After agitating for an early release from the cloudy skies of the Oregon Coast, we headed home with (what we thought) was plenty of time to still get to the inaugural Fruit Beer Fest at Burnside Brewing. Well, despite the fact that the fest was all ages, we didn't quite feel like pulling two people under 12 with us... So they went on an excursion with Grandpa, and we headed down to 7th and Burnside sans kidlets.
Well organized, busy but not crowded, reasonably priced... We grabbed our glasses and tickets and set out to try some beer. Immediately on queuing up to the Marionberry Berliner-Weisse line, I spotted our pal Jesse from The Guild Pub, pouring the Fruli Strawberry. What an unexpected and delightful surprise! The next hour was a whirlwind of tasting (I ended up with 11 distinct tries) and I have to say, there were a few great beers in amongst the varied cast. In the interest of expediency, I shall list the Good, the Bad, and the Awesome. Please note: I am not a beer expert. I call it like I taste it.
The Good:
Laurelwood Mango Mint Pale Ale - a light beer, refreshing hint of mint at the nose and a soft touch of mango and mint within. Nicely balanced...
Lindemans Framboise Lambic - Standard; as always, like drinking a raspberry pop...
Cascade Raspberry Weisse - fresh and clean, crisp but with less berry than I would have expected...
Burnside Marionberry Berliner Weiss - fresh and clean, would have been good with a hint of lemon to brighten the top notes up.
Upright Gin Barrel Strawberry -I would have liked a touch more strawberry from this one, but it was clean and read nicely from the gin (and I hate gin). Plus, Alex is one of the most laid back brewers I've met... Super nice guy, and very mellow. So in general I root for his beers.
The Bad:
Eel River Acai - sad, this one. It tasted of watered down Runts-candy water.
Oakshire Blind Date - oh, boys of Oakshire, you know I love you, and I wanted *so badly* to love this beer... But I couldn't. It was not enough date (even some figgy flavours would have been nice) and too much dirt & weed. Yes, weed. I had high hopes for this one. I know that a lot of people really liked this one, so I was sad not to be one of them. It just didn't sit right for me.
Burnside Sweet Heat - this was terrible. Again, I had such high hopes - I really wanted the apricot to shine through with just a hint of heat, but the heat was pointless to me without the foil of a firmer read on the sweet, and the apricot read as butter (and not the good kind, more like pediococcus/diacetyl...)
The Awesome:
Block 15 La Ferme du Demons Black Farmhouse Ale - This was insanely complex. Oy. Coconut, bourbon, cherry, oak... ohhhh. Really great but at 8.75ABV not one I could kick back much of...
Widmer 2009 Cherry Oak Doppelbock - This was delicious. Oak, cherry, molasses, tobacco flavors... reminds me of an Eisbock with the tremendous up front maltiness...
Van Deist Fruli Strawberry - like Strawberry Pie. But beer. All the best things you'd ever want from a fruit beer without it being weird or cloyingly sweet. Just summer in a glass.
I'm sad that I didn't get to try the Dogfish Head Festina Peche (which I see from my Twitterfeed is now at Beaumont Market, woot!), or the Fort George Cherry Stout... I would have also liked to try the Hopworks Red Delicious Belgian Applebiere. But I'll keep my eyes peeled for those.
After the whirlwind festival hour, we went to dinner, where DH had a Victory Prima Pils and I had the Southern Oregon Pinup Porter... Also both good.
Next up on the beer adventure list is the North American Organic Brewers Festival. I'll keep you posted. :)
Showing posts with label fruit beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fruit beer. Show all posts
6.16.2011
Portland Fruit Beer Fest: The recap...
After agitating for an early release from the cloudy skies of the Oregon Coast, we headed home with (what we thought) was plenty of time to still get to the inaugural Fruit Beer Fest at Burnside Brewing. Well, despite the fact that the fest was all ages, we didn't quite feel like pulling two people under 12 with us... So they went on an excursion with Grandpa, and we headed down to 7th and Burnside sans kidlets.
Well organized, busy but not crowded, reasonably priced... We grabbed our glasses and tickets and set out to try some beer. Immediately on queuing up to the Marionberry Berliner-Weisse line, I spotted our pal Jesse from The Guild Pub, pouring the Fruli Strawberry. What an unexpected and delightful surprise! The next hour was a whirlwind of tasting (I ended up with 11 distinct tries) and I have to say, there were a few great beers in amongst the varied cast. In the interest of expediency, I shall list the Good, the Bad, and the Awesome. Please note: I am not a beer expert. I call it like I taste it.
The Good:
Laurelwood Mango Mint Pale Ale - a light beer, refreshing hint of mint at the nose and a soft touch of mango and mint within. Nicely balanced...
Lindemans Framboise Lambic - Standard; as always, like drinking a raspberry pop...
Cascade Raspberry Weisse - fresh and clean, crisp but with less berry than I would have expected...
Burnside Marionberry Berliner Weiss - fresh and clean, would have been good with a hint of lemon to brighten the top notes up.
Upright Gin Barrel Strawberry -I would have liked a touch more strawberry from this one, but it was clean and read nicely from the gin (and I hate gin). Plus, Alex is one of the most laid back brewers I've met... Super nice guy, and very mellow. So in general I root for his beers.
The Bad:
Eel River Acai - sad, this one. It tasted of watered down Runts-candy water.
Oakshire Blind Date - oh, boys of Oakshire, you know I love you, and I wanted *so badly* to love this beer... But I couldn't. It was not enough date (even some figgy flavours would have been nice) and too much dirt & weed. Yes, weed. I had high hopes for this one. I know that a lot of people really liked this one, so I was sad not to be one of them. It just didn't sit right for me.
Burnside Sweet Heat - this was terrible. Again, I had such high hopes - I really wanted the apricot to shine through with just a hint of heat, but the heat was pointless to me without the foil of a firmer read on the sweet, and the apricot read as butter (and not the good kind, more like pediococcus/diacetyl...)
The Awesome:
Block 15 La Ferme du Demons Black Farmhouse Ale - This was insanely complex. Oy. Coconut, bourbon, cherry, oak... ohhhh. Really great but at 8.75ABV not one I could kick back much of...
Widmer 2009 Cherry Oak Doppelbock - This was delicious. Oak, cherry, molasses, tobacco flavors... reminds me of an Eisbock with the tremendous up front maltiness...
Van Deist Fruli Strawberry - like Strawberry Pie. But beer. All the best things you'd ever want from a fruit beer without it being weird or cloyingly sweet. Just summer in a glass.
I'm sad that I didn't get to try the Dogfish Head Festina Peche (which I see from my Twitterfeed is now at Beaumont Market, woot!), or the Fort George Cherry Stout... I would have also liked to try the Hopworks Red Delicious Belgian Applebiere. But I'll keep my eyes peeled for those.
After the whirlwind festival hour, we went to dinner, where DH had a Victory Prima Pils and I had the Southern Oregon Pinup Porter... Also both good.
Next up on the beer adventure list is the North American Organic Brewers Festival. I'll keep you posted. :)
Well organized, busy but not crowded, reasonably priced... We grabbed our glasses and tickets and set out to try some beer. Immediately on queuing up to the Marionberry Berliner-Weisse line, I spotted our pal Jesse from The Guild Pub, pouring the Fruli Strawberry. What an unexpected and delightful surprise! The next hour was a whirlwind of tasting (I ended up with 11 distinct tries) and I have to say, there were a few great beers in amongst the varied cast. In the interest of expediency, I shall list the Good, the Bad, and the Awesome. Please note: I am not a beer expert. I call it like I taste it.
The Good:
Laurelwood Mango Mint Pale Ale - a light beer, refreshing hint of mint at the nose and a soft touch of mango and mint within. Nicely balanced...
Lindemans Framboise Lambic - Standard; as always, like drinking a raspberry pop...
Cascade Raspberry Weisse - fresh and clean, crisp but with less berry than I would have expected...
Burnside Marionberry Berliner Weiss - fresh and clean, would have been good with a hint of lemon to brighten the top notes up.
Upright Gin Barrel Strawberry -I would have liked a touch more strawberry from this one, but it was clean and read nicely from the gin (and I hate gin). Plus, Alex is one of the most laid back brewers I've met... Super nice guy, and very mellow. So in general I root for his beers.
The Bad:
Eel River Acai - sad, this one. It tasted of watered down Runts-candy water.
Oakshire Blind Date - oh, boys of Oakshire, you know I love you, and I wanted *so badly* to love this beer... But I couldn't. It was not enough date (even some figgy flavours would have been nice) and too much dirt & weed. Yes, weed. I had high hopes for this one. I know that a lot of people really liked this one, so I was sad not to be one of them. It just didn't sit right for me.
Burnside Sweet Heat - this was terrible. Again, I had such high hopes - I really wanted the apricot to shine through with just a hint of heat, but the heat was pointless to me without the foil of a firmer read on the sweet, and the apricot read as butter (and not the good kind, more like pediococcus/diacetyl...)
The Awesome:
Block 15 La Ferme du Demons Black Farmhouse Ale - This was insanely complex. Oy. Coconut, bourbon, cherry, oak... ohhhh. Really great but at 8.75ABV not one I could kick back much of...
Widmer 2009 Cherry Oak Doppelbock - This was delicious. Oak, cherry, molasses, tobacco flavors... reminds me of an Eisbock with the tremendous up front maltiness...
Van Deist Fruli Strawberry - like Strawberry Pie. But beer. All the best things you'd ever want from a fruit beer without it being weird or cloyingly sweet. Just summer in a glass.
I'm sad that I didn't get to try the Dogfish Head Festina Peche (which I see from my Twitterfeed is now at Beaumont Market, woot!), or the Fort George Cherry Stout... I would have also liked to try the Hopworks Red Delicious Belgian Applebiere. But I'll keep my eyes peeled for those.
After the whirlwind festival hour, we went to dinner, where DH had a Victory Prima Pils and I had the Southern Oregon Pinup Porter... Also both good.
Next up on the beer adventure list is the North American Organic Brewers Festival. I'll keep you posted. :)
6.01.2011
Rhubarb Beer
I've had a couple of requests for the rhubarb beer that Chris and I worked on last year - in general, for a 5 gallon batch, this is what we did:
For the rhubarb beer, here are some general guidelines. You can plug them into hopville and see what you come up with to hit the IBU/SRM you want!
When you're done calculating your recipe, that will give you a firm guideline when you're ready to prime and bottle. We overprimed and got some super carbonated (lucky it didn't bomb!) with corn sugar. :)
If you use this recipe, please let me know how it went for you and what you changed!
For the rhubarb beer, here are some general guidelines. You can plug them into hopville and see what you come up with to hit the IBU/SRM you want!
5.5 lbs German Pils
4 lbs malt wheat
0.5 lbs unmalted wheat
5 gal batch
mash at 151 - 153F
knock out at 173F
boil 75 min (incl knock out)
0.5 oz crushed coriander seed and 1/8 oz fresh grated ginger into Melita natural tea bags, stapled and added to boil at 75 min
hops = Santiam 1 oz at 75 min boil
Santiam 0.5 oz at 10 min boil
Wyeast 3942 "Belgian Wheat"
took 4.5 lbs fresh rhubarb, chopped stalks into 1" sections
Added 1# sugar (white granulated ) and set to simmer for appx 1 hr.
Strained cooked rhubarb, then pressed/squeezed pulp in cheesecloth
yield appx 6C/1.5qt rhubarb syrup
(refrigerated overnight)
Pasteurized (simmer/160 for appx 30 min) then force cooled
Added 5 cups [left out 1C of most pulpy] to 5.5G fermenting wit [wyeast 3942/belg wheat]
Repasteurized rhubarb syrup
Added rhubarb syrup to batch: 5C by volume
This is for the rhubarb that we used. Ours was 5C of rhubarb syrup - but it was a very light touch. I think you can go so far as to even double it and end up with a nice flavour!
When you're done calculating your recipe, that will give you a firm guideline when you're ready to prime and bottle. We overprimed and got some super carbonated (lucky it didn't bomb!) with corn sugar. :)
If you use this recipe, please let me know how it went for you and what you changed!
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