The Oregon Brewers Festival just posted the beer line up for this years Buzz Tent. This was a new introduction last year as an effort to make the beer line up a bit more… well interesting. One can only have so much watermelon wheat you know. This year they changed up the format a bit. Instead of requiring a $20 separate pass it will now be open to all. Pours at the buzz tent will be 2 tokens each, and with seeing the list that seems more then reasonable as there are some stellar offerings on there. I’m not sure how many will be pouring at a time, but like last year they will rotate through them as they go, so probably a good idea to keep checking in to see what’s pouring.

The list:

21st Amendment Mo’TCHO Risin’
Alaskan Brewing Co Alaskan Barley Wine
Ballast Point Brewing Sculpin IPA
Beer Valley Brewing Black Madness + Black Bud
Bison Brewing Reunion
Blue Frog Grog & Grill 10th Anniversary Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
Boundary Bay Brewery Boundary Bay Imperial IPA
BridgePort Brewing Co 2009 Stumptown Tart
Caldera Brewing Co Caldera Mogli
Deschutes Brewery QUAD
Eel River Brewing Co Rakau Strong Common
Fort George Barrel Aged Coffee Girl Stout
Full Sail Brewing Co Full Sail Russian Imperial Stout
Grand Teton Brewing Co Tail Waggin Double White Ale
Great Northern Brewing Co Barrel Aged Big Fog Amber Ale
Hales’s Ales Brewery & Pub Bucephalus
Hop Valley Brewing Co Pinot Barrel Aged Belgian Cascadian Dark Ale
Kona Brewing Co Oceanic Organic
Laht Neppur Brewing Co Booted Reer
Laughing Dog Brewing Bourbon Barrel St Benny’s Labby Ale
Laurelwood Brewing Co Framboise
Lompoc Brewing Co Oak Barrel Aged Doppelbock
Lucky Labrador Brewing Barrel Aged Son of Old Yeller
Mad River Brewing Co The Mad Belgian
Maui Brewing Co Heaven & Hell BalreyWine
McMenamins Roggenbier + Golden Grin + Without a Doubt Port Oak Stout
Moylan’s Brewing Co Moylan’s Scotch Ale
Mt. Emily Ale House Wildfire Red Ale
Mt. Shasta Brewing Co Skip and Go Naked
Natian Brewery Hint O’Mint
New Belgium Brewing Co Berliner Weisse
Ninkasi Brewing Co Eugene Collaboration Beer
Oakshire Brewing Barrel Aged Very Ill Tempered Gnome
Ram Restaurant & Brewery Ski Lifter
Riverport Brewing Co 5/5 Peppper Beer
Rogue Ales John John Juniper
Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Oak Aged Imperial Stout
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co Charlie, Fred & Ken’s Bock – 30 Series
Southern Oregon Brewing Co Barel Aged Black Hole
Stone Brewing Co Sublimely Self Righteous Ale
Summit Brewing Co Belgian Style Golden Ale
Surly Brewing Four Anniversary Beer
The Bruery Oude Tart
Three Creeks Brewing Co Rudolph’s Imperial Red
Three Skulls Brewing Co Dirty German
Upright Brewing Co Single Cask Anniversary Ale
Vertigo Brewing Friar Gone Wild

Well, the Oregon Brewers Festival is wasting no time in getting organized. Here we are the first week in March, over 4 months away and they are already posting an early list of what will be pouring at the fest this year. Here is a link to the site.

Oregon Brewers Festival 2010 Beer List

While far from final a couple are already standing out:

1. The Bruery 7 Grain Saison – if this is anything like Saison Rue I may just camp in this line over and over.

2. Surly Bitter Brewer – From the few experiences I’ve had with Surly I’ve been impressed, and well, lets just say a well made bitter would be nice in the hot summer.

3. Goose Island Sofie – A brett saison aged in wine barrels. I was lucky enough to try this in the past year, very nice.

4. Riverport, Natian, Mt. Emily, Great Northern – All new breweries to the fest, so I’ll be looking to try my first offerings from them.

5. More diversity in styles – Just browsing the half way completed list I’ve already noticed a more varied selection of styles. Lets hope that trend continues and we don’t end up with 75% of the beer with India in the title.

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.

Flanders on left, Bourbon on right

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.