Portland, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

As far as beer goes, Portland is on top of that. Last night I went to Portland’s Holiday Ale Festival in Pioneer Courthouse Square. The beer at this festival was really really surprising as I’m used to all the dark reds, IPA’s and American ales that brewers release for the Winter. The beers here were mostly Belgian, German, and English inspired dark ales. There was a lot of really intense, complex, and malty stuff floating around. Also, a heavy percentage of the beers have been aged in bourbon or wine barrels. But you know what, it was really a lot of fun and I tried a lot of beer that I never ever would have tried.

I liked this festival more than the Oregon Brewers Festival in the late summer because here the breweries seemed to be doing something quite experimental. There was a lot of great beer and there was some really bad beer, but it was all fun. Some of it you just had to try, no matter what you thought it was going to taste like. Take for example Cascade Brewings Drie Zwarte Pieten (Sang Noir): Exclusive to this festival, this big, full-bodied tart cherry red ale with distinct barrel notes comes from a blend of several barrel aged beers, with portions of the beer aging in Pinot Noir and Whiskey barrels. Fresh Bing Blood cherries were added to some of the beer and refermented in the barrel for three months before being added to the final blend. Sounds crazy right? It was. And many of the beers were equally as wild.

Here’s a list of the beers I had (the descriptions are mostly from the catalog):

Bridgeport Brewing – Raven Mad Imperial Porter
Humongous amounts of Chocolate and Roasted Barley malts. Aged on a blend of Bourbon and wine barrels.

Cascade Brewing Co – Drie Zwarte Pieten (Sang Noir)
I already explained this one above. It’s pretty wild, really puckery if you know what I mean. Check this out: ABV 9.5% and IBU 06.

Full Sail Brewing – Dry Hopped Wassail
Specially brewed for this fest. It’s the normal wassail but after maturation it was “racked onto 2008 crop whole flower Brewwer’s Gold hops.”

Golden Valley Brewery – Oaken Bomb
Made especially for this fest. This is their Tannen Bomb ale aged in oak casks, and dry hopped with Kent Goldings.

Hair of the Dog – Jim 2008
I couldn’t not have Hair of the Dog right? This one was really strange to me. It’s made exclusively for the fest. It’s their normal Adam of the Wood Beer but aged for 4 months in wet Elija Craig bourgon barrels. And that’s combined with the Fred of the Wood Beer, which was aged in new America oak. Also, it was combined with their Blue Dot and Doggie Claws beers. It ALSO has 2003 Samichlaus and 2007 Chimay Grand Reserve. Phew!

Hopworks – Noggin’ Floggin’
This was the first drink I had. It’s a sweet barley wine, and just a precursor to all the sweet beers I would drink later on.  ABV 9.6% and IBU 90.

Laurelwood Brewing – Weihnachtsfest
A dark German lager (dopplebock). It was smooth and full. A solid beer from a solid brewery.

Lompoc Brewing – Brewdolph
Belgian-style strong is brewed with malted barley, wheat, oats, and raw dark honey. Fermented with a Belgian Ardennes yeast strain for a colve-flavored finish.

New Belgium Brewing – Abbey Grand Cru
The first beer ever made by the New Belgium co-founder but with increased malt, hops, and fermentation time.

Ninkasi Brewing – Sleigh’r
They don’t tell me a lot about how it’s brewed. It’s an alt and has a European strong ale feel to it. But I guess that’s expected right. I had a hard time finishing this one.

North Coast Brewing – Old Stock Ale
Brewed with English malts and hops. We’re looking at a 12.5% ABV. My goodness, this beer was very strong and really, incredibly difficult to drink. You can see my face as I drink it in the picture at the bottom of the post. Yikes!

Pelican Brewery – Bad Santa
Black IPA. What? An IPA at this fest? Apparently! But still very malty. Lots of dark flavors, some chocolate and coffee tastes. It was a fun drink.

Sierra Nevada Brewing – Bigfoot Ale
This was an excellent barleywine. Lots of sweet maltiness but really nicely balanced with some bitterness. Some of the hops were dry hopped.

Stone Brewing – Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans
I have never had a smokier beer. This was insane. The aroma smelled like a cigar box, I’m not kidding. And the taste was also like a cigar shop. It was so smokey it almost felt like it wasn’t even in your mouth. That was strange, but fun.

Three Creeks Brewing – Rudolph’s Imperial Red
11 malts and 4 hop varieties. To counterbalance the sweetness, they added 2.5 pounds of hops per barrel. This beer was the most like what you would normally expect from an Oregon brewery, however the maltiness was definitely there.

Beers I wish I tried:
-Anchor’s Old Foghorn with its top-fermenting yeasts and champagne-like bubbles
-Lagunitas’ Yersinia Pestis Holiday Stout because the description says, “Drinking it will not make you more attractive.”
-Yakima Craft Brewing’s Twin Stag Scottish Ale (Oaked). The description says it’s made specially for this fest and great for “good conversation and long, bold tales.”