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I can usually hold myself to a 12 bottle limit, but when Ode to Lulu is involved, that just doesn't work.

I would echo Marcus's post and only add that Oregon has been making great Chardonnay for years if you knew where to look (Eyrie and Cameron have been making world class Chardonnays for 20+ years). There are more top producers now and prices have crept up, but to say that only now has Chardonnay from...

Andrew - Well, you can get the good stuff in Washington now...

Bud - Eric from Monkish stopped by the Brewery today and mentioned your name. I gave him a little care package for you...

It will be interesting to see how well Russian River handles the production brewery situation. Once you have multiple shifts brewing the beer, is everyone trained well enough to keep quality high? Very few breweries have handled this very well. Some figured it out without damaging their brand too mu...

We found that the best apple pie recipe was from Cory Schrieber's "Wildwood" Cookbook. It's probably out of print. The key steps are precooking half the apples so that they lose their moisture and making a spiced caramel sauce to hold the apples together. Incredibly good but takes the better part of...

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

John Paul's business strategy is to sell virtually all his wine to retail outlets. He isn't interested in having a bunch of fans invading the winery - too much of an interruption to his job of growing grapes and making wine. About the only way you get in to see him right now is if you know something...

Suarez does a very good job, and is probably the closest that you'll find to what we're doing out here. BTW, we only brew Kolsch for about seven months of the year (April to October), and we're brewing our first batch next week.

BTW, we've been trying to avoid having our labels regulated by the FDA for at least a decade.

The FDA doesn't pre-approve labels, but they can fine you and recall your product if your label isn't within the law. They have a 130+ page guide on what a food producer can or can't do. The actual regulations are significantly longer. Most food producers will work with a label designer that knows a...

The saddest part of this fruitless exercise is how many Americans live paycheck to paycheck. An increasing number of business people I know (including my wife) are feeling peripheral effects from the shutdown. True. But, in relation to this thread, the other sad thing is how dependent on government...

I spent the weekend helping to judge beer for the Oregon Beer Awards. I was generally impressed with the quality and lack of big flaws. Sunday my group tasted the Pilsner category (we don't enter because I like to judge it), and after three rounds we distilled 40+ entries down to three medalists. I ...

At professional tastings, the only food on the table is oyster crackers. They work pretty well as palate cleansers. You might want to have a nice top-notch Pilsner (Hill Farmstead or Suarez come to mind) on hand so when folks get tired of all that over-the-top crap, they can drink something rational.

This looks really good. Thanks!

I'm afraid that I don't know any washed up rockers. I would expect a typically over-hopped industrial lager. I don't have a very high opinion of Stone beers so my expectations are pretty low. There does seem to be a real push for an extraneous link to beers these days. Anything for attention.

Funny, I used the same dough recipe on Friday. While the pizza was good (my son demanded way too many toppings), the crust was the best I've made. I just used the standard San Marzano tomatoes pureed + salt for the sauce.

Bud, the Tentbier was a cross between an Export Lager and a Marzen (Amber Lager). Our Export Lager is more pale, with a smoother, less rough malt bill. I'm sending around 16 kegs of it to CA. Scott, I'm sure that some will make its way to SEA. On the other hand, we'll definitely have it at the Tap R...

Love and Squalor - Matt Berson recently moved his winery to PDX after "rooming" with Marcus Goodfellow for a couple of years. Riesling, Pinot Noir, Gamay, and a few others.

We just bottled our Helles. I think that I may like it better than the Pils. We also bottled up our samples for the Oregon Beer Awards, which means I got another tasted of Lisa's Rauch Helles, which is delicious. Rick, will any of this make it's way down south for any of your tap accounts ? Cheers,...

2008 Cameron Nebbiolo. Went really well with the beef ragu we had for dinner. Will be better in another 5 years.

At the bottom of the label: "Open other end"

We just bottled our Helles. I think that I may like it better than the Pils. We also bottled up our samples for the Oregon Beer Awards, which means I got another tasted of Lisa's Rauch Helles, which is delicious.

We opened a 2013 X Novo Chardonnay on New Year's Eve. It was outstanding (and didn't last long).

Wait, I thought Burgundy was dead at retail...

Rumor has it that someone will be matching my contribution... And while we're at it, we tasted through a six vintage vertical of Sandy Paws today: 2012 Heater Allen Sandy Paws - Very oxidized, smooth, chocolate, berry/cherry, definitely on the downhill slide 2013 Heater Allen Sandy Paws - Mildly oxi...

Thanks to everyone for playing along. It's great to see that, even on a Wine Board, we can come up with 39 beer tasting notes in a week! While I would have preferred to see a few more lagers drunk, it was still quite impressive. I will be writing a check to the Ed Foundation for $360.

Martin Woods. Pinot, Gamay, Chardonnay, Riesling, and a Cab Franc from the Oregon side of Walla Walla that was harvested several weeks before the big gloopy WA versions.

I'll take any craft beer, even an IPA.

Why Portland Is America's Champagne Capital. “I travel frequently to New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, and in my opinion, Portland has the best Champagne selection,” says Julie Gulla, a wine collector who works in finance and is an aficionado of grower-producers like Cédric Bouchard and Pascal ...

For the purpose of this, yes, they count. Personally I don't consider them a craft brewer.

Scott, thanks for costing me some money! BTW, I had the Wayfinder Pils on Saturday and I thought it was a little out of balance on the bitter side but I was being super-critical and had my beer judge hat on. Lisa says that she detects a little diacetyl in the Helles - again, with her beer judge hat ...

Well, my definition is different than the Brewers Association, which is basically everything but an ABInbev brand. If it's local and not in national distribution or made by ABInbev or MillerCoors then I would consider it craft for this event. Personally I don't consider any brewery making over 50,00...

Mark, thanks for breaking the ice! You are probably tasting staling/oxidative notes. We frequently find it in bottled beer in Germany, especially among large producers. Some people begin to think that German beer is supposed to taste like that, and they are pleasantly surprised when they taste the g...

Always popular, the Beer Intermezzo!!!! We can't live by wine alone, and a good crisp lager can make an excellent palate reset after a day of wine tasting. This challenge runs through December 26. I think I may have another donor, and I will add that as soon as I can confirm it. My donation will be:...

Does anyone know the difference between 1er La Boudriette Rouge and 1er Clos de la Boudriette Rouge? I don't know the answer, but I have a theory. La Boudriotte is somewhat of a catch-all climate. There are six climates that can use the name: La Boudriotte, Les Fairendes, Les Petite Fairendes, La R...

Talk to the woman who runs the Good Drop Wine Shoppe in downtown Bend. She has a tasting every Friday - usually some good stuff (she was tasting champagne including Krug last Friday).

I'm not really that excited about almost any brewery making more than 20,000 barrels a year. When breweries get that big, the brewing become a manufacturing process rather than anything artisan. The manufacturing process is only as good as the worst/least experienced brewer working on the shift. Thi...

I know of a couple of wine enthusiasts in Bend, but if there was ever a city that was into beer in general and IPAs in particular, Bend is it.

I may give the 08 fremiets a shot soon. I had a bottle of the 08 Fremiets within the last year and was not impressed. Not very expressive, I was guessing it was in a closed period and needed more time. It is possible that the bottle wasn't stored perfectly but I didn't identify any faults. Also, I'...

2014 Once and Future Sonoma Valley Zinfandel Bedrock Vineyard Dusty, brambly nose. Bramble to blackberry on the palate with good acidity and balance, moderate tannins, and a very nice long finish. Still relatively primary. I think this needs several more years to really show its stuff. I love the f...

2013 Ridge Monte Bello - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (11/29/2018) Yes, babykilling...I know...but 'the boss' (my wife) insisted on drinking a Monte Bello if I was to keep buying them vintage after vintage , and this was the first vintage I bought into, and a good 'early...

Does it matter where the wines are to be sold? Back in the 1990s I worked at a winery in Indiana that contracted with multiple California vineyards for fruit. They would crush/press there and flash freeze the juice/must and tanker it back to be finished in Indy. The bottles sold out of the winery o...

Sorry, the charity is the McMinnville Education Foundation.

This needs a beer intermezzo. I'll take the week before Christmas. $5 for a Craft and/or German/Czech lager TN, $10 for a Heater Allen TN, and $20 for a Heater Allen Sandy Paws TN (this means you, Scott!). Add $5 if you post a picture of the Heater Allen beer.

Vincent, we tried it yesterday at the winery. It is superb, but I preferred the Ex Novo at the same price point. I usually get a half a case of one of the SVD Chards and a half case of Cuvee Anne. This year the case is all Ex Novo.

Heater Allen Sandy Paws Baltic-style Porter 2018 - always one of my favorite HA beers and this year’s batch is no different. In fact, from a purely flavor POV this may be the best one I’ve tried, but 2014’s batch will always be my sentimental favorite. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqGkqMcnizD/?utm_s...

Maybe we need to do an LA tap take-over...

I talked to Lisa about this beer, and MT pretty much followed our practices. Step mash, first wort hopping, long fermentation at low temps, and top quality malt (Weyermann). They used less Munich Malt than I would have and more Caramel Malt (for color). We've become more interested in longer boils o...

Alex, if I could figure out how to get it to you, you'd be first on the list.

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