Let’s say you’re at a family function and you’re incredibly bored. A neice’s 4rd birthday party. A third-cousin’s graduation party. Grandma’s funeral. And you wish you had a beer to get you through the same stories you’ve been hearing since you could hear. The Argentinian beer brand Andes knows the feeling. And not only do they get you that beer, they do one better. Take note, AB & Miller-Coors, this is what big-brand beer advertising can look like. It doesn’t have to be all boobs and “duuuuuuuuuude!”
Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category
February14
Beer is an Escape for All of Us
Great spin on the Dos Equis ads from Breckenridge Brewery. There’s also a Corona version.
January31
Fort George Brewery
Fort George Brewery is a great place to visit if you find yourself in Astoria, OR, home of the Goonies. Astoria is a small town that is situated near the mouth of the Columbia River as it dumps into the Pacific Ocean. There is plenty to do in and around Astoria.
- Drive along Highway 101 aka Highway 1 when you are in Cali. Beautiful, fun stretch of road.
- Fort Stevens Park – Did you know that we had an active fort on the west coast during WWII? Did you know that the Japanese used to send air balloons across the ocean with bombs attached to them, so that when they landed they would explode. Cool historic site.
- Lots of great fishing and tons of charters to head out to sea for salmon, tuna, etc.
- Tons of hiking, both in Oregon and Washington.
- Tour filming locations of the Goonies. Sloth loves Chunk.
While you are exploring you must stop at Fort George Brewery. It’s a cool building and has lots of history, plus the beer and food is awesome. The current brewery and public house was built in 1924 as a Ford service station. The renovated brewery is awesome. I was there a few year back and had a great time. The atmosphere is very relaxed and fun. There is some local art work on the walls and some cool wood pieces. Beer is served in mason jars and if you are lucky you can show up during one of their BBQ cook outs. I was fortunate or lucky enough to be there during one of these. They do it up right, big smoker, fire pit, great beer and live music!
BEER! They have a great spread, brewing up all the classic styles; 1811 Lager, Quick Wit, Divinity, Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale, Nut Red Ale, Vortex IPA, Working Girl Porter and Cavatica Stout. From what I remember having they were all solid and below are some highlights.
- Quick Wit – Was very refreshing after a long warm day of hiking. Nice malty balance with spices. There is a great flavor of coriander and citrus (orange).
- Vortex IPA – Classic IPA, not an overwhelming hop head brew. As Fort George puts it; this brew was designed to not rip the taste buds off your tongue, but rather vigorously stimulate them and your palate into a lupulin-ecstacy of pleasure. The hop bill includes Amarillo, Simcoe and Centennial.
- Working Girl Porter – This is a new spin on the porter I tried on my visit. This new brew uses over 5 lbs of Working Girl coffee beans. The beans were put into both the mash tun and the kettle to create a light coffee aroma and coffee aftertaste in this distinctive porter. With additional hints of chocolate and rye malt, this porter is well-balanced and fantastic at any point in the day. Wish I could go back and give it a try.
Fort George recently started to can. If anyone finds a can locally let us know. Or if anyone heads out west and wants to bring back some cans that would be greatly appreciated. If you do make the trip let us know what you think and if anything changed.
After cruising through some old emails I came across a memo from the Rogue Nation. This report came out in late summer early fall. How could you not want to own a farm with the view above. Part I reviews the barley raw material. The barley survived wild fires, some of the largest wild fires Oregon has seen.
Dare™ & Risk™ Malting Barley: Four weeks ago we harvested our Dare™ spring malting barley as Oregon’s largest wildfire loomed over the horizon. Stan, Deanna and Andrea Ashbrook of Dufur, Oregon returned to the Micro Barley Farm to drive the combines just as they did for the Risk™ malting barley harvest in early August. In just a few days they brought in the Dare™ crop during some of the hottest weather we had all year. Initial tests show good plump levels and intact kernels, great news for when we malt it.We harvested 897,345 pounds of Risk™ and Dare™ malting barley this year. And while that may sound like a lot, it’s not enough to fill more than a couple of production lines at a commercial malting plant.
Just south of here near Madras, Oregon’s largest wildfire made headlines across the state. The High Cascades fire burned more than 108,000 acres of brush, scrub and grass before being completely contained in mid-September. Other nearby fires included the Webster and Dollar Lake wildfires. Thankfully, none of them impacted operations at the Micro Barley Farm, except for at night when the flames filled the sky with a wondrous glow.
As the harvest wrapped up, Doc McAllister went in search of a field for next year’s Risk™ winter barley. The area he chose is currently used for hay and grass and hasn’t been planted in grain for more than a decade. It’s what Doc likes to call, virgin territory or new ground.
Moving crops from field to field, called crop rotation, is done to preserve nutrients in the soil and to prevent disease. If we were to plant malting barley in the same place year after year, all the nutrients it needs would be depleted from the dirt. Crop rotation also reduces the use of fertilizers.
Preparing new ground is time consuming and takes about six weeks. The steps include irrigation, plowing, discing and harrowing.
Irrigation: This causes leftover grass, hay and weed seeds to germinate. By forcing them to germinate this fall, they won’t interfere when the barley grows in the spring. It also loosens the soil and makes it easier to work.
Plowing: Grass and hay have deep roots and a wide base. Plowing overturns the soil about a foot deep, breaking up the plant material and returning it to the soil as organic humus.
Discing: Breaks up the larger soil clumps.
Harrowing:Continues breaking up the soil and creates a smooth texture.
Any of these steps may need to be repeated to get things just right. The planting of the Risk™
malting barley expected to take place early October.
January15
TDY Visits Lake Placid Part 2
After a long day of bobsledding we stopped by the Adirondack Brewing Co. The restaurant associated with the brewery is a little more high end than your typical brew pub. The food is great here. The Clam Chowder really hit the spot. The menu is full of surf and turf options, all of which looked awesome.
The beer list included: Haystack Blonde Ale, Ausable Wulff Red Ale, Cloud Splitter BelgianThe Red Ale is a good solid brew. It was amber in color with a rich malty taste. The Hefeweizen is a traditional German Hefe, you know what that tastes like. The Belgian Strong Ale is a high alcohol example of a Belgian. They use Belgian candi sugar so the taste is sweet with a dry finish and a hint of alcohol. Strong Ale, Hefeweizen, Whiteface Stout, and John Brown Pale Ale. After we sampled all the brews, Whiteface Stout and the Pale Ale stood out.
Whiteface Stout has won multiple GABF awards for foreign-style stout. Huge amounts of roast and chocolate malts give this brew a very robust opaque color. The malt bill also contributes flavors of chocolate, roast, coffee, and Espresso. This is a medium to full bodied brew that has 7.6% alcohol to balance out the roast flavors. We drank a lot of these.
John Brown Pale Ale is a classic west coast pale ale hopped with a ton of Cascade hops. The beer is then dry hopped with cascade whole hops in the fermenter at over a pound per barrel. The dry hopping produces a sharp, crisp citrus aroma for this hop lovers beer. This brew had a much bigger hop taste than the traditional pale ale, which was a pleasant surprise.
If you are ever up in the area stop by for a brew. They also have a few seasonal selections throughout the year.
