Hey readers! In case you hadn't noticed, I've started to write beer blog posts for Beerploma, and HERE is a link to the first of my Drinking Around Disney posts focusing on Epcot.
Enjoy! Also make sure to like/follow Beerploma to stay up on future posts.
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
More Places to Eat and Drink in Portland! Day 6
Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon. While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places. On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun. I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip! Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like. I accidentally deleted this whole post, so my rewrite is going to be shorter. Stupid Blogger.
Breakfast this fine day was at Interurban, a small upscale pub specializing in pre-prohibition cocktails. Heidi from Forktown Tours suggested this spot as a good place for brunch and she was not mistaken! I snarfed down my biscuits and gravy topped with perfectly cooked duck egg, paired with a frothy Pliny The Elder. This was a breakfast!
From here we wandered around the neighborhood a bit, taking in the sites and doing a little shopping.
From there we spent time at the extensive Portland Rose Garden (put in around 1917) This was a fun little trip, but a bit crowded with this being Mother's Day Sunday!
Next up and just across from the Rose Garden was the serene Japanese Garden. This one was not free, but as a result was less crowded.
Breakside Brewery
One of my top brewery visits for the trip, this place is a must-visit spot in Portland. Despite an initial crabby hostess who didn't want us to move from the wobbly table, we ended up with a very pleasant server. Another little nafu with some chipped taster glasses and a little glass in my beer held me up a few minutes before getting to drink these wonderful beers. But these beers were great. Several tasty IPA's were at the forefront, along with my favorite IPA of the trip: India Golden Ale. They had a great Pomegranate Gose that was Sj's favorite as well. The Salted Caramel Stout and the Barrel Aged Fitzcaraldo were also stellar. Seriously this is a great brewery.
While sipping on golden sunshine at Breakside, we spotted a cider bar across the street. This was Bushwhacker Cider's second (and new) location featuring 14 ciders on tap from around the world, and several bottles as well. For a nice change of pace (from beer anyway) we shared two large samplers between the four of us. Unfortunately the Bushwhacker ciders were our least favorite of the bunch, but still decent.
We took what we thought would be a short field trip to McMenamins Edgefield Estate, just to show off the place to our friends. The place started as a 1911 poor farm, and has a ton of cool old outbuildings that have been converted to bars, pubs and restaurants. They have golf, a brewery, winery, distillery, and more on the grounds. I want to stay there a few nights just to explore more! We started with a visit to the tiny Red Shed bar that looks like someplace where Samwise and Frodo might put their hairy feet up and hoist a flagon of ale. From there we visited the Distillery Bar, and got a cool impromptu tour of the distillery while there by distiller Bill Fry. Then to the Grateful Dead themed Jerry's Ice House. Then to the Tea House Bar next to the spa pool where we had the wonderful cocktail Phil Collins (a Tom Collins made with house distilled hazelnut spirit). Then to dinner at the Black Rabbit restaurant and bar. We ended up spending much more time here than expected, but there was just so much to do!
After getting back home, we walked a few dark blocks to Expatriate, a cocktail bar manned by two mixologists who were spinning vinyl and mixing strange concoctions for us.
A quick trip back to the McMenamins Boiler Room Bar in our own hotel before bed and we call a close on this long day of adventure!
Running Tally:
Breweries: 18 (I'm counting Edgefield's since I looked in the window and had a beer while there).
Distilleries: 3
Pubs/Bars: 15
Meaderies: 1
Cideries: 1
Day 6
Interurban
Breakfast this fine day was at Interurban, a small upscale pub specializing in pre-prohibition cocktails. Heidi from Forktown Tours suggested this spot as a good place for brunch and she was not mistaken! I snarfed down my biscuits and gravy topped with perfectly cooked duck egg, paired with a frothy Pliny The Elder. This was a breakfast!
From here we wandered around the neighborhood a bit, taking in the sites and doing a little shopping.
 |
| Lots of paper advertisements all over Portland...some with interesting results... |
From there we spent time at the extensive Portland Rose Garden (put in around 1917) This was a fun little trip, but a bit crowded with this being Mother's Day Sunday!
 |
| A rose by any other name? |
Next up and just across from the Rose Garden was the serene Japanese Garden. This one was not free, but as a result was less crowded.
Breakside Brewery
One of my top brewery visits for the trip, this place is a must-visit spot in Portland. Despite an initial crabby hostess who didn't want us to move from the wobbly table, we ended up with a very pleasant server. Another little nafu with some chipped taster glasses and a little glass in my beer held me up a few minutes before getting to drink these wonderful beers. But these beers were great. Several tasty IPA's were at the forefront, along with my favorite IPA of the trip: India Golden Ale. They had a great Pomegranate Gose that was Sj's favorite as well. The Salted Caramel Stout and the Barrel Aged Fitzcaraldo were also stellar. Seriously this is a great brewery.
Bushwhacker Cider
While sipping on golden sunshine at Breakside, we spotted a cider bar across the street. This was Bushwhacker Cider's second (and new) location featuring 14 ciders on tap from around the world, and several bottles as well. For a nice change of pace (from beer anyway) we shared two large samplers between the four of us. Unfortunately the Bushwhacker ciders were our least favorite of the bunch, but still decent.
McMenamins Edgefield Estate
We took what we thought would be a short field trip to McMenamins Edgefield Estate, just to show off the place to our friends. The place started as a 1911 poor farm, and has a ton of cool old outbuildings that have been converted to bars, pubs and restaurants. They have golf, a brewery, winery, distillery, and more on the grounds. I want to stay there a few nights just to explore more! We started with a visit to the tiny Red Shed bar that looks like someplace where Samwise and Frodo might put their hairy feet up and hoist a flagon of ale. From there we visited the Distillery Bar, and got a cool impromptu tour of the distillery while there by distiller Bill Fry. Then to the Grateful Dead themed Jerry's Ice House. Then to the Tea House Bar next to the spa pool where we had the wonderful cocktail Phil Collins (a Tom Collins made with house distilled hazelnut spirit). Then to dinner at the Black Rabbit restaurant and bar. We ended up spending much more time here than expected, but there was just so much to do!
After getting back home, we walked a few dark blocks to Expatriate, a cocktail bar manned by two mixologists who were spinning vinyl and mixing strange concoctions for us.
A quick trip back to the McMenamins Boiler Room Bar in our own hotel before bed and we call a close on this long day of adventure!
Running Tally:
Breweries: 18 (I'm counting Edgefield's since I looked in the window and had a beer while there).
Distilleries: 3
Pubs/Bars: 15
Meaderies: 1
Cideries: 1
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
So Many Breweries, So Little Time: Portland Day 5
Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon. While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places. On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun. I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip! Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like.
We started out our fifth day with a good base of a sturdy breakfast at the wonderfully rural looking and hipster friendly Pine State Biscuits. Yummy biscuits and gravy! I recommend this place but there was a sizable line and not a lot of seating so get there early!
Stomachs full of rapidly expanding biscuits, our next stop was The Commons Brewery, which had been suggested by several of my friends as a great newcomer to the Portland brewery scene. Starting as a 1 barrel nano system, they have already upgraded first to a 7 bbl, and now again to a 15 bbl brewhouse. Rapid growth can be bad, but in the case of Commons, I think it's a good thing indeed. We were nearly the first ones there, coming in just as they opened (I'd heard the place gets crowded and wanted to beat the rush). We ordered samplers to taste through all 12 beers they had on tap. Watching our server rinse off the sticky overflow from the outside of the sampler glasses with a little condiment bottle made me realize that these guys really care about their beers and how they are presented.
Shall we talk about the beers? Out of 12 beers the lowest score I gave was a 3.5 for the Pils (just not quite perfect, but still drinkable). The rest were all 3.75-4 beers, which for me is well above average. Most were Belgian in character with a few different takes on saisons and a French Biere de Garde that was very tasty. My favorite was the Myrtle--sour, tart, with a spritzy hoppy finish (4.5). This was followed by The Croze--lemony and refreshing (4.25). I think our whole group was pretty happy with our time here! Well worth a visit to Commons.
From Commons, it was just a short walk on a sunny day to Cascade Barrel House. This is Cascade's barrel aging (and serving) facility and is known throughout the land as one of the top American producers of sour beers. I've written up Cascade in the past so I'm not going too much into it today--but this brewery was on our must-revisit list for sure! Between the four of us we tried all the available sour beers and the special Derby Day concoction that tasted like a mint julep. I think the fan favorite was the Framblanc--a tart raspberry sour made with white raspberry. I can't say enough good things about this brewery and it is a must-do for any beer enthusiast in the Portland area. Pretty much every beer I tasted got at least a 4 or higher score.
Not far away was another young brewery that we had discovered on our tasting travels: Culmination Brewing. This was located in a small, but newer strip-mall. We had tried their triple IPA Ferret The Younger at the McMenamins 23rd Ave Bottle Shop earlier in our visit and that made me jump this brewery up on our list--unfortunately they didn't have it on tap at the brewery. Sad Face. Culmination had a nice vibe once inside the taproom, but it was getting a little warm for comfort at this time of day. They had a good looking food list and a variety beers to try. Pretty much all of the beers were above average (average score for me was 3.5) with my favorite being the Euphoric IPA and the Euphoric Brett IPA. The most unusual beer was made with tea with mango and passion fruit--none of us were quite sure what to make of this one, but it stood out from the crowd of other beers on the trip. While this wasn't our favorite brewery of the trip, they certainly have potential for greater things over the coming years.
While at Culmination, Shea (I think) noticed a small sign for Stung Fermented across the parking lot. Curious, we wandered over and had one of the better surprise experiences of the trip. This is a very new meadery (for those not in the know, mead is a fermented honey beverage) specializing in dry, carbonated meads. Most of the commercial and homebrewed meads I've had have been on the sweeter side, and most often are served more as desert wines, so I was excited to try these. The issue with dry meads is that the sweet honey character is often lost and the result can be less than exciting.
We were greeted by Patrick Lawrence, the assistant mead maker, who was manning the shopfront. He walked us through the line-up with tastings of their three core Worker Series meads (lower alcohol champagne-like meads). I'm going into more depth on these!
Trinity: The flagship--mild, easy to drink, would go great with foods as a palate cleanser. 3.75
Mosaic: This one is actually made with Mosaic hops and had an amazing hoppy, blackberry aroma. 4
Standard: Ginger on the nose. Carbonation strong. Mild honey character. 3.75
Farmhouse: Funky aroma with a very dry finish. Not my favorite. 3
Caffe: Crazy coffee and vanilla on the aroma and flavor. A strange and intriguing mix. 4
Gose: A take on the coriander and salted tart beer style of the same name. Odd for a mead, but interesting. A bit too much coriander in it, but the salt adds some different character to the drink. 3.5
We had accumulated another couple on the tasting tour by now and Patrick gave us an impromptu tour of the meadery as well. These guys are totally into the science behind the process and it shows in their finished product, as well as the fact that all their fermentors are all named after scientists! We got to try two special meads directly from the fermentors and these were the stand-out hits of the visit--these were bigger, badder meads and the first of their Queen Series. One was made with local blackberry honey and had a nice tart finish that made me smile (4.25). The other was made with high desert honey and had an incredible earthy flavor redolent of sage and mesquite wood (4.5). We really liked this place and I think they'll be going places soon.
Moving on from Stung, we headed for yet another brewery! Coalition Brewing was not far from where we planned to have dinner, so we walked there prior. By this time we were a little beered-out but the meads had reinvigorated us for one more stop. OK, mostly I pushed for one more stop and my group grudgingly allowed it. Coalition is located in what looks like an old warehouse. This is a 10 barrel brewery set into a very tiny and narrow space that frankly looks way too small to hold all that equipment! This is very much a production spot, but near the entrance they have a set of taps set up for selling pints and samples as well, and some outside seating. Here I tried: Space Fruit IPA (3.75), Dropping Science DIPA--love the name and the beer (4), and Bosc Mode a brett beer made with local Bosc pears (4). This is not the most picturesque of breweries, but he beers were solid for sure. I'm also pleased that they routinely get together with homebrewers to make taproom only beers.
For dinner, not far from Coalition, we headed for Laurelhurst Market. During the day this place is a deli and fancy butcher shop, but at night it turns into a high-end steak-oriented restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner with great service and various outrageous cocktails. Not our cheapest meal for sure, but worth the trip.
Have you noticed how my write-ups get shorter as the day of indulgence goes on?
As mentioned in previous entries, our hotel (McMenamins Kennedy School) has a total of 5 bars in the building, and we had to catch them all! Once safe at home and no longer requiring Sj to drive, we had to catch her up on the cocktail action. We started with the Honors Bar. Located in the old principal's office, this is a very small (fits 8-10 people) spot with a couple beers on tap and plenty of cocktails. In winter months they run the world's tiniest wood stove to warm the place up. By this point I was getting tired and just had a Jam Session IPA from the brewery--hurray for session IPA's! We ended up downstairs in the Boiler Room Bar again and played a wacky card game that Shea and Kathleen taught us. We got our drank on this day!
Running Tally:
Breweries: 16
Distilleries: 2
Pubs/Bars: 8
Meaderies: 1
Day 5
We started out our fifth day with a good base of a sturdy breakfast at the wonderfully rural looking and hipster friendly Pine State Biscuits. Yummy biscuits and gravy! I recommend this place but there was a sizable line and not a lot of seating so get there early!
 |
| The view from line at Pine State... |
The Commons Brewery
Stomachs full of rapidly expanding biscuits, our next stop was The Commons Brewery, which had been suggested by several of my friends as a great newcomer to the Portland brewery scene. Starting as a 1 barrel nano system, they have already upgraded first to a 7 bbl, and now again to a 15 bbl brewhouse. Rapid growth can be bad, but in the case of Commons, I think it's a good thing indeed. We were nearly the first ones there, coming in just as they opened (I'd heard the place gets crowded and wanted to beat the rush). We ordered samplers to taste through all 12 beers they had on tap. Watching our server rinse off the sticky overflow from the outside of the sampler glasses with a little condiment bottle made me realize that these guys really care about their beers and how they are presented.
Shall we talk about the beers? Out of 12 beers the lowest score I gave was a 3.5 for the Pils (just not quite perfect, but still drinkable). The rest were all 3.75-4 beers, which for me is well above average. Most were Belgian in character with a few different takes on saisons and a French Biere de Garde that was very tasty. My favorite was the Myrtle--sour, tart, with a spritzy hoppy finish (4.5). This was followed by The Croze--lemony and refreshing (4.25). I think our whole group was pretty happy with our time here! Well worth a visit to Commons.
Cascade Barrel House
From Commons, it was just a short walk on a sunny day to Cascade Barrel House. This is Cascade's barrel aging (and serving) facility and is known throughout the land as one of the top American producers of sour beers. I've written up Cascade in the past so I'm not going too much into it today--but this brewery was on our must-revisit list for sure! Between the four of us we tried all the available sour beers and the special Derby Day concoction that tasted like a mint julep. I think the fan favorite was the Framblanc--a tart raspberry sour made with white raspberry. I can't say enough good things about this brewery and it is a must-do for any beer enthusiast in the Portland area. Pretty much every beer I tasted got at least a 4 or higher score.
Culmination Brewing
Not far away was another young brewery that we had discovered on our tasting travels: Culmination Brewing. This was located in a small, but newer strip-mall. We had tried their triple IPA Ferret The Younger at the McMenamins 23rd Ave Bottle Shop earlier in our visit and that made me jump this brewery up on our list--unfortunately they didn't have it on tap at the brewery. Sad Face. Culmination had a nice vibe once inside the taproom, but it was getting a little warm for comfort at this time of day. They had a good looking food list and a variety beers to try. Pretty much all of the beers were above average (average score for me was 3.5) with my favorite being the Euphoric IPA and the Euphoric Brett IPA. The most unusual beer was made with tea with mango and passion fruit--none of us were quite sure what to make of this one, but it stood out from the crowd of other beers on the trip. While this wasn't our favorite brewery of the trip, they certainly have potential for greater things over the coming years.
Stung Fermented
While at Culmination, Shea (I think) noticed a small sign for Stung Fermented across the parking lot. Curious, we wandered over and had one of the better surprise experiences of the trip. This is a very new meadery (for those not in the know, mead is a fermented honey beverage) specializing in dry, carbonated meads. Most of the commercial and homebrewed meads I've had have been on the sweeter side, and most often are served more as desert wines, so I was excited to try these. The issue with dry meads is that the sweet honey character is often lost and the result can be less than exciting.
We were greeted by Patrick Lawrence, the assistant mead maker, who was manning the shopfront. He walked us through the line-up with tastings of their three core Worker Series meads (lower alcohol champagne-like meads). I'm going into more depth on these!
Trinity: The flagship--mild, easy to drink, would go great with foods as a palate cleanser. 3.75
Mosaic: This one is actually made with Mosaic hops and had an amazing hoppy, blackberry aroma. 4Standard: Ginger on the nose. Carbonation strong. Mild honey character. 3.75
Farmhouse: Funky aroma with a very dry finish. Not my favorite. 3
Caffe: Crazy coffee and vanilla on the aroma and flavor. A strange and intriguing mix. 4
Gose: A take on the coriander and salted tart beer style of the same name. Odd for a mead, but interesting. A bit too much coriander in it, but the salt adds some different character to the drink. 3.5
We had accumulated another couple on the tasting tour by now and Patrick gave us an impromptu tour of the meadery as well. These guys are totally into the science behind the process and it shows in their finished product, as well as the fact that all their fermentors are all named after scientists! We got to try two special meads directly from the fermentors and these were the stand-out hits of the visit--these were bigger, badder meads and the first of their Queen Series. One was made with local blackberry honey and had a nice tart finish that made me smile (4.25). The other was made with high desert honey and had an incredible earthy flavor redolent of sage and mesquite wood (4.5). We really liked this place and I think they'll be going places soon.
Coalition Brewing
Moving on from Stung, we headed for yet another brewery! Coalition Brewing was not far from where we planned to have dinner, so we walked there prior. By this time we were a little beered-out but the meads had reinvigorated us for one more stop. OK, mostly I pushed for one more stop and my group grudgingly allowed it. Coalition is located in what looks like an old warehouse. This is a 10 barrel brewery set into a very tiny and narrow space that frankly looks way too small to hold all that equipment! This is very much a production spot, but near the entrance they have a set of taps set up for selling pints and samples as well, and some outside seating. Here I tried: Space Fruit IPA (3.75), Dropping Science DIPA--love the name and the beer (4), and Bosc Mode a brett beer made with local Bosc pears (4). This is not the most picturesque of breweries, but he beers were solid for sure. I'm also pleased that they routinely get together with homebrewers to make taproom only beers.
 |
| In our travels we stopped at Yarnia to fulfill Kathleen's need for yarn. Yes, Yarnia |
Laurelhurst Market
For dinner, not far from Coalition, we headed for Laurelhurst Market. During the day this place is a deli and fancy butcher shop, but at night it turns into a high-end steak-oriented restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner with great service and various outrageous cocktails. Not our cheapest meal for sure, but worth the trip.
Have you noticed how my write-ups get shorter as the day of indulgence goes on?
McMenamins Honors Bar
As mentioned in previous entries, our hotel (McMenamins Kennedy School) has a total of 5 bars in the building, and we had to catch them all! Once safe at home and no longer requiring Sj to drive, we had to catch her up on the cocktail action. We started with the Honors Bar. Located in the old principal's office, this is a very small (fits 8-10 people) spot with a couple beers on tap and plenty of cocktails. In winter months they run the world's tiniest wood stove to warm the place up. By this point I was getting tired and just had a Jam Session IPA from the brewery--hurray for session IPA's! We ended up downstairs in the Boiler Room Bar again and played a wacky card game that Shea and Kathleen taught us. We got our drank on this day!
Running Tally:
Breweries: 16
Distilleries: 2
Pubs/Bars: 8
Meaderies: 1
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Oregon Day 4: Hood River
Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon. While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places. On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun. I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip! Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like.
Day 4 dawned bright and sunny, a perfect day for our planned field trip along the scenic Colombia river Gorge to the town of Hood River, Oregon. After breakfast of Blue Star donuts (given to us a parting gift from Heidi of Forktown Tours the day before) and some coffee, we headed out!
Our first stop was along the way (maybe 45-60 minutes out of Portland I think) at a trailhead to Wahclella Falls. The trail was fairly short (about a mile each way) but steep and rugged at times for us non-hikers. It got pretty steamy along the way as well. The scenery was breathtaking though, enormous moss-laden trees, exposed rock of cliffsides, small caves, wooden bridges across the river, and more. Of course the waterfall at the end of the trail was the high point for me! Regret for not lugging my tripod along was strong, but I did my best with long shutter speeds and hand holding the camera to get a few decent shots of the falls. Sj and our friends were very patient as I stopped every 5 feet to take more pictures along the way.
Sweaty and tired, we made it back to the car and finished the trip to Hood River just in time for a late lunch at pFriem Family Brewers. We discovered this place about 3 years ago on our way to Bend and it promptly jumped up to our "breweries to watch" list. At the time they were very young, but still had some incredible beers. Now they have only improved! The brewery is right along the river, and since our last visit, a cool park has been built in between the brewery and the river. The downstairs area was pretty full but we found seating upstairs easily. The food is top-notch with nods to Belgium, Germany, and of course American cuisine. All of us are "foodies" and this place rocked our world for lunch!
Between the four of us we tasted all the beers they had to offer, and we were all very impressed. Three top notch IPA's led the charge--with my favorite being their regular IPA and second with the Down Under. A tasty and refreshing Helles rounded out the portfolio with a lager. Several versions of saison sparkled with true Belgian yeast character in a way that I haven't seen often in American versions of the style. One of my favorite beers of the entire trip to Oregon was the Peche--a fairly classic peach lambic that puts most other American sours to shame (I'm talking to you kettle sours!). I ended up having to get a whole glass of this and bought a bottle to take home. Seldom do I find a brewery that has this much range and technical skill in brewing such varied styles. Throw in excellent service, great food, and beautiful location and this pFriem is a winner! It kind of blows my mind that so few people in Portland have even heard of these guys.
A new addition to the Hood River beer scene since our last trip out is a tasting room for Logsdon Farmhouse Ales. The brewery itself is somewhere outside of town and has been putting out great beers from--you guessed it--a farmhouse brewery! Now thirsty travelers can taste the great and funky stuff in a comfortable taproom right downtown. I've managed to get my hands on a few bottles of these beers over the past few years and wrote up Peche 'n Brett as one of my Whale A Week tastings HERE.
Sj and I each ordered a sampler to share so we could try most of the options. The sampler glasses were actually bigger than most and we had to enlist our friends to help us with them! On a funny note, one of the wooden sampler trays got wet and expanded a bit, not allowing Sj to be able to pull the glass out of the base. They also had a little sandwich station in the back end of the place in case of hunger...
While pFriem really shone with their takes on classic Belgian ales, Logsdon stood out for doing their own different and more unusual versions. The two more traditional beers Moniken Kruin (Quad) and Straffe Drieling (Tripel) were both good, but were my least favorite of the bunch (both got 3.75 scores though!) Oaked Aged Bretta was their oak aged saison with brettanomyces (4), Cerasus was the cherry funk/sour beer (4), Far West Vlaming was the Flanders Red (4), and the Szech 'n Brett was the saison with Chinese Szechuan peppercorns (4). Yup I liked all the beers here quite a lot. 4's are usually my top beers so this place was stellar.
After having our fill of Belgian and Belgian-esque beers, we stopped briefly at Double Mountain Brewery. This place is known for their hoppy beers and is a favorite of my cousins who live out this way. It has a more classic brewpub feel and makes some pretty good pizzas to kill the hunger. My favorite beers this visit were the Mama Tried, and Dearly Beloved--both classic American IPAs. Molten Lava DIPA was also quite good. They had a cider, a perry, and a sour kriek that were all respectable, but these guys shine with the hops.
On the way back home we nearly ran out of gas, since none of us remembered to fill up in town, but made it to a gas station in time! We eventually arrived back to our home base of the McMenamins Kennedy School. A quick change and we were all off again to our dinner reservation at Olympia Provisions (formerly Olympic Provisons). This is a cool restaurant and deli that makes all their own sausage and charcuterie, and was on the top of our planned dining options for this trip. They have a few local craft brews on tap, but mostly specialize in wine and cocktails. Shea and I ordered heaping platters of sausage goodness while the ladies ate more refined dishes and sipped at fancy cocktails.
Back home at the hotel, Kathleen headed back to her room...to promptly fall asleep instead of partying with the rest of us. She may have had the right idea. Sj, Shea, and I all took a trip to one of the hotel's myriad bar options. We started with the tiny old Vice Principal's office that has been dubbed Detention. Dark and close, seating about 8-10 very cozy people, this is also the whiskey and cigar bar. A few open high windows and a small fan actually provided remarkably good ventilation while surrounded by pungent cigar smoke. Trying some Scotch, but no cigars, we hung out until we smelled properly of smoke and were ready to move on. While here, we discovered several other patrons dressed like escapees from an 1980's John Hughes film and later realized that they were having an 80's Prom Party in the main ballroom (gymnasium) of the school that night. Things just keep getting weirder...
Rusty wheels in my head starting to slow down now. A long day of hiking, eating, and yes plenty of drinking, was finally taking its toll. But hey, why not check out one more bar? I mean, its in the hotel right? We're already home right? So we three survivors slogged down the stairs to the old boiler room, past odd paintings and sculptures, stair rails made of old radiator coils, things starting to have an ominous and more bizarre dreamlike cast. Tasting through an ill-advised sampler of McMenamin's house distilled whiskeys, we all hung out and relaxed until our bodies finally gave up and forced us to give in to sleep. Don't worry we all made it back to our rooms safely!
Running Tally:
Breweries: 12
Distilleries: 2
Pubs/Bars: 7
Day 4
Day 4 dawned bright and sunny, a perfect day for our planned field trip along the scenic Colombia river Gorge to the town of Hood River, Oregon. After breakfast of Blue Star donuts (given to us a parting gift from Heidi of Forktown Tours the day before) and some coffee, we headed out!
Our first stop was along the way (maybe 45-60 minutes out of Portland I think) at a trailhead to Wahclella Falls. The trail was fairly short (about a mile each way) but steep and rugged at times for us non-hikers. It got pretty steamy along the way as well. The scenery was breathtaking though, enormous moss-laden trees, exposed rock of cliffsides, small caves, wooden bridges across the river, and more. Of course the waterfall at the end of the trail was the high point for me! Regret for not lugging my tripod along was strong, but I did my best with long shutter speeds and hand holding the camera to get a few decent shots of the falls. Sj and our friends were very patient as I stopped every 5 feet to take more pictures along the way.
pFriem
Sweaty and tired, we made it back to the car and finished the trip to Hood River just in time for a late lunch at pFriem Family Brewers. We discovered this place about 3 years ago on our way to Bend and it promptly jumped up to our "breweries to watch" list. At the time they were very young, but still had some incredible beers. Now they have only improved! The brewery is right along the river, and since our last visit, a cool park has been built in between the brewery and the river. The downstairs area was pretty full but we found seating upstairs easily. The food is top-notch with nods to Belgium, Germany, and of course American cuisine. All of us are "foodies" and this place rocked our world for lunch!
Between the four of us we tasted all the beers they had to offer, and we were all very impressed. Three top notch IPA's led the charge--with my favorite being their regular IPA and second with the Down Under. A tasty and refreshing Helles rounded out the portfolio with a lager. Several versions of saison sparkled with true Belgian yeast character in a way that I haven't seen often in American versions of the style. One of my favorite beers of the entire trip to Oregon was the Peche--a fairly classic peach lambic that puts most other American sours to shame (I'm talking to you kettle sours!). I ended up having to get a whole glass of this and bought a bottle to take home. Seldom do I find a brewery that has this much range and technical skill in brewing such varied styles. Throw in excellent service, great food, and beautiful location and this pFriem is a winner! It kind of blows my mind that so few people in Portland have even heard of these guys.
Logsdon Farmhouse Ales
A new addition to the Hood River beer scene since our last trip out is a tasting room for Logsdon Farmhouse Ales. The brewery itself is somewhere outside of town and has been putting out great beers from--you guessed it--a farmhouse brewery! Now thirsty travelers can taste the great and funky stuff in a comfortable taproom right downtown. I've managed to get my hands on a few bottles of these beers over the past few years and wrote up Peche 'n Brett as one of my Whale A Week tastings HERE.
Sj and I each ordered a sampler to share so we could try most of the options. The sampler glasses were actually bigger than most and we had to enlist our friends to help us with them! On a funny note, one of the wooden sampler trays got wet and expanded a bit, not allowing Sj to be able to pull the glass out of the base. They also had a little sandwich station in the back end of the place in case of hunger...
While pFriem really shone with their takes on classic Belgian ales, Logsdon stood out for doing their own different and more unusual versions. The two more traditional beers Moniken Kruin (Quad) and Straffe Drieling (Tripel) were both good, but were my least favorite of the bunch (both got 3.75 scores though!) Oaked Aged Bretta was their oak aged saison with brettanomyces (4), Cerasus was the cherry funk/sour beer (4), Far West Vlaming was the Flanders Red (4), and the Szech 'n Brett was the saison with Chinese Szechuan peppercorns (4). Yup I liked all the beers here quite a lot. 4's are usually my top beers so this place was stellar.
Double Mountain Brewing
After having our fill of Belgian and Belgian-esque beers, we stopped briefly at Double Mountain Brewery. This place is known for their hoppy beers and is a favorite of my cousins who live out this way. It has a more classic brewpub feel and makes some pretty good pizzas to kill the hunger. My favorite beers this visit were the Mama Tried, and Dearly Beloved--both classic American IPAs. Molten Lava DIPA was also quite good. They had a cider, a perry, and a sour kriek that were all respectable, but these guys shine with the hops.
Full Sail Brewing
, we swung by Full Sail Brewing for a quick dram on the way back to the car. Full Sail is the elder statesman of the brew scene in Hood River, (and Oregon for that matter) and is worth a stop. They focus more on lagers and sessionable beers, but have some cool things at the tap room from time to time. They have a great view of the river from the deck, but some of this has been obscured by new buildings since our last visit. While there we tried Hop Pursuit IPA which was on cask--smooth, but not a ton of hop character going on. A decent stop for sure, but it remains below the other two breweries in town for me.
Olympia Provisions
On the way back home we nearly ran out of gas, since none of us remembered to fill up in town, but made it to a gas station in time! We eventually arrived back to our home base of the McMenamins Kennedy School. A quick change and we were all off again to our dinner reservation at Olympia Provisions (formerly Olympic Provisons). This is a cool restaurant and deli that makes all their own sausage and charcuterie, and was on the top of our planned dining options for this trip. They have a few local craft brews on tap, but mostly specialize in wine and cocktails. Shea and I ordered heaping platters of sausage goodness while the ladies ate more refined dishes and sipped at fancy cocktails.
McMenamins Detention Bar
Back home at the hotel, Kathleen headed back to her room...to promptly fall asleep instead of partying with the rest of us. She may have had the right idea. Sj, Shea, and I all took a trip to one of the hotel's myriad bar options. We started with the tiny old Vice Principal's office that has been dubbed Detention. Dark and close, seating about 8-10 very cozy people, this is also the whiskey and cigar bar. A few open high windows and a small fan actually provided remarkably good ventilation while surrounded by pungent cigar smoke. Trying some Scotch, but no cigars, we hung out until we smelled properly of smoke and were ready to move on. While here, we discovered several other patrons dressed like escapees from an 1980's John Hughes film and later realized that they were having an 80's Prom Party in the main ballroom (gymnasium) of the school that night. Things just keep getting weirder...
McMenamin's Boiler Room Bar
Rusty wheels in my head starting to slow down now. A long day of hiking, eating, and yes plenty of drinking, was finally taking its toll. But hey, why not check out one more bar? I mean, its in the hotel right? We're already home right? So we three survivors slogged down the stairs to the old boiler room, past odd paintings and sculptures, stair rails made of old radiator coils, things starting to have an ominous and more bizarre dreamlike cast. Tasting through an ill-advised sampler of McMenamin's house distilled whiskeys, we all hung out and relaxed until our bodies finally gave up and forced us to give in to sleep. Don't worry we all made it back to our rooms safely!
Running Tally:
Breweries: 12
Distilleries: 2
Pubs/Bars: 7
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
The Coast, Bunnies, Beers! Oregon Day 2
Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon. While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places. On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun. I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip! Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like.
Dawn arrived at the tiny coastal resort town of Pacific City. Despite threats of rain, the air was clear and brisk but with a firm grey cloud cover. Hints of morning sun periodically winked through the looming clouds, illuminating the magical view from our room of Haystack Rock jutting out of the sea. Side bar here: this was where parts of The Goonies was filmed and I made continual quotes about One-Eyed Willie and the Truffle Shuffle though-out our entire stay. My wife is very patient with me. Sometimes.
Camera in one hand, my lady's hand in the other, I made my way to the beach for a long walk. The briny smell of the sea, the crunch of barnacles underfoot, the raucous cries of wheeling sea birds, all brought home how different this world was from our home in Minnesota. We climbed on the rocks, looking at colorful anemones and hermit crabs trapped in their shallow depths. Soon we walked up a huge sand dune to find a spectacular view of sandstone cliffs, a large cave, crashing waves, and gulls galore. My kingdom for a tripod!
Finishing up our long walk, just as some mild rain started spitting, we stopped in to Pelican Pub & Brewery for a hearty breakfast. 9 AM and I am splitting my attention between hot coffee and Tsunami Stout. Life is good!
Now full to the brim with breakfast foods, coffee, and stout, we checked out of our hotel. While doing so Sarajo discovered bags of rabbit food for sale and we invested the 50 cents in a bag. Taking our spoils out behind the hotel, flocks of black rabbits incautiously approached us and began eating out Sj's hand. A fun little excursion before heading on!
We took a bit of a long-cut by way of Salem (Oregon's capital) in order to visit a couple of breweries that were totally unknown to us. We also didn't want to try too many of the Portland breweries without our friends so this was a nice way to widen our brewery net into new areas.
Our first stop in Salem was Vagabond Brewing, which we had discovered on our taster tour of local beers at ABV in Hilsboro the day before. The brewery was started by a group of Marine Corps combat veterans who had traveled extensively and discovered beer in all the places they visited. Vagabond was the culmination of those travels, and the name nods to the wanderer. They have a cute little kitchen that served up some great Native American style frybread to clear the palate after drinking through two sampler platters. They had a few local ciders on tap as well so Sj was happy!
The beers were surprisingly good. I gave nearly all of them 3.75 scores (from 0-5) which place them above average in my own personal tastes. I really enjoyed the Attack Owl IPA--named for a local owl that was apparently swooping down on unsuspecting park-goers. We tried the Redshift IRA which was a pleasant hoppy red, (and had tried this with guava previously). Sj and I also liked the 50/50 Kettle Sour with black currants--a well done version of this style for sure!
After our pleasing stop at Vagabond, we moved over to Gilgamesh Brewing, also in Salem. This place is tucked into the back end of an office park--they have a cool sign and water feature out by the road, but no signs on the actual building. The space is more of a brewpub with a large kitchen behind the bar. The place is a little dark, but cozy. We of course shared the sampler to try through the beers and I discovered Hoot Attack--also named for the crazy owl--but this wasn't quite as good as Vagabond's version. All of the beers were decent, with my average score coming in at 3.5. Their Terry Porter and Springer IPA were my favorites of the bunch, and the Mamba (a beer made with black tea, bergamot, and tangerine peel) was the most unique. None were seriously flawed, which is always nice to find!
Day 2
Dawn arrived at the tiny coastal resort town of Pacific City. Despite threats of rain, the air was clear and brisk but with a firm grey cloud cover. Hints of morning sun periodically winked through the looming clouds, illuminating the magical view from our room of Haystack Rock jutting out of the sea. Side bar here: this was where parts of The Goonies was filmed and I made continual quotes about One-Eyed Willie and the Truffle Shuffle though-out our entire stay. My wife is very patient with me. Sometimes.
Camera in one hand, my lady's hand in the other, I made my way to the beach for a long walk. The briny smell of the sea, the crunch of barnacles underfoot, the raucous cries of wheeling sea birds, all brought home how different this world was from our home in Minnesota. We climbed on the rocks, looking at colorful anemones and hermit crabs trapped in their shallow depths. Soon we walked up a huge sand dune to find a spectacular view of sandstone cliffs, a large cave, crashing waves, and gulls galore. My kingdom for a tripod!
Finishing up our long walk, just as some mild rain started spitting, we stopped in to Pelican Pub & Brewery for a hearty breakfast. 9 AM and I am splitting my attention between hot coffee and Tsunami Stout. Life is good!
Now full to the brim with breakfast foods, coffee, and stout, we checked out of our hotel. While doing so Sarajo discovered bags of rabbit food for sale and we invested the 50 cents in a bag. Taking our spoils out behind the hotel, flocks of black rabbits incautiously approached us and began eating out Sj's hand. A fun little excursion before heading on!
Salem
We took a bit of a long-cut by way of Salem (Oregon's capital) in order to visit a couple of breweries that were totally unknown to us. We also didn't want to try too many of the Portland breweries without our friends so this was a nice way to widen our brewery net into new areas.
Our first stop in Salem was Vagabond Brewing, which we had discovered on our taster tour of local beers at ABV in Hilsboro the day before. The brewery was started by a group of Marine Corps combat veterans who had traveled extensively and discovered beer in all the places they visited. Vagabond was the culmination of those travels, and the name nods to the wanderer. They have a cute little kitchen that served up some great Native American style frybread to clear the palate after drinking through two sampler platters. They had a few local ciders on tap as well so Sj was happy! The beers were surprisingly good. I gave nearly all of them 3.75 scores (from 0-5) which place them above average in my own personal tastes. I really enjoyed the Attack Owl IPA--named for a local owl that was apparently swooping down on unsuspecting park-goers. We tried the Redshift IRA which was a pleasant hoppy red, (and had tried this with guava previously). Sj and I also liked the 50/50 Kettle Sour with black currants--a well done version of this style for sure!
After our pleasing stop at Vagabond, we moved over to Gilgamesh Brewing, also in Salem. This place is tucked into the back end of an office park--they have a cool sign and water feature out by the road, but no signs on the actual building. The space is more of a brewpub with a large kitchen behind the bar. The place is a little dark, but cozy. We of course shared the sampler to try through the beers and I discovered Hoot Attack--also named for the crazy owl--but this wasn't quite as good as Vagabond's version. All of the beers were decent, with my average score coming in at 3.5. Their Terry Porter and Springer IPA were my favorites of the bunch, and the Mamba (a beer made with black tea, bergamot, and tangerine peel) was the most unique. None were seriously flawed, which is always nice to find!
Other than some unusually shaped tap handles, I felt that Gilgamesh didn't play into their Sumerian name enough. Since one of our local breweries in Minnesota (Enki Brewing) does a better job of Sumerian branding I expect a lot! This place is worth a quick stop (and the food looks great) but I enjoyed Vagabond a bit more of the two. Why visit just one?!
After our brief sojourn in Salem, we drove back into Portland to pick up our friends Kathleen and Shea, just arriving groggily on a long flight from the D.C. area. This part of the trip was boring and did not include any beer. Moving on...
We checked into our hotel for the following week: the McMenamin's Kennedy School. For those who haven't experienced a McMenamin's property I'll give a quick lesson here. The McMenamins have been buying up old historic buildings in the Oregon and Washington areas for over 20 years years, refurbishing them and keeping much of the charm of the original structures intact. These range from hotels, to theaters, to brewpubs, and more. While this is a "chain" every one of these places is unique and fun to visit. Strange paintings, hidden faces, old enlarged photos, and more, abound. Many of the locations have their own tiny breweries (of which some are better than others). Two locations host distilleries which furnish spirits to the other properties. They roast their own coffee which is served through the other spots. Now, they also have a passport that you can get to get stamps at all the spots, as well as for special experiences (having a beer or wine sampler, soaking in a pool, seeing a movie at one of theaters, etc.) This really encourages you to explore the nooks and crannies of each property and seek out others. This is an unusual and intriguing empire!
The Kennedy School is an elementary school from 1915, and has a distinct age and history to it. I love this property and this is actually our second time staying there. A theater (with its own bar) provides a couple of movies during the week. There's a soaking pool for the weary traveler. Multiple bars are present on the property, each with their own specialization (more on these in future posts!). We started out in the restaurant for a late dinner with our new arrivals. The food here over our stay was consistently very good, and you can't beat the location. Antique hanging lamps and paper lanterns dangle in seemingly random abandon from the ceiling and a long bar lies along one side of the room. An old squat wood burning stove hunches over in one corner--silent this night, but pumping out heat the next morning to fight the chill.
The Kennedy School has its own tiny brewery. The McMenamin's breweries all have a few core recipes that are brewed at each place (Hammerhead pale ale, Ruby raspberry ale, and Terminator Stout) but the rest are up to the individual brewers. Many Oregon brewers get their commercial start at these properties before moving on to bigger things. Last time (3 years ago) we were at the Kennedy School the beers were not so great, but this time things had improved dramatically. The Outdoor School IPA and the Jam Session session IPA were my favorites from the sampler and I got some more full pints later in the trip. They also served up a very good off-dry cider from the Edgefield Estate that was a hit with our group. We ended up getting an impromptu tour of the small but well decorated brewery the next day when we barged in on one of the brewers hard at work sparging a batch of cream ale. I really appreciated him taking time out to give answer questions.
After dinner and beer it was time for bed...
Running Tally:
Breweries: 5
Pubs/Bars: 1
Portland
After our brief sojourn in Salem, we drove back into Portland to pick up our friends Kathleen and Shea, just arriving groggily on a long flight from the D.C. area. This part of the trip was boring and did not include any beer. Moving on...
We checked into our hotel for the following week: the McMenamin's Kennedy School. For those who haven't experienced a McMenamin's property I'll give a quick lesson here. The McMenamins have been buying up old historic buildings in the Oregon and Washington areas for over 20 years years, refurbishing them and keeping much of the charm of the original structures intact. These range from hotels, to theaters, to brewpubs, and more. While this is a "chain" every one of these places is unique and fun to visit. Strange paintings, hidden faces, old enlarged photos, and more, abound. Many of the locations have their own tiny breweries (of which some are better than others). Two locations host distilleries which furnish spirits to the other properties. They roast their own coffee which is served through the other spots. Now, they also have a passport that you can get to get stamps at all the spots, as well as for special experiences (having a beer or wine sampler, soaking in a pool, seeing a movie at one of theaters, etc.) This really encourages you to explore the nooks and crannies of each property and seek out others. This is an unusual and intriguing empire!
The Kennedy School is an elementary school from 1915, and has a distinct age and history to it. I love this property and this is actually our second time staying there. A theater (with its own bar) provides a couple of movies during the week. There's a soaking pool for the weary traveler. Multiple bars are present on the property, each with their own specialization (more on these in future posts!). We started out in the restaurant for a late dinner with our new arrivals. The food here over our stay was consistently very good, and you can't beat the location. Antique hanging lamps and paper lanterns dangle in seemingly random abandon from the ceiling and a long bar lies along one side of the room. An old squat wood burning stove hunches over in one corner--silent this night, but pumping out heat the next morning to fight the chill.
The Kennedy School has its own tiny brewery. The McMenamin's breweries all have a few core recipes that are brewed at each place (Hammerhead pale ale, Ruby raspberry ale, and Terminator Stout) but the rest are up to the individual brewers. Many Oregon brewers get their commercial start at these properties before moving on to bigger things. Last time (3 years ago) we were at the Kennedy School the beers were not so great, but this time things had improved dramatically. The Outdoor School IPA and the Jam Session session IPA were my favorites from the sampler and I got some more full pints later in the trip. They also served up a very good off-dry cider from the Edgefield Estate that was a hit with our group. We ended up getting an impromptu tour of the small but well decorated brewery the next day when we barged in on one of the brewers hard at work sparging a batch of cream ale. I really appreciated him taking time out to give answer questions.
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| Check out the artwork on the brewery equipment! |
After dinner and beer it was time for bed...
Running Tally:
Breweries: 5
Pubs/Bars: 1
Monday, May 16, 2016
Oregon Day 1: BOA (Beer On Arrival)
Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon. While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places. On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun. I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip! Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like.
Day 1: BOA (Beer On Arrival)
We arrived at PDX Airport on a Tuesday afternoon, tired from the three hour trip and ready to explore a bit. After picking up our rental car we headed straight for our first brewery...I know you are all shocked!
HUB has been a staple in the Portland craft beer scene since about 2007. They have several organic ales and take great pride in Green business practices. They've embraced the bike culture of Portland and in fact the light fixture/chandelier over the bar in the taproom is made of bike frames! They have expanded to include a second location and now distribute cans around the state as well. Several friends had steered (pun intended) me to visit this spot.
We arrived before rush hour hit the city, so the place wasn't crazy yet. We snagged a seat at the bar and ordered the BIG sampler. This is a sampler of 15 (2 oz) beers served up in a metal pan and was quite the eye-catching sight for a weary traveler! I tasted through them all (sharing a tiny amount with Sarajo of course). With such a huge number I took sparing notes in Untappd. Looking at my overall scores it looks like out of 15 beers the highest I gave (out of 0-5) was a 3.75. Average for all of them was 3.5--putting this brewery in the decent but not great category for me. None of the beers were terrible, but overall they just didn't wow either of us. Probably the best was a toss-up between the Gear Up IPA and the IPX Organic El Dorado (single hop). It was a fun stop, but didn't live up to my expectations. 
Our destination for the day was to drive out of town and about 1.5-2 hours to Pacific City--a tiny quaint vacation town on the Oregon coast. We wanted to get out Portland before traffic got rough, so went on a little detour in Hillsboro (a suburb just outside of the city proper). Our friend Matt Messier, who hails from that area, suggested we stop at a little under-the-radar place in an office park called ABV Public House. This was a great suggestion! This is a bar, serving food and 34 draft lines of craft beer--mostly local. They also have extensive coolers full of bottles all along two walls of the place that you can drink in-house or take home with you. Thank you Oregon's progressive beer laws! We tried a sampler of beers and ciders that we'd never heard of along with some snacks there before we headed back out toward the coast. It was tempting to buy a bunch of beers right there, but I had to limit my bottle selection for the trip (flying) and decided to hold off for now. Based on some of the sample beers we tried and the reviews from our helpful server we added a few breweries to our budding itinerary.
Pacific City and Pelican Brewery
Pacific City is tiny. Really tiny. But the population swells come warm weather and beach crowds for the summer. It was still early in the season on this trip and the place was pretty deserted. We stayed at the Inn at Cape Kiwanda, a very nice little hotel right up the hill and across the street from both the beach and Pelican Brewery. The Inn had a Bed, Breakfast & Brew package which includes a $25 dining credit (not just for breakfast) and a free sampler of beer from the brewery. Of course we took advantage of that! We arrived at dusk and after checking into the hotel and taking in the most marvelous view I've ever had at an overnight stay, we darted down to the darkening beach. A brisk (timing and temperature) walk along the beach and onto the barnacle encrusted rocks revealed by the retreating tide was our treat for the evening. Just as a light rain started, we arrived back at the brewery for our tasty dinner and free beer sampler. |
| This was the view from our hotel! |
I've been a fan of Pelican since we stopped there on a trip about 5 years ago. The place has won national recognition for their beers, including the barrel aged beast that is Mother Of All Storms (which I review HERE.) They've recently expanded to include a production facility in nearby Tillamook as well, but that was out of our way for this trip. The big, old-fashioned brewpub is comfortable, weathered, and relaxed, sitting literally right on the beach. The food was good and hearty, the beers excellent. The Kiwanda Cream Ale is their flagship--one of the best cream ales I've ever had, though it isn't my favorite style. The Mosiac Pilsner small batch was a strange and interesting mix of lager style and ale hopping--but worked well. Most of the beers ranged from 3.75-4 for me this visit--above average for sure. Oh how I wish they had MOAS!
Exhausted from our day of travel (and perhaps beer) we skipped across the street to the Inn for bed. There we "rented" for free a DVD and watched a movie (this would be the last TV-type media for a full week) and fell asleep to the sound of crashing waves through our open balcony door. This was a stellar start to an epic vacation. Though tomorrow threatened heavy rains, we were prepared for another great day of fun ahead. Oh, and more beer of course!
Running Tally:
Breweries: 2
Pubs/bars: 1
Monday, December 7, 2015
Things To Do In Fargo When You Drink Part 2
Continuing the epic story of Tyrone, Annette, Sarajo, and myself on our weekend roadtrip from Waconia, MN to Fargo, ND--and back again! Check out Part 1 HERE. At this point in the trip we were taking Uber around to let poor Sj stop sober-driving us all over creation. We left off with Prairie Rose Meadery...
From there we were meeting some of Annette's cool family (she's almost a local) at Rhombus Guys Pizza. Apparently this place started as a smoothie stand in the early 2000's, changing into a pizza place in Grand Forks, spreading a pseudopod into Fargo, and now they even have a small brewery! The brewery itself is in Grand Forks, but the Fargo site just started serving the beer prior to our arrival. Like they knew were coming! They had a lot of cool and unusual pizzas to offer and all of us were happy with our choices. The brewery itself hasn't been open long and the beers still need a bit of time in my opinion. I tried the Into The Darkness porter which I gave a 3 and an "OK", as well as the Octoberfest which I gave a 3.5 and noted that it tasted more like an ale. Still, cool to try another brewery's beers that we can't get in Minnesota!
Next up after taking our leave of Annette's family was the nearby Viking themed Drekker Brewing. Located very close to Wurst Bier Hall, this place has a great location in the center of the city. The space is long and narrow with a fair amount of seating and a decent sized brewery set-up in the back. This is a fairly young brewery and feels a bit like the paint just dried. They had a lot of beers to choose from for such a new place--even splitting a couple of samplers our group didn't try everything. Looking at my Untappd notes (which were getting spotty by this time of night) I gave most of their beers between 3-3.5 stars. My favorite of theirs was the Coffee Broken Rudder, an Irish red ale that was very well done and unusual (4 star). My least favorite was the Azacca Attacka pale ale with plastic phenols (2.75). Overall, a cool space with a fair amount of money behind it, but it seems a little too nice, like they haven't really found their own vibe yet. The beers still need a little work to make me search them out, but not bad. Drekker is still young so I'll let them practice a bit!
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| Ty showing off his inner Viking! |
At this point in our long day we were feeling a bit like Hunter S. Thompson on his addled journey through the Nevada desert. The night was dark, but we were shiny. We tramped around downtown Fargo. We spent time ogling the theater with thousands of colorful bra's dangling from it. We molested a couple of large painted bison to the disgust and dismay of NDSU fans everywhere. In a bison-tinged haze, we kept moving to avoid crowds of pitchfork wielding peasants.
We next found ourselves as if by magic in front of Fargo's only distillery--Proof! This is a craft distillery specializing in Vodka and Gin. Unusual (compared to Minnesota) is the fact that they can actually serve food at this distillery. They had a tapas type menu from a small restaurant on one side of the large open building, but we were too full on sausages and pizza for any more sustenance. The place is big with high ceilings, but separated into areas by a strangely oriented bar and some other oddly angled seating. The bizarre angles and height differences made for an weird vibe and a feng shui would offend the ancestor spirits and nature spirits alike. Lovecraft would be proud. There was a very strong monkey-cages-at-the-zoo aroma permeating the place that I found very distracting. This rotting and fermenting silage smell hints at poor cleaning and grain removal in the distillery itself since I didn't see any poo-flinging monkeys around. We asked our server for a sample of the vodka to decide which type of drink we wanted and our server was very obliging. However, the vodka had a very strong aroma reminiscent of nail-polish remover or rubbing alcohol. Avoiding the vile vodka, we all ordered some Minions Gin based cocktails and all were decent but didn't knock our socks off. Just down the block was a place known for their cocktails, and we were almost in the doors when strangely we looked about ourselves at the graying dawn's light and decided that perhaps we should call this a day and rest up for the following day's planned debauchery. And so we made at least one good decision this fine day. The rest of the bison herd would rest easy...for now...
Oh, and then in a Cold War game of "I can stay up drinking longer than you!" we all ended up at Ty and Annette's nicer-than-ours suite room for some 18% ABV Bruery beers and Cards Against Humanity. Luckily our room was a close stagger down the hall...
The next morning I was up and judging beers at 9 AM. Turn down those dim basement lights please! The Hoppy Halloween challenge continued and I tried many good beers and meads while trying to provide good feedback. Once the afternoon judging session was over, our group took a quick field trip to the only brewery we didn't get to visit the previous action-packed day: Fargo Brewing Company.
Fargo Brewing Company was the first brewery in Fargo, starting out contract brewing at Sand Creek in Wisconsin fall of 2011, then moving to their own large warehouse facility in 2013. When I first tried their Wood Chipper IPA in can I chuckled over the name, then spat it out in disgust since strong movie theater butter popcorn aromas and flavors abounded. I've avoided them since. But now these guys have their own place and are selling a lot of cans out of their production brewery. They have a lot of room to grow in the current building! The taproom itself was just a small area of warehouse floor near the entrance, cordoned off from the main production floor. They had a small corrugated metal and wood serving bar with about 11 different beers pouring, and a couple of busy bar-tenders serving the small but thirsty crowd. A few etched and scarred picnic tables provided seating for us, and a bunch of games by the door provided additional entertainment options. This is a no-frills working kind of place that reminds me a bit of Lucid's current brewery space--but bigger.
The beers at Fargo Brewing were better than the first time I tried them for sure! Strangely, my favorite was the Fargo Original--a good example of a crisp but malty Helles--which I gave a 4.25. Second favorite was the sweeter Stone's Throw Scottish ale which I gave a 3.75. All the other beers we tried were average to slightly above. I think perhaps they're playing it a bit safe and appealing to the large market of novice craft beer drinkers in North Dakota and don't fault them for it. They are certainly putting out a lot of decent beers!
Returning to our hotel, we finished up the evening with a long and crazy Hoppy Halloween dinner and award ceremony, complete with costume contests (Ty and Annette won that!), homebrews galore, Prairie Rose meads, medals, and more! This is hands down the most fun I've ever had at a homebrew competition and I'm glad we made the drive up for it. And on the way home the next day we stopped at one more brewery--Beaver Island--with another write-up to follow!
Thursday, January 1, 2015
The Beer In Review: 2014
Well, for the past few years I've been doing a piece I call The Beer In Review. In this treatise I discuss events and excitement from the previous year as I gear up for another year of the unknown. Life is a journey and this is the trip so far! Whether people are reading my blog entries or not, writing this has been a great way for me to chronicle the day to day of my very beer-centric life.
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2014 has been a busy one for me and for my wife SJ. Fairly early in the year we took a trip with four of our friends to Belgium and The Netherlands to discover many amazing sights and even more amazing beers! This was our second trip with Beertrips.com and did not disappoint. We met with brewmasters, drank ourselves to oblivion in a Belgian pub's beer cellar, crashed two chaotic Belgian beer festivals and tried over 200 different beers. Yup it was a good trip!
Sj quit her day job as a librarian to pursue her dream of making jewelry professionally instead of just as a hobby. She was invited to be a Member Artist at the new Unearthed Arts cooperative/gallery in Waconia and has been having a blast working with them. I have to say that she couldn't have landed in a more supportive place or with better people!
Just as I was starting to make a small dent in my massive beer cellar, I bought a large quantity of rare beers from a local acquaintance. This counted as an early 41st Birthday present--but I won't complain since these will last me at least another year! This did necessitate a total reorganization of my current cellar, and has uncovered some buried treasure in the process.
The craft alcoholic beverage scene is quickly moving into my Far Western Suburbs (that area on the map where the sea monsters and dragons frolic.) Enki Brewing continues to put out good local brews in close-by Victoria. Waconia Brewing opened to much fanfare and seem to be doing a great job so far. Schram Vineyard (also in Waconia) became Minnesota's first Winery/Brewery. And J. Carver Distillery has started to market their spirits--I hope they manage to eventually serve samples or cocktails at the distillery! Now I don't have to drive so far for a good craft brew experience.
More breweries pop up all over the Twin Cities area and I find myself having a hard time visiting them all! To some extent, I leave most of them alone for 3-6 months to "mature" before doing official visits. This year I checked out the newly branded Bent Brewstillery, Urban Growler, Fair State, Day Block, Freehouse, and finally got to Lucid. Oh, and the Four Firkins added a second store of beery goodness.
I had many great meals around the Twin Cities including: Butcher & The Boar, many amazing beer dinners at The Happy Gnome, a couple of cool beer dinners at McCoy's (Thanks Nick!) as well as both beer and wine dinners at local eatery Terra Waconia.
We spent another week of crazed theater going interspersed with trips to Town Hall Brewery and Republic during Fringe Festival this summer. We also went to several great shows for the Twin Cities Horror Festival at the Southern Theater--sure to be even more impressive next year. We continued our theater going at the Orpheum with possibly too many 80's movie musicals like Sister Act, Flash Dance, and Dirty Dancing. We also saw the timely White Christmas and the ludicrous and uproarious Book of Mormon. And of course we hung out with friends at MacKenzie after the shows to take advantage of the great beer selection.
I continue to brew, but not quite as much as I would have liked to this year. I did get one of my beers into the second round of the National Homebrew competition but didn't make the final cut. After helping out Steve Piatz with a lecture/class on mead making at the Arboretum I jumped back into mead making whole-hog this past fall. I'm just starting to test out the fruits of my labors and am pretty happy with them so far! Oh and I won my first Best Of Show (for Mead/Cider) award at the Hoppy Halloween competition in Fargo!
We traveled to Grand Rapids Michigan for the National Homebrewer's Conference this summer, and visited a ton of great breweries there including Founders, Bell's, Jolly Pumpkin, Perrin, and Dark Horse! Much beer was had on that trip I tell you! And I'm ready to go next year to California...
Sj and I took a quick trip up to Duluth for the All Pints North beer festival and had a wonderful time along the North Shore. This has become my favorite beer festival over the past two years.
Sj and I took an anniversary trip to Disneyland in California, spending time with our friends Pete and Genevieve. I struggled to find beer there, but we were able to visit the nearby craft beer Mecca of The Bruery located in the poorly named town of Placentia. It was an experience like none other! We followed up this busy and crowded California visit with a trip to Pittsburgh and rural Pennsylvania to visit friends Andrew and William. Yup, we got to several breweries and even a cidery there. You know how I am with travel by now!
I got to take a trip to St. Louis with Rob Wengler and Ron Johnson to help film the Limited Release episode on Barrel Aged Abraxas. Now that was an experience! An amazing event, brewery, beer, and crew.
As people may have noticed over the year, I finally bought myself a real camera and have been working on learning more about photography and editing. I hope that people appreciate the better quality of photo I'm bringing to the blog and not annoyed with the divergence from all-beer-all-the-time! I thought about making a separate blog for photography stuff, but realized that I would have a hard time running both.
So, lots of long and short trips, punctuated by a fair amount of breweries, good friends, and good beers. Yup, this is pretty much what my ideal life is! Ok, all those in-between days I'm actually working my rewarding and busy day job...I'm not some man-of-leisure dilettante! This year I give thanks that I'm still healthy, that I have a wonderful wife who mostly tolerates my crazy notions, and that I'm surrounded by so many great friends and family. I wish I had more time to visit everyone!
And what would the New Year be without some resolutions? In addition to the obligatory exercise- more-and-eat-better-so-I-can-fit-my-pants resolution I have a few more fun ones.
1) First off I plan on doing a weekly blog entry called A Whale A Week. This will be my excuse to crack a rare beer (and hopefully share it with others,) every week to make some headway on my obscene beer cellar.
2) Travel: I plan to go to NHC in California this summer. Sj and I are still discussing, but we would like to take at least one extended trip in the country--possibly North Carolina due to the incredible brew scene down there. I'm thinking another overseas Beer Trip in 2016.
3) Continue my weekly photo challenges to force me to learn new techniques and get better.
4) Brew more! I really didn't do an impressive job this year, and would like to get more batches under my belt. I want to experiment more with water additions and focus on a few common styles (hoppy) that I haven't had as much luck with.
5) Actually organize some some more Jack Of All Brews club field trips this coming year!
6) Catch up on some cool video games now that I have a PS4. Dragon Age should take me most of 2015...
Cheers to 2014 and to the upcoming 2015!
Monday, November 10, 2014
Outskirts of Pittsburgh, PA
Previously I wrote about the cool breweries we visited in Pittsburgh, PA. Those entries are HERE and HERE. While writing those I realized I wasn't quite done with my beer travelogue...and had some cool non-beer pics I wanted to post! So here is the wrap up for our recent trip:
Let us talk of Ligonier, Pennsylvania. This is a really cool, sleepy little colonial looking town that grew up on the site of a historic British fort from the era of the French and Indian war. It just drips with classic Norman Rockwell mid-America from times long past. This is a good thing. For fall several of the local groups and stores made fun scarecrows that were situated around the picturesque town diamond. Our B&B at Thistledown was a fine old medical building converted to a new and relaxed place to stay the night and have a made-to-order breakfast. Several art galleries, antique stores, ice cream parlors, etc. all abound around the diamond and the nearby roads.
Many stores have limited hours, especially Monday and Tuesday, so the place felt a little abandoned and ghost-towny during our initial stay there. This was accentuated by the town being made up for Halloween. Occasionally we would pass a local resident, often garnering a squinty-eyed and suspicious baleful glare rather than a welcoming smile. We had some good leisure time over our trip to walk around the town, check out the reconstructed fort just down the road, and finally explore some shops once they opened up. There is no nightlife in this town. Five PM hits and the streets roll up and empty like some weird episode of the Twilight Zone, where all the folks shutter their windows and bar the doors to hide out until daybreak!
Once the shops have closed up there are only two games in town for a drink that are walkable.
1) The first is the old fashioned Joe's Bar, featuring 1950's décor and over 220 taxidermied creatures. Sj and I opened the door to look in, but instantly knew that this was not our place and these were not our people. This is the local drinking-man's establishment that hasn't changed much in 50 years. I didn't look close but I doubt they have heard of craft beer yet.
2) The best option for us was the Ligonier Lanes Bowling Alley, and the attached bar with the improbable name of The Wicked Googly. Yup, you read that correctly! We ended up here on the first night we arrived (after our brewery hopping in Pittsburgh earlier that afternoon) since it was a block from our B&B, and was actually open. We ended up here pretty much every night we were in Ligonier. They actually had a pretty good selection of 10 craft beers on tap and more in bottles, making this an ideal stop for me. However, the servers (all of them) knew next to nothing about the beers, and one had to walk over to the bar to look at the hand written list of beers. The place has a restaurant with pretty amazing chicken wings in several different dry rubs and sauces. Our first night we took advantage of the lanes and did some bowling while sipping on Imperial Stout and Pumpking.
Not far from Ligonier we discovered a cute little brewery in Latrobe called Four Seasons Brewing Company. We went by during the limited growler sale times, but at that point they were still working on getting clearance to finish the tap room and serve pints. A large bar was under construction in one half of the warehouse getting ready for taproom hours. They were very friendly to us there and let us sample all the beers. They actually just won a silver medal at GABF for their oatmeal stout...but they didn't have any on tap for us to try. I cried a little inside. They had a very good Kolsch and a bright and clovey Belgian Single that I really liked.
Thinking we were going to a BYOB restaurant for dinner, we had grabbed a growler of the Single and headed out. And of course the restaurant had an open sign in the window, but was closed. We ended up eating at Carol & Dave's Roadhouse for dinner and they actually had a nice local IPA on tap from Rivertowne. Not nearly enough Swayze, nor bare knuckle fist fights to be a proper Roadhouse though!
The next day we were back in Pittsburgh again to see the Phipps Conservatory and I had a chance to snap some pictures of cool plants within the sheltering confines of tons of glass. No time for breweries, this time, but our local guide Andrew directed us to The Headkeeper Tapas Bar in Greensburg about half way back to Ligonier. This place had 600 varieties of beer to choose from, including a large local selection. Interestingly most of these were bottles in a huge wall of beautiful coolers. Only 10 beers on tap, but still too many to choose from! One can buy bottles to drink there or to take home with you. I wanted to go back, but we only made the one stop. Not local, but Sj and I split the fantastic Elysian Dark of the Moon pumpkin stout. Outside they had a large comfortable patio area heated by propane lamps.
We had a great and relaxing trip, and I was happily surprised that we found as much to do in the area as we did. The craft beer scene is growing rapidly, but most of the places we found were only about a year or so old. I'd put this area at where Minneapolis was about 3-4 years ago, but coming on fast. Thanks to Andrew Thornton for hosting us while we were there, to Chip Walton for suggesting some of the places we went to, and to everyone who we met on this fun side-trip!
Let us talk of Ligonier, Pennsylvania. This is a really cool, sleepy little colonial looking town that grew up on the site of a historic British fort from the era of the French and Indian war. It just drips with classic Norman Rockwell mid-America from times long past. This is a good thing. For fall several of the local groups and stores made fun scarecrows that were situated around the picturesque town diamond. Our B&B at Thistledown was a fine old medical building converted to a new and relaxed place to stay the night and have a made-to-order breakfast. Several art galleries, antique stores, ice cream parlors, etc. all abound around the diamond and the nearby roads.
Many stores have limited hours, especially Monday and Tuesday, so the place felt a little abandoned and ghost-towny during our initial stay there. This was accentuated by the town being made up for Halloween. Occasionally we would pass a local resident, often garnering a squinty-eyed and suspicious baleful glare rather than a welcoming smile. We had some good leisure time over our trip to walk around the town, check out the reconstructed fort just down the road, and finally explore some shops once they opened up. There is no nightlife in this town. Five PM hits and the streets roll up and empty like some weird episode of the Twilight Zone, where all the folks shutter their windows and bar the doors to hide out until daybreak!
Once the shops have closed up there are only two games in town for a drink that are walkable.
1) The first is the old fashioned Joe's Bar, featuring 1950's décor and over 220 taxidermied creatures. Sj and I opened the door to look in, but instantly knew that this was not our place and these were not our people. This is the local drinking-man's establishment that hasn't changed much in 50 years. I didn't look close but I doubt they have heard of craft beer yet.
2) The best option for us was the Ligonier Lanes Bowling Alley, and the attached bar with the improbable name of The Wicked Googly. Yup, you read that correctly! We ended up here on the first night we arrived (after our brewery hopping in Pittsburgh earlier that afternoon) since it was a block from our B&B, and was actually open. We ended up here pretty much every night we were in Ligonier. They actually had a pretty good selection of 10 craft beers on tap and more in bottles, making this an ideal stop for me. However, the servers (all of them) knew next to nothing about the beers, and one had to walk over to the bar to look at the hand written list of beers. The place has a restaurant with pretty amazing chicken wings in several different dry rubs and sauces. Our first night we took advantage of the lanes and did some bowling while sipping on Imperial Stout and Pumpking.  |
| Four Seasons! |
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| Sj next to the cute little brew system at Four Seasons |
Thinking we were going to a BYOB restaurant for dinner, we had grabbed a growler of the Single and headed out. And of course the restaurant had an open sign in the window, but was closed. We ended up eating at Carol & Dave's Roadhouse for dinner and they actually had a nice local IPA on tap from Rivertowne. Not nearly enough Swayze, nor bare knuckle fist fights to be a proper Roadhouse though!
 |
| Outside areas of the Phipps Conservatory. |
The next day we were back in Pittsburgh again to see the Phipps Conservatory and I had a chance to snap some pictures of cool plants within the sheltering confines of tons of glass. No time for breweries, this time, but our local guide Andrew directed us to The Headkeeper Tapas Bar in Greensburg about half way back to Ligonier. This place had 600 varieties of beer to choose from, including a large local selection. Interestingly most of these were bottles in a huge wall of beautiful coolers. Only 10 beers on tap, but still too many to choose from! One can buy bottles to drink there or to take home with you. I wanted to go back, but we only made the one stop. Not local, but Sj and I split the fantastic Elysian Dark of the Moon pumpkin stout. Outside they had a large comfortable patio area heated by propane lamps.
We had a great and relaxing trip, and I was happily surprised that we found as much to do in the area as we did. The craft beer scene is growing rapidly, but most of the places we found were only about a year or so old. I'd put this area at where Minneapolis was about 3-4 years ago, but coming on fast. Thanks to Andrew Thornton for hosting us while we were there, to Chip Walton for suggesting some of the places we went to, and to everyone who we met on this fun side-trip!
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| Historic Ligonier welcomes all strangers with open arms...er...with spiky walls and cannons? |
Friday, November 7, 2014
Pittsburgh Beer Scene Part 2
Continuing the beery travelogue on our recent trip to the Pittsburgh area. If you missed my previous post, check it out HERE.
Day two of our trip to Ligonier found us eating a wonderful breakfast bread pudding and sipping pumpkin spiced lattes at Thistledown B&B, located right along the quaint main street. Ligonier is a small town at the site of an old French and Indian War English fort (which has been rebuilt as a very cool interactive museum). With the classic town diamond with white gazebo band shell, tons of small cafes, galleries, and antique stores, this place is unstuck in time. With slight breeze blowing falling leaves around the streets, and an Indian Summer warming sun, this was a truly beautiful and relaxing place to wander around. The only negative? Very little is open Sunday through Tuesday, making our timing here a bit problematic. So what else to do but go back to Pittsburgh for some more beer tourism!
This time driving in the daytime, we were able to see and appreciate the hills and valleys (hollows) covered with large trees currently in the process of dropping brilliant yellow and orange leaves upon us. Coming from the very flat areas of Minnesota this terrain was quite a change for me, and reminded Sj of the mountain near where she grew up in Alabama. We passed through several small towns on our way into Pittsburgh proper.
Our first stop was Arsenal Cider House, named after the Allegheny Arsenal, in the suburb of Lawrenceville. This is very close to Roundabout and Hop Farm Brewing, so one could get to all of them in a short time. Located in a small red house across from a large church, we found this place difficult to find at first since there was no visible sign. Upon cautiously entering we found a small, rustic interior with burned and distressed pine woodwork and rich wall colors. Civil War era pictures and memorabilia lined walls and shelves. A small tasting bar filled with taps and wooden casks formed the focus for the small taproom. When we arrived right after 11 AM opening, there was a large tour group ahead of us finishing up with their tasting. Another group was just finishing a tour and switched places with the current crowd...so much for hitting the taproom before they got busy! We barreled (no pun!) our way into line and were able to each taste a thimble sized paper cup of 4 different fermented beverages each for free.
This place makes really good cider! They had strong wine-like ciders and meads, some made from cherries and blueberries, as well as some more traditional dry and semi-sweet hard ciders. Some were oak aged to add complexity and tannins. Probably my favorite was the oak aged blueberry wine that was the best blueberry fermented beverage I have ever had! We ended up ordering a glass apiece and watching the chaotic taproom tour group from our little table near the back of the tasting room. Did I mention the amazing tap handles shaped like pistols and skeletal hands grasping fruit? I risked TSA body cavity search in order to bring one of those pistols home in my luggage! I love what these guys are doing, and hope that they expand from growler and tap sales to bottles so I can get some sent to me. The only thing I would suggest is to add a sign to the questionably marked taproom...
After our strong cider/wine, we were in need of sustenance. A nice walk from the cidery was one of the more unique brewpubs I've ever visited: The Church Brew Works. And yes, we made lots of jokes about sitting in a pew on Sunday! This large brewpub is located in the 1902 St. John's the Baptist church, reminding me of a massive church bookstore we saw in Maastricht, Netherlands earlier this year. I had heard mixed things about the beers, but had to check it out myself. They won two GABF medals in 2012, so how bad could it be?
This place is enormous. A small brew system occupies the pulpit, with fermentation/serving tanks behind the long bar to the left of this picture. I'm not so sure about the tawdry yellow flags and signs though--it seems to detract from the majesty of this place. They also had un ugly yellow bopping hot air driven promo thing outside that I associate with cut-rate used car lots. It was crowded but not insane and our service was accurate and fast. As with most of Pittsburgh, a ton of folks were sporting their Steelers gear and a somewhat rowdy table next to us were watching the game through an iPhone. That town has some serious sports team pride!
We had a pretty good pizza with wild boar and BBQ sauce made with one of their beers along with a side order of terribly cooked fries. Sj and I shared a sampler of all their beers. This was a mixed bag--some were good, others not as thrilling. None were outright terrible, but overall they reminded me of the brewpub beer quality from the early 1990's. My favorite was actually the light lager since it was the cleanest of the bunch. I have a hard time believing that these beers won GABF medals, but I know that things can change batch to batch and possibly brewer to brewer. I tried to look up some details on the brewer, but the garish bright blue website didn't have any information. I would certainly recommend checking this place out, but I found several better places for beer even in the same suburb.
Ok, I decided to add a third entry to this travelogue and am including more on Ligonier and the Eastern outskirts of Pittsburgh in that one... Coming up soon!
Day two of our trip to Ligonier found us eating a wonderful breakfast bread pudding and sipping pumpkin spiced lattes at Thistledown B&B, located right along the quaint main street. Ligonier is a small town at the site of an old French and Indian War English fort (which has been rebuilt as a very cool interactive museum). With the classic town diamond with white gazebo band shell, tons of small cafes, galleries, and antique stores, this place is unstuck in time. With slight breeze blowing falling leaves around the streets, and an Indian Summer warming sun, this was a truly beautiful and relaxing place to wander around. The only negative? Very little is open Sunday through Tuesday, making our timing here a bit problematic. So what else to do but go back to Pittsburgh for some more beer tourism!
 |
| Mayberry? Or Ligonier, PA? |
This time driving in the daytime, we were able to see and appreciate the hills and valleys (hollows) covered with large trees currently in the process of dropping brilliant yellow and orange leaves upon us. Coming from the very flat areas of Minnesota this terrain was quite a change for me, and reminded Sj of the mountain near where she grew up in Alabama. We passed through several small towns on our way into Pittsburgh proper.
Our first stop was Arsenal Cider House, named after the Allegheny Arsenal, in the suburb of Lawrenceville. This is very close to Roundabout and Hop Farm Brewing, so one could get to all of them in a short time. Located in a small red house across from a large church, we found this place difficult to find at first since there was no visible sign. Upon cautiously entering we found a small, rustic interior with burned and distressed pine woodwork and rich wall colors. Civil War era pictures and memorabilia lined walls and shelves. A small tasting bar filled with taps and wooden casks formed the focus for the small taproom. When we arrived right after 11 AM opening, there was a large tour group ahead of us finishing up with their tasting. Another group was just finishing a tour and switched places with the current crowd...so much for hitting the taproom before they got busy! We barreled (no pun!) our way into line and were able to each taste a thimble sized paper cup of 4 different fermented beverages each for free.
This place makes really good cider! They had strong wine-like ciders and meads, some made from cherries and blueberries, as well as some more traditional dry and semi-sweet hard ciders. Some were oak aged to add complexity and tannins. Probably my favorite was the oak aged blueberry wine that was the best blueberry fermented beverage I have ever had! We ended up ordering a glass apiece and watching the chaotic taproom tour group from our little table near the back of the tasting room. Did I mention the amazing tap handles shaped like pistols and skeletal hands grasping fruit? I risked TSA body cavity search in order to bring one of those pistols home in my luggage! I love what these guys are doing, and hope that they expand from growler and tap sales to bottles so I can get some sent to me. The only thing I would suggest is to add a sign to the questionably marked taproom...
After our strong cider/wine, we were in need of sustenance. A nice walk from the cidery was one of the more unique brewpubs I've ever visited: The Church Brew Works. And yes, we made lots of jokes about sitting in a pew on Sunday! This large brewpub is located in the 1902 St. John's the Baptist church, reminding me of a massive church bookstore we saw in Maastricht, Netherlands earlier this year. I had heard mixed things about the beers, but had to check it out myself. They won two GABF medals in 2012, so how bad could it be?
This place is enormous. A small brew system occupies the pulpit, with fermentation/serving tanks behind the long bar to the left of this picture. I'm not so sure about the tawdry yellow flags and signs though--it seems to detract from the majesty of this place. They also had un ugly yellow bopping hot air driven promo thing outside that I associate with cut-rate used car lots. It was crowded but not insane and our service was accurate and fast. As with most of Pittsburgh, a ton of folks were sporting their Steelers gear and a somewhat rowdy table next to us were watching the game through an iPhone. That town has some serious sports team pride!
We had a pretty good pizza with wild boar and BBQ sauce made with one of their beers along with a side order of terribly cooked fries. Sj and I shared a sampler of all their beers. This was a mixed bag--some were good, others not as thrilling. None were outright terrible, but overall they reminded me of the brewpub beer quality from the early 1990's. My favorite was actually the light lager since it was the cleanest of the bunch. I have a hard time believing that these beers won GABF medals, but I know that things can change batch to batch and possibly brewer to brewer. I tried to look up some details on the brewer, but the garish bright blue website didn't have any information. I would certainly recommend checking this place out, but I found several better places for beer even in the same suburb.
Ok, I decided to add a third entry to this travelogue and am including more on Ligonier and the Eastern outskirts of Pittsburgh in that one... Coming up soon!
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