The Beerfather

Review: Double Mountain Brewery

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:48:20 +0000

This is a very cool place. It’s a cozy little brewery located off the main street in Hood River . It really has that small local bar feeling similar to one found in a ski or surf town. Everyone seems to know each other (Norm!), but the funny thing was, it was filled with tourists. The service wasn’t overly friendly, but I wouldn’t call it bad. Everything came in a timely fashion; we just weren’t served with a high five and a batch of warm fuzzies. We started with the Hop Lava and the hummus platter. The Hop Lava was a very hoppy IPA, but it was more on the florally smooth side then the bitter side for IPA’s. The hummus plate was tasty! The second beer I had was their strong golden ale, Devil’s Kitchen. This was an excellent beer. Mildly carbonated for a golden, this one was not on the heavy Belgian side of a golden ale, but it still had an excellent smooth fruity taste to it. It was an excellent choice on a warm summer day as opposed to milk, which would have been a bad choice. Double Mountain fits in perfectly with the casual vibe of Hood River and we’d definitely go back.

Review: McMenamins Grand Lodge

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:58:32 +0000

So we head out to McMenamin’s Grand Lodge…my woman has some work to do there and I’m coming along to help her. They have beer (McMenamins has their own brewery and they serve it at all of their locations), so it’s not like she had to twist my arm. I was a little disappointed when we first arrived. It didn’t look like a “lodge” to me but that was fine; the fact that they had beer on the premises helped me to remain open minded. Shortly after entering I realized it had a much more lodgy feeling on the inside then the outside (the building is brick which doesn’t make me think lodge). Anyway, I wander into the bar area while the wife does her deal. It’s a cool old craftsman style bar area. It’s called Ironwork Grill. It’s got a cool copper bar counter with lots of stained glass…typical Mcmenamins arts and crafts sorta feel. It feels a little dank and musty, but it’s Oregon and it does rain a lot so that comes with the territory. I order the Sunflower IPA and Cajun tater tots. Not real exciting, but hey nothing about this place really is. I figure if something is going to be good, it’s the IPA and some tater tots. After savagely destroying two IPA’s and an order of Cajun tots (yes I know they weren’t exciting, but I don’t call myself the Beerfather for kicks…put an IPA and pub food in front of me and you’re gonna see a show), the wife shows up. We head into the restaurant and get a nice little McMenamins style booth by the window. We order a couple more beers and some hummus. It was Copper Moon (their seasonal) for me this time. It was pretty good as far as McMenamins goes. Kind of sweet and tasty. We sat there for a bit and watched the rain…it was definitely cozy!

The place was pretty cool overall; the beer wasn’t great (as it never really is that great at McMenamins). The food passes as good but not fantastic (it’s your typical pub style); the wait staff speaks some sort of gruntish and apparently always has some place better to be. But, the lodge itself has a lot of character. The lawn out front is huge with a lawn bar (Yardhouse Pub) and Frisbee golf baskets all around. Definitely a good place to hit up on a nice summer day, just don’t expect AMAZING things to happen.

The Oregon Brewers Festival ‘09

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:35:04 +0000

Hot as hell, dusty as hell, sweaty as hell …but 81 different breweries with 81 different beers= totally freaking worth it.
So we start off walking about 21,000 blocks to get to the festival, it’s about 93 degrees outside, humidity is at about 70% (it’s not Louisiana, but it still sucks). I think this is intentional to make you extremely thirsty. By the time we get inside we’ve sweated about a gallon of sweat and we’re ready to drink some freaking cold beer. We buy several hundred thousand tokens. Keep in mind, each token gets you about a 4 oz pour. So we start. It’s not crowded because we were smart and went on Sunday, the day after all of the meatheads had their way with the place.

We enter the south tent where about half of the brewery tasters are. We begin working on depleting the beer supply. I was fairly impressed with the beers provided by these breweries, overall there was a good variety and quite a bit of uniqueness. There was a “buzz” tent which they opened up to the public for a few additional tokens. Supposedly this was where latest and greatest beers were being poured. We had small fries with us so we skipped it. I know, totally un-beerfather like behavior, but sometimes that’s just how I roll.

A few tips: wear extremely light, airy clothing. Bring sunglasses. Don’t eat beforehand, even though you might feel like you should. The food is great and all goes well with the endless supply of beer you’ll be drinking. In other words, pace yourself if you want to be in it for the long haul. Break it up with some food. Also, you can always go get more tokens, so don’t buy too many from the start. You can’t return them later. The #1 thing I’d say about the festival is to JUST DO THE TASTER SIZES, don’t try to have balls the size of Texas and drink a whole cup of every beer you try. It’s too damn hot and you will pass the hell out. Plus, with 81 beers, why wouldn’t you want to try as many as possible? You’d be surprised how satisfying the 4oz pours are when you’re actually drinking them. That way you can literally just drink your way from line to line and feel super cool because you can now say, “Oh, yeah. I tried that beer.” whenever someone brings up something you can tell they think is obscure. Boo yeah!

Anyway, it was a good experience, lots of beer for a good price, lots of food, live music and lots of cheering. Not a lot more to say about it, it’s a festival with food and beer and music and dirt. You know what this is all about. If you live in Portland you have to go to this. If you live out of state, I highly recommend making the trip out.

Cinder Cone Red Ale

admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:29:15 +0000

So here I am with another Deschutes beer. I know. I drink them all the time because I’m lazy and I don’t always feel like driving further for a bigger selection of beer. As far as what’s guaranteed to be on hand at the grocery store, Deschutes is a consistent solid choice. I have to tell you of all the Deschutes beers, this one is my second fave, right after BBP. Why am I all in a tizzy about Cinder Cone this fine evening? Because it’s almost like drinking an Oaked Arrogant bastard, but without the punch and without the “oaked”…in a good way. When I say almost, by no means am I saying this beer is comparable to oaked…they’re obviously two different types of beer. This beer tastes like a distant cousin of Oaked; one without the tattoos and jail stories. Basically, I’m saying I didn’t feel like driving and getting a better beer and this one is pretty damn good for the grocery store.

Anyway, it’s a nice little red that has an appetizing hoppy aroma with a nice hit of bitter on the nose. It finishes pretty smooth, but a tad weak with not a whole lot of flavor. That’s if I’m being critical and not taking it for what it is and what’s on the shelf next to it. But hey, if your one of those rare people out there that hasn’t tried it yet, pick up a six pack, and stop looking at all those other Deschutes beers. Especially stay away from the BBP, I get pissed when that’s all gone.

Ice Axe Grill/Mt. Hood Brewing Co.

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:11:58 +0000

Ice Axe Grill/Mt. Hood Brewing Co.
87304 E. Government Camp Loop
Government Camp, OR 97028

We decided to venture up to Mt. Hood and try out “The Microbrewery with an Altitude”, so we stuffed ourselves into the car and drove up to Ice Axe Grill, which is home of Mt. Hood Brewing Company.

We were starving and thirsty, and when we walked in we were immediately greeted with smiles and hellos. The décor wasn’t the most happenin and hip, but really, we didn’t care. It was cozy…and we were there for the beer and food anyway.

Started things off with Multor Porter and Cascadian Pale Ale. They also had the pale ale on cask but my wife was in the mood for cold and crisp so she stuck with the draft. We both went straight for the Old English Cheddar Pub Burger and fries. UH-MAZING. The burger was insanely good. The fries? Oh, the fries. So crispy and delicious. They also had some ranch on crack…don’t know what was in it or why it was special, but special it was. See, places like this sneak up on you. That’s why you can’t judge a bar/pub by its cover…sometimes the most mediocre looking places will kick your ass with their beer and food.

After we finished our food, we ordered more beer (what, did you think we’d go all the way up to Mt. Hood and just have one beer?), this time it was Hogsback Stout and Ice Axe IPA. The Hogsback oatmeal stout was just freaking awesome, they did an excellent job on this one. I highly recommend getting one while you’re there.

Definitely worth the trip. Good beer, good food, and good service. Plus, you can wander around the town while you’re up there. Good times, I tell ya.

Pranqster

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:23:42 +0000

Pranqster has grown to be one of my favorite beers, which makes North Coast Brewing Co. one of my favorite breweries. Pranqster is a beautiful golden, slightly hazy beer with a lot of head. It’s an excellent Belgian beer that has the perfect amount of carbonation on the nose and finishes with that great fruity Belgian Golden flavor. Often with Belgians I find my biggest complaint is too much carbonation, or the carbonation amount doesn’t balance with body and flavor. This is not the case with Pranqster; this beer is very well balanced and extremely smooth without losing its awesomeness and quality.