The OBF at 27: Evolving with the Times

It's pretty much an accepted fact that the Oregon Brewers Festival is the crown jewel of Oregon Craft Beer Month and the granddaddy of all Oregon beer festivals. Yet I am beginning to wonder if the OBF and other events held during the wacky outdoor season aren't losing some of their luster in the face of relentless competition.

When the post-event press materials for the 2014 OBF arrive, they will almost certainly document a drop in attendance (announced attendance last year was 85,000). Numbers were down Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday seemed much less crowded than usual. I doubt they made those losses up on the weekend. Less than perfect weather the first two days was obviously an issue, but not the only one.

Here's the thing: This event was once a novelty. You could go to Waterfront Park and, in one place, taste beers you might not find anywhere in town. Even if you could find them, you wouldn't be drinking them in a festive, outdoor space. I vividly remember my first OBF, walking the grounds and marveling at the beer and the venue.

That experience is no longer a novelty here. On any given summer day in Portland, you can choose from numerous establishments that offer a multitude of unique beers on tap and outdoor seating to boot. And no lines. I don't think it's a stretch to say a growing number of people have discovered that these places offer a plausible alternative to the OBF and other summer festivals.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not grinding on the OBF, which remains a great event. In fact, one can easily argue its success is in many ways responsible for the excellent watering holes around Portland. The OBF and spin-offs of its ilk helped spread the gospel of craft beer. The result is the vibrant beer scene we have.

The reality of escalating competition is not lost on OBF organizers. Moving to a glass tasting vessel last year was part of giving festival goers a better experience (the glass will be gone next year, replaced by a Lexan cup to satisfy the city, I'm told). Adding days to spread the crowd came out of the same thinking. This year's addition of Dutch brewers gave the event an international flavor for the first time. And so on.

Given what's happening in the background, expect organizers to seek additional ways to reinvent the event in coming years. What that means is uncertain, but the tried and true formula used for 27 years will have to evolve to keep the event as relevant as it has been. Spectacular growth is creating interesting challenges in craft beer. There are worse problems to have.

An Historic Day at the Oregon Brewers Festival

Yesterday's cool, damp opening day at the Oregon Brewers Festival was historic. Never before in the event's history has the weather refused to cooperate on this level. We've seen clouds and cool, for sure, but never steady rain and intermittent downpours. This isn't likely to happen again anytime soon, which makes yesterday historic.

The rain and cool temps didn't seem to spoil the mood. However, it was quite odd seeing an OBF crowd dressed in jackets and jeans, sporting umbrellas, and hiding out under the tents to stay dry. Everything is usually geared toward staying cool here. Not yesterday.

Festival director Art Larrance kicked things off with his standard talk and intros. He honored the contributions of the late Jack Joyce, co-founder of Rogue Brewing. Jack was to have been the grand marshal of the festival, leading the parade and tapping the ceremonial first keg. Jack's son, Brett, and Rogue head brewer, John Maier, stood in for their departed leader.

Larrance moved on, asking the crowd to pause momentarily to remember Vic Atiyeh, who, as governor, signed Oregon's Brewpub Bill into law in 1985, as well as victims of the recent airline tragedy in the Ukraine. He also introduced the visiting Dutch brewers and talked about the emerging relationship between Portland and Utrecht. Nicely done.

Getting around the festival grounds was a bit more challenging than usual due to the mud and umbrella count. Last year's switch to a smaller tent on the south side, designed to open up the area between the tent and beer taps, resulted in a wide swath of largely unoccupied ground as people sought shelter from the liquid sunshine.

It looks like the weather is returning to normal heading into the weekend, and I suspect the mess created by Wednesday's rain will be a forgotten, dried up detail by Friday. That's good news for everyone.

The beers
Like every other beer geek at the festival, I had a list of beers I hoped to try...and I got around to tasting most of them. One of the really dumb things about recommending beers is that most who do have not tasted everything these is to taste. I tasted maybe 20 beers, leaving 68 on the table. That's the say nothing of the Specialty Tent, where I tasted a single beer, which was excellent.

For hopheads, there's Ballast Point's Sculpin IPA, which is well-known around these parts. More adventurous folks are going to want to sample Heathen's Megadank, a juicy hop bomb that packs 120 IBU (without being all that bitter) and 8.2% ABV. Heathen's Rodney Stryker told me the ABV is closer to 9.0, which sounds right. Another not-to-be missed beer in the style is Central City Brewing's Red Betty. Central City, located in Surrey, B.C., puts Red Betty in the Imperial IPA category, but it's really an imperial red, I think. Malty and hoppy at the same time, and nicely balanced along the way. There's also Payette Brewing's Blood Orange IPA, which seemed to strike a nice balance between hoppy and tart.

In the "everything else" category, there are a lot of fruit beers in various styles. From that list, I enjoyed Elysian's Perfesser, a Belgian Blonde Ale fermented with plums and Brett. It features aromas and flavors of plums, figs and raisins in a medium body and is delicately tart. Logsdon's Straffe Drieling, a Belgian-style Tripel flavored with Hallertau hops and blended with organic pear juice during secondary fermentation, is excellent.

I really wanted to like Paradise Creek Brewing's Huckleberry Pucker, a flavored Berliner-Weisse. But I found the huckleberry presence overwhelming and out of balance. Others liked it, so be my guest and give it a try. If you're wondering why I wanted to like the Paradise Creek entry, it's because the brewery is located in Pullman, Wash., home of my Alma mater, Washington State University. Go Cougs!

Bottom Line
As I was sitting down to write this, I figured the weather would be improving. Then I took the Labs out for their morning run and experienced light rain. It may turn out that the shift to warmer weather is slower than predicted. We may be looking at a mushy day today followed by three warm and dry days.

If that's the way it turns out, it's going to be a busy weekend at the festival. Friday and Saturday are historically the most crowded days and the wacky weather yesterday and today will likely magnify that tendency. My advice? Get to the park early and get your fill of beers on the south side as quickly as you can. Then move to the north side, which always tends to be less populated. There are plenty of good beers on both ends, to say nothing of the Specialty Tent.

I'll be back at the festival on Friday and Saturday, and will be signing copies of my book on Portland's beer history near the south tent. Naturally, I'll be doing some additional beer sampling, as well, just to stay limber. Stop by and say hello if you're passing by.

Happy festing!

Oregon's Biggest Craft Beer Party Returns

Next week's renewal of the Oregon Brewers Festival is arguably the highlight of beer year here. The beer scene has spawned a flood of smaller events through the year, but the OBF is the oldest and biggest. Most of those other events wouldn't even exist without the blueprint of the OBF.

So I'm always somewhat amused when I hear some of my beer geek friends beating on the OBF. Gripes take many forms. Some don't like the crowds or the atmosphere. Others aren't impressed with the beer list. Still others think the event has become too commercialized.

Look, I've been happy to complain about some of the shortcomings at the OBF. I wish they could do something about the lines. I questioned the move to a 3 oz taste last year. I frankly don't like the frat-like drinking atmosphere that descends Friday and Saturday night. I digress.

As with any large event, you have to take the good with the bad. Things are always going to be crazy when you get a lot of people together. Add excessive beer drinking and you've got a recipe for potential chaos. But I've had far more good times than bad ones at the OBF over the years.

The first OBF was held 26 years ago this month, July 1988. That makes this year's event the 27th actual festival. We've come a long way in the intervening years. As the inaugural poster below shows, that first OBF was a two-day affair. Later, they added a third day, which prompted a lot of Friday afternoons off around town. Then they went to four days, prompting full days off. Last year they added Wednesday in an effort to spread the crowds out over more days.

It isn't mentioned very often, but there has also been an evolutionary shift in what the OBF is all about. During the early years, it was mostly a chance for craft brewers to show off beers that differed from macro sludge. Today, the event is much more about beers that are unique or special even within craft beer. Many of the beers poured are brewed for the event.

Want a great example? Last year, Heathen Brewing brewed Transgression IPA specifically for the OBF. This beer requires a special dry-hopping treatment. The effort paid off in a big way, as the beer was a huge hit and won the people's choice award. It also put Heathen, which operates out of a residential garage in Vancouver, on the map. That's the power of the OBF.

There's also the economic impact. In the early years, the OBF was a far more modest affair than it is today. Announced attendance last year was 85,000. The financial benefit to the local economy is enormous, estimated at $31 million by a group that surveys attendees and analyzes the collected data. This is to say nothing of the countless spin-off festivals and events that boost Portland's bottom line.

If you need one more indicator of how popular and mainstream the OBF has become, look no further than the annual Get My Perks promotion. The special offer went live the other morning and they sold the 300 available packages in less than 10 minutes. That's a package every two seconds. Ye gods!

OBF 2014
Organizers will pour 88 beers in 30 styles from the taps near the main tents. Don't get too caught up in the style guidelines. As in recent years, there are a lot of IPAs. But fruit beers have a solid presence and some of the IPAs actually double as fruit beers. There's something for everyone. You can review the beer list here and create your own pre-fest cheat sheet.

It's worth mentioning that the Buzz Tent, which features rare and often barrel-aged beers, returns after taking last year off. They're now calling it the Specialty Tent. Expect to find some great, albeit costly beers in there. They plan to roll through more than 100 specialty beers during the course of the event. This is where you'll find the beer geek crowd.

An added attraction will be some brewers visiting from Utrecht in the Netherlands, which has a Friendship City relationship with Portland. OBF co-founder Art Larrance traveled there last year and discovered a thriving craft beer scene that reminded him of the Northwest in the 1980s. He invited a group of brewers over and several Dutch beers will be poured in the Specialty Tent. There will also be daily meet the brewer sessions. It's all part of giving the OBF more of an international flavor.

Last year's switch from the traditional plastic mug to a glass was well-received and continues. The glass is a far better tasting vessel and, coincidentally, helped obscure last year's other big change...the advent of the 3 oz pour. Three ounces in the old plastic mug would have raised some eyebrows. Three ounces in the bottom of a nicely tapered glass didn't cause much concern. Smart move.

It's the same old story with tokens and glasses. The glass will set you back $7 and tokens are $1. There are a few places selling glasses and tokens in advance: Belmont Station, Cascade Barrel House, the Raccoon Lodge, Deschutes in the Pearl, the Green Dragon and Rogue Public House. You won't save any money, but you may save time in line at the festival.

Even if some of my beer geek friends aren't especially keen on the OBF, I still think of it as the marquee craft beer event of the summer and year. There isn't a single event on the calendar that has close to the influence of the OBF. I look forward to it every year. If you're keeping track, I'll be attending Wednesday and will post findings and favorites on Thursday or Friday.

See you under the tents.