The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [12]
Today, Deschutes has also opened an upscale brewpub in Portland’s swank Pearl District—often packed and playing host to a summer street fair and high-profile cooking events. They’re expanding the little old Bond Street pub too. From ski-bum hangout to industry heavyweight the company is (currently ranked around fifth in the land for sales volume), Deschutes has come far.
PHILOSOPHY
Success hasn’t come at the expense of quality. The more states that pick up the beer (some twenty at this stage), the more brewers seem freed to experiment on the side with barrel-aged stouts like The Abyss and sours like The Dissident, a Flanders-style oud bruin aged in oak barrels with cherries, both of which are excellent.
KEY BEER
Deschutes has pulled off some exceptional Belgian styles here and there, but their area of domination is truly in the British-style ales, IPAs, porters, and stouts. Black Butte Porter deserves a victory lap. It’s a little-known fact that Guinness Extra Stout debuted under the brand Extra Superior Porter and remained so for forty-one years, a stronger, darker version of the dark-hued London-born drink. Today the style has taken on many forms of its own around the world, from purist English versions to fiery Baltic variations and American riffs that incorporate peppers and sour notes. In Deschutes’s formula, tangy Northwest hops come to the fore with finesse, balancing its cocoa, coffee, and toffee notes from its blend of roasted malts. And, at 5.5% ABV, it’s a touch lighter than the old Extra Superior.
AN OREGON BREWER’S MANTRA,
APPROPRIATED
“I come from the West where the illimitable mountains lift up their heads . . . where in a civilization founded on the mine and the camp, we believe that the saloon and the theater has as good a right to be open on Sunday as the church and the school . . . where we think that it is the right of every American to go to hell and be damned if he wants to. That is not humor—it is the truth.”
—Oregon writer and soldier
C.E.S. Wood, 1852–1944
Corvallis
BLOCK 15 BREWERY & RESTAURANT
300 SW Jefferson Ave. • Corvallis, OR 97333 (541) 758-2077 • block15.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
Housed in the historic corner building that used to be the Gazette-Times newspaper office, Block 15’s name comes from its address (or block number) from the early days of Corvallis. It’s a small brewery, relatively speaking, but it holds a lot of significance locally as a popular watering hole, with fourteen taps (seven rotating), two floors, and room for about 120 imbibers. There’s a appealing menu of fare like house-smoked pork shoulder, burgers, and crispy fries. It’s also a rallying point for the fermentation science majors at Oregon State University, who get their own dedicated tap to showcase experimental brews. Suddenly, Corvallis has a bigger beer scene. “We’re in our own little island,” says brewer and co-owner Nick Arsner, “but we’ve got a great little beer culture growing here in Corvallis.”
PHILOSOPHY
Nonconformist. Given that Corvallis is something of a conservative town, with endless acres of corn, hops, and locals in big pickup trucks, Arsner’s cutting a different track. “I love the art in barrel aging and mixed fermentations rather than kicking out IPA,” he says. There’s even a cool ship in the works, which would be among the first in the country.
KEY BEER
Pappy’s Dark, brewed with six different Belgian and British malts and aged in nine- and ten-year-old bourbon barrels, is a velvety, deep, and rich beer with flavors of bourbon, caramel, and woody vanilla (10% ABV).
Enterprise
TERMINAL GRAVITY