My greatest challenge at the 15th annual Oregon Brewers Festival occurred right at the start. In fact, before the start.
One hour prior to the official start of the fest's first day, I and a handful of other assorted media types gathered for a festival 'pre-tasting.' Which meant that in one hour we were to make our way from one end of the serving area to the other, led by star members of Portland's indomitable Brew Crew. It wasn't intended that we taste all 72 beers available, just 12-15 of them, or about one every 4-5 minutes.
Because a shortage of time made tasting in proper order impractical - unless we were willing to race up and down the line of taps - the second ale sampled was the hop-loaded Proving Ground from San Francisco's Magnolia Pub & Brewery, a super-charged IPA with plentiful grapefruit on the nose and enough malt in the body that it didn't overwhelm with its 100 units of bitterness. It followed another San Francisco brew, the much lighter and wonderfully fruity Watermelon Wheat from the 21st Amendment Brewery, Café and Bar, a beer that had all who tasted it marvelling at how much watermelon character was maintained in both the nose and body.
After the Proving Ground, I was worried about subsequent beers being overwhelmed by the bitterness left behind on my palate. But it is a testament to the character and quality of the Lovin Lager from Silitz Ales of Oregon that it still managed to shine through as a great lager with a lovely floral nose and soft but crisp body. Without question this was one of the stand-outs of the weekend.
Other notables included the Widmer Bros. Brewing Company's Der Uber Tuber, an earthy brew made with barley malt and potatoes; Full Sail's Rip Curl, a faintly peaty and ESB-ish beer described as simply a 'copper ale;' and the faintly spicy, toasty Redsides Rye Ale from the Mt. Hood Brewing Company. All three are products of Oregon's impressive beer scene.
Eugene, Oregon's Wild Duck Brewery & Restaurant provided another highlight in the Oregon Brewers Guild Pavilion, a fest-centre tent where an ever-changing array of kegs offered tastes of beers not featured in the regular festival line-up. Their Stumbleduck Doppelbock was the last beer I tasted at this year's fest, one I bought almost as an afterthought. I was very glad I made the effort, though, when I sniffed the cinnamon-accented nose and sipped the rich, spicy and warming lager. Memories of the great German doppelbock Salvator came to mind, and I was compelled to share my sample with almost everyone around me.
A similar taste memory occurred when I sampled the #9 Ale from Laguanitas Brewing of California. The lightly fruity and pefumey start, orange peel and pear notes in the body and warming, off-dry finish put me in mind of Hapkin, a much-underrated golden ale from Belgium. This was definitely a good thing.
Put all of this terrific beer together with reasonable tasting sizes, fabulous weather, a tasty and wide-ranging variety of food and an informative and easy-to-handle program and you come up with the recipe that makes the OBF year-in and year-out one of North America's greatest beer festivals. It's always held in Portland and always on the last full weekend of July, so I suggest you start planning now for next year's fest.
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