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Just as the summer of 2013 had dueling radio hits (Robin
Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky"), in Portland it
had dueling seasonal brews. Like a great pop song, they're both simple
yet hard to pin down. In one cooler, 3-Way IPA, sold in a green tall boy
from Astoria's Fort George but made in collaboration with Gigantic and
Lompoc. It's an intensely traditional Northwest IPA, rich with piney
hops and clean California Common yeast. In the other, 10 Barrel
Brewing's Swill. The Bend brewery's sour Berliner Weisse was spiked with
massive amounts of grapefruit to create, in essence, a bittersweet
radler. Before you can sniff at it, the bottle shames you: "Beer guy!
Stop taking yourself so serious." Both beers have been huge hits, with
Swill drawing lines nearly down to the river at the Oregon Brewers
Festival despite bottles being available for $1.99 at area grocers,
while 3-Way delights hopheaded beer geeks. My pick? "Get Lucky" with a
Swill. Either way, Pharrell wins.
WWeek 2015