Beer Around Town

How to write this event up, not sure, I don’t have much to compare it to. I’ve never had so much fun at a birthday party or even a beer fest for that matter. My friends, family, and own birthdays don’t compare… not really a beer festival feel to it, so it’s not really fair to compare this to any other event, a different breed in its own, feeling more like a giant beer infused gathering amongst friends… well that is sort of what it was.

Upon arrival about a half hour before the “gates” opened I was greeted by a bunch of the Portland beer crew, friends scattered throughout the line, bottles being poured… the parking lot prefunk in action. The BBQ was blasting out a delicious scent of smoked goodness, sure to be perfect for the beers ahead. The anticipation was high, but as the fest opened there was this awkward calmness to it, no one rushing in, no frenzy of the typical PDX beer fest.  The lines, although long in appearance actually ran very quick, no tickets to hand over, just a friendly grin from Fred on your glass with a tall pour.

I failed to take any notes, but the beers were mostly good to great. Having to leave early I did miss out on the Firestone Walker Abacus (although I had this at Hard Liver this year) and the 1998 Full Sail Boilermaker. The much hyped 1994 Saxer Doppelbock was highly praised by most as holding up extremely well, while I agree it wasn’t as bad as it could have been for 15 years old, I’m just not into oxidation, so I didn’t care for it. Having other obligations that night I wasn’t able to try as many beers as I hoped and missed out on some of the late arrivals, a few others I tried were the New Belgium Trip, Midnight Sun Brewtality, Deschutes Oaked Mirror Mirror, casked Fred from the Wood and Lucky Lab Pennsylvania Swanky, a odd low alcohol beer based on an old style from Fred’s book or so I was told.

Alan and company had prepare a feast, Fred infused BBQ sandwich bliss sided with delicious ginger slaw, cheeses for all tastes, chocolate, cereal, and sadly I missed the birthday cake. The food enhanced the beer or was it the beer enhanced the food?  either way it was all good, waning on the self control and waxing on the gluttony is easy to do here.

Beer and food now aside, it was really all about the company. Portland’s beer community out in force, sort of company picnic feel to it. I was rounded up by the other PDX beer bloggers to see if we could profile Dr. Wort out of the crowd, aside from doing a handwriting analysis, having everyone draw a winking face emoticon we saw no way to solve the puzzle, so our PDX blogger photo had to be Dr. free… or was it?

It was great to talk to Jeff, John, Dave, Bill, Charles, and all the other great people in the beer community. I wasn’t able to talk to Fred much or even get many good pictures since it was so crowded, but I’m sure many other good stories will be had from Fred Fest 2009.

Keep an eye on the other great PDX beer blogs for other recounts of the best party in Portland. Hopefully others captured some great stories as the night progressed.

Beervana

The Beer Here

Its Pub Night

Dr. Worts Blog

BS Brewing

A Ear for Beer