Portland Beer Week 2017 Highlights

June 6, 2017 by 9 Comments

Portland Beer Week this year starts on Thursday, and runs from June 8 – June 18th 2017, 11 days of beer events happening all over Portland. This is not an exhaustive list of events – visit the Portland Beer Week website for all the events – but I wanted to highlight what I think are some unique events and my own personal take on Portland Beer Week 2017 Highlights.

This is just one of many events celebrating libations in June: I shared highlights for Negroni Week June 5-11 yesterday, and then for tomorrow I have a post about  Sake PDX Festival, which is coming up on June 21. And there’s Oregon Cider Week (June 15-25), PDX Margarita Festival (June 17) and then the beer festivals of Portland International Beer Festival (June 23-25) and Kriekfest (June 24)! All these events are just running into each other back to back this month!

[Read more…]

Signature

Filed Under: Beer Review, Festival Event, Food and Drink Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Imperial Session Beer Dinner Recap

January 27, 2017 by 4 Comments

Last year, I highlighted a new beer dinner pop up series called Imperial Session. Now here’s a look at my Imperial Session Beer Dinner Recap from that September 18 event. They offered both an omnivore and vegetarian version (vegetarian must have given prior notice so they can prepare accordingly) and each of the five courses was paired with a full pour of a beer.
Imperial Session Beer Dinner from September 2016, 5 courses with each course paired with a beer. 2 of the 5 beers are unavailable in Oregon, 2 are vintages which are no longer available, and 1 is a small batch brewery only release

What is unique about this beer pairing pop up are that Ryan and Spencer can choose whatever food style or beer they want for each course, since they are not representing any particular restaurant or brewery. For this dinner for instance, 2 of the 5 beers were unavailable in Oregon, 2 beers were vintages which are no longer available, and 1 was a small batch brewery only release.
Imperial Session Beer Dinner from September 2016, 5 courses with each course paired with a beer. Pop up proprietors Ryan and Spencer can choose whatever food style or beer they want for each course, since they are not representing any particular restaurant or brewery. Imperial Session Beer Dinner from September 2016, 5 courses with each course paired with a beer. Pop up proprietors Ryan and Spencer can choose whatever food style or beer they want for each course, since they are not representing any particular restaurant or brewery.

[Read more…]

Signature

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Restaurant Review Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Beer for Breakfast

October 3, 2016 by 2 Comments

Beer is the perfect accompaniment to dinner or lunch. But it also goes great with breakfast! Especially when the beers themselves taste like some of our favorite breakfast treats.

The Beer for Breakfast special event on September 25th brought together beer and food pairing in a meal many not think to pair with beer. With two seatings available at 9AM and then 11AM at Great Notion Brewing, the event offered for $50 a grand 3 courses with literally a dozen beers – 4 beers with each course!
Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016 with 3 courses (omnivore or vegan) along with 12 beers with beers from GNB as well as guest breweries

Great Notion is not usually open for brunch, though I hope they might consider doing so after tasting how great these dishes were and how well they paired with beer. I also greatly appreciated that there was an omnivore option as well as a vegan option, which allows the meatless eaters out there to also be able to enjoy the deliciousness.

Course 1

Parfait (either dairy or vegan yogurt) with marionberry and ginger compote and pulverized hazelnut brittle and Random Order blueberry muffin or a vegan blueberry fig bar.
Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 1 Parfait (either dairy or vegan yogurt) with marionberry and ginger compote and pulverized hazelnut brittle and Random Order blueberry muffin or a vegan blueberry fig bar. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Barrel Aged Apricot Mimosa, Reverend Nat's Tepache with Prosecco, Culmination/Ruse Breakfast in Paradise Imperial Wit with Pineapple, Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Pancakes Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 1 Parfait (either dairy or vegan yogurt) with marionberry and ginger compote and pulverized hazelnut brittle and Random Order blueberry muffin or a vegan blueberry fig bar. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Barrel Aged Apricot Mimosa, Reverend Nat's Tepache with Prosecco, Culmination/Ruse Breakfast in Paradise Imperial Wit with Pineapple, Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Pancakes Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 1 Parfait (either dairy or vegan yogurt) with marionberry and ginger compote and pulverized hazelnut brittle and Random Order blueberry muffin or a vegan blueberry fig bar. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Barrel Aged Apricot Mimosa, Reverend Nat's Tepache with Prosecco, Culmination/Ruse Breakfast in Paradise Imperial Wit with Pineapple, Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Pancakes

Beer Pairings

  • Great Notion Brewing Barrel Aged Apricot Mimosa
  • Reverend Nat’s Tepache with Prosecco
  • Culmination/Ruse Breakfast in Paradise, an Imperial Wit with Pineapple
  • Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Pancakes

By itself, I liked the hint of spicy of the Tepache with Prosecco with its effervescence. But, it seemed a bit much with the yogurt unless you made sure you got a spoonful of the ginger with your bite. The Blueberry Pancakes, the stout of these four, went best with the blueberry muffin, no surprise there not only for its hint of blueberry but because it’s stronger sweet maple syrup could then be balanced by the crumb of muffin.

Meanwhile I liked how the Imperial Wit with Pineapple highlighted the berry and the yogurt with its fruit and bit of funkiness in the flavors of the beer. I’ve always like the Tepache, but since it’s not a beer even though I adore it it won’t make my list of best beers of the brunch, though it is a fantastic mixer for many a beer.

Of all four beers, my favorite of them all in this pairing since it went with everything was the Barred Aged Apricot Mimosa that was tart and refreshing with a fruitiness that went well both with marionberry and with blueberry. This beer also makes the top 2 faves of the whole meal.

Course 2

Oatmeal Brulee with grilled peaches, caramelized brown sugar, Double Stack Stout reduction and either housemade sausage or vegan sausage
Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 2 Oatmeal Brulee with grilled peaches, caramelized brown sugar, Double Stack Stout reduction and either housemade sausage or vegan sausage. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Bellini, Double Mountain Lyle Rider Bloody Mary Red Ale, Scout Beer Porridge Oatmeal Pale with Vanilla and Raisin, and Great Notion Brewing Double Stack Imperial Breakfast Stout Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 2 Oatmeal Brulee with grilled peaches, caramelized brown sugar, Double Stack Stout reduction and either housemade sausage or vegan sausage. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Bellini, Double Mountain Lyle Rider Bloody Mary Red Ale, Scout Beer Porridge Oatmeal Pale with Vanilla and Raisin, and Great Notion Brewing Double Stack Imperial Breakfast Stout

Beer Pairings

  • Great Notion Brewing Bellini
  • Double Mountain Lyle Rider Bloody Mary Red Ale
  • Scout Beer Porridge Oatmeal Pale with Vanilla and Raisin
  • Great Notion Brewing Double Stack Imperial Breakfast Stout

My #1 favorite beer of the entire Beer for Breakfast event is definitely the Double Mountain Lyle Rider Bloody Mary Red Ale which perfectly mimicked a bloody mary. I found the Bellini to carry peach flavors well, but also had a slightly harsh finish as if it was a Bellini made with a cheap prosecco? Ha ha I still finished it though. The Oatmeal Pale had a great texture, but I was hoping for more vanilla and raisin then I got than just porridge.

The best pairing of the four was the Double Stack Imperial Breakfast stout with its sweet maple and roasty coffee – since the oatmeal has reduced Double Stack reduction the fact these two were complimentary – with the reduction being sweeter and thinner so you could detect more body and coffee (including natural coffee bitterness) in the beer – was intriguing for me.

Course 3

House Empanada stuffed with pepper bacon, sharp cheddar, home fries with scrambled cage free eggs, or alternatively for vegans the empanada was stuffed with marinated tempeh, Daiya cheddar, and home fries with scrambled Ota tofu
Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 3 House Empanada stuffed with pepper bacon, sharp cheddar, home fries with scrambled cage free eggs, or alternatively for vegans the empanada was stuffed with marinated tempeh, Daiya cheddar, and home fries with scrambled Ota tofu. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Muffin Berliner Weiss, Great Notion Brewing Orange Creamsicle, Cellarmaker Coffee and Cigarettes Coffee Porter and Modern Times City of the Dead Barrel Aged Coffee Stout Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 3 House Empanada stuffed with pepper bacon, sharp cheddar, home fries with scrambled cage free eggs, or alternatively for vegans the empanada was stuffed with marinated tempeh, Daiya cheddar, and home fries with scrambled Ota tofu. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Muffin Berliner Weiss, Great Notion Brewing Orange Creamsicle, Cellarmaker Coffee and Cigarettes Coffee Porter and Modern Times City of the Dead Barrel Aged Coffee Stout Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016: Course 3 House Empanada stuffed with pepper bacon, sharp cheddar, home fries with scrambled cage free eggs, or alternatively for vegans the empanada was stuffed with marinated tempeh, Daiya cheddar, and home fries with scrambled Ota tofu. Beer Pairings of Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Muffin Berliner Weiss, Great Notion Brewing Orange Creamsicle, Cellarmaker Coffee and Cigarettes Coffee Porter and Modern Times City of the Dead Barrel Aged Coffee Stout

Beer Pairings

  • Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Muffin Berliner Weiss
  • Great Notion Brewing Orange Creamsicle
  • Cellarmaker Coffee and Cigarettes Coffee Porter
  • Modern Times City of the Dead Barrel Aged Coffee Stout

The Orange Creamsicle here boasts strong orange flavor, but a hint of bitterness like from the rind ratehr then vanilla creaminess like I was expecting – still an enjoyable beer, but I was mislead by the name of the beer.

The Barrel Aged Coffee Stout had the most coffee of all the coffee beers this day, but it does have the extra advantage of using barrel aged coffee beans and that extra depth from bourbon. Of all the coffee beers though I still preferred of all of them the Coffee and Cigarettes Coffee Porter because I liked the strong smokiness and I thought the mouthfeel was so smooth with a nice body.

I was surprised to see the Blueberry Muffin here as really does taste like a muffin, but with extra tartness from the Berliner Weiss – perhaps juxtaposing it with the actual blueberry muffin in Course 1 was too on the nose. I really like the beer – but was a little confused on how it went with eggs or an empanada. I might have swapped the Tepache with Prosecco of course 1 with this one.

Beer for Breakfast at Great Notion Brewing on September 25, 2016 with 3 courses (omnivore or vegan) along with 12 beers with beers from GNB as well as guest breweries

Overall, a fantastic event. One thing I wish had been clear is that although the ticket purchase via Mercury Tickets had described the price as all inclusive, we were asked at the end to drop some cash tip to show appreciation for the staff – fine to ask for, but wish we had known before hand so we could have been better prepared.

The other wish is that it would have been nice to hear a little extra about the beer or the food on why they were chosen or why the particular food preparation based on the beer. On one hand it is nice to taste everything on your own to see what you experience without being told what to look for, but on the other hand it can be educational since some might have finer palates to hear on what they might pick up on.

Ok, maybe one more wish. I wish this event, or the ability to at least have Great Notion Brunch, would be available again, not just this one event – maybe even if it’s just the last Sunday of a month, or quarterly, I would so love to experience this again and not have to wait a year. Particularly many of the GNB beers as you saw from this list are so perfect for a brunch pairing!

Signature

Filed Under: Beer Review, Festival Event, Food and Drink, Portland Highlights Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Imperial Session Beer Dinner Pop Up Series

September 6, 2016 by 3 Comments

A new pop up is starting up in Portland this time focused on food with another PDX famous love, beer! Advanced Cicerone Ryan Spencer (you may have seen him at Bailey’s Taproom) and Chef Spencer Watari (Clyde Common, Pok Pok) are collaborating together under the name Imperial Session to launch a quarterly dinner series focused on beer and food pairing. The first Imperial Session Beer Dinner will be a five course dinner with pairings for each course on Sunday September 18th at Shift Drinks’ Makeshift Room (former home of Nomad PDX). The dinner seating starts at 7 PM with reservations via tickets available now on EventBrite, with a suggested cash donation of $55 paid at the end of the meal.
Imperial Session Beer Dinner Series, this pop up offers guests the ability to experience a wide range of beer and food interactions without boundaries of a single brewery or single restaurant

Ryan and Spencer are working together to break down the biases and commitments of a typical beer dinner, with the goal of offering guests the ability to experience a wide range of beer and food interactions without boundaries. For instance, usually beer dinner events feature a single restaurant working with a single brewery.

“The problems we found with these dinners were that they all felt more promotional than genuine. Brewer’s wanted to showcase their flagship beers and restaurants wanted to promote their establishments. Both parties seemed to be looking out for their own best interests with little collaboration taking place. We wanted to create a dining experience where we could pour whatever we wanted and serve food that created the ultimate pairing.” Ryan and Spencer explained.

Imperial Session Beer Dinner Series, this pop up offers guests the ability to experience a wide range of beer and food interactions without boundaries of a single brewery or single restaurant

Meanwhile, Imperial Session has intentionally selected beers that are a little outside of the norm. For instance, for this initial dinner, 2 of the 5 beers are unavailable in Oregon, 2 are vintages which are no longer available, and 1 is a small batch brewery only release.

The dinners are intentionally small in order to have guests easily interact with Ryan and Spencer as well as with other guests and allow for smaller batch sourcing of quality ingredients, including rare beers.

Down the road Imperial Session hopes to feature different local chefs to create unique tasting menus for the dinner series, where Spencer operates as the permanent chef and assists the guest chef in formatting their menu into their constraints while also working with Ryan to create pairings.

They have also discussed the opposite situation where they bring in someone from the beer industry to curate a selection of beers to pair with one of Spencer’s menus. Imperial Session could be a venue and opportunity to work out some creative ideas with people whose formal positions in the food and drink industry don’t currently allow that chance.
Imperial Session Beer Dinner Series, this pop up offers guests the ability to experience a wide range of beer and food interactions without boundaries of a single brewery or single restaurant

Background on Imperial Session

Ryan and Spencer have known each other for the majority of their lives, both having grown up in the Portland Metro area and first meeting in third grade and then attending University of Oregon where they home brewed together. Growing up in The Pacific Northwest, surrounded by a wide range of food and beverage,  they said it seemed pretty natural to both of them to pursue careers in those two fields.

Ryan got his start as a dishwasher position at Hopworks before expanding to jobs at Deschutes, Gigantic, and his current position at Bailey’s Taproom where he also has been getting cicerone certifications (the equivalent of a wine sommelier, it requires various levels of examinations). Meanwhile, after college, Spencer moved around for a bit until he settled at Pok Pok for two years before he transitioned to Clyde Common to continue to develop his skills with a more diverse range of cuisines.

For years they have both talked about going into some type of venture together. The specific idea for joining forces to do beer and food pairing dinners came from attending several “Brewer’s Dinners” throughout Portland when Ryan was studying to take the Master Cicerone exam and trying to gain experience with beer and food pairing. Imperial Session is finally those talks, their history, experience, and their expertise coming together for them.

Menu for Upcoming Beer and Food Pairing Dinner

Here’s a look at the menu for this first Imperial Session beer and food pairing dinner. For this particular menu, a few of the dishes were dishes Spencer was really excited about, they tasted through them, and Ryan tried to find beers that might work. On the other hand, a few of the pairings started with a beer that Ryan felt would be really interesting and food friendly, then they designed a dish around the beer. They hope to impart some of the knowledge they acquired from the beer and food pairing process to guests as part of the dinner.

This is the omnivore menu, a vegetarian version is available by advanced notice at their discretion.

Course One:

Grilled corn, kewpie mayo, togarashi cracklin, and avocado puree
Paired with Trillium Pier (a hopped American Pale Wheat Ale from Massachusetts)

Course Two:

Radish and turnip salad, caramel egg dressing, carbonated citruses
Paired with Breakside Carte Blanche (American Wild Ale with Brett, gin and hops)

Course Three:

Lamb pierogies, mint chimichurri sour cream, peas, spring allium
Paired with De Garde/Heater Allen Doppelbock (Eichenbock, an oak barrel-aged Doppelbock)

Course Four:

Sai oua sausage, fingerling potatoes, charred green onions, mushroom demi-glace
Paired with Holy Mountain The Goat (Saison / Farmhouse style ale from Washington)

Dessert:

TBA
Paired with Block 15 2015 Kriek (Kriek is a cherry sour /wild ale style)

 

Signature

Filed Under: Beer Review, Festival Event, Food and Drink Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Picks for Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016

June 9, 2016 by 5 Comments

I’ll be at the festival on Friday [this post and the top picks list updated Friday 9PM after attending], but going in, here are my recommendations for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016. If you haven’t heard of the Portland Fruit Beer Festival, it is part of Portland Beer Week (as I wrote about earlier this week) and is taking place this year from Friday June 10 – Sunday 12th at the North Park Blocks (entrance on NW Davis between 8th Avenue and Park Avenue). This is a move from the past at Burnside Brewing’s parking lot to a 40% larger space, plus now there is shade! As before, the Portland Fruit Beer Festival is also all ages, though you have to be of legal age to drink beer or cider.
Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016 Poster

    • The hours of the festival are
      • Friday June 10th 11:30 AM – 9 PM
      • Saturday June 11th 11 AM – 9 PM
      • Sunday June 12th 11 AM – 6 PM
    • Cost of the festival are
      • Free admission to non-drinkers.
      • Advanced General Admission $25 for a 12 oz official Portland Fruit Beer Festival cup and 15 drink tickets (those who arrive Friday before 2:30 PM get an additional 3 drink tickets). The cups are plastic glasses.
        Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016 plastic cup Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016 plastic cup
      • At the Door General Admission $25 for a 12 oz official Portland Fruit Beer Festival cup and 12 drink tickets, but it is cash only at the door
      • The sample pours of the fruit beers and the ciders will be 1-3 tickets for a 4 ounce pour. When I was there on Friday, there were 12 beers that were 1 ticket a pour, and most were 2 tickets with a few smaller kegs being 3 tickets.
      • You can purchase additional drink tickets for $1. Cash only.
      • Once you have your wristband and cup, you do not need to pay to re-enter any of the days – you only need to have bring back the cup and drink tickets to drink.
      • In addition, you can purchase 12 ounces of beer via $3 can of Burnside Couch Lager and $4 cans of  Burnside IPA from Burnside Brewing’s Burnside Can Garden inside Festival. Cash only.

"4 Cider Riot taster at the Portland Fruit Beer Festival

My personal picks for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016: note that although some of my samplers are modeled in last year’s festival glass, this year since they are in an outdoor park the 2016 glasses will be plastic similar to the Holiday Ale Fest.

I make my selection based on how appealing the combination of beer and fruit sounds, particularly rewarding uniqueness. When I taste the beer I look for balance but importantly also being able to clearly taste the fruit, and any fruity characteristics that come from hop or yeast doesn’t count it must be the fruit added in the brewing process. So many of the beers in the entire Festival lineup are decent beers I’m sure, but I’m looking for distinguishing fruit as a flavor thread as part of the beer. Here’s my top 10 list of what I look forward to…

  • The Commons: Butterflies Hovering a Saison with pineapple and kaffir lime leaves 5.9% ABV I’m a fan of The Commons farmhouse style beers. With the pineapple it may sound sweet, but was more lime.
  • Culmination Brewing: Sun Rey, a tea Radler brewed with Jasmine Pearl tea soda, lime and raspberries and kettle soured with lacto for a tart and refreshing summer sipper that offers tartness from the raspberries, citrus from the pineapple and lime, and additional depth of tea flavor. I tasted it at the media preview and wanted more! 4% ABV and 5 IBUs.
    Portland Fruit Beer Festival taste of a fruit beer as I pondered my Recommendations for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016
  • Ex Novo Brewing: Cactus Wins the Lottery. Ex Novo felt that cactus deserved its day in the sun – or more honestly, apparently they heard the phrase on some Youtube video and wanted to brew a beer so they could use the meme saying. So this is reverse engineered beer to fit the name of a tart refreshing Berliner Weisse with the fruity punch of prickly pear cactus. They made 30 barrels of this so a few bottles may be found only after the festival at some bottle shops and New Seasons and Whole Foods. ABV 4.2%
    Ex Novo Brewing: Cactus Wins the Lottery. Ex Novo felt that cactus deserved its day in the sun - or more honestly, apparently they heard the phrase on some Youtube video and wanted to brew a beer so they could use the meme saying. So this is reverse engineered beer to fit the name of a tart refreshing Berliner Weisse with the fruity punch of prickly pear cactus.
  • 54-40 Brewing: Cucumber-Honeydew Bright Ale Crafted with nearly 400 lbs of honeydew melon and well over 100 cucumbers! I already love cucumbers as it is as I find them perfectly refreshing, and was really impressed as both the cucumber and honeydew truly comes through on this beer. 5% ABV 12 IBU
  • Fort George: Chasing the Dragon is a light bodied blonde Kettle sour with Dragonfruit, and black currant added post-fermentation. Slight sweetness with a tart finish where you start with a weird fruitness (maybe the dragonfruit) and finish with the black currant flavors. 5.4% ABV
  • Ruse Brewing: Patchwork (Strawberry Basil Tart) pours a pretty pastel pink and this tart ale is kettle soured then conditioned with a touch of basil and a copious amount of local strawberries which really come through in the nose and when you drink it, impressive since strawberry is so much work to get into beer with it’s delicate fruit! 4.8% ABV
  • 10 Barrel Brewing: Plum Spectacular, from Tonya comes a small batch kettle sour made especially for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival. It has a crisp, clean, assertive sourness with plums.  6.4% ABV and 10 IBU
  • 2 Towns Ciderhouse: 2 Thorns is a collaboration cider when 2 Towns Ciderhouse and Portland Thorns FC teamed up to create “Two Thorns”using fresh-pressed Northwest apples, Oregon grown blackberries, raspberries, & rose petals with a special Vinho Verde Portuguese yeast to create a striking floral and berry cider that I found refreshingly tangy. 6.2% ABV
  • Finnriver Farm & Cidery: Black Stave, special edition of Finnriver’s popular flagship Black Currant Cider, farmcrafted with organic Washington Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples, fermented dry, stave aged for depth and then married with an oaked, funky currant ferment for an extra special depth level of flavor. A limited release of the award winning, contemporary dark fruit cider made with wood. 6.5% Abv.
  • Portland Cider Co.: Boysenberry Hop blends Oregon boysenberry with an off-dry cider infused with citrus spice New Zealand hops. This is the first in Portland Cider Co.’s summer hop series limited release ciders and even though it looks very fruit forward like “screw the apples just me boysenberry is the star”, the actual flavors when we tried it were well balanced and not as sweet as it may appear as the hopped cider counter the fruit well.
    Portland Fruit Beer Festival taste of a cider as I pondered Recommendations for the Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016
  • Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider: Spicy Mango Tepache (Pineapple Cider) is not actually a cider using apple at all, but all fermented pineapple, this year returning with a mango twist with the addition of Ghost Peppers and fresh mango juice to definitely make a spicy tepache with a great burn. Traditionally you mix this partially with beer so its’ 2/3 Tepache and 1/3 beer – not sure which would be the perfect beer mixer for this, though several of us at a media tasting also whispered how this would be so perfect at brunch with sparkling wine mixed in. 3.2% ABV

Honorable Mention: Sixpoint: Raspy Sauce (Raspberry Berliner-Weisse w/ Raspberry-Jalapeño syrup) made a special variation of the Sixpoint Lil’ Raspy for this year’s Fruit Beer Fest using Sixpoint Raspberry-Jalapeño syrup. I enjoyed this beer. F and I debated whether it should make the cut because he thought it was a cheat to use the syrup. However, berline-weiss beers are served with syrups, so I think it’s ok that it gets it’s extra raspberry  and spicy kick. 4.3% ABV
Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016 Sixpoint Raspy Sauce beer, a special variation of the Sixpoint Lil’ Raspy for this year’s Fruit Beer Fest using Sixpoint Raspberry-Jalapeño syrup Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016 Sixpoint Raspy Sauce beer, a special variation of the Sixpoint Lil’ Raspy for this year’s Fruit Beer Fest using Sixpoint Raspberry-Jalapeño syrup
On the Rare/Rotating Beers and Ciders list (with small kegs rotating throughout – see the full beer list with the rare beers list here in pdf), I hope I might be lucky enough to be around to taste the Breakside: Bourbon Barrel Aged Sour Rye Beer with Coconut

Food options at the festival will include

  • Hot Lips Pizza will be offering their pizza as well as sodas. Their specialty pizza includes their limited edition PDX Beer Week specials pizza, Beer Bratlips, a pizza with Smoked Carlton Farms bratwurst simmered in Subcontinental IPA with Tillamook extra-sharp cheddar, fresh onions, mozzarella, and a garlic Parmesan base finished with whole grain maple mustard glaze that also has beer in the mustard.
    HOT LIPS Pizza's Beer Bratlips, a pizza with Smoked Carlton Farms bratwurst with Tillamook extra-sharp cheddar, fresh onions, mozzarella, and a garlic parmesan base finished with whole grain maple mustard glaze
  • BUNK Sandwiches bringing their famous Pork Belly Cubano as an option and they usually have a seasonal vegetarian option and a grilled cheese too
    Bunk Sandwiches, Tommy Habetz, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Apple Chutney, Gruyere & Horseradish sandwich
  • Urban German Grill offering bratwurst and pretzels
    North American Organic Brewers Festival, Urban German Grill North American Organic Brewers Festival, Urban German Grill
  • Fifty Licks Ice Cream brings you dessert with ice cream and sorbetsThe best dressed ice cream man I've ever seen... Chad Draizin of Fifty Licks and his ice cream truck

Do you like fruit beers? Do any of the beers I listed intrigue you, and what would be your ideal combo for a fruit beer – what kind of fruit?
4 ounce taster pour at Portland Fruit Beer Festival

Disclosure: I attended a media event to sample some of the Portland Fruit Beer Festival 2016 beers and ciders, but I purchased my own admission/tickets to the festival, and have been attending and highlighting this festival for years! I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

Signature

Filed Under: Food and Drink Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »