Portland Taprooms: SE Dominates, NW lags behind

Variety is the spice of life. There is nothing better than a laid back taproom with a reliable, ever changing, and preferably long taplist. In Portland, the SE dominates the taproom scene: The Horse Brass, Belmont Station's Bier Cafe, Green Dragon, Apex, Eastburn, etc. Most other neighborhoods in Portland have more than one good taproom or beer bar. North Portland has Saraveza along with The Hop and Vine. NE has Moon and Sixpence, Concordia Alehouse, Breakside Brewery's guest taps and the expected new taproom on NE Broadway - Beervana. SW has Bailey's Taproom, Higgin's Bar, and even Journey's in Multnomah Village.

The neighorhood with a glaring need for a taproom in my opinion? NW Portland. Sure, there are plenty of great beer options in NW Portland: Deschutes and Bridgeport in the Pearl. New Old Lompoc and Lucky Lab in the alphabet district. I am not complaining about that. But a taproom is different from a brewery. Taprooms allow for more variety in both styles of beer and, obviously, breweries on tap. Other than Henry's, which lies on the edge of NW Portland in the Pearl (and is hardly in any beer geek's general rotation) there is not a bar in NW Portland with a well conceived, regularly changing tap list.

Sure, I am being a bit of a homer here since I live in NW Portland. But, I think a taproom would do very well for itself in NW Portland, especially West of the Pearl. NW 21st Ave. would probably be the best location. It would draw well from the many students and younger population living between the Pearl and the West hills. It would also pull in the bar scene.

Why the gripe when there are so many other great taprooms nearby? The main problem I have is in grabbing a beer after work. I work in the southern suburbs. When I head back into Portland after work and want to grab a beer during rush hours it is a major hassle to get to the bars in SE. Forget trying to continue on to North Portland. Bailey's and Higgins are manageable but downtown is always a pain at that time. I can usually cruise right on into NW Portland, no problem. Alas, there is no great taproom awaiting me.

Anyone think otherwise? Is there a neighborhood with a more glaring need for a taproom? Possibly the west side of North Portland? St. Johns? Is there a decent beer spot in NW Portland that I have overlooked? Also, I have a few good spots picked out in NW Portland. Anyone looking to open a taproom give me a buzz.

Cascade Brewing Barrel House

Cascade Brewing opened their new Barrel House tonight. Actually, according to the servers it even was open last night but without any notification. But at about 4 o'clock this afternoon Cascade Brewing tweeted that if anyone was in the area of 939 SE Belmont St. they might want to "pop in and see what's going on". So, that is what I did.

Luckily, I checked Twitter as I was leaving work and arrived a few minutes early. The whole crew including Art Larrance and Ron Gansberg were hard at work putting the finishing touches on the Barrel House. A few of us waited patiently for them to invite us in.

The space is well done inside and out. The signage proudly boasts that this is a place for Barrel Aged Sour Beers:

The ubiquitous garage door was raised to a nice cool afternoon, post rain showers. A central bar has a clearly defined taplist overhead on magnetic boards. A total of 16 taps are dominated by sour beers. Two offerings at the left end of the bar are reserved for beers poured straight from the barrel - which are not yet available.

They came strong out of the gate with many of their famous sour beers available: Noyeaux, Bourbonic Plague, Vlad the Impaler, Vine, Kriek, etc.... It was a beer geek paradise and it was well attended as Bill from It's Pub Night, Derrick from Beer Around Town, and several other familiar faces stopped in within the first hour.

There were great stool height barrel end bar tables lined up outside on the "dock". The pub offers bar and table service. Tables include picnic tables, booths, and barstool height tables in front of the garage doors. Three flat screens line the wall for your favorite sporting event. We only sampled one food item. But, the crackers and hummus were very good.

All in all a very impressive debut for a soft opening. The selection was impressive and offered such a unique array of beers. This is something to get very excited about.

Upcoming Beer and Music Events

I just want to highlight a few exciting beer events in the next few weeks and then highlight some upcoming concerts that have caught my attention. Beer is up first:

1. Cascade Brewing Barrel House: According to their Twitter account the new barrel house in SE Portland near the Green Dragon will open at the end of this week. The opening is supposedly a bit tentative so I will leave it to you to look up the tweet and keep an eye out for any changes (I will tweet any confirmation or changes as they become available). Look for a nice selection of the sour beers Cascade has become famous for brewing.

2. Fresh Hops Tastivals: Love the festivals, hate the name. They kick off this Saturday in Sisters and then continue with Hood River (10/2), Portland (10/9) and Eugene (10/16). Details here. The Portland festival has a preview party the night before on Friday 10/8. $20 gets you a pint glass, 8 tokens, and a sandwich dinner. Details and tickets here.

3. Double Mountain Brewing Beer Belly Dinner at Eastburn: October 14th from 6:30 - 9 pm. This month's edition of Eastburn's monthly Beer Belly dinners finds Matt Swihart of Double Mountain bringing some interesting brews to the table including Killer Green, Oktoberfest, Bonne Idee with Kriek, Molten Lava, and the new Pilsner. Details at Eastburn's website.

On to the music. The fall concert schedule is really shaping up nicely. After a great MFNW (of which I managed to not see a single show), some great shows are coming through the area right through October.

September
25th: Local Natives (Wonder Ballroom)
28th: Dirty Projectors (Aladdin)
Neon Indians (Wonder)
29th: Dirty Projectors (Aladdin)
Matt & Kim (Roseland)
School of 7 Bells (Doug Fir)
30th: Arcade Fire (Memorial Coliseum)

October
3rd: Surfer Blood with Drums (Wonder)
4th and 5th: The Black Keys (Crystal Ballroom)
5th: Caribou (Wonder)
8th: Eels (Roseland)
9th: Frightened Rabbit (Wonder)
16th: Broken Social Scene
with The Sea and Cake (Crystal)
19th: Belle and Sebastian (Schnitzer)
22nd: She & Him (Schnitzer)
Norm McDonald (Helium Comedy Club)
23rd: Norm McDonald (Helium)
Blue Scholars (Wonder)
27th: DJ Shadow (Roseland)
28th: Best Coast (Holocene)
Deerhunter (Wonder)
Of Montreal (Roseland)
29th: Sufjan Stevens (Schnitzer)

Fresh Hops: Round 1

It has been about 2-3 weeks since the fresh hops beers starting showing up around Portland. This last week saw a nice influx from the local breweries, with beers from Deschutes, Bridgeport, and Oakshire hitting the area. A nice advantage of having some time off with the newborn was a chance to sneak out to taste all of the offerings. So, let me give you my thoughts on the first round of beers. Maybe you can skip a few of the less than stellar brews.

The first fresh hop beer of the season was Hopwork's Gayle's Pale Ale (using multiple hops), which was first available at the Biketobeerfest way back on August 28th. I had a pint of the beer at the festival. Although a decent pale ale, I didn't find much in the way of that classic earthy fresh hop flavor. I was eager to try my first fresh hop beer of the season on this day but I quickly moved on to better offerings at the festival.

After that first fresh hop taste, it was a long 15 days until my next taste. The Full Sail Lupulin (not sure which hop variety I was served - I was too tired to ask) ended my recent trip "on the wagon" and I found it to be a disappointment compared to years past. Not only did it not offer much in the way of that fresh hop flavor, I didn't really enjoy the beer at all.

I followed the Lupulin with the first Deschutes offering of the season. The King Cone (Centennial hops) was a smooth drinking ale brewed at the Portland pub. The beer was perfect for the nice warm summer day, but again not much of that fresh hop flavor. The hop profile is pretty subdued here.

In my opinion, the first beer to give me that resinous, grassy fresh hop flavor was Van Havig's Hop Harvest Ale at Rock Bottom Brewery. I really enjoyed this one as it had a nice base hop bitterness with the fresh hop taste layered on top of it. This is one fresh hop beer I can highly recommend.

Next up, I caught up with Bill from It's Pub Night at Deschutes for a taste of Fresh Hop Mirror Pond the day it went on tap at the Portland pub. Bill seems to be as a big a fan of fresh hops beers as me {UPDATE: Bill offers his assessment and a few differing opinions) and has a great ongoing Google map of all the beers on tap in Portland. I agree with Bill that this years FH Mirror Pond is very good but not the game winner brewed last year. Regardless, another one worth checking out.

A stop at Saraveza Friday night allowed me to taste fresh hop brews from Bridgeport (Hop Harvest - with Centennial hops) and Oakshire Brewing (Harvest Ale - featuring Hallertauer hops). The Oakshire Harvest Ale :UPDATE: is not fresh hopped. Apparently none of the Harvest Ale on draft in Portland is fresh hopped. They are sending a fresh hopped Locavore next week though. The fresh hopped Harvest Ale will be available at the Fresh Hop Tastivals. The Bridgeport Hop Harvest I really did not enjoy. I thought it was overly bitter for a fresh hop beer which overpowered any of that resinous flavor I look for. I am willing to give it a shot in bottle form, but I cannot recommend the draft version.

Finally, I was able to pull in a ringer for my last tasting. One of the brewers at Ice Harbor Brewing, Adam Cocker, left a comment on a recent post letting me know they had put their fresh hop IPA on tap. Luckily, one of my colleagues was out that way last week and returned with a growler on Sunday. This one is brewed with 100 pounds of Amarillo and Centennial hops per 10 bbl batch and it shows. A nice aroma leads to an IPA with a great base bitterness layered with a wonderful grassy, piney wet hops taste. I doubt that this beer will make the Portland area but it is worth keeping an eye out for, possibly in Vancouver. I look forward to tasting this again when I head out that way in mid-October.

So, that is round one of fresh hops. As of Sunday night, I have not heard of any definite upcoming releases. Double Mountain has hinted that their Killer Green fresh hop will be ready around September 30th. Keep an eye on my twitter feed and It's Pub Night's fresh hops map for any future releases.

Catching Up...on Sleep, Beer & Music. Mostly Sleep.

What a week. This is my first blog post as a father of two! Our second daughter was born Tuesday evening. Mom and baby are doing great. Big sister is suspicious. Grandmothers are ecstatic. Sleep is improving.

I also survived the week without drinking alcohol or eating meat. It wouldn't normally be such a big deal, but things were certainly a bit stressful and a celebratory beer would have been excellent. But, I held out. On Sunday we celebrated the end of the religious observance, the birth of our daughter, and a beautiful summer day by heading down to the waterfront. A fresh hop Lupulin ale from Full Sail Brewing at the Pilsner Room was a great welcome off of the wagon.

The Lupulin was tasty but not as good as past years. I am not sure which hop variety I was served (a week ago I would have had the energy or interest to inquire, but on this day I was just content that it was a beer in my hand!). I had intended to follow that up with a Hop Harvest from Rock Bottom Brewery but service was a bit slow (which was just fine on such a beautiful day) and I ended up having a second Full Sail beer with my cheeseburger. The Malt Bomb lived up to it's name - a nice hit of chocolate, roasted malts. Perfect for sipping slowly while watching the dragon boat races in the river below.

The plan for this week is to catch up on more sleep. I have a few days off this week to help at home and bond with our new addition. I also plan to sneak out and grab a few of the fresh hop beers that continue to pop up around town. In addition to the Hop Harvest at Rock Bottom, I hope to get my lips to the King Cone at Deschutes, the Oakshire Harvest currently on tap at Apex, and the release of Bridgeport's Hop Harvest on Thursday evening. I recommend you bookmark Bill's 2010 Fresh Hop Map which will be an invaluable tool in the next several weeks.

I hope everyone that attended MusicFest NW concerts had a great time. Unfortunately, I was a little too busy to make it to any of the shows. I was really hoping to make it to The National concert on Sunday night but was just too exhausted. I want to draw attention to a great band playing Friday night at The Wonder Ballroom. Cloud Cult is a phenomenal band out of Minnesota that plays atmospheric, experimental indie rock. Cloud Cult releases great albums (including a new album Light Chasers due out this week) and play amazing live shows. Plus, the Wonder is a cool venue with good beer. A recipe for a fun time on Friday night. If you see me sleeping standing up during the show, give me slight nudge to wake me up.

Also playing the Wonder is Local Natives on Saturday, September 25th. Local Natives was playing when our daughter was born (Alexi Murdoch was playing when our first daughter was born) and I am hoping my wife will be able to make it to that show. Finally, a quick note that NPR Music currently has some great albums available for streaming as part of the First Listen series. This includes yet unreleased albums from the likes of Mavis Staples, Blonde Redhead, Of Montreal, Superchunk, and Robert Plant. Head on over and give them a listen.

A Big Week Ahead

Things have been pretty quiet on the blog for the last week and it will likely stay that way over the next week. This week is shaping up to be a big week.

First, my second daughter will hopefully be born this week.

Second, this week is Paryushan. Paryushan is the most important religious observance for followers of Jainism. Jainism is a religion which originated in India, which is where my wife's family is from. Paryushan is an eight day "festival" of forgiveness and repetence. Hardcore Jains fast for the entire eight days. Many Jains, including many of my wife's family members, are strict vegetarians as the religion prescribes a path of non-violence to all living beings. So, each year during Paryushan I celebrate with my family and I do not eat meat, eggs, or consume alcohol. Last year I even tried fasting - I made it about 36 hours. Not bad.

Things will be quiet around here for a bit. I am also going to try and avoid the Twitter account this week (no need to read about all the great fresh hop beers being released) - except maybe to announce the arrival of our daughter. So, go out and enjoy some Full Sail Lupulin fresh hop ale for me this week. I will see you on the other side.