Portland Hit List

Monday afternoon I'm flying out to Portland, OR, also know as Beervana (don't tell Belgium), for the International Association of Culinary Professionals annual meeting. Yes indeed, I am a culinary professional thanks to my work with beer. In fact, I'll be presenting a 90-minute talk on Oregon beer and Oregon-grown ingredients with Full Sail Brewing and Rogue Ales.

I certainly hope to meet a lot of other drink-oriented professionals and make some new friends, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was most excited about the beer. Portland earned its Beervana moniker from the fact that the city is home to 32 (or is it 33 now?) breweries. That's more than any other city in the world. The state itself has more than 100 breweries and while the national average for craft beer consumption is at 5% of the beer market, Oregon's craft beer share is about 30% of the market and I'm told it approaches 50% in Portland. I mean shit, these guys are serious about their beer.

I'll only have a six nights to make my way through the hundreds of great beers this city and state offer, but I'm going to try my hardest to sip their best-of-the-best. When in doubt, or lost, I'll be ordering whatever is local, unavailable back home, new, and fresh.

Pre-Trip Top 10 Beers to Try in Portland

1) India Pelican Ale - Pelican Pub & Brewery - I've been reading about this top-rated IPA for years. No more will I have to drool over my keyboard.

2) Flora Rustica - Upright Brewing - I got to savor a bottle of Upright's Five and now I want more. This, apparently, is Upright's finest.

3) Dunkel - Heater Allen - I love a well-made German lager and you're hard pressed to find better brews of classic styles.

4) Oatis - Ninkasi - An allegedly divine oatmeal stout. I look forward to being the judge of that.

5) HUB Lager - Hopworks - Having tried their big, hoppy beers, my mouth is watering for their session beer.

6) Sang Rouge - Cascade Brewing - These guys make the best sours in the Pacific NW.

7) Workhorse IPA - Larelwood - Oregon loves its hops and I'd love to taste this prime example of that.

8) Black Bear XX Stout - Alameda - Mmmm. Foreign stout. This will make a great dessert beer.

9) Copacetic IPA - Amnesia Brewing - Yes, I'm going to be drinking lots of fantastically bitter IPAs.

10) Kölsch - Double Mountain - Another great session-weight beer from an award-winning brewery.

For more on how awesome these folks are, you can read my IACP article here.

New Beer: Urthel Saisonnière

I'm lucky enough to live in a one of the country's leading Belgian beer markets* but it was still a nice surprise to walk into Abe's Cold Beer and find one of Belgium's newest brews. It comes from Urthel, which also makes the monumentally tasty Urthel Hop-It and Hibernus Quentum. The Flemish outfit is young by European standards - only brewing since 2000 - but they know how to cook up a tasty beverage. Check this out:

Urthel Saisonnière
De Leyerth Brouwerijen (Urthel)
Saison / Farmhouse Ale | 6.00% ABV

A- / 4.25
look: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4.5

This beer is gorgeous. It poured a brilliant clear gold with a big, tall head. As I drink it down, there's a perfect web of thick lacing. Thankfully, the beer character delivers as well. The flavors holds a floral and spicy mix of coriander, pepper, lemon, while there's a mild toasty note from the malt. This saison is complex enough that you could sip it for hours, yet light and lively enough that you can easily enjoy a few. Check this fine Belgian out.

*According to me.

I'll only say it once: I miss Belgium.

A year ago I was in Belgium. I'm not saying I haven't had a lovely weekend, I'm just not in Belgium.

Drinking really, really old beer: La Trappe Enkel

While picking up a case at Shangy's over the weekend, I took a quick look at their small shelf of single (and mostly expensive) bottles. To my surprise, there was something new-to-me, a couple large bottles of La Trappe Enkel - the table beer from the Koningshoeven monks of the Netherlands. Even more surprising was the best by date on the back of the label: November, 1996.

I've tried low-alcohol (under 6% ABV) ales before, and they're typically only worth pouring down your drain. In this case, though, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to try a roughly 16-year old trappist beer. I wouldn't exactly say I was rewarded for taking this chance and forking over cash for a beer that was probably forgotten about in some corner for at least decade. But it wasn't too bad. I dare say, somewhat enjoyable.

La Trappe Enkel
Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven B.V.
Belgian Pale Ale | 5.50% ABV

B / 3.55
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 3.5

Found at 750ml bottle at Shangy's in Emmaus PA for $11. The label read BEST BY END: NOV96, so take this review with that in mind. The cork looked a little soaked when I opened the bottle and the carbonation was a little low, but not too bad. The body didn't have any protein blobs like some old Belgians. However, like many well-aged beers, this has a strong leather character and I wonder if the cork didn't add the beer's earthy character. Aside from tasting a bit like a new recliner smells, there was just a light liquid caramel note, though the beer was exceedingly smooth. Buying a low-ABV beer this old is a gamble, but I'm glad I took it.

Oregon IPA

It's business time. In conjunction with a project on Oregon beers with Oregon-grown ingredients I'm working on for the International Association of Culinary Profesionals, I've made my own Oregon-centric beer. I couldn't get my hands on Oregon barley, but Jim at Indie Hops send me a pound of Centennial hops. I also used Oregon-cultivated yeast with Wyeast Labs' American Ale II yeast, a relative of the famous Sierra Nevada yeast strain.

I've haven't been this excited about a homebrew in a while. It's going to be f'ing awesome. Having the pound of hops sit out in my kitchen (see below) smelled amazing - I had a room full of hoppy goodness.

Hiphopapotamus
5 Gal Batch
Est ABV: 8%
IBU: 100+

10# Marris Otter Pale Malt
2# Vienna Malt
.5# American crystal 20L
.5# Cara-Pils
Wyeast American Ale II

Mash @ 152, OG: 1.073

2 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, First Wort Hop)
1 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, 45 min.)
1 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, 15 min.)
1 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, 10 min.)
1 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, 5 min.)
1 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, 0 min.)
2 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, dry hop)

UPDATE 3/23/10: Transferred to secondary and added the dry hops. Tastes amazing with huge blend of spicy citrus flavors but need more aroma. There's even a little hint of the malt in there. Current gravity is 1.013 to put the beer at 7.8%.

Hops Before:


Hops After:

Interesting, Very Interesting: Atomium Grand Cru

Right after really, really ridiculously good-tasting beer, I also enjoy interesting beer. Last night at the Farmhouse, as usual, I opted for the new-to-me beers on tap over the known good stuff. Often, trying new beers when surrounded by sure-winners, there's a let down when the new brew is mediocre, boring, or just plain bad. Thankfully, Brouwerij Van Steenberge's Atomium Grand Cru didn't suck at all. In fact, it had one of the most interesting aromas (there was peppermint, wtf?) I've smelled in a long time. Check it out:

Atomium Grand Cru
Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Belgian Strong Pale Ale | 8.00% ABV

B+ / 4
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

On-tap at The Farmhouse in Emmaus, PA. Served in a red wine glass, it appears slighty hazy and amber with a tall, fluffy white head. It's funny, I'm used to finding beers that have great flavor but are a little dull in the aroma department. This was the opposite. It was bursting with coriander, cinnamon, and peppermint (unusual, but interesting). The flavor follows the coriander with a hint of orange peel - sort of like a wit, but without wheat character - and then a subtle but delicious candied apple malt flavor slides in before the beer finishes. Still, the beer's taste is too mild for a beer of this strength. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find a fresh take on this style.

Beer Reviews: Sexual Chocolate (Stout)

Yeah, it's still cold and the days are too short. The whimsy of winter warmers has petered out and and we're left with beers as black as night. It's time for stouts. Usually I stick with lighter dry Irish stouts - Beamish, Murphy's, and Guinness - but lately I had the chance to try a couple standouts in other stout sub-styles.

The first was Sexual Chocolate (incidentally also the name of a red-headed cricketer Ryan Sidebottom) from Foothills Brewing in North Carolina. I was lucky enough to be have a friend who found himself with a bottle of this rare and highly rated (#68 in the world on BeerAdvocate.com) brew.

The second beer was Otis, an oatmeal stout from Brooklyn's Six Point Craft Ales. I discovered Otis while making a mid-bike ride pit stop at the Spinnerstown Hotel. Otis is a strong session beer at 6.1% ABV, but damn I could have drained the keg all afternoon if I didn't have self-control.

Sexual Chocolate
Foothills Brewing Company
Russian Imperial Stout | 10.00% ABV

A- / 4.2
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

I have to thank my friend Paul for sharing a bottle of this with me. While the legend is greater than the beer itself, this was still a top-notch RIS. The cocoa nibs impart a deep, dark chocolate flavor that's also earthy like a cocoa bean. The malts provide an array of chocolate cookie, graham cracker, toffee, bread crust, and plum notes. The body is thick like most, but there's enough bitterness to keep this from getting too sweet. The hops also add a pleasant, mild citrus taste, which aid drinkability, though this is a tough beer to do anything with but slowly sip... but I suppose that's ok.


Sixpoint Otis
Sixpoint Craft Ales
Oatmeal Stout | 6.10% ABV

A- / 4.05
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4

On-tap at the Spinnerstown Hotel. Served in a tulip glass, this beer appeared pitch black with a very short head. I really thought this was a great, albeit aggressive, take on the style. The flavor and aroma are full of big chocolate flavors up front with roasted barley around the edge. The malts are followed by a powerful citrus hops kick that provides a great bitter contrast to the cocoa notes. This is easily one of the best oatmeal stouts I've ever had.