BEER COLUMN Potpourri Bits and pieces of brewing industry news. BY JEFF ALWORTH 243-2122, EXT. 348

Previous Mash columns: Great American Beer Festival Bizarre Brews Oktoberfest Hop Harvest

The Snake and Weasel 1730 SE 12th Ave., 232-8338 Golden Valley Brewery 980 E 4th St., McMinnville, (503) 472-2739 Like a beast stirring after hibernation, the brewing industry has lately been showing signs of post-summer life. Herewith I offer a batch of Mash potpourri, bits and pieces of news that have come in over the past week. Two Brewers Without a Brewery What to do when you open up a pub sans brewing equipment and you want to serve your own beer? You take your operation on the road. That's what Mike Hogan and David Lederfine decided to do this summer when they opened the Snake and Weasel, a pub just south of Hawthorne Boulevard on Southeast 12th Avenue. Recipe in hand, they took a trip down to Corvallis and asked the folks at the Oregon Trail Brewery to brew up a batch for the pub. What resulted was a very nice bière de garde that the Snake and Weasel had on tap this summer. The arrangement worked well; the brewers could serve their own beer without having to spend 15 grand on mash tuns and brew kettles. For the winter, two new beers are on tap, O' Sweet Mama Stout and Spike Driver. O' Sweet Mama, a big oatmeal stout bordering on an imperial, is from a recipe of Hogan's. It is mildly hopped to accentuate the malt and should be on the sweet side, with chocolate notes and roasted barley adding complexity. Lederfine's Spike Driver is, like the stout, made for the cold. Named for a Mississippi John Hurt song, Lederfine describes the strong ale as "dark mahogany" in the glass and "a little more assertive than most of the winter ales out there"--impressive, given that winter ales start out assertively. These beers were brewed by Jack Harris at Bill's Tavern and Brewhouse in Cannon Beach, which has been open since April, only slightly longer than the Snake and Weasel has. Along similar lines, the Dogmen at Lucky Lab Brewpub are planning to make their beer more widely available. In the next few weeks, look for their Holiday Ale to begin appearing at other pubs around town. A thick, wintry brew, it will be heavy on the malts with a substantial dose of alcohol for the appropriate seasonal warming. The brewery hopes broader distribution will keep the fermenters bubbling during the slower winter months and that the beer will reach a larger audience. Golden Valley's Fifth This November marks the fifth year since Golden Valley fired its first kettle of beer in McMinnville. To commemorate the milestone, the brewery has planned a big shindig for Saturday, Nov. 7. Billed as a birthday party, it coincides with the release of Golden Valley's winter seasonal. That beer, dubbed Tannen Bomb (a less-than-subtle hint about the 8 percent alcohol content) should rightly be called Tannen Stealth Bomb, so smooth and gentle is its wallop. The ceremonial release will happen at 4 pm. Other events include music by the Rendezvous String Band, a homebrew competition and a public display of beer guts and stupid human tricks--contests that will no doubt seem perfectly appropriate after a few pints of Tannen Bomb. Flanders Street Adieu The big event of late was the sale of Portland Brewing's Flanders Street Pub to Mickey Finn's. Founded by Art Larrance and Fred Bowman, Flanders Street began producing beer in early 1986 and was one of Oregon's oldest microbreweries. Though the sale was probably an inevitability since 1995, when production was shifted to Portland's new, much larger Taproom and Grill, it was hastened by recent events. As rents soared in the Pearl District, keeping Flanders Street open had become an expensive and time-consuming venture. Larrance and Bowman's strategy to promote the pub through live music had been successful, but it was unpopular with other neighborhood pubs--customers of Portland Brewing--who felt the loss of business. When some of those pubs began canceling accounts with Portland, Larrance and Bowman felt the time had come. "We had to look at it from the perspective of business," Bowman told me after sale, "because our business is selling beer." The announcement wasn't a shock; rumors and false reports of the pub's sale have been circulating for months. Still, it represents a changing of the guard, and few micro fans will be happy to see one of the Rose City's old breweries sold off. When I stopped by Flanders Street on its last night of operation, I happened to catch Bowman there. After getting out of his car, he approached the front door, where someone had propped a wooden cross. He stopped for a moment to examine it, gave a nod and then went inside. I don't know what he was thinking, but when I read what was written on the cross--"Flanders Street RIP 1986-1998"--I nodded, too. Yep, that just about says it all. So long, Flanders, we hardly knew ye. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published November 4, 1998