The Great Northwest Brewery Tour Part 3: Portland Oregon

At last we come to that Mecca of microbrewing.  It is the city that more or less spawned the brewpub culture that we all know and love.  The Pacific Northwest is the land of good beer and Portland is it's capitol.  So strap in, there is going to be some minor drinking taking place.

Yep those are fruit loops on that doughnut. 

When on the third day of a drinking binge, it's important to take nutrition into consideration.  Your body has expended a lot of energy trying to keep your brain from drowning in an ocean of booze not to mention the extra expenditure that results from trying to keep yourself from careening into walls, trees or other bar patrons.   It's also important to create a base with which to start pouring the next round of booze.  Without that ever important foundation the alcohol will have a direct line of assault to the body and you end up plastered before lunchtime.   Endurance is the key here.  So we started our day in Portland at the Voodoo Doughnut, a local shop famous for their cavalier attitude towards what can and can not be put on top of deep-fried carbohydrates and also exactly what shapes said deep-fried carbohydrates can take.  Keep in mind that when going there with the kids, there are many things that are shaped like a shaft with two round lumps on either side.  Top choices: rocket ships, submarines with attached air tanks, er um... bear claws with one enlarged claw, a bakery accident involving the lady fingers and a box of doughnut holes....
Anyway, enough with the Freudian pastries, on to the beer.  Our first stop in the morning was at Hair of the Dog brewing company.  It hard to pin this particular brewery down specifically, so I am just going to say this.  Hair of the Dog brews a lot of really good beer.  As much as I like novelty in my brews, this isn't it.  They take malt, hops and yeast and make them do fantastic complex things in my face hole, and that is to be commended.    Worthy of note, Fred a beer that contains a certain lore in my family.  My father had it once about seven or eight years ago and was never able to find it again until I brought him some from this trip.  It has a fruity cherry aroma with a hint of citrus.  It starts of sweet, malty with lots of fruity flavor that slowly blend into grassy herbal hop flavors.  Secondly there is Adam.   It has smoky, dark fruit aroma.  The flavor is leathery, smokey with some sharp roasted barley flavors.

Next was the Lucky Labrador.  This brewpub is probably worth mentioning for the sheer amount of different beers available at any given time.  The last time I visited this establishment was on the original Great Northwest Brewery tour about six years ago.  It was the last stop of the day and my friend, Garrett had to drive us to Seattle and therefor I was imbibing the majority of our tasters that day.  We arrived and Garrett went up to get us our tasters flight and came back with a platter that would easily be enough for four people seated at a table.  This was just the two of us and, as I said before, one of us had to drive.  I am sad to report that the massive platter is no longer available, probably after sending one too many people like myself giggling insanely into the night.  You can still try all of their beers, but it's going to take you two or three flights to do it.  The selections were good, but nothing was really outstanding.  I will mention the Black Lab Stout, it had a maple, caramel malt flavor to it with a bite of roasted barley and herbal hops.  Also there is the Black Sheep CDA.
CDA, you may ask yourself, what is that?  Well do you remember that snake pit I mentioned a couple of posts ago in Bend?  Well here we go:
Short story: What is a CDA?  It's a dark IPA. You can move on now.
Long Story: Why the new beer acronym? Well...it's like this.  The people of Oregon like their hops, and they will put them in anything.   It was only a matter of time before some brewer started looking at a class of porter and a pile of Cascade hops and finally made the connection.   And in reality that connection was made years ago when the first Dark IPA's started rolling out.  The problem was, as a few snarky beer snobs started to point out, that they were brewing a Dark Indian Pale Ale.  As Shakespeare would say, "That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow."   (That's right bustin out the Shakespeare.  I'm not just another pretty face over here.) I knew what they meant and I think most beer lovers did as well.  But let's face it, a dark pale ale is kind of stupid and we all know it. So the new term is a CDA or a Cascadian Dark Ale.  It might be a little presumptuous as it implies that it was those crazy hop-head brewers in Portland that thought of a bitter dark beer.  Still I like it if only for the shout out to the Pacific Northwest's contribution to the world of brewing.
Now, as for this particular CDA? It has a slight coffee and herbal aroma.  Flavor is much the same with that kind of bitterness that is reminiscent of an English IPA.

Out next stop was just down Hawthorn street.  It was time for a quick break from malt and hops and dip our toes in the cool, clear water of distilling.  Microdistilling is still in it's childhood in this country, but if any city was going to represent this growing market, it would be Portland and the New Deal distillery did not disappoint.  Their offerings are pretty strait forward, they have vodka and gin and both are very good, but the real fun lies in their slightly off the wall selections.  If you a fan of sweet drinks then the Mud Puddle chocolate liquor is something that you  will want to try.  It was sweet but it had enough of a bitter, unsweetened chocolate flavor that set it apart from your average bottle of creme de cacao that basically amounts to chocolate syrup and alcohol.  For something slightly less sweet, there is a ginger liquor that pretty much tells you all you need to know, it's spicy sweet and wonderful.  For you the adventurous there is the Hot Monkey.  It's a pepper vodka that, as demonstrated at the distillery, makes a mean bloody mary.  Drinking it straight is another option, but only if you really like biting right into a pepper.

Next was the Buckman Village Brewery at the Green Dragon pub.  There are brewpubs that have one or two eccentric beers on tap, but not here.  Here eccentric is what they do.  24/7, all year around there is going to be something a little weird in your glass.  The brewery is owned by Rogue Breweries, a brewing organization known for some of their own strange brews.  Given that, part of me believes that Buckman functions a kind of a laboratory for Rogue on some level.   My personal favorite here was the Caramello, a beer brewed with chamomile tea leaves.  It has a light, lavender, floral citrus aroma and flavor that was a fantastic session beer. My second choice was the the black saison which combined the slightly sour fruity flavor of this farmhouse ale with the chocolate coffee and licorice flavor of a porter.

And that was Portland... actually that's a lie.  That was half of Portland.  The other half can wait until later.  So I'll talk at you all again next week as me and my friends continue to roll our way around this city.
Cheers.