Portland Fruit Beer Fest Ready to Rock

Last Friday night's media preview of beers for the upcoming Portland Fruit Beer Festival proved a bit more lively than your typical preview, thanks in large part to some playful comments made by host and event beer curator, Ezra Johnson-Greennough.

While Willamette Week Arts & Culture editor Martin Cizmar looked on, Ezra commented that Willamette Week would soon be switching to a new single page daily format. He later said not to worry about Cizmar, who would be joining Ezra's New School blog as an intern. That drew a laugh from the crowd and a lot of plastic glasses clonked together.

It was all in good fun. Willamette Week is a co-sponsor of the Fruit Beer Fest, along with Maletis Distributing, Burnside Brewing and a couple of others. The event is on tap this weekend at Burnside and will feature more good beers than you can shake a stick (or empty glass) at.

There's no need to blather on about the beer list, which is extensive. If you're into pre-event planning, there's plenty of information on the event website or in my earlier post here. Below is a short list of suggestions based on the 10 or so beers we tasted Friday evening. Here goes:

Deschutes Brewing, Peach Slap 3.2% ABV, 22 IBU
Here you have a mildly tart and highly drinkable beer produced at the brewery here in Portland. You will immediately think you're drinking a derivation of Squirt when this beer hits your tongue. Then comes the mild peppery finish, courtesy of pink peppercorns and habanero peppers. This is a Belgian-style sour ale with peach puree. It's light and the peppers are fairly subtle. Enjoy.

Fort George Brewing, Pi Beer 5% ABV, 3.1415926533...IBU
You get it, right? Some people were thinking the name had something to do with pie. Not quite. Just a clever reference to the genetically engineered IBU rating. Anyway, this is a wheat beer fermented with strawberries and rhubarb in secondary. It's fruity and tart, yet mildly sweet. Great stuff.

Laurelwood Brewing, Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana 4.4% ABV, 14 IBU
I had tasted this beer prior to the event and didn't care for it. (It's known as Citrus Wheat Ale at the Sandy pub). That's hard to explain because it was terrific this time out. There's a bevy of fruit in this beer...orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit. Zest and juice, they say. The low IBU is meaningless. The beer gets its bitterness from the juice and zest. A brilliant effort.

The Commons, Citrus Royale 5.8% ABV, 11 IBU
This is a sour, spelt-based beer. Brewmaster Sean Burke and his helpers added Navel Orange, mandarin, lemon peel and orange and lime juice to spice things up. There was a full keg of this stuff in the cooler and a few of us stuck around after the  event to do some additional research. Not to be missed.

Those aren't the only good beers of those we tried, just my highlights. All are from the standard beer list. A list of rare and rotating beers just came out...nearly 25 beers, including stuff from Breakside, De Garde, Elysian, Oakshire and others. They're posted here. It's probably a moot issue, anyway, since most of these beers will be tapped randomly during the event. Watch for them in the rotating tap areas.

Thoughts
My event advice is simple: If you aren't attending the Friday evening VIP session, arrive early Saturday or Sunday. Gates open at 11 a.m. That will give you the best access to the beers of your choice and you'll avoid long lines at least for a while. It's bound to get busy by mid-afternoon given the expected good weather.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the biggest challenge this event faces is overcrowding. Organizers are working to open up more space this year, which is great. Inevitably, though, they will have to endure the risk and added expense of moving to a larger venue. That's how successful events become even more successful. This event can have an even greater reach.

Portland Fruit Beer Fest, Vol. 4

A lot of press releases float across my computer screen on any given day. Senders usually want free publicity for a product, event or service. Most I view as informational. But some contain info worth passing on to readers. There's no future in doing that, if you're wondering. I'd be better off writing poetry. But never mind.

The upcoming Fruit Beer Festival is an event that deserves mention here. It's happening the weekend of June 6-8 in the parking lot at Burnside Brewing. I have some thoughts on the venue, which I'll get to momentarily. What you need to know, if you don't already, is that this is a pretty good beer event.

This is the Fourth Annual Portland Fruit Beer Festival. The reason it's become a great event is the taplist is first rate. The 50+ beers and ciders they'll serve up will be similar in quality to what you saw at the recent FredFest, if you were lucky enough to attend that shindig. The PFBF list is here. Keep in mind they will have an additional 25 or so mystery kegs and firkins appearing on rotating taps both days. Good stuff.

The festival kicks off with a pre-Fest Pig Roast Dinner at East Burn on Wednesday, June 4. They plan to feature beers from their annual homebrew competition and there will be sneak previews of some festival entries. At $50 a pop, you may want to skip the pig and save your pennies for the actual event. You didn't hear that here. I'm sure it will be a well-attended party.

Honestly, the single worse thing about this event is the venue. It's too small. After the second year, the PFBF probably should have moved to a park or comparable site. Or offered drinking sessions. It was so packed on Saturday last year that it was tough to move around. It took 20 minutes or more to get many beers. Of course, the weather was perfect last year. If it goes sideways, the venue may be just fine this year. June festivals are like that in Oregon.

One of the things they've done this year, essentially an effort to alleviate overcrowding, is offer a Friday night VIP session. Makes sense. The cost is $30 for a glass and 12 tickets, but Friday night attendance is limited to 300...which means access to the beers, including some special tappings, will be more or less assured. If you're interested in the VIP session, do not delay...tickets are sure to go fast. Early birds, ya know.

General Admission and VIP tickets can be had on the event website. General Admission tickets cost $20 for the same glass and ticket count as the VIP version. Be advised a ticket won't get you a taste of every beer on the menu. Some will set you back two tickets or more. Still, the worse thing that can happen is you'll have to contend with lines, particularly if the weather is good.

You need to know that tickets, if bought in advance online, will cost you an extra couple of bucks. That logic mystifies me. Event organizers (across the board, not just here) should be encouraging people to purchase tickets in advance to smooth the flow of traffic at entry points. Charging more online than at the door has exactly the opposite effect. Not the brightest.

Regardless of its issues, this is one of those events where you just have to look the other way and go for it. The beers are that good. Food will be available and you can even bring along to kiddies, if you wish. There's a lot more info on the website. It's sure to be a good time. Trust me.