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Oregon Beer News, 01/10/2012

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 9:00pm CET by Jon
Here’s the beer new from around Oregon for Tuesday, January 10th. As usual I’ll be updating this post throughout the day with news that I find, and if you have some news to share please contact me and I’ll get it out there.

Widmer Brothers (Portland): This year’s Brewmasters’ Release “W” series beer is W’12 Dark Saison which sounds incredibly interesting (inspired by the Cascadian Dark Ale perhaps)—infusing a saison style beer with dark malts. And Sanjay over on the Not So Professional Beer Blog has the first review which affirms this: “I expect W’12 will be the first Saison that many beer drinkers will enjoy. So if you’ve never tasted a Saison, it’s time to give it a try.” I’m on the lookout.

Coalition Brewing (Portland) has a new beer on tap which if you’re a fan of nut brown ales you should check out: “Today is the day you have been waiting for….we put Mr. Brownstone on tap, in a special, limited release! Mr. Brownstone is a Hazelnut Brown Ale made with all local filberts, and it is frickin’ delicious!”

It’s still a ways off but the dates for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival have been announced: “The 2012 Portland Fruit Beer Festival will be June 9th and 10th with a special ticketed preview dinner event on June 8th!” That’s the second weekend in June, so get it on your calendar now.

Speaking of festivals, The Eastburn (Portland) is holding their annual Buckman-Kerns Brewfestthis Sunday, January 15th, starting at noon: “Come join us on Sunday January 15th at noon for the 2nd year of celebrating the excellent breweries we are so lucky to have in our neighborhood. Participants this year are Lucky Labrador, Coalition Brewing, Natian Brewing, Migration Brewing, Buckman Brewing, Cascade Brewing and Burnside Brewing! Admission is only $10 which gets you a Brewfest Pint Glass (a real pint glass, not plastic! Yeah!) and 4 tickets. Tickets are $1 each and 1 ticket gets you one taster or a full pint for 4 tickets. We’ll have great food and of course lots of great beers.”

And PDX Pipeline is giving away three pairs of tickets to the Buckman-Kerns Brewfest, you simply comment on that post to be entered to win. They’re drawing winners from the comments on Friday the 13th.

Upcoming tastings, releases, and “Meet the Brewer” events:
- Oakshire Brewing (Eugene): Ice cream floats! “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!” From 4 to 6:30pm at the Eugene, Cascades & Coast Adventure Center in Springfield.
- Lompoc Brewing (Portland): “Join us starting at 4 pm on Friday [January 13] at New Old Lompoc for the release of 3 versions of Black Dawn III Coffee Stout, the third installment of our annual coffee stout. Our friends at Ristretto Roasters provided the coffee, cold pressing 20 lbs of their Beaumont Blend, El Salvadoran and Peruvian beans.” (via Facebook)
- 10 Barrel Brewing (Bend): They will be at Beaverton’s Uptown Market (the new bottle shop) on Thursday the 12th from 4 to 7pm, pouring S1nist0r Black Ale, Apocalypse IPA, and Precursor (single batch bourbon-barrel aged strong ale). If you haven’t tried the Precursor, this is a great opportunity to do so as it’s extremely limited.
Happy hours, specials, and cheap pours:
- Silver Moon Brewing (Bend): This week’s Growler Power Hour ($5 growler fills from 4 to 6pm on Tuesday and Wednesday) beers are Bridge Creek Pilsner and German Schwarzbier Black Lager.
- Bend Brewing (Bend): Tonight is Locals Night, which means pints are $2.75 from 4pm until closing, and appetizers are half-price from 4 to 6pm and from 9pm to closing.
- Lompoc Brewing (Portland) features “Tightwad Tuesday” at their Fifth Quadrant and Hedge House locations, with $2.50 pints all day long.
- Cascade Brewing (Portland): Tap It Tuesday today features “Strawberry”, a northwest-style sour aged in barrels for seven months, then on strawberries for another eight months. The tapping starts at 6pm.
- Three Creeks Brewing (Sisters) has $3.25 pints all day long.
Big Horse Brew Pub / Horse Feathers

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 6:00pm CET by Jon
Back in October we made one of our semi-regular trips to Hood River to pick apples and other fruit and while there, stopped for lunch at the Big Horse Brew Pub (aka Horse Feathers). Big Horse is the third brewery within the Hood River city limits (along with Full Sail and Double Mountain), which tallies up one brewery for every 2400 people or so for the town, an amazing per-capita number (compare Bend at one every 8900 people—and we have a lot in Bend!).

Big Horse itself is housed in a large, picturesque multi-level lodge of a building that is built into a hill and backing Winans Park. To get to it you either park on the street below and climb a good number of stairs, or come in from the upper level (through the park presumably); however once you’ve made the climb you are rewarded with fantastic views of downtown Hood River and the Columbia River.

(Oddly Big Horse is one of those rare breweries/businesses that doesn’t seem to have a web presence of their own—no web site, no Facebook profile other than a Facebook “places” page—just the metadata of various review sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon that come up in a search instead.)

Climbing the stairs from the street below, there are three distinct levels to the building: the basement/cellar where (presumably) they store kegs and supplies; next the “lower” level that has a pool room, the kitchen window, and restrooms; and the upper level with the main bar and great views. There is also a wraparound deck that affords outdoor seating when the weather is nice. On the upper level there is even a small stage above the room where the Pub can host live music.

The decor and atmosphere inside is low-key, fairly typical “Northwest Brewpub”: lots of natural wood, various eclectic fixtures and decorations, friendly service. Aside from tables they also have a long booth with a raised table backing the bar, which we sat at (separated from the bar by a glass divider), with bookshelves built into the booth walls full of books and activities for kids.

Of the seven beers listed on their menu, only five were currently on tap: the two that were out were Red Fang and Vernon the Rabbit Slayer, which is a shame because I really wanted to try Vernon, a big fresh hop Imperial IPA that is a big favorite. Of the five remaining, I ordered the sampler tray, and these were my notes:
- Easy Blonde: 5% abv. Hazy yellow, pale white lacy head. Tasty, a wheaty, tartish nose, but grainy and grassy in the mouth, easy to drink. Nicely hoppy for being so light.
- Summer Pils: 5.1% abv. Pale, golden, effervescent. Earthy is the main impression; a little heavy for what I’d expect from a Pilsner. Not terrible, though I wish it were hoppier.
- Pale Rider IPA: 6.7% abv. Brown-gold. Hoppy(ish) nose more spicy than anything “northwest” (like citrus). Flavor is earthy and full of spicy hops, nicely bitter but more English-style. An Americanized English IPA?
- MacStallion Scotch: 6.9% abv. Looks right on to me, mahogany brown. A little diacetyl-y and a touch thin, but nice caramel-toffee maltiness.
- Nightmare Stout: 6.5% abv. Velvety-smooth with a nose that reminds me of Guinness. Roasty, mellow, dark, easy drinking that belies its strength.
My two favorites from this group were the Easy Blonde and the Nightmare Stout, although all were fair-to-good brews. (There’s a picture of the beers in the gallery below.)

I’ll be honest, I don’t entirely remember the food, except that I think I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and I liked it: brewpub fare, but not overly heavy like many are. The lunch along with the sampler tray hit the spot as we were getting ready to spend the afternoon picking fruit; I’d love to visit again (several more times) to get an idea of other offerings and dinners.

Overall I really quite liked Big Horse; the built-into-the-hill, multi-level layout is funky and has something of an old school vibe along with the “Northwest Brewpub” atmosphere, the service is friendly and good, and the views are fantastic. I’ll return if/when I get the chance.

(Incidentally, I don’t know what “Horse Feathers” refers to even though that shows up everywhere as part of the name.)
[Show as slideshow]

Big Horse Brew Pub
115 W. State Street
Hood River, OR 97031
(541) 386-4411
Big Horse Brew Pub / Horse Feathers

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 6:00pm CET by Jon
Back in October we made one of our semi-regular trips to Hood River to pick apples and other fruit and while there, stopped for lunch at the Big Horse Brew Pub (aka Horse Feathers). Big Horse is the third brewery within the Hood River city limits (along with Full Sail and Double Mountain), which tallies up one brewery for every 2400 people or so for the town, an amazing per-capita number (compare Bend at one every 8900 people—and we have a lot in Bend!).

Big Horse itself is housed in a large, picturesque multi-level lodge of a building that is built into a hill and backing Winans Park. To get to it you either park on the street below and climb a good number of stairs, or come in from the upper level (through the park presumably); however once you’ve made the climb you are rewarded with fantastic views of downtown Hood River and the Columbia River.

(Oddly Big Horse is one of those rare breweries/businesses that doesn’t seem to have a web presence of their own—no web site, no Facebook profile other than a Facebook “places” page—just the metadata of various review sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon that come up in a search instead.)

Climbing the stairs from the street below, there are three distinct levels to the building: the basement/cellar where (presumably) they store kegs and supplies; next the “lower” level that has a pool room, the kitchen window, and restrooms; and the upper level with the main bar and great views. There is also a wraparound deck that affords outdoor seating when the weather is nice. On the upper level there is even a small stage above the room where the Pub can host live music.

The decor and atmosphere inside is low-key, fairly typical “Northwest Brewpub”: lots of natural wood, various eclectic fixtures and decorations, friendly service. Aside from tables they also have a long booth with raised a raised table backing the bar, which we sat at (separated from the bar by a glass divider), with bookshelves built into the booth walls full of books and activities for kids.

Of the seven beers listed on their menu, only five were currently on tap: the two that were out were Red Fang and Vernon the Rabbit Slayer, which is a shame because I really wanted to try Vernon, a big fresh hop Imperial IPA that is a big favorite. Of the five remaining, I ordered the sampler tray, and these were my notes:
- Easy Blonde: 5% abv. Hazy yellow, pale white lacy head. Tasty, a wheaty, tartish nose, but grainy and grassy in the mouth, easy to drink. Nicely hoppy for being so light.
- Summer Pils: 5.1% abv. Pale, golden, effervescent. Earthy is the main impression; a little heavy for what I’d expect from a Pilsner. Not terrible, though I wish it were hoppier.
- Pale Rider IPA: 6.7% abv. Brown-gold. Hoppy(ish) nose more spicy than anything “northwest” (like citrus). Flavor is earthy and full of spicy hops, nicely bitter but more English-style. An Americanized English IPA?
- MacStallion Scotch: 6.9% abv. Looks right on to me, mahogany brown. A little diacetyl-y and a touch thin, but nice caramel-toffee maltiness.
- Nightmare Stout: 6.5% abv. Velvety-smooth with a nose that reminds me of Guinness. Roasty, mellow, dark, easy drinking that belies its strength.
My two favorites from this group were the Easy Blonde and the Nightmare Stout, although all were fair-to-good brews. (There’s a picture of the beers in the gallery below.)

I’ll be honest, I don’t entirely remember the food, except that I think I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and I liked it: brewpub fare, but not overly heavy like many are. The lunch along with the sampler tray hit the spot as we were getting ready to spend the afternoon picking fruit; I’d love to visit again (several more times) to get an idea of other offerings and dinners.

Overall I really quite liked Big Horse; the built-into-the-hill, multi-level layout is funky and has something of an old school vibe along with the “Northwest Brewpub” atmosphere, the service is friendly and good, and the views are fantastic. I’ll return if/when I get the chance.

(Incidentally, I don’t know what “Horse Feathers” refers to even though that shows up everywhere as part of the name.)
[Show as slideshow]

Big Horse Brew Pub
115 W. State Street
Hood River, OR 97031
(541) 386-4411