MrTrav - Beer Man

Went to the Bistro on Saturday for the Barrel Aged Beer Festival.  Have to say the Drake’s George Brett sour was my favorite of the night.  However the highlight of the day was hanging out with Peter of BetterBeerBlog and Dave of Beer47 for a few hours.  Cheers guys.

Last night I headed over to the Firehouse Brewery in Sunnyvale for a charity event that my buddy Peter told me about. I have to be honest, I wasn’t impressed with the event. It was less “event” and more of “buy our $10 beer and keep the glass.” I can’t complain though, it was all in the name of the Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Research. Plus the beer was good, which is always a great. In addition to that, Steve the brewer came over and chatted with us for awhile and let us try some of his Oktoberfest that he had just filtered and was getting ready to put on tap in a few days. Even though it was majorly undercarbonated, it was pretty damn good. When this beer gets on tap, I recommend you pop down to the brewery and try some.

I was heading out the door to head home and get some sleep when I was persuaded to go into the brewery side of the brewpub and talk with some beer folks. And by persuaded I mean I begged my wife to let me stay for another half an hour. Steve let us try some of barrel aged Hefeweizen with brettanomyces straight out of the barrel. This was the first time I have tried beer directly out of the barrel. It was pretty sour, and smelled like a barn. Call me a freak, but I dug it. I snapped a couple of pictures on my sexy new Storm2. I still am getting used to having a camera on my phone again. It’s kind of like a caveman being unfrozen in the future. It’s awkward at first, but soon you will see me on Geico commercials getting pissed off at billboards.

I fell in love with the Stone Vertical Epic series last year with the release of the 2008 Strong Goldon Belgian Ale, which has more hops then Michael Jordan. I loved it so much, that I bought a case of em to cellar to 2012 and am slowly trying to find people with older years so I have 02-12 with the release of the last version. This year, Stone busted out the 09-09-09 as a Belgian Porter with spices. I quickly snagged a couple of bottles and threw a cellared 2008 in the fridge overnight to do a mini vertical tasting.

The 08-08-08 still didn’t disappoint, well me at least. Dean and Sam didn’t care for it as much as they did last year. It definitely lost a lot of it’s hoppiness over the past year. I am skeptical that this will be able to still wow me in 2012 for the final tasting of these bad boys. It had a lot more of a peppery spiciness to it, although the banana man smoking a joint kicking me in the face smell was still there like I remembered. I would probably would have given this beer an A/A- last year, I think now it is creeping towards B+ range.

The 09-09-09 impressed the shit out of us when we poured it. Though it had a head that was a bit over-bearing, watching the bubbles fall up and down the glass was nothing short of breath taking. It had a great sweet chocolate note to the nose that reminded us of s’mores. The taste was similar to most porters that I have had in the past, but with a unique sweetness that bounced around your tongue. I have high hopes that this beer will continue to age well over the next 3 years, I will definitely be picking up some more of these to cellar.

So I headed up to Vancouver, WA for Christmas to spend some time with my family. While I was there, my dad planned out this awesome custom beer tour of some sights from Kalama down to Portland.

To start off, we drove up I-5 to Kalama, WA. This is the spot where Pyramid grew out of control and became America’s fourth largest microbrewery. However, the first building that helped them gain great success is now abandon with broken windows. Even though nothing was there, it was still cool to check out the surprisingly small building which raised one of the nations “best” microbreweries. My dad suspected that the building is still owned by the port there. Does anyone know what this building’s future is going to be? It would be great to see another group of guys get in there and brew beer once again. Perhaps the Suds or Duds TV crew will have a chance?

Next up was the trek back down to downtown Vancouver, where we hit up By The Bottle. I had previously talked to the co-owner, Arlene, before heading up. Unfortunately the snow kept her at home when I went in and David was there to show me around. David was a great guy, he told me a bunch about all the beers they carried. He definitely knows his stuff about the local Northwest breweries. Their website is a bit out dated, but they do hold events every so often. So if you are in the area stop by, buy a beer, and say hey. Here is a combination of stuff I picked up there and what my dad had laying around his house, all of which I am bringing back with me to California.

Next up on our little trip was a need for lunch. We were originally going to hit up Salmon Creek Brewpub which is conveniently located next door to By The Bottle; however, they don’t open until 4pm on Saturday and Sunday’s. Who does that? Anyways, we decided to head over to McMenamins on the Columbia which is an extension of the Portland brewery. We snagged some lunch and I tried out their sampler. For the most part, their beer was good. I highly recommend their Ruby Ale or their Nitro Porter.

It was too early to head home, so we decided to head across the river into downtown Portland. A tough decision between going to Deschutes, Rogue, or Bridgeport; we decided on Deschutes. I have become a huge fan of their beers. On my last blog, I wrote about drinking their Inversion IPA on election night to celebrate (or sulk depending on what your views are). Anyways, Deschutes has an awesome little brewpub there. They have an impressive wall of awards they have won from around the world. Next to this wall is a huge collection of brewing equipment. I have no idea if they brew there, but I am assuming they do, it is a huge waste of equipment to just let sit for decoration. I tried their cask bitter and had a sip of my dad’s cask porter. Both beers were mind blowingly amazing. Also, I had their gold I think. I forget the name, but it too was amazing.

Just for good measure I am going to throw in some pictures of Hazel Dell Brewpub. We hit this place up earlier in the week for a brew before going to the grocery store. I was super stoked to try the IPA they had. Let me say I was severely disappointed. I even tried their dry hopped variation which was also disappointing. I switched over to their red ale which was actually a lot better. Also for good measure is my dad and I chilling on his back porch smoking a stogie, celebrating a good vacation up in Washington.