Follow along as we post about our travels. We'll be backpacking abroad, stopping at numerous U.S. national parks and some of the world's best craft breweries and beer bars. Cheers!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Devil's Churn, Oregon Coast
representative of the many viewpoints we stopped at. Shooting for
Redwood national park tonight so we'll see how it goes.
Rogue Brewers on the Bay, Newport, OR
the 30 or so beers on tap. Split a couple samlplrs with my wife and
loved Old Crustacean, chocolate stout, dry hopped red and the
imperial pilsner. Though not my favorite style, this may be the best
pilsner I've ever had. After a quick break, we'll be heading south
down the coast to the redwoods of northern California.
-Chris
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Pelican Brewing, Pacific City, OR
City. This place was gorgeus and I'd love to spend a week in a
vacation home here. But our time was short so we got the sampler and
were on our way. I have to say that Pelican, licated on the water, is
easily the most scenic microbrewery i have ever been to. Tsunami
stout and the Indian pelican ale were the highlights, as expected and
I picked up Stormwatcher winter and wee heavy Scottish to go. Then a
quick drive down the road to south beach state park for sunset and to
spend the night. Great start to the trip.
Cape Lookout Oregon
Lookout. A beautiful day and the picture says it better than I ever
could.
John's Marketplace and Raccoon Lodge Cascade Brewing
say that this was, by far the biggest bottle store tha I have ever
been to. Picked up some hair of the dog Fred and Adam as well as some
other west coast goodies. Then off to Raccoon Lodge.
All day happy hour in the den and if was great to see so many barrels
right in your face; immediate cause for salivation. They were pouring
Mouton Rouge, among other things, and this was another great sour by
cascade. Managed to pick up some bottles of kriek, blackberry, apricot
and Sang Royal, one of my favorite sours ever.
Harborside, Henry's Tavern and Bailey's taproom, Portland, OR
harborside restaurant for their Full Sail lineup. Slainte stout on
both cask and nitro were both solid and the imperial porter was a
great take on the style with nice coffee notes. But the barley wine,
old boardhead, had some nice sweet honey and maple and was incredibly
drinkable.
Henry's was next up with 160 taps...what a selection. I have to give a
big thanks to the bartenders who were incredibly helpful with tastings
and suggestions. Highlights were hair of the dog blue dot IPA,
Oakshire espresso stout, and Fanno Creek vanilla porter. We enjoyed
those couple of hours so much that we went back later in the night.
Definitely recommended for anyone visiting
Portland.
In the mean time we made a quick stop at baileys taproom which had a
great lineup for only twenty taps. My sampler consisted of deschutes
mirror mirror, laurelwood tree hugger porter, amnesia double
desolation, new old Lompoc Brussels stout and new
Belgium la folie. Some great Oregon beers, but la folie is still one
of my favorites. Great first day in Oregon and looking forward to
heading down the coast next!
On the way: John's marketplace, raccoon lodge (cascade brewing),
Tillamook cheese then to the beach. I'll check back in later.
-Chris
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Deschutes Brewpub, Portland, OR
already tapped so drink we did. What an
Incredible porter! Incredible coffee notes hit the nose up front as
well as some great oak and caramel aromas. Nice sweet up front with a
balanced bitterness. Incredibly smooth 11% brew and i can't wait to
see how this ages in the bottle.
Also had a great sampler (see pic) with red chair ipa, ocho negro ipa,
twilight cask, cellar door on cask, and harms way. Great start to the
day and can't wait to be back later in the day for the 21st party!
Diamond Knot, Mukilteo, WA
a little love to a local "Seattle" brewery: Diamond Knot. Decided to
make one last trip before hitting the road and had a nice sampler.
The front street bitter poured a nice golden with smooth lacing a long
bitter finish and this definitely outshines the ESB, which has a nice
sweet balance but not the bitterness I was looking for. Next was the
stout on a nitro tap which was a beautiful dark brown with frothy tan
head. Mild coffee and vanilla aromas with a sweet nut flavor. The
porter was solid but they also had an oaked cask porter which was the
highlight of the day! Incredibly smooth, with nice roasted nut and oak
aromas, this had the perfect amount of complexity while still being a
solid drinkable porter. Finally I have to recommend the industrial IPA
which is a northwest classic and typifies a Seattle IPA. I'll be back
someday, dknot, but until then keep making great brews!
Next stop: Portland
-Chris
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Trip Preview
Monday, June 22, 2009
Second Beach, Extra Pics
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Silver City Brewery, Silverdale WA
slight detour for dinner on the drive home. Unofficially the first
brewery on our cross country trip, I finally got to Silver City before
leaving the state for good. Tried the Panther Porter which was okay
but silver city highlights are the Whoop Pass double IPA and Fat
Scotch Ale. Not a bad couple of beers to start things off. Back to
Seatte for a week then to Portland to kick off the official road trip.
Can't wait!
Beers Tasted: Clear Creek Pale Ale, Panther Porter, Whoop Pass double IPA, Fat Scotch Ale*
Second Beach, keg of high life: mission accomplished
stats:
1 keg of miller high life
160 lbs of beer
15 guys
1.5 miles
1 hour and 41 minutes
Yes, you read that correctly. This keg was carried from the trailhead to the beach for the best night of camping ever. I think the picture speaks for itself.
(side note: don't let this be your sole point of reference for judging my taste in beer. Let it be known that I also tried the good stuff listed below. Oskar Blues is definitely my favorite backpacking brewer: "Pack it in, Pack it out." Trust me, more good beer to come.)
Beers Tasted: Miller High Life, Oskar Blues Gordon*, Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale, Oskar Blues Mama's Little Yella Pils, Oskar Blues Ten Fidy**, and Caldera IPA* over the weekend.
(*'s for my favorite beers tasted during the trip)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Second beach, olympic national park
the ferry on our way to the pacific coast for a no doubt eventful
weekend. Backpacking a keg to the beach? This should be interesting.