Fire & Brimstone Festival: a Celebration of Chili and Smoke Beverages

July 12, 2014 by 1 Comment

Fire & Brimstone 2014, official poster image by Blaine Fontana
Fire & Brimstone 2014, official poster image by Blaine Fontana

One of my favorite beer festivals in Portland is back for its fourth year in just 2 weeks!. The Fire & Brimstone Festival is hosted by both Hop & Vine and Saraveza, which are conveniently only a half mile walk from each other (about a leisurely 10 minute walk, with Sarevaza at 1004 N. Killingsworth St. and The Hop & Vine at 1914 N. Killingsworth St.). Both are reachable by the Max Yellow Line N Killingsworth stop.

Each venue will have chili and smoke beers, a smoked or chili cider and a mini-cocktail special. Both will also have special food to match with the smoky or chili beverages. For instance, Saraveza is offering their ENORMOUS Bamberg onions & smoked skewers and Hop & Vine is dishing out tacos. Of course, the regular menus will also be available and many of those items will compliment the beers in their own ways so you aren’t limited in food options. For instance, from previous visits I can’t resist getting the popcorn at The Hop& Vine, and they have a very tasty grilled cheese sandwich. You can’t go wrong with the classic cheese and charcuterie plate either.
Smoked and Chili beers at the Fire & Brimstone event at Hop & Vine Parmesan and pepper popcorn to snack on at The Hop and Vine, Portland. Charcuterie plate at Hop & Vine Grilled cheese and tomato soup at Hop & Vine

This year, the Fire & Brimstone Festival falls on July 26 and 27th, with the Festival Hours Saturday and Sunday 11 AM -10 PM. Both venues will also be open for regular business if you choose not to partake and/or you want more food or beverages off their regular menu.

Admission is free, but to taste the cost is $20 for 10 taster tokens, with additional tokens at $1.50, and the tokens can be purchased and used at both Hop & Vine and Saraveza, and can be used both Saturday and Sunday. A sample 5oz pour will cost 1 token.

Last year there were more than 15 smokey or spicy beverage samples to select from, so there is definitely a lot to try. This year it seems there could be a total of 20 items available between the two locations. Several of these offerings will be beverages created especially for this festival, so they are truly one of a kind opportunities to taste some of these flavors!
Image courtesy of Drew of The Hop & Vine
Image courtesy of Drew of The Hop & Vine

Featured Breweries & Cideries Include

At Saraveza

  • Agrarian Ales – Smoked Chili Porter
  • Alaskan Brewing Company – 2013 Smoked Porter
  • Ballast Point – Habanero ‘Sculpin’ IPA
  • Base Camp Brewing Co. – “Smoooke on the Weisse Beer” Beechwood Smoked Wheat
  • Breakside Brewing/Ned Ludd “36 Chambers” Sage Smoked Honey Golden Ale
  • Flat Tail Brewing “El Guapo” Blonde Ale w/Cucumber, Lime & Habanero
  • New Belgium/Cigar City – 2013 Ale Brewed w/Anaheim & Marash Chilies, Aged on Spanish Cedar
  • Oakshire Brewing – “Smokin’ Hell Extra” Smoked Helles Lager Infused w/Serrano, Chulaca & Habanero Peppers
  • Occidental Brewing Co. – Rauchbier
  • Two Towns Ciderhouse – “Cot in the Act” Apricot Cider w/Ancho, New Mexican & Chipotle Chilies
  • “Whiskey Inferno” cocktail with house-Infused Ginger, Jalapeno & Honey Whiskey w/Cock & Bull Ginger Ale and a Jalapeno “Hot Rock” w/Smoked Sea Salt Rim.

At Hop & Vine:

  • Breakside Brewing “Passionfruit Sour” w/ Habanero Chiles
  • Dogfish Head “Festina Peche” – peach berlinerweisse – via Thai Chiles in a randall infuser
  • Epic Brewing “Smoked & Oaked” Belgian Strong
  • Fort George “Hellcat” – belgian strong pale w/ Anaheim, Pasilla, Jalapeno, & Habanero Chiles
  • Gigantic “Firebird” – Smoked Hefeweizen – via Grilled peaches and habanero chiles in a randall infuser
  • New Belgium/Three Floyds “Gratzer” – Polish-style smoked dark wheat ale
  • Reverend Nat’s “Smokey Pineapple Bhut” – smokey Tepache w/ Ghost Chiles
  • Stone Smoked Porter
  • Widmer Brothers Brewing SxNW ’12 – dark strong w/ chiles, cinnamon, & pecans – aged in Tequila Barrels
  • Hi-Wheel Habanero Lime – spritzy fermented fruit wine w/ habanero extract
  • a spicy & sweet “Hell in a Handbasket” cocktail with muddled Serrano Chile, Tequila, Mezcal, House Watermelon Shrub, & Lime Juice w/ guajillo-salt rim
  • “Blood & Smoke” cocktail – Famous Grouse, House Smoked Peach Shrub, OJ, Cherry Heering, Bitters
  • “Ghost Rider” – craft jello shot – Novo Fogo Cachaca, Lime, Terragon Simple, Serrano Juice

Final Draft List and more details to follow as I keep my eye on the Fire & Brimstone Facebook event page!

Images from previous Fire & Brimstone: At The Hop & Vine, they will probably continue having a few beers available at the bar, and more available on the back patio for the event. My favorite pairing of fire and brimstone and food that they have done was when they had specials of a Jalapeno Pecorino biscuit with smoked pork gravy and fried egg and Flourless chocolate cake with smoked chili ice cream, at Hop & Vine Fire & Brimstone version 2012. That was the first year I had the pairing from Saraveza, which was the Smokin’ Bamberg Onion Plate, a traditional Rauch beer meal, that consisted of a Bamburg Onion, Mashed Potatoes w/ Schlenkerla gravy, salad, side of vegetables and a Sugar Pimp Peach-chili dessert.
Hop & Vine, which offered 4 beers inside from their taps and 6 outside from kegs Jalapeno Pecorino biscuit with smoked pork gravy and fried egg, a special at Hop & Vine, Fire & Brimstone version 2012 Flourless chocolate cake with smoked chili ice cream, at Hop & Vine, Fire & Brimstone version 2012   Saraveza's Flight of Five Chili and Smoked Beers for Fire & Brimstone 2012 Saraveza's Flight of Five Chili and Smoked Beers for Fire & Brimstone... Burnside Sweet Heat always glows in the glass it seems (front right) Saraveza Fire & Brimstone 2012 food pairing of the Smokin' Bamberg Onion Plate, a traditional Rauch beer meal, that consisted of a Bamburg Onion, Mashed Potatoes w/ Schlenkerla gravy, salad, side of vegetables and a Sugar Pimp Peach-chili dessert Saraveza Fire & Brimstone 2012 food pairing of the Smokin' Bamberg Onion Plate, a traditional Rauch beer meal, that consisted of a Bamburg Onion, Mashed Potatoes w/ Schlenkerla gravy, salad, side of vegetables and a Sugar Pimp Peach-chili dessert

Have you had smoke or chili beers before?

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Zwickelmania 2014 Overview

February 12, 2014 by 2 Comments

To start your Zwickelmania 2014 Overview, let’s start with the date. 11am-4pm, February 15, is Zwickelmania. This event occurs all throughout the state of Oregon, not just in Portland.

In case you have never heard of it, it is the annual one day a year sponsored by the Oregon Brewers Guild where breweries in Oregon open their doors for visitors to sample one (or possibly more) of their beers and often offer tours of their breweries and have brewers on hand to answer question about their process- all for free!

Zwickelmania 2014 is Saturday Feb 15 all over Oregon

There are even shuttles (most are free, only the three Rogue shuttles in Portland  are $5 for all day designated driving) that you can take to brewpub crawl to visit multiple breweries. Check out the list of breweries and a map of the shuttles here at the Oregon Craft Beer website. They have a great map of the entire state of Oregon listing all the brewery open houses and events statewide.

This year, I’m going off to Eugene for Zwickelmania to attend the Oakshire Brewing’s Hellshire IV release party/Hellshire IV Day and Barrel-Aged Beer Fest. We plan to take advantage of doing a little getaway, both for Valentine’s and because it’s a 3 Day President’s Day long weekend. This Oakshire festival offers more than 50 barrel-aged beers from breweries around the country, live local bands and food carts. F and I are big fans of barrel aged beers, so this seemed right up our alley.

You can see the list of available beers on their Facebook event for this. Oakshire’s Hellshire is a series of beers matured in spirits barrels {bourbon, whiskey, and brandy} and released every February. There is also several other breweries in Eugene that are open besides Oakshire- and a Rogue shuttle could possible help us travel to also visit Rogue, Falling Sky Brewery, McMenamin’s High St, Ninkasi, and Hop Valley Brewing.
"Hellshire

I also know some people are heading out to Astoria for the Fort George Festival of the Dark Arts which features feature 55 specialty stouts to also celebrate the fact February is Stout Month. Other breweries in Astoria include Buoy Beer and Rogue at Pier 39. If you are interested, last I checked tickets were still available for a Brewvana tour that is going to this festival from Portland and can provide VIP Tickets to the festival AND transportation to and from Astoria and lodging for the night if you are interested!
Fort George Festival of the Dark Arts

But you don’t necessarily have to go that far- there are so many wonderful breweries in Portland alone – which is why there are FIVE shuttle bus routes to help you visit various breweries. BeerMusingKris helpfully made a Google Map of everything- check out the link to it on her blog post “Can You Tell Me How to Get, How to Get to Zwickelmania?”

You don’t even necessarily have to take a shuttle- as I recapped in a post last year my little group of friends walked or just used the Streetcar between Upright Brewing, Hair of the Dog Brewing, Cascade Brewing for a palate cleanser of sour beers, Harvester Brewing (which is entirely dedicated to being gluten-free both in beer and their gastropub), and The Commons before finishing up at Base Camp Brewing. I thought there were excellent beers to be had at all those stops.
Visiting Hair of the Dog Brewing and tasting their beers during Zwickelmania 2013, this is Adam Enjoying sample #3 of Blond Bing Blond Ale with Cherries at Cascade Brewing during Zwickelmania 2013
Photos from Zwickelmania 2013 at Hair of the Dog Brewing and Cascade Brewing sampling

In the Zwickelmania of 2011 (with my more amateur blog recapping), I took the shuttle with a friend, and one of the stops included Laurelwood Brewpub where they offered up pairings of beer samples with sweet desserts!

Very awesome- such as below, with a chocolate cupcake with chili is paired with the Laurelwood vanilla porter, and our favorite pairing a smokey ginger and bacon cookie sandwich with maple cream filling, paired with the bourbon barrel aged Olde Reliable barley wine.
Zwickelmania 2011, at Laurelwood Brewpub where they offered up pairings of beer samples with sweet desserts! This is a chocolate cupcake with chili is paired with the Laurelwood vanilla porter. Zwickelmania 2011, at Laurelwood Brewpub where they offered up pairings of beer samples with sweet desserts! This is smokey ginger and bacon cookie sandwich with maple cream filling, paired with the bourbon barrel aged Olde Reliable barley wine.

Other stops at the time in 2011 for the Brewvana shuttle also included Columbia River Brewing, Alameda, Upright and then we had more beer/dinner at Burnside Brewing. Trust Brewvana to pick out some pretty cool breweries, and their bus is awesome- I’ve been on it a few times since being introduced at Zwickelmania by taking some of their beer tours! This year, Laurelwood is on their route again- as are Ecliptic for instance, and other cool breweries!

So there is a list of some of the places I visited that I recommend. There are other breweries participating too- consult what is convenient or interesting to you.

Wherever you decide to go to enjoy Zwickelmania, follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Untappd to see what I’m up to, and be sure to share your experience on Twitter and Instagram using the #zwickel14 hashtag.

Is there a brewery you are planning to visit for Zwickelmania this year?

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