Soda water dates back to the 18th century, and many of America’s most popular pop brands emerged in the late 19th century. Today, business is bubbling among craft soft drink producers. It’s no surprise that many flavorful soda concoctions hail from craft brewers…Look for sodas with fresh fruits, hand-squeezed juices and spices like coriander, cardamom and capsicum—creative, full-flavored beverages even a beer geek can get behind.
In Portland, IPAs sell themselves. Over one in four beers we consume locally is a hop-tastic IPA, and in terms of sales growth, they’re speeding up over 30 percent. While we don’t have fancy sales stats for stouts, suffice it to say, people around here mostly shy away from them, possibly for fear they’re “too heavy.”
That bias doesn’t take into account the fact that a dry Irish stout is one of the lightest classic beer styles, or that boisterous Russian Imperial Stouts completely dominate user-generated best lists on RateBeer and BeerAdvocate. Where does that leave a style that is essentially a hybrid of the two? Black IPAs are recognized formally as American-style black ales by the Brewers Association, but are known locally and colloquially as Cascadian Dark Ales.
In this era of ever-hybridized India Pale Ales, only the dark version — in which recipes call for the hop additions of an IPA with the roasted malt bill of a stout or porter — has really taken off at the races. It’s safe to say Turmoil CDA from Eastern Oregon’s Barley Brown’s is the odds-on favorite.
All the IBUs. Half the ABV. Welcome to the India session ale (ISA). This is the story for CraftBeer.com that inspired one of my most revered beer writer colleagues, Martyn Cornell from the UK, to posit, “India Session Ales – tremendous new trend or oxymoronic category fail?” What’s your favorite sessionable IPA? What’s your take on the debate over this style?
The beauty of an India Session Ale? The brew retains the hop-powered IBUs (international bitterness units) of an IPA while you retain more of your wits with lower ABV. In time for summer in the May, 2013 issue of Portland Monthly, I delved into five ISAs for the “Wallet Guide.”
A month after my debut muckraking post for The New School (April ’13), I had some fun again both by declaring IPA dead and, more egregious to publisher Ezra and the beer community on the whole, announcing that another editor of mine, Willy Week’s Martin Cizmar, was “right.” Again, the comments blew up. I can see how this kind of needling is addictively fun.
Oh, my central tenet? “White chocolate is not chocolate. It’s a derivative of chocolate containing cocoa butter, but chocolate requires actual cocoa! If I sauté broccoli in cocoa butter did I make green chocolate? White chocolate is an abomination used to sell a disgusting confectioner’s creation using a delicious marketing name.”
In a way, this is my first real blog post for The New School. The blog’s creator, Ezra Johnson-Greenough, earned a reputation for landing somewhere between a button-pusher and in-your-face. He’d probably call it “brutally honest” or “constructive criticism.” Whatever the style, it works. The site’s really quite popular among beer geeks. More than my previous or this current blog will ever be. And that’s a fact he liked to brandish my way. But guess what. I can do that, too. I tried to temper my goat-getting with enough blunt comments about my tongue-in-cheek nature of this post but even that went over a few people’s foamy heads. I’m too lazy to look up the number of hits, but I know it immediately became one of the most clicked stories on the site. Funny stuff.
Oh yeah, the story. It was called No-no to Nanos with the premise that, “Basically, oxymoronically, nanobrewers are like professional homebrewers” and that they should do ME a solid and keep it in the garage.
Edit: This story was awarded 2nd place in the “Brewspaper” category at the inaugural North American Guild of Beer Writers (NAGBW) awards in October 2013)
When Willy Week resurrected the Beer Guide, I was tasked with writing the oral history, as it were, of one of this city’s most seminal beer offerings: Widmer Brothers’ Hefeweizen. It has protagonists, controversy, some romance, and pretty much everything needed for a Hollywood blockbuster save for a rando choreographed fight or homecoming dance scene. Oh, this story also netted me a 2nd place finish in the inaugural award ceremony of the North American Guild of Beer Writers!
Image courtesy Widmer Bros.
It’s a gospel fact that the best way to soak up the glory of these early summer-like days is in the sanctuary of a beer garden. Praise be that Stickmen Brewery & Skewery in Lake Oswego, though already opened softly, had its grand opening recently. Now, Oswegans can soak up the sun and lakefront views while sipping a dozen house beers. The “skewery” half of this Izakaya-style pub — it serves Japanese-style food-on-sticks and other small plates — brings lots of sake and shochu to the beverage program. Head in soon and you can try the limited Sake Beer, a strong, fruity ale fermented with sake yeast. Though that one is definitely a crowd favorite, so too is Spring 13 Saison. The seasonal is fermented with Belgian Ardennes yeast, which are the highlight of and perfect complement to this delicate beer’s lemony and spicy aromas and flavors. Pairing it with a variety of meat or vegetable bites is pretty much effortless. Why stop there? Hurry over to the lake pub and you might still find a sip of Meyer-Bay Saison, created for April’s Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers festival. Brewers Jon “JT” Turner and Tim Schoenheit dry-hopped Spring 13 with Meyer lemon peel and bay leaves, and it’s remarkable how the dominant notes toggle from heavy on the sweet citrus to more robust Italian seasoning as it warms in the glass. Saisons naturally take on herbal additions and the additions showcase this epicurean style nicely.
For the reboot the Beertown USA travel feature in the latest issue of DRAFT (Mar. 2013), they asked me to not just list and summarize the best spots to hit in the small, high desert/quasi-mountain town of Bend–a city bursting with 20 breweries for its 80,000 residents–but to gear three separate itineraries for three distinct types of visitors. It’s a bit trickier than it sounds. Especially because I think most breweries in town would appeal to most beer tourists. But still, an assignment is an assignment, and a challenge is a challenge. I ended up with dividing the beer and other destinations into those for “outdoor enthusiasts,” those with “kids in tow,” and folks who deem themselves “locavores” or just really want tasty vittles.
There’s no better excuse, or time, to visit Seven Brides Brewing in Silverton than when heading to the Oregon Garden Beerfest. That’s where you’ll find the freshest pint of the brewery’s Frankenlou IPA (at the brewery, not necessarily at the festival).
Brian Yaeger: Beer Writer 