They don’t brew it like this in Portland…
I recently paid a visit to Baker City, OR, population 1.2 million (10,000 not including the cows), home to lots of sagebrush, soaring mountains, quaint old buildings, my parents and, thankfully, Barley Brown’s brewery.
I love Barley Brown’s so much that I was excited for weeks about this trip just because I knew I’d get to imbibe their outstanding brews (sorry, Mom and Dad). So when Beer + Cheese asked me to blog about the experience, how could I say no?
To warm my palette, I started with a sampler of every beer Barley’s had on tap (except one). Glorious, isn’t it?
In order from the left: Hot Blonde (brewed with jalapeños!), Disorder Stout, WFO IPA, Whiskey Malt, Tumble Off Pale Ale, Golden Ale, Wheat.
While all the beers were delicious, there were a few standouts. I honestly wasn’t crazy about the Hot Blonde but I have to mention it because, damn! They brew it with jalapeños! It was fun to try, but ultimately not my thing. The Disorder Stout, on the other hand, most definitely was. I love a strong wintry brew (even in June), and Disorder had rich notes of roasted coffee and bitter chocolate. The WFO was a reliably good IPA – aromatic and hoppy with a pleasant flowery aftertaste.
Barley’s signature Whiskey Malt was also excellent, smooth and delicious like an amber ale. A little too smooth, in fact. The flavor of whiskey was definitely present but it couldn’t quite hold its own against the smoothness of the malt. But pair it with some tangy blue cheese like I did, and you have a near-perfect combination of flavors. The tang of the blue cheese added instant zing and lent just the bite I was looking for to this slightly too-smooth beer.
With 9.5% alcohol content, Barley Brown's Tankslapper is only served in a 10oz glass. We aren’t in Portland anymore.
The real pièce de résistance, however, was not included in the sampler – the Tankslapper 10th Anniversary Ale. At 9.5%, this exquisite brew was strong, fragrant and extra hoppy. But somehow it managed to be incredibly well-rounded, too! The strong hoppiness was balanced by sweet floral notes (do I detect a hint of hibiscus?), a touch of citrus, and a slightly fruity finish. Flavorful, complex and utterly delicious, Tankslapper is one impressive beer.
The verdict: Barley Brown’s + me = double happiness. Now if only Baker City had a cheese bar…
The nice folks at Hopworks Urban Brewery invited our entire blogging team to their newest bottle release: Rise Up Red. So we both went — I took the video camera, thus causing Amanda to roll her eyes as I asked her to do silly things for b-roll: walk through doors, chat with owner and head brewer Christian Ettinger, sip her beer, etc. Did I use any of those things? No. No, I did not.
But enough about the silly technical stuff: The Rise Up Red is a hoppy little red, very sessionable. It’s an incredible example of a northwest ale, fully of caramel notes. But don’t take my word for it; watch the video below.
This kind of flavorful Northwest ale pairs with nearly anything — I’d look for a fresh, grassy chevre for a warm summer afternoon. Or maybe even serve it alongside my decadent new favorite, burrata, for those typically cool evenings we get up here in Oregon. I think it’s hoppy enough to fight off a blue, and has barely enough sweetness to work well with something salty.
And wow, just imagining the possibilities reminds me: I shouldn’t write these reviews when I’m hungry.
Hooray!! Steve’s Cheese Bar is open!! As soon as we heard that Steve got his server’s license (Monday morning) and had received his first shipment of beer and wine (Monday afternoon) we made plans to go over there. So we did (Tuesday night). The short review: yum. Go there. For the longer review, read on….
Well, the word is out! Steve Jones, the proprietor of Steve’s Cheese here in Portland, is starting a new venture this year. He’ll be moving his cheeses out to Southeast Portland and opening a larger shop where you can buy and sample cheeses, enjoy a small plate, have lunch or dinner and stay into the later hours pairing beer and wine with your favorites. Be still my heart!!
“It was time, we needed room to do more,” says Jones, whose clients include many top Portland restaurants as well as adventurous cheese shoppers. Jones says the spirit of the Cheese Bar is inspired by France’s tabac shops. “Every corner has one,” he says. “All the old men drinking espresso or grappa or having croissant. A tabac is for the neighborhood — they’re social yet convenient locations.”
I just had to post a couple pics from our hop harvest today. I’m so proud of my husband — these hops are his babies that he started last spring. We had a small yield last year but this year’s crop is pretty damn good! We have Willamette, Cascade & Magnum hops. Cascade were the highest yield but overall we got over a pound of hop cones. You know how I feel about cheese and beer together so I’m just tickled to make some homebrew from our very own hoppy hops! I wonder what cheese I can pair with this?
This was originally posted to FUCheese.com, a blog about home cheesemaking.
We went to another cheese and beer tasting event last night and it was EPIC. Going in knowing that the menu would include 10 pairings, I was a bit intimidated. Luckily, both the beers and cheeses were more on the mellow side, lighter beers without super complex flavors and cheeses that were all unique but none that really knocked your palette out. We also sampled Rogue’s new whiskey which was pretty darn good as whiskey goes. I could definitely see taking it on a camping trip which is my metric for tasty whiskey.
So, the Mister and I are big beer fans around here. He has been homebrewing for a couple years and I swear that he has never made a bad beer. There has been one or two strange beers but nothing undrinkable. In fact, most of them have been highly drinkable! When I started getting interested in making cheese I felt like there was some kind of crossover potential there. They both relate to the science of applied heat. They both relate to farm life — beer is made from grains, cows eat grains and grasses. But, obviously, these are tenuous connections. The light came on, though, when I started reading about pairing cheese with beer.
Our friends Dave (BS Brewing) and Sarah (of FU Cheese) won tickets to a beer and cheese tasting at Saraveza Bottle Shop & Pasty Tavern. After promising them our first born, they invited us to go with them. It was so worth it!
Saraveza is a bottle shop and tavern owned by Sarah Pederson. They had their grand opening last fall, 2008. It’s in a very cute little building off North Killingsworth and they keep their for-sale beers in these great vintage coolers. They’re the kind of coolers that you might open a restaurant around since they are so adorable. The bar has a nice, casual vibe and we tried a couple of their pasties (all good) and a sausage plate (yum!). One of our favorite bartenders from the Green Dragon works here, too, so that was a nice surprise.
Steve’s Cheese is located in the Square Deal Wine Shop on 23rd and Thurman and is run by Steve Jones. He’s a young, very bearded guy who has a clear passion for cheese and cheesemakers. He was able to answer our many, many questions with enthusiasm and point us toward some great Northwest creameries. Read the rest of this entry »
Inspired by the New York Times article I wrote about previously, I started looking for some recommendations for cheese and beer pairings. We like beer near as much as we like cheese so it seemed only natural to put these two together. I came across a recommendation to pair summer beers like a wheat or hefeweizen with fresh young cheeses like chevre or fromage blanc. Since we had just made a batch of chevre that morning, I thought this would be perfect. Thom, my incredibly smart and handsome husband, who also happens to be a homebrewer and writer over at the BSBrewing Blog, came along to help me choose the beers.
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