A celebration of Beer Weekend

Yesterday Tara and I went with my parents out to Skamania Lodge in Stevenson Washington to attend the "Celebration of beer" weekend that the lodge and local breweries were hosting. While there were several events that made up the weekend, we were there for just the beer festival part- a sedate affair with perhaps 10 breweries each hocking 2-3 beers apiece. I like these small beer fests as it tends to draw a smaller crowd with fewer "frat boy drinkers". This is not to say that the majority of the attendees were especially knowledgeable, but rather the number of men smoking cigars, wearing shirts advertising their sexual prowess, and shouting every five minutes was next to none. Additionally the weather in the Gorge was breathtaking, with the festival taking place on the lodge's front lawn with a great view of the Oregon side of the gorge. I did not have a notepad with me, so please forgive me for detailing the beers entirely from memory.

Walking Man Brewing Hopalong
Fresh Hop Ale
The first beer that my father and I headed for was this year's fresh hop beer from Walking Man. Walking Man remains one of our favorite breweries, with such notable products as Homo Erectus and its offspring Big Black Homo and My Old Kentucky Homo. Additionally their Black Cherry stout is one of the most heavenly dessert beers around (always on tap at Henry's, just so you know). The Hop along was a fantastic fresh hop beer, getting the better of most beers made in the style by having a solid bitter character with a fine citrus mixed in with the hoppy herbal flavor. Often the fresh hop beers (especially the last 2 years) are all aroma and no substance, so this was a perfect way to start the festival out.
***1/2

Laht Neppur
Winter Warmer
Oatmeal Porter
These beers are both named exactly for their style. I started off with the Winter Warmer, which has a delightful cinnamon and spice aroma that mirrors its true to style flavor. The cinnamon is perhaps even more prevalent than the smell would indicate, and the slight honey edge gives it a near spiced mead quality. ***

The Oatmeal porter I was less enthusiastic about, as I generally do not like Oatmeal beers outside of the Oatmeal stout spectrum of drinks. The mouthfeel was the perfect thickness, but the chocolate flavor of the porter was diminished, resulting in a textured but not flavorful drink.
**1/2

Lazy Boy
Mistletoe Bliss
Redhead Imperial Red

Lazy boy continues to dissapoint me. The Imperial red was bland and unintersting (and let me tell you, us redhead are not bland) and the Mistletoe bliss was a suprisingly un-spiced winter warmer. Both seemed to greatly miss the mark. Too bad, as the company rep attending for them sure seemed like a nice dude.
Mistletoe Bliss: * 1/2
Redhead: **

Double Mountain
Dapper Dan- British Style Brown Ale
We had Dapper Dan at the festival, and later on at the Double Mountain Ale House, but it made quite an impression on the group. It is a true session style beer, made to let you stay in the pub arguing with your mates for hours without getting belligerent, due to its low ABV of 3.5%. The smooth, almost nutty taste was infinitely drinkable and we came back for several samples before our departure. ***1/2

Full Sail
Fresh Uebergehopt
Full sail's fresh hop beer was sampled, to it's detriment, after we had already hit the Walking Man taps. While the Ubergehopt (Super Hopped) was superior to the last 2 years worth of fresh hop beers, it was still somewhat lacking in flavor, with the hops largely imparting only a delicious aroma. Still, it was nice to get to try a Full Sail special rather than just having their Wassail (which is pretty fantastic this year) available at the fest. ** 1/2

There were several other beers that we sampled (think a Fish Tale ale that I was not tremendously impressed with, as well as something from Yakima brewing) but nothing that really stuck out. After finishing up the beers and having a pretzel by the outdoor fire pit, we grabbed some free coffee from the lodge and headed over to Walking Man's brewpub to see if they had anything special on tap. The brewpub was fairly packed and the beer board boasted nothing phenomenal, so after listening to some bag pipers for a few minutes we decided to head up to Hood River and try out the Double Mountain taproom, located on 4th avenue in downtown Hood River.

The brewpub isn't much to look at for Double Mountain. Not quite enough room for all the people drinking, crummy chairs, and the extra space that we ended up sitting in being heated by space heaters as it was part of the warehouse where they store their beer being aged in barrels. The food menu was sparse with sandwiches and Pizza being the main items, so we had a sausage onion and mushroom pizza and a Hummus plate while we drank and waited for the live music to start. The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. This was more than made up for by the beers we sampled. Tara and I both started with Double Mountain's yearly fresh hop beer Killer green. It is a potent IPA made with local hops that is solid from smell to finish, a true four star beer and my favorite in the style for the year. My mom had a Dapper Dan, and my dad plunked down the $8 for a 12 oz. goblet of "Terrible Two" a Bourbon Barrel Aged beer based off of their Uber Brown ale. At 10% alcohol it packs quite a wallop, but the mandatory intoxication is well worth it due to the fantastic bourbon barrel smell imparted on the ale, coupled with its heavenly bourbon flavor and strong warming character. This five star beer easily was the best of the day, if not quarter of the year and we all wished that it was available to be purchased by the keg, but alas it was not to be. Other beers sampled included Abbey Hoffman, a different Bourbon Barrel aged beer that I reviewed in my previous post.