Lompoc Tavern Closure a Sign of the Times

The news that Lompoc Tavern will soon close arrived Friday afternoon. I wasn't surprised. It has become increasingly difficult in recent years for established pubs and breweries to compete with a sea of newcomers that tend to have greater appeal among young drinkers.

In the press release announcing the closure, owner Jerry Fechter talked about the challenge of operating pubs in various parts of the city and said it's time to sharpen the organization's focus on the pubs they have left...Fifth Quadrant, Oaks Bottom and Side Bar.

"We're embracing this as an opportunity to invest more time and attention on the remaining pubs and brewery, and making them the best they can be.”

This is the second Lompoc pub to close within the last year. The Hedge House on Southeast Division closed late last year and is now home to Little Beast. Lompoc had been a major player in the Portland market for many years, but its status is apparently waning.

Recall that Lompoc Tavern is the descendent of the original Old Lompoc Tavern, founded in 1993. Fechter, who moved to Oregon from Ohio in 1989, got hooked on craft beer and homebrewing in the early 1990s. He wanted a brewing job, but couldn't find one.

"McMenamins wouldn’t hire me," he told me in 2013. "I never got hired."

He wound up working at Old Lompoc Tavern and they got interested in brewing in-house. He started brewing there in late 1996, marked as the beginning of Lompoc. The initial results were sketchy.

"The first batch of beer was called Erstfest," Fechter remembered. "It wasn't good, but that's how I got started."

Several years later, Fechter negotiated with the owners to buy the place. They worked out a deal that included all the appropriate numbers. At the point where everyone was supposed to sign, the owners backed out, saying they wanted more money. Fechter would need a partner.

"That’s how I got partnered with Don Younger," he said. "Don and I met and chatted over several months on barstools in various places and eventually combined to buy the place. We renamed it New Old Lompoc."

I never met Don Younger, who was a partner is several of the Lompoc ventures. He passed away in 2011, as I was starting to cover Portland's beer scene. But conversations with Fechter suggest to me that the partnership worked fairly well. Don was the wacky elder statesmen who knew the business; Jerry was the eager apprentice who took it all in, though they weren't always in sync.

"I didn’t know how influential Don was until I started talking to him," Fechter told me. "He knew everyone and had been involved in craft beer from the start. Don was a character, always coming up with creative and crazy ideas." Fechter has an archive of stories.

After Younger passed away, New Old Lompoc came under Fechter's control. But things were changing dramatically in the area. The building owner soon decided to demolish it and build something that's a better fit for the trendy Northwest neighborhood.

When it reopened in 2013, the Lompoc Tavern had been reconfigured to fit a smaller space. The antiquated little brewery was gone, which helps explain the name change. Changes in the industry were also putting pressure on Lompoc.

Portland's brewery count started spiraling dramatically upward around 2009. By the time Lompoc Tavern opened, the city had more than twice as many breweries as it featured only a few years earlier. Competition in the beer and pub business was stiffening.

The press release says the crowd that supported New Old Lompoc found other places to go during construction and never returned when Lompoc Tavern opened. It also suggests business declined because a number of jobs moved out of the neighborhood.

My own version is that a lot of options started popping up in the area. Breakside Slabtown, just a short walk from Lompoc Tavern, undoubtedly sucked business away after it opened in 2017. Other new places harmonize better with what the millennial crowd is looking for.

Lompoc Tavern's final day will be Wednesday, Sept. 26. The lease is being taken over by Tap & Table, which currently has a location on Southeast Ankeny St. There will almost certainly be a gathering of regulars and friends on that last day. Note to self.

There are those who will shrug at the demise of Lompoc Tavern. For them, it's a relic of a bygone era. That's one way to look at it. Another view is that a slice of Portland's craft brewing history is being displaced. There's an instructive tale here for established pubs and breweries.

Lompoc Rolls With Changes at 20

Lompoc Brewing is turning 20. In case you aren't aware, Lompoc was one of the second wave of craft breweries that launched here in the mid-1990s. While some are no longer around, Lompoc has rolled with the punches and continues to carve out a successful path.

Jerry Fechter and Bryan Keilty

They'll be celebrating two decades in December with Zwanzig Fest, a week-long lineup of special events at Lompoc’s five pubs (Zwanzig means 20 in German). Several local brewers and writers, including yours truly, helped brew their anniversary beer, Zwanzig, a bitter Märzen ale.

Purests know authentic Märzen is a lager, not an ale. Never mind. This particular beer is a tip of the hat to Lompoc's first beer, Erst Ale. It will be pale orange in color with a mildly malty body. Eight hop additions ought to give it plenty of aroma, flavor and bitterness.

If craft beer newbies aren't particularly familiar with Lompoc, there's a reason. Which is that, despite operating out of several locations, they have been somewhat obscured by Portland's brewery explosion. When owner Jerry Fechter opened New Old Lompoc in late 1996, there were only a handful of competing breweries.

The story is fairly well-known and is briefly retold in Portland Beer. Fechter had worked at Old Lompoc Brewing in Northwest Portland for several years. The beers were decent, but he felt the food should be better. The lease was always an issue. When the owners negotiated a three-year renewal, Fechter saw an opening and inquired about buying the business during a round of golf.

Soon enough, the owners came back with a number. It was a number Fechter thought he could manage. But as he looked at what needed to be done to move in the direction he wanted, it became apparent that an investor would be needed. Enter legendary publican, Don Younger.

"I had enjoyed beers with Don," Fechter recalls, "but I didn't really know him. A guy at Belmont Station, then next to the Horse Brass on Southeast Belmont, told me Don might be interested in my project. He spoke to Don. The next day, my phone rang. It was Younger."

The call led to a couple months of drinking and discussion, trying to figure out how a partnership might work. Eventually, they hammered out an agreement. Younger became a partner in the business, but stayed mostly in the background while Fechter managed day-to-day operations.

"We knew the food needed to be better," Fechter recalls. "That meant a hood and an improved kitchen. We also realized there was unutilized space in back where we could put a patio. So we built a nice patio, which was busy and a hidden gem in Northwest Portland for many years.

By the time Younger passed away in 2011, he and Fechter had opened additional locations...the Fifth Quadrant, Sidebar and Hedge House. Fechter had also partnered with publican Jim Parker on Oaks Bottom Public House. Today, Fechter operates those locations, as well as Lompoc Tavern, which replaced the original Lompoc pub on Northwest 23rd after it was demolished.

The pub and beer business is a more challenging enterprise these days. You can't get by with a few standard beers and an occasional seasonal. You need seasonals and specialty beers all the time to keep up with all the new places coming online. Head brewer Bryan Keilty is constantly working to develop unique recipes and approaches.

"We know relevance is a challenge with so many new breweries opening," Keilty says. "The attraction of new places isn't new and it doesn't bother us. It just means we need to stay on top of our menu and work to build and maintain a solid beer lineup. That's our focus."

Packaged product is another matter. Lompoc has a handful of bottled beers in distribution via Maletis Beverage. That was strictly 22 oz bombers until last summer, when they launched C-Note and Pampelmousse IPA in 12 oz six-packs. Cans of something may be on the way.

"The strategy with bottles is marketing, getting our name in front of consumers," Fechter says. "That's the main reason we do packaged product. When we saw bomber sales slowing, we launched six-packs. The next step might be cans, but distribution will never be a big part of what we do."

Fechter's thinking is well-informed. He knows the best margin on his beer is in his pubs. Why play the distribution game where the profit per bottle, gallon or keg is small? With retail space getting crowded, some regional and national craft brands are getting squeezed. Meanwhile, a lot of smaller breweries are doing fine. Small and local is a good place to be.

After 20 years in an increasingly competitive business, it's clear enough that Fechter and his team have figured out how to successfully navigate changing times. Congrats on the milestone, folks. See you at Zwanzig Fest.

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.

Brewmasterpiece Theater On Tap Friday

There is a somewhat under-appreciated link between rock and roll and craft beer. Once upon a time, folks of many ages flocked to record stores to get their fix of what was newest and coolest. Today, folks of drinking age flock to breweries and pubs on a similar mission.

Record stores, of course, have mostly vanished. There was a time when they dotted the map in this city and others. It isn't just digital music that did them in. The importance of music in our culture has declined as the number of entertainment choices has risen.

It occurs to me that breweries and pubs are what record stores were 30-40 years ago, which is to say they are everywhere. Just as people once had to physically shop for their music, modern beer fans frequent pubs and breweries to keep up with what's happening on the beer front.

And don't forget the link between brewers and rock music. At it's most basic level, brewing is a blue collar occupation. Walk into a lot of breweries during production hours and you're going to get an earful of classic rock music. Many pubs spin vinyl or play from rock-oriented playlists. Though they occupy different slots in time and form, craft beer and classic rock seem to have a symbiotic connection.

Given all that, it makes perfect sense that the Hollywood Theater and Lompoc Brewing have put together an event that pairs maybe the best rock concert film of all time with suitably named beers. They're calling it Brewmasterpiece Theater. Clever.

The movie is The Last Waltz. The beers include several IPAs inspired by the film, which I'll get to. It's happening this Friday, January 17, beginning at 7 p.m. The Hollywood Theater is located at 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. Advance tickets cost $8 and can be had here. Beer is obviously separate.

If you are unaware, the The Last Waltz documents the farewell live performance of The Band at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving 1976.  An audience of some 5,000 was reportedly served turkey dinners prior to the show. Stick that in your trivia folder for future reference.

The Band had been playing together since the 1950s, notably as Bob Dylan's backup band in the sixties. They had grudgingly decided to quit touring and this was to be their final show. Director Martin Scorsese was hired to film the evening's proceedings. The initial idea of just having The Band perform morphed after original leader Ronnie Hawkins and Dylan agreed to play. Soon the guest list expanded to include some of the greatest rock names of the day.

Lompoc's brewery on North Williams is one of those places where the classics always seem to be playing. You'll hear CCR, Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, Queen, Nirvana, Beatles, Cars, Pearl Jam, ZZ Top, U2, etc. The music evidently affects the brewing, as Lompoc has prior experience creating beers with connections to bands and music.

Beers for Friday evening's event will include:

Satisfaction IPA, a collaboration with Jack Harris of Fort George Brewing, is brewed with Centennial, Simcoe, Meridian and Newport hops. It reportedly has a piney, resinous profile.

Saaz, Nuggs & Rock 'n Roll IPA, a collaboration with local beer writer John Foyston. This bright orange-amber brew leans on 40 pounds of Saaz, Nuggets, Simcoe and Centennial hops in a 15-barrel batch. The flavor is said to offer hints of pine and apricot.

White Album IPA, a collaboration with Portland Brewing co-founder Fred Bowman, features half wheat and half pale malt. Meridian and Chinook hops in the boil and fermenter provide a hefty citrus aroma.

Every Rose Has its Thorn IPA is a collaboration with Hilda Stevens of Bazi Bierbrasserie. Ten pounds of rose hips were added at the end of the boil and another 10 pounds were added to the brite tank. Sounds interesting.

Ramble On IPA completes the list, but there are no stats available at the moment.

The folks who thought up the idea of presenting this movie alongside themed beers deserve a lot of credit. It sounds like a great evening of fun.

Lompoc Launches 2013 Winter Seasonal Barrage

Winter seasonals are nothing new around here. Breweries have been brewing them for years and it's part of what's expected. But no one showcases as many winter seasonals as Lompoc Brewing. Jerry Fechter and his brewers regularly provide a wide swath of holiday beers. And proud of that tradition, they are.

Not sure what Don would think of the poinsettia

There are nine Lompoc holiday beers for 2013 and eight of them were on display at a media tasting Monday night at Sidebar. This is always a fun event, as the Lompoc folks roll out the red rug for those of us who attempt to cover Portland's beer scene. Last night was no exception, held as the ghost of Don Younger looked on (courtesy of John Foyston's great painting).

The beer list is familiar....C-Sons Greetings, Old Tavern Rat, Brewdolph, etc. There is no 8 Malty Nights for 2013, which will miff some beer fans, but you can't have everything. Still, it's a nice lineup of beers. The bulk of these will be released on Dec. 3 at Lompoc locations. I'll speak to the specific details below.

One of my favorite Lompoc beers is C-Sons Greetings, an Imperial IPA brewed with seven "C" hops and packing a serious wallop in aroma and flavor. This is essentially a bigger version of their standard IPA, C-Note, and clocks in at 8% ABV. The label no longer sports Jerry's graphic likeness in a Santa hat, but you'll get over it. C-Sons Greetings will be in pubs and on store shelves soon. Look for it.

Kids explain what they're up to

We tasted two versions of Old Tavern Rat, a barleywine affectionately named after the late publican, Don Younger, who is pictured on the label. The 2013 OTR is fairly straight forward beer...big, fairly smooth, not all that complex. It clocks in at 9.4%. This beer will be poured in pubs, but there will be no bottles.

Up next beer was a bourbon barrel aged version of 2011 OTR. This beer sent my nasal passages into arrest. The press materials say this beer is 9.7%, but it seems to have sucked some serious alcohol from the barrels. I bet it's closer to 12%. Anyway, barrel-aged OTR is a little rough right now. It will surely improve with some cellaring. They will have this on draft and in bottles (very limited) at their pubs. I recommend tasting it now and getting a bottle or two for future reference.

Lompoc's beer for the upcoming Holiday Ale Festival is Revelry Red, which is their Big Bang Red aged in whiskey barrels with sour cherries for nine months, then blended with Big Bang Red aged in Port barrels for nearly a year. This beer was on double secret probation because the HAF prefers that its beers not be tasted prior to the event. No matter. This beer is fantastic...mildly sour, gently complex. There is still blending to be done, so the final result will change. Seek this beer! They will evidently hold onto some of this to be served in their pubs after the HAF.

Tools of a tasting

There are five more Lompoc winter brews worth tasting, including Cherry Christmas, Jolly Bock (lager), Brewdolph (Belgian-style red), Holiday Cheer (Vanilla Porter) and Blitzen (a spiced golden ale we didn't taste). As noted above, you'll find all of these at Lompoc locations beginning on Dec. 3. 

Special thanks to Jerry Fechter for continuing to placate us beer media folks. Similar thanks to Chris Crabb, who routinely does a great job of organizing materials for lazy, sometimes disorganized media folks. Finally, a shout out to Lompoc brewers Bryan Keilty, Irena Bierzynski (a better brewer name does not exist) and Grant Golden, who hung out to talk about their beers.

Tabor Tavern Serves the Underserved

As almost everyone knows, the craft beer experience continues to expand into all parts of Portland. I'm talking about the breweries, pubs and related establishments that seem to be popping up all over the place. It may seem crazy, but it's also good business.

A case in point is the new Tabor Tavern on 53rd and East Burnside. The place opened about two weeks ago and they are staying busy. This area was ripe for some kind of pub. Why? Because options like Laurelwood, the Horse Brass and Belmont Station are a hoof from this neighborhood. Nearby residents now have an option that is easily reachable on foot.

Signage marks the spot

Owner Ken (Zig) Naffziger is the driving force behind this project. He has some 25 years of industry experience with McMenamin's, Horse Brass and Lompoc. Like a lot of people in this business, he always dreamed of having a place of his own. Earlier reports had TT opening by mid-May, but they obviously ran into things that delayed things a bit. They're up and running now.

They serve up a nice list of craft beer from 10 tap handles. There's also a full bar and wine. The beer list includes Zig's Swig, a Lompoc brew brewed specifically for TT. It will evidently be a fixture here, though the style will change depending on the season...lighter in summer, darker in winter. Naffziger expects to have two Lompoc beers on tap continuously. Other taps will rotate.

The long bar is from reclaimed wood

The menu is what they call classic tavern fare. It isn't as expansive as a lot of pub menus you'll see, but the items seem smart and well-chosen. In planning the food offerings, Naffziger leaned on his own experience as a pub manager, as well as what he's seen on his travels of the world. His wife, Kristin, and Lompoc head brewer Bryan Keilty were also involved.

Open hours were a bit spotty during their first week. I stopped by several times in the lunch-o'clock zone and found them closed. That was merely a logistical issue, apparently. They are now open more standard hours and building their lunch business.

Historic photos add to the experience

I stopped in twice during evening hours and found the place packed both times. The outside tables with lined with people on two warm nights. Inside it was noisy...about what you'd expect for a place that's pretty open. I ordered a Tabor Burger and Double Mountain IRA on one of those visits. The burger was terrific, although the fries were not quite what I'd hoped for. I suspect they will figure that out. No need to talk about the beer.

One of the cool things about this place is the historic photos that adorn the walls. There's a large picture of a Mt Tabor streetcar taken many moons ago on one wall and a collection of smaller photos on another. It's all about connecting the pub with the neighborhood, Naffziger said. If you have an historic photo you'd like to see hung in the pub, bring in a print or negative for Naffziger to see and it just might happen.

The big board

Oh...if you're arriving by car, there's a small parking lot next to the pub and lots of street parking. Cyclists will be pleased to learn that Naffziger has ordered a large bike rack, which he hopes to have installed in the next few weeks. Parents will be pleased to learn kids are welcome until 8 p.m. I expect this place will do increasingly well as the word gets out. 

Last Call for Chowda Dave

There are a lot of great folks in the Portland beer community. I've always been amazed me that these people, who compete for the hearts, minds and taste buds of the same customers, have developed a friendly camaraderie that seems to transcend business competition.

One of the best people around is Lompoc's Dave Fleming. I first met Dave at a Lompoc tasting last fall, and I've since run into him quite a few times at the Fifth Quadrant/Sidebar and around town. He's always happy to share what's going on with the beers and the brewery. And he doesn't mind taking a little ribbing over the exploits of the Red Sox, Celtics or Patriots. Chowda is just one of his nicknames, based on his Northeast origins, I assume..

Chowda Dave with Lompoc owner, Jerry Fechter

After three years as the head brewer at Lompoc, Dave is leaving the building. It's not so surprising if you look at his bulging travel docier. Dave has bounced around the brewery landscape extensively since 1992, when he started at Bridgeport. He's had portages at the Lucky Lab, Rock Bottom (Bellevue), Caldera (Ashland), Bend Brewing, McMenamin's, Three Creeks and, finally, Lompoc. Some might call it wanderlust. 

It turns out Chowda Dave isn't going far this time. He's going to work for Willamette Valley Hops, one of an increasing number of growers that produce designer-quality hops. This ought to be a nice arrangement for Dave and for Willamette Valley. They have a great product; Dave has the contacts and persona to make sales happen. Perfect.

They are giving Dave a farewell soiree this Friday, July 13, at the Sidebar on North Williams. Stop by between 4 and 10 p.m. to toast Dave one more time. Everyone is welcome. He truly is one of the good guys. Come by and wish him well.

Sunshine Tavern Welcomes Lompoc's Keilty

Sunshine  Tavern continues its popular Beer Camp this coming Saturday. This time around, Lompoc brewer Bryan Keilty will be walking campers though an afternoon of beer tasting, to be followed by a three-course meal complete with beer pairings.

The beer list will include: Kick Axe Dry Hopped Pale Ale, Batch 69 Baltic Porter, Bob's Memorial Braggot, Centennial IPA and Bourbon Barrel Aged LSD.

Keilty

Keilty has been a brewer at Lompoc since 2007. He worked briefly at McMenamin's prior to joining the Lompoc team. Among other things, Keilty is the creator of Lompoc seasonals Flower of the Gods, Saazall Pilzner and Franc'ly Brewdolph (a variation on Brewdolph Belgian Red.

Festivities start at 4:00 p.m. at Sunshine Tavern on Southeast Division. Cost is $60. If you're interested, definitely call ahead for a reservation. This event will likely fill up.

Lompoc Shows Off Holiday Beers

The folks over at Lompoc Brewing have been toiling away preparing for the holiday season. Lucky for beer fans. Beer geek media types got a chance to sample this years holiday collection on Tuesday night at the Sidebar on North Williams. (If you haven't been to the Sidebar, plan to get over there!)

The tasting adventure begins!

Most of the beers we tasted will be featured at release party on Nov. 29 at the Sidebar. More about the beers shortly. First, a special thanks to owner Jerry Fechter and his crew for making the preview happen. The Lompoc brew crew is Dave Fleming, Bryan Keilty, Zach Beckwith and Irena Bierzynski (read my profile piece on Irena here). A great bunch of folks.

For the unknowing, it's important to note that Lompoc is not a large brewing operation. They actually have trouble supplying their regular beers to their five locations, and expanding bottle distribution. Yet they somehow found a way to produce the 10 holiday beers we previewed on Tuesday. Sometimes you wonder.

The first beer we tasted was Blitzen, a spiced golden ale originally brewed for the Holiday Ale Festival a few years back. Blitzen is a low alcohol beer (4.6% ABV), with a light malt character, a hefty cinnamon aroma and hints of lemon and ginger on the pallet. It offers are rare combination of character and drinkability. Blitzen will be Available at Lompoc pubs only, according to Fechter.

Filling tasters kept the Lompoc folks busy

Next up was Cherry Christmas, which is a blend of four different beers. The elves at Lompoc make great standard beers, but the experimental stuff is truly grand. This beer is slightly sour and reminded me of some of the beers they're producing at Cascade Brewing Barrel House. But it's fairly light at 5.6% ABV. Cherry Christmas may undergo some additional tweaks, they said, but I found it to be excellent, as is. This is Lompoc's offering at the 2011 Holiday Ale Festival, coming up in a couple of weeks.

Brewdolph is a Belgian-style red ale brewed with Ardennes yeast. It's mildly sour and fruity, with hints of clove on the pallet. This beer does of nice job of hiding its 7.7% punch. We quickly moved on to Holiday Cheer, almost certainly the darkest of the beers tasted on the evening. It's a full-bodied vanilla porter that combines a terrific chocolate bar flavor with robust vanilla notes. The elves at Lompoc tossed vanilla beans in the conditioning tank to fashion Holiday Cheer, with great success. Cheers!

The Lompoc elves, Bryan, Irena, Dave, Jerry and Zach

Jolly Bock is another of the beers that was originally made for the Holiday Ale Festival. This is a lager, deep amber in color with a rich malt flavor and spicy hop finish. Jolly Bock doesn't have the depth of character present in most of these beers, but it's a style thing.

One of Lompoc's most popular beers is C-Note Imperial Pale Ale made with the seven "C" hops (Crystal, Cluster, Cascade, Chinoook, Centennial, Columbus and Challenger). The holiday version of that beer, C-Sons Greetings, is tweaked with more malt and hops. All seven hop varieties are used in dry-hopping this beer, with magnificent results. Bourbon Barrel Aged C-Sons Greetings, aged for seven months and cellared for another month, is slightly over the top. A heavy bourbon character is present in the nose and taste. I preferred the standard C-Sons Greetings. Both of these beers come in at 8% ABV.

Old Tavern Rat is a dark barley wine, aged for nearly a year. It's named after late Don Younger, the legendary Portland publican who was a partner in the Lompoc operation for many years. Old Tavern Rat is a nicely balanced barley wine, featuring sweet caramel and hints toffee, along with a hop punch. Younger would hate this beer, Fechter admits. At 9.4%, you can't drink a lot of it and the Old Tavern Rat liked to have his paying customers drink several beers. Cheers to Don!

Foyston signs Old Tavern Rat labels

As good as the standard version is, Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Tavern Rat is another click up. Brewed nearly two years ago (December 2009), this beer was aged in barrels for 10 months and cellared for another 13 months. I wasn't sure about this beer at first, fearing bourbon overload. I turned the corner quickly. The barrel aging and cellaring has given this beer a full, yet mellow character. This stuff won't be available for long, and it will only be sold at Lompoc locations and a few bottle shops. Get some if you can. And when you do, let it quietly age for a year or two in your beer cellar. It's great now, but I think it will be even better down the road. Trust me.

A quick note on the Foyston photo above: If you go to the Sidebar, you will see a picture of Don Younger above the fireplace. John Foyston painted that picture, which was done secretly and first shown to Younger about a year ago. Younger was reportedly blown away. Sadly, he died a few months later. Anyway, the painting is the basis for the label on Old Tavern Rat in bottles. John signed labels and bottles during Tuesday night's event.

Holiday cheers!