Dark News Is Good News From Oregon

First, the good news - for dark beer lovers, anyway.

Two more ebony brews out of Oregon are scheduled to arrive in area stores come March: Obsidian Stout from Deschutes, and Portland Brewing’s Haystack Black Porter.

Darker, fuller-flavored beers are becoming more fashionable as beer drinkers’ tastes evolve. According to Deschutes, the latest national market research shows sales of stouts and their slightly smaller cousins, porters, increasing by 75 percent over the past year.

Obsidian Stout, named after the black volcanic rock common to the Central Oregon landscape around the Bend brewery, is on the mellow side (“less astringent and ‘chewier’,” as Deschutes puts it) compared to bigger, more bitter renditions of the style, such as Guinness. But at 6.7 percent alcohol by volume, it’s certainly no lightweight.

It follows Cascade Golden Ale, Bachelor Bitter and Black Butte Porter as the final year-round beer to be bottled by Deschutes (which, by the way, was voted best brewery of 1995 by members of the Seattle-based Microbrew Appreciation Society). Like the others, it will have a freshness date on the label - a welcome touch.

Haystack Black, which takes its name from the monolithic rock at Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast west of Portland, is also approachable for a darker beer, a smoothed-out version of the brewery’s former Portland Porter.

It joins a Portland lineup that includes the popular Oregon Honey Beer and McTarnahan’s Scottish-style ale.

Missing link

And now, the bad news - for Bigfoot fans, anyway.

Sierra Nevada’s legendary barley wine, long a February fixture for serious beer drinkers, won’t be stomping up our way this year. There was only enough made to supply the immediate area around the Chico, Calif., brewery, a spokeswoman said.

Blame it on the ever-increasing popularity of Sierra Nevada’s flagship pale ale, porter and stout. “We’ve been brewing like crazy to meet the demand,” she said. “It’s taking all of our time and brewing space.”

But don’t despair. There’s still Old Crustacean (“Crusty” to its close friends). The 1995 bottling of the big, bittersweet barley wine from the Rogue brewery in Newport, Ore., recently arrived here.

Barley wines are among the most powerful of beers, and the rich, reddish-brown Old Crusty is a superb example of the style: thick, syrupy, winey and warming (almost enough to make one wish for the return of subzero temperatures).

It’s far from cheap, at upwards of $2 for a 6.4-ounce bottle - or about twice the price for half the size of a typical micro - but you’re not going to go through a six-pack in an evening, either.

If you have the spare change, not to mention the discipline, buy some extra to put away; it’s one of those beers that gets fuller and rounder after aging for a year or two. Look for it in such specialty stores as Jim’s Home Brew Supply and the Spokane Wine Co.

Beer bytes

Pyramid products are on tap for the next brewer’s dinner at Hill’s Someplace Else in downtown Spokane, on Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m.

While the four-course menu was still in progress at press time, the accompanying beers are set, with Pyramid’s porter and best brown ale joining the more commonly seen hefeweizen and apricot ale.

The price is $21 per person, including tax and tip. Advance payment is required; call 747-3946.

Pyramid aficionados among the cyberspace crowd will want to check out the Western Washington brewery’s new home page on the Internet, at http:/ /www.HartBrew.com/yak.html, featuring everything from details about the hops used by the brewery to a game room with virtual darts.

The Web site recently hosted an on-line beer tasting led by Pyramid brewers, with more such merriment planned for the future.

Forty winks

The Fort Spokane Brewery will close temporarily for remodeling on Sunday, but you’ll still be able to buy beer to go between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., seven days a week, and on some evenings. For information, call 838-3809.

The brewpub will be back in business on March 12, in time for St. Patrick’s day, although the closure means no Irish ale will be brewed this year. A rye beer will be the seasonal specialty when the doors reopen.

, DataTimes MEMO: On Tap is a monthly feature of IN Food. Rick Bonino welcomes reader questions and comments about beer. Write to: On Tap, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098.