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Day 1: Monday, April 13
I kicked off Craft Brewers Conference week in Portland by rousing from a deep slumber fueled by late-night writing and geeking out on Game of Thrones. Finding a half-full bottle of Ommegang Brewing's new Game of Thrones beer Three-Eyed Raven, I quickly pounded it for energy before heading out to the Oregon Brewers Guild's big CBC press briefing at Spirit of 77.
At Spirit of 77, a handful of beer writers and a news crew from KGW gathered to hear Oregon Brewers Guild's executive director Brian Butenschoen, president Ben Edmunds and Bart Watson, Brewers Association economist, announce new stats that craft brewers make 20 percent of the beer drunk in Oregon. Oregon's breweries crafted 1,641,000 barrels of beer during 2014, a 16.9 percent increase from the previous year. Impressive numbers and a great way to kickoff #CBC15 in Portland.
As any good beer announcement must-have, there was a lineup of free beers, this time all six new collaboration Symposium beers made by Oregon brewers for the CBC. Each beer is from a collaboration of many brewers in each region of the state: the coast, central Oregon, the Willamette Valley and Portland, which has three different beers. More info on those beers here.
After trying the six different collaboration beers I headed across the street to the Oregon Convention Center to pick up my CBC badge and media credentials. A fair crowd was already gathering and it was fun to run into familiar faces in the industry that go by monikers like Brew Dad and Beer Goddess. I picked up my one free CBC Symposium beer and chose the Portland throwback beer, the Spirit of the 90s, a hoppy amber ale from before it became the recognized substyle it is today, Northwest Red.
From the Convention Center, I walked over to meet the boys from Burnside Brewing Co. just a short four blocks south. Over pints of the brewery's new "Other IPA," we discussed the upcoming Portland Fruit Beer Festival before heading down two blocks west to the new Drinking Lot pop-up bar. This one-week-only outdoor beer garden in a used-car lot has been set up by Bailey's Taproom for the CBC, and it comes complete with covered and heated outdoor seating, daily rotating taps and a food cart serving pizza. Downing a few pints of Surly Brewing beer (only available this week for the conference), I was finally starting to get my buzz on.
I ended up over at Belmont Station bottle shop and taproom with a horde of local beer geeks and the crew from Victory Brewing of Downington, Penn., which was, of course, in town for the conference. The bar was packed and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Even though the official conference does not start until Tuesday and the seminars not even until Wednesday, reports were the city was already flooded with industry pros as early as Sunday. It means its going to be hard to get a seat at your favorite brewpub or taproom for this entire week.
Anyway, after a warm-up pint of Beau's/Gigantic/Cider Riot!/Trou du Diable Snakebite (a beer & cider blend) I went for a glass of Victory's Deep Cocoa Baltic Porter and with a now wonderful humming alcohol high discussed the intricacies of low-alcohol fruit sours with salt with Victory Brewmaster/President Bill Covaleski.
Soon I felt the tugging on my coat strings to head over to Portland's newest brewery—Culmination Brewing, where local beer writer Brian Yaeger was putting on a preview of sorts for his Baker's Dozen coffee beer and doughnut festival that takes place this Saturday, April 18. Doughnuts and coffee beer were exactly what I needed at this point, a caffeine and sugar buzz that wouldn't derail my beer buzz but help me rally for one final stop.
Writer and media personality Niki Ganong, aka @sudssister, was holding a release party for her new book The Field Guide to Drinking In America at the White Owl Social Club. This bar is like a love child born from all the best and worst stereotypes about Portland. I have to give Niki, her publisher and WOSC credit though: Free beer from Gigantic Brewing that includes an IPA, Double IPA and a Raspberry Sour is too good to turn down.
Between downing about four pints of IPA and pillaging
the free spread of bacon burger sliders and snacks and mingling with beer
industry folk like Hilda Stevens (owner of Bazi Bierbrasserie), Jeff Alworth
(Beervana) and Portland Food Cart Stories author Steven Shomler, I realized it was
nearing 1 am and the CBC was officially getting rolling the next day. So I
called it quits and a good dry run for all the kickoff parties the next day.
Day 2: Tuesday, April 14
Tuesday had a slow start, between torrential downpours of rain and hail an an opening reception that didn't begin until 6:30 pm. I stayed low. After all I had big plans to make it to three after-parties tonight. I took a risky bet that it would be impossible to get cabs between all of the places I wanted to go to tonight so I would bring my bike, hoping the bad weather had passed.
I arrived at Veterans Memorial Coliseum to find the country's beer community descending upon the gates like the Battle of the Five Armies. We piled into the Coliseum like rats into a maze filled with beer and horrible Voodoo Doughnuts that we were rewarded with if we could put up with the crowds and find where the snacks were hidden. The reception was pretty so-so, with way too much room given to the circus performance art meant as entertainment, and not enough food options. It was a miracle I stayed for an hour and a half before the tightly wound maze got the best of me and it was time to move on.
Biking across the Broadway Bridge to Deschutes Brewery in the Pearl was a breeze, but I rolled up to the brewpub to find about 50 people waiting in line. It was a closed private party with Kyle Hollingsworth of the String Cheese Incident and other beer industry favorite jam bands.
Luckily I got in after only about 10 minutes. The place was jam-packed and it looked like it would take a half an hour to get a beer at the bar until I realized I knew a couple of the guys working, who quickly sent me glasses of Deschutes' the Dissident (a sour barrel-aged cherry beer) and a new collaboration with the Commons Brewery—a farmhouse ale with rose petals.
As I tried to yell out my order, a group of middle-aged drunkards started yelling in my ear and to the bartender to "get the sour!" over and over. I ignored them but noted the time and place that things were getting tipsy. Unlike the official reception party, Deschutes had put out some great food spreads full of pickled veggies, charcuterie, cheese, bite-sized cookies, pastries and tapas. They also had rare beer stations around the pub pouring rare barrel-aged beers with their own small plated food pairing. In the bathroom a group of brewers loudly remarked about how impressive they were, one stated, "I heard they built the whole place around the urinals,' while a friend of mine shouted back "and they built the urinals around my dick!" On that note, I decided it was time to leave for the next party which was ending early at 11pm.
Biking back across the Broadway Bridge and north on Interstate, I rode right up the back loading dock ramp and into the Widmer Brothers Brewery where the party was starting to wrap up. Greeting a few familiar faces, I abruptly pushed to the back looking for a beer station knowing I was late. Sure enough it was 10:35 and they had just stopped pouring at 10:30. What kind of afterparty is this?
After spending far too long begging cute bartenders and an elderly security officer. I came away with a half-filled cup from a keg that had run dry. Disappointing, to say the least. The band was packing up their gear but a fair amount of industry folk were still hanging out when I ran into Widmer and Craft Brew Alliance CEO Andy Thomas. After bemoaning the lack of beer, Andy told me he was planning to head over to the Widmer pub with a group of people to have some more beers. Though I was about ready to ditch this party, I can't turn down a free beer with the CBA CEO, so as Andy went to gather some folks I re-parked my bike and headed to the pub. Inside the bar, a handful of employees were finishing their beers before going home, but I explained that Andy said he was coming over for beers so they let me hang out. After about 5 minutes one guy felt pity upon my beerless hands and handed me a glass of 16-year-old mead they had broken out. Man that stuff was delightful, and almost made me forget that it had been 10 or 15 minutes and there was no sign of Andy. Well beer waits for no man so I headed back out into the cold night.
In too much of a hurry to get to the Sierra Nevada party at the Wonder Ballroom, because I was losing my buzz, I accidentally rode eight blocks, passed it and had to re-route. Luckily I got there at 11:30 pm and the party was still cracking. These Chico boys know how to throw a party. They had rented out not only the ballroom but the downstairs bar and restaurant, as well as food carts in the parking lot. Everything was free, from Sierra Nevada cans and drafts to cocktails, guest brewery taps and Koi Fusion burritos. I double-fisted a new Sierra Nevada River Ryed can and a cup of super rare and equally delicious Bell's Wild Ale.
A ton of folks from the local beer industry were hanging out here while watching the March Fourth Marching Band do their thing. I then noticed, on the huge Sierra Nevada banners hanging from the walls, that they were using a photo of mine I took years ago at Boneyard Brewing. This photo has been stolen a few times by websites, but now seeing it in Sierra's advertisements made me a little pissed.
I plotted drunkenly to sue them for copyright and dreamed of free beer for life as security kicked us out. Stumbling out of the ballroom drunkenly and spilling out into the street after-after parties were discussed and a large contingent was heading to Sassy's for some beer and dance pairings. However, I decided to call it a night knowing that the week was still just getting started and I actually planned to attend some seminars in the morning.
Ezra Johnson-Greenough writes about beer and cider at daily webmag The New School and can be followed on twitter or instagram @newschoolbeer
WWeek 2015