OBF, round 2 + summation

Saturday marked the second and final day of my OBF excursion, with my dad and my cousin Jon joining me as we braved the hot and the drunk to sample beers. I largely tried new beers on the second day, getting only a repeat sample of Deschutes Miss Spelt to start my palate off correctly. As an overall review of the day there were two genuinely good beers that I sampled, bundled with a whole lot of mediocrity. I will address the bears alphabetically by brewer, grading the beers under a 5 star rating scale (** 1/2 being a perfectly acceptable score, ***** being only given a handful of times in the last five years)

Bayern Brewing- Dragon Breath Dark Heff
Bayern brews entirely under the Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity rules, and as such produces beers that are generally sound if not exceptionally exciting or novel. This dark heff, a traditional Bavarian style, conforms to style while providing the maximum flavor that the rules allow them to squeeze from their ingredients. It is both an interesting malt profile crossed with a nicely balanced hopping while still remaining refreshing and drinkable. It is a fine example of the style. ** 1/2

Boundary Bay Brewery- Amarillo Double Dry Hopped Pale Ale
This beer largely exemplifies a theme running through this year's OBF. Almost all of the brewers have focused on dry hopping and whirlpool hopping to provide bears with maximum aroma while reducing the bitterness, but have left their beers largely unflavored. The scent on this specific beer exemplifies the citrus scent (very tangerine) that Amarillo hops will impart during dry hopping, but the actual beer has a front flavor of bitter followed with . . .nothing, really. This creates for an incredibly disjointed brewing effort. **1/2 (largely for the delicious aroma alone)

Fifty Fifty Brewing Co- Manifesto Pale Ale
My notes for this beer are supremely short. "Boring". A pale ale with a decent smell but watery flavor. **

Flying Fish Brewing Co- Abbey Dubbel
Belgian style beers were a fixture of this year's OBF, much like Kolsch beers three years prior. This Dubbel was agreeably in the center of the style's range of flavor with a slight spice finish following a gently fruity nose. It is true to style but not spectacular. **1/2

Green Flash Brewing Co- Green Flash Imperial IPA
I have seen this beer at the store a number of times and have intended to purchase it to try, especially considering I tend to like beers with over 100 IBUs. The aroma on Green Flash Imp IPA reminds me of Double Mountains recent Vaporizer ale, both having an amazing hop aroma reminiscent of marijuana (not that I have ever smoked weed, but you grow up in Portland you're bound to know the smell). This is a big, hoppy imperial IPA, but balanced nicely ensuring that the bitterness is not overwhelming and the finish is still crisp. This was definitely the jewel of my second day at the fest. ***1/2

Mt. Shasta Brewing Co- Mountain High IPA
It is fitting that after covering a beer that smelled like marijuana I would review one that makes claim to being the "Legal Weed", a beer brewed in Weed, California that is intended to have a "mountain high" aroma. This was not evident upon my sampling, nor was much flavor in general. Perhaps the aforementioned herb is to blame for this lackluster entry. * 1/2

New Belgium Brewing Co- The Trip
Another of the so-so Belgians at the festival, New Belgium's "The Trip" is mostly notable for the passion fruit flavor that they were able to gain from the use of Citra hops (supposedly t can give grapefruit and peach flavors as well, but that was not apparent to me). The fruit flavor was not properly balanced by spice giving this Belgian a slightly off flavor that was a disappointment regardless of the success of using Citra. ** 1/2

Oakshire Brewing- Overcast Espresso Stout
It is always pleasantly surprising to see breweries sending big, robust stouts to the summer brewfest (or any out of season beer, such as Terminal Gravity's Festivale and Widmer's KGB). I have had two other beers by Oakshire in the past week and have been reasonably impressed with this more recent entry in to the Oregon craft brew market. This beer continues my pleasure at their crafting. The coffee smell is overwhelmingly apparent on the aroma, with a delicious earthy character that promises a strong coffee flavor. This beer, unlike many at this year's festival, actually follows through on the promise of the aroma, providing a complex and fulfilling coffee taste from start to it's pleasantly long lasting finish. In addition it has a fairly solid mouth feel, giving this stout a fully rounded character that ensures that it is enjoyable from start to finish. ***1/2

Pike Brewing Co- Monk's Uncle
This was a nice beer, but still somewhat of a disappointment as I tend to like Pike's creations more. It is yet another of the middle of the road Belgian goldens of this year's fest, with a slight fruit scent, a wheat start and slightly bitter finish. It is a decent beer, but nothing special. ** 1/2

Port Townsend Brewing Co- Hop Diggidy IPA
I am often distrustful of IPA's that pour perfectly golden, being often disappointed by the lighter ones (though this is not universally true, the Vaporizer from Double Mountain that I mentioned earlier is very golden and very delicious, so it is an incomplete theory). Hop Diggidy, while still weighing in at a solid 70 IBUs had almost no hop flavor, neither citrus nor floral, and only negligible bitterness which constituted the majority of it's flavor. Ultimately another boring IPA. **

Riverport Brewing Co- Old Man River Oatmeal Stout
I tend to like Oatmeal stouts for their mouth feel alone. Just the coating of the tongue that lingers from a drink is enough to amuse me as a drinker but I still must demand at least a little flavor to accompany it. This bear nails the mouth feel, while having a decently coffee aroma but falls short on the flavor being indistinct to the point of blandness. They should have kept rolling along. ** 1/2

Rogue Ales- Latona Pale Ale
Latona Pale ale is a strange brewing choice by rogue as it is made entirely with only hope and one malt. Unfortunately for brewer John Maier, this experiment did not pan out, with the Latona smelling like rotting wet hay and tasting even worse. I wish I could give stars for effort and trying new things, but the beer in question is what is reviewed, giving rogue an atypical low score for the OBF. *

Scuttlebutt Brewing Co- Tripel 7 Belgian Stlye Ale
The lowest scored of the Belgian's from this year's festival, this beer was functionally flavorless. It is perhaps most interesting for being 8.9% ABV while not even tasting of alcohol. *

My overall impression of this year's OBF is a major disappointment. Brewers are increasingly bringing beers aimed at appealing to the lowest common denominator of drinker, meaning that the number of watery fruit beers, high alcohol but flavorless golds and pales has increased in addition to the number of breweries showcasing standard beers. In previous years there was a larger percentage of brewers utilizing this as an opportunity to stretch their brewing muscles but this is largely a thing of the past. The actual number of innovative beers was greatly reduced (applause to Caldera's tasty Hibiscus Ginger beer) over previous years. In addition the crowd is growing in number, with the number of the seriously inebriated increasing and the lines for the high alcohol, low flavor beers reaching clear through the enlarged tents. There is one advantage to this change, though, in that the really spectacular beers I did not have to wait more than ten seconds for the entire duration of the festival. All told it is a disturbing shift.