All Good Things…
Portland Beer Week has ended… Long Live Portland Beer Week.
Another Beer Week has passed and even though the current pandemic has most certainly cast a shadow on the overall size and breadth of it…
It has most certainly been great.
Now - let's jump to the next event I was able to check out since we last talked. It was the “Fort George Summer Lovin’” tap takeover at the Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom in NE Alberta. I had actually never been to this location. The Imperial Bottle Shop in the south on Division is a favorite of mine. I always love that stretch. Extremely walkable and has a ton of other fun stuff that is sprinkled along it.
ANYHOOO.
It was a small-ish event but the beers were the focus of this and they delivered. Fort George is located in Astoria and while I haven’t been to the actual brewery… I have had a great many of their brews. And their stuff rocks. So I was extremely excited to taste more of their catalogue. Out of the stuff I had - the 1811 Pre-Prohibition lager was my favorite out of the lot. For the style itself… its hands down an EXCELLENT example of how you make this beer. Fort George does indeed know what they are talking about.
Dam fine Flight
This was really a great small event and perfect for dropping by in the middle of the week. 10/10.
Next up - I hit up Loyal Legion for their Legion of the Night Market that happened on Friday. This was just fun. Multiple vendors that ranged from Crafts, Clothing to Spirits! A friend of mine got a candle from Hallow Candles and the name is just fun. It’s called Witches Tit. And I mean… why can’t you have fun with the naming of candles? Five points to Gryffindor.
But more importantly… Loyal Legion just always has a great selection on tap. And Friday was no exception. They had Block 15’s Sticky Hands on… and oooooh good golly. If you want dank. Resiny. This beer has it in spades and then some. And it does not taste like an 8%-er. Which is dangerous… because this beer is quaffable… more so if you love those old school West Coasts.
It was a beautiful day on Friday and with this beer? Perfect.
And for my last event that I went to for 2021’s Portland Beer Week?
The Fresh Hop Seminar & Tasting at Zoiglhaus Brewing.
The Seminar Set-Up!
I was very much excited about this one. I’ll give you a hint. Actually… I’ll just tell you.
FRESH HOP.
It smelled amazing…
If you haven’t had a Fresh Hopped beer before. My apologies and you should fly up to Portland within the week because IT IS Fresh Hop Season! Which means you get some crazy interesting ‘once-in-a-year’ variations of IPAs and other styles of beers!
The panel for the seminar consisted of Sam Pecoraro from Von Ebert Brewing, Ryan Buxton from Ex Novo Brewing and Alan Taylor from Zoiglhaus Brewing. And this was loaded with fun tidbits and interesting insights about everything Fresh Hops. From supply to execution and more. We were situated in a future expansion area for Zoiglhaus - which meant we had a very nice roll up door with some exceedling nice wind that showed up for the event.
We were able to taste four Fresh Hop beers throughout the seminar. Ex Novo’s Eliot IPA, Von Ebert’s Hallertau 102 Pils and Zoiglhaus’s Kölsch & Oktoberfresh. It's really hard for me to dive into all these because every single one of them were OUTSTANDING! Ex Novo’s Eliot had very subtle grassy notes throughout and then just got that kick at the end. Von Ebert’s Pils might’ve been my favorite beer I’ve ever had from them. But I’m going to have to give some extra props to Zoiglhaus… the two that I had were <mind-explode>.
The Fresh Hop Kolsch was surprisingly fruity/floral and just had a very delicate soft flavor. And this was a Kolsch! (This hit hard because I had just done a Blind Taste Test with eight Kolschs’ earlier in the week!) The Oktoberfresh made me love Oktoberfest beers even more... and I didn’t even know that was possible.
Alan from Zoiglhaus hefting a bag of Fresh Hops
And here’s some quick fun tidbits I learned while sipping on these delightful beers.
-The Ex Novo Fresh Hop Eliot IPA that we were tasting at the event was brewed with Simcoe hops and we were the first to be able to try it. It wasn’t even on tap at the brewery! You could taste how fresh it was.
-Ex Novo will have THREE different Fresh Hop variations of their Eliot IPA on tap… all at the same time… so you can really dig in with your taste buds and see which Hop is your favorite. Extremely stoked that they are doing this and I hope we see more of this in the future.
-Climate Change has sadly been having an effect on the Craft Beer Industry. The smoke that has been in the region due to the wildfires has caused damage to the latest hop harvest resulting in around a 20% loss. Those poor delicate hops. And in particular… Von Ebert had to throw out an entire batch of beer due to the hops they used being smoke-damaged.
-Zoiglhaus’s Fresh Hop Kolsch that we were tasting had 150 pounds of fresh hops added to make it!
-Sam from Von Ebert said that the Mosaic hop was his favorite hop. While Ryan from Ex Novo mentioned that Centennial was his go-to.
And lastly Alan from Zoiglhaus brought out something interesting we got to try as a surprise. Same day Hop Juice from when they were brewing their Sterling Pils. This thing was weird and actually not too bad. You just couldn’t drink more than a sip or two. This thing was 100 IBUs(International Bitterness Units) and was 11% Sugar. I would honestly use it to make some interesting cocktails. I say they should bottle some and sell it!
Truly… Sweetwater.
With that my friends… that is it for the 2021 Portland Beer Week. Extremely fun and even though it was on a smaller scale compared to years past… it shined. Thank you to everyone involved for rocking and rolling especially under these hard times we are all living in. I am looking forward to what next year brings!
ALSO… keep an eye out for some HOT information on ANYTHING & EVERYTHING for Fresh Hop Beers. This is the time of the year they hit… and you probably have already seen a small bit out in the wild but I will keep you up to date. So look forward to that!
Prost.
