Beer

Brian Yaeger Dave Logsdon Bottles of Logsdon Farmhouse Ale’s Szech ‘n Brett saison have just hit the shelves. The name is a double riff on Logsdon’s Great American Beer Fest award-winning Peche ‘n Brett in that it A) has Szechuan peppers in it for spicing and B) at 6.5 percent ABV, it’s more “session” (say […]

Until recently, Portland has eschewed the growing popularity of gypsy brewers (no disrespect to the Roma community; it’s become the industry vernacular for itinerant brewers who brew at existing breweries with excess capacity, instead of buying their own system). In fact, hardly any of Oregon’s 200-plus breweries are “tenant” or “contract” breweries—beer brands that distribute […]

Photo used with permission The 11th annual NAOBF begins today, with the O standing for organic. From the park setting in the great outdoors to the natural foods and kids’ zone (though naturally even adults find hula hooping fun), the event, filled with suds and sounds from near-non-stop live music, is all about sustainable living. […]

Michael Rasmussen Fred with Cherry Fred From the Wood Portland beer writer, columnist, historian, and icon Fred Eckhardt, fondly known as the Dean of American Beer Writers, passed away yesterday at age 89. His book, A Treatise on Lager Beers, published in 1969, was the first modern book about beer. In 1984 he became the […]

Brian Yaeger Old Town brewer Andrew Lamont The line for the candy cap mushroom beer at the 28th annual Oregon Brewers Festival, now in the books, was so long they had to assign a second volunteer to pour samples. Portland freelancer and Beer Bible author Jeff Alworth said it possessed, “a unique maple-syrup-with-soupçon-of-mildew character” before […]

Widmer Brothers Instagram If we are, in fact, treated to some showers this weekend, at least that’s better than suffering through the Oregon Brewers Fest in 99-degree heat, with even hotter, sweatier bodies in front of and behind us in line. The largest beerfest of its kind is already in full swing, but Saturday and […]

Let the festivities begin! Today marks the opening of the 28th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival. The near week-long celebration of beer—Oregonian and otherwise—kicks off today at noon at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, but even if you don’t already have your ticket to the Brewers Brunch hosted by Lompoc this year, blow off work and partake […]

Brian Yaeger Every day in Cologne is Kölsch Fest Perhaps it’s come to this. In a world where wild, wacky beers get all the hype and beerfest love, Prost, the German bierhaus on Mississippi, brings us down a notch by organizing an event celebrating one beer: Kölsch. The style is renowned for being fairly unremarkable […]

Recently, another paper in town published a list of every Portland brewery’s first beer brewed, and wrote that, in April 2009, the basement-based, Belgian-leaning Upright Brewing whipped up a beer called Four Play cherry sour. But according to brewer/owner Alex Ganum, their first was actually a beer called Billy the Mountain—a wild, barrel-aged old ale. […]