Portland Debrief: Part 3

Well, it's been over a month since the trip and I'm finally wrapping up the recap of my journey to Portland, Ore. The trip was primarily a long overdue visit with a longtime friend, but you can't go to this craft beer capital without getting wrapped up in the beer culture. If you're just now tuning in, you can check out Part 1 and Part 2 to catch up.

SUNDAY

Sunday's beer-related activities started with lunch at BridgePort Brewing Co.'s brewpub. My friend Jason and I split a tasty pizza while I enjoyed two more new-to-me beers: a Blue Heron Pale Ale and a seasonal Ebenezer Ale. Both were very good, but after two pints it was time to move on to another stop.

We didn't have to go far to reach Deschutes Brewery's Portland Brewery & Public House, which like BridgePort is also located in the Pearl District. Here we had a six-beer sampler that featured Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Black Butte Porter, Obsidian Stout, Mirror Mirror oak-aged barley wine, Armory XPA, and the Dubbel-style Seafort 7 Abbey Ale. Deschutes has several beers on tap so you truly get to choose your own sampler and they'll fill it for you (unlike some breweries that only offer a predetermined sampler). Jason recommended the first three based on past experience and we kind of winged it on the last three. Of the latter trio, we got lucky with one in particular.

The Mirror Mirror barley wine, which is part of Deschutes' "Reserve Series" and clocks in at 11% alcohol by volume, was absolutely delicious. As I've mentioned before, I did not keep tasting notes (not that I even know how to properly record a tasting anyway) but Mirror Mirror was easily one of my two favorites from this trip—the other being Lompoc's Bourbon Barrel Aged Red Ale. Needless to say, I've started exploring options for incorporating bourbon-soaked oak into my homebrewing process.

While I also really enjoyed the Mirror Pond Pale Ale, another highlight from the sampler was the Black Butte Porter. Jason and I made a new friend who sat one next stool over and raved about Deschutes' Porter offering. And he's got the judges to back him up, as Black Butte recently ranked No. 1 in the 2009 U.S. Open Beer Championship's Porter category. I was also surprised to learn since my return that Deschutes ranked sixth overall in 2008 craft brew sales, well ahead of breweries like Stone, Dogfish Head and Rogue. After sampling their offerings, I can see why.

Deschutes also offered the most amazing growler I had ever seen before—a fairly elaborate stein combining glass and metal, and sealed with a massive Grolsch-style, clamp-down cap. As we exited and returned to Jason's car (in a lucky parking spot right by the front door), I glimpsed a funny image of a youngster tasked with wrangling one of his family's proportionately massive beer vessels back to the brewery for a refill.

Our next stop was a bit farther away but my helpful host and designated driver, Jason, was keen on me trying a staple of the Northwest: MacTarnahan's Amber Ale. While the pint was great, the taproom was by far the oddest we visited. The atmosphere was an awkward mix of tradition (amazing porcelain tap towers, for example) and cookie-cutter modern (menu boards that resembled those from a chain eatery). After seeing three different names (MacTarnahan's Brewing, Portland Brewing and Pyramid Brewing) and talking with the bartender, it was easier to see why: Pyramid purchased the other two venerable Portland institutions five years ago and now oversees their operation. The good news is they are keeping the MacTarnahan's flowing. I purchased a MacTarnahan's pint glass and had samples of two other brews (their Humbug'r seasonal and the Thunderhead IPA) before we headed home.

After picking up Jason's wife, Marcelle, we headed to the vibey McMenamin's St. Johns Theater & Pub to cap my final full day in the City of Roses. Thanks to my sampler research at McMenamin's Edgefield the day before, I ordered a pint of Hammerhead Pale Ale. I was then introduced to another McMenamin's delight: the Scooby Snacks appetizer of bite-sized corn dogs. Not sure if it was the daily volume of alcohol consumed or the time that has since lapsed, but I can't remember my entree. I'm pretty sure it was my first experience paying for a meal that I ate on a couch, though.

We returned home to wind down with some videogame racing battles and I cracked open the 22 oz. Lompoc C-Note Imperial Pale Ale bottle I had bought on Saturday. After my first sip, I exclaimed to Jason, "It's assaulting my tongue!" Every taste bud was standing at attention and screaming as the beer's 100 IBU's powered their way toward my throat. While definitely a little strong for my pale ale wheelhouse, it was a very tasty beverage and one that I will surely revisit when given the opportunity.

MONDAY

Sad to leave but excited to return home to my wife and son, I packed my bags Monday morning and enjoyed a bagel before Jason chauffeured me to the airport. En route, we stopped at the post office to mail myself a box packed with 12 ounces of hops he and Marcelle had harvested from his backyard. Those will be put to good use in coming brew sessions. As we pulled up to the airport terminal, Jason bid me farewell and suggested that I visit one last brewery with a location in Concourse E: Laurelwood Brewing Company. I had just enough time to grab a sandwich and sample Laurelwood's Hooligan, an English Brown Ale, before heading to my gate and lifting off.

Fittingly, my beer-finding mission ended exactly where it started. During a layover in Salt Lake City, I made a return visit to Squatters Brewing Co. While I had opted for a sampler in this airport pub on Friday, I zeroed in on their Organic Amber Ale this time through. It wasn't the best beer I had on the trip, but the pint offered me the perfect opportunity to reflect on all the beers I had enjoyed during my four-day crash course in Portland beer culture.

Portland Debrief: Part 2

On Oct. 23-26, I visited my friends Jason and Marcelle in Portland, Oregon, and got to sample some of what this craft beer capital has to offer. In total, I tried 38 news beers during the trip—a great learning experience for a new brewer and novice beer geek like me. It was like our own mini Great American Beer Festival. (See the previous post for Part 1 of the recap.)  

SATURDAY

Day 2 of my Portland trip started off with some much needed protein fortification—a tasty bacon-and-eggs breakfast. Jason, Marcelle and I spent much of our time at the house tormenting each other in racing or flight simulator videogames on the PS2, but this Saturday was shaping up to be an uncommonly sunny day in Portland. So we hit the road.

So did everyone else in Oregon, apparently. Our first stop, McMenamin's Edgefield, was slammed. This sprawling compound features a hotel, a restaurant, a brewery, a winery, a distillery, a 3-par golf course, several gardens and much more. It's great to see an organization like McMenamin's (which, according to its Web site, operates "more than 55 (and counting) neighborhood gathering spots in Oregon and Washington") be so successful while serving primarily their own beer alongside their food. Apparently they recently caved to include a couple of beers from the Big Three (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors) on the menu, but everything else is their own creation.

We skipped the line waiting for a table inside the estate's pub, called The Power Station, and grabbed three open seats at the end of the bar. We ordered the six-beer sampler and dug in. There was a lot to like among the Ruby Ale, Hammerhead Pale Ale, Sunflower IPA, Black Rabbit Porter, Terminator Stout and summer seasonal Copper Moon. My favorites were Ruby and Hammerhead. We also devoured an order of spinach-artichoke dip and chicken wings before elbowing our way back through the throngs who were waiting to be seated.

Next, we settled on the Pearl District's Rogue Ales Public House, which was also jumping thanks to a wedding reception underway at Rogue's adjoining distillery. We grabbed a sampler at this pub as well, tasting the Brutal Bitter, the Juniper Pale Ale, the Rogue Red and the Chocolate Stout. All were tasty aside from the Brutal Bitter, which I didn't care for. Before we left, I fulfilled one of my goals of the trip: having a draft Dead Guy Ale from Rogue's own tap. And since I didn't try to plant a sloppy kiss on the bride—or the groom—Jason and Marcelle allowed me to continue the day's tour.

Next up was Old Lompoc Brewery's Fifth Quadrant location. I had read about Lompoc (and more specifically their C-Note Imperial Pale Ale) in the tiny bit of pre-trip scouting I had done. Lompoc Fifth Quadrant is a restaurant/pub, but while we were trying to decide whether to sit at the bar or take a table a bartender said, "If you are only here for beers, the Sidebar is open for another 50 minutes." And she pointed off around the corner. And as it turns out, I was very glad she did.

We made our way around the corner and half a block to a section of the building that featured a large painted mural on the wall, a small sign and one open door. This dimly lit room with a stool-less bar, a few tables and about two dozen oak barrels full of fermenting beer only contained two people. And one was the bartender. Both were quite friendly and the patron later told me that he's been to the location pretty much every weekend since it opened. Just as the hours for the Sidebar are more exclusive, so are the beers they serve. This tasting room focuses on special batches (including ones fermenting in the oak barrels in the very same room) and seasonals.

Only six beers were on tap here, and none was the C-Note Imperial Pale Ale that I wanted to try. I was torn. We left to return to the larger restaurant/bar area that had C-Note but stopped along the way at Pix Patisserie, a decadent chocolatier on the corner. While Jason and Marcelle surveyed the mouth-watering display case, I kept thinking about the Bourbon Barrel-Aged Red Ale that was listed on tap at the Sidebar. Plus, the Sidebar sold the C-Note in 22 oz. bottles. So I quickly decided I would go drink a pint of the red ale and buy a bottle of C-Note to go. I asked Jason and Marcelle to meet me at the Sidebar when they were done at the chocolate shop.

Upon my return to the Sidebar, the bartender asked me, "Did you ditch your friends?" I explained they were at Pix and I then had a small sample of the Bourbon Barrel-Aged Red Ale, which as I recall had been brewed in 2007. It was delicious, with hints of bourbon as you might expect, so I ordered a glass. The snifter was a little over half full when the tap went dry—I had finished off the batch. I was instantly intrigued by the fleeting nature of this place and would certainly make this a regular stop if I was a local.

When Jason and Marcelle arrived from Pix, the bartender addressed them, "You guys just had chocolate? Try this," and poured them each a sample of Barrel Fermented Sockeye Stout. They both loved how it went with the chocolate, and Marcelle noted that Lompoc should put a stout-touting sign pointing from Pix toward the Sidebar. I sampled the stout, finished off my red ale and bought a Lompoc pint glass and a bottle of C-Note on our way out. (The affable bartender didn't even charge me for the superb half-beer I had been savoring: "It was basically a large sample," he said.)

Our final stop of the day was dinner at Gustav's on N.E. Sandy Boulevard. The friendly service continued there with our helpful waiter, who recommended an entree for me. To accompany it, I selected another new-to-me beer, the Spaten Oktoberfestbier Ur-Märzen. I wasn't keeping tasting notes this trip, but the beer, the friendship and the hearty German meal forged a fabulous culmination to a great October day in Portland.

Portland Debrief: Part 1

My trip to Portland Oct. 23-26 was fantastic. I had a great time visiting friends Jason and Marcelle, and these two newlyweds were superb hosts—cooking scrumptious food from scratch, setting me up with possibly the world's most comfortable air mattress/feather bed, introducing me to Ricky Gervais' squirmingly funny show "Extras," and hauling me all over Portland to let me try new beers. In fact, I tasted an amazing 38 beers in four days. Thanks again to Jason and Marcelle for a wonderful visit.

FRIDAY

My trip started with a 6:10 a.m. flight from Nashville Friday morning. During a two-hour layover in Salt Lake City, I happened upon a Squatters brew pub in Concourse C and ordered a sampler. It was a little early in the day (9:30 a.m. Mountain Time) for me to be drinking alcohol, but it was 10:30 in Nashville and I was on vacation—a beer-finding mission, no less—so I easily rationalized the decision. The sampler featured six beers from the Utah-based brewery: Provo Girl Pilsner, Chasing Tail Golden Ale, Full Suspension Pale Ale, Organic Amber Ale, Captain Bastard's Oatmeal Stout, and the underwhelmingly named Hefeweizen. My favorites: Organic Amber Ale and Full Suspension Pale Ale.

Upon landing in Portland, I was heading toward baggage claim when I noticed a Rogue Ales location. In the Airport. At this point I knew it was going to be a good trip.

Jason picked me up and after enough time to drop my bags and take a quick tour of their great house,  we were off to a nearby brewery, Roots Brewing Co. We sampled a few of their on-tap creations and I settled on a pint of their Gruit Kolsch summer seasonal. It marked my first Kolsch-style beer. I thought it tasted quite different than any beer I had had before, only to later read that it was a hop-free beer. (Oh, the horror, right?) It's brewed with organic malt alongside chamomile and lavender flowers from the brewery's organic garden. A tasty, easy-to-drink beverage, if a little out of season for 50-degree weather.

We returned to Jason's to eat his delicious pizza and unwind while enjoying bottled Full Sail Pale Ale that he had on hand. As a beer that Jason counts as one of his favorites, it was a fitting ending to my first day in Portland.

Next up: A busy—and buzzy—Saturday in Portland.