April 6-28, 2018, Peaks and Pints pitted 64 of Pacific Northwest’s best in a malty head-to-head battle of porters. We speak, of course, of the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters. Sixty-four Washington, Oregon and Idaho were selected and seeded by the public in March 2018. Some porters fell easily by the wayside, either faltered due to a defective mash tun paddle or simply because they faced a superior opponent. Malt by malt, the tri-state region drank its way through the first two rounds followed by the Sweet Saccharification 16, the Ethanol Eight, the Fermentation Four and today’s Championship Game between
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Championship vote and party For more than three weeks, Peaks and Pints challenged 64 of the Pacific Northwest’s best porters to go malt-to-malt in a showdown of craft combat. Some fell easily by the wayside, either due to a rogue mash tun cleaner or simply because they faced a superior opponent. Hop by hop, you voted down to the final four: Airways Brewing’s Curbside Porter, Wingman Brewers’ P-51 Porter, Mad Swede Brewing’s Brynhildr Robust Porter and Rogue Ales’ Mocha Porter. It was do-or-die, win-or-fly, bring-your-best-or-oxidize. Friday, April 27, Final Four Northwest Porters Games results GAME
Consider the vanilla bean. The Aztecs did. In addition to inventing long words ending in “atl” and awesome mythology, they had the patience to figure out how to cultivate vanilla — a particularly difficult flavor to come by. The pods are the fruit of an orchid plant (Vanilla planifolia), and they have to be cured and fermented over the course of about six months. If that weren’t involved enough, the high-maintenance orchid itself has to be pollinated by hand. Mexico continues to be a major producer, but bourbon vanilla pods from Madagascar are considered to be the Chanel No. 5
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Fermentation Four The Pacific Northwest loves porters — at least according to the thousands that have voted in our Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters. Yesterday’s porter voting doubled the previous highest vote count for a single day. Two games were blowouts with 80 to 85 percent of the vote. Another game saw a porter capture 61 percent of the vote. The last game was decided by 6 votes. What four potters will move onto the Fermentation Four? The drumroll please … thanks to your votes, the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters has been narrowed down
Public lands are facing a tough four years. The current administration had a terrible track record of undoing protections for public lands in 2017. But if they took some time to experience these magnificent places, he might begin to appreciate the disastrous effects the administration’s policies will have on our public lands. It’s enough to drive a lover of public lands to drink. Enter craft beer. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as that first sip of a cold beer after a hike in our epic Pacific Northwest landscape. It’s no surprise that many breweries have found unique ways to combine
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Ethanol Eight The Ethanol Eight is fully fleshed out: Airways Brewing, Reuben’s, Wingman P-51, Harmon, Mad Swede, Post Falls, Fort George and Rogue — eight breweries that — according to our public poll — serve the best porters in the greater Washington, Oregon and Idaho region. It’s all come down to eight. All the signs in the brewpubs, the mass emailings to customers and friends, the porter phone trees have paid off for these eight porter pushers. It’s now crunch(y) malt time for the porter royalty. Below is a recap of yesterday’s action followed by
Hands-down, blood oranges are the coolest-looking item in the produce aisle. The flesh of blood oranges ranges in color from orange with a pink blush to mottled red and to deep burgundy. Blood oranges often have an intense orange taste, and can have some berry-like flavors as well. Nothing perks up the way your food looks more than a slice or dice of blood orange. The red in blood oranges comes from anthocyanins, which means that they’re rich in antioxidants. Our favorite way to enjoy blood oranges is in craft beer and cider. The combination of hops and savory citrus
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Sweet Saccharification 16 ends Porter might take its name from the burly deliverymen who balanced wooden kegs on their shoulders and rapped on pub doors, announcing themselves with a shout of “Porter!” It was the first mass-market beer style of the Industrial Revolution. Breweries aged the beer in immense vats that might tower more than 20 feet high and contain thousands of barrels’ worth. In 1814, the collapse of such a vessel at Henry Meux’s Horse Shoe Brewery in London unleashed a tsunami of porter that leveled the surrounding neighborhood and killed eight people. On
Maybe if we all took a page from the friendly spirit of the craft beer movement, the world just might be a better place. It’s unlikely there is another fiercely competitive business that delights so much in hanging out together. If the market share is so small for each brewery, why cooperate with your competition? Maybe it stems from the David vs. Goliath syndrome, where craft brewers find delight in sticking together against the behemoths of industrial brewing and are willing to support each other for greater visibility and eventual higher sales. Beginning April 6, Peaks and Pints pitted 64
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Sweet Saccharification 16 You’d be hard pressed to find a crazier two weeks of porter voting than what we witnessed during Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters. We saw history made, Viking jokes, massive comebacks and epic failures. Now, the Tournament of Beer moves onto the Sweet Saccharification 16, and although your bracket may be in ruins, there is still plenty of great porters to watch, and plenty of stories to follow. So, read up on yesterday’s action, and then vote on the four games today. Sixteen Northwest porters remain, folks. Let’s get
Peaks and Pints Bagging: Evil Sister, Mountain Mama and Two Tickets to Paradise April 23, 2018: When hiking our cooler save room in your backpack for these craft beer delights. … ESPACIO MEXICAN-STYLE LAGER, Ecliptic Brewing: The Portland brewery’s lager splashes down in an ocean of lime. The right stuff. 4.8%, 12oz EVIL SISTER, GoodLife Brewing: Frickin’ fascinating hybrid of pale and wheat beer without the lasers. 8.5%, 16.9oz MOONBASE BLOOD ORANGE SAISON, Ecliptic Brewing: I’m afraid. I’m afraid, John Harris. John, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going crazy over
Just as rosé was transformed almost overnight from an ugly duckling franzia box to a glam “rosé all day” vino trend, cider has moved beyond the garage party sickly sweet bottles of Woodchuck and Angry Orchard. According to a February 2017 Draft Mag article, cider is an industry that “given its (relative to beer) small size, is still seeking to define itself. Makers of hard cider fall into many camps: Some are orchardists; some make ciders very similar to wine; some produce cider and market it like beer; some are owned by larger beer-making operations.” Add, “Peaks and Pints has
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Second Round ends Now it’s getting exciting. The Willamette hops are really starting to fly, and the Black Patent malt is getting so thick you cut it with a knife. Today is the last day of the Peaks and Pints’ Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Second Round and the competition is as hot as ever. Who will be crowned on April 28? The path to Northwest porter greatness continues. OK, pour a pint and dive into today’s Second Round porter battles. Vote for one porter per game. Voting for today’s porter battles ends at 11:45
TACOMA PREFUNK SATURDAY, APRIL 21 2018: Dogfish Head Record Store Day beer and Proctor Gulch String Band PREFUNK: Several years ago we saw The Flaming Lips at the Puyallup Fair. That was weird, but not as weird as when Lips frontman Wayne Coyne entered the stage through a giant vagina then began walking on the crowd in a human hamster ball while confetti filled the air. The band also re-recorded Dark Side of the Moon with Henry Rollins and Peaches on vocals. In a Rolling Stone interview, Coyne detailed an ayahuasca trip with Miley Cyrus. So really, a Dogfish Head beer
Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, the founder and man behind Evil Twin Brewing, was a physics and English teacher in his native Denmark before starting Copenhagen’s Ølbutikken, a highly regarded beer store. He’s also an evil twin himself. His brother, Mikkel Borg Bergsø, brews under the Mikkeller label. Jarnit-Bjergsø, however, has done his best to outshine the good twin. He founded Evil Twin Brewing in 2010 as a nomadic brewery. Like his brother Mikkel, Jarnit-Bjergsø would concocts a recipe for his beer and hand it to another brewery with some extra capacity. This contracted brewing partner brewed, bottled, priced and sold the beer,
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Second Round April 21 The subject of porters is, like the subject of barbecue, vexed and fraught with controversy. What constitutes a great porter? Who makes the best? Everyone seems to have her or his own favorite, and everyone’s an expert. In March, we pulled the public asking what are the top 64 porters in the Northwest. You chimed in. Friday, April 6, we launched the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters, pitting your 64 porters against each other, similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, only with more Wyeast 1968 (London ESB)/White Labs WLP002 (English Ale)
There’s no shortage of things you can do to celebrate 4/20, like, say, visiting numerous dispensaries and buying copious amounts of deeply discounted cannabis and cannabis products, and then, you know, consuming them, perhaps in a Mrs. Butterworth’s bong or Cheech & Chong joint. Hey, so long as you consume responsibly and don’t drive afterward, of course. But there are things happening on 4/20 that are a bit more, shall we craft beer oriented, like drinking beers that are “dank,” a term that means pungent, funky and odoriferous, to both good weed and very hoppy IPAs. Dank means an extremely
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Second Round April 20 For the last two weeks we presented you with a compelling question: what is the best porter in the Pacific Northwest? And you have responded in multitudes. Sick days have been used. Friendships have fallen apart. Malt house employees and hop farm employees living together — mass hysteria! We’re deep into the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Second Round with porters poised to make the final push to the Fermentation Four, which will begin April 27. What’s on the line? The winning brewery receives a permanent spot on Peaks and Pints
Sam Calagione started making beer in 1995 when he opened Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats in the beach community of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. It was the smallest commercial brewery in America at that time. Within a few successful years, the company activated a major expansion, switching from making very small, homebrew-style batches to industrial-sized sessions in a sizeable brew house. Dogfish Head expanded and moved to a 100,000 square foot facility in nearby Milton, Delaware in 2002. They’re one of the largest craft brewers in America but yet there may be no brewery today that exhibits such a dedication to
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Second Round April 19 Beginning April 24, we’ll have cut the field of 64 Northwest porters to the Sweet Saccharification 16. April 26, it’ll drop to the Ethanol 8. April 28, we’ll announce the winner of the Peaks and Pints Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters — picked by you, of course — at our little lodge in Tacoma’s Proctor District. On that Saturday, we’ll cut the online voting at 5 p.m. and take the vote live in house, handing out ballots while you enjoy the final two porters on draft. That’s all fine and dandy,
April 18, 1775, 700 British soldiers under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith gathered on Boston Common and boarded ships to raid Concord. These soldiers included eight companies of grenadiers, or soldiers who stood on the frontlines and heaved grenades at the enemy, and eight companies of light infantry. During this time, Paul Revere, along with two other riders, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, began their nighttime rides to rouse the minutemen and warn citizens of an attack. Revere rode to Lexington, where Samuel Adams and John Hancock were staying en route to the Second Continental Congress, and managed
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Second Round begins Now it’s getting exciting. The Fuggle hops are really starting to fly, and the Crystal malt bags are piling up so high you could make a Burning Porter fire. OK, so that’s a horrible analogy. Point is: this is serious. Today the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters officially kicks off its Second Round, meaning 32 Northwest porters remain, and the competition is as hot as ever. What porter will be crowned Saturday, April 28? The path to porter greatness starts today. Here’s a recap of yesterday’s battles, and a look at today’s
In 1974, Larry Sidor walked into Olympia Brewing Company wearing galoshes. Two decades later, he ran out. He couldn’t take dumbing down lagers anymore. He found happier times at Deschutes Brewery, developing legendary recipes such as The Dissident, The Abyss and Red Chair. In 2012, he and Paul Evers opened Crux Fermentation Project in a former AAMCO transmission shop in Bend, Oregon, with the complete freedom to brew whatever they desired, and by desire that meant sublime IPAs, complex barrel-aged Flanders reds and restrained pilsners. They designed the brewery for non-traditional brewing methods such as decoction mashing, open fermentation, oak
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters First Round April 17 Lo and behold, today marks the closing of the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters’ First Round. After today’s battles the bracket will officially be down to 32 Northwest-brewed porters, and breweries start hiring cheerleaders. Honestly, it if gets more exciting we’ll start to understand why Dick Vitale is always yelling. Posting and toasting baby! Without wasting anyone’s time with porter related basketball innuendo, on to a recap of yesterday’s action followed by eight new porters hitting the courts today. Monday, April 16, First Round Northwest Porters Games results GAME 1, WASHINGTON
Consider the lager. Lagers are typically brewed at a low temperature to allow the yeast to reach its maximum flavor potential. The lower temperatures cause the lager to ferment at a much slower rate than ales. However, the results are a brew that is clearer than ales, which are brewed at higher temperatures. Lagers are brewed using the yeast called Saccharomyces uvarum. It does not rise to the top like the yeast used in ale but does end up at the bottom once fermentation is reached. This particular yeast does not sporulate as a result of being a more fragile yeast.
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters Round One April 16 Why did Peaks and Pints invent the Tournament of Beer? Because it’s fun. Look at the excitement generated by the NCAA basketball tournament brackets. We want to create the same excitement although with way more malts. We also hope to spark craft beer discussions using an informal, unscientific poll. Beer’s ability to lubricate conversation (and dissent) has been noted since colonial times. We want people to conduct their own Beer Madnesses and do their own second-guessing, backseat driving and morning quarterbacking. Last year, Peaks and Pints presented the Tournament of Beer:
Peaks and Pints will tap Dragons & YumYums pale ale brewed with a combination of dragonfruit, yumberry, passionfruit, pear juice and black carrot juice Thursday, April 19. Photo courtesy of Dogfish Head Y’all ready for Record Store Day Saturday, April 21? A full list of goodies will be dropped in independent record stores across the country that day. And it’s a long one. Topping the list of notable releases are Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison: 50th Anniversary Elegacy Edition, three new limited-edition David Bowie albums (Welcome To The Blackout (Live London 1978), Let’s Dance (Demo), and
America is awesome. Not because of all the freedom. Not because we were the country that invented the Ferris wheel, Pong, lasers, LED, microwave oven, computers, the Internet and the Global Positioning System. Not even because we rule the world when it comes to the Flask Tie, in which office drones no longer need to bury their hooch deep inside a drawer. No, American is awesome because we invented national food days. Sure, everyone knows about Shrove Tuesday (National Pancake Day), National Snack Food Month (February) and Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day (April 12 — what, you don’t celebrate?). But did
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters First Round April 14 Over a three-week period, Peaks and Pints pits 64 of the Pacific Northwest’s best in a malt-to-malt battle of porters. This is a tournament, folks, not a playoff. Each match is do or die — one misstep and you’re out of the dance. Wort didn’t cool fast enough, left sediment in the conical fermenter too long, and you can pack your brewers paddle and go home. Sure, there are plenty of brewers wearing “Porter > Avocado Toast” T-shirts who can brew a mighty fine batch of porter. The Northwest’s finest porter
Our Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters isn’t complicated: We put you, the public, in charge of voting to determine the best porter in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. We simply count the votes and write a lot of silliness about the results. Since the voting is subjective, and we have only 64 slots, delicious, awesome porters were left out the tournament. Scanning our current inventory we found five porters that, well, should have been voted into the tournament, at least according to us. Today, with another eight porters battling at tournamentofbeer.com, we present the Craft Beer Crosscut 4.13.18: A Flight of
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters First Round April 13 Last year, Peaks and Pints challenged 64 Washington state IPAs to enter tournament-style ale combat, IBU versus IBU, with Rainy Daze Brewing’s Goat Boater IPA crowned best IPA. This year, through online voting, beer enthusiasts seeded 64 porters from Washington state, Oregon and Idaho in our quest for porter prestige. We speak, of course, of the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters. Sixty-four porters brewed in the Great Pacific Northwest have been battling since Friday, April 6. It’s been a week and we’re still in First Round action. Below is a recap
For the past couple years, when a mention of Bellingham breweries awards comes up, there’s always a discussion that starts with “Kulshan, again?”, but even though the rest of Bellingham’s growing craft beer scene is pretty damn awesome, the stamp that Kulshan Brewing Co. has put on Bellingham can’t be denied. Forget about the beers — we all know there’s a loving spot in our hearts for Bastard Kat IPA, Kitten Mittens Winter Ale and Sunnyland IPA — but it’s the outdoor seating, dog hugging, collaborations, charitable contributions and community interaction that really sets the team at Kulshan apart from
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters First Round April 12 Porters are brown beers with a long history in England. Porters and stouts come from the same stock, and at one point would have been indistinguishable from each other. Today, it is usually the use of roasted barley that distinguishes stouts from porters. While stouts evolved, around the middle of the 19th century, demand for porters died off. By the two world wars, the beer style was virtually extinct. Several decades later, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, porters saw a revival. This was especially true in the States, where
Today is the traditional birthday of Gambrinus, sometimes called King Gambrinus, considered to be a patron saint of beer, brewing and/or Belgian beer. Not an “official” saint, at least not in the Catholic Church, but a legendary figure. Around the year 1100, the brewers of Brussels deliberated which strong and courageous man should be their leader. They organized a contest, at which a large beer barrel was placed on the ground. The one who could carry it to a spot two stone’s throws away would become their head brewer. Among many who registered for the contest was a Duke from
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters First Round April 11 Porter brewing isn’t rocket science. Take some malt, add hot water, drain water, bring it to boil, add hops, cool it, add yeast, wait, serve and enjoy. But hidden within those folds is a complexity that defines the short steps list. Brewing a porter is fairly easy; making a great porter is another thing entirely. Opening a discussion on which Pacific Northwest breweries brew the best porter serves as our mission for the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters — that and trying to score free porters from the competitors. Below is
Simcoe was introduced in 2000 by Yakima Chief Ranches as a proprietary hop varietal with strong bitter and aromatic qualities. Little has been released about its parentage, but it has been compared to Cascade. Simcoe isn’t a one-style pony; this variety can do great things in a number of beer styles, and is often used in conjunction with the Cascade, Centennial, Chinook and Citra hop varieties. Although not used much as a bittering hop, many craft brewers favor Simcoe for its unique aroma profile composed of piney, woody, and grapefruit citrus notes mixed with slightly dank and spicy notes of
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters First Round April 10 Favorites or underdogs, English or American, Brown or Baltic — it’s all the same in the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters. In the end, brewers from Washington, Oregon and Idaho have one chance to soak malted barley in hot water to release the malt sugars, then boil the malt sugar solution with hops for seasoning, cool the solution, add yeast to begin fermentation to create a porter that can take the prize. Sixty-four Northwest porters were selected and seeded by beer enthusiasts in March for the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters,
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters First Round April 9 Let’s look at malty moments in history. … 4,300 BC – Oldest-known written recipe — a formula for beer — inscribed in clay cuneiform tablet. The Babylonians are producing beer in large quantities with around 20 varieties, including Suck It Sumerian Stout. 500-1000 AD – The first half of the Middle Ages, brewing begins in European monasteries and convents; hops added to process. Hello Bring Out Your Dead Doppelbock! 1490 – Columbus finds Native Americans making beer from corn and tree sap in the Bahamas. First Caribbean bar fight breaks out
Today is National Beer Day, but it’s also Session Beer Day. The annual pseudo-holiday was launched in 2012 by Lew Bryson, a Pennsylvania-based drinks writer who also started The Session Beer Project five years before his easy-drinking holiday. In celebration of Session Beer Day, we present a five-beer sampler of session beers we call Craft Beer Crosscut 4.7.18: A Flight of National Beer Day. What is a session beer? Well, it depends on whom you ask. The term’s precise origins and coinage are fuzzy. Beer experts can’t seem to agree on a specific year, for instance, but consistently point to
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters — First Round results Porter. Everyone drinks it. Everyone has a favorite. No other craft beer can inspire the rabid fandom of a true porter devotee. The Pacific Northwest turned out in force to vote in yesterday’s kickoff of the Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters competition. Phone trees were instigated. Neighbors were harassed. Computer labs were invaded. Our poor little website had to work overtime as droves voted in Round One action. The public picked 64 Northwest porters for the Tournament of Beer, which, as said, kicked off yesterday with two games in the Seattle/King
Friday, April 6, is the day we all celebrate New Beers Eve. This is a real thing. New Beer’s Eve was the night before the first alcoholic beer became legally available after 13 years of prohibition. From 1920 to 1933, no alcoholic beverages were legal in the United States. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had barely been president for a month when he and a new anti-prohibition majority in Congress known as “The Wets” brought back beer. The Cullen-Harrison Act increased allowable alcohol in beer from 0.5% to 3.2%. Prohibition would be completely reversed later that year with ratification of the 21st
Tournament of Beer: Northwest Porters – Let the games begin! Poor Porter. What was once the most popular style of ale in 18th century London, Ireland and the American colonies – beloved by George Washington and a possible business adventure for Thomas Jefferson – the Porter fell on hard times. Roughians Pale Ales, Mild Brown Ales and Stouts shoved beer foam in Porters’ face, eventually taking over Northern European taste buds. In mid-19th century America, German immigrants opened their long mohair coats with larger beers dangled inside, winning the hearts of Blue and Gray, as well as the Gold out
If you are new to the Portland, Oregon area or have been a long time resident it is always fun to explore the beautiful city. The city is divided into four quadrants, Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and Southeast. There is also what is known as the fifth quadrant, North Portland. Peaks and Pints knows it doesn’t make sense to have five quadrants. It’s probably, part of the keep Portland weird movement. The division of the quadrants is easy to distinguish. Burnside is the street that divides North and South and the beautiful Willamette River divides East and West. North Portland is
Since 1997, the Grand Rapids, Michigan brewery, Founders Brewing Company, helped to put the Midwest on the map as a craft beer mecca. With cult favorites such as All Day IPA, Kentucky Breakfast Stout and other sought-after beers, it’s almost incredible that their initial offerings, according to legend, were “well-balanced but unremarkable,” and the brewery was on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s when the Founders team decided to change course, focusing on brewing the beers that got them excited about brewing in the first place: complex, crazy, drop-your-pants kinds of brew. Today, Founders’ philosophy states: “We don’t brew beer for the
