[thechat] 10volt!

Judah McAuley judah at wiredotter.com
Wed Dec 17 17:53:58 CST 2008


On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 3:16 PM, Erika <ekm at seastorm.com> wrote:
> Martin Burns wrote:
>> I used to live across the road from possibly the best IPA brewery in the
>> world:
>> http://www.caledonian-brewery.co.uk/ipa_home.html
>
> Nonsense.

To be fair, the IPA's brewed in the Northwest US aren't really like
British IPA's. Our ESB's are closer to their IPA's. What we do here is
really a totally different style that just happens to have the same
name.

> Superdog is the best IPA in the world (except, of course, for
> Superduperdog.)  They are progessively hoppier versions of Dog Day Ale.

Bah, that's not even the best IPA brewed in Portland let alone the
best in the world. I like the Lucky Lab and its a nice place to play
darts but its beer is sub-par. Nice people though.

> One of the best IPAs you can get in a store is Terminal Gravity
> http://www.terminalgravitybrewing.com/
> though it's a bit heavy/strong ... I like them stone cold HOPTASTIC

TG is definitely a mainstay for me. And really the only nice thing I
can say about Enterprise, Oregon. Every beer they make is quite good
though, really solid understanding of styles. The TG IPA is a really
well balanced northwest ipa, lots of hop but enough malt to back it
up. I'm currently drinking a Hop Ottin' IPA from Anderson Valley. Much
more of a crisp, hop-forward profile than TG and with a lot of floral
hops to compliment the bitter hops.  If you can get it, do check out
beers from Ninkasi Brewery in Eugene. Jamie, the brewmaster there, is
a young wizard of beer and his double ipa, Tricerahops, is an absolute
delight. Its a very new brewery but distribution of his beers is
spreading quickly. When he was junior brewer at Steelhead Brewery he
made my very favorite IPA ever, Peregrin Took. All Amarillo hops and
it had the most amazing citrus flavors I've ever come across in a
beer. And all from the hops. Amazingly dank and sticky.

> Another pdx fav is Widmer Hefeweizen, a cloudy ale that tastes really
> good with a lemon slice.  I don't think it's sold in bottles, but it
> does have keg distribution in PDX.

Widmer beers are widely available across the US. Annheiser Busch is a
minority investor in Widmer and they have a distribution deal with
them. I don't care for wheat beers, so I don't have much to say on the
quality. I've found most of their beers to be, meh.

> I'm thinking we'll need to have categories: pils, bock, pale, hefe, red,
> winter ale, alt, IPA, porter, stout ... hm.  maybe add in specialty ales
> (the kinds that are brewed with fruit or unusual herbs).  Maybe also
> divide up the stouts...

You can't forget belgian ales (abbey style, dubbel, triple, etc) and
lambics. And for those that like such things, American-style Lager.

might be about time for me to venture out onto the ice to the pub.
Which reminds me of a Russian proverb: "The church is near, but the
roads are icey. The pub is far, but I will walk carefully"

Judah



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