Hood River Hops Fest October 6th

This just in from Full Sail, a great brewery and supporter of so many in this industry. This is announcing one of several hop-harvest time festivities in my home state of Oregon, the Hood River Hops Fest, on October 6th.

Looking for an extra excuse to visit our Brewery and Hood River? Well mark your calendars hop heads, here comes the Hood River Hops Fest, Saturday, Oct 6th, 2007. The event is held in downtown Hood River, right across the street from our brewery on Columbia and 5th Streets. Noon to 9pm

This FREE event will be full of fun for the whole family. Beyond the great live music ranging from hot, soulful blues to Bavarian Umpah, the Hops Fest will have: sidewalk chalk art, face painting, food vendors, arts & crafts, and more. And needless to say - lots of freshly brewed BEER including our Lupulin Fresh Hop Ale and IPA!

While you are here, be sure to swing by for a pint, grab a bite, tour the brewery, or just soak up the view. Our Tasting Room and Pub is open daily @11:30AM. Brewery tours are available daily, free of charge at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00PM.

This is such a beautiful location and this time of year is a great time to visit. If you're in the Northwest and can make the event, you should do what you can to do so. I'm a bit sad to say I won't be there, but I hope you can tell me how it was.

West Coast Beer Festival 2007

Written By Jeff Barber, PBN Staff

The first stop, since we wanted to start light, it was the first tent, and they had the gold medal American Pale Ale, was Kona Brewing for their Fire Rock Pale Ale. While good, it lacked the hop character that you would expect from an American Pale Ale, especially for the gold medal winner. Next up was Full Sail Session. I’d heard Rick rave about this beer as an easy drinking light lager and I wasn’t disappointed. Noticed a slight sweetness in the flavor. Very drinkable. Next we went to Schooner’s for their pale ale. Jose had grabbed one in his haul after judging and said it was really good. Compared to the Kona, it was much better. Not sure why it didn’t finish in the top 3. More hops than Kona in both aroma and flavor. Still easy drinking too.

Next up was our first WOW beer. As most of you know, I’m a big wheat beer fan. I would have to say the Blue Frog Hefeweizen is now one of my favorites. Prominent banana and spice in the aroma that promises a great German hefeweizen flavor. The flavor had some orange in it as well as the banana, excellent body, and a nice full head. Great summer beer. I’ll look for this one. Talked to Nick, the head brewer, who also told us he was pouring a bottle conditioned DIPA. Since it was still early, we figured we’d come back for that. Nick was very appreciative of past pub he’s gotten on Pacific Brew News.com and offered to send us some beer to put on one of the tasting shows. I will follow up with him on that.

After this, it was two pilsners. First was the gold medal winning Radeberger Pils. This was very good with a prominent spicy hop aroma and some noticeable bitterness in the taste. Deserving of its’ award. After this we tried the Trumer Pils since it is well known as a good pilsner as well. While it was quite good, it had less aroma and less hop bitterness. Joerg, our German Pils fan, agreed that the Radeberger was better.

Next we finally moved on to IPA’s. We started with the Deschutes Inversion which we obviously knew from past experience to be good. It should also be noted that the Deschutes had the longest line most of the time (only beaten by the longer food lines). Grassy hop aroma followed by the expected piney hop flavor. Excellent. After this it was the Sequoia brewing General Sherman IPA. This was also quite good with a little more noticeable malt. For those, who prefer a little more balanced IPA this was a great choice. Jose picked this one over the Inversion.

At this point, we took a break to enjoy the sights and have some lunch. Lisa from Beermann’s provided us with some great sausages from the trunk of her car that really hit the spot. We hung out with her and Starlight for awhile getting ready for more beer, while drinking a Beermann’s Maibock (quite good as well). I will say, while there were some excellent sights, i.e., females, I think I was more focused on the beer. I must be getting old.

Starting back with the beer adventure, we went back to Blue Frog for their bottle conditioned DIPA. This was outstanding. Very well balanced for such a big beer with some slight alcohol (about 8% ABV). The bottle conditioning also gave it great body. Very hoppy but with enough malt backbone. Excellent beer!

After this, it was off to Lodi Beer Company's for a couple of their beers. First up was the Harvest IPA. While good, it had a touch of sweetness and not enough hop character for an IPA. The other beer we tried was great however. Even though our palates might have been challenged at this point, we wanted to try the Orange Blossom Wheat. This was a great citrusy wheat beer with a noticeable orange aroma. Cloudy. Slight wheat beer “tang” noticed. I could definitely drink a few of these on a hot summer day.

Next was another Blue Frog DIPA, my only duplicate, while waiting for the 3:30 tasting of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. As I said before, a great DIPA. The Bigfoot was great as usual. A big beer in all the best ways.

At this point, my notes start to get much harder to read. I know we had the Placerville Brewing's Strong Blonde and enjoyed it. We may even of had some more that I didn’t write down.

All in all it was a great day though. Miller Park is a great location. We never had to wait very long for a beer. We missed a lot of good breweries though. There’s only so much you can do on a day like this, Still I would have liked to hit Rogue, Sudwerks, Allagash, etc. I also noticed that a couple of favorites from past brewfests were not in attendance. Bison Brewing, past brewers of the unique Honey Basil Ale and a great Belgian Strong Ale, were not there. I guess now that Peter Hoey has moved to Sac Brewing they don’t do brewfests. Also, Etna Brewing was nowhere to be found. Both were missed.

By the way, the girl in the white dress and platform sandals I mentioned earlier was seen pouring beer in one of the tents. When we walked back to the car to meet Katherine, our ride home, we saw the same girl being propped up by her boy friend who was desperately trying to get her to the car. She could barely walk and undoubtedly was going to either pass out (if she was lucky) or be “selling buicks” in a short amount of time. Walking in 3 or 4” platforms while absolutely smashed-now that’s a challenge.

Lastly, my best of show beers were the following.

1. Blue Frog DIPA
2. Blue Frog Hefewiezen
3. Radeberger Pils and Lodi Orange Blossom Wheat (tie)

We are lucky to live somewhere that holds events like this. I can hardly wait for the California Brewfest in September.

- Jeff

Session Beer

I've been reading a lot of articles online lately about the nation's need for more session beer - beers under 5% ABV that are refreshing and flavorful. I admit, I love me a big beer. My 'favorite' style is the IIPA. I go crazy for Russian Imperial Stouts. I seek out as many barley wines as a guy can find. I love big beer, but it just isn't reasonable to enjoy them in quantity night in and night out.

That said, I seriously look forward to the Spring when craft brewers from around the country introduce beers missing the "Imperial" on the label. It pretty much begins in mid-April with the introduction of the year's Maibock releases. Yes, they're generally more than 5%, but not by much, and they're full of flavor with a wonderful mouthfeel. Yes, when I see the Helles or Mai Bocks on the shelf, my liver, waistline and senses are happy.

My latest trip to the beer store today was even more encouraging, as it is now becoming easier to find beers I can start enjoying before dinner. Let's examine some of my finds from the day, shall we?

Anchor Bock & Full Sail LTD 02 (6.4 & 5.5%) - Officially FS isn't a Maibock, but the wonderful sweetness in these beers are wonderful on cool Spring nights. The Anchor Bock is dark, rich and with a nice roast character.

Full Sail Session (5.1%) - if you haven't tried this beer, it may be the most perfect Summer time beer on the market. I've taken cases camping, buy them when I am doing home improvement projects or working on my '72 Ford Stepside. Light, crisp, refreshing and not lacking flavor.

Lagunitas Pils (5.3%)- I haven't tried this years version, but my memories have this as another crisp, clean finishing beer that is easy to drink more than a couple of.

Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown (4.8%)- At under 5% this beer is shockingly full of flavor, like lightly toasted bread and moderate hop spice and bittering. A great beer and hard to comprehend it has less alcohol than Session.

There were others, but I wasn't taking notes.

If you're a blog reader you're aware that May is mild beer month overseas - of course, celebrating the 'mild' style virtually unknown in the US. We don't have a lot of traditional Mild beers here, but certainly it will be worth your time to search out some of these more mild beers. Use the list above, or do some label reading yourself to find a new beer you like that is low in alcohol and full of flavor. If you find one you like, be sure to let us know.

More Info
Mild Beer Month - Brookstone
Cooking with Milds - CAMRA