I'm changing my name to Dunkle Weissbeir

I want to change my name to Dunkle Weissbeir. It German it would be: Dunkle Weißbier.  But heck, finding that funny B key on your keyboard (its a special character) is too much work so I’ll spell it the American way.

Dunkle Weissbeir means Dark Wheat Beer. And I’ve been known to drink a beer (or two) and I’m quite fond of the idea of having the word Beer in my last name. (My parents mis-named me.)

Dunkle means dark and could be applied to any dark beer.  Many Lagers are also called Dunkle as well as the more tradional, European Wheat & Mircobrew Wheat beers.  All lagers were Dunkle beers until the 1840’s (and all brewed in the Czech Republic by Pilsen.) Today, Dunkle implies a darker, roasted been with more malt.

Dark Wheat beer, my future name sake, is brewed not only with more malt but more yeast. Both of more means a unqiue blend of flavors that often include toffee, chocolate and coffee. Yes, even some have all three flavor profiles. And that is why I love Dunkle Weissbier.

My husband believes the word “Dunkle” or Dark will make a lot of people to stop and ponder or create a bit of confusion. So he suggest I change it to Helles Weißbier, or Helles Weissbeir.  Maybe because Hellas sounds a bit more girly, or maybe Hellas sounds like a rebel. Now, that I like. 

In case you are wondering, Helles means light and yes, a chocolate coffee wheat beer can also be white in appearance. Not often, but it can.


At this moment, I haven’t landed on a decision, Hellas or Dunkle Weissbier. I better pour another and do more taste research.



What do you think??



Prost!

Beer Can't Kill You

Sampling beer at OSU Campus

The good news is I can’t kill anybody.  At best, all I can do is have bad tasting beer that my friends don’t want to drink.

This is the best beer news I’ve heard all day about beer, beer making process and homebrewing and I heard it at OSU brewing science center.

Yes, Oregon State University has a brewing process on campus however, the primary goal is not to make beer (what a pity) but to try out hops, and what hop goes best with what flavor profile. OSU is responsible for engineering most of the hops grown in and around our state & region. If the hops has an Oregon based named, it was engineered by OSU.  Other large scale mircobrews use OSU facilities and graduate student to do test brews with new hops for their beer. Bridgeport Beer (Portland Oregon) was doing just that.

To make Brandy in.

The Senior class project one year

The brewing center is expanding at OSU. The students are looking at art of making Sprits, particularly Brandy. They have a new cooper kettle system and the hands on instructor Jeff is back from a trip across Scotland sampling Brandy. (Now that is my kind of research.)

A few years back, the senior project for the engineering students was to design and fabricate a mini-malter. It is a fully programmable automatic malting vessel for barley. I’m not quite sure of the science of the vessel, but once the grain is loaded it’s a one step, one vessel process for stepping, germination and drying.

After that mini-lecture I skipped back over to the pouring of samples of beer. (NO worries, OSU has an OLCC License to serve beer on campus) and tasted. I may not understand all the science behind malting to milling; to making lagers.  But what I do know is taste. And the student beer tasted great.

But be cautious, you can actually kill someone with canned tuna. Better drink beer. Prost!

Bonus Days! 2 for 1 special…. Review of Alsea Falls & Mary’s Peak

If you find yourself in Waldport, and Central Oregon Coastal town and you want to take a bypass road to the Corvallis area, I have a couple of stops for you.

Top of Mary's Peak on a HOT summer day

The highest Mountain Peak on the Oregon Coastal Range is Mary’s Peak. It’s about a 40 minute drive from Corvallis or about 40 minutes from Waldport. Near this area is a sleepy little town called Alsea and they have a BLM waterfall/camping area named after the town; Alsea Falls.

To prepare for your day of viewing the coastal range and hiking the falls, pack jackets, rain coats and layer your clothes. Don’t forget your picnic lunch, camera and disappointment. Okay, you don’t be disappointed with the scenery but don’t set your expectations too high.

The day we drove up to Mary’s Peak, it was sunny and hot in the valley with temperatures approaching high 90’s. As we meandered up the windy road and wishing I had taken an anti-sickness motion pill; the clouds rolled in. Or is that called fog when you are above the clouds?? And the higher we got the colder it got, naturally. We parked at the trail head to walk a bit to the highest point to take photos and the first we did when we jumped out the car is put on more clothes. The temperature must have dropped 30 degrees. My husband was smart enough to bring a jacket. Me, who would have thought of bring a winter jacket in the middle of a sunny, summer day to access a short trail head for Ocean views? Not I. Being a little bit quicker on the uptake, I grabbed his jacket and put it on before he could say “what the…”.

We walked up the wide trail, neatly groomed to the picnic table on top of the mountain. The hike up took a mere 20 minutes. The view was of fog. Other people were hiking the numerous trails up there; we however could not manage the cold on that hot summer day. We left.

Alsea Falls was a similar experience. It was still hot. Over 90. We found follow the signs to Alsea Falls. Again, another windy road about 15 minutes out of that tiny town. Another anti-motion sickness pill I wish I had taken.

Once we arrived the falls, I was thrilled to get out of the car and breathe in that fresh mountain air and even more excited when I saw two women walking on a trail in swimsuit and holding swim noodle. Most excellent! A swimming hole; something I didn’t expect.

We found the falls by once again, following the signs. Just a few 500 yards (or so) from the parking lot is the falls. Such a pretty sight with layering colors of blue with the backdrop of the multi colored green trees and moss. We took a gillizaon plus one photo of each other. Such fun! And then we looked for the swimming hole. Never found it. Luckily we stumbled upon a Park Ranger and asked him where to look for the swimming hole. He chuckled a bit and said no such place existed up there. I wondered for a moment where those two women disappear too, but I suppose I didn’t want to know.

We found a perfectly lovely picnic table that my daughter picked out right next to the port-a-potty for lunch. Yes, there were plenty of other tables but she wanted that one.

We ate our watermelon, played a round of Yatzee in the cool temperatures of high 70’s before heading back to the valley to the hot and sun.

In the end, I recommend both these places as an escape from the hot summer sun. But don’t take your water noodles and don’t expect an Ocean view; that’s what beach front hotels are for.

Brewery Tour Reviews

I love brewery tours.

What's not to love, you get to see your favorite drink being processed while gather free swag (the noun and not the verb) and beer (hopefully.) Oregon is crazy for it's Mircobrews. In fact there is more breweries in Oregon than anywhere in the world. Anywhere. Oregon outshines Germany and Czech Republic (the country that gave us Budweiser.)  And it seems mircobrewers love to share their craft to passing tourist who love beer.  I don't bore you with the details of how beer is processed; after all that is what a tour is all about.

I've given you what I think are the best brewery tours based on overall tour experience, swag and what kind of swag.

Without further ado, here is sample of tours in the State of Oregon.




Rogue Ale, Newport Bay Front.

Famous for it's dead guy ale, Rogue Ale has a great free membership plan (see other blogs) and plenty of beers for a wide assortment of tastes.

The beer tours at the bay front are often, three times a day and they are usually packed. What you get for standing in a massive crowd of tourist in a tiny gift shop waiting for the tour to start is.......wait for it......nothing.

The tour is unimpressive. Oh sure, you get to the see the original beer making vessels that are converted milkers (serious) and it's kind of neat to see stacks and stacks of beer just waiting for shipment (if you consider that fun) but that's it. The tour guide does not give a complete picture of how Wort is made into beer or any other sort of science based fact on the beer making process. What the tour guide does give you is the complete history of Rogue Ale, the brewmeister and all the locations you can buy Rogue Ale (including Japan.)

The tour is about 45 minutes and no swag, no beer given out as tasters at the end. Not even a drop. The tour ends back at the gift shop. There you get your name on the list to get into pub. If everyone in your party is over 21 go straight to the bar. Either sit at the bar or at the bay front window and watch fisherman hard at work. To them, raise a toast.



Deschutes, Bend Oregon.

It's a beer making machine and they are serious about their beer. Following your google maps, the building is impressive and you can see the silos in which is made. (You'll  learn later those were purchased in Germany and the freeways had to closed at night to move them to this site. Yes, the are impressive and huge.)

You first walk into a bar. Yeap, a bar. The bartender will tell you the next tour time and then get you started on your first of five samples of beer. He (or she) will describe each beer, IBU and profile. If you are still drinking your free beer when the tour starts, no worry you can take it with you.

The tour guide then shows you the complete steps and process for making beer, and you even get to see the bottling part. You walk past the taster room, oops I mean quality control where employees can sign up for additional duties of tasting beer to ensure quality. (Sounds like my career path has taken me in all the wrong places when I could be tasting beer and get paid for it.)  Anyway.

The tour ends back at the bar about an 75 minutes later where you can either finish  your free samples or fill your growler for later. No swag but the beer tasting and the atmosphere makes up for it. The pub is about 1/2 mile away. So I highly recommend you fill your growler to take the beer with you on your great outdoor Bend area adventure. I recommend the Pauline Lake area. (Just in case you needed to know.)


Widmer, Portland Oregon

Tours are Friday and Saturdays only by appointment. You will not get a tour a few days beforehand. I highly suggest you call more than week to make your arrangements.

The tour starts above the bar in a big room. The tour guide brings up four pitchers of beer and the participants line up for a free sample of a beer. You sit back at your table, make new friends and then stand in line for another beer. (Heck, you need to try them all.) You then watch a video about Widmer and the tour starts about 20 minutes later. No drinking on this tour so bottoms up.

The Widmer tour is the most comprehensive of the tours I'm profiling today. You get the complete history of Widmer, how beer is made and a complete visual process of how that works. You walk around all the equipment and wind up at the bottling process. About an hour later you get swag (Yea! Finally) which includes a plastic cup and a choice of key chains.

Walk across the street back to the pub, drink another beer and order the pretzel and beer cheese soup. The best beer cheese soup around. Trust me, I've tried them all.


Full Sail, Hood River, Oregon


Tours are almost daily and you just show up and wait in a long-skinny hallway that always serves as the entrance to the pub.

The tour guide promptly takes the group to a table with visual aides....all the ingredients needed to make beer. You get to touch, taste hops and make jokes with the entertaining and funny tour guide. He talks about the process and also how Full Sail recycles what they can from the process. (The left over wort goes to the cows to eat. Lucky cows.) You walk a few feet, see some of the equipment and that's it. The guide then takes you back to where you start and gives you a free pint glass. (Yea Swag) but no beer.

The tour ends about 40 minutes later.  Don't worry, you won't feel cheated. The tour guide has such a quick wit and vast knowledge of beer you will feel as he's your long lost beer drinking buddy.

Afterwards, walk a few feet to the crowded pub. Drink more beer and have a burger. I recommend you sit on the outdoor patio and watch wind surfers.

Prost.

My Favorite Harvest



Hop Plant!

 Hops are a binding plant, not a vine.

Hops grow best on the 45th parallel and Oregon used to produce 45% percent of the worlds hops but that number drastically decreased after WWII to a mere 5%.  The primary growing regions are now Germany (which grows more hops than any single country), then Washington State and then Oregon.

Hops are a cone shaped, and are a bitter, tangy plant used primarily to flavor beer. But it's the yellow stuff inside the hop called Lulupin that the Brewmeisters desire.

Shall I go on with the Hop Trivia???



A mountain of hops



Or better yet, attend the Rogue Ale Farm tour. You'll learn all about Hops, see them grow and harvest. You'll have a chance to see fields of hops, hops drying and hops in bundles. You'll see mountains of hops. You'll dream of all the beer you will drink. And you will learn all this hop trivia and best of all, see it in action.



I have been on a lot of beer tours, but seeing how the primary ingredient for beer is grown was interesting and peaked my interesting in the whole process of beer.

The tour lasted over an hour. And best part, it was free. No swag was given out at the end. No free pints of beer afterwards. However, the knowledge I gained all for the love of beer was priceless.

The end product!

What are you waiting for??? Go visit a hop farm today and get drinking.