Had an awesome trip up last weekend to Portland. Most importantly, I finally sold my damn house. By fate this happened to coincide with Oregon Brewer's Festival week (although I probably would have made the extra trip anyway). Even better, my wife let me make a guy's trip out of it.
Sampled 27 beers Wednesday night and Thursday at the festival. For the most part there wasn't anything that blew me away from the US breweries, but also nothing that was a drain pour (although the pesto beer was close). I'm a little bit burned out on Gose and Berlinerweiss, and unfortunately it seemed like about half the beers were one of those styles and I wound up passing on some favorite breweries of mine. Saisons were also huge this year and I did try (and like) a good number of them.
My favorite thing about the OBF in recent years though has been their involvement with international microbreweries that I'll probably never get a chance to try otherwise. Knowing that it is maybe their only chance to showcase their craft to US folks as well these guys typically bring their A game. Last year they had a handful of Kiwi breweries come up, the year before they themed some Dutch breweries. This year they had a mix with Dutch, Japanese, Belgian, Chinese, and German breweries. A good chunk of my samples were from the international tent and everything was pretty awesome.
Friday was mostly dealing with house stuff and hitting up a few of my old watering holes.
Saturday we hit up Hair of the Dog and got to try some more beers from a visiting Japanese brewery and Dutch brewery. Really liked all six that we tried but the three from de Molen were all stick-your-****-in-it good. Looked like they were working on a collaboration beer too between all three breweries so it will be cool to see what they came up with.
Some 2008 Matt for dessert.
Saturday night we went to the release party for Breakside's new "B-sides" series. They had 8ish new barrel-aged beers. I enjoyed them, but not enough to spend loads of money there. Bought one bottle of "Next Thursday" which I thought to be the best of the bunch.
Back home on Sunday but not before picking up a few more treats. I'm on an IPA kick again and was ecstatic with the haul of imperials that I got. The Sticky Hands was the only new one of these for me and it was incredible. Probably the best IPA available in a multi-pack that I've had. Disclaimer though that I still haven't had any Alchemist beers - If anyone has an extra Heady Topper I'd love to make a trade
Also lucked out that my growler spot had both Boneyard imperials available.
Edit: A couple of other cool things. Had Prarie Bomb on tap at a bar Wednesday night and saw some bottles around town as well. Also saw a decent amount of JK bottles at Belmont Station. I'd never seen any of those breweries in Portland before and it was neat seeing them expand distribution.
