Craft Beer's Infected New World

Charles Coury was Oregon's first craft brewer. Most who stop by here know the name. Coury launched Cartwright Brewing in 1980, anticipating the coming revolution in beer. But his brewery lasted less than two years. It might be a different story today, for reasons I'll get to.

It's tough for modern beer fans to appreciate what Cartwright was up against. Brewpubs weren't legal in Oregon until 1985. So Coury couldn't sell his beer directly to customers. Instead, he sold to taverns, bars, restaurants and a few stores. It's hard to fathom.

Of the craft breweries that opened prior to brewpubs being legalized (Cartwright, Bridgeport and Widmer), only Cartwright opted to sell bottled beer. Coury evidently believed packaged beer would be the key to his success. But it didn't work out that way.

If you aren't aware, Coury was a winemaker who got interested in brewing. His brewery in Southeast Portland was quite primitive and, having come from wine, so was his attention to sanitation. He didn't have a heat exchanger, which meant boiled wort was cooled and fermented in open containers. Not good.

There's no mystery as to why Cartwright failed: The beer was often infected and not good. It was difficult to build much of a following when people consuming the beer wound up with contorted, unhappy faces. Infected beer has a way of doing that. Or did back then.

The impact of Coury's experiment on wannabe pro brewers was dramatic. First, they came to see the importance of well-made beer and believed it could be brewed if you built a brewery designed for that task. Second, they concluded bottling was a fools errand and were determined to avoid it.

Dick Ponzi, a friend and supporter of Coury, liked the craft beer concept and took on the challenge of making good beer. A winemaker with an engineering background, Ponzi built his brewery in an abandoned rope factory on Northwest Marshall. Along with his wife, Nancy, and brewer Karl Ockert, Ponzi founded Bridgeport Brewing in late 1984.

Kurt and Rob Widmer plotted a similar course. They put together their brewery on Northwest Lovejoy, determined to produce a quality product. The Widmers were experienced homebrewers, but their beer got a lot better when they went pro. By the time they opened in April 1985, they had tweaked their system and recipes to produce good beer.

In fact, the early craft brewers weren't interested in designer hops, specialty malts or frilly recipes designed to create buzz. They wanted to make good beer that was a step up from the macro garbage most people were drinking at the time. Which they did. And that's pretty much the way things stayed for the next 30 or so years.

Within the last 5-10 years, a shift began to occur. Blame younger drinkers, if you want. They became bored with traditional fare and started chasing experimental styles, up to and including sour beer, which is essentially infected beer. Icing on the cake is the recent Oregonian list of top local pilsners, upon which the top beer is said to be possibly infected.

You appreciate the irony, right? Infected, sour beer drove Charles Coury from business 34 years ago. Today, sour beer is all the rage. Apparently, Coury wasn't so much a bad brewer as he was a generation or so ahead of his time. Irony and timing are everything.

Heathens Build Brand, Eye Expansion

Sunny Monday was a perfect day for a quick road trip and a stopover at Heathen Brewing in Vancouver. I'd been up there several times before, most recently over a year ago. A revisit is always fun because you see progress. Heathen continues to expand its portfolio and reach.

You may recall that Heathen resides in a residential garage in rural/suburban Vancouver. Yeah, it's a little odd. Founder/owner Sunny Parsons lives in the adjacent home and has a short work commute. The area around the brewery, once heavily wooded, has been cleared and stuffed with McMansions. Progress, some might say.

A lot has changed since my initial visit in 2013. They were pretty small back then. Parsons and brewer Rodney Stryker did everything. But they made a name for the place with Transgression IPA, winner of the Battle of the Brews competition at the 2013 Oregon Brewers Festival. Since then, they've added employees. Stryker has been directing the brewing operation for more than a year.

Snooping around the brewery, I spied many more beers pouring. They've dramatically expanded the list and it covers a wide spectrum of styles. They're making a lot more beer, as well. The garage, once fairly open, is packed with fermenters. And they have five larger fermenters outside. Rodney said they have more than 200 barrels worth of fermentation space.

One of the goals they set early on was to have a pub, and they realized that goal last July with the opening of the Feral Public House in downtown Vancouver. It's an important addition because the brewery/tasting room is small and remote. The Feral House is the brewery's "best customer," I was told, consuming several dozen kegs a week.

The big surprise on my last visit was the barrel program housed in a facility near the brewery. This is Stryker's pet project and it has grown significantly. Heathen's barrel house is now home to more than 120 barrels of beer aging in wine and spirits barrels. At Rodney's suggestion, we conducted pH testing (wink) of several barrels. The program seems to be coming along nicely.

Heathen's beers are distributed by Maletis Beverage in Vancouver and by Point Blank in Portland. It isn't that hard to find their beer in bottleshops, beer bars and specialty stores on both sides of the river. Grocery and convenience stores are another matter. Current volume simply isn't sufficient to support ongoing sales in those outlets.

"The worse thing we could do right now is make the jump to stores like Fred Meyer and Safeway and then not be able to keep the shelf space filled," Stryker said. "That's a bad scenario in the short run, but it would hurt us more in the long run because buyers remember that kind of thing."

Which takes us back to the brewery, which will produce something like 2,500 barrels this year. That's a decent number, but the place is apparently woefully inefficient and takes a lot of time and effort to brew. And there's a lot of waste. Plans for a production brewery have been in the works for several years and will likely come to fruition at some point.

"I think we could probably max out at around 5,000 barrels a year where we are," Stryker said. "But I hope it doesn't come to that. We'll be in a much better position to support our growth when we have a production brewery. It's a huge investment, but something that will happen."

As documented in various publications, the Vancouver/Clark County beer scene has improved dramatically in recent times. What was once a bad joke has turned into something pretty cool. Heathen is part of that, one of a growing number of breweries that are putting Vancouver on the beer map. It was a long time coming, but seeing the progress is fun.

Record Store Day 2016: Beer To Drink Music To

It seems like there's a day for everything these days. It was Siblings Day last week. Then National Dog Day and Jackie Robinson Day. A lot of special days. Well, today is Record Store Day, and it has special meaning for a lot of us beyond the great promotion it is for independent record stores.

In case you aren't aware, Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands more around the world. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today there participating stores on every continent except Antarctica. Pretty cool.

Over the years, a growing number of special vinyl and CD releases have coincided with Record Store Day. There have been in-store performances, meet & greets with bands, DJs, giveaways and much more. It's a way to honor and recognize the unique culture of the independent record store and the role they play and have played in the culture of their communities.

For me, the independent record store is important icon. My first real job was in a record store during college. The owner hired me because he kept seeing me in his stores and figured I might as well help out. He mainly needed someone to provide lunch relief and support during the afternoon rush. That was me. 

I would later manage two of the owner's three Budget Tapes & Records stores, spending more than six years in the business. This was during the heyday of record stores in the late 1970s into the early 1980s. These were important gathering places, often crowded with patrons searching for the latest thing. It was a cultural phenomenon.

Watching All Things Must Pass, a Showtime documentary that explores the history of Tower Records, I was carried back to the time when record stores were far more than just stores. Unless you lived through that era, roughly the late sixties through the late nineties, I think it's difficult to appreciate what places like Tower meant to the evolving pop culture.

It eventually occurred that I had no future in the record business. Unless you owned a store or, more likely, several stores, there wasn't any money in it. But it was always a fun business, watching the good and bad tastes of music fans in action and being part of the buzz connected to the business. I left for graduate school in late 1983, a move that more or less paid off. I guess.

The independent record store has experienced a sort of renaissance in recent times. Part of that, I think, is a reaction to the perceived cheapness of the digital age. Listening to music on your phone, iPod or computer doesn't provide the same experience as listening to a quality LP or CD on a good system. Some folks have chosen the better listening experience, which is good for record stores.

For me, breweries and beer bars are the closest approximation of the iconic record store in today's world. People frequent these places to expand their knowledge and participate in the social experience of craft beer. It's a pretty close parallel to what the record store meant to folks a generation or so ago.

Of course, beer and music are otherwise connected. You can't walk into a brewery or beer bar without hearing someone's soundtrack. The folks at Dogfish Head Brewing say music has been an important part of their mantra since the beginning. So I suppose it's fitting that, for the second year, they have produced the Official Beer of Record Store Day. It's called Beer To Drink Music To, a Belgian-style Tripel made with ingredients inspired by some of their favorite tunes.

It's not clear to me how many places will have Beer To Drink Music To. The list of possible locations in the Portland area is here. I do know Belmont Station is pouring it today and that you'll receive a cool Dogfish Head/Record Store Day pint glass with each purchase of the Tripel, The promotion starts at noon and continues until they run run out of glasses. Even if you're overloaded with glassware like me, this is one you may want to have.

There is, of course, a long list of Oregon record stores participating in Record Store Day festivities. You probably won't find beer in those scenarios, but they will have some cool promotions. As the disclaimer above the list says, not all of the listed stores are part of the various promotions. If you want to know for sure, call the store before you walk, bike or drive. 

Profiteers and the Liquor Privatization Scam

If you pay much attention to alcohol and politics, you probably know big box grocers are again floating liquor privatization in Oregon. They've been chomping at the bit to get hard liquor into grocery stores for many years, and so far they've failed. And will likely fail again.

The current initiative would end state sale and distribution of spirits and allow beer and wine retailers to sell them. Under current law, spirits are sold exclusively by state-authorized retailers, while beer and wine is sold through grocery and convenience stores.

In fact, seeing the privatization effort ramping up, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission allowed liquor stores to sell beer and wine in addition to spirits beginning in 2014. But it wasn't enough to pacify grocers, who desperately want access to liquor profits.

The latest development is that the Oregon Supreme Court certified the measure, Initiative 71, for the 2016 ballot. That doesn't mean the bill is guaranteed to appear on the ballot. It simply means supporters can begin collecting the 88,000 signatures they will need by July to get the initiative on the ballot.

Ironically, the Court refused to allow initiative sponsors to revise the title and take out the portion that says it would "eliminate liquor revenue." Voters tend to be wary of language like that and sponsors wanted it taken out for obvious reasons.

The elephant in the living room with this bill, even if you happen to favor privatization, is that it would eliminate $200 million a year in revenue that goes to the state. Sponsors of the bill hoped to keep that issue in the shadows, hidden from voters. It didn't work.

If the initiative makes the ballot and is passed by voters, the Oregon legislature would be on the hook to fill a gaping revenue hole. It could recover the money in a variety of ways, but it might not be pretty. Under pressure from the grocery lobby, legislators might decide to shift some of the tax burden away from liquor.

Today, Oregon has the second highest liquor tax in the country at $22.72 per gallon. Only Washington is higher, at 35.22 per gallon. Coincidentally, Oregon has one of the lowest taxes on beer at $2.60 per barrel or about 8 cents per gallon. Some think it should be higher. Would the legislature opt to increase the beer tax as part of a plan to recoup the lost revenue?

When privatization came to Washington several years ago, liquor prices actually increased due to additional fees levied on top of the existing tax. It wasn't supposed to work out that way. We don't know what would happen in Oregon. Initiative 71, as written, is likely fatally flawed because it doesn't address the revenue issue.

Of course, revenue isn't the only problem.

One of the favored arguments of grocers is that privatization improves selection. That hasn't exactly been the case in Washington. While there are three times as many stores selling booze as there were in 2011, most focus on top brands at the expense of small guys, including craft distillers, who have largely been squeezed out in the rush to stock fast-movers.

Another argument is convenience. A serious flaw in the Washington law is the requirement that stores selling liquor meet a square footage requirement, a nod to the big box stores who bankrolled the legislation. Oregon's bill takes a different tact, making it illegal for gas station convenience stores to sell booze...unless they're attached to a large retail store (think Costco or Fred Meyer). That's convenient for large retailers, not consumers.

Costco, which spent $20 million to get the Washington law passed and now refuses to discuss its implications, hasn't jumped on the Oregon bill. That's likely because it knows the bill is so flawed supporters will have a tough time collecting the signatures needed to get it on the ballot. But the money floodgates will open if the measure does somehow make the ballot. Trust me on that.

There are certainly folks who believe the state needs to get out of the liquor business, that private enterprise is always the best solution. But there are reasons liquor is state-controlled in a number of states, and the OLCC does a decent job here. Do you really believe things will be better when more than a thousand stores, bars and taverns are selling booze to go? Think about that.

Finally, the privatization effort won't end here, regardless of what happens. Like the robber barons of the 19th century, the folks behind this effort are obsessed with transferring public monies to private pockets. They care nothing about selection, price or convenience. All these profiteers care about is money. And they will continue to push privatization until they eventually get it passed.

This is, after all, America. And money is king.

Update 4/27/16: Grocers have dropped their privatization bid. They will surely be back with a better bill in a future election cycle, but for now they're done.

Laurelwood Launches Workhorse 12-packs

Freshly into its production brewing arrangement at Full Sail in Hood River, Laurelwood Brewing is releasing Workhorse IPA in 12-packs of bottles. The new packaging will soon appear on shelves at Fred Meyer, Safeway and other retail outlets in Oregon and Washington.

The move marks another step in the ongoing evolution of the popular Workhorse, first brewed in 2006. It was released in 22 oz bottles a year later, then won the National IPA Championship in 2009. A highly successful six-pack release followed in 2013.

"The 12-pack launch is based largely on the success we've seen with the six-packs," Laurelwood co-founder and owner Mike De Kalb told me via email.

"We decided the time was right for 12-packs. It really has nothing to do with moving our production to Hood River. The plan was in motion before we exited our arrangement with the CBA and now we're implementing it."

The Workhorse 12-packs will be a year-round offering, available alongside six-packs of Workhorse and Free Range Red. There's also Red Elephant in 12 oz cans, which have limited availability, and seasonal offerings in six-packs, as well as a variety of 22 oz bombers.

"We'll roll with this lineup for a while and see how it goes, De Kalb said. "At this point, we don't have any plans for additional 12-packs of bottles or cans in any form. I think our packaged lineup is solid."

With competition for shelf space intensifying, now is a perfect time to get Workhorse out there in 12-packs. The move puts a fresh face on the Workhorse brand and promotes the perception that Laurelwood is continuing to evolve and expand options for consumers. Smart business.

About Laurelwood Brewing
Laurelwood is a family owned brewery whose beers have won national and international awards. Its handcrafted brews can be found on draft and in bottles and cans throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, and Japan.

Yachats Brewing Will Help Transform a Sleepy Coastal Town

Last week's junket to the Oregon Coast produced flashbacks of a similar trip 47 years earlier. That 1969 trip included stays in Seaside and Cannon Beach, both of which were a whole lot less developed than they are today.

The first stop this time was Pacific City, where I hadn't been in almost 20 years. The place has grown up substantially in the interim. But it occurred to me that the Pelican Brewpub continues to serve as a sort of hub for the tourist crowd, just as it did before. Hang onto that thought.

Down Highway 101 some 70 miles is Yachats (pronounced Ya-Hots), a small and unassuming coastal community. It features a collection of h/motels and a handful of obviously independently-owned businesses in the quaint "downtown" core. It looks something like Seaside did 47 years ago.

To say Yachats is underdeveloped is something of an understatement. I assume the collapse of the timber industry and the slow arrival of tourism is the explanation. Located where it is, Yachats has largely escaped the gaze of developers and their ilk. But you can see that changing.

One of the things that will almost certainly help promote Yachats as a destination is the brewery that opened last summer. Yachats Brewing is located inside the Yachats Farmstore, which specializes in locally grown, organic produce, meats and more.

The Farmstore, founded in 2012, is the brainchild of Nathan and Cicely Bernard. Part of their plan from the outset was to install a 10 barrel brewery. Since last summer, their beers have been produced on a tiny 20 gallon system using (I'm told) carboys for fermentation. Hard to believe.

When I stopped in last week, only two Yachats beers were on, a nice pilsner and a Tripel that seemed a little off. Several guest taps filled out the lineup. They are apparently close to having their 10 barrel system operational, whereupon they will add additional taps for house beers. The gent manning the bar said they will probably always have some guest taps. We'll see about that.

The brewing operation is headed up by Charlie Van Meter (formerly of Sasquatch and Logsdon) and his fiance, Jenna Steward. How Van Meter wound up at Yachats is complicated and involves a connection between Nathan Bernard and former Logsdon brewer, Chuck Porter. Read about it here if you feel the need.

Once these guys are up and running at full capacity, expect to see some amazing beers here. The brewery may well develop the kind of reputation that will attract visitors to Yachats, similar to what Pelican has done in Pacific City and what we've seen in countless other places.

You have to wonder in some ways if Yachats is ready for what's coming. Not everyone who lives there (around 700 inhabitants according to US Census estimates) or visits regularly is going to be pleased with the added interest. Yachats is going to change and some won't like it.

The first problem Yachats Brewing will likely face is that the space, which is nicely done, isn't near big enough. It was barely big enough on a quiet Tuesday when they had two of their beers pouring. What's going to happen in a year when they have 10 beers and a reputation? Needing more space because you're busy selling beer isn't a bad problem, but it is a problem. Or will be.

As so often happens in craft beer, the owners will have to figure these things out as they go along. There are no free lunches and no guarantees, but this venture has the look of a winner in a place that needs this kind of presence. This brewery is a big deal for Yachats.

Lompoc Six-Packs to Hit Store Shelves

They may not get much coverage, but Lompoc Brewing is releasing beer in the six-pack format for the first time in its 20-year history. Six-packs of Pamplemousse Citrus IPA and C-Note IPA will soon appear on store shelves throughout Oregon and Washington.

Why, you may fairly ask, would they launch six-packs after so much time? The press release offers a partial explanation in the form of a quote from Lompoc owner, Jerry Fechter.

“The craft brewing market in retail stores has become flooded with 22-oz bottles. "We wanted to stand out, and provide our fans with greater options. Adding six-packs achieved both of these goals.”

It's true about 22 ounce bombers. They're everywhere. And the bomber market is increasingly occupied by newcomers and, in most bottleshops, by higher end product. Lompoc isn't a newcomer by any means and none of its general release bombers fit the high end profile. So what's the deal?

The deal is that established places like Lompoc face a steep challenge trying to stay relevant in a sea of shiny new breweries that have decent beer and massive social media games. Older breweries start to look irrelevant in that scenario, particularly in the eyes of younger drinkers.

Putting your beer in six-packs is more of a necessity than a cool option at this point. Six-packs are by far the most popular form of packaging in beer and getting six-packs of your beer on shelves is an increasingly important way to stay relevant. Old and new breweries are doing it, thanks in large part to advances in technology that make six-packs of cans and bottles economically feasible in brewpub-sized batches.

In fact, C-Note and Pamplemousse are excellent choices. They fit in nicely with the popularity of aromatic, citrus-forward IPAs. Fechter had a number of beers to choose from and surely chose these because they are exactly what consumers are looking for in 2016.

C-Note, the press release reminds, has been around for 15 years and was first brewed to celebrate the Horse Brass Pub's 25th anniversary. Why the Horse Brass? Because, if you didn't know, Fechter's partner in Lompoc was the late Don Younger, owner of the Horse Brass. Fechter has a zillion Don Younger stories and, by the way, C-Note has always been a damned good beer.

Pamplemousse is a newer kid on the block, arriving a few years ago. It's lighter in color and body than C-Note and leans on four hop varieties, along with grapefruit juice, to create a lingering bitterness highlighted by citrus notes.

These six-packs, packaged by a mobile bottler at the Fifth Quadrant Brewery, will supposedly complement, not replace, Lompoc's current lineup of bombers. We'll see about that. When Laurelwood released Workhorse and Free Range Red in six-packs, Workhorse bombers carried on, but sales of Free Range Red bombers flattened. Could something like that happen with C-Note or Pamplemousse bombers? We'll soon see.

The C-Note and Pamplemousse six-packs are now available at Lompoc's Fifth Quadrant and Sidebar. They will soon arrive at the Hedge House and Oaks Bottom in Southeast, and at the Lompoc Tavern in Northwest. In-house pricing will be $11. Grocery and bottleshop pricing may vary.

Fort George Gets Off its Duff for Summer

Fort George Brewing is expanding its popular Vortex Lineup in cans slated for summer 2016 release. There's going to be more color on store shelves. I'm stepping out of bounds here, posting input without commentary. These guys are okay. Trust me.

From the press release:

[Astoria, Oregon] Five fantastic new twists on Vortex IPA, the popular flagship from Fort George Brewery, launch this summer. After almost seven years of R & D, the owners are finally giving the thumbs up. Way up.

“If I could do twenty Vortexes I would,” said co-owner Chris Nemlowill. “But we settled on these variations so we wouldn’t break the brewery.” Although no more Vortex styles are planned until February 2017, a seasonal variety 24-pack will be on store shelves this winter.

“Sourcing high-quality ingredients, and at these amounts, is a nightmare,” added business partner Jack Harris. “But I have to say, one taste of these new Vortex beverages makes it all worthwhile.”

Look for four-packs of 16-ounce cans in stores soon. Until then, here are the official descriptions from the brewery:

"Tropical Fruit” Flavored Vortex - Musky, soft buttery undertones of papaya with a pineapple punch to the palate. Hand-harvested in Vietnam, the organic fruit ripens in open cargo ships on its trans-Pacific voyage. Brewed with whole fruit in the fermenter, natural flavorings in the bright tank, and up to 10% real fruit juice added to the finished product. Also available pulp-free. 6.5% ABV

Vortexican - Trump couldn’t build a wall high enough to contain this flavor. Brewed with poblano and habanero peppers foraged from the wild fields of Texas and roasted in the Fort George wood-fired oven. IBUs? No idea. But it’s packing over 300,000 Scoville Heat Units. Now that’s a spicy Vortex! 8.3% ABV

Not Your Mother’s Damn Vortex - An herbed/spiced malt beverage just in time for summer. Reminiscent of that classic diet cherry cola you remember as a child, yet smacking enough sass for the big kids. Made with all natural stevia, cherry, and cola flavorings - available starting in June and until Fort George receives a cease and desist letter. 7% ABV

Gluten-Free Non-Alcoholic Vortex - For those teetotalers with gluten sensitivity, Fort George has the perfect beer for you. This non-alcoholic IPA is full-bodied, hop forward, and gut friendly, containing over 15 billion live L. acidophilus & B. bifidum probiotics per 16-ounce serving. Locally sourced sorghum, millet, and corn make it hearty enough for the most seasoned craft beer drinker. How do the brewers do it? Nobody knows. And we aren’t asking. 0.0% ABV

Dirty Vortini - Fort George’s first foray into the canned cocktail space is a doozie. Take two parts Vortex IPA and one part distilled Vortex IPA -- add imported Moroccan Meslalla olives to the bright tank and gently stir in over a gallon of brine per barrel...never shaken. Whole olives are added inline to each can. Watch for pits. 14% ABV

In case you're wondering, which you probably aren't, Fort George is distributed exclusively in the Pacific Northwest. For locations near you, check the Fort George beer finder here.

Spring Beer & Wine Fest Caters to Casual Fans

If you aren't familiar with the past, you might be inclined to assume our current glut of beer festivals is old hat. Not so. The festival scene we live in today wasn't built in a day, a week or a year. It started out rather slowly and took some time to develop. I'll spare you the details.

The Spring Beer & Wine Fest, which happened this past Friday and Saturday, has been around for a long time. It celebrated 22 years this weekend, which puts it's origins in 1994, a time when there was the Oregon Brewers Festival and not much else. My how things have changed.

Strangely enough, I had never attended the SBWF until this  year. There are reasons for everything. Prior to the time I started covering the beer scene in 2010 or so, I paid little attention to indoor events. More recently, I suppose this one simply got lost in the shuffle.

So it was informative to stalk the floor at the Oregon Convention Center. What I found wasn't quite what I expected, but it wasn't all that surprising, either.

In fact, the SBWF isn't a beer or wine festival, per se. Nope. It feels much more like a trade show with beer and wine stations scattered around. In some sense, it was eerily similar to last year's Craft Brewers Conference trade show, held at the same venue,

Entering the hall, I saw no beer. What? Instead, there were myriad vendors hawking a wide variety of goods...clothing, food, services, beer & wine accessories and more. Seeing a lot of vendors at beer festivals has become increasingly common in recent years, but this was crazy. These vendors want access to the beer and wine fan demographic. You might say these beverages are the glue that holds an event like this one together, which isn't such a bad thing.

There were more breweries than wineries in the hall, but the program suggested the number of actual beers and wines were close to the same. The difference was that the wineries brought more than two wines, all served from bottles that I saw. Most of the breweries were pouring two styles from kegs, typical of beer fests.

The brewery lineup was eclectic. It included a number of relatively new and unknown breweries (Ordnance, Krauski's, Pono, Vanguard) along with some that are well-established (Green Flash, 10 Barrel, Goose Island, Lompoc). I can't recall seeing such a bizarre mix of breweries in recent memory, maybe because I rarely go to fests like this one.

That's not the say the beer was bad. Not at all. I tasted 10-15 beers, mostly from newer breweries, and all of them were pretty good. The only beer I dumped wasn't a bad beer at all; I dumped it because there were pieces of hops floating around in the foam. That was a problem for both of this brewery's beers, some kind of filtering issue, I assume. Need to get that fixed.

At the end of the day, the trade show-oriented approach seems to work well. They've got 22 years of proof. It's best-described as a gateway event, designed for folks wanting to explore good beer and wine. The beers and (I suspect) the wines aren't exotic enough to keep hardcore beer geeks and wine snobs interested, but the event is a perfect fit for casual fans.

10 Barrel Launches Beer with a View

Make no mistake, 10 Barrel's new rooftop patio will be a gigantic hit when the weather eventually decides to cooperate. In peak season, seats on the patio, which sits atop the Pearl District brewpub, will be one of the toughest tickets in town. Trust me.

The 10 Barrel folks invited an eclectic bunch of media folks up to see the new space Monday evening. As fate would have it, the weather sucked badly. It was raining and quite chilly, which put a bit of a damper on the event, despite the complementary food and beer.

Views of the Pearl and West Hills from the rooftop perch are exemplary. That's going to be a nice selling point. One of the hosts reminded us that patios are in 10 Barrel's DNA, as the places in Bend and Boise both have the amenity.

They spared no expense here in Portland. It wasn't mentioned Monday evening, but I seem to recall that putting the patio on top of the pub required costly structural enhancements that delayed the entire project and pushed back the pub's opening.

In fact, it was during the construction delay that 10 Barrel was gobbled up by Anheuser-Busch. That was likely a convenient turn of events because it allowed them to move forward with the project without serious regard for cost. Great problem to have, right?

There are 80 table seats and 8 bar seats on the patio, which comprises a little less than 1,600 square feet. The bar will feature 20 taps pouring essentially the same beers that are being poured downstairs. It's plain to see that they paid attention to fine details with the beer and with the pub, generally. Hey, they could afford to.

As for the beer, you aren't going to find a better beer list in town. Head brewer Whitney Burnside, wooed away from Pelican prior to the AB buyout, is one of the most accomplished brewers in the city. There may be naysayers due to the ownership situation, but that's a crock. The variety of well-made beers here is similar to Breakside, regarded by many geeks as best in the city.

Of course, the elephant in the pub (and on the patio) is Anheuser-Busch. As anyone who stops by here knows, I am not a fan of AB and it's anti-competitive, evil practices. They're buying up craft breweries so they can brew a few key brands in factory breweries and flood the market, the idea being to hurt independent craft brewers in the grocery and convenience store channel.

Their strategy with the pubs is different. With 10 Barrel, a generic name unconnected to place, they will open pubs in key cities. They already have pubs in Bend, Portland and Boise. There's one opening soon in Denver and they hope to open one in San Diego, if opposition doesn't stop them. I think Seattle and the Bay Area will get pubs at some point, and other cities will follow. The big idea is to build brand identity for AB-owned craft brands regionally and nationally. That brand capital will then be used to squeeze craft brewers in stores and on-premise (bars, restaurants, etc.) settings.

The Budweiser folks, despite their money and experience, do not get brewpubs. They bought 10 Barrel, Elysian and others to show them the way. If 10 Barrel Portland is a good example, it appears the pubs will have some level of autonomy. Sure, I've heard stories of micromanaged beer recipes, but the proof is in the (beer) pudding, and Whitney Burnside's pudding is good as gold.

I turned down invitations to 10 Barrel events prior to Monday evening. I did so on principle, Why should I attend an event when I know I can't recommend an AB-owned pub? Some of my peers, evidently oblivious to the concept of principle, claimed I was making assumptions without knowledge. Not at all. My view of 10 Barrel is based strictly on ownership. Nothing more.

I chose to attend Monday evening because I thought it was perhaps time for me to see the sights. A trendy, new rooftop patio seemed like a good reason for a visit. But my opinion of 10 Barrel and Anheuser-Busch wasn't going to change. Zero chance of that.

Along those lines, it's interesting to note a disingenuous statement in the event press release: "10 Barrel Brewing Co. is a Bend, Oregon-based brewery with a simple mindset..." You see the problem, right? 10 Barrel was originally based in Oregon. Today, it's based in St Louis or Belgium or Brazil. Take your pick. But they'd rather obscure that detail. Not the best.

Of course, plenty of people don't care about the ownership situation. They like 10 Barrel and aren't worried that Anheuser-Busch is a threat to independent craft brewers. That's fine. If that's your mindset, by all means jump on the 10 Barrel bandwagon. Enjoy the rooftop patio while you're at it..if you can get a seat up there. It won't be easy once better weather arrives.

But I won't be supporting 10 Barrel. And it isn't personal. As I told a writer friend, I refuse to beat up the pub or disparage the folks who work there, regardless of their position. These people are doing good work. The beer. the food, the space and the service are top notch.

It's the corporate parent I have a problem with. I don't want to give them any of my money, which hardly matters since 10 Barrel is busy enough that they don't and won't need it.

Mastering the Art of Sport Drinking

One of the worst kept secrets in beer is the emergence the specialized, sport drinker. The sport drinker is much more than a legend in his/her own mind. Indeed, these individuals have been instrumental in propping up a new kind of beer establishment.

What is sport drinking? It's the art of collecting as many beer pelts as possible during any and all drinking sessions. Folks engaged in this sport usually don't care about quaffing mass quantities of any particular beer. Instead, they chase smaller servings of many beers.

Even in beer-centric Portland, that represents a fairly dramatic change from earlier times, when folks visited breweries and brewpubs to enjoy a pitcher or pints of a favored beer. There was no real hunt for specialty beers, no desire to seek out variety. People drank what they liked and called it good.

Of course, that scenario is still in play. Plenty of folks go to breweries and brewpubs and drink pitchers and pints in what might be best-described as an entry-level craft beer experience. Because there are more casual beer fans than serious beer geeks, the best breweries and brewpubs continue to flourish.

But the evolving, maturing beer culture is producing a growing number of sport drinkers, who existed in previous times only in small numbers. These folks demand special beers. Local beers, no matter how good, aren't enough. They want stuff from outside the city and state. The result of that growing demand is the eccentric beer bar.

Some of our notable local destinations include APEX, Beermongers, Belmont Station, Baileys/Upper Lip, Bridgetown Beerhouse, The Imperial Bottleshop, Roscoe's and Tin Bucket. But that's only a fraction of the possible list because there are countless places that feature extensive tap lists and don't quite fall into the beer bar category.

"These bars fill an important niche," an industry source tells me. "They showcase beers from far flung breweries like Barley Brown's and Arch Rock, which many Portlanders would never have heard of otherwise. They also provide a sense of what's happening across Oregon without driving to Bend, Hood River, Eugene and the coast."

I have to admit I'm far more likely to visit a beer bar than a brewery. I enjoy the variety. The downside for many is the snobbishness that's sometimes part of the deal. Beer bars can be intimidating places for casual drinkers, which is shameful and needs to change.

By the way, it turns out sport drinking and beer bars are nearly a perfect fit. We just learned via a Brewers Association article that the smaller pours generally preferred by sport drinkers actually deliver higher profits per keg to bars  Go figure.

Where do were go from here? Honestly, who knows. Portland's maturing, evolving beer scene presents creative entrepreneurs with a nearly endless array of opportunities. We've passed the point where you need to own or operate a brewery to tap into the beer economy. There are alternatives.

Those who have mastered or are mastering the art of sport drinking can be proud.