So Many Good Beers

One thing that I really loved about living in Portland was the abundance of great beers. There was the local watering hole, the Goodfoot, that had a great selection of micros on tap. I had my two favorite breweries, the Lucky Lab and the now defunct Roots, on my drive home so I could stop and enjoy a pint while getting my growler filled. The Rogue and Deschutes public houses on the west side had some of the best beers I have tasted so I would try to make the trip on a somewhat regular basis. Plus I had the Belmont Station only ten minutes away and their selection of over one thousand different bottled beers made it a great destination on the search for new and exciting beers.

It looks like Longview is finally catching on to what good brew really is. One of my favorite bars, Porky's, recently expanded their beer selection and they keep some very good beers on rotation. Now that Hop N Grape is open I have a place that reminds me a little of Belmont Station, only Hop N Grape also has beer making supplies making it the ultimate one-stop brew-shop. With Parker's offering their own beer and two other groups getting ready to open microbreweries in the area the future looks very bright. Last week I sampled quite a few good beers.

On my first trip to Hop N Grape my good friend Cory had told me that I had to try the Creme Brulee Stout. He told me it was a nice, dark beer that had a sweet, vanilla aftertaste to it. And he couldn't have been more correct. This stuff is good! While I was at Hop N Grape I also tried a Rogue Chipotle Ale and it was nice and light with just a hint of the chipotle kick. It went well with the pulled pork sandwich and pepper jack mac n' cheese I had.

On my second trip to Hop N Grape I decided to try the Collaborator Steel Bridge Porter that was a joint effort between Widmer Brothers and a Portland homebrew club. It was a great porter but the one that followed it was the Fort George brewing Working Girl Porter that is brewed with coffee. This stuff is delicious! I also tried Ninkasi's Sterling Pilsner, New Belgium's sour pumpkin ale Kick and Georgetown's IPA Lucille. They were all very good although I don't think I could drink a whole bunch of the sour brew.

I visited Hop N Grape again last weekend and sampled some Kona Brewing Koko Brown and Rogue XS Imperial Russian Stout. The Koko Brown was so good that I had him fill my growler and then filled another growler with some Creme Brulee. Those two growlers served well during our last brew session when we finished them both off. Hopefully we pleased the Beer Gods.

In between all of those trips to Hop N Grape I also had a chance to stop by Porky's for a delicious burger and a tasty pint of Elysian's Nibiru Yerba Mate Tripel. I am not a fan of Belgians at all but I did enjoy this beer. It is also the first of twelve limited edition beers that Elysian will be releasing this year for their 12 Beers of the Apocalypse. Here's a little bit more info on the Apocalypse series.

AN APOCALYPTIC BEER ADVENTURE
In a year-long run-up to the end of all time (according to the Mayan calendar), Elysian Brewing Company and Fantagraphics Books, both of Seattle, are planning a series of twelve beers, issued on the 21st of each month in 2012 and featuring the label artwork of Charles Burns. Taken from Burns’s weirdly apocalyptic work “Black Hole,” the labels will adorn Elysian’s “Twelve Beers of the Apocalypse,” featuring the creativity and unusual ingredients for which its brewing team is known. What twelve beers would you brew (and drink) if you knew they would be your last?

First up in January is NIBIRU, named for the mysterious planet X supposedly on a collision course toward Earth. The Elysian / Fantagraphics Nibiru will be a Belgian-style Tripel flavored with an infusion of yerba maté. Combining the tasty esters of Belgian yeast and the compelling tea-like flavors of the South American herb mixture, the beer will weigh in at around 7.6% alcohol by volume. A mixture of German Northern Brewer, Czech Saaz and American Amarillo hops round out the uniqueness of this first beer of the Apocalypse. Oddly enough there’s another apocalyptic-themed Nibiru out there: a super volcano currently burbling most dangerously beneath Yellowstone National Park. It too is scheduled to end life as we know it very very soon.

It is truly a great time to be a beer lover!