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!

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.

Beer time!

Variety of Mircobrews

• Check.

BBQ Pork.

• Check.

Live Music.

• Check.

Plenty of shade trees.

• Check.

Lawn Games.

• Check.

Friends and family.

• Double check.

Looks like this picnic had it all. Five brewers on tap and a ciderhouse. The breweries are local beer with a passion for brewing. Participating breweries included Block 15 Restaurant and Brewery, Calapooia Brewing, Flat Tail Brewing, McMenamins on Monroe, Oregon Trail Brewery and 2 Towns Ciderhouse.  Block 15 did the BBQ’ing and that pig couldn’t of tasted any better with the bean or potato salad. For the non-meat eaters there was a tofu option (which actually looked good to this pig-bacon-loving-meat-eater.)

The setting at Alton Field Farms was as near prefect as you could get. Plenty of grass with rows of pear and apples trees to sit underneath surrounded by might Oak trees for the complete blanket of afternoon shade.  Plenty of room for people to set up blanket, lawn chairs and we played UNO while sipping suds.

Thinking of everything, the event was set up with a dozen or so picnic tables for those without lawn chair and hay bales facing the live music. Three different (or was it four) bands played through the afternoon. In between band breaks, a raffle for swag in which you had to be present to win. 

The picnic was in honor of Craft Beer Month as celebrated in Oregon. Oregon has more mircobrews than anywhere in the world with over 80 today. And that number in increasing. Last year we attend the Craft Brew Festival in Portland Oregon. It was packed. Wall-to-Wall people. Beer lines were 40 minutes. And this blogger was not a happy camper after waiting in a hot tent with thousands of people in a line for beer just to have them run out.

My experience was not like that in the least bit. The line was short, and never waited more than 5 minutes for a beer.  And the event was not overwhelmed with people that you couldn't walk or more about. Unlike the Portland Festival held the very same weekend.

Local Reporter with our neighbor.

People at work asked me if I had a good time; indeed I did. So-much-so I hope the Craft Beer Picnic is an annual event. And then I could be "one of those people who have been to them all." I'll never go back to the Portland Brew Festival. I think.

PROST.

Bacon & Eggs Farm Style.

Bacon-Free Birthday Day

Free Beer and Free Tee Shirts


“Hey Birthday girl” the bartender says to me, “take these beers to the table behind you.”
“Okay boss” I respond.
“Birthday girl.”
“Yes boss.”
“Deliver these beers to the table two off to your right.”
Joyfully I deliver the beer and tell them it’s my birthday.

If you are a Rogue Ale card-carrying member, take your card and Driver's License on your actual Birthday for your Free ½ liter of beer (your choice) and a tee-shirt (your choice of the short sleeved ones.)

What’s the catch???

None. Membership has it’s privileges.

The cost to me, however is higher.

I was at the second Rogue Ale in Newport sitting at the bar with my husband. Shortly after we arrive the flood gates open the place is packed. That is when the bartender put me to work. I’m such a naturally shy person this really take me out of my comfort zone. (And for those who know me you should of spit out your beer just then.) With zest and zeal I worked for my second-of-day free beer and tee shirt.

We arrived promptly at the Bay Front Rogue Ale the designated opening time of 11:00 for the first of four anticipated beers. The menu looked good and heck, it’s my birthday so I had Mac & Cheese before heading across the bridge to Rogue the Brewery and pit stop #2.

After the fun and interaction with the patrons and bartender we took off two hours later for the Rogue Farm near Independence Oregon. The farm is, well quite frankly in the middle of farmland surrounds by Hops and Hazelnut trees. I had my next pint of beer, tee-shirt # 3 and played lawn games. The weather was warm and after all that beer I was feeling...well...I was feeling not so fine and I had to call it a day. My plan was to finish the day at Rogue Ale in Track Town, USA (or Eugene Oregon to you non-Oregonians.)

I know, it’s lame I didn’t drink the entire day on my birthday. But to my defense I did have to work the next day and I’m no longer in my terrible twos (22.) I suppose you slow down a bit when you turn 29 again.

Until next year, Prost.

And oh, if you haven’t done it yet go get your FREE membership so you too can gather up all the free tee shirts as you roam from Rogue-to-Rogue. And oh, take a DD. (Designated Driver)

http://www.rogueales.com/

Top 10 Reasons for NOT blogging

 My top ten list of reasons why I haven't been blogging.

10- Cat ate my homework. Can’t blame the dog since I don’t own a dog. however, if you’ve seenmy cat, you know this could be true. My cat is a rescue from the local no-kill shelter. He lived atthe shelter for 6 months and in that time the only exercise he got was eating. Hey, I admire thisguy. So I named him after beer, Kona Lagar. Kona brewing company is located oddly enough in Kona, Hawaii and they are in the Craft Brew Alliance with Widmer which makes the beer widelyaccessible in the main land. I suppose I will blog about my visit to this brewery later.

9- I don’t own a ipad or iphone or a iproduct. Not true, I own an ipod because ….well....because. Doesn’t mean I actually like itunes.

8- I can’t multitask, so instead of writing another gem of my beer travels while watching Survivor is absolutely out of the question. And the tribe has spoken.

7- I don’t want any negative comments. Well, not that I’m particularly fond of negative comments; any comments would be fine.

6- My grammar and spelling errors landed me in the witness protection program. Yeap, all those errors are my own. Nobody’s else would claim them. And to my defense, word pad doesn’t not have spell check and my internet connections are spotty and unreliable which makes running spell check when posting almost impossible. I have thought about correcting them; but nay that would take too much time. (space check doens't workeither.)

.5- Writers block. Can’t think of what else to say about that. (Think about it.....it’s high level humor.)

4- Beer. Need I say more? Prost

!3- I need glasses and other signs of aging. Oh wait, this is a real reason, should it be on mylist???! Please skip this item.

2- I’ve been busy traveling the world and haven’t had the time. At least in my mind this is true but my reality is another matter.

1- What’s a blog?????!!!!

Welcome back! Nice to see you again and thanks for your patience as I get back into the swing of the blog. I do enjoy sharing my adventures and looking for humor in all. It’s been a crazy year but let me tell you.... I’m back!!!

It's FREE!

One weary coffee drinking blogger

Blogger. That’s what I am now. Can’t say I’ve mastered grammar as well as I have the commitment to post musing of my life weekly.  However, I must admit I’m a bit sad. Last week I had three people read my blog. Yes, three and I don’t even think one of those three people include my mom or my husband. So, I’ve considered a host of ideas to draw people to my blog.  Here is my list thus far:

1.   Free Beer. Oh wait, I don’t know if I can offer free beer since the legal drinking age is 21. I don’t even know if you can legally offer free beer much less allow those under 21 to view my blog.  Case in point, go to Widmer.com.  You must click on the button agreeing you are over 21 to even read about beer.  Scratch that idea.

2. Free Coffee. It’s not I’m into the free stuff but everyone should love coffee as much as I do and I just want to share that with the world. I realize not everyone shares my fondness. Plus, I have a couple good friends (okay you caught me only two) who are Mormon and I think one of them already reads my blog.

3.   Naked photos. That will capture attention. A couple of problems of posting nude photos. One, who would they be of to attract reads and not repeal? And two, do I really want those readers who want to look at nude photos on my blog?!?! Definitely scratch that idea.

4.   Can’t think of a fourth.  All of the other ideas running through my head are those free offers (be the 100^th person to read my blog and you’ll win a free computer. Everyone knows that no one gets the free computer.)  So I suppose I’ll have to address the lack of readership in another manner. Such as stop being  predictable. Me, predictable? Does everyone in the world know I love bacon on maple bars? Or that the color purple simply makes me happy?  Oops, maybe.

I suppose it all boils down to only getting people to the blog but to keep them as well. I do hope those who read are enjoying the content. My blog goals are to focus on travel, drink (e.g. coffee & beer) and a few adventures along the way. You can subscribe via RSS feed on the bottom of the page.

To the faithful three, thank-you.

The regular musing of adventure continues next week. For now, I'm heading off to have a beer for breakfast, with bacon and waffles. Until then.

Prost!

Brewfest

Naked. As in butt naked and in a public place; a soaking pool at the Crystal Hotel, the newest McMennains in the heart of the Pearl District of Downtown Portland. And he was drunk with a case of beers surrounding him. In addition, it was the Brew Festival weekend a mere eight blocks away.

I misspoke; actually it’s called the Oregon Brewer Festival, celebrating its 24th year of craft beer for which Oregon is known. This year, the fact sheet stated there was over 85 craft brewers present. All I know many of the beers on Saturday had already stopped pouring due to overwhelming demand. I previewed the list of craft brewers and was all excited to taste beers only available at the brew festival and I wanted to taste solely based on name alone. I don’t know if I wanted “Wu Cream” (Oregonians would chuck at this) but I did want to try Donner Party Porter by FiftyFifty Brewing company or “ Idiot Sauvin” by Elysian Brewing or simply “Kick Axe” however what I found is that I didn’t get to be that particular. Or care what style of beer and it’s IBU rating. Oh no.

In the beer line

"Taster Mug" next to a pint.

First, we stood in line about 30 minutes to get into the free event. Then we were sheep roped into the next line for almost 30 minutes to spend six bucks for a taster’s mug and one dollar sipping tokens. Now, beer for a buck would be an awesome price to which I would skip and hop for joy however, dully note the words “taster mug.” After spend another 30 minutes in a massive crowd that slowly lurched forward to the beer pouring you could spend one token (a buck) and get a sip of beer (not how I wanted to spend my 30 minutes in line) or you could fill your “taster mug” for four tokens (that’s four bucks folks.) I know you must be thinking, four bucks for a craft beer is a reason price. Indeed. Let’s go back and review the words again, “taster mug.” The taster mug is a mere 10 ounce mug. That’s far less than a pint in which is the quantity in which I prefer to drink my beer. And have you ever had a glass poured to the brim? So the 10 ounces of beer is merely 8 or so. Four bucks, 90 minutes wait time. Eight ounces.

The next adventure was finding a place to sit. Again, me being a wee bit picky here actually wanted to sit and enjoy my craft beer (which was quite tasty, chocolate beer without any offending bitter after taste) I scoured the grounds for a chair. I foraged a couple of stray ones in the sun and dragged them to the coolness of tall oak tree. After tasting my beer, I went back to the cattle call of a tent, stood around with the masses slowly moved forward to buy my next 8 ounces of beer with my chair in hand. Oh yeah, I wasn’t going to give that up. One of my 90,000 thousand new friends may have fought me for that chair.

Prost!

After a couple of beers and without moxie or zest nor the desire to fight the crowds to stand in yet another line for yet another beer that would be sold out three people in front of us (yes, so much trying Wu Cream) my friends and I headed back to our hotel for dinner and soaking. This leads us back to the soaking pool at midnight.

The brew fest stopped pouring at 9 pm so I can understand why he has surrounded himself among the company of cheap beer, but naked? Maybe beer taste better without clothes?   And then I wondered if he simply lost his shorts buying beer at the brew festival.

Prost.

Sunday Beer Run

“Hold the GPS on the phone and tell me when to turn,” I instruct my husband.

“But I don’t know where we are going,” he says to me a bit confused.

“Neither do I, that’s why you have the GPS.”

And I understand his confusion as we are driving through farm land and not into the city. We pass through a couple of two-house farming towns with names like “Wells Landing” and “Wings of Wonder.”  We pass by a county park we didn’t know existed. It looks like a great spot to put in your raft in for floating the meandering waters of the Willamette River.

The road arc’s and we see the sign for Buena Vista Ferry.

“We are going to cross the ferry on our grand adventure?” My husband questions me like I’m insane. So much for the Sunday drive.

And then drive pass acre upon acre of hops growing high on trellises. (Forty two acres to be exact.) Signs indication what kind of hops are growing (look, Chatoe hops).   We continue to drive through the fields of hops and for me it’s a happy sight; it means beer.

We are in the hop capital of the world, Independence Oregon. Hops only grow on the 45^th parallel, and are particular to the climate. Basically, hops grow well in Oregon and Germany.

Seemingly middle of nowhere is the Chatoe Rogue Tasting Room. A small 468 square foot quaint house that serves beer fresh from the tap. Several Rogue Ales to choose from to please all types of beer drinkers.  The tasting room has a huge lawn outback surrounded by picnic tables complete with a wide assortment of lawn games including lawn darts, horse shoes and a Frisbee or two to use. Hop fields & barley gardens surround the working farm and visitors can stroll around the gardens and visit the calm waters of the Willamette River complete with pet in tow. While we were there, a family had brought their cat much to the dogs delight. So much for playing in the water when a cat is nearby.

For others, they will want to stay the night in the Hops & Beer house on site.  It is a 100 year old house in which people can rent the entire 5 room house or just a room for the night.

I quickly order a Mocha Porter, rich in aroma and taste and a creamy smooth cheese-beer soup. My husband orders the beer for which Rogue is known for Dead-Guy ale and chips. The menu is limited however, what more would anyone want besides beer-cheese soup? Anyhow. Two steps later and we are on the back porch drinking our beer, watching the hops grown. Next time, I will visit with my neighbors and play some lawn darts while the sunset. For now, I am content to drink my beer with the warm sun on my face.

Perfect.

Prost