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Order window for outdoor customers. |
Five minutes away is Bottle Logic. We had:
- Rad Storm (good hazy DIPA with Southern Cross hops)
- All These Flavors (nice sweet stout with cacao, caramel, lactose, and sea salt) (collaboration with Horus Aged Ales)
- Show Your Work (good imperial stout)
- La Calotterie (very good imperial vanilla stout aged in apple brandy barrels with almonds)
- Ground State 2018 (nice bourbon barrel-aged breakfast stout with coffee, cacao nibs, and maple)
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Control panel is part of the décor. |
We drove in rush hour traffic to Torrance. We were able to use the HOV lane because there were two of us, but it still took
an hour for what would normally take 45 minutes. We checked in at the Del Amo Inn, picked up some food at Trader Joe's,
and drove over to Monkish. It was cool and windy as the sun began to set.
Monkish was crowded and lively. We sampled:
- Silent Language (good quite sour wild blonde ale aged 13 months in a foudre)
- illFLORA (nice tart farmhouse ale with peppercorns and sea salt) (collaboration with Fonta Flora)
- Even More Props & Stunts (very good double dry-hopped DIPA with Mosaic hops)
- Unfold the Scroll (great triple dry-hopped DIPA with Citra hops)
Monkish had had a can release of Unfold the Scroll earlier in the day. They sold 1200 4-packs at $25 each in one hour,
their fastest sellout ever. Not only was this beer great but it got better as it warmed up.
Less than half a mile away is Smog City Brewing. It was crowded and festive, and there were
several dogs. We saw dogs in many breweries throughout our trip. We tried:
- SteelCraft IPA (good clean IPA with Mosaic, Citra, and Centennial hops)
- Amorilla Gorilla (good clean IPA)
- Farmhouse Rock (good tart wheat ale)
- Devil Up a Tree (nice barrel-aged dry-hopped sour) (collaboration with TRVE Brewing)
- Benny and the Bretts Volume 2 (good sangiovese-aged sour red rye)
Friday June 15. Another 2:30 morning. I wrote while John snored. We drove in shitty traffic to Venice, parked at Firestone Walker's
Propagator location, and walked down to Venice Beach. It was somewhat cloudy but the temperature was pleasant. Along the way
there were bikes and scooters
that people could rent via a phone app. There were many types of people: tourists, joggers, beach bums, and homeless. Inside a
fitness studio there was an exercise class full of nothing but hot women, and the instructor was movie star gorgeous. The beach was somewhat
sunny and it didn't smell bad like some East Coast beaches do. We walked on the
Venice Pier and saw lots of people surfing and paddleboarding in the water, jogging on the beach, and fishing off the pier. Not a lot of people
just sat on the beach; most of them were involved in some sort of activity. The end of the pier was disgusting: covered in seagull crap and full of
unattractive people fishing. There were signs warning that many of the fish were contaminated.
We walked along the Venice Beach Boardwalk, which is a misnomer because it's not wooden but paved. There were all manner of things for sale
such as food, T-shirts, massages, tattoos, vapes, etc. There were basketball and tennis courts, and of course the famous Muscle Beach Gym.
The streets that parallel the beach are trafficky, but the side streets that run perpendicular are quiet and pretty.
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Side street. |
We walked back to the car, ate some food to lay a base, and went into the Propagator.
We got samples of:
- Luponic Distortion (clean IPA)
- Union Jack (clean IPA)
- Mother's Milk (quite good imperial milk porter aged in rye barrels with lactose and sea salt)
- Sucaba (good English barleywine)
- Agrestic (pretty good wild ale)
- Undercurrants (good wild ale with Polish black currants)
We left around 1:00 PM and drove in horrendous traffic to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Once we got on the PCH traffic was still horrible for a
while, and the scenery sucked because buildings blocked our view of nature. Once we got north of Malibu things started to improve:
traffic lightened, and there were some good views of ocean to the west and mountains to the east. There were also several beaches, none
of which were congested. We paid $3.70 per gallon for gas, and some places were charging $4.20. Things got congested and ugly around
Oxnard and again around Santa Barbara, adding more time to our trip, but other than that driving was smooth and there was lots of nice
scenery, mostly mountains but occasional ocean. I took some photos along the way but they really can't do the scenery any justice.
It took us 4 hours to make what should have been a 2½-hour trip to Buellton. We checked in at a Motel 6, which was the most expensive Motel 6 we'd
ever seen at $200 a night. Turns out that they increased the price by over $100 because it was Father's Day weekend and every hotel/motel in
the area was gouging visitors. We walked a half mile to Firestone Walker's
Barrelworks location. It has a "normal" tap room where they serve their
usual stuff, and the Barrelworks tap room with their wild and strong ales. Guess which tap room we visited. It had a nice dim, wooden
décor. All of their wild ales are fermented in oak barrels, mostly French with some Hungarian and a few American. We sampled:
- Scotch Parabola (nice peaty Russian imperial stout aged in Scotch barrels)
- Helldorado (good light-bodied barleywine)
- Velvet Merkin 2017 (so-so bourbon oatmeal stout)
- Parabola 2018 (nice Russian imperial stout)
- Reginald Brett 2017 (good sour ale)
It was windy and chilly when we walked back to the motel. Maybe if we'd sampled more beer we'd have been warmer...
Saturday June 16. Woke up around 3:00. We left on a cool, cloudy morning and drove along the PCH. It was beautiful, with mountains
on both sides. The grass was yellow but there were lots of green trees. We passed some vineyards and the occasional horse farm. Eventually we drove
through Fort Hunter Liggett, which is in the middle of nowhere. Then we passed through Los Padres National Forest on a long, winding, mountainous
road with lots of blind curves. We stopped at one spot for a nice view.
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Panoramic shot. |
As we descended toward the PCH we got some great views such as these:
After 3½ hours of driving we stopped and hiked at Partington Cove.
There are nice views from above and a trail that leads down to two coves. There's a big one...
...and a smaller one.
It was windy and cool up on the PCH but became less windy as we descended.
I took two brief videos of water splashing on the rocks that you can view
here and
here.
I took note of how if we hadn't been on a beer quest, we wouldn't have visited this place. I made up a short poem:
If it weren't for beer, we wouldn't be here.
We stopped at a spot that had two restaurants (Nepenthe and Café Kevah) because I'd read that there was a great view from there.
It was very crowded because it was lunchtime, so we had trouble parking.
In the outdoor seating area at Nepenthe I saw a bird steal a bread roll from a serving tray and fly off with it.
Next we hiked at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. It has lots of redwoods (Sequoias) and a
trail that leads to a valley view. There is also a trail to a waterfall but it was closed due to fire and flood damage. Many of the redwoods
had char marks from previous fires.
Afterward we bought gas for a mere $5.06 per gallon (there were only 2 gas stations in the area so they could charge anything).
The PCH from Big Sur to Carmel was beautiful, with mountains to the east and ocean to the west.
We then stopped at our only brewery of the day: Sante Adairius Rustic Ales. It's a small place
that opened in 2012. We tried:
- Tomorrow, Today (good IPA with Simcoe, Citra, and Mosaic)
- Lucyville (nice sour saison with Brettanomyces)
- Saison Bernice (good quite sour ale)
- Chavez (good robust porter)
- Love's Armor (nice woody barrel-aged sour ale with cherries)
- West Ashley (good sour barrel-aged saison with apricots)
Then we drove to the home of my old friends Anne and Russ, who have a horse farm, and stayed overnight.
Sunday June 17. A cool, cloudy morning. We hung out with Anne and Russ for a few hours and had a great conversation about many things,
including our 2005 trip to Belgium and Germany. Then John and I headed north.
The traffic was awful at first but eventually lightened. As the PCH neared the ocean we had mountains to the east and water to the west,
although it wasn't quite as pretty as it was just north of Big Sur. There were many state beaches, but it was so cool and windy that they were good
only for photos or surfing if you had a wetsuit. The photos below are from Pescadero State Beach.
We drove to San Francisco, the traffic getting worse and worse as we approached. It was fairly warm and very sunny. We went to
the Almanac Beer Company. They have two locations: a
barrel house / brewery / tap room in Alameda; and a
tap room / beer garden / kitchen, where we were. This section of San Francisco smelled like urine. We ate some food, went in, and sampled:
- Loud! (quite good DIPA dry-hopped with Citra and Mosaic)
- Lavender Honey Brett Saison (good sour farmhouse ale aged in oak barrels with lavender, honey, and spices)
- Passion Project (good funky sour ale aged with passionfruit, cedar spirals, and spices)
- Blanc Flavor Wheel (good sour dry-hopped farmhouse ale aged in oak barrels with gooseberries, pineapple, muscat grapes, lemongrass, and passionfruit)
- Cherry Supernova (good quite sour blonde ale aged in oak barrels with cherries)
We got back on the highway and endured horrible traffic on the way to our next brewery:
Fieldwork Brewing in Berkeley.
This place was crowded and festive, with dogs, kids, and classic rock music.
We tried:
- Bright as the Sun (good light farmhouse ale)
- Lilith (good Belgian golden ale)
- Truly Madly Dankly (good double dry-hopped IPA)
- Losers' Club Vol. II (nice murky DIPA) (collaboration with Claimstake Brewing)
I bought a crowler of Losers' Club Vol. II, then we headed to the
Channing
Guest House. If you ever visit Berkeley, you must stay here. It is run by a nice little old lady named Judy. The house is
her private residence, and it is simply lovely, rustic, and cozy. She has a hot tub out back, and told us that no one ever wears a
bathing suit in it (this is Berkeley, after all). She also keeps chickens out back. She made us feel at home by
providing food and allowing us to raid her fridge whenever we wanted.
There are no screens in the windows so flies get in, but they aren't active at night when it cools down.
There are two craft beer places within walking distance. Walking around the neighborhood reminded me of the suburban neighborhood I grew
up in: quiet, pretty, with old-style houses and lots of shrubbery. When we got to the
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Room, we discovered that was "temporarily
closed while we upgrade your experience". Oh well, it is only a pub; they don't actually brew here.
We walked over to Rare Barrel, which makes nothing but sour ales. They've been brewing since 2012 but
didn't open until 2013 because sour ales take a long time to age. They have about 1000 barrels, 750 or more of which are full at
any given time depending on when their last bottling/kegging run was. They ship bottles to customers via a company called
Golden State Overnight, but only in California due to legal issues. We sampled:
- Raging Waters (nice golden ale aged in oak barrels with fresh watermelon)
- Les Bouquet (good golden ale aged in oak barrels with kumquats, orange peel, and Buddha's hand)
- Prism of Time (nice saison brewed with aged hops and aged in oak barrels)
- Roads Diverge 2018 (good tart, funky saison aged in oak barrels)
- Blurred PsM 2018 (nice sour saison aged in oak barrels with petit syrah and merlot grapes)
- Seditious Ways 2016 (good dark sour ale aged in oak barrels with tart cherries)
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Awards from the World Beer Cup. |
On the way back to the Channing Guest House we noticed that some folks leave books outside for people to take.
When we got back I opened my laptop to do some writing, but Judy's cat Cupcake had other plans.
Monday June 18. Judy cooked us a nice breakfast and we talked with her a while. She said that while her Berkeley neighborhood is
nice now, it had a lot of crime when she first moved there in 2004. It has been gentrifying, and home values have gone way up.
Also, she's been married and divorced 6 times! She told us about an old hippie food store just down the street called Berkeley Bowl West
that has lots of food. John and I went to pick up food for the road. It is quite large, and it has more produce than you can shake a
stick at, with every kind of fruit and vegetable grown in America. It was 9:00 AM on a Monday and the place was very busy.
Does anyone in this town work? Many of the shoppers were unusual, crunchy granola types, which is just what one would expect in Berkeley.
On our way up the PCH we stopped at Muir Beach, which was fairly nice.
Apparently there was a closure along the PCH north of us as we got detoured to Frank Valley Road. We passed
Muir Woods, which has big redwoods. It was packed, and a sign said that to get in
you need a reservation. The road is very twisty, and has some gorgeous views such as this:
We made it to Stinson Beach, which is several miles long and has a beautiful mountain backdrop.
North of there it got sunnier and there was great mountain scenery. We eventually made it to
Bear Republic Brewing, which has 3 locations. We were at their
brewpub and small production facility in Healdsburg. It's set back off the street in a quiet area behing the main strip of stores.
It has an outdoor patio and inside they played classic rock.
To get small samples you have to buy all 9 house ales, or all 6 specialty ales, or all 4 barrel-aged / limited edition ales.
We got the 6 specialty ales. All 4 of the hoppy beers were clean and well-made.
- Volksbier (good crisp, clean pilsner)
- Short Shifter (good hoppy lager)
- Hop Shovel (nice IPA)
- Fastback Racer (nice DIPA)
- Heritage (decent wee heavy)
- Olde Scoutter's (pretty good barleywine)
We drove to the Hotel Azura and checked in. The room was large and had high-quality beds. We ate some food and then walked to
Russian River Brewing. If you know craft beer, you know that they have a great reputation
for hoppy and sour ales. Even with their reputation, they don't gouge on prices. Normal prices are $5.25 for a full pour of non-sour
beer. Sour/funky beers are $6.50 or $7.50 for 14 ounces, and 3-ounce samples are $2.
We were there during happy hour (4:00-6:30 Monday-Friday and all day Sunday) when their non-sour beers were only $4 for a full pour.
By the way, there were some beautiful women in there. I can say that because I don't have a girlfriend so there is no one to
get upset at me. We drank:
- Happy Hops (nice dry, bitter IPA with good hop nose)
- Blind Pig (nice smooth IPA)
- Pliny the Elder (nice smooth DIPA with Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, Cascade, Warrior, and Simcoe hops)
- Damnation (decent Belgian golden ale)
- Sanctification (fairly good funky golden ale fermented with 100% Brettanomyces)
- Supplication (great brown sour ale aged in pinot noir barrels with sour cherries, Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus)
- Consecration (nice dark sour ale aged in cabernet sauvignon barrels with black currants, Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus)
A note on Pliny the Elder: It has been highly rated and sought after for many years. There are two main reasons for this. First, it made
its reputation in the early 2000s, when there weren't nearly as many great hoppy beers as there are now, so it didn't have as much competition.
Second, Russian River's beers aren't distributed very much outside the brewpub, and the more difficult something is to get, the higher its
perceived value. It is a very enjoyable beer, but with the explosion of craft breweries, a lot of delicious IPAs and DIPAs are now being produced,
some of them better than Pliny (for example, we had better DIPAs at Lost Abbey and Monkish).
Tuesday June 19. I slept until 4:00 AM, which was the latest I'd slept since the first night of the trip. We drove more than 150 miles
along the North Coast
through beautiful mountain scenery to Avenue of the Giants,
a 31½-mile road running alongside Route 101 that has
lots of giant redwoods. The trees there are even bigger than the ones
we saw at Big Sur. Although there are millions of them, only 4% of these old-growth redwoods are left - the rest have been cut down for lumber.
The tannins help repel insects, which makes the wood desirable.
The bark has a lot of moisture, which helps protect the trees against fire. However, once the bark has
been breached, the wood burns quickly. Many of the trees are scorched from past fires, and some are hollowed out from some of the wood burning.
New species of life are being discovered up in the canopy. They weren't discovered until recent decades because they spend their entire lives up
there. We stopped at 3 areas. The first was near the visitors center.
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Nearby river. |
Next was Founder's Grove.
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John next to the fallen Dyerville Giant... |
...and me at the base of it. |
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The forest floor has lots of ferns... |
...and clover. |
Finally, the Big Trees Area. (Isn't the entire place a big trees area?)
As we left the Avenue we stopped for this overlook.
We drove up to Arcata and checked in at the Hotel Arcata. I'm not sure how old it is, but there is a photo on the wall with someone in front of it
on horseback.
As we went out we saw several beatnik/hippie types with long hair and dressed in ratty clothing. We drove to
Redwood Curtain Brewing, which opened in 2010. They
played 60s music. We tried:
- India Pale Ale (good clean, crisp, bitter IPA)
- Black Forest Imperial Stout 2018 (quite good)
- Belgian Pale Ale (good and estery) (2017 GABF bronze medal winner)
- Strange Daze American Strong Ale (not much aroma or flavor)
- Sultry Cyclone Double IPA (good and hoppy)
- Senor Pumelo-Pino Double IPA (fairly good)
- La Baie D'oie (good light sour ale aged in French oak with gooseberries)
- Abricot Rustique (nice woody sour ale aged in oak with apricots)
- Cerise Coup (good sour ale aged in French oak with cherries)
- Madame Sournoise (good quite sour ale aged in French oak with cranberries and cherries)
We drove back to the hotel and walked to the Dead
Reckoning Tavern, a neat little beer bar with a sort of black-light-poster décor and dozens of craft brews on tap, as well as several in cans
and bottles. A bartender from Redwood Curtain and his girlfriend, the latter of which we had talked to for a while, showed up a few minutes
after we did.
We tried half-pours of:
- Modern Times Citadel (good light-bodied NEIPA)
- Modern Times Critical Band (good full-bodied NEIPA)
- Hop Valley Goodnight Irene (nice barrel-aged triple)
- The Booth Dancing Cow Milk Stout (just okay) (Korean brewery that has a brewery in Eureka CA)
- Brouwerij West Saison Extra (pretty good light saison)
- Grimm Vacay (nice funky dry-hopped sour)
- De Struisse Cuvée Delphine (nice 2015 barrel-aged stout)
- Eel River Triple Exultation (good old ale)
Wednesday June 20. We drove to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to see more redwoods. On a tip from our bartender at the Dead Reckoning Tavern, we first drove to Fern
Canyon, which is an area of this park that is known for - you guessed it - ferns. The last part of our drive was 6 miles of twisting,
winding, dirt road. The area was lush and green and kind of dark due to it being a cloudy day. John commented that it reminded him of
Jurassic Park. We found out later that Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World was filmed here. The signs told us that the area had
bears, mountain lions, ticks, and poison oak, plus elk that will attack if they're protecting their young,
so naturally we went for a long hike. We befriended a woman named Regina, who grew up in
Boston and was currently living in Santa Fe. She had a trail map so she helped us find our way. It was a gorgeous hike, with zillions
of beautiful green ferns, plus some redwoods and clover. The temperature was in the 60s, which was good hiking weather.
We hiked about 6 miles.
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The clover was purple underneath. |
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We then drove to the visitors center and hiked a few miles among some huge redwoods. I was even more impressed with them than I had been the
day before because it was becoming more apparent how magnificent they are. The photos below can't capture any tree in its entirety, so I
attempted to do so in this video.
In the middle of the forest the redwoods have foliage only towards the top because there is little sunlight further down. However, the trees
at the edge of the forest have foliage most of the way down due to the presence of sunlight.
We then started our 4½-hour drive to Crater Lake National Park.
As we drove away from the coast the weather went from cloudy and cool to sunny and warm. We meandered through mountain roads in
southern Oregon and made our way northward. At one point it was 80 degrees out. However, when we got up to
the park just before sunset, it was 47 degrees. There were even a few
patches of snow. We checked in at the Cabins
at Mazama Village. Our room was nice but it had lots of large mosquitoes. John killed at least a dozen of them.
We got a good night's sleep after a long day of hiking and driving.
Thursday June 21. A late morning. I slept in until after 4:00 AM and stayed in bed until 6:30.
We drove up to the actual lake and hiked to Garfield Peak, a steep climb at 8000 feet above sea level
that was challenging for two people with a combined age
of 113. Crater Lake is a beautiful shade of aqua blue and is surrounded by steep rock faces.
It formed 7700 years ago when a volcanic eruption turned 12,000-foot Mount Mazama into a large crater.
The island you see in the lake is Wizard Island, which is a volcano within a volcano, with its own crater at the top.
From Garfield Peak there was a great view of mountains in the distance.
We found a small moth/butterfly up there.
Next we drove more than 2 hours to Bend, where it was 85 degrees, and visited two breweries that are walking distance from each other. First was
GoodLife Brewing, which has a kitchen, a brewery, and a column still that they use
to make vodka under the trade name Backdrop Distilling. Our bartender gave us a small sample and it was good and smoooth.
The place has a happy vibe, with a light wooden interior and music. They've been in business since 2011. It wasn't even 4:30 yet and there were
already a good number of folks, including kids. Their beers were what I would call "safe", meaning that they probably wouldn't win any
awards, but they were well-made and had no flaws.
- Descender (good light, refreshing, bitter IPA)
- Searching for Clarity (pretty good semi-hoppy ale)
- Evil Sister (good smooth DIPA)
- Comatose (good easy-drinking IIPA)
- Pass Stout (good)
- 7 Year Anniversary (nice barrel-aged imperial stout)
- G. Love's Special Sauce (pretty good IPA)
Around the corner is Ale Apothecary, which has also been in business since 2011, though
this tasting room didn't open until 2017.
All wort is brewed 10 miles west of Bend in small batches in a wooden mash tun in someone's garage (this would be illegal in many states
such as Maryland)
and trucked to this location for barrel aging with souring organisms. The water is pumped from a well and carbon-filtered
but no brewing salts are added. The brewer worked at Deschutes for 15 years and left when their process became too automated.
Ale Apothecary beers are very pricey: $26-30 for a 750-ml bottle
and $6 for a 4-ounce sample. We tried all 4 of the beers available for sampling that day.
- OJ Dan Firkin' (good light tart ale aged in rye barrels and then a puncheon with orange juice)
- Fresh Hopped Sahalie (nice smooth, tart, woody ale)
- El Cuatro (decent sour, somewhat vinegary ale aged in brandy and pinot noir barrels)
- Native Oregonism (good tart ale with honey and botanicals added) (collaboration with Culmination Brewing)
The first beer was served from a firkin, but unlike other firkins this one had CO2 pumped into it (see photo below center).
The beer was still light on CO2 though.
We checked into the local Motel 6 and then walked to the Safeway to stock up on road food.
Friday June 22. The sleep deprivation finally caught up with me. Slept until 6:30 AM. It was a beautiful sunny day. We walked
into town. On the way we saw a cannabis dispensary. Unlike the one in California, there was no security there. Gas was $3.05 at one station,
which was considerably less than in California. Eventually we arrived at the Platypus Pub, not
to drink beer, but to shop at its attached business, The Brew Shop, which sells many bottled and canned craft beers, as well as homebrew supplies.
I used my phone to look up beers' ratings on Beer Advocate and selected 5 cans. The Internet is a
beautiful thing.
We walked down to Drake Park, which is located next to the Deschutes River.
Afterward we headed to Deschutes but happened to walk by Bend Brewing, which didn't get high
ratings on Beer Advocate, but, what the heck, we were here. They've been in business since 1995. Outside they have a patio and a grassy area.
We only wanted a few samples but at this
place you must buy 6, so that's what we did. The beers were rather pedestrian.
On the wall they had numerous beer awards, which was a bit puzzling. The beer that got the most awards is called Outback X. We had ordered it
as part of our beer flight but they ran out.
- Tropic Pines (pretty good IPA)
- Poppin' Bottles ("sour" ale that tasted like they used lactic acid)
- Bullpen (pretty good double dry-hopped pale ale that didn't have much aroma or flavor)
- Bigly (pretty good barleywine that could use more hops)
- Big Bad Russian (imperial stout that was good but not imperial)
- Throwback (pretty good IPA)
We walked a few blocks to the Deschutes Public House, one of two Deschutes locations
in Bend. This is their original brewery and pub, which opened in 1988. It was expanded in 2012, and the place is huge. There were lots
of people eating and drinking. Like the place we'd just left, we had to buy 6 samples, and the beers were pedestrian.
- Rainbow Reign Brut IPA (pretty good, light, and dry)
- Pacific Wonderland (pretty good and dry)
- Bachelor Bitter (pretty good)
- Mirror Pond Pale Ale (pretty good)
- Botanic Ale (pretty good beer with juniper)
- Dill Pickle Sour (good kettle sour)
At this point John went back to the motel to use the pool and I walked to the other Deschutes location because I was sure
that it would have better beer. As I crossed the Deschutes River I stumbled upon
McKay Park,
a riverfront park where people were rafting on the river and surfing on the rapids. A brief video of the park is
here and videos of people surfing are
here,
here, and
here.
I had lunch in the park. There was a rainbow that encircled the Sun. I'd never seen that before. My camera couldn't capture it
because of the glare.
The Deschutes Tasting Room is Deschutes's main production facility.
It was crowded, and a tour was being given. Since I was alone, I didn't want to buy a bunch of samples. Well, at this location, not only can
you choose how many you buy, you don't have to buy any at all because they give small samples for free. I tried:
- Hophenge (good hoppy IIPA)
- Black Raspberry Sour Ale (pretty good)
- The Ages (nice sour ale that tasted authentic)
- Oh Be Joyful (good pale ale that tasted wet-hopped) (brewed with an Ecliptic Brewing brewer who used to work at Deschutes)
- Fresh Squeezed IPA (pretty good)
I headed toward Boneyard Brewing to meet up with John. As I crossed back over the Deschutes, I saw lots of people rafting upstream.
Shortly thereafter I happened upon a cannabis dispensary, so I stopped in. Just like the other one we'd seen earlier, there was no
security there. Unlike the one in California, they do take credit cards. Perhaps security isn't needed because they don't handle as much
cash, or maybe it's because Bend has less crime.
Down the street I saw Immersion Brewing, so I went in because, well, you know. In addition to a
brewery it is also a brew-on-premise.
- Bender (pretty good Belgian IPA)
- Epic Bender (pretty good IIPA)
- Mighty Madi (pretty good "trippel" fermented in a barrel)
- Raven Rye'sn (good barrel-aged rye CDA (Cascadia dark ale))
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Posted on their walk-in cooler. |
Right next door is Avid Cider Company.
It had been called Atlas Cider Company until just a few weeks earlier, but changed its name due to a trademark complaint
from Washington DC brewery Atlas Brew Works.
The Bend cidery filed the name "Atlas Cider" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in early 2013, but the DC brewery
had filed a trademark for its own brewery just three weeks before that. Anyway, the bartender let me try some tiny samples for free.
- Hard POM Cherry (pretty good)
- Pineapple Mango (good and fruity)
- Hard Blackberry (good)
Then I met John at Boneyard Beer. It's located just off of a residential neighborhood, and it
is not well marked. It's popular though. Quite a few customers were constantly coming and going, trying samples and getting growlers filled
(they don't serve pints). They didn't have a bathroom; there was a port-o-potty outside. They were getting ready to move to a new
locaton. We tried all their beers:
- Pabo Pilsner (pretty good and light)
- Diablo Rojo (good red ale)
- Incredible Pulp (pretty good pale ale with blood orange)
- RPM IPA (good and smooth)
- EEEPA (pretty good)
- Hop-A-Wheelie (good IPA)
- Hop Venom (nice DIPA)
- Notorious (good but sweet triple IPA)
- Four Finger (good but sweet 13% ABV quad IPA)
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Soap made with their beer. |
Then we walked to our final brewery of the day,
Crux Fermentation Project.
In addition to the bar there is a big grassy area where there were lots of people.
We sampled:
- Gimme Mo (so-so IPA)
- Half Hitch (pretty good, bitter Mosaic IIPA)
- Double Sevens (good IIPA)
- In the Pocket '18 (good barrel-aged saison)
- Freakcake '18 (good barrel-aged oud bruin)
- Tough Love '16 (good chocolaty barrel-aged imperial Russian stout)
We walked back to the motel and turned in early.
Saturday June 23. Got up around 2:00 AM and wrote for several hours. It was another lovely day. We drove north almost 3 hours
to Hood River, surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery. We stopped along the way to take photos of Mount Hood.
Hood River is a bustling little town situated on the south side of the Columbia River.
The streets are hilly and there's a lot of traffic. There is a waterfront park that has a great view of the river
and the mountains in the background. Kids were playing on the playground and adults were kite surfing. It was fairly windy out.
Across the street is pFriem Family Brewers. It was noon and the place was packed. There is a restaurant
with a bar, and there is a separate bar for only beer called the Bear's Den. That's where we drank. We got samples of:
- Barrel-Aged Saison II (good tart, somewhat estery beer)
- Abrikoos (pretty good quite sour apricot lambic)
- Fraise (decent musty strawberry lambic that tasted like plastic)
- Oude Kriek (good fruity sour ale)
- Golden IPA (good refreshing hoppy ale)
- Blonde IPA (pretty good not-very-hoppy ale)
pFriem gets fairly high ratings on Beer Advocate, but the beers were just good, not great. Good thing the town has pretty scenery.
Another well-rated brewery called Logsdon Farmhouse Ales is less than 30 minutes away, but unfortunately they do not accommodate
visitors, so
we drove to the nearby Volcanic Bottle Shoppe, which sells some difficult-to-find
beers, including some from Logsdon. They also have several beers on tap, so I tried a few.
I bought 4 Logsdon 750s, plus 2 cans of NEIPA from a more highly rated brewery called
Revision Brewing, for a total of $100. But they gave me a 10% discount. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
Then we drove 2½ hours to Tillamook, passing gorgeous mountain scenery, including the Tillamook State Forest, to
de Garde Brewing, because a friend told me they make great beers, plus they are
very highly rated on Beer Advocate. They had 6 of their own beers on tap and 6 guest taps, plus a whole lot of bottles.
Prices were reasonable for sour/funky ales: $4 for 6 ounces and $6 for 12 ounces.
We sampled 5 of their beers and 2 guest beers.
- The Lily (nice sour wild ale aged in oak with tempranillo grapes)
- The Lucy Reserve (good earthy, funky wild ale aged in oak with muscat grapes)
- F.A.I.L. (Formerly an Interesting Lager) (good smooth medium-sour wild lager aged in oak)
- The Little Peach (good quite sour wild ale aged in oak with Oregon peaches; great aroma)
- The Kriekenbloesom (nice quite sour wild ale aged in oak with tart cherries and cherry blossoms; excellent aroma)
- Block 15 Second Canniversary (good smooth, hoppy IPA) (collaboration with Alesong Brewing & Blending)
- Logsdon Oak Aged Bretta (good tart, smooth, funky saison aged in oak) (not as great as its high Beer Advocate rating)
Tillamook is the one town where
I didn't get a motel reservation. Most of the motels don't even answer their phone. We called the Inn at the Convention
Center in Portland, where I'd already
reserved a room for the following week, and added this night to the reservation. This meant another 1½ hours of driving back to Portland,
but at least we wouldn't have to get up early and drive the following morning. We were once again graced with beautiful greenery.
Traffic got heavy as we approached the city. We checked in and emptied the car of all our stuff, including about 40 cans and bottles of beer.
Sunday June 24. A cool, cloudy morning. John and I walked over the
Steel Bridge and along the trail at
Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
We saw a lot of joggers, and also quite a few homeless. We returned to the hotel and then drove to John's final brewery before
he flew home: Columbia River Brewing.
(I would be staying in town another week to visit breweries and attend HomebrewCon.)
We got there right when they opened at
10:00 AM. Hey, sometimes you gotta get an early start. The place smelled like cleaning solution. We tried:
- Hop Heaven IPA (pretty good, dry, and bitter)
- War Elephant DIPA (pretty good)
- Stumbler's Stout (so-so)
- E.S.B. (pretty good)
Afterward we drove to a very nice residential area called Laurelhurst and walked through
Laurelhurst Park. There were lots of joggers and walkers.
By now the clouds had burned off and it was sunny and warm.
I dropped John off at the airport, which was busy, then drove back into town, returned the rental car at Enterprise, and walked back to
the hotel. On the way I found a strip of linden
trees whose flowers were in full bloom and smelling lovely. This species blooms in June each year. We have them in Maryland too.
I contacted my friends Chris (who owns Maryland Homebrew) and Mike, who were also in town for HomebrewCon,
and met them at Upright Brewing. This is a confusing place to enter if you've
never been there. I got to the address and saw no sign of the place. I walked around the building and finally saw a little sandwich
board on the sidewalk. I went through the unmarked door, and some guy asked if he could help me. I said I was looking for Upright Brewing.
He told me to take the elevator down. I found Chris and Mike and joined them. The place looks like a large residential
basement. Unlike all the other breweries I'd been to, this place allows people to walk among the brewing equipment. In fact, it
encourages it by putting chairs and tables next to the tanks and barrels. The beers we sampled are listed below.
I didn't take any tasting notes because I was busy socializing.
- Petite Pale
- Saison Vert
- Engelberg Pilsener
- Super Cool IPA
- Baurenhaus Ensemble
- Barrel-Aged Juzek 13°
- Safe as Milk
- Four Play
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They do open fermentation. |
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We walked in increasingly hot weather to meet 3 other Maryland homebrewers who were in town for HomebrewCon: Kevin, Margie, and Mark, at
Ex Novo Brewing. It was crowded and we had to wait for a table. We ordered beers at the
bar and scattered to drink them wherever we could find room. We met a guy at the bar named Sean, who was also in town for HomebrewCon.
He joined us when we got our table and would accompany us to every brewpub thereafter. We drank:
- Sun's Out Bun's Out (very good hazy IPA) (collaboration with Urban Family Brewing)
- Not Too Brite (quite good NEIPA)
- Cactus Wins the Lottery (good quite sour Berliner weisse with prickly pear)
- Dynamic Duo (pretty good IIPA)
- Bootlegging Citra (good sour IPA)
- Beehive State Pale (good pale ale with honey)
Incidentally, there are a lot of tattoos in Portland. Check out this woman. The photo is a little blurry because I had to take
it quickly and discreetly.
It was getting hotter out, and since this place didn't have air conditioning we walked to Ecliptic Brewing.
We were hot and sweaty when we arrived, and fortunately they had air conditioning. We got some food and the following beers:
- Orbiter IPA (good, smooth, and clean)
- Algol Belgian Tripel (good and estery)
- Callisto (pretty good black currant tripel)
- Capella Porter (good)
- Starburst IPA (good, not very hoppy)
- Quasar Pale Ale (good and hoppy)
- Phobos Single Hop Red Ale (pretty good)
- Espacio Mexican Lager (decent lager with lime zest)
- Carina Peach Sour Ale (good, sour, and a bit fruity)
- Barley Brown's Occam's Hazer #4 (good hazy IPA) (guest tap)
We then took another hot walk over to Stormbreaker Brewing and sampled:
- Cloud Ripper IPA (pretty good)
- Savage Numbus DIPA (good and smooth)
- When I Froot I Froot for the... (with mango and guava) (pretty good)
- When I Froot I Froot for the... (with dragon fruit, strawberry, lemon, and guava)
- Triple Double IIPA (pretty good)
- Oak Aged Sour Brown (good) (their first sour ale ever)
- Van Damme That's Good (quad)
- Right as Rain (good pale ale)
Next we walked to Hopworks BikeBar. This one of Hopworks Urban Brewery's (HUB) 3 locations.
There is another HUB in Portland and one in Vancouver. The weather was cooling off as it was about 7:30 PM. We got food and the following
beers:
- Sunset Fuel (good hazy IPA)
- Strawberry Milkshake IPA (with strawberries and lactose) (good)
- Totally Chill (good hazy IPA)
- Moment of Clarity (good IIPA)
- All Gold Everything (decent Belgian golden ale)
- Ferocious Citra IPA (good not-bitter beer)
- Nitro: Porter (bland)
- Long Root Pale Ale (good)
Around the corner is Fifth Quadrant, which is
one of Lompoc Brewing's several locations.
Next to it is Sidebar, which is their barrel tasting room, but unfortunately it's closed on Sundays.
We went to Fifth Quadrant and tried:
- Pamplemousse Citra IPA (with grapefruit juice) (pretty good)
- C-Note IPA (pretty good)
- Honey Ryder Belgian Golden (okay)
- Lompocker Hoppy Kolsch (okay)
- Parkway Pilsner (okay)
It was getting dark out and we'd had enough brewpub hopping for the day so everyone Ubered back to their respective
hotels/Airbnbs.
Monday June 25. A cool, cloudy morning. Picked up some food at a grocery store called the Green Zebra. There sure wass a lot of
construction going on in town. Many sidewalks were closed. Crossed the Willamette River on the Steel Bridge and took this photo:
Met the same group of folks at Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House.
Just like their Public House in Bend, to get samples you have to order 6 at a time. We drank:
- Mirror Pond Pale Ale (good)
- Parallel Dimension (so-so Belgian pale ale)
- Passion Fruit IPA (pretty good)
- Three Blind Weiss (nice hefeweizen)
- American Wheat (pedestrian)
- Black Butte Porter (decent)
- Fruit Fight (good hazy IPA)
- Rainbow Reign (pretty good and dry)
- Nitro Obsidian Stout (pretty good)
- On-On Saison (bland)
- Light Through the Clouds (good session IPA)
- Wasp Nest (good Belgian dubbel aged in pinot noir casks, with Brettanomyces and figs)
- Dissident '16 (bottle) (very good, slightly tart oud bruin)
Mike and Chris bought me this Deschutes 30th anniversary shirt as a retirement gift:
We walked a few blocks to Von Ebert Brewing, which used to be Fat Head's. In March 2018 the
owner of Fat Head's opened his own franchise. Several of their
beers were good and the food was great, especially the onion rings. We sampled 11 house beers and 3 guest beers:
- Volatile Substance (good Mosaic IPA)
- Starcloud (good New England IPA with starfruit)
- City of Thunder (good Belgian golden strong aged in whiskey barrels)
- Basic Beach (pretty good blonde ale with wheat and peaches)
- Great Successor (pretty good red ale)
- Battle Stations (good IPA)
- Axe to Grind (pretty good pale ale)
- Special Tea Beer (not much flavor)
- Wagon for the Band (pretty good hazy IPA)
- American White Ale (good light witbier with coriander, chamomile, grapefruit, and orange zest)
- O.P.M. (very good Mexican stout with ancho chiles aged in bourbon barrels)
- Perennial Orange Lemon Key Lime Gose (good and sour)
- Ground Breaker IPA (pretty good)
- Reuben's Brews Gose (bland)
Next we walked to Rogue Pearl Public House. They make
not only beer but also cider, wine, gin, whiskey, and vodka. They had 39 beers on tap. We tried:
- Condor Kolsch (pretty good)
- Fruit Salad Cider (quite good cider made with cherries, plums, peaches, and marionberries)
- Cowlick Milk Stout (good stout with cacao nibs and lactose)
- Paradise Pucker (good sour with passionfruit, orange, and guava)
- Marionberry Sour (decent sour made with marionberries)
- Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout (nitro) (decent)
- Mojo (okay pale ale)
- Chocolate Stout (good)
- Double Chocolate Stout (good)
- Combat Wombat (good mixture of sour ale and IPA with grapefruit and blood orange)
- 7 Hop IPA (good)
- 10 Hop IPA (malty DIPA with honey and 10 kinds of hops)
- 4 Hop IPA (decent)
- 5 Hop IPA (pretty good black IPA)
- 6 Hop IPA (pretty good)
- XS Old Crustacean (good barleywine)
- Cold Brew 2.0 (decent blonde ale made with coffee and cacao nibs)
- Flanders Fruit Cake (decent Belgian brown ale made with boysenberries and tangerines)
- Straight Outta Newport (nice well-balanced DIPA)
- Pilot's Pale Ale (pretty good)
Across the street is 10 Barrel Brewing. It has both street level and
rooftop seating. We sampled:
- Crazise Kolsch (decent)
- Stone Free (good hazy IPA with peaches)
- Smooth Talker Pilsner (pretty good)
- Cumulus Lupulus (good pale ale)
- Bay Window Berliner (good quite sour Berliner weisse)
- Willie'a IRA (pretty good India red ale)
- Sasquatch (blonde ale)
- Joe (good clean IPA)
- Dub (good smooth DIPA)
- Pearl (pretty good DIPA)
- Dark Queen (okay dunkel)
- Glen Coco (pretty good coconut stout)
- Sinistor Black Ale (okay)
- Apocalypse (pretty good IPA)
Next door is Back Pedal Brewing. They have a "Brew Cycle" that people ride on the street via pedal power.
We tried:
- Taurus Saison (good)
- Summer Breeze (so-so English ale)
- Abacaxi (pretty good pineapple hefeweizen)
- Night Punk (good black IPA)
- Tropic Thunder (pretty good IPA with grapefruit and lemongrass)
- Black Petal (good Russian imperial stout)
- Swift Marionberry Cider (pretty good)
- Pelican Five Fin Pilzner (pretty good)
- Fox-Tail Sir Isaac Semi Cider (good)
- Boneyard RPM IPA (good)
- Wild Ride Tarty to the Party (good strawberry/lemon sour)
- Wild Ride Hidden Trail Blood Orange Pale (pretty good)
- Fort George City of Dreams (nice NEIPA)
Mike likes whiskey, so we went to the Multnomah Whisk{e}y Library. There was a 20-minute wait to get upstairs where
all the "good" whiskey is. Apparently the downstairs level has nothing but crap. Like I'd know the difference.
We sallied forth to Bailey's Taproom, which is a bar, and had:
They have a bar upstairs called The Upper Lip, which has as a great selection of beers both
on tap and in bottle. Also, there
happened to be a bottle share that night, so we got to meet other beer enthusiasts and share some beer.
We had:
Chris and Mike dropped my drunk ass off at the hotel in their Uber at around 11:30.
Tuesday June 26. Nice weather: in the 70s, partly sunny, and dry. Walked to
Burnside Brewing and had beers with Mark, Sean, Chris, Mike, and also Les, who had driven
into town that morning after a brewery trip that started in Seattle. This is one of those places where you have to get a pre-set flight of
samples instead of choosing your own. It has to do with the type of liquor license they have. We tried:
- Smooth Premium Ale (decent light ale)
- Isomer IPA (good)
- Sweet Heat (quite peppery wheat with apricot puree and Jamaican Scotch bonnet peppers)
- Couch Lager (pretty good India red ale)
- Burnside IPA (pretty good)
- Burnside Stout (good)
- Nitro Stout (bland)
- Lem & Ada (pretty good gose with strawberries, lemon zest, and lemonade)
- Permafrost (good imperial red ale)
- Lime Kolsch (good beer with lime zest and kaffir lime leaf)
- Oatmeal Pale (good)
- Who's Umami (good porter with shiitake powder) (collaboration with Yokosuka)
They also gave us several samples of fruity beers from other breweries that were left over from a fruit beer fest.
We walked a few blocks to Base Camp and sampled:
- Li'l Grom Hazy Pale (pretty good)
- Danny's Special (pretty good barrel-aged Belgian ale)
- Grisette (decent and light)
- Bretta Livin' Peach (pretty good sour ale)
- Windward Farmhouse Ale (pretty good and light)
- Nieuw Bruin (good)
- Ultra Gnar Gnar IPA (pretty good)
- Smooth Hoperator (fairly good and light)
- Cherry Nomadic (good)
- Barrel Aged Blood Orange Nomadic (nice)
Next we walked to Cascade Brewing Barrel House, where Kevin and Margie were waiting for
us. This place makes mostly sour ales but also some non-sours. The beers were impressive. We tasted:
- StrawBurial Lemon (good)
- Kriek 2016 (nice)
- Cascade IPA (good)
- Vitus Noble 2016 (good tart beer made with grapes)
- Pearpawsterous (good sour barrel-aged wheat with pears and pawpaw fruit) (collaboration with Upland Brewing)
- Pêche Fumé 2017 (good sour ale made with smoked malt and barrel-aged with peaches)
- Apricot 2017 (good sour ale aged in wine barrels with apricots)
- Honey Ginger Lime (good oak aged rye ale with ginger, lime zest, and wildflower honey)
- Belmont Street Bramble (good sour blonde ale aged in oak with raspberries and tangerine peel)
- Vlad the Imp Aler 2013 (quite good mixture of quad, triple, and blonde ales aged in barrels with orange peel and coriander)
- Sang Noir 2016 (good quite sour imperial red ale aged in barrels with bing cherries)
- Cherry Bourbonic 2012 (great sour ale aged in barrels with dates, spices, bing cherries, and sour pie cherries)
- Melonius Blonde (good sour ale aged in wine barrels with cantaloupes and summer kiss melons)
- Honeycot (good fruity, sweet blonde ale aged in wine barrels with apricots and wildflower honey) (on nitro)
- Sang du Chêne 2015 (pretty good mixture of blonde and triple aged in foudres, puncheons, and hogsheads)
- Figaro 2015 (good blonde ale aged in Chardonnay barrels with white figs and citrus peel)
- One Way or Another (good sour triple aged in barrels with marionberries and Meyer lemon zest) (collaboration with
Bruery Terreux)
- Bees Knees (good blonde aged in oak barrels with honeysuckle and wildflower honey)
- Honey Teacot (good sour strong blonde aged in oak barrels with apricots, honey, and tea)
- Shiso Sour Red Basil (peppery sour ale aged in wine barrels with red shiso and red basil)
- Midnight Bramble (good sour aged with black raspberries, ginger, and thyme)
- Sang Royal 2015 (good fruity, oaky red ale aged in pinot noir and red wine barrels with pinot noir grapes)
- Three Clicks IPA (good red IPA)
- Brews of a Feather (good blonde ale with coffee, cacao nibs, and vanilla beans)
Our next stop was Modern Times Belmont Fermentorium. Just like at the
Modern Times
in San Diego, the NEDIPAs were stellar. We drank:
- Timewave Zero (great NEDIPA)
- Hedge Witch (even better NEDIPA)
- Ice (good pilsner)
- Abaddon (pretty good helles) (collaboration with Wayfinder)
- Lomaland (good estery saison)
- Black House (oatmeal coffee stout) (nitro)
- Wavesplitter (good sour, fruity Berliner weisse)
- Fortunate Islands (good hoppy pale ale)
- Blazing World (good amber)
- Fruitlands (pretty good gose with passionfruit and guava)
- Orderville (good NEIPA)
- Booming Rollers (good IPA)
- Kraka Doom (nice NEDIPA)
- Shacksbury Cider (good tart cider)
- Revolution of the Moon (quite good fruited red wine barrel-aged blond)
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Art done with string. |
Supposed to be Randy "Macho Man" Savage. |
Next was Hair of the Dog. Ed met us, having just flown in from Maryland. We tried every beer
this place had on tap:
- Lila (so-so kellerbier)
- Little Dog (bland English mild)
- Blue Dot (quite good DIPA)
- Beer Week (pretty good steam beer)
- Green Dot (good triple IPA)
- Fred (good golden strong)
- Adam (pretty good and a bit smoky) (the first beer they ever made)
- Doggie Claws (nice barleywine)
- From the Stone (decent) (aged in their concrete egg)
- From the Wood (very good barrel-aged beer)
We walked to Lucky Labrador. They have 4 locations. We were at their Brew Pub on Hawthorne Blvd.
We had some food and many of their beers, most of which were rather generic.
- Wag IPA (pretty good)
- Best Bitter (decent)
- Kellerbier (decent)
- Super Dog (good and hoppy)
- Nitro Framboise (good)
- Cask Wag (unpleasant cask version of their Wag IPA)
- Porter (pretty good)
- Belgian Gold (pretty good)
- Altbier (pretty good)
- Hefeweizen (pretty good)
- Stout (pretty good)
- Framboise (good)
We headed to Baerlic Brewing and tried:
- Read Between the Lines (pretty good funky pale ale)
- Twin Pines (pretty good DIPA)
- Dad Beer (decent lager)
- Rootie Tootie Fresh and Fruity (good mango peach gose)
- Guzzolene (pretty good dry stout)
- East Side (pretty good pilsner)
Our last stop was Beermongers, a beer bar with a great bottle/can selection, as well as several taps.
We had:
- Revision State of Haze (nice NEIPA)
- Comrade Superpower IPA (good)
- Coniston Bluebird Bitter (pretty good)
- Modern Times /
Wayfinder Abaddon (pretty good helles)
- Jester King Mezquite Smoked Farmhouse (good)
- Burial The Heir of Malevolence Petit Brett Ale (good and hoppy)
- BarrelHouse Juicy India Pale Ale (good)
- Alaskan Smoked Porter (good)
- Burial Anno Domini MMXVIII Dark Sour (good tart beer with orange peel, vanilla, and cocoa)
Wednesday June 27. Another beautiful day. We all checked in for HomebrewCon.
Margie, Kevin, Mark, Ed, and I Ubered to LABrewatory, which opened in 2016, and got glasses of:
- Learn Yo' Alphabet (good Cascadian dark ale with CBD in it) (collaboration with Shop CBD Now)
- Bob's Your Enkel (decent Belgian single)
- Ask Me About My Vienna (decent Vienna lager)
- Shaq Attack (pretty good lager)
- Simcoe SMASH (quite good IPA)
Also, the brewer came over and gave us samples of an experimental funky beer right out of the barrel, which was good even though it
was warm and flat.
Next we Ubered to Breakside Brewing's Slabtown location and got:
- Fourth Wave (good bourbon barrel coffee-flavored ale)
- Riverside IPA (good)
- Breakside IPA (good)
- Wanderlust (decent IPA)
- Stay West (pretty good IPA)
- Lunch Break India Session Ale (pretty good)
- Wombat vs Wallaby (pretty good IPA)
- Pilsner (pretty good)
- Qualia (nice wood-aged sour with mango)
Ed Ubered to the Convention Center to join Chris and Mike at an industry event. The other 4 of us
Lyfted to 28th Avenue because, according to our beer map, Great Notion Brewing had a location there. Unfortunately it was still under
construction.
But good luck was with us because our driver drove us around the corner where there were 2 breweries. First we stopped at
Portland Brewing, a generic brewpub that's owned by
Pyramid Brewing, which in turn is owned by
North American Breweries. (That's the short answer. For the long answer, see their
Wikipedia page.) We were joined by some other folks
named Keith, Mike, and Maria. The beers were expectedly pedestrian but the food was good. We sampled:
- Curveball Blonde (decent)
- Pink Boots IPA (pretty good)
- Outburst Imperial IPA (bland for an IIPA)
- New Way IPA (bland)
- Thunderhead IPA (so-so)
- Outburst Berry Tart (so-so ale made with cranberries and black currants)
- MacTarnahan's Amber (so-so)
- Outburst Citrus IPA (so-so)
- Pyramid Apricot Ale (good apricot-flavored ale)
- Plum Porter (pretty good ale made with plum puree)
- 2 Towns Made Marionberry (good berry cider)
- 2 Towns Ginja Ninja (nice gingery cider)
Les Ubered over to meet us after his BJCP luncheon, then all 8 of us walked across the street to
Sasquatch Brewing, which I had reservations about going to since Sasquatch is how I refer
to my ex-wife. The brewery opened in 2011. They also have a cidery called
New West Cider. We tried all their beers and ciders:
- Woodboy (decent IPA)
- Malibu Man (pretty good German lager)
- Vanilla Bourbon (good wood-aged cream ale)
- Golden Afternoon (good light saison)
- Mawwage (session white IPA)
- Mary Kate and Smashley (decent pale ale)
- Polyjuice Potion (good IPA)
- Macho Mango Randy Savage (good IPA made with mangoes)
- Hairy Knuckle (so-so nitro stout)
- Jason Schwarzbier (unpleasant black lager)
- Ned (good Flanders red)
- Georgia (pretty good peach sweet tea cider)
- Faith (pretty good dry cider)
- Fiona (good spontaneously fermented cider)
- True Love (good blackberry blueberry cider)
- Hope (quite good pomegranate ginger cider)
Then the 5 Marylanders Ubered to Von Ebert Brewing because we had enjoyed it so much a few
days earlier and Les had never been there. It was much more crowded this time because it was dinner time.
Both the onion rings and the wings were to die for, and we enjoyed the beers, especially the Mexican stout.
Les went back to his hotel to rest up for the following day's beer judging and the rest of us Ubered to
The Upper Lip to partake of more of their offerings. Mike, Chris, and Ed eventually
arrived after their industry event, and we were also joined by some other Maryland folks whose names escape me.
We tried a bunch of drafts, cans, and bottles:
We all Ubered back to our hotels/Airbnbs around 10:30 or 11:00.
Thursday June 28. First day of HomebrewCon. Somewhat cloudy but good temperature and low humidity. I went to the homebrew expo where there
was the usual plethora of homebrewing products: kettles, mash tuns, fermenters, mills, cleaners, sanitizers, pumps, faucets, chillers,
flavor additives, etc. Hops and grains were given away. Both commercial and homebrewed beers were served.
In the evening was the Kickoff Party, featuring dozens of breweries serving a shit-ton of beer. I ran into folks from several
Maryland homebrew clubs who had arrived
in Portland either that day or the day before. I sampled:
- Samuel Adams NEIPA
- Samuel Adams KMF Grand Cru (KMF = Kosmic Mother Funk)
- Coalition Space Fruit
- Crux Fermentation Project Wild Farmhouse
- Mazama Juicy IPA X.12
- Ninkasi Whiteaker Series #2 Double Hopped IPA
- Ninkasi Ground Control (bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout)
- Look Long IPA
- Ecliptic Carina Peach Sour
- Caldera Mother Pucker (raspberry sour)
- Breakside Stay West IPA
- Ex Novo Sun's Out Buns Out (very good NEIPA) (collaboration with Bootleg Biology and Urban Family)
- Logsdon Zuur Pruim (plum sour)
- Logsdon Table Bretta
- Logsdon Orchard Lane
- Logsdon Straffe Drieling
- Logsdon Rupert's Rye
- Oakshire Alternate Reality
- Hopworks Ferocious Citra IPA
- Falling Sky Sugar Shack Belgian Maple Quad
- Bear Republic Tartare Noir
- Sierra Nevada Friday the 213th
- Ordnance EOD IPA
- Fremont Lush IPA
- Zoiglhaus Hopfenbombe
- pFriem Oude Kriek (better than anything they had on tap at the brewery)
- pFriem Oud Bruin
- Oregon City Great Glass Elevator (triple IPA)
- Oregon City Coming to Fruition (cherry version)
- Oregon City Coming to Fruition (marionberry version)
- White Labs Frankenstout (with 96 yeast strains)
- Base Camp Helles Lager
- Fort George Three-Way IPA
- Fort George Vortex IPA
- Golden Valley Beaverton Blonde
- Golden Valley Alphaville Imperial IPA
- Rogue Combat Wombat
- Rogue Cold Brew IPA
- Rosenstadt Helles Lager
- Rosenstadt Weissbier
- Thunder Island IPA
- Thunder Island Witbier
- Three Mugs Death Star
- Three Mugs Zesty Lass Grapefruit IPA
- Stickman Socks and Sandals
- Stickman Infinite Jest
- Stickman Rupert
- Stickman Cloudy With a Chance of El Dorado
- Free Bridge Pulpit Rock Pilsner
- Free Bridge Bake Oven Black Lager
- Baerlic Oatmeal Pilsner
- Baerlic IPA
- Golden Valley Red Thistle
- Golden Valley Bald Peak IPA
- Gigantic Gin Barrel Aged Beer
- Gigantic Fantastic Voyage (Brettanomyces saison)
- Gigantic Big Brett Love
- Hair of the Dog Green Dot (triple IPA)
- Hair of the Dog Beer Week
- Hair of the Dog White Peach Adam from the Wood (13½% ABV version of Adam aged in barrels with peaches)
- Ex Novo Cactus Wins the Lottery (quite good Berliner weiss)
- pFriem Golden IPA
- pFriem Japanese Lager
- pFriem Pilsner
I was too busy drinking to take many photos.
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I look weird when I drink. |
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Friday June 29. A beautiful sunny day. Went to the homebrew expo. Drank some homebrews and commercial beers. Someone shared a
bottle of Side Project Biere du Pays with me. The expo was held in two
exhibit halls, and due to licensing, beer obtained in one hall could not be brought into the other. They had "alcohol monitors" who would
stop you from crossing the imaginary line.
Went with my friends Keith (head brewer at Grail Point) and Caitlin to a place called
Fido's, which had just opened about 3 weeks earlier. It's a beer bar where you can play with
dogs while you drink, and if you want you can adopt them. There were 3 of us and there happened to be 3 dogs. Coincidence?
After that it was Club Night, where dozens of clubs from all over the nation, plus Canada and even Australia, served homebrew. Many of
them had theme decorations and costumes. This is always a great event. Someone coined the term "international dankness units" (IDUs).
We'll see if that catches on.
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Fishing rod tap handles. |
Australian homebrew club. |
Traveling beer station. |
Nice. |
Saturday June 30. Last day of HomebrewCon. A cloudy morning but nice weather. Went to the homebrew expo one last time. Several booths
were giving stuff away or selling it cheaply so they didn't have to lug it home. YCH HOPS was giving away
both regular and cryo hops, so of course many of us lined up for those. I grabbed about a pound. Had some good
beers from the Maltose Falcons, who are possibly the oldest homebrew club in
America (they were founded in 1974), and also some other clubs. FastBrewing held a
FastRack tournament, which was entertaining.
You can see a little bit here.
After that I returned to my room to eat because I had to lay a base for the Knockout Party. They arranged the leftover competition beers
better than in previous years by putting them out in order by style number, placing big signs telling us which beer styles were where,
and leaving us bottle openers. I tasted most of the sours, as well as many of the Belgian strong ales and American wild ales.
The beer got consumed in less than 2 hours, causing most folks to leave well before the scheduled end of the
party, but the staff kept bringing out large amounts of food, most of which got thrown away. There was a bottle share as well, with many
commercial craft brews.
A few hours later about a dozen folks, most of us from Maryland, had a bottle share in my hotel room.
Also, since I had a lot of beer packed in my luggage, Craig lent me his luggage scale, and I found that one of my bags was 20 pounds over
the 50-pound limit.
Thanks to him I was able to do a little shuffling of items to avoid an extra fee at the airport: I gave him several beers to put in his luggage,
and decided to throw out some of my old T-shirts. During the evening we drank about 15 various craft
brews. It was a great way to end the conference.
Sunday July 1. I walked around town (which was fairly deserted because it was Sunday morning), found a bag lady, and offered my old
T-shirts to her. She turned them down. That's right - MY CLOTHING WAS REJECTED BY A HOMELESS PERSON.
I walked to a park where there were homeless people's tents and left the bag there with a sign saying "Free clothes".
I schlepped about 150 pounds of luggage (2 checked bags and 2 carry-ons) to the subway station and rode to the airport. Several other
Maryland folks were waiting for the same flight. I sat at a café with CRABSters Craig, Rachel, and Brian, who all ordered beer.
I couldn't even look at a beer after this trip.
When I retrieved my luggage after the flight, all my beer was intact except one can, which had punctured (it was in my backpack, which doesn't
offer the protection a suitcase does). There was still some beer left in it, and it tasted good despite being warm and flat. The other 35+
bottles, cans, and crowlers survived (though some of the cans were dented).
What a fantastic trip. Beer. Nature. Hiking. Friends. 62 breweries. 800+ beers (600+ commercial, 200+ homebrewed).
And they told me retirement would be boring.