The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [5]
In the summer of 2010, Gansberg opened this 6,000-square-foot facility with barrel-aging rooms and sixteen taps, including at least two directly from the barrels. It was the country’s first bar dedicated to sour beers, which begged the question: In the land of hops, wouldn’t an IPA bar make more sense? Not so fast. Despite an uninspired food menu (so far) the bar is normally busy if not packed, and a May 2011 Saison Fest kicked off another new tradition for beer festival-packed Portland.
PHILOSOPHY
“Bring your A-game,” says Gansberg. “If a beer isn’t really making a statement, then it’s really hardly worth our time to brew.”
KEY BEER
Cascade Apricot (usually around 8.5% ABV) is a crisp, tart ale that goes through sixteen months of lactic fermentation and then spends four months resting on Washington State apricots in French oak wine barrels. Cascade has a huge lineup of beers, but this is consistently the best.
HAIR OF THE DOG BREWING CO.
61 SE Yamhill St. • Portland, OR 97214 • (503) 232-6585 hairofthedog.com • Established: 1993
SCENE & STORY
Once housed in a pub-less, ramshackle warehouse space in deep southeast Portland, the venerable Hair of the Dog operation has a new house. Its new home is much more user-friendly: the inner southeast industrial district, a chic mixed-use area of start-ups, farm-to-table eateries, and loft spaces in converted meatpacking and produce warehouses. There, founder Alan Sprints and family have set up shop in an airy space brightly painted in hues of teal, gray, and green around a polished eight-tap central bar. Off to the right side of the room is a little open kitchen where Sprints (a trained chef ) himself does a lot of the cooking, like a recent dish of beer-braised beef served with whole grain mustard and spring greens.
PHILOSOPHY
Innovative and community-minded, Sprints was among the first brewers in the country to adopt the use of bourbon and whiskey barrels to age his beers, some of which are variations of long-forgotten styles like . Sprints got the idea from legendary Portland beer writer Fred Eckhardt, who happily scored the first bottle.adambier, a type of strong aged ale from Dortmund, Germany
KEY BEER
Sprints made his name with Adam and Fred (named for Eckhardt) and other big, boozy brews numbered for the purpose of cellaring; vintage bottles are available at the taproom (batch #1 of Adam is $75 for 12 ounces). But today his Blue Dot double IPA is setting a lot of tongues (or tails?) wagging. It’s 7% ABV and often near perfect, with waves of sweet, grapefruity hops and a crackingly dry, bitter finish.
HOPWORKS URBAN BREWERY
2944 SE Powell Blvd. • Portland, OR 97202 • (503) 232-4677 hopworksbeer.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
San Francisco native Christian Ettinger found his beer inspiration in Cologne, Germany, touring the city’s famed Kölsch producers and hanging out in atmospheric bierstubes during college. Back in the states, he attended brewing school through the Vermont-based American Brewers Guild, and then honed his skills in a Eugene brewpub and Portland’s Laurel-wood Public House.
Ettinger opened his kid- and bike-friendly brewpub in Southeast Portland (often called simply H.U.B.), using organic grains and innovative green-brewing practices like biodiesel to fuel the kettles, eco-friendly building materials, and both CO2 and heat recycling. Recently, Ettinger has embarked on a fairly extensive barrel program at the brewery, opened a new bar in northeast Portland (Bikebar, summer 2011), and continues to sponsor a hugely popular party, Biketoberfest, at the brewery in September.
PHILOSOPHY
Ettinger keeps it simple. “Any [one] can throw a wall of ingredients at something and come up with a bold flavor, and some people will like it. I love simplicity. If it isn’t simple, skip it.”
KEY BEER
An homage to the birthplace of the Pilsner style, the ample but not heavy Czech-style H.U.B. Lager (5.1% ABV). “It’s the most rewarding beer to make,” says Ettinger, “because it’s so simple and so stark. There’s little body