A Final Word on Old Ales

To complete the circle, I wanted to mention that I sent BridgePort brewmaster Karl Ockert the results of the two polls I ran on the blog last week. Karl had okay-ed my proposal to poll readers here to see what style of beer they'd like BridgePort to brew for the open slot in the "Big Brews" line next spring. In the first round I polled you on ten styles, and the faves to emerge were 1) big NW red, 2) Old Ale, and 3) Strong Rye. In a run-off, you favored the old ale with a clear plurality of about 40%. The red just nipped the rye for second place.

I sent the results to Karl, and he will take them under advisement. Apparently some of the brewers there cotton to a strong lager, though Karl said " I am on the fence but the Rye sounds appealing to me."

It was a fun exercise, and I appreciate your votes. I actually think you all are a great cross-section of the target audience for the "Big Brews" line. Those types of specialty beers are aimed squarely at the beer geek, as is this blog. I was surprised to see how poorly some of the original ten fared (Cascadian Dark Ale only got 4% of the vote; wheatwine, which I thought might poll strongly, just 9%). Based on your voting, I'm prepared to predict that any of the top three beers (or the odd-beer out, the imperial stout, which also polled strongly) would sell well.

And, since I can't rely on BridgePort to brew the old ale, I took matters into my own hands and whipped up a batch over the weekend. Old Codger, a beer as cranky as its brewer.

I Approve

This is cool:

Dubbed "Eight Malty Nights," the Chocolate Rye beer will be brewed tomorrow, November 10. Rabbi Bradley Greenstein from the Congregation Neveh Shalom will be present to bless the mash and deliver a toast. The beer will be released on the first day of Hanukkah, Dec. 11.

To witness the blessing of the mash and take part in the toast, please be at Lompoc Brewing, 3901 A N Williams Ave, Portland on Tuesday, at 7:30 am.

By the way, when did the "New Old Lompoc" (aka "Old Lompoc") become "Lompoc Brewing?" Did I miss something?

Good Time to Start a Brewery?

In this widely linked Portland Business Journal article (1, 2), we learn this rather remarkable fact:

Coalition will join an industry that, thanks to Oregon’s brewing pedigree, is sizzling. Coalition is one of 15 breweries or brewpubs — which sell beer made on the premises and food — that will have started operating in Portland between summer 2009 and early 2010.

Derek hasrounded up the various breweries slated to open that he knows about (though I remain confused about the fate of Clinton Street Brewing--see Bill for more).

All of which does begs an obvious constellation of questions. As Stan notes, this is "fifteen new breweries in richest brewery region in the world." Why so many breweries and why now--and critically, is it too many? The Business Journal buries part of the answer three-quarters of the way into the article:

While recession-era launches can be difficult, the climate may have benefited Hoyt and other Oregon brewers. For its new pub, the three-year-old 10 Barrel brewery found lease rates were about 40 percent less than what owners would have paid in 2008. Wales’ contracting costs were also 10 percent to 20 percent less than he’d anticipated.

Portland is lousy with brewers. Homebrewers, assistant brewers, brewers moving to the brewing mecca. And half of them are harboring secret desires (or not so secret) to open their own places. Perversely, the recession has provided them with a surprising opportunity. Loans are harder to get, but for those who can secure them, opening a brewpub is cheaper now than it has been in years--and maybe cheaper than it will ever be again.

That leaves the final question: can even Oregon absorb another 15 breweries? In the abstract, the answer is yes. The market is still growing, and as far as I know, these are all small breweries--their output will be just a fraction of the market. On the other hand, the market has gotten extremely competitive. If a brewery enters the market and their first keg of beer is clean and tasty, they should find an audience. Breweries that come out with bad beer, or even just uninteresting beer, may be dead before they get started.

Good time to open a brewery, but still risky.

Hiding Out

Current location:



Probably won't affect blogging; I was just looking for an excuse to post the pic.

Salt and Pepper

I finally got back to the interview I did with Gary Fish a couple weeks back. I did manage to post some of the "breaking news" tidbits, but none of the interesting historical anecdotes. The most interesting was this following story, where Gary relates how Black Butte Porter became the first beer they distributed in Portland. I had just asked Gary why he thought a dark beer would be a hit--when every other brewery in the state was trying to sell lighter beers.

“Honestly, I give all the credit for Black Butte Porter to Jim Kennedy. He was the one who tried the beers and said, ‘Look, everybody’s coming out with light-colored beers, but this is a beer that’s different, and this is a beer that can capture the consumer. And be different. The dark-beer pie is not as big, but you could own the whole thing. We probably would have tried to go with Cascade Golden Ale or Bachelor Bitter. Full Sail Golden Ale was their lead brand, Portland Ale was their lead brand. Everybody was really on the ultra-light side of the color spectrum.

“At the time, Admiralty Beverage represented Widmer as well as us. They had a sales pitch that they would sell Widmer Hefeweizen and Black Butte Porter together. ‘ Every restaurant has salt and pepper on the table; this is your salt and pepper in your beer line-up.’”

Who knows how significant this decision turned out to be. Maybe if Gary had gone with the Golden Deschutes would now be a modest-sized brewery. We only know the history as it was--Deschutes got off to a great start with Black Butte, was partly responsible for popularizing dark beers in Oregon, and launched itself on a trajectory to make it one of America's largest craft breweries by 2009. History is a capricious lady.

By the way, Jim Kennedy played a major role in helping popularize craft beer in Oregon, too. (He's also the namesake for Hair of the Dog's legendary "Jim.") John Foyston re-printed a couple columns about Jim last month, and they're well worth a read if you're unfamiliar with this piece of Oregon's brewing history.

BridgePort Big Brew Poll - Final Round

Earlier this week, I asked you to vote in a poll about which beer BridgePort should make for its "Big Brews" line this Spring. Karl Ockert and Co. were interested to see what you all thought. From an initial list of ten styles, we have winnowed it down to three: Big NW Red (20% in initial polling), Old Ale (17%), and Strong Rye (14%). For the majority of the period the poll was open, old ales were out in front. A late push gave big reds the edge in the end. But can they hold the edge in a narrowed field? The answer lies with you. I'll include a description of the styles below the poll.



Big NW Red. This is a style that just started appearing--Laurelwood, Roots, Ninkasi, and Widmer have all brewed versions of the style. Those versions all had certain qualities in common beyond the reddish color. Similar to IPAs, but the malt base is a bit sweeter, almost candyish, and not nearly as full bodied. These are beers designed to showcase hops: the malt is there to look pretty, but not much else. They are generally sharply bitter, but many are also dry-hopped or strongly aromatic.

Old Ale. Rich dark amber in color to a very dark brown; near black. Tamed aromatics. Although bittering levels can greatly vary, expect common fruity, vinous, intense malts and sharp alcohol characteristics. The often racy but mellow attitude of the beer may also include acidic notes, raisins and black currants. Vintage varieties may have a low level of oxidation. Stronger versions may have similarities to a port wine. Brewers may also inoculate a portion of the batch with Brettanomyces lambicus and age for an extended period of time to achieve an old-school acidic character. (BeerAdvocate)

Strong Rye. Rye isn't a style (except for roggenbier), it's a grain. As an ingredient, rye contributes a spicy, tannic, sometimes earthy tone. If it occupies too much of the grain bill, you end up with a harsh, unpleasant beer. Hit the mark, though, and it adds wonderful, unique character. Brewers have discovered that rye goes well with hops, so a strong rye beer would probably feature a fair amount of our beloved humulus lupulus. But that would be up to BridgePort.

I'll leave this poll open a couple days and then send off the results to BridgePort on Friday afternoon. Please vote!

Occidental Brewing?

As I am always the last person to hear any news (it's my special talent), I pass this email straight to you.

My wife and I are "beer tourists" and love to visit as many new breweries as we can. Going over locations in Portland, I discovered a new brewery listed as "coming soon." The name of the brewery is Occidental Brewing. Their website states their intention to brew "Old styles from the finest malts and hops," however, the site is sparse beyond their logo. I was wondering if you had any additional info? According to beerme.com, the phone number for Occidental is +1 503-810-7920. I have tried to contact them but maybe someone with a beer blog will be able to get more information.

Anyone know anything about this brewery?

BridgePort Advice - Please Vote!

In case you missed it, I posted a poll yesterday to find out which beer you'd like to see BridgePort should make for its Spring "Big Beers" series. I'm shooting for 200-250 votes, and the current total is 144. So please vote now if you haven't.

The early returns show three strong contenders (old ale, Big NW red, strong rye) and one more on the outside looking in (imperial stout).


(Thumb-on-the-scale time: go old ale!)

MacTarnahan Humbug'r

The folks over at Pyramid/MacTarnahan's are trying--I'll give them that. They have not let the the Mac's line become just a single product and this year introduced a new line-up of seasonals. All of that is good. They even put out an exotic saison (and exotic not just by MacTarnahan's standards). So definitely an A for effort there.

We come now to the critical portion of our review: the names and packaging for the new family of beers: Slingshot Summer Pale (good), Summer Grifter IPA (not good), and now the latest arrival, Winter Humbug'r (oh dear lord). The art is actually very cool, suggestive of graphic novels and dangerous fun. But a grifter is a guy who hustles you out of money--likesay the $8.29 you spent on the six-pack. Would you call a beer Swindler or Cheater? As for Humbug'r, the sense of the lurid is such that--Bug'r, really? I remember the crazy Bobbydazzler of years past, a bizarre Englishism, but harmless enough. One might hope that Humbug'r is a name of similar provenance, but the label convinces you otherwise: a soused lunatic brandishing a sprig of mistletown and leering. And it's called Humbug'r.

What were they thinking?

The beer? It's pretty good. A light porter with a silky, oaty body. Porters and stouts are great winter beers, and I commend Mac's for eschewing another winter warmer. This beer is actually a bit of amalgam, equal parts dry stout, with a slightly burnt, roasted front note, part brown porter, with a pronounced sweet middle, and part sweet stout, with that silky full body. It is a bit on the mild side (a house character, so perhaps appropriate), and on those really bitter December days people might be reaching for the Obsidian instead. But overall, a fine beer. I'd give it a solid B.

But since we're giving advice to breweries these days, here's mine. It's nearly 2010. Beers that appear to succeed in the marketplace are those that distinguish themselves with bold flavors. I haven't really seen a line that has succeeded by dint of a clever ad campaign or brand identity, and locals tend to be turned off by anything that looks like it spent too long in a room with a wine-drinking design team. MacTarnahan's seasonal lineup now features a pale, an IPA, and a porter. These are fine beers, and they're perfectly well-made. I just think Mac's needs to come out of the gate with a little more under the hood and a little less focus on packaging. You've hired some great brewers--turn them loose and get out of the way.

Soliciting Your Advice

In my interview with Karl Ockert last week, he mentioned that BridgePort is currently ruminating about their Spring "Big Brews" slot. The Big Brews line is the one that has included Hop Czar (which will be moving to six-packs), Fallen Friar, Stumptown Tart, and Raven Mad. Karl asked me--as he probably asks everyone--what I would suggest. I told him I'd do him one better than that; I'd find out what you would suggest.

So below is a poll with a number of styles that I have pre-selected. They include only "big" beers--my rule of thumb was 7% and up. I eliminated styles BridgePort already brews (tripel, double IPA, barleywine), and styles that are pretty broadly brewed or randomly imperialized styles (Imperial Kolsch!). Of course, some of you may have a suggestion that's not here, so please use the write-in category. I'll run this for a few days (until we hit 250 or more) and then we'll winnow it down to 3-4 styles and see if there's a clear fave.

You can click through to learn more about the styles at BeerAdvocate, which handily also has beers brewed in those styles. Kellerbier is totally obscure, but it's a hoppy lager generally brewed at weaker strengths--but it can go up to 7%. Some of you will remember Jamie Floyd's wheatwine from Steelhead, but otherwise examples are rare. It's essentially a barleywine made with a large proportion of wheat.

I have no idea how much pull your suggestions will have, but Karl ran it past some folks at BridgePort and they're interested in what you think. So please vote!