold a boat race, with all the boats fabricated out of beer cans. The theory was that this would give the local population and workers alike, an incentive to clear up some of the empty beer cans, and at the same time have a day of fun.
The inaugural beer can race in 1975 was an instant success, and it was decided that it would be an annual event.
Over the years it has developed into a major event on the Darwin social calendar, it is now run by the local Lion’s Club. Organised by various groups over the years it went from success to success, with boat entries ranging in numbers from 15 to 30, and in size from 1 metre to 12 metres.

A beer can boat on the high seas.

The race is for four adults in one boat, though there is a junior division for kids using only soda cans. There are six pages of rules but it all boils down to having the right spirit, especially in the funny “Ten Canmandments.” It looks like they’ve added all sorts of fun events over the years and this looks like it would be one great event to attend. Plus I’d much rather be on a beach in Australia than stuck in the heatwave that is California right now.

Photo Gallery: Drake’s Summit Hop Festival

July 8, 2006 By Jay Brooks

Today was Drake’s 1st annual Beer Festival & Washoes Tournament in San Leandro. The festival involved 19 beers all made with the same hop — Summit — but with each brewery free to use whatever malt, yeast and water they wanted. Essentially, these were all single hop beers. I was fortunate enough to judge the beers and it’s certainly very interesting to see what different brewers will do with the same recipe and the same hop.

Rodger Davis, head brewer at Drake’s enjoys a pint of his own.

The judges. Clockwise from bottom left: Judy Ashworth, Bill Tarchala, me, Craig Cauwels of Schooner’s, David Hopgood of Stone, [I never did catch his name] and Paul Marshall, who ran the competition.