It’s funny that on this first day of winter I am writing about the final round of my Winter Ale Taste-Off. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like winter seasonals started showing up unusually early this year. I swear I was drinking Jubelale around the end of August. Anyway, as the title implies, this [...]

Last night my wife and I stopped by the Bier Stein for a tasting of Oakshire’s latest single batch release; Smokin’ Bagpipes Scotch Ale. The brewery also brought with them some Very Ill-Tempered Gnome, a one-off brewed for this year’s Portland Holiday Ale Festival. And while not available for sampling, the bottle shop was serving [...]

Last weekend, my wife and I held round two of our Winter Ale Taste-Off. Initially, I wanted to do a selection of Oregon holiday bombers for round two, but there were still a bunch of winter beers available in six packs that we weren’t able to procure for round one. We decided to grab another [...]

After our adventure in homebrewing Saturday night, Jesse and I toasted our accomplishment* with a bottle of Fire Mountain’s Oregon Pale Ale (OPA). I first tried OPA during a Fire Mountain tasting at Beer Nuts last month. At the tasting, Co-brewmaster Dave Marliave described it as a cross between an English and an American Pale [...]