The Ale List: The Sweet Wort: So long and thanks for the can-do attitude

Barring intercession by Dionysus, this will be the last The Ale List in the Columbia Gorge News, as I prepare to move to McMinnville in April. In doing this farewell, there is old ground to recognize and new matters to mention. More out-the-door ruminations below. First, some business:

Full Sail reopens

Full Sail’s pub opened Friday, March 5 with limited hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 8 p.m., after almost a year being dark (but with the brewery going strong.) Sandra Evans of Full Sail announced, “Offering safe indoor and outdoor dining, beer to go, and takeout. Social distancing and masks required. Groups are limited to six people per table. Plan to swing by, we have missed you!”

I stopped in that night and looked over the beer selection -- you can scan the QR code to avoid picking up the laminated menu -- and listings on the familiar chalkboard. Good to see the fresh IPAs, pale ales and Amber, along with a couple of barrel-aged selections. Server Carrie offered me a sample of the new Haze of the Gods IPA, saying “it’s pretty smooth -- you’re an Amber guy, right?” True, and quite a memory considering I had not been in for over a year.

Full Sail’s flavorful, accessible IPAs have helped edged this Oregon Dissident -- I don’t as a rule like IPAs -- into the fold and back to where I go the hoppy route more often than I used to.

Circle of flavor

I called up Laurie and Steve White of Freebridge Brewing in The Dalles and Laurie told me that their expanded canned line is now available at markets and bottle shops around The Dalles, Dufur, Maupin and Hood River. Meanwhile the 2nd Street pub is open with shelters and heaters. They launched their can lines with the Pulpit Rock Pilsner and Dirty Juicy IPA, Oneonta Amber, Muleskinner Stout and Helles Lager.

Bottled items include the Coal Car Whiskey Barrel Stout (a smooth and full-flavored delight, I had a bottle in December) done in collaboration with Johnson Ranch (17 miles south of The Dalles) whiskey barrels from Double Circle Spirits, while supplies last.

Things are quiet a few blocks away at Sedition Brewery, though fermenting barrels of cherry-infused beer, with detailed process notes on each, were sunning on the loading dock one day last week. Raise a glass to the reopening of this and all breweries shut or slowed down by the pandemic. Sedition’s historic ice house location and multi-room public house has always shown great promise as a meeting place with meaning. The west parlor of Sedition is graced by a 12-foot mural -- “From Grain to Glass” -- that’s as concise an illustration as you will see anywhere of the science of brewing. At the center are the words, “Then we boil The Sweet Wort and add our hops.” That’s poetry.

Backwoods to expand

Tom Waters of Backwoods Brewery in Carson reports that big changes could be happening within a couple of years. Backwoods bought 18 acres at 1361 Wind River Highway, just across the street from the Carson pub. “We are looking to move our brewery, pub and grocery store to our new location,” Waters said in an email. “We currently lease these locations and are looking to invest in our own property. We are in the very early stages of this project,” he said. “The game plan thus far is to use the property as a one-stop destination with the pub, brewery, and grocery store as well as some cabins for nightly rentals and outside and inside event space. We are also playing around with some other fun ideas but as I said nothing is finalized yet.”

Bundle Up ...

and enjoy your beer: Nice to see a step taken at Volcanic Bottle Shoppe on the Heights, with dry and sanitized seat pads provided for anyone going out on the patio enjoying their beer. With the county down to “Low” risk, Abe and Amanda’s tap room has indoor seating again, but the seat pads, well, underscore the outdoor option.

Freshet-brewed

Kasey McCullough of Working Hands, the Gorge’s newest brewery, had to wait last month for a few days longer than he wanted to get pallets of cans to fill with his new Freshet Helles ale, but you the drinker need wait no more. Look for Freshet as well as McCullough’s second IPA since Working Hands started distributing in December. Freshet -- the flood of a river from heavy rain or melted snow -- is the perfect name for this clean, delicious brew. Cans are available at Volcanic, among other places. Of the IPA, “I can’t make enough, it sells so fast,” said McCullough, a Dufur native who lives in The Dalles. Bargeway Tavern in The Dalles has gone through keg after keg. Cans can be found at Brenna’s Mosier Market, Volcanic, and other local retailers.

Next up, beer-wise, is a Working Hands pils, and meanwhile McCullough is close to finishing up his recipe for a cold-brew coffee -- using a roast from Kainos Coffee in The Dalles -- in collaboration with his partners at Slopeswell Cidery, where Working Hands shares space, on the Heights in Hood River.

Double’s 14th: scaled back, not watered down

Look for a 14th anniversary IPA from Double Mountain this summer, and no street party again in 2021, In fact, the Double Mountain crew will celebrate with a day off from work and a socially-distanced toast on the anniversary itself, March 17.

Owner Matt Swihart and his crew called off the party in 2020 with the advent of the pandemic. The event has grown to become the biggest street party in town, after the Hops Fest, with brewery tours, samplings of vintage and one-off ales, and of course, a line-up of four or five live bands, one of rocker Swihart’s own ensembles often taking on a set.

“It was before the restrictions came out but we knew it was the right thing to do. You could see the tea leaves: are we really going to put 2,000 people on the street, partying together? We thought the following year, 2021, everything would be open, but it’s just not the case,” Swihart said. “It’s not a responsible thing for a citizen to do and though I think we could max it out with 150 people, I don’t want to put that many people together.

“Our thought was that our employees have gone through so much with fires and gas interruptions and panedmics and restrictions and layoffs, and the return to work. It’s just a constant struggle that we are just going to take a day off,”

Sometime on the 17th, the 80 or so employees will join in a virtual toast, according to Swihart: “We’ll hoist a beer and congratulate each other and do some social media promotion about how cool and hard-working our staff is, because they put up with a lot of some customers that sometimes are not the most gracious or kind with regard to the restrictions, and they’re front-line people. They’ve got to do it if they want to feed their family. It’s all on them, and the only reason we’re still in business is because we’ve got good people.”

Swihart conveys a blend of the optimistic and philosophical. (Philoptimistic? Matt. you have my permission to use that as a beer name; your general manager Mr. Moulton can help with the grain bill.)

“We’d love it to be a bigger thing, but we just can’t,” Swihart said. “That party is so pivotal for us and we love seeing the community here. It’s hard not to have it, but it’s the way it goes,” said Swihart. “It’s coming back, businesses are coming back and we’re getting the vaccines, and there is reason to hope.”

Double Mountain will wait until summer to release a 14th anniversary beer, “a back-to-basics-style IPA a style the brewers and I love,” Swihart said.

New on tap at Double: Rose cider, made with pink-flesh Pink Pearl and Mountain Rose, apples from partners Riparian Orchards in the mid-valley and Kiyokawa Orchards of Parkdale. “We’ve partnered with Randy since day one. Our original dry cider contained Kiyokawa partners,” Swihart said,

The brewery’s next seasonal IPA will be Burnside Skate Park, to come out a couple of weeks, and like last year’s Burnside Skate Park pale ale, sales benefit the Portland skatepark. “It’s a little of our culture, a little irreverent, a little non-mainstream,” Swihart said.

Ferment Brewing Co. issues new canned beers

Ferment Brewing Co. has released three new canned offerings: Nitro Dry Stout and Something Like … join the brewery’s Top Ferment Series, while Pils Bernina is a new addition to the Bottom Ferment Series. The Top and Bottom Ferment Series both feature 16-ounce cans filled with experimental, one-off and seasonal ales and lagers, respectively.

Nitro Dry Stout embodies the spirit of the midnight-black ales of Dublin. A pale mash and unique black sparge technique imparts a gentle acidity to the beer along with a clean, delicate roast character in this refreshing dark ale that’s canned with nitrogen (4.5 percent ABV). This marks the first time the brewery has canned this popular beer.

“Ever since its inception, we have looked forward to the day when we could package our Nitro Dry Stout,” said Dan Peterson, Ferment Brewing Brewmaster. “Now we get to release it alongside a fun take on a Pilsner style and a bold, hoppy, tropical hazy pale ale.”

“Something LIke …” is a hazy pale ale brewed with Ekuanot and Strata hops (6 percent ABV). The beer is similar to Something Like Mind Control, Ferment’s collaboration with Moonraker Brewing Co. in Auburn, Calif.

(Tasting notes: the Something Like is a flavor and visual pleasure, certainly hazy -- pouring almost like it was infused with a dash of pink grapefruit. There is plenty stored in that aromatic cloud; indeed, the mouthfeel is playful and it gently floats on the palate but delivers a big flavor while the Eukanot hops impart a restrained lemon-apple tartness.)

Pils Bernina is Ferment’s take on an Italian-style Pilsner — it’s bright and loaded with Noble hops (6 percent ABV). (Tasting notes: this is not a punch-you-in-the-face hoppy ale. It pours lager-clear and starts off with the suggestion, in the best sense, of natural pine. I’ve never been to the Bernina Alps, but the beer seems to invoke a forest in that namesake range of peaks straddling the Switzerland and Italy border. The flavor is complex and it complemented a plate of roasted chicken and risotto, but before imbibing the Bernina demands a few moments to first be inhaled.)

FermentBrewing.com; @FermentBrewing

North Bank Alliance

The Washington beer community along the Columbia has forged an alliance dating to 2018, in North Bank Brews, whose members include Goldendale’s Dwinnell Country Ales, Everybody’s Brewing in White Salmon, Walking Man in Stevenson, and Backwoods in Carson, along with Camas-Washougal breweries Doomsday, 54-40, Grains of Wrath, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales (which is rooted in Odell), and Shoug Brewery.

Michael DiFabio, North Bank Beer board president, said the non-profit was formed for several reasons including giving a greater voice in Washington for all the brewers of southwest Washington, an advantage felt by their members in Centralia, Ridgefield, Battle Ground and Longview who are closer to Olympia. (The newest NBB member is Wildman in Raymond, near the Washington coast.)

“It also helped us get together to do local fundraisers and local education,” said DiFabio, part-owner of Fortside Brewery in Vancouver. Successful ventures included the Beyond Darkness festival in February, celebrating the dark ales made by alliance members and giving consumers another reason to visit those taprooms that were able to open at 25 percent capacity. “Our members have all adhered to health protocols and made sure they have provided a safe place for people,” DiFabio said.

Beyond Darkness was largely in response to COVID-19, but DiFabio said it was such a positive experience the alliance plans to make it an annual event.

The alliance’s Brewing Bridges festival in 2018 and 2019 connected member breweries to Oregon counterparts for collaborative ales, a cooperation that DiFabio said created healthy cross-river energy and could return as early as 2021, if conditions are right.

I learned about North Bank when I picked up a can of the winter ale Mittens, Masks and Earmuffs (official beer of “Bundle Up and Enjoy Your Beer”?), a 54-40 collab with Loowit Brewery in Vancouver. Almost-sessionable as winter ales go, at 6.6 ABV. the molasses and allspice merge nicely with other adjuncts to create a gently spicy ale that, upon warming a bit, reinterpreted itself almost as a mild-funk farmhouse ale, all in all very pleasant.

A sweet collaboration of note is No Nuts No Glory (“Mixed Nuts stout”), from neighboring Highway 14 breweries Grains of Wrath in Camas and Backwoods Brewing in Carson. Described as “brewed with natural flavors of cashews, hazelnuts and walnuts,” this is a satisfyingly sweet brew, with a viscuous pour and nicely sustained head, as rich a stout as you could ask but I could not say the nut flavors came through. The three nuts carry unique profiles (oily cashews, dry hazelnuts and woody walnuts) so it is possible they cancelled each other out -- or you could say worked together, because the flavor is great. It’s a successful stout but I’ve tasted hazelnut brews that truly imbue hazelnuts, and can see how a cashew-focused ale would bring out the cakey smoothness of the nut. Meanwhile, a walnut-only ale (no doubt they have been done) is an opportunity to impart the hop-like bitterness you get from the nut. British nut brown ales often rely on walnuts, but a casual search among breweries in walnut-laden Oregon or Washington finds precious little.

Beer apparel

I miss the brewery name-checking at Hood River Hops Fest, with attendees sporting t’s from obscure breweries from all over the Northwest and beyond. The punny and sophomoric novelty beer t-shirts, on the other hand, are a dime-a-dozen and most such beer-themed garb you see in town runs a little sour. My Hood River Beervana shirt is the exception -- and also I don’t mean the ubiquitous t-shirts and hats from local breweries and beer businesses. I wear a few of those myself. But one novelty shirt seen at Shortt Supply (see photo) I would wear -- in the interest of science, of course.

Drink local

I recently snagged bottles of Portland Brewing Company’s McTarnahan’s amber and City of Roses pale ale, to commemorate the demise of Portland Brewing. The venerable brewery closed last month after 35 years. It was an Oregon flagship brewery, one of the first over the horizon in an emerging Craft Beer flotilla that added many sails and rudders, and is now buffeted by industry crowding, the coronavirus and other factors.

As I went to purchase the Portland Brewing beers, a friend asked what I was selecting and when I told him, his response was, “oh, old school.” Admittedly, I was never a big fan of the brewery, but regarded the flagship MacTarnahan’s as a fine malty go-to. Though I could have supported Portland Brewery more, my malt-forward palate put me on consistent rotation between MacTarnahan’s, Full Sail Amber, and Widmer DropTop.

The MacTarnahan’s is gone but the City of Roses waits in the corner of the fridge. At some point I will toast the gifts of Portland Brewery, and its memory, and can only add that the best way to see that other breweries do not founder and sink but instead continue to fly the flag of home and quality, is simple: “drink local”.

That day at the cooler, after a short perusal of the coolers, I saw at least three new beers I’d never seen before – a problem of plenty perpetuates itself in a fickle, what’s new checklist mentality with a growing number of consumers, and breweries that stick to a solid regimen become dismissed as “old school.”

Or I could store the City of Roses, just as I have done with a bottle of Henry’s that was brewed in the old Portland brewery blocks before they closed it down in the 1980s, and a bottle of Red Star from East Germany I snagged when news of the fall of the Berlin Wall came in 1989. These are 35-40 years old now and undrinkable but I kept them all the same.

My brother Joel sent photos of a ceremonial opening a Pinkus pils with his Vintage Ales Tasting Society (VATS), and the label read “West Germany.” That told me the Pinkus was certainly at least as old as 1989 -- sure enough, Joel knew it to be from the early ‘80s. (VATS has uncapped bottles as old as a century -- I am hoping, once vaccinated, to wangle a guest sipper invite.) The Pinkus cap was thoroughly oxydized cap and “the beer was a bomb but we enjoyed it anyway as it still had some Pilsner malt and Noble hop qualities about it,” Joel reported.

Dry January, warm March

I completed an alcohol-free January, with little regret or missing, I am relieved to report. To test myself, I went mid-month to visit my brother Joel’s Corvallis Brewing Supply store, and his well-curated bottle shop. He had just moved to larger quarters next door and was selling “mystery bags” of beer and wine, as clearance. I sprung for a mystery bag with 12 containers for $15. Inside were two fine bottles of stout, a Belgian sour, a Russian “pale beer” (that sounds a little less appealing than “pale ale” but chalk it up to the translation), and an ESB from Ferment right here in Hood River. (One of my favorites; taking coals to Newcastle!)

In my chronicle of Dry January, I wrote on Jan. 20: “Looking around at local providers of pints: Part of me does want to get in on the ‘bundle up and enjoy your beer’ ethic, more and more easily done as places including Double Mountain figure out new ways to provide outdoor service. I drive by 64 Oz. Taproom, which added a propane heater on the sidewalk, and see people regularly sitting outside – something I thought unlikely just a few weeks ago. Granted, our days have often been temperate for mid-winter, high-30s and low-40s, but other days have been at or around freezing. And people huddled through it. And there will be plenty of days yet to bundle up.”

Happily, we appear near the point where outdoor drinking will be safe as well as more comfortable. People did huddle through it.

How do you like your Ship’s Biscuit?

What’s fun is Joel’s “mystery” selections have introduced me to a new type of beer: Ship’s Biscuit Imperial Stout, this one from Wolf Tree Brewery in Seal Rock on the southern Oregon coast. I am not finding much history or description on line, but other breweries in the U.S. and U.K. produce Ship’s Biscuits, described as creamy, heady, and spicy. At least one Ship’s Biscuits is listed as a “pale beer beautifully balanced with lovely hop flavors”. (I’ve never seen “pale beer” before and now I read it twice in the same day.

As to Ship’s Biscuits, either it’s totally new to me, a vague or niche beer type without any real identity or strictly-held profile, and I’d welcome anyone’s notes on Ship’s Biscuits. For now, it comes down to a case of the Brits making a pale and Americans making a stout and both calling it Ship’s Biscuits. Either way, I set this aside to be the first beer I crack open on Feb. 1 ... either that or a Block 15 Highland Hymn Scottish ale or a pFriem pilsner.

Post script: it would appear one of my sons absconded with the Ship’s Biscuit, so I went with the pFriem and was very happy indeed.

Last Ale List

I see the Gorge as a beer region of force, evidenced by the expansion of Thunder Island and the arrival of Gorges Beer Co., both in Cascade Locks, the start of Kasey McCullough’s Working Hands on the Heights in Hood River, and report of growth and expansion of Backwoods Brewing in Carson, and the continued innovation and excellence of all the breweries in the area.

Add to this an entity not new but new to me, North Bank Beer alliance, with its Gorge members and a growing list of emerging breweries lining the Columbia west and north from Vancouver up to Raymond. Wash. The alliance overlaps a little with Breweries in the Gorge which has, from my perspective, been understandably quiet for the past year. One thing that would definitely bring me back to the Gorge are events such Everybody’s anniversary tasting party, Double Mountain’s anniversary street party, BIG’s Holiday Hangover fest in January, and Hood River Hops (all cancelled in 2020).

Hood River and the Gorge is an amazing beer region, and I want to thank folks such as Josh pFriem. Ken Whiteman and Rudy Kellner, Dan and Jenn Peterson, Jason Kahler and John Hitt, Sandra Evans and the whole Full Sail crew, Jim and Peggy Kelter, Charles Porter, Doug and Christine Ellenberger, Joe Sheehan, Ed Wilder, Gavin Lord, Rod Steward and Lorraine Lyons, Dana Price, David Logsdon, David and Carolyn Lipp, Steve and Laurie Light, and Abe and Amanda at Volcanic, all for keeping me informed and educating me on all things cerevesian.

Two of my fondest memories of Hood River took place in driving rain: one, as guide for the living-history program Cemetery Tales at Idlewilde Cemetery, the night c. 2015 when a major squall roared in and four of us held down the corners of the tent while Julie Hatfield stayed in character through the wind and driving rain. No beer involved there, but a similar vibe happened at Hops Fest, c. 2014 -- who else remembers? -- when the rains and winds drove everyone under the tents (social distancing? Hah!) and hundreds of us packed in where it was dry and kept sampling ales and talking and laughing about the weather. I’ve talked to others who regard it as one of the best Hops Fests. I remember the feeling of being there with friends and no-longer strangers, getting through it as a group, no one caring about the storm and, in fact, reveling in it, the making of a memory, wet weather the perfect accompaniment to dry hops.

Looking ahead:

The Gorge beer scene will grow all the more vital as:

* Gorges Beer Company location in Cascade Locks -- opening June or July -- becomes a regional draw, and symbiosis with other WaNaPa beer businesses, starting with Thunder Island, whose owners called me a few years back to let me know Willis and Travis and company were planning to build a brewery just down the street;

* Collaboratives continue such as the new one (dry-hopped rice ale) between Logsdon Farmhouse and Breakside in Portland;

* The reveal happens on just where the former Big Horse brewhouse went;

* Socially-distanced crowds return to Full Sail’s pub;

* Backwoods fulfills its vision for a beer-and-hospitality complex in Carson;

* We see, a year or two down the road, the opening of the third floor roof bar at Thunder Island.

Confessions, thoughts, and memories

I’ve been the happy beneficiary of many people buying me a beer; I once hid from Michael Ellingson at the old Springhouse because he never let me buy my own. For the same reason I’ve done the same thing to Matt at pFriem and Lisa at Full Sail and Kyle at Everybody’s.

I once went into the Portland upstairs beer bar, Upper Lip, and unwittingly crashed a private brewers’ tasting but got quick forgiveness and welcome by several Gorge brewery folk who happened to be involved, noteably Charles Porter of Little Beast and Shilpi Haleman, now of Logsdon Farmhouse.

No one asked me, but I think a series of collaborative beers between Everybody’s and Backwoods could be named for the unique mile markers for the railroad on the north bank of the Columbia. Same thing for Thunder Island, pFriem, Ferment, Sedition and Freebridge, with river mile markers between Cascade Locks and Hood River? (A year from June, when a nice malty ‘Mile 64’ is ready, I’ll be there for the release party ...)

Best moments? The brewers’ tasting at Wy’east Labs in Odell, with new and experimental beers made with lab-ing care; Tasting Belgian ales at the Logsdon farmhouse taproom outside of Odell (fun while it lasted); admiring the artistic chalk boards at Double Mountain, advertising beers and bands past -- the growing display is one of the best things about the return of (limited) in-person at the pub; watching Ed Wilder hold court in the old Da Brewshop, his tiny but tantalizing little pub; Ed sailing beer coasters out his roll-up window toward cars as people stopped on Cascade Avenue -- once saw someone catch one; drinking Berliner Weisse with multi-colored syrups, at Full Sail; hanging out in pFriem’s Bear’s Den or “library,” and at Double Mountain’s North bar, or scoring a south bar seat when the erudite Matt Bynum is pulling pints; Everybody’s Brewing’s inventive brewer-community group beer partnerships; Thunder Island’s cramped but cozy space, c. 2012, the brewery’s first refuge from the blustery Cascade Locks nights; walking into Volcanic and scanning the chalkboard to see what unique surprises await; music -- Irish music at the old Growlerz in Bingen ... Music Mondays with Ben Bonham and friends at The Pint Shack/Moth Lounge ... our former newsguy Patrick Mulvihill gigging with Ryan McAlexander’s band at MoCo; the unique camaraderie and always-interesting ales at Solera’s pub (sorry I never got to Taco Night); the home brewers’ association sharing night at the old Big Horse; the short but smart life of Solog Beer Festival in Parkdale (Cotillion, anyone?)

Finally, I want to remember Full Sail’s late, lamented 60-foot hallway triptych mural about brewing, by Hood River artist Mark Nilsson -- he captured the spirit of John Barleycorn.

Prosit!

The Ale List responses welcome, at kirbyn@gorgenews.com.