Yes. They Should Do This

I don’t know why this needs to be something breweries need to be told, but, tell me what your product is.

The Residency #16

I didn’t realize that it fit into the overall vibe of today’s post when I ordered Bale Breaker’s Frenz IPA (and it’s…fine. A little too melony for me) but sometimes the universe is like that. That noted, a little content warning today because it may be a little heavy for some. The man I knew as -j would’ve wanted me to give you a heads up.

Because I found out he died last week.

Back in the early ‘00s, when the internet was still some Wild West shit, before ‘social media’ had taken over, I ran into my first internet community. It was small and it was filled with smart, horny, nerds. It was also the first place I got to really cut my teeth as a person I was hoping to be, because nobody knew who I used to be.

It was an amazing time, in a ‘you had to be there’ way. And either you understand that or you can’t but I don’t know that I could explain, exactly, why it was a little magical to anyone who hasn’t had an experience like it.

And -j was one of the members. Blessed with an near infinite well of kindness and envious cleverness, he was often first to ask how he could help, or offer a shoulder to lean on. He never met a pun he didn’t like and his wit could easily rival Wilde’s. Quick to credit others and generous with his contributions.

In a community of people who were often defining ourselves by how smart or witty we could be, he was one of the people who reminded us to be as kind as we could be. It is absolutely true that he helped us elevate ourselves, and you need people like that to keep the community together. The invisible glue that helps things stick.

I suspect he already knew what most of us would learn; Everything can be improved with kindness.

So of course, we all loved him to bits. What, you thought it was going to be different? He was awesome and we all thought so. That’s how things should work.

He was also someone who, at least for me, was quick to deflect. -j loved to ask you how you were doing but was reluctant to speak about how he was doing. So in one respect I can’t say I knew him well, but as someone who also keeps his cards close to the vest, I can’t say I didn’t understand. We were both people who kept our faces hidden the entire time we were part of the community. Trust me, I get it.

When the community dissolved in ‘07, it did so for the usual online reasons: someone who didn’t understand it at all bought it.

We reconvened in ’14 on Facebook but it wasn’t the same-and not just because Facebook sucks. We’d all been changed by our experience and that was OK. It was the high school reunion I really wanted. (Since I skipped my HS reunion. Fuck that shit.)

But we were able to keep in touch-I may not have spoken to him often, but once a year or so it was good to see that -j was doing alright.

I even met him, once; on a vacation I was taking with my then-girlfriend to his city. He was just as kind and gracious in person as he was online. Truly someone who had squared the circle of being who you are in all spaces. I don’t think there was a false note about him.

And that is a hell of a thing to say about anyone, ever.

Thanks for bringing out the best in us, -j. You are missed.

Anatomy of a Dive

Not long ago I walked by the Yamhill Pub-possibly the divey-est bar in Portland. Like many places, they’d built an outdoor space for patrons to hang out in to get help reduce Covid spread.

And yet, somehow the outdoor space managed to still smell like the inside of the Yamhill. It really is quite a feat.

All of which put me in mind of this nice little ode to dive bars.

IPA (2023)

Well…the nose is too faint. A pine scent is there but it’s like the forest is in another dimension, coming to us.

The malts are strong enough but I used some darker malts, giving it a darker appearance than maybe I want. The Munich is the most likely culprit. Still, the malt qualities aren’t bad, and they don’t outshine the hops.
And those hops make a good appearance on the finish. The bitterness isn’t overwhelming, it is just there to punctuate the beer.

This isn’t bad but the lesson really is: I need to dry hop an IPA, if I want to really get the qualities I’m expecting.

Brew date: 11/19/23

Steeping grains
7.5 lb Oregon Promise pale
.5 lb dextra pils (for body)
1 lb Munich

Fermentables: 4 lb ExLME

Hops
@60 1oz Chinook, .5oz Centennial, 1 oz Comet
@30 .75oz Centennial, .5oz Coment, .75 oz Chinook
@5 .25 oz Chinook .75oz Centennial, .5oz Comet

Yeast: Imperial Darkness (3rd)

OG: 1.07

FG: 1.018

Bottled 12/3

ABV: 7%

The (second) Residency #15

The second residency starts at Lents Draft & Bottle, with a Belgian pils from Bavik. And with me in a little bit of a mood.

Because in the back of my head I can hear a friend of mine saying “we need better choices”, which she is applying to…everything, but the election in particular. Yet at the same time, also everything.

And at the same time I am still hearing in my head, like a bell being rung over and over, a screenshot of a tweet a friend of mine posted that read, “I won’t vote for Biden because of his support of genocide. Everything they said would happen if Trump was elected has come to pass, so what’s the point?”

A statement that is so weapons grade stupid that it is either a) the product of blind rage, b) Russian psyops or c) so fucking blind to the way the world works that it makes everyone else around it dumber.

I had to stop myself, both from responding and from continuing to read this person’s feed for awhile. What good comes of putting this in my brain, or attempting to engage with someone that far in the rabbit hole?

Of course, there was the typical gaggle of well meaning fools responding, insisting that the only elections that matters are local ones. Another statement that is false if you give it more than five minutes worth of thought.

Are local elections the ones that have the most impact on your day to day life? Hell yes. That’s almost indisputable. Do national elections have an impact on things?

Yes. Yes, they clearly do and anyone who hasn’t figured that out by now didn’t learn shit from 2016 OR 2020.

And yet: “We need better choices.” I feel that in the marrow.

But when our choices are ‘reasonably, decently adequate while flawed as hell’ and ‘will upend life as you know it and persecute every ideal we love’, I really have to wonder: why are people insisting on the perfect being the enemy of the good?

Are they blinded by rage? Bad actors? Or just fucking dumb?

One of these things must be true. And which one am I susceptible to?

The nose on this pils gives off honeysuckle, which is not something I ever expected! But I definitely enjoy it. The beer is also interesting for its softness: I was told before that it would be like this and yes: for a Pilsner this beer is not as crisp and quenching as a German pils would be. It’s still got a nice bite on the finish, almost entirely from the effervescence but it’s perfect for providing a nice contrast to the softer, sweeter qualities before it.

I’ll take another.

Over It

A friend sent me this article on beer styles they think are overrated and…OK we’ll just start by admitting this is silly, right? Taste is taste and you can’t convince someone that something they love is done.

You have to poison the well, so they come to the conclusion themselves!

But instead of doing that, I’m going to start by taking issue with the initial list proposed:

• Hazy IPAs
• Heavily fruited smoothie beers
• New Zealand pilsners
• Sweet, opaque double IPAs
• Non-alcoholic beers
• Lactose-heavy beers
• Pastry stouts
• Kettle sours
• Sour IPAs

For me, four of those beers are the same thing: Hazy IPAs, smoothies, lactose, and opaque double IPAs. Like; C’mon.

You could argue that Hazy IPAs haven’t done enough to distinguish themselves and given my knowledge of the style I would agree but I suppose pedantry is what you’re in for when you ask people about styles at this level of nerdery.

But I have yet to encounter the “opaque” IPA that wasn’t a hazy, the fruited beer that didn’t use lactose to sweeten it (and also was hazy), etc.

Related to that would be the pastry stouts, just because apparently the trend is for beers that are too damn sweet. But since those tend to be heavily alcoholic, I never feel overwhelmed by them.

I don’t quite understand why people feel non-alcoholic beers are overrated: having options for friends who don’t want alcohol is a good thing and there’s no reason at all for those beverages to suck. Keep making them.

Sour IPAs fall under the category of “Polly shouldn’t be” for me. So…whatever.

The rest…well, the complaints of the brewers almost always come back around to ‘the style isn’t balanced very well’ and I have to agree there. That’s one of the things that makes as good beer stand out from others in the style. We’ve been making beer for centuries and really have figured out that balanced beverages are generally preferred.

Broken Bottle Brown

I promise, it’s a lot less dramatic than this picture looks. I’m not sure why the head on this exploded like that but it does make for a neat photo. Speaking of: visually I’m really pleased with how it worked out. It’s dark, but when I hold the beer up to the light, a nice translucent quality appears-something I’ve been trying to dial in for years.

On the other hand; the nose is very easy to pick up on and I’d describe it as a sweet chocolate espresso scent.

The flavors are solid-I would say that a roasted character comes in a bit stronger and that helps provide some nice contrasts to the chocolate flavor. The carbonation is a little strong though. I have had a bottle break!

Which suggests something else is up here. After giving this beer to some pals at the Oregon Brew Crew, I was told that it was likely the yeast hadn’t finished doing its work. So when I added bottling sugar, the yeast did what yeast does and it was eventually too much for some bottles.

So the beer was good, but it need a little more time to ferment. Good to know.

Brew date: 9/16/23

Steeping grains
5 lb High Color pale
2.5 dark munich
1.25 brown malt
.25 chocolate

Fermentables: 1,5 lb LME

Hops
@60 1 oz Willamette, Northern Brewer
@25 .5 oz Willamette, N. Brewer
@5 .5 oz Willamette, N brewre

Yeast: Imperial Darkness

OG: 1.05

FG: 1.012

Bottled 10/23

ABV: 5.1%

The Residency #14

I’m facing a small dilemma with an Alpine Terror from Oak Union. It’s a black lager and whoooo is it too dang roasty for me. The nose reminds me of unground coffee, but the finish is so roasted it is almost smoky. I’m less excited about this.

And the Alpine Terror has been on tap at Workers Tap for weeks.

Which is one part of my problem right now; the beer list doesn’t quite turn over enough for me to get the kind of variety that I like when I go out to write.

However, the bar is also often too crowded for me to sit and write-which is critical to the effort I put toward the blog. Twice I’ve had to sit outside in the winter in order to have enough space to get my thought down.

I don’t like being outside in the winter. The cold makes my hands hurt.

Finally, the hours are pretty restrictive; they’re open from 5pm to midnight and if I want to try and come in the late afternoon, I can’t.

One of these problems has solved itself, as the bartender tells me that they’re going to be opening at noon, starting next week. And serving coffee, which makes a lot of sense.

The other two, though are more of a pickle. I don’t begrudge Workers Tap doing well; I’m glad this space exists! However, it isn’t quuuuuuite working for what I want to do.

It’s not you, it’s me.

That kind of thing always feels like a cliche until it happens to you, but here I am, wishing I was somewhere else, knowing that it isn’t anyone’s fault. I just don’t quite fit here the way I need to, to do the work I want to do.

So I suppose it’s time to change up! Let’s see what else Portland has to offer.

Trends For 2024

There’s some interesting stuff in this article for things they think will be brewing trends in this year.

I don’t feel like I have the authority to dispute anything here, and I’d rather talk about what I hope is right, so here goes!

Taprooms evolving. There is an incredible history of pubs being places to foster community. I’d love to see that continue and find ways to incorporate people in. Beer should be for everybody and pubs should be welcoming.

Lagers. Look at least in Portland, lagers and lighter styles of all sorts are already a thing. Y’all can catch up. It’s great.

Hop experimentation. Alright so big caveat here, because I don’t want to return to the late 90’s early 00’s where everything was overhopped and became a dick-waving race to see who could stuff as many bitterness units into a beer as they could. But experimentation with more varieties and styles, with plants that use less water? Yeah, I’m down.

NA beers. I’m always, always going to support options for people and non-alcoholic options are critical. This is one way to help build that community I was talking about earlier-offering them something they weren’t getting before.

Common Ales: Fat Tire

So, there’s been a rebrand…

Fat Tire was the beer that got my friend Kim into craft beer. That means she’s got a connection to the beer, so when I suggested trying the new vs the old, she was in for that!

Drinking them together, we notice something immediately: only the old version has the term “Amber Ale” on it. The new bottle just says “ale” and that could be anything.

The description of the new beer from the brewer notes that Fat Tire isn’t an amber ale anymore! So this starts to explain why the beers look different.

Kim doesn’t like the new version: it reminded her of Budweiser-it seems less craft beer to her. It seems commercialized and bland. It’s not terrible but she wouldn’t put money towards it.

The amber is trying to BE something and the new Fat Tire is just an ale-and that distinction is really important.

While I think there’s some nostalgia glasses being worn by my friend, she has a point! The new beer is just beer. Fat Tire was an amber.

And it makes me think of all those connections we have to the things we love: the new Fat Tire might be a perfectly cromulent beer but who’s going to love it?