Drank: Oakshire's Hot Cakes Brunch Ale

By Matthew Korfhage

This year's Holiday Ale Fest was a bit dispiriting—few standout beers, a low-energy crowd and weird arrows on the ground making you do huge circuits around beer gardens for a second taste in the "Sky Bar." Among the five WW writers in attendance, we agreed on few beers aside from an aged Top O' the Feckin Morning coffee porter from Oregon City's Feckin—which was also one of our top 10 beers of the year before they aged it. But three of us went back for a second round of only one new beer, Hot Cakes Brunch Ale, a rich and sugary brew from Eugene's Oakshire meant to mimic the taste of French toast by adding cinnamon and vanilla beans to an oaty brown ale brewed with maple syrup. It was a nicely balanced dessert of a beer with a lot of body and oatmeal-cookie spice to balance out what could have been a sticky, syrupy mess. Instead, it was pure comfort for your next night by the fire. It'll tap Thursday at Loyal Legion. Recommended.

Note: It appears that the scheduled keg of Hot Cakes did not make it to Loyal Legion, according to the folk at Loyal Legion.

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