Oregon Brewers Festival 2010

First apologies to my loyal readers, I know that posts have been scarce the past few months. However, you will get two sizable ones today and I have been doing my best to try to recruit some other gals in the beer world into adding their voices to mine. So with any luck some of them should be chiming in to say hello soon.

The Oregon Brewer's Festival this year had gorgeous weather and my SO and several friends did our absolute best to try as many offerings as humanly possible.

Fruit Beers

21st Amendment's Hell or High Watermelon wheat is always a winner for me on hot days. Light and clean with good fruit flavor, I can drink this one all day. This one is now available in cans so if you local beer store isn't carrying it, ask them to.

Laht Neppur from Waitsburg Washington brought out a Strawberry Cream Ale that knocked my socks off and is apparently part of their regular summer line (their website also tells me there is a Peach Hefewiezen....I think I may need to drive to Waitsburg soon)

Marin Brewing of California brought out one of the two Blueberry beers present (boulder Beer of Colorado was the other) for my money Marin was the easy winner here, getting a lot more fruit flavor from the berries into the beer (Bonus: this one is also available in bottle)

Kona and Maui both brought out Coconut beers, a brown and a porter respectively. My preference was for Kona's offering which I found to be lighter and a bit sweeter than Maui's. However two of my girlfriends preferred the heavier, more nutty brew that Maui brought to the table


We saw a higher number to low hop farmhouse and sour styles this year than previously. We tried to get to these as early in the morning as possible so that the heat didn't have time to turn the flavors. Which is tip you can carry with you to any brewfest, taste low-hop or no-hop beers EARLY. They dont have the preservative power to hold in kegs in high heat (see, hops ARE good for something.

Overall the sours are a group that I have to be in the right mood for to appreciate, and 95 degree weather doesn't put me in that mood.

Cascade Brewing here in Beaveton brought out a Summer Gose. This held up a lot better than some of their previous beerfest entries, but I would still recommend that your best bet to get a taste for thier style is to visit them.

Upright brought out a Farmhouse Style Gruit with no hops at all but an interesting catalog of herbal flavors, including peppercorn and lemongrass, it didn't quite work for me but I commend the creativity it took to do it.

We saw two very nice cream ales, Anderson Valley's Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema and Pelican's Kiwanda cream. Both of these are available in bottle as well.

Rogue Brewing, as usual, brought out a specially brewed beer for the festival. It was called 21 and was a Oulde Ale which had surprisily strong banana notes of a very malt-y body.

Deep Breath, we are almost done! The only catagory left to talk about now are the hoppy beers. Now, this normally a catagory I find a lot to like in but there were two things going on with the IPAs this year that caught my eye.

First, a few breweries brought out offerings that used only a single variety. The Lucky Labrador was probably the most successful of these with their Summit IPA (which clocked in at a massive 111 IBUs). Not something I would drink a whole pint of , but very very well-constucted

The second thing of interest to me was that the brewfest was my first chance to get my hands on some beers brewed with the Citra hop, these have been around for about two years now, but this first time I've seen commerical brewers using much of them. The Citras were bred specifically for their fruit-y flavor.

Widmer and Deschutes both brought out offterings featuring them.

Deschutes called theirs Fresh Squeezed but my taste buds picked up more grapefruit than lemon. Still quite good, however.

Widmer went a step farther with their Captian Shaddrock IPA and added grapefruit peel to the boil in addition to the Citra hops. The result was very fresh, citrus smell in front with a taste that matched.

So in conclusion, keep your eyes peeled for bitter beers featuring Citra hops.