Starting tomorrow to Sunday… the annually held Oregon Brewer’s Festival. Located by the Waterfront to the river, the festival offers four days with several stages for music and this year 85 breweries each pouring a showcase beer in tastings for $1 or glasses for $4. Also, a Buzz Tent with 8 rarer experimental taps that will be kicking all weekend since they are smaller kegs so that tent will continually be refreshed with new offerings.

To avoid the crowds, I am with a small group that took Thursday(tomorrow) off and will be sitting by the Buzz Tent to keep an eye on the rare beers. Going earlier always means it is less crowded, especially if it is before the after work crowd or Saturday late afternoon/evening people.

Photo from last year’s OBF

You can find the regular beer list here (though I like this list at Portland Beer better since it has descriptions, although the one on the official site has #s for the locations so you can more efficiently plan your various tent visits). The Rare Tap List is overall listed here but Twitter #OBFBuzzTent will announce when new beers are ready to taste all weekend. Entry to the event is free, though you have to purchase tokens and a $6 tasting mug to drink that is reusable the whole weekend in lieu of any entrance cost. There is some food available at the festival thanks to six restaurants that will have booths, but you can also bring your own food. I have XXX Sharp Cheddar and Bergonost cheese from Yancey’s with crackers all ready.

Some beers I am particularly looking forward to that caught my eye from the taplists:

• Burnside Brewing’s Gratzer, a smoked beer style which they just unveiled recently
• Dogfish Head’s Black & Red, which is a Raspberry Mint Imperial Stout, I wonder if those flavors will work… “A velvety smooth “dry-minted” stout with a serious fruit problem! Heavily roasted grains brings forth a dry, chocolaty character that contrasts with the sweet, fruity full-bodied flavor. But it’s not really black – it’s a very deep red, and the foam has a pinkish hue. A hundred pounds of spearmint and peppermint in secondary fermentation help the beer finish sweet and smooth.”
• Kona Brewing Co’s Sassy Grassy, a beer described as “Ginger Lemongrass Quencher”
• Old Market Pub & Brewery is offering a beer named Berried Alive! which is a Belgian Boysenberry Ale. “336 pounds of Oregon boysenberries and 110 pounds of Oregon raspberries in the secondary fermenter on top of a six-grain malt bill weren’t sufficient to make this beer stand out for Old Market brewers. They then fermented the brew with Trappist high gravity yeast and aged it in Pinot Noir barrels. Low hop levels let you better taste the fruit and oaky, smoky notes.”
• Also in the fruity style is Widmer Brothers Brewing Foggy Bog Cranberry Ale, which promises tartness in its ale profile
• Three Creeks Brewing FivePine Chocolate Porter sounds just my style- I’m a stout and porter type of girl
• Prodigal Son Brewery and their Bruce Lee Porter, ok maybe partially because of the name
• On the other hand, despite the name, Boneyard Beer’s Girl Beer which is a Pilsner with “Eighty-eight pounds of sweet dark cherry puree in the secondary give the English Ale yeast something to do while this one waits to make up her mind”
• Many things on the Buzz Tent List sound delicious, but I am most excited for Ale Industries’Dry Hogged Bacon Brown and Maui’s Imperial CoCoNuT Porter and Stone Brewing Co’s Stone Smoked Porter w/Vanilla Beans

Possible Faceoffs:

• Ginger as an ingredient- Blue Frog Grog’s Ginger Meyer Ann (with lemon) VS Kona’s Sassy Grassy (with lemongrass) VS Black Diamond Brewin’gs Oranje World (with orange) VS New Belgium’s Somersault (with apricot)
• Berry Bash- Dogfish’s Black & Red VS Old Market Pub’s Berried Alive VS Ram’s Berry White VS Cascade’s Razberry Wheat vs Vertigo’s Razz Wheat VS Boneyard’s Girl Beer
• Porter Time- FiftyFifty’s Donner Party Porter VS Laughing Dog’s Anubis Imperial Porter VS Maui’s CoCoNut Porter VS Prodigal Son’s Bruce Lee Porter VS Three Creeks FivePine Chocolate Porter