beer exchange

cosgrave introduced a new holiday tradition this year: the beer exchange. 

cosgrave, as i may have mentioned, has a coalition known as the beer geeks - a group made up of lawyers and staff who, well, like beer. 

this year to celebrate the holidays, i thought it'd be fun to do a beer exchange.  each of us brought a six pack and then drew numbers.  we each picked one beer in order of our numbers and then went around again and again until we each had a full six pack.  the only rule: bring a seasonal or holiday beer.

on the day of the exchange, as is typical in most offices, there were last minute beer runs and cancelations.

lessons learned:

 1.  the 7-11 on 4th and taylor carries two holiday brews: widmer brrr and blue moon winter abbey ale.

2. most popular beers present (the first to go) firestone velvet merlin oatmeal stout and ninkasi sleighr

3. DO try this at home or with your friends.  cost is minimal and the take home is fantastico--6 new beers to try.

happy holidays!

i drink beer, and i vote!*

I'm amused and impressed by the media connections between beer and voters.  Willamette Week recently did a piece entitled "The President of Beers," which got mixed reviews.   The article selected a popular micro-brew from each state and ranked them from 1 to 50 (Deschutes Black Butte Porter came in 7th).  I liked it, probably because it supports my theory that most of the best-selling micro-brews in the United States, are sweet: ambers, bocks, and brown ales.  I've always found this baffling, and we'll explore this further in later posts.

President Obama's beer of choice, Yuengling, placed dead last in WW's rankings, but at least the man drinks beer.  Politicos have been making much of this, claiming that the old poll question: "who would you rather have a beer with?" can never work for Romney and he will thus never close the "beer gap." There is even speculation that Obama is mentioning beer on purpose to highlight the difference.

Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, was quick to mention his favorite Wisconsin beers in his August acceptance speech.  Critics pointed out that Ryan managed to get most of the electorate in his choices: a micro brew sold only in Wisconsin  and brewed by an Obama supporter (New Glarus's Spotted Cow, which incidentially made it to #33 on WW's list), a local lager popular in his youth brewed by a family with strong Republican ties (Leinekugel's), and the everyman brand of Miller.

The blogsphere has semi-erupted in posts on what your beer choices say about your party affiliation.  Heineken and Corona drinkers are overwhelmingly Democrat while Sam Adams drinkers are overwhelmingly Republican.  I even found a chart on Brewvana correlating blue states and brew states, noting that the 25 most densly brewed states (i.e.those that brew a lot of craft beer) all went for Obama in 2008.

Beer and politics have always mixed.  At least two of our most beloved lawmakers (bringing it back to the law, people) gave us the finest quotes about beer:

Benjamin Franklin:  "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Abraham Lincoln: "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer."**

Truer words were never spoken, Abe.



*in homage to my favorite bumper sticker of all time: i play the accordion and i vote!
**okay, the attribution to Lincoln is iffy.  still an awesome quote.

Milwaukee Has Its Brewers, Hillsboro Has Its Hops

Posted by Marcus Reed

As if Oregon needed yet another reminder of the predominance of its craft beer industry, it now has a new standard-bearer in Hillsboro’s Single-A baseball team. The team’s owner announced yesterday that the Yakima Bears will now be called the Hillsboro Hops. According to the team’s general manager, the name is to recognize “Hillsboro’s proud agricultural heritage and the fact that Oregon is the second largest hop producing state in the United States.”

We can forgive the Hillsboro Hops the fact that Hillsboro itself doesn’t have much of a hop industry and that the team’s former home of Yakima is actually the largest hop-producing region in the country, because Oregon’s hop-growing industry is important to the state’s history, culture, and economy.

Hop production in Oregon began in the early 1870’s and by 1932, Oregon was the leading hop-producing state. (usahops.org) The rich soil, mild climate, and plentiful rain of the Willamette Valley are ideal for hop growth, and Oregon is largely renowned for producing the best flavor hops in the U.S.  According to the USDA, Oregon hop farmers, many of whom are third, fourth, and even fifth generation hop growers, harvested 4,202 acres in 2011 for total production of 8,019,400 pounds of hops at a total production value of $23,497,000. Though production has significantly decreased since 2008, when the Belgian company InBev purchased Anheuser-Busch and largely retreated from the Willamette Valley, local hop growers are adapting and rebounding to meet the increasing demands of the craft brew market. Among recent beer trends is the use by local brewers of “fresh hops” in their early fall brews. The distinct flavor that comes from getting hops from vine to kettle within about three hours is unique to hop-growing states like Oregon.

Blake Crosby, a 5^th generation Oregon hop grower at Crosby Hop Farm in Woodburn, Oregon, had this to say about the Hillsboro Hops naming:

 "As part of a multi-generational hop farming family I'm continually grateful for the sacrifices made by my ancestors over the years. The hop business is challenging and, like many family businesses, most modern commercial hop farms are built on generations of hard work and passion. It's always nice to receive recognition and like many I'm very excited about the new team. In my mind though, the credit ultimately goes to the all of the hop farmers who did this before it was cool or mainstream."

 
The new team name is drawing some criticism, of course. Every online comment board on the topic is littered with negative feedback (not that I suggest reading these) about the name’s lack of ferocity. The Hops general manager, K.L. Wombacher, estimates the team is batting around .600 or .700 with the name. If you hear any of these negative comments, you might point out the importance of the hop industry to Oregon’s history and economy and the value of these hops to Oregon craft beer. You might also point out the nearby person wearing a Hillsboro Hops baseball cap.  There will be a lot of us.

 

bartender, there’s fluoride in my beer!

If you live in Portland, you know that the great fluoride debate is raging again.  Some don’t want anything added to Portland’s good pure water.  Others like the dental hygiene benefits and convenience of not having to give their kids fluoride drops.   The debate peaked my interest when it turned to beer.  Will fluorinating the water affect Portland brewers?

The answer seems to be yes, if only in terms of public opinion and consumption.  Widmer is opposed, although they came to the conclusion that the amount of proposed fluoride will not “impact” the flavor or aroma of the beer (see Jennifer Anderson’s Portland Tribune article here). 

Alex Ganum of Portland’s Upright Brewing, who favors fluoride, said the same in an August letter to the editor of the Oregonian.  He also points out that Fort George Brewing in Astoria and Block 15 Brewing in Corvallis brew tasty beer with fluorinated water (see letter here). 

Bridgeport is not taking a position except to support its customers.   Brewmaster Jeff Edgerton told KATU in September that his customers “expect craft brews to be natural ingredients and so in a way [fluoride] taints the whole thing.”  He doesn’t believe his customers should have fluoride forced on them (see KATU piece here). 
 
Now, I didn’t do the research on how much fluoride it would take to make a difference in beer taste or get into any of the medical research on the history of dental hygiene in Portland.  I’ll leave you with this thought: Europeans don’t use fluoride and make some pretty good beer.  Like Portland, however, Europe does not have a stellar reputation for dental health.

the long goodbye to Henry's

Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve (Henry's), a Pacific Northwest stand by brew for generations will finally no longer be brewed in Oregon. 

Henry's has always been near and dear to my heart--I grew up with hop aroma wafting from the Blitz-Weinhard Burnside brewhouse,  it was the first beer I tasted, and I wrote my history thesis on the man and the brewery. 

So I've followed the Weinhard brand around as it's bounced from brewery to brewery.  Here's what I know: 

Henry's, based on an original recipe of Henry Weinhard, started as a special beer brewed only for the brewers and management of the Blitz Weinhard brewery.  The story, as I heard it, is that in 1960's (before Oregon passed the homebrewing law), management kept some of the beer, unlabeled, in the Jake's Restaurant cooler, which was just across the street.  The OLCC didn't like that and demanded to know what the unlabled beer was.  Either everyone could drink it or no one could drink it.  The brewery decided everyone could drink it and one of their best-selling brands was born. 

After the family sold the brewery in the 1970's, Stroh's continued to brew Henry's at the Burnside brewhouse until 1999.  The new owner (Miller) closed the brewhouse and began brewing Henry's in Tumwater, Washington.  That facility closed in 2003 and Full Sail began brewing Henry's under contract. 

Until now.  Miller decided not to renew its contract with Full Sail.  It looks like Miller will be rolling out Henry's as a national brand. 

For me, this has been a long goodbye.  I was sad when the brewery closed, sad when the beer was brewed in Tumwater, and a little happy to see it come back to Hood River.  But it will never be what it was--a lager from a family-owned brewery that weathered the founding of Oregon and Prohibition.  I had my last Henry's at Henry Weinhard's great, great great grandson's wedding a few weeks ago.  And it will stay that way.

introduction

welcome to the cosgrave beer blog! our purpose is to keep you informed about what's brewing in the law, Oregon and in our heads.