Rubaiyat of Beer Pt. 2

See part 1 here

And thus enriched, we recline like kings
At our leisure and ope a bottle that brings
Freedom from memory, fear, hope, and love:
A balm to all life's everpresent stings

That path of dalliance leads to death, you say,
It is why Hendrix and Bonham could not stay.
But what of Russell and Hayes--
What, pray, called these men away?

Whether in Lawrence or Golden,
Whether I am flush or beholden,
Let every glass be full and let us drink,
And laugh--or cry--as in days of olden.

See part 3 here

Beer City Portland

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting one of the great beer cities in the country, Portland. With several great craft breweries in the region, great hop-growing regions in the surrounding area, and a population thirsty for great beer, Portland has very high cred in beer circles. So, needless to say I I was looking forward to this visit for the opportunity to sample some great beers that weren't available in my region.

But this was a family vacation, so though my wife was very accommodating in terms of where we ate and letting me go out to get beer, I couldn't make the entire trip about beer (and books--yay Powell's). Still, I did have an opportunity to get a sampling of what makes Portland a great beer city.

I visited two different breweries in Portland, Bridgeport and Deschutes' Portland mini brewpub. As far as the atmosphere and food, I'd have to give the advantage to Deschutes. It was just a really friendly place to sit down and eat a great burger, followed up with an ice cream sandwich featuring their Black Butte Porter. Bridgeport's dining area seemed like it was just a bunch of chairs & tables crowded into a big empty room. I had a very unusual brat plate at Bridgeport, which combined the beer-flavored brats with cooked cabbage, cheese & spaetzle, and apple chutney. Actually really pretty good, but a bit too rich and subtle for combining with beers.

I had two beers at each place. At Deschutes I had the Bond Street Bachelor's Bitter, because it was labeled a "local favorite" that wasn't generally available at my liquor store. This was an okay ESB, but not anything too special. I then followed it up with the Inverted Pale, a combination of the hop profile of their Inversion IPA with their Mirror Pond Pale Ale. This seems like a noble experiment, and a great idea for a pub exclusive, but not altogether a success to me. To me, the Mirror Pond malts kind of blurred and muddled the clear, fresh hoppiness I like about the Inversion IPA.

At Bridgeport, I had the Highland Ambush because it was a seasonal and a Scottish ale, which can be very tasty (for example Claymore and Naughty Scot). This one was kind of in the middle of the style. More successful was their Kingpin. A very pretty color, pretty good fragrance and fairly tasty. I'd drink it again.

But what really makes Portland a great city for beer drinkers is the easy access to high quality beers. Because their liquor laws are different, grocery stores and convenience stores can stock full-strength beers and they take full advantage of this by representing a surprising diversity of local and regional beers. The corner convenience store had dozens of bombers in addition to a full selection of craft beer six packs. And Safeway puts its beers in an endcap cooler right inside the door. We just walked by it, but at a rough glance, I'd say they had at least 50 different bombers on sale. At Safeway!

So, overall, I've got to say that I'm impressed with Portland's credentials as a leading beer city.

Patty's Chile Beer

My first chile beer. Not a big fan.

Home Brew #3

For this batch, Graham was trying to imitate Avery's Old Jubilation Ale. This experiment didn't work out as well as the black ale, but still a very good selection.

IPA

This is another decent IPA, drinkable, but not especially noteworthy.

Purple Haze

This is the first beer I've had from Louisiana. Not terribly impressed. A wheat lager with raspberry puree added late in the process. This ought to give it a good fresh flavor, but it all kind of muddles together. Not a great fruit beer.

Rocky Mountain IPA

This is an okay IPA. I believe I saw it on somebody's best CO beers list, but I wouldn't say it's that, exactly.

Asahi Super Dry

This beer was probably named to get the rhyme for English drinkers. The beer itself is pretty lame. Not recommended, and makes the record for rice beers 0-2.

Cinco De Mayo

Del Norte is a local brewery that seems to specialize in Mexican-style beers. The dark lager Mañana was about the tastiest example of the style I'd had, so I was looking forward to this mainline Mexican lager. This one was just okay.

10-Pin Porter

A decent porter.

Obsidian Stout

This is a pretty good stout. Not a standout, but if you have this as an option, you won't be disappointed if you like stouts.

Brown Shugga

They say this beer came out of a failed batch of barleywine. I don't think they did an especially good job of saving it, though.