<Intermission> de Garde!
de Garde Brewing
<The Intermission from Portland Beer Week>
Hop back. Relax. Grab the popcorn.
On the coast of Oregon about an hour and a half away from Portland… you will find a wonderful place. A place that seems like it shouldn’t exist. Yet does. This place is called de Garde Brewing. They make open fermentation barrel aged beers. Open fermentation is when a brewery cools the beer they make in a coolship, a giant pool-like vessel, and then allows the natural yeast that is in the local air to cool down and ferment the beer. It's wild and amazing! One of my favorite beer styles of all times is the Lambic and this is the process that is used to make it. Cantillon in Brussels also uses this method of brewing for its Lambics. And trust me… you’ll be getting a post about that amazing brewery as part of my ongoing series about my amazing 2016 European Beer Trip.
This brewery also really makes the effort to be as accessible to everyone as much as possible. Sadly… in the U.S. when one wants to try a Lambic from Belgian… there is a premium price that must be paid for trying one. Not so for de Garde - all of their beers are extremely reasonably priced. And to be able to get some funky beers like this outside of Belgian and not cost you an arm and a leg? Divine.
The Brewery!
I travelled to the brewery with some friends just this past weekend and had an amazing time. Since it's a bit of a drive from Portland… heading towards this place just feels like an Adventure. You literally have to go through the dark forests of Oregon and then cross a high mountain pass just to get to the brewery. By the time you get there… you are extremely ready for a brew.
Exquisite Draft List
Once you arrive there are only 6 beers of theirs on tap but with tasters starting only at $4… it's very easy to be able to try the lot of them. There was a brand new beer that they had just released a week or so before that I was very eager to try. It's called Jin-jr and it is something else. A spontaneous wild ale with fresh ginger aged in oak barrels for fourteen months. It's insane. And sitting at 3.6% ABV… extremely drinkable. I absolutely got a bottle of it to go.
Fun Patio to take in those Wild Ales
The taproom is on the small/medium size but is an extremely fun space. They have an awesome covered patio and there are also Food Pods just around the corner if you are feeling a bit hungry. And all I have to say is this… you won’t find a bad de Garde beer. So I encourage you to try and get yourself a bottle. Doesn’t matter what. Just try one and you’ll see… this brewery is outstanding.
Photo courtesy of Brian Kentosh
Cheers.
