In part 2 of Ross Evans' travels up the West Coast of America, we get a taste of craft brewing in Portland and Seattle.
Back on the AmTrak after some time in California, I was heading up the Pacific Northwest to that much fabled home of American craft ales that is Portland, Oregon. Although I arrived in Oregon at the wrong time of year for the main Oregon Beer Festival which takes place on the last full weekend in July, I did go to the local brewers weeks at breweries such as the Bridgeport Brewery, Deschutes Brewery and Rogues. Portland, whilst being slightly larger in size to Cardiff, has more microbreweries - or Craft Brewers, as they prefer to call them Stateside - than you can shake the proverbial stick at! Portland sits in a basin at the confluence of two major rivers and is surrounded by wooded hills – which are more often than not surrounded by mist, which in the winter gives it a perfect drinking atmosphere.
For all the breweries and good beers sampled in Portland it is a bit hard to pick out a single one, so I have decided to pick one for sheer novelty value from the Rogue Brewery: The Bacon Maple Ale (ABV 6.9%). Yes, you read correctly. Rogue Brewery collaborated with Voodoo Doughnut (a doughnut company that produces bacon & maple syrup flavoured pastries) to produce a surprisingly good bacon and Maple syrup flavoured brown ale – well, I liked it anyway. The brown ale has been brewed with a ‘baker’s dozen’ (13) ingredients. Amazingly it smells, and tastes, like bacon with after tones of maple syrup. A truly unique beer and extremely quirky, this will not appeal to all and admittedly it was towards the end of my tasting tour that I happened across it, but I enjoyed it.
Further along the AmTrak route I rocked up in Seattle after a short stint in Vancouver, BC. Following several episodes of Fraiser I’m not sure just what I was expecting from Seattle. Statistically one of the wettest places in the Continental US, I suppose it was only fitting that the complete time I was there it was beautiful and sunny! The beer, as was becoming the norm by this stage for the Pacific coast of the US, was great. Granted, you could still order the less than entertaining Bud, Miller and Coors, but ask a local and an enrichment of the taste buds awaits. The brewery whose festival I choose to highlight is the Epic Ales Brewery - the name says it all really. Epic brewery, epic beer, epic bar. The brewery itself is a little bit outside the CBD, South of the Train Station (in what is locally known as SoDo – South of Downtown) but only a stone’s throw away from both of the gigantic Seattle stadiums. The tasting room at the brewery itself is quite small but packed with flavour - just like the ales. The bar, although small, is modelled after a ship, the bow of which ‘crashes’ through to the next room. Teaming up with a local chefs they also provide ‘epic’ meals, served in what is called the “Gastropod”.
Back on the AmTrak after some time in California, I was heading up the Pacific Northwest to that much fabled home of American craft ales that is Portland, Oregon. Although I arrived in Oregon at the wrong time of year for the main Oregon Beer Festival which takes place on the last full weekend in July, I did go to the local brewers weeks at breweries such as the Bridgeport Brewery, Deschutes Brewery and Rogues. Portland, whilst being slightly larger in size to Cardiff, has more microbreweries - or Craft Brewers, as they prefer to call them Stateside - than you can shake the proverbial stick at! Portland sits in a basin at the confluence of two major rivers and is surrounded by wooded hills – which are more often than not surrounded by mist, which in the winter gives it a perfect drinking atmosphere.
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| A tasting tray of Bridgeport beers Photo - Ross Evans |
For all the breweries and good beers sampled in Portland it is a bit hard to pick out a single one, so I have decided to pick one for sheer novelty value from the Rogue Brewery: The Bacon Maple Ale (ABV 6.9%). Yes, you read correctly. Rogue Brewery collaborated with Voodoo Doughnut (a doughnut company that produces bacon & maple syrup flavoured pastries) to produce a surprisingly good bacon and Maple syrup flavoured brown ale – well, I liked it anyway. The brown ale has been brewed with a ‘baker’s dozen’ (13) ingredients. Amazingly it smells, and tastes, like bacon with after tones of maple syrup. A truly unique beer and extremely quirky, this will not appeal to all and admittedly it was towards the end of my tasting tour that I happened across it, but I enjoyed it.
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| The infamous bacon beer! |
Further along the AmTrak route I rocked up in Seattle after a short stint in Vancouver, BC. Following several episodes of Fraiser I’m not sure just what I was expecting from Seattle. Statistically one of the wettest places in the Continental US, I suppose it was only fitting that the complete time I was there it was beautiful and sunny! The beer, as was becoming the norm by this stage for the Pacific coast of the US, was great. Granted, you could still order the less than entertaining Bud, Miller and Coors, but ask a local and an enrichment of the taste buds awaits. The brewery whose festival I choose to highlight is the Epic Ales Brewery - the name says it all really. Epic brewery, epic beer, epic bar. The brewery itself is a little bit outside the CBD, South of the Train Station (in what is locally known as SoDo – South of Downtown) but only a stone’s throw away from both of the gigantic Seattle stadiums. The tasting room at the brewery itself is quite small but packed with flavour - just like the ales. The bar, although small, is modelled after a ship, the bow of which ‘crashes’ through to the next room. Teaming up with a local chefs they also provide ‘epic’ meals, served in what is called the “Gastropod”.
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| Epic Ales of Seattle |
And so to top off my meander up the Pacific Northwest Coast of the United States, it pains me to have to pick only one beer from Seattle. So I won’t, I’ll have two. The Epic Ale, Fuj (ABV Unknown - sorry lost my tasting notes) is my first: a malty ale with Scottish peat-smoked black and white peppercorns, very bitter at first. I sampled some of the Fuj that had been aged by a year, and whilst it still had hints of strong bitterness it was much nicer than when freshly brewed. Not everyone likes this, and all I can think of when hearing this is that they should have let it age! Aging a beer is quite new on me. However, with this beer I would say it’s a must. The last - and by no means least - of my Seattle ales is the Scotch style Pike Kilt Lifter Ruby Ale (ABV 6.5, OG 1.064 & IBU 27) from the Pike Brewery close to the waterfront of Seattle, and a close neighbour of the city’s famous Market and the World’s first Starbucks. Whilst being quite touristy the bar front offers a nice drinking environment to enjoy a fine selection of ales. The ‘Kilt Lifter’ is much closer to a traditional British ruby ale than ‘hoppy’ American brews, perhaps due to having been brewed with English ale yeast? It has many layers and was a nice reminder of home for me - well worth a taste.
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| The author with a tray of Rogue beers Photo - Ross Evans |
So, to sum up, the Craft beers of the US would to me be a task too complex, but it is fair to say it surprised the hell out of me to find so many good beers across the pond, perhaps best explained by a conversation I had with one brewer when I quipped “I’m really surprised, you know? You guys haven’t got a good reputation for having good beers!” his response was “that’s exactly what we think about you Brits!” Touché, I suppose. Too often the bigger, lesser-tasting beers hog the limelight, backed by their multinational owners leaving the better beers to be sought out - perhaps that’s how we want it!?
PS. None of the beers I came across Stateside were cask conditioned, they were all carbonised or bottle conditioned. And you know what?! I liked it!
Ross Evans is a valleys expat relocated to Cardiff for political, cultural, leisure and drinking pursuits. Big food, Cider, Beer and Pub aficionado with a love of local provenance and strong branding.
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