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  Oregon Beer News, 01/06/2012

  Posted: January 6th, 2012, 9:00pm CET by Jon

  Here’s the Oregon beer news for Friday, the 6th of January, and going into the weekend. What beer will you be drinking this first full weekend of 2012? As usual I’ll be updating this post throughout the day, so if you have some news you’d like to share please contact me.

  This weekend seems to be “Greg Koch storms Oregon” as the Stone Brewing founder is making at least two appearances to promote both his new book and the collaboration brew with Ninkasi Brewing and The Alchemist: tonight, Koch is appearing with Ninkasi’s Jamie Floyd at Eugene’s The Bier Stein for the draft release of “More Brown than Black IPA” as well as a Tap Takeover; the Takeover starts at 5pm and the MBtB will be tapped about 7pm.

  And then tomorrow, Saturday the 7th, Belmont Station in Portland is hosting Koch in a “Meet the Founder” and book signing event from 2 to 4pm. In addition to meeting Koch, there will also be several Stone beers on tap (the Vertical Epic 11.11.11, Double Bastard Ale, and Stone IPA confirmed) and there will be copies of The Craft of Stone Brewing Co. for sale.

  The Commons Brewery (Portland) has an interesting set of releases this weekend, in a series dubbed “Yeast Series” (fermenting the same base beer with different yeasts): “We have two new beers we going on tap for this weekend. Both use the wort from a recent batch of Urban Farmhouse Ale, but were fermented with different yeasts. One with Wyeast German Ale yeast (reportedly Uerige) and the other with Wyeast Schelde (reportedly DeKoninck). The resulting beers show the significant impact the yeast has the beer. You can taste all three beers side-by-side for $5.” This is the kind of thing that would definitely be of interest to homebrewers (I know I’d be all over it). The Commons tasting room is open from 5 to 9 on Fridays and Saturdays.

  The Lucky Lab (Portland) is celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Public House on SW Capitol Highway tomorrow: “From 7pm till Midnight there will be 2002 prices on Lucky Lab beer starting at $3.50!! Plus a special release of Winter Wonderdog.” John Foyston describes Winter Wonderdog on his Beer Here blog today: “a new winter brew described as brick red, smooth, and malty — a winter beer with a sweet and nutty profile.”

  Upcoming tastings, releases, and “Meet the Brewer” events:

  • Pelican Pub & Brewery (Pacific City): This evening at the New Seasons Market in Happy Valley (southeast of Portland) from 4 to 7pm Pelican will be pouring their beer, and at the New Seasons Hawthorne tomorrow (Saturday) they’ll be pouring from 4 to 7pm as well.
  • Elysian Brewing (Seattle) will be in Portland at the Uptown Market holding a tasting: “Join PDX Dave for an Elysian Beer Tasting at Uptown Market from 4-6:45pm! Order an Elysian Dragonstooth Stout on draft and walk away with your very own Elysian pint glass.” And then, across town at the C Bar, Elysian is featuring “6 beers at 6pm on January 6. A handful of tasty selections from New Belgium, including NB/Elysian collaboration brews Trip 10 ’72 El Dorado’ & Trip 11 ‘Nigel’! The fine folks behind the recipes of these tasty treats will be on hand to join in the jovial revelry.”
  • Oakshire Brewing (Eugene): Tuesday, January 10th as posted on Facebook: “Oakshire Brewing and Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss will create their one-of-a-kind delicious floats, a combination of Oakshire Overcast Espresso Stout and Coconut Bliss’ organic, vegan ice cream. Join us for this uniquely Eugene treat. Free!” This is taking place from 4 to 6:30pm at the Eugene, Cascades & Coast Adventure Center in Springfield.

  
• 

  Oakshire’s Hellshire II has some infection issues

  Posted: January 6th, 2012, 4:34pm CET by Jon

  Oakshire Brewing‘s recent release of Hellshire II—a barrel-aged imperial stout—appears to be dealing with a lactobacillus infection. Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk posted on the Oakshire blog:

  We regret to inform you that our recently released Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with Coffee, Hellshire II, has been found to contain some flavors that we did not intend. Through our own QC/QA program, we suspected there could be a problem. It has now been discovered through lab results conducted by our colleagues at Widmer Brothers Brewing in Portland that this beer may contain lactobacillus. In most beers, this is known as a beer spoiler and can lead to acidic and tart flavors.

  Again, I’d like to apologize to you for not meeting the mark we set at Oakshire in terms of quality and consistency. We’ve assessed the situation and are confident that we can avoid similar challenges in the future. Also, please be patient with us as we traverse through this first time situation and correct it.

  This sort of thing happens from time to time, even with the big breweries; remember that Deschutes Brewery’s 2009 Reserve Series (The Abyss and Mirror Mirror) dealt with a brettanomyces infection—and they’re one of the largest craft breweries in the country. It’s an inherent risk is dealing with barrels, and for my money it’s an entirely forgivable situation (unless of course it’s repeated over and over again).

  Oakshire is stepping up to honor returned bottles of Hellshire II for unsatisfied customers, as well, offering the following options:

  1) Keep your bottle, but consider storing it cold so that it doesn’t build more acidity.
  2) Bring your unopened bottle to us at the brewery during the next Hellshire release and give us another chance. We’ll swap it out.
  3) Bring your unopened bottle to the tasting room during open hours and we will trade you for an equal dollar amount of our regular bottled beer.
  4) Bring your unopened bottle to the tasting room during open hours and we will reimburse you for your purchase.

  You will need to bring your bottle in person, however, and do not ship it—the brewery can’t accept bottles shipped directly. Nor should you return it to your retailer, unless they accept returns on bottled beers.

  I’ve had the Hellshire II (split a bottle with friends) and found no flaws with it. Though personally, in the same way that I actually liked a bit of brett in the Deschutes beers, I think I might well like a bit of lacto in this one—for me sometimes the unintentional flaws result in something new and not entirely unpleasant.

  Regardless, I certainly commend Van Wyk and Oakshire for the handling of this situation—there undoubtedly are (or will be) the predictable complaints from some people about “bad” beers, but Oakshire has gotten out in front of it and is willing to accommodate folks without question, and that’s a class act.