Over the last two weeks I’ve had lots of friends and family fly in from out of town, what this meant was less blogging and more dining out. One consistent favorite for people unfamiliar with the PDX beer scene has been the Deschutes pub, good food, decent prices, great range of beer for all tastes. Sure, a couple other places fit this bill also, but I’m selfish, I’d like to try something new as well and Deschutes never lets me down. We dropped in for dinner twice in the last two weeks, with that I had the opportunity to try 6 new beers. Let me repeat that 6 new beers. How many let me down? Zero. That’s pretty sweet. Oh, and I probably could have tried more new beers, but I stuck to the more interesting ones. Here are some quick notes in case you find yourself in the area with a thirst.

First up I tried out their Black Tie IPA. I fricken hate ordering these new fangled black IPAs cause some wise ass at the bar always has to chime in with “isn’t that an oxymoron?”, no shit, I bet you lead in with that every time you order the Jumbo Shrimp at Red Lobster too. Maybe he was just ticked off to find out there are multiple kinds of Kelloggs Total, I mean if it’s Total, why isn’t there just one, right?… jack ass. Anyway, not the best black IPA I’ve had, overly roasty siding more towards a stout. in fact I thought they poured me the wrong beer, so I asked the waitress to check. My preference with these is more citrus hop forward, this was just a hoppy stout. Still a tasty brew, disappointed? no. I believe they are still experimenting with this recipe, so I’ll try again next time I see it.

Next up was the Ivana Weiss. True to the German Hefe origin, dry and spicy with enough banana esters to give it that authentic accent while not turning into a sweet banana mess. This seemed to be the hit of the table, the sort of beer all palates can enjoy, refreshing and interesting. My glass went quick as everyone wanted to try it, then most preceded to order one. If you groove on Weihenstephaner or Ayinger go try this out. Maybe not as much smoothness from the wheat, but right in there with the esters.

Obsidian Stout + Coffee. We aren’t given many bottled stouts in the PNW to work with, so I sort of cut my teeth on Obsidian when I moved out here for college. It has been a favorite since. Excited was I when a coffee Obsidian was on the menu. Not over the top coffee, but a gentle edge that complimented the roasty Obsidian. I’ve always thought Obsidian had a bit of a black coffee edge anyway, so this added a bit more of a lighter mocha note to it, more of a fresher aromatic roast instead of that more bitter taste.

King Cone Fresh Hop. It’s that time again, every brewery in town will have one if not eight fresh hop beers on tap starting soon. This was my first fresh hop of the season and turned out to be a great one to start with. Very well rounded over all, none of that rotting vegetable taste that some fresh hops seem to contain. This was another favorite of the crowd, fruity and balanced throughout. Hops gave off some tropical fruit notes with some good sweet fruit tastes like pineapple and peach. They also had this on cask, but I opted for the regular version.

Next I had a Saison, although the name is escaping me, Saison du Something we’ll call it. Well built overall, fruity and highly hopped like Dupont, although not as well attenuated. I really dug the hopping in this, citrusy and fruity pairing nicely with the spicy yeast esters. A bit more attenuation to dry out the finish and this could be one of the best Saisons I’ve had in PDX.

Lastly I had a go at the St. Abe’s Belgian Strong. Big rusty brown body with a thin khaki head. Nose was heavy on the malts and edgy on the spices. For 10% the beer was pretty easy going, dry finish but no fusels to be found. Had a lot of woodiness to it, although the menu didn’t claim it was oak aged. I feel it only just to give this a second tasting as everyone at the table wanted to try this out seeing that it came in a “cool glass”.

Anyway, if you find yourself downtown near 11th and Davis drop into Deschutes. Two things will happen, either you will find some of the above on tap or you fill find about another 6 quality new beers to try, either way you win. Oh, and ask to see a menu, they weren’t listing all their special beers on the chalk board.

After work I first headed out to Deschutes to try a sample of the two special Oregon 150th birthday beers. The first was the Maiden Oregon, brewed at the PDX Deschutes pub. Initially this was described as a Flemish brown, but upon arrival at the pub this was in witness protection as a Belgian Amber. I’m not sure if the got messed up in the media or if this just didn’t turn out as planned, but I was a bit let down by the style. I have to say, this was a really nice Belgian amber, estery and dry, yeast character sort of reminded me of Unibroue Maudite in the fruitiness, but I was really hoping for the Flemish brown. The next beer was the Oregon 150 Ale, a blackberry-honey and marionberry infused golden ale of sorts. The berry character was floral and tart, body seemed to be lacking and not much up front for sweetness. Just ok on that one.

Next I was darting across the river to the now smoke-free Horse Brass to grab a glass of Pliny the Younger before it sputtered out. I’d had Pliny the Younger once before, and I know there is a lot of hype behind it, but it is really good. Over-hopped and unbalanced, but done so in a pure fit of ego, would you really want this to be anything else? The alcohol really doesn’t stand out, the body full, but not chewy like 120 minute. Certainly not a beer you would sit around drinking pints of… oh wait, people were doing  just that… nevermind, I underestimate you Portland, tip of the hat.

Lastly I thought I would drop into the Green Dragon to check out the meet the brewer featuring one of my favorite Oregon brewers, Double Mountain. On tap they Hop Lava, Dry Irish Stout, Alpenbrew, and Ardennes. The Dragon was packed and it took about 15 minutes to get a drink, but I finally got my half pint of the Ardennes Belgian Strong. I was a little bit hesitant about ordering this, but since it was the only one available that I hadn’t had I went for it. The Ardennes is one of my least favorite Belgian yeast strains. I’ve had to many beers with this yeast that taste like boiled vegetables, not sure if it is just me or if this yeast is finicky. Double Mountain’s versions was good, but even with their excellent craftsmanship I still picked up slight notes of what I hate from this yeast, albeit this was one of the better beers with this yeast I’ve had.

In all it was a good day out in the Portland beer scene, it seems like every day we have something great beer related going on. Wish I could make it out tomorrow for Deschutes night at the Brass.

If anyone is going, please let me know what you thoughts on the amazing Deschutes lineup tomorrow.

Well our brew-years eve was much better. Champagne swapped for a nice casual pub crawl. Deschutes had an excellent selection of PDX pub created brews this week. First up was a Super Spiced Jubel, I’m not sure what the scoop is, this doesn’t taste like Super Jubel, so I think they just amped up the spices in it, what ever they did I approve. Moving towards the spiciness of Anchor OSA this had a really nice dry holiday spice character throughout. I’m not a really big fan of the Anchor OSA, I’m not sure what it is, but it has a odd nutmeg and ginger kinda sweet spice taste, this had a more dry and clovish spiciness that worked really well. Next up was a Plum Stout that was a solid sweet stout with a very subtle plum flavor, maybe a bit too subtle, but pretty drinkable overall. Lastly, I had a Red Chair IPA, good balanced IPA, built more like an English IPA with NW ingredients, the hops were floral, but didn’t feel as bitter and one sided as most NW IPAs, very sessionable.

Next stop we dropped into the Full Sail Pilsner Room on the waterfront. I hadn’t been here for a while and I had forgotten how great this place is. Excellent tap selections with 3 or so exclusive beers. I had to try the Full Sail Big Daddy J’s Malt Liquor, I mean, how often do you see this “style” on a menu. The Big Daddy J’s wasn’t all that bad for a Malt Liquor, although I’m not really sure what that style really means, I’ll have to go do some reading on it. It kinda tasted like a boozy malty amber lager, sweet and a bit cloying. They also had a nice Winter Dark Ale that I only had time for a small sample of, but I enjoyed it. Hopefully I can make it back before that brew is gone to get a better sample.

Somehow we had wasted enough time to run the clock down so we headed home to open the traditional bottle of champagne, take a sip then, rinse that awful flavor away with a nice Pike Entire Stout, first beer of the new year. I’m thinking this town needs a New Years fest at one of the breweries, make this holiday a little less boring. Maybe it’s just me though.