I’m up waay too early to catch a flight to Portland for the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival. I get in at 8 a.m. and then it’s off to the Rogue Public House for brunch before the parade to open the festival at Noon. This is probably my second favorite festival of the year. Time permitting, I’ll try to post photos from the various events surrounding the festival and the festival itself, of course, each day.
Oregon Craft Beer Month Coming
I’m glad to see Oregon has been keeping up with celebrating local and American beer during the month of July. The Brewers Association first promoted July as American Beer Month and encouraged events throughout the month, to mixed results. A couple of years ago, they quietly dropped it in favor of American Craft Beer Week in mid-May. And while I like the new May holiday, personally, I felt they abandoned American Beer Month too quickly without really giving it time to develop. Holidays normally take years and even decades to catch on. One that seeks to highlight a niche product in our society is bound to take even longer. That’s why I still continue to celebrate it each year, not that my lone voice will likely make any difference. Happily, the Oregon Brewers Guild, along with the support of the many beer enthusiasts in the state, have for three years made July Oregon Craft Beer Month. If we can’t have it nationally, at least we can have it in one of the best beers states in the union.
From the press release:
Oregon celebrates its profusion of good beer all year, but July is the state’s official Craft Beer Month. 2007 marks the 20th anniversary of the Oregon Brewers Festival from July 26th to 29th. This year’s festival features 74 beers from craft brewers around the country along with educational displays and live entertainment.
Soft, pure water cascades down from the mountains, aromatic hops spring from the valley’s fertile soils, and barley thrives on the high plains over on the state’s dryer eastern side. Oregon beers are truly local and incredibly delicious. The state’s brewers produce traditional styles from pale ales to dark stouts, but they’ve also pioneered new beer styles, created organic beers, and breathed new life into the typical American beer style with handcrafted lagers.
Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland provides the Willamette River and Mount Hood as backdrops for the Brewers Festival. At least 50,000 beer enthusiasts are expected at the Festival during its four-day run.
Other Craft Beer Month events include a beer and sausage fest, cheese pairings by the dean of American beer writers, Fred Eckhardt, an Oregon Brewers Guild barbecue featuring 24 special beers that you can’t get at the Brewers Festival, and a rousing parade of brewers strutting along Portland sidewalks to the beat of the March 4th Marching Band.
“We are proud to be the only state that has designated a special month to recognize our local craft brewers,” said Brian Butenschoen, Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. ”Beer is one of Oregon’s iconographic agricultural products and Oregon Craft Beer Month is a wonderful opportunity to stop and lift a glass to all the passion and success we have had here.”
America’s beer revival began in Oregon in the early 1980s, and the state, the second largest producer of craft beer in America, is home to 82 craft breweries. Portland has 29 breweries, more than any other city in the world. Industry pioneers such as BridgePort Brewing, Widmer Brothers, McMenamins and what is now Pyramid Breweries started in Portland. Full Sail Brewing, Deschutes Brewery and Rogue Ales also started in Oregon and now have regional, national and international distribution. Emerging breweries such as Terminal Gravity, Ninkasi and Cascade Lakes beers can be found all around the state and local breweries like Amnesia Brewing, Laurelwood Brewing and Roots Organic Brewing offer unique beers on tap at their neighborhood pubs.
Another big media coup surrounding the month-long festivities is a 16-pg. pullout in the Portland Oregonian. Co-edited by Lisa Morrison and Chris Crabb, with help from Don Younger and Brian Butenschoen (with the Oregon Brewers Guild) along with a handful of others. It was a special section of the newspaper and is also available online. It contains of wealth of information about Oregon beer and the various events going on throughout the state during the month of July.
A Grill’s Best Friend
My good friend and colleague, Lisa Morrison scored a nice coup in the Oregonian yesterday with the publication of an article by her entitled “A Grill’s Best Friend,” and not only just in the food section, but on the front cover. The Oregonian’s attitude toward beer has been much like that of the San Francisco Chronicle, which is to say adversarial and often condescending — in both cases quite odd given the vibrancy of their respective beer scenes — so it’s great to see her crack the glass bottle ceiling. Hopefully, it’s a signal of changing attitudes in the press generally or even in Portland, more specifically, whose attitude toward their local beer has been less hostile than in many places, at least.
Oregon Leads Small Brewers Caucus
Last month, 34 members of the House of Representatives formed the Small Brewers Caucus to monitor and effect issues of interest to craft brewers. The week after the Craft Brewers Conference, on May 15, the caucus held its first meeting just prior to a reception on Capitol Hill celebrating “American Craft Beer Week” hosted by the Brewers Association.
From the original press release:
The House Small Brewers Caucus, co-chaired by U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Greg Walden (R-Oregon), is currently composed of 34 Members of Congress who share an interest in the issues of importance to America’s small brewers. Brewers Association Board of Directors who were in Washington that day to participate in the American Craft Beer Week celebration, listened as Congressman Walden stated that the primary mission of the Caucus is to provide an interactive opportunity to learn about the dynamics of running a small business as a brewery, the brewing process itself and the quality and value of the beer and brewing activities. Several other Congressmen also in attendance spoke briefly to the group, among them Congressman DeFazio who is himself a homebrewer and a primary sponsor and leader in the successful effort to pass House Resolution 753 of 2006 commending American craft brewers and recognizing the first American Craft Beer Week.
“The fact that Members of Congress recognize the unique place small brewers and craft beer have in our society, is extremely gratifying and important,” said Brewers Association President Charlie Papazian also in attendance at the meeting. “There is a very real danger that the voice of the small members of the brewing community may not be heard over that of its larger brethren, so a group of legislators bound by a common interest in the history, tradition and excitement that are hallmarks of today’s small brewers, should help ensure our issues get fair consideration.”
The story is starting to get some attention in places where craft beer is closely tied to the local economy. For example, in Portland, Oregon, the Oregonian recently ran a story about the new caucus, focusing on the fact that both co-chairs are Representatives from Oregon. (Thanks Jim, for sending me the link.) Frankly, that makes sense given Oregon’s beer scene. With three other Oregonian members of the caucus from the Beaver State, that’s a total of five of the 34 members (or almost 15%). Most of the other members also appear to be from states with vibrant craft beer cultures. For example, California is the only other state with five members, including — I’m proud to be able to say — the Representative from my own District, Lynn Woolsey. She represents both Sonoma and Marin counties. New York and Pennsylvania have four members each, and there are three from Colorado, and two from Michigan. The eleven remaining members are each from a single state. Curiously, there’s no one from either Washington or Wisconsin. That seems surprising, since both states have quite a few breweries. It also appears to be a largely bipartisan group, with 20 Democrats and 14 Republicans.
It’s certainly nice to see our elected officials paying to least some attention to craft beer and the concerns of those who brew it.
The 34 members of the Small Brewers Caucus:
Rep. Peter DeFazio, co-chair (D-Ore.)
Rep. Greg Walden, co-chair (R-Ore.)
Rep. Harry E. Mitchell (D-Ariz.)
Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.)
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.)
Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.)
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.)
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.)
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.)
Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.)
Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.)
Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa)
Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.)
Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine)
Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.)
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.)
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.)
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.)
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.)
Rep. Mike Arcuri (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)
Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.)
Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.)
Rep. Charles Dent (R-Penn.)
Rep. Phil English (R-Penn.)
Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Penn.)
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Penn.)
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.)
If your representative isn’t on this list, consider writing him a letter and asking him or her to join the caucus and support small businesses such as craft breweries in their district.
Representative Peter DeFazio, Gary Fish, owner of Deschutes Brewery, and Representative Greg Walden — all from Oregon — enjoying craft beer at the Capitol Hill reception May 15.
Sasquatch Brew Fest in Eugene
Last Saturday, while I was attending the Santa Rosa Beerfest, 550 miles to the north in Eugene, Oregon, another beer festival was taking place. The fifth annual Sasquatch Brew Fest is a benefit for the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation, a charity set up after the untimely death of the well-known Eugene brewer in 2002. The Foundation provides scholarships for brewers to attend the Siebel Institute in Chicago.
Shaun O’Sullivan, co-founder and brewmaster of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, attended the festival and was kind enough to share some of his photos. Thanks Shaun.
Jamie Floyd, from Ninkasi Brewing, John Maier, from Rogue Brewing, and Nikos Ridge, also from Ninkasi.
Shaun O’Sullivan, co-founder and brewmaster of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, and his girlfriend Adrienne McMullen.
For more photos from this year’s Sasquatch Brew Fest, visit the photo gallery.
Rogue Ales Brewery Tour
Chris Garrett, a Rogue employee created this humorous tour of the main brewery in Newport, Oregon. I first saw it during a seminar about internet marketing at the Craft Brewrers Conference this year. The speaker singled it out as a good way to use humor to reach your customer, but toward the end of it Garrett makes a little dig at the brewery’s owner, Jack Joyce. Jack was in the audience at the time and told the attendees that Garrett had been fired. He said it with a straight face, but knowing Jack’s sense of humor it’s hard to tell whether he was joking or not. He probably was, at least I hope so. At any rate, I recently came across it on YouTube and thought I’d share it since it is entertaining.
Deschutes 19th Anniversary Golden Ale
The newest beer from Deschutes is in celebration of their latest anniversary. The 19th Anniversary Golden Ale is also part of the Bond Street Series, which are put out in 22 oz. bottles for a limited time. All of the brewers at Deschutes get together and each pitches a style/recipe of beer they want to make in the pilot system as the next Bond Street beer. The brewers then debate the choices and pick the one they all like best, which is then the next beer in the series.
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From the press release:
“We felt we had to do something special to mark our 19th Anniversary,” said brewmaster Larry Sidor, “so we took a vow of silence and brewed our first Belgian style ale ever to be bottled.”
The straw colored Strong Golden Ale is made from an impressively international list of ingredients that acknowledge the diverse roots of craft beer. “We used Czech Saaz, Slovenian Golding, Pacific Northwest Liberty, and Brewers Gold hops,” said Sidor, “along with French pilsner malt, and Belgian white candy diamonds and bitter orange peel from the island of Curacao for a little extra kick and sizzle.”
The vow of silence, a nod to the Belgian monks who brew some of the world’s most revered beers, may have been the biggest challenge for the brewers at Deschutes. About half way through adding the 180 bags of malt, one of the brewers inadvertently exclaimed, “Good Lord, this is a lot of malt.” Keeping with the spirit of their Belgian counterparts, another brewer answered, “Amen, brother.”
Deschutes Brewery, a pioneer of Oregon’s craft beer industry, opened as a small brew pub in Bend in 1988. As the central Oregon town made the transition from timber and ranching to an outdoor lifestyle destination, the brewery expanded. Deschutes produces 160,000 barrels of craft beer in several distinctive styles which are available in bottles and on tap throughout the region. A new brewpub is scheduled to open in Portland next year.
The 19th Anniversary Belgian-style Strong Golden Ale will be available from June through September in 22-ounce bottles and limited draft.
Full Sail Reopens Pub & Tasting Room
After being closed for several months, next Friday May 4th, Full Sail will be re-opening their Pub and Tasting Room. Here’s the press release:
Full Sail Tasting Room & Pub Grand Opening Friday, May 4th
Hood River — After months of planning, design, construction, remodeling and lot’s of recipe tastings, Full Sail Brewing is reopening their pub. The Grand Opening will be on Friday May 4th, 2007, in the same spectacular location with the same great beers. What is new is a more comfortable seating area that highlights the view of the Columbia River and the Gorge and a special menu designed to celebrate Full Sail’s beers.
The menu will include many dishes designed to share such as the brewmaster’s ploughman platter and hand cut Belgium style fries with a variety of sauces. Also on the menu is an assortment of sandwiches including two New Orleans specials – a muffuletta and a crispy shrimp poor boy. “Big dishes” include Session battered fresh Alaskan halibut and hand-cut fries with lemon-caper tartar sauce and Amber ale barbecued pork loin with hot mustard, grilled scallions, cilantro and coconut sticky rice. There will also be some delicious vegetarian dishes.
“To update our Pub after twenty years so that it celebrates and reflects the quality of beers as well as the growth of Hood River itself has been a very fun and satisfying project. It is a twentieth anniversary present for all of us at Full Sail and for our customers,” said Irene Firmat, Full Sail’s CEO & Founder. “Most of all we are thrilled to offer a menu that will complement our award winning brews and take advantage of the wealth and quality of local ingredients. We have also added several new members to the Full Sail crew – Chef Brian Hutchins, in the kitchen and Robert Carpenter as our front of the house manager. We are happy that our continuing investment in the brewery keeps offering the opportunity to create more employee owners,” added Firmat. Swing by the Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub to taste of Chef Brian’s tempting talents along with a cold pint of Full Sail.
The independent and employee-owned Full Sail brewery is perched on a bluff in Hood River, Oregon, overlooking the most epic wind and kite surfing spot in the world. At this very moment 47 specialists in the liquid refreshment arts are crafting barley and hops into your next beer. The Full Sail crew has been fermenting godlike nectar since 1987. Their award winning brews are now available in 17 states. The Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub is open seven days a week. Swing by for a pint, grab a bite, tour the brewery, or just soak up the view. The Tasting Room and Pub will be open daily from 11:30 am for lunch and dinner. Brewery tours are still available daily, free of charge at 1, 2, 3 and 4pm.
Victory for Families
Excellent news from Oregon: the OLCC will allow minors to attend the Oregon Brewers Festival with their parents. Here’s the press release:
The Oregon Brewers Festival (OBF) is pleased to announce that, as in the past, minors under age 21 will be allowed all-hours access to the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival, provided they are accompanied by a parent. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission granted permission for minors/parents to attend after receiving a new OBF compliance plan. The internationally-recognized craft beer festival will be held July 26-29 at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
“After thoroughly reviewing the Oregon Brewers Festival’s amended proposal, we believe it meets our licensing and enforcement concerns regarding minor patronage at the 2007 festival,” explained Rudy Williams, OLCC deputy director. “We appreciate the OBF’s willingness to work with the OLCC to help satisfy the public safety interests of Oregonians.”
“We are thrilled that the OLCC has made this decision,” said Art Larrance, founder of the OBF. “The festival has a long-standing history of being a family-friendly event. We promote responsible drinking, and as a result, we have responsible attendees who come together to celebrate our local culture.”
Minors will only be allowed at the OBF with a parent; guardians are not acceptable. Minors are informed of and encouraged to attend the root beer garden, in which complimentary handcrafted root beer is served in cups (no mugs allowed) for all minors and designated drivers.
Making Hay While the Sun Shines
The second of BridgePort’s new seasonal series will be out shortly. From the description, it sounds like it may be a good candidate for Lew Bryson’s “Session Beer Project.” We’ll know more, of course, when the samples start arriving.
BridgePort Brewing Co. is encouraging beer lovers to “Make hay while the sun shines,” an adage meaning to take advantage of any good opportunity that comes along. There’s no better truism for BridgePort’s new summer seasonal, Haymaker Extra Pale Ale: Haymaker is an ideal beer with which to take full benefit of the long summer days. Haymaker will appear on shelves and on draft the first part of May.
A refreshing extra pale ale, Haymaker features a distinct blend of four malts and three varieties of hops that create a slightly complex ale with a light body and a crisp finish. Its alcohol by volume of 5.3% complements the low bitterness — 15 bittering units — and original gravity of 12.8 degrees Plato. Bright golden in color, it can best be described as “sunshine in a glass.”
“We were looking to expand our seasonal lineup, and an extra pale ale was the ideal choice,” explained head brewmaster Karl Ockert. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the resulting color and flavor profile of the beer.”
Like the other two products in the BridgePort seasonal series, Haymaker’s packaging is a divergence from the BridgePort brand family. The beer’s label and six-pack carrier focus on a whimsical red rooster with a fiery crown standing upon a weathervane, set against the backdrop of a round sun bursting forth with rays of light. The rooster is tossing back an outline of a pint, which is filled with the golden sunlight. The blue sky and hay-colored fields evoke the warmth and imagery of summertime.
Haymaker is the second seasonal in a three part series, following BridgePort’s popular Beertown Brown. Haymaker will be available May through August, followed by Ebenezer Ale. The beer will be distributed in eight Western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington.