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beer 
Tue Dec 01, 2009 at 05:09:29 AM PST
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Here's to December's first cup of coffee. Is it really almost 2010 already?!
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Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 06:28:31 AM PST
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Screw "the rules". Let's start Monday off with a drink! Or at least, talking about drinks. Specifically, most (but not all, I sometimes forget to take notes and sometimes forget that I should take notes and sometimes even forget that I'm forgetting to take notes...) of the local craft brews I had while back in Jersey last month.
Over the nine days I spent in October back in the state in which I was born and raised, I drank beers high and low. I drank 'em in Lambertville, and I drank 'em in South Orange. I drank 'em in Woodbridge, and I drank 'em in New Brunswick. I drank 'em in Long Valley. I even drank 'em down in Philly and out in NYC. I was reunited with my old friend Dogfish Head, my favorite East Coast brewer. I finally found a River Horse beer I really enjoyed, in the basement pub of the Lambertville Inn a few blocks from their brewery itself. Oh, I found a lot this time. Join me below the fold for details of a raucous journey, and much more...
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Sat Aug 29, 2009 at 15:47:35 PM PDT
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I'm trying to figure out which is scarier - a party of four who've been drinking for hours suddenly deciding to play Jenga on the bar right next to you; or the setup at the little pub across the street from me, where half the seats at the bar are lined up right alongside the dartboard playing area. Although I haven't received any darts in the neck or head yet, I still think I'm gonna go with darts = more of a worry.
Bailey's Taproom is located at the corner of SW Broadway and Ankeny Street, just across the way from Tugboat Brewing, which I reviewed here a few months ago. It's a cool building, 'light & airy' (some might say a bit too light during the day, but that's okay - this place isn't trying to be a smoky ole' neighborhood pub...), with about 8 seats or so at the bar, along with about half a dozen tables inside and roughly the same number of tables outside along the sidewalk facing Broadway and Ankeny.
There are no televisions in here, rather they have a random selection of board games and Jenga-like things strewn about. (You sunk my Battleship!) The clientele here reflects the neighborhood (Downtown Portland) it's in, and leans mostly towards late 20's / early 30's professional types. The hours could be better (Monday - Saturday, 4 PM to Midnight - no Sunday?!), but then again this is downtown, and all you have to do is just head a bit west (if you're one of those Westsiders!), or cross one of the bridges onto the Eastside (hurray!) to find many other worthwhile watering holes open 'til 2:30 AM, after which point OLCC Ninjas bring horrible pain and gut-wrenching terror (and $450,000 fines) to anybody who remains even within smelling distance of a bar.
A bit about the beer below the fold...
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 06:29:42 AM PDT
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Anybody remember my long-abandoned Friday beer review series? Well, now it's more like every six weeks instead of every week, I guess. And it's no longer just for Fridays. It's for whenever I feel like posting something. Heh. But I digress...
I spent yesterday working the North American Organic Brewers Festival up at Overlook Park here in Portland, and I poured organic beers until it hurt. And then I kept pouring them!
Because as our (organic cotton) t-shirts said - we are "Saving the Planet, One Beer at a Time". You're damned right we are! I am so with that.
Anyways, duck below the fold for a reconstruction of my Saturday working the beer festival, if you're so inclined...
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Thu May 21, 2009 at 14:03:06 PM PDT
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Right now I can honestly say I don't CARE what they use to pay for national health care as long as they give it to us. I would suggest perhaps selling Pay Per View subscriptions to watch torture apologists like Bill O'Reilly and Dick Cheney getting waterboarded. But it seems that some Congresscritters on the Senate Finance Committee have taken up the idea of using booze and soda taxes as their big fundraisers.
Taxes on wine and liquor would also go up. And there might be a new tax on soda and other sugary drinks blamed for contributing to obesity. Diet drinks, however, wouldn't be taxed.
The idea behind the proposed increases is to tax lifestyle choices that contribute to rising medical costs. Obesity puts people at risk for diabetes and heart problems. Alcohol abuse is a risk factor in several types of cancer, liver disease and psychological problems.
The soft drink industry and beer and wine producers are already lobbying to stop the proposals before they gain traction. The tax increases would lead to job losses for workers and higher costs for recession weary consumers, say the industries. Wine makers are also pointing to studies that suggest a glass a day can be good for health.
My anwer to the wine people: Go blow it out your ass. Sorry, but a tax on wine won't stop committed wine drinkers from the glass or two of red wine that may be good for them. It's the people who binge that go past what's good for them and start costing our health care system a lot of money. They can pay up.
My own thought about health care is that an efficient single payer system can probably pay for itself in savings alone over the current system we've got in place. In other words, if the money that employers pay in premiums for employees health care now went to Uncle Sam instead (for the same purpose), we'd probably have our costs covered. Another idea? Tax the large percentage of companies that are paying ZERO taxes right now by closing up loopholes in the tax code that allow them to get away with it. Or how about taxing people who make over $3 million or so a year at a higher rate? I'm for that too. Or legalizing and taxing pot?
But what the hell, if you're slapping a tax on booze and soda and it gets us all health care, who am I to complain? I only wish that they'd tax diet soda along with the regular stuff if that's the route they choose to go. I'm not a big fan of sin taxes, but if they can get it passed, I'm also not really opposed.
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Fri Apr 24, 2009 at 17:00:00 PM PDT
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Hoppy Friday! Heh. This edition of my no-longer weekly (somewhat weekly?) beer series is going to be my first review of a brewpub here in PDX. I intend to review many of our other brewpubs (or to be more precise - all of them!) in the future - Hopworks Urban Brewery will probably be next, mainly because it's in my neighborhood and is walking distance from my apartment. Heh. Oh, and because they have great beer (and food!). Ah, but enough of that. Let's get on to the review of Tugboat Brewing...
Tugboat Brewing is a small batch craft brewer tucked away and sorta hidden on a one-block-long stretch of SW Ankeny Street on the edge of Downtown Portland, one block down SW Broadway from Burnside and just around the corner from the (in)famous Mary's Club. They open later than most places (5 PM Mondays, 4 PM Tuesday through Saturday), and also close earlier than most (10 PM on Monday, midnight Tuesday - Thursday and 1 AM Friday and Saturday), but if you're downtown in the evening and looking for a good beer in a fun place, Tugboat's a great choice.
As soon as you walk in, the place hits you with "cool". Slightly eccentric with perfect (imo) pub lighting, this is a small place with a bar that seats 5, along with about a dozen tables and booths. The walls are lined with endless shelves of books, and the television above the bar is always playing nature / wildlife videos, which are very compelling, and even moreso as the number of beers you consume increases. Natch. Nightly acoustic jazz by a live band is the soundtrack, and even the bathrooms are cool - the sinks in the hallway are a nice touch, as is the cactus. Be careful around the cactus if you've had a bit too much...
Beer reviews below the fold...
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 at 19:00:00 PM PDT
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Sampler Platter Meets Pot Luck! Now that sounds like a damned monster movie!
- A nice piece from (Bend, OR's) Bend Weekly touches on farm-to-school, and describes how school district food buyers and local farmers can connect.
- Hooray for Oklahoma City! The people of the city will soon be able to enjoy great local craft brews...and the best part? Unlike their NBA team, they do not have to steal it from Seattle!
- 44 million dollars of federal stimulus money will go towards aiding migrating salmon and making more efficient use of irrigation water in Central Washington.
- The Cass County Board of Supervisors in Southwest Iowa have just approved funding that will make them the latest government to have a local food policy council and a regional foods coordinator. Kick ass, Cass!
- A view from Across The Pond (besides AAF's awesome input, of course...) - John-Paul Flintoff writes about digging for Britain.
- Surprise! A quick NY Times blog piece drools over Portland's food scene. Again. I agree with her on the first point, though - the prices are amazing here. There are at least a dozen fantastic restaurants / cafes / brewpubs within walking distance of my apartment (Inner SE Portland) where I can get a great (local, seasonal, organic) meal for pretty much the same price as a fast "food" "value" meal. And since most of them are based around healthy whole grains, they'll also keep you full for much longer than the empty calorie "convenience" crap ever could.
- Closing out National Library Week, I have to include this piece from Emily Underwood at High Country News on the importance of small-town libraries.
- Also from High Country News, Michele Haefele writes that United States Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is on the right track.
- From the "Yet More Corporate Astroturf" files: Agribiz interests in California are organizing and paying for phony protests. IMO, we need to focus on the real problem here, which is the destructiveness of these ridiculously unsustainable agricultural techniques. It isn't "Pacific smelt vs. workers". Rather, the real issue is "corporate greed and shortsightedness vs. workers and the rest of humanity and wildlife".
Use this diary as an open thread...
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Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 17:30:00 PM PDT
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After a week's absence due to my trip and off-line-edness (is that a word? I think not...), Friday Night beer blogging returns! For this week's edition, I'm going to review three brewpubs I ate at during last week's visit back to New Jersey. Tomorrow or Sunday, I'll also review a couple other Jersey beers (Fairfield's Cricket Hill and Cherry Hill's Flying Fish) I had while there. This is the brewpub edition.
Consider each entry in this series an "Open Beer / Wine / Spirit Thread"...
More below the fold, including a bunch of pics from wandering around Princeton...
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Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 17:00:00 PM PDT
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Greetings, and Happy Friday! This is the second entry in my weekly series about unicorns local beer. Every once in a while the title may change (i.e. - The Washington / Idaho / Northern California Beer Journals), but the spirit(s - ha!) shall remain the same. Without further ado, this week I will be writing about one of my favorite Oregon brews, Ninkasi Believer Double Red Ale out of Eugene, OR.
Please feel free to comment about your favorites, local or otherwise. Consider each entry in this series an "Open Beer / Wine / Spirit Thread"...
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Fri Mar 13, 2009 at 17:00:00 PM PDT
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Happy Friday!
Jill suggested I do some diaries on Portland beer a few days back, and I thought it was a great idea! So I'm gonna turn this into a regular Friday Night series, and cover a different local brew each week. Every once in a while, I'll take it into one of our many excellent brewpubs here in the city - but for the most part, this will cover one specific Oregon or Washington beer each week, with a random Idaho or Northern California brew thrown in on occasion for good measure. I figure covering one of those every week will keep me busy from now until roughly the year 3987.
This series may come in handy if you ever happen to find yourself here in PDX for any reason.
Please feel free to comment about your favorites, local or otherwise. Consider each entry in this series an "Open Beer / Wine / Spirit Thread"...
So without further ado, jump below the fold for more...
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