Gigantic Brewing Blasts Off

There was great anticipation in the days, weeks and months before the doors at Gigantic Brewing finally opened a few weeks back. That's largely because co-founders Van Havig and Ben Love both have extensive connections to the local beer community.

The schwag wagon arrived early on

If you aren't in the know, Havig was the head brewer at Rock Bottom Brewery (downtown) for 16 years before he left in a dispute over the direction there. Love worked with Christian Ettinger at Hopworks from the beginning there. If you consider the gestation period typically required to convert brewers to brewery owners in Portland, it’s pretty clear that Havig and Love were ready for their own gig.

This business will do well. The brewery and tasting room is located in a good spot…a hop (haha) and a skip from the Reed College campus. That should provide a regular crowd of thirsty patrons to go with the folks that come here from around town.

House IPA + Sunshine = Gigantic!

During the recent grand opening, they featured five house beers and three guest taps. I suspect the guest taps will go away as they evolve. I want to mention the IPA, which I first tasted at the Oregon Garden Brewfest about a month ago. It reminds me of Boneyard RPM...lots of floral and citrus notes. Terrific!

Havig and Love intend to maintain a rotating list of beers. They will reportedly have only a single year-round beer...I assume the IPA, which will sell well. This means they will be brewing a lot of specials and seasonals. That’s in keeping with the general Portland trend of increasingly eclectic beers.

The bar's over there

It’s worth mentioning there’s no food here. Nada. This is just a tasting room. They’re leaving a lot of money on the table by not offering food in this under-served part of town. But food obviously is not their thing. They intend to make it or not based on the quality of their beer.

Those beers will be distributed to a variety of pubs and retail outlets via Maletis Distributing. However, the tasting rooming is more than worth a visit. It's small, interesting and comfortable. They now have tables outside, which wasn't the case initially because they were waiting on the appropriate city permit.

If you're headed their way, check the website before you drive, bike or whatever. They're open five days a week, but hours are somewhat limited. Oh, they will evidently be open for Portland Timbers games, regardless of the day.

Collaboration Brewer's Dinner Serves Up Hits and Misses

There are a lot of breweries and brewers in Portland. Not such a big secret, eh? What some people may not know is that the brewing community is relatively tight knit. Most of these folks know each other, which presents the opportunity for friendships and rivalries at the same time.

Last week's Collaboration Brewers Dinner at Laurelwood on NE Sandy was an opportunity for several brewers who know each other well to show off what they can do. The collaborators, Vasili Gletsos (Laurelwood), Van Havig (Gigantic) Alex Ganum (Upright) and Tom Bleigh (Hopworks), know each other from past brewing gigs.

The basic specs flyer

For the record, this isn't the first Brewer's Dinner they've held at Laurelwood. It is, however, the first one I've been to. The idea behind these events is to pair beers with appropriate foods, similar what you see at a vintner dinner with different wines served with different courses. Beer can work very well this way, contrary to what some people think.Yeah, I've heard the snickers.

Before I get to the menu, I should mention that this event was well-attended. I didn't ask how many tickets were sold. My understanding is there were still some tickets left on game day, but there couldn't have been that many because the place was pretty packed. (The pub was closed to the public during the dinner.)

I want to note that Laurelwood's physical space does not set up perfectly for an event like this. If you've been there, you know why. Instead of a large room where there's a shared ambiance, diners sat in three separate areas: bar section, main section, west section. This isn't ideal, though it also isn't a deal killer.

The menu specs

The menu for the five-course dinner was put together by Laurelwood Chef, Aaron Nichols. There was certainly significant coordination between Nichols and the brewers to see that the planned beers and planned foods matched up. Great line-up.

Firsts
The first course was chicken coronets served with preserved lemon. Very tasty, slightly spicy. The beer pairing, a bold Cascadian Pilsner brewed by Gletsos and Havig, was excellent. This beer, born from German base malts and neutral lager yeast, leaned heavily on several hops to create a firm, but not overly aggressive Northwest hop character. I'd like to see this beer on tap somewhere...anywhere.

Round 1

Seconds
The second item was a shrimp and mussel soup with lemon grass, kafir lime leaf, fish stock, chilies, garlic, shallot and Thai spices. It was tough to get a bead on the soup because it was lukewarm when it arrived. Everyone at my table agreed. The mussels were terrific. The shrimp were okay. Otherwise, nothing stellar.

The beer pairing was a Thai Wit brewed by Bleigh and Gletsos. This is a delicate beer and it went well with the soup. However, it seemed out of place behind the very bold Pilsner served in round one. Food for thought.

Round 2

Thirds
This was the best pairing of the evening, I thought. A salad combining blood orange and arugula with red onions, Castelvetrano olives and parsley was delightful. The beer, a Sour Red ale, was terrific. It was based on a Flemish style red and was several years in the making as the four brewers mixed and matched their barrel aging projects. The result was a pleasantly tart beer that matched the salad perfectly. Well done!

Fourths
This was the main course, a smoked pork belly and pomegranate barbecued brisket with potato-chard gratin and pomegranate glaze. The paired beer was a Scottish Ale brewed by Gletsos and Ganum. The plate could have been warmer, but the pork and other items were quite tasty. The beer was overtly smokey, possibly related to the sour served in round 3. Still, quite good.

Fifths
The initial menu for this event listed grapefruit tart and pecan brittle as the dessert. Several people at my table noted the change, for which there was no explanation. Anyway, the replacement was a chocolate chiffon cake paired with a Milk Stout. The cake went well with what I would call a mild stout. It was a decent pairing, but it lost some mojo compared to what came before it.

Scorecard
For my money, they served up three solid hits on the food menu: the chicken coronets, the arugula salad and the smoked pork belly. The soup was a near miss. The cake, not so much. On the beer side, the Cascadian Pilsner and the Sour Red were direct hits. I put the Thai Wit and the Scottish Ale in the near miss category. Opinions will certainly differ...these are mine.

One area where they can do better is the interaction between the brewers and the paying customers. Vasili stopped by our table and talked for a minute. None of the other brewers did. This was possibly related to the way Laurelwood's space is split up, I admit. Still, people who pay good money to attend these dinners like to mingle with the guys who made the beer. Pretty simple, eh?

I know what all you kids at home want to know: Was the dinner worth the $50 cost? It definitely depends on your perspective. If you like unique beers paired with inventive, tasty food items, then you're going to see the value. If that isn't your thing, this isn't your gig. Take your $50 and spend it somewhere else.