Beer Around Town

What a weekend, maybe just being the end of “Oregon Craft Beer Month” or whatever, just an overwhelming amount of beer related stuff on ones plate. First it was the Friday session of OBF, then off to Hair of the Dog to try 2 new versions of Fred, Saturday found me prepping 16 lbs of fruit for a homebrew, then Sunday I was back at OBF for my volunteer shift. Finally it’s now Sunday night, time to relax and catch up on some of this stuff. Now, more on Hair of the Dog.

We arrived around 3 o’clock to a packed house, the line waiting to try the new Freds wrapped around the brewery, there are a lot of people “in the know” it seems. Alan had prepared a spread of snacks and cheese to pair with the 8 taps that were flowing, including 4 versions of Fred. The four versions included the regular Fred (it feels sort of bad saying that, regular and Fred should probably never be used together), Fred from the Wood, Fred aged in bourbon barrels, and a Flanders Fred dosed with the Roselare yeast strain.

The Flanders Fred was starting to take shape, finish was picking up some mild sourness, more fruity notes were building. I’ve got a few beers with the Roselare going at home, this reminded me a lot of my younger Roselare creations still gaining their sour footing. I thought the cherry fruit notes complimented the beer well, oak dried out the finish, and the mild sourness cut through a lot of the sweetness that Fred usually has. Overall a really nice beer that will be interesting to try a year down the road to see if the Roselare picks up the acidity that my homebrewed ones are starting to gain.

The Bourbon Fred can only be described as F*%king amazing, yes that was with a capital F. Just take Fred from the Wood and add a smooth bourbon and vanilla note. No sharp boozy bourbon burn, no ruff edges, nothing overdone, delicate and smooth bourbon. Subtlety is key to enhance an already great beer, not cover up some BS under a lake of Makers Mark. I hope bottles of this see the light of day.

Thanks to Alan and Friends for another great event. We’ve had some great new stuff from Hair of the Dog in the last couple years with the Cherry Adam and the Matt, Saturday’s open house will only add to the excitement for the November dock sale.