Beer Review: Mt. Hood Ice Axe IPA

I, among many beer bloggers it appears, was sent a bottle of Mt. Hood Ice Axe IPA to help announce its arrival in bottles and on the shelves of Zupan's Markets. Though I have driven by Mt. Hood's brewpub in Government Camp many times I have never had occasion to stop in, nor have I ever had the opportunity to taste their beer. 

Given that I had not been privy to any buzz about the place and also that it is launching (both predictably and smartly) an IPA as its first bottled offering to thirsty Oregonians I was frankly not expecting too much.  What I was expecting was a pretty conventional NW hop bomb with generous helpings of Cascade, Centennial and perhaps Columbus to make a three C hop bomb, or possibly Summit or another heavy citrus hop.  Which is all great for me, I am a slave to such beers.

What I got surprised and delighted me.  This is not a typical NW IPA, it is more of a NW take on a traditional English IPA.  And it is phenomenal.

I don't get too technical when I think about reviewing beer.  Frankly I don't have the palate for it, nor the inclination.  I like to drink beer experientially - by which I mean I like to think less about all of the component parts and more about how the beer makes me feel.  This beer hit a sweet sport because it took me immediately back to my beer tour of Britain with the Beerax while at the same time reminding me of home. 

It has a nice malt profile, and pours a fairly deep amber with ample head and nice lacing.  It is exceptionally well-balanced (which will probably lead to condemnation among NW hop heads) and is more malt forward than NW IPAs but true to the English style.  It features English variants Centennial, Willamette and Goldings hops prominently so look for a spicy and slightly piney hop flavor but not the big citrus nose that characterize so many of the big NW faves.   Added to this are Geman style Mt Hood and Magnum hops that further emphasize the spice.  This a brave beer to make in a region that has such a well-defined idea of what makes a good IPA.  This, my firends, is an exceptional IPA but wonderfully different.  As it warmed, the malt biscuity flavors mingled lovingly with the English spicy hops and made me think of those cold English evenings huddled in a country pub, tucked into a sheppard's pie and a fresh IPA.  Nice.

It splits the difference between Britain and the NW by coming in at 5.7% ABV - small for the NW, but grotesquely big for England.  And they claim 60 IBUs but these are English hops and treat your palate more lovingly than do the big NW super hops. 

Keep and open mind and enjoy a rare locally made English style IPA, done to perfection. 

A Brewery Bubble?

The U.S. now boasts 2,126 breweries—an increase of 350 additional breweries since June 2011. The BA also tracks breweries in planning as an indicator of potential new entrants into the craft category, and lists 1,252 breweries in planning today compared to 725 a year ago. Additionally, the count of craft brewers was at 2,075 as of June 30, 2012 showing that 97 percent of U.S. brewers are craft brewers.

With the latest Brewery Association numbers comes renewed worry that we may be seeing a bubble in brewing.  First, to be a little pedantic about it, in economics a good working definition of a bubble in when prices become detached to the fundamental value of the good in question.  Of course, careful economic students will think about how prices are set in marketplaces and represent the market value of a good - which leads to the first existential question in economics: can bubbles exist.  But leavoing that aside, I understand the usage here: are there now too many breweries than can be sustained long term in the market? [This is a bubble in the sense that the price folks are willing to pay to start a brewery may be too high given the present discounted value of the expected stream of revenues]

In general the market for craft beer is showing stong growth:

Dollar sales were up 14 percent in the first half of 2012, while volume of craft brewed beer sold jumped 12 percent during that same time period.

So the fact that the number of craft breweries is expanding makes sense. However, the overall market for beer is shrinking - something the big brewers are grappling with by getting into more and more flavored malt beverages to try and compete with cocktails and the like.  In other words, the craft beer niche is expanding at the same time the overall beer market is shrinking.  What to make of this?  I actually think it is not contradictory at all.  Whereas before most drinkers would find themselves behind a Bud, new drinkers are looking for more - more flavor, more variety, etc.  Both spirits and craft beer offer this.

Which is all to say that I think craft beer is in a good place and maybe we should think of craft beer in the same way we think about spirits and not lump it in with the macro lager industry.

Which is not to say that there will not be some bloodletting in the craft beer industry.  I imagine that at the rate of new openings we are currently seeing there are probably a number of breweries with inadequate experience, poorly thought out business plans or poos locations.  But brewery closings in these cases are a sign of industry health - creative destruction as economists call it - not a sign of an ailing industry.

Overall, then, I see no reason why the marketplace can't sustain vastly more brewpub models.  I think the pressure will be on production breweries - the economies of scale reality and the limited shelf space in supermarkets make pure production brewing much more cutthroat and I expect that we will soon start seeing some failures in this area even with overall increases in market share.  But again, I think this is healthy - better breweries will survive and lesser ones will not.

The winners in all of this are the punters who will get better beer, more variety and lower prices as a result.

Flat Tail Redux

On the last night of an intense work week in Corvallis I decided to finally get back to Flat Tail Brewery.  Work, unfortunately forced me to miss a chance to hang out with Dave the brewer so that will wait for another time but I have two little notes from my economist's notebook to pass along.


I hadn't noticed before but Flat Tail prices beer differently for different beer and roughly by ABV.  Which is nice.  It makes the exceptional Kolsch both a great session beer for being lower ABV but also because it won't make to big a dent in your wallet.  [I also suspect it helps cut down on binging by price sensitive college students but who knows]  The Kolsch last night was as good as I remember and perfect for a lovely summer evening down in the valley.

And talking of beer, I highly recommend the IPA, a great example of getting great flavor and aroma out of hops, but what the heck is Zythos hops?  Apparently good, because it was hopped with Cascade (which I know very well) and Zythos (which I don't).  Zythos appears to be a fruity hop ala Summit that imparts a nice citrus note.

I did not care for the imperial IPA, the Licentious Goat, because I am very sensitive to herbs and spices in beer and generally find them objectionable.  But, that is me and it is a very well made beer and a real crowd pleaser so there you are.  I bought a bottle of a pale ale (whose name escapes me) in a local market which was also very nice - it was great to see bottles out in the market.

I will also put in a plug for the fish and chips (one of my other passions).  The fresh halibut was fantastic and wonderfully flavorful.  Just a tiny bit rubbery, but nice big chunks cooked well puts it well up on my list.  I do think they should rethink the waffle fries though. And something that is often neglected is the tartar sauce, but Flat Tail's appears to be made fresh and is exceptionally tasty.  Ditto the slaw which is sans mayo, fresh, light and tasty. 

Funny that the crowd outside Bock 15 was bigger, but Flat Tail deserves just as much love: beautiful location, great beer and good food. 

Kids and Pubs

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

It always seemed like good economics to me to make pubs in Portland family friendly, and it is the rare exception to find a pub that is not.  I have never felt tension in such places and, though I am a parent who from time to time patronizes pubs with kids, I more often meet up with adult friends for a little adult chatter and beer sans fils.

But apparently our tolerant, family-friendly culture is not common in hard-core New York:

It seemed that every parent in Park Slope was talking about it. A new bar was opening on the edge of the neighborhood and its owner had put out the word to local families: strollers welcome.

This was big news among the stroller set in a Brooklyn neighborhood where relations between those with children and those without have often been testy.

But within days of the June 28 opening of the bar, Greenwood Park, vitriol erupted online.

Several patrons took to Yelp, the popular review Web site, to complain — loudly — about the influx of children.

“I arrived around 6 PM with friends and showed my ID to the doorman. OH YEAH, time for a laid back and relaxing time with some frosty beverages and bar food! WRONG, welcome to Chuck-E-Cheese in South Slope,” a Yelp reviewer, John H., posted on July 3. “From infant to toddler to preteen, every age except adult seemed to be well represented. I’m not sure why they even put tables and chairs in. It would have been far more practical to just throw a jungle gym in there and call it a day.”

At 13,000 square feet, Greenwood Park, tucked between the Prospect Expressway and Green-Wood Cemetery, is much, much larger than bars on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, where they average about 1,000 square feet, according to the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District. Most of its space is outdoors, ringed by a high wall of wooden pallets and dotted with picnic tables and featuring a bar made out of a shipping container, bocce courts and 40 varieties of draft beer.

Here are some amusing responses to this article.

I think places like Laurelwood get it just right: have an area in which kids can entertain themselves, mildly segregate the groups with kinds and those without and otherwise not worry so much about it.

OBF Review

Yesterday I got a full dose of the OBF starting with the parade and ending with a dinner at the House of Louie in Chinatown.  Here are my thoughts and recommendations [note that they coincide fairly strongly with Jeff/Beervana as he and I agree on a lot of things beer-wise and share each others beer choices to broaden our samples without getting falling-over drunk].

Parading through scenic industrial SE PDX

First off the parade was a mild amusement but not more than that.  Fun once, but I don't think I need to do it again.  Jeff mused that if you had arrived in Portland for the first time to attend the OBF and this was your first look (a march through the gritty industrial inner SE) you might have a skewed impression of our fair city.

Ah, this pic could be from any of the last 15 or so OBFs, but it was yesterday.  This is the absurdly long Dogfish Head line for a decidedly unimpressive beer.  Once again the Dogfish hype-machine at work in the service of poor beer - they do have some great ones but too many are total duds.  This is not a total dud, but no where near the best of the fest.

Second, it just keeps getting earlier and earlier.  I used to be able to count on a few relatively peaceful hours on Thursday afternoon before the chaos started, but this year, the first big whoop I heard came in just before 12:30pm.  Bummer.  Still, it is a pretty well oiled machine at this point and I never had to wait long for beer, toilet, or water.  On the latter, it really is time to improve these facilities.  More water stations and better flow rates.  Many have figured out that to stay hydrated you need to drink lots of water which leads to long wait times at the water stations as the little dribble fills up a big water bottle.

Third, the beer selection was good and quite varied.

Some of my favorites:

Uinta IPA - This is a pretty big IPA but very well well made with a delicious hop aroma and flavor

Sierra Nevada Pilsner - Not too big but full of American hops.  This is similar to the Laurelwood Pils in that sense but I thought a bit more successful.

Prodigal Son - I liked it a lot but it was not universally admired. 

Odell St. Lupulin Pale - Very, very nice hop aroma on a non-aggressive well-balanced beer.

Occidental Kellerbier - Perfect for a hot beerfest day.

Gigantic Dynomite! - What else is there to say?

Flat Tail White Light/White Ale - Beautiful use of white peppercorn to give some spice and flavor.

Epic Lager - Wonderful hop flavor in a lighter session ale.

Dissappointments:

Russian River - too much of a good thing, Simcoe, it turns out.  A little agressive and one dimensional.

Ninkasi  Pils - A dark pilsner?!? I'm sure some love it but I don't want roasted noted in my pils.

Dogfish Head Wheat Beer - Overdone, and way too many banana esters fro my taste. But if you like you them banana-y wheat beers, and many do, try this.

Boundary Bay Pale - A well-made beer but it turns out that the Delta hop is not one of my favorites.  I don't think it has enough character to stand alone.   

Ooops - ones I missed but wished I hadn't:

Pelican Wit.

Eel River Pale.

Fort George Wit.

Lompoc Saison.  Figure I can try this locally at the Oaks Bottom.

Summit Abbey.  If this was last year this would have been my brother's contribution to the Unchained series, now he has moved on to Renegade in Denver. 

Finally, a bonus.  With I-5 across the river closed this weekend, the fest should afford a rare opportunity to enjoy the waterfront park without the din of cars.  Now if we could only do something about the ever-increasing "whoop".

Enjoy the fest folks!

Beer Review: Widmer Citra Blonde

 The Widmers do love the Citra hop...and so do I.  Citra, which started out as the experimental 114 hop that gives X-114 IPA its name tastes just like the name suggests: a citrus explosion, more orange and lemon than others on my palate.  As I have made plain in these pages, I absolutely love X-114 (bring it back please!) and the main reason is the wonderful Citra hop note they achieve.

But I also love sessionable beers and am a big proponent of lower alcohol beers with lots of flavor.  And so it is that the Widmers (a brewery which as recently as a few years ago I hardly gave a second thought) have brought out a beautiful new beer, the Citra Blonde for the summer. 

At 4.3% ABV and only 20 IBUs you might be tempted to believe that the beer will be watery and tasteless.  You would be very wrong, the beer absolutely sings with the Citra hop while not overwhelming you with bitterness.  It has a very simple malt base, mostly pale malt with some caramel for color and a touch of sweetness.  It pours out a beautiful golden with a slight hint of amber and has a generous head - it definitely looks the part of a summer thirst quencher.  Then it hits the nose with a gorgeous aroma of Citra hops and has the flavor to match.  For those that think you need a 7%ABV hop bomb to get hop flavor in spades this is the perfect rejoinder.  Yes it misses that bracing bitterness but it also wont put you right to sleep in the middle of the day.  I give it a super-big thumbs up, this is the beer I have been waiting from from NW brewers - a hop infused summer session beer.

Once again, time to give it up for the Widmers - they have definitely found their mojo.

Back in Time for the OBF!

 
I failed to mention on this blog, mea culpa, that I was going on a bit of a blogging hiatus, but I am back now (both physically and spiritually) and ready to resume blogging and beery things.  The good news is that I have timed my return with the Oregon Brewers Festival!  The OBF just keeps getting bigger and bigger and, unfortunately, more of a scene and a bit overrun (they anticipate nearly 80,000 attendees this year).  But if you are wise like me you have a nice afternoon on Thursday before the crowds get too crazy and enjoy the hard to get beers on offer.

[It is also worth noting that they do an very good job handling the crowds: the porta-potties are plentiful (this is a beer fest after-all, you are going to need a LOT of toilets), the lines get long for some popular beers, but are generally not too bad, and there is ample free drinking water]

This year I am even planning on joining the parade from the Cascade Barrel House to the OBF.  For me I always enjoy getting to sample great breweries like Boundary Bay that are not available in Oregon.  This year, Boundary Bay is offering up a Double Dry Hopped Delta Pale Ale which is right in my wheelhouse.  I was also happy to see that SF's 21st Amendment is finally bringing something other than the uber-popular Watermelon Wheat.  Kudos to them.

Some of the beers that piqued my interest (this being summer, I am particularly interested in lower ABV beers):

10 Barrel Brewing, Bend: Raspberry Crush.  A 5.2% ABV Raspberry tart beer with lacto and rice syrup.  Could be a great summer session beer.

Laurelwood, Portland: Portlandia Pils.  Apparently Van Havig (of Gigantic fame) had a hand in this pilsener brewed with Columbus, Cascade, Ahtanum, Simcoe, Amarillo and Centennial hops.  Wha?  This is a must-try.  No word on the yeast - ale or lager, would like to know - but at 5.5% it could be the hit of the fest. 

Boundary Bay, Bellingham: Double Dry Hopped Delta Pale Ale.  A 5.6% pale single hopped with Delta, a hop of which I am unfamiliar.  I'll know it intimately after this.

Ninkasi, Eugene:  Lady of Avalon. Ninkasi, masters of the hop bomb, rolling along with a 5.2% Pilsener that they lagered for four months.  Nice!

Russian River, Santa Rosa: Story of Simcoe.  Like the BB above, a single hopped adventure into the world of the Simcoe hop.  5.8% ABV.

Flat Tail, Corvallis: White Light / White Ale.  Okay so this is a 8% ABV bomb, but combining Flat Tail and Velvet Underground has got to be a sure winner.

Gigantic, Portland: Dynomite!  It is Gigantic and it is dynomite, what more is there to know?  At 8.9% even JJ would call it dynomite!, by the way,

There are surely many more that will pique yours, so go have a look at the list of the beers.

Here are the essentials:

Venue
Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon Main entrance at S.W. Oak Street and Naito Parkway

Dates
July 26 - 29, 2012 — "Always the last full weekend in July"

Times
Thurs through Sat, taps are open from Noon to 9 p.m. Sun, taps are open from Noon to 7 p.m. Token & mug sales close one-half hour prior to the taps shutting off

Admission
Admission into the festival grounds is free. In order to consume beer, purchase of a 2012 souvenir mug is required and costs $6. Mugs from previous years will not be filled. Beer is purchased with wooden tokens. Tokens cost $1 apiece. Patrons pay four tokens for a full mug of beer, or one token for a taste. The festival is cash only; there are ATMs on-site.