Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Laurelwood's "Hops For Haiti" Fundraiser

“Hops for Haiti," a benefit for earthquake relief in Haiti, will be taking place this Friday, January 22nd from open to close at all 3 Laurelwood locations.

$0.50 of every PINT poured and $1 of every GROWLER sold or refilled will be donated to Mercy Corps to help aid in the relief efforts in Haiti.

Please tell everyone you can about this event, you can feel free to donate any money of your own on Friday evening as well.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Hoppy Beerthday, 99 Bottles!

99 Bottles specialty beer store will celebrate its third year of business with a “Beerthday Bash” while serving beer and cake on Wednesday, January 20th.

99 Bottles has been celebrating with beer and cake every year since their grand opening in 2007. Previous years featured vanilla cake with caramel filling paired with hazelnut and chocolate beers, and chocolate cake with cream cheese filling paired with coffee beer. This year’s cake will be a rich carrot cake with pecans and cream cheese filling, created by Corina Bakery of Tacoma. Paired with the cake will be a Belgian-style witbier that has a slightly tart palate, a chocolaty-coffee porter that’s locally brewed in Snoqualmie, and an intensely citrusy India pale ale.

The event allows Tiffany Adamowski, co-owner of 99 Bottles to feature two favorite foods—beer and baked goods. Adamowski says, “While bars focus on pairing beer with pretzels, we use the store’s anniversary as an opportunity to pair beer with everyday baked goods, such as cake.”

Adamowski has also been known to hold “beer and donut” breakfast tastings for 99 Bottles customers and sponsor “Dish’n Beer” events that focus on pairing beer with foods that are easy to make at home or pairings with take-out foods from local establishments.

Ages 21 and over are invited to attend. Come to 99 Bottles in Federal Way on Wednesday, January 20th to try the three beers and have a slice of cake for $1. The event runs from 4:00 until 8:00 p.m.

Zwickelmania Returns!

Breweries across the state of Oregon will host open houses and special tastings on Saturday, February 13, from 11:00a.m. to 4:00p.m., as part of the Oregon Brewers Guild’s 2nd annual Zwickelmania Oregon Brewery Tour.

The Presidents' Day weekend event offers visitors a chance to tour dozens of Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample their favorite beers.

"Last year we had more than 10,000 visitors from across the state participate in Zwickelmania," says Oregon Brewers Guild Executive Director, Brian Butenschoen. "This year we have extended the hours to make the experience more enjoyable and allow participants to experience more breweries."

Zwickelmania takes its name from the zwickel, or sample valve which is mounted on the outside of fermentation or conditioning tanks and allows brewers to take samples for quality assurance and control. Zwickelmania offers a unique opportunity to go behind the scenes, taste beers where they're produced, and meet the brewers who craft them.

Admission to all Zwickelmania events is free, with some breweries offering complimentary sample tastings, food pairings and other activities. Additionally, the Oregon Brewers Guild will provide buses in Portland and Eugene to help shuttle visitors among multiple breweries throughout the city. Close-toed shoes will be required for any visitors entering brewing facilities. For a complete list of Oregon breweries participating in Zwicklemania and sample itineraries, please visit here.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Green Dragon Brew #9: Build-a-Dragon

Brew #9 is ready and will be tapped on TODAY, January 6th at 5:00pm at the Green Dragon, 928 SE 9th Ave., Portland.

Build-a-Dragon is an American Pale Ale that was brewed by Shane Watterson of the Oregon Brew Crew as the culmination of the Oregon Brew Crew’s Build-a-Beer Project.

Build-a-Beer was a year-long project that taught Oregon Brew Crew members recipe design, ingredient-by-ingredient. Build-a-Dragon Pale Ale was brewed using ingredients that were hand-selected by Build-a-Beer students.

Build-a-Dragon is brewed with 6 ingredients: Golden Promise Pale and C-40 Malts; Amarillo and Centennial Hops; Scottish Ale Yeast and Water. Specifications are 50 IBU, 6º Lovibond and 15.4º Plato.

A portion of the proceeds from Build-a-Dragon will be donated to the Oregon Brew Crew.

Mt. Angel Wurstfest

Dust off your lederhosen, starch up your Bavarian Dirndl and join the happy folk of Mount Angel for a fun-filled weekend of celebration in honor of the Wurst.

Oktoberfest and the Mount Angel Chamber of Commerce are teaming up again this year for the last blast of winter. Wurstfest, a celebration of the mighty German (wurst) sausage, takes place in the Oktoberfest Community Building, 500 S Wilco Hwy, on Friday, February 12, from 5:00 p.m. ‘till 11:00 p.m. Saturday, February 13, from noon ‘til 11:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 14, from noon ‘til 6:00 p.m. This is the weekend before Ash Wednesday and the start of the austere, Holy Season of Lent. Included in the $10.00 adult admission fee is a half liter, Spaten souvenir Bavarian glass beer mug, easily worth the price of admission. Four thousand mugs are available on a first come first serve basis. Sunday, February 14 is Saint Valentine’s Day and we will have a special gift for the ladies – a $10.00 gift card to one of Mount Angel’s great restaurants, the Glockenspiel, Bavarian Haus or the Mt. Angel Sausage Company. Children accompanied by an adult are admitted free until 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and all-day on Sunday.

Area sausage makers present for sale the best of their wurst – bratwurst, bockwurst, frickadelwurst, famous Oktoberfest sausage and many other variations garnished with sauerkraut, grilled onions and the Benedictine Sisters award winning Monastery Mustards. On tap are world famous Spaten Biers from Munich – Premium Helles, Optimator, Helles Bock, Pilsner, Franziskaner Hefeweizen, along with the ever popular Bud Light. There will be a wide array of regional wines, non-alcoholic drinks and potions. For a cold winter day, try a steaming cup of Bavarian Glühwein (hot mulled wine). Select cheeses, sausage pizza, baked goods, Extreme Chocolates, roasted nuts along with hot dogs and chicken nuggets for the kids round out the food offerings.

Non-stop music at Wurstfest features Oktoberfest favorites – Mount Angel’s own Z Musikmakers, the Greg Meier Bavarian Quartet, Jägermeister Volksmusik and others.

Those traveling some distance to the festival can take advantage of the Oregon Garden Resort Wurstfest Special Package – one nights lodging and two VIP tickets to Wurstfest for $99.00. (Thursday thru Saturday arrivals) Enjoy a wonderful stay at Oregon’s premier garden resort and the last blast of winter at Wurstfest. Call 503-874-2500 for details and reservations.

For more Wurstfest information, call 503-845-9440 or visit www.oktoberfest.org.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Stone Opening a Brewery in the EU...?

Stone to open a Brewery in Europe? from stonebrew on Vimeo.

February Stout Month at Fort George


February 1st marks the beginning of Stout Month at the Fort George Brewery in Astoria, OR. At least 8 stouts will be featured this year, including Badda Bing, a flanders-style sour cherry stout; The Murky Pearl, brewed with Willapa Bay oysters; Bourbon Barrel-aged Cavatica Stout; Spank Stout, brewed with 3 varieties of hot pepper; and the ever-popular Coffee Girl Stout, made with espresso. Several guest stouts will also be on tap, including The Abyss from Deschutes Brewery. A flight of all the stouts is available for a blind tasting, and commemorative Stout Month t-shirts will be for sale.

The annual "Stout & Oysters" Brewer's Dinner will take place on February 10th, featuring 5 courses of mouth-watering oysters paired with selected stouts. Tickets for the Brewer's Dinner are $55, or $100 for two.

The Fort George Brewery is located at 1493 Duane St. in Astoria, OR. Visit the website, or call (503) 325-PINT for more information.

New Belgium's Solar Array Goes Live

New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale, announced today that the largest privately owned solar array in Colorado has gone live.

The 200 kW system will produce 16 percent of New Belgium’s peak electrical load and 3 percent of their total electrical energy use. The array is part of the brewer’s commitment to Fort Collins’ FortZED initiative, a public/private partnership that aims to create the world’s largest “active zero energy district” through Smart Grid and renewable energy technology.

Boulder-based Namaste Solar was contracted for the integration, which began in late August. The New Belgium packaging hall now holds 870 panels, and engineers estimate it can power the bottle line for up to eight hours on a sunny day.

New Belgium, along with several other Fort Collins entities—such as the City of Fort Collins, Colorado State University, Spirae, Inc., Brendle Group, Advanced Energy, and Woodward—responded to a request from the Department of Energy to demonstrate peak load reduction. The partners were one of nine groups nationwide to receive such a grant.

“We feel very fortunate to participate in this ambitious local effort. By leveraging the contributions from our partners and the Department of Energy along with our own investments, we’ll reduce our peak electrical load by over two-thirds,” said New Belgium Sustainability Director Jennifer Orgolini.

New Belgium became the country’s first brewery to subscribe to 100 percent wind powered electricity in 1998 and can produce up to 15 percent of its electrical needs by capturing methane from its process water treatment plant to fire a co-generation engine which produces heat and electricity on-site.

Sheep Eater Scotch Ale Released From Grand Teton


Grand Teton Brewing Company will be releasing the Sheep Eater Scotch Ale on January 9th, the final release in their 2009 “Cellar Reserve” series of specialty beers. The 2009 Cellar Reserve beers were dedicated to, and brewed in strict adherence with, the Reinheitsgebot, the 1516 Bavarian beer purity law. Each beer is brewed to highlight one of the four true beer ingredients: malt, hops, yeast and water.

Sheep Eater Scotch Ale was brewed to showcase the role of malt in the flavor of beer.

The Scotch Ale was brewed with black roasted barley and peat-smoked malt. It was gently hopped, fermented cool and aged cold for weeks, and is copper-brown in color with some sweet maltiness.

The Sheep Eater Scotch Ale will be available at select locations in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, California, Oregon, Montana, Washington, New York, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas and Missouri.

"The Ritual Project" Brought Stella Artois to Life Above the Streets of NYC

To celebrate the rich tradition of the Belgian Pouring Ritual, Stella Artois commissioned a group of New York City painters from Sky High Murals to bring the pouring ritual to life high above the streets of New York, calling it The Ritual Project.

Step by step over 21 days, the painters hand-painted a 20 x 50 foot stop-frame animation on a building side in SoHo (at the corner of Crosby and Broome). A viewing area was set up at the location, where passersby could view the painters’ work close-up through vintage viewfinders and also receive free Stella Artois Chalices.

The entire project, from time-lapse film footage to photos to interviews with the painters, is being brought to life as a short documentary. Follow the project at http://theritualproject.com