‘Procrastinating’ In Portland

Last month’s Oregon Brewer’s Festival in Portland provided a rare opportunity to sample some of the nation’s top beers on tap.

There was Goose Island India Pale Ale from Chicago, Anchor Liberty from San Francisco, Procrastinator Doppelbock from Falls Brewing in Post Falls …

Wait a minute — Post Falls?

“I have no idea how they came across our humble little establishment, but I was really happy they did,” says Kent Roberts, who owns Falls Brewing and Casey’s Pub along with his wife, Cheryl.

A handful of small breweries in Washington, Idaho and Montana were among the 72 invitees at this year’s festival, considered one of the best in the country. Falls Brewing was the only one from the Spokane/North Idaho area.

Procrastinator, a strong but smooth and drinkable dark lager, went over well with the 80,700 people who attended the three-day event, which also attracted several big-name brewers and beer writers.

“Being able to expose your beer to that many people and having the opportunity to meet some of the top people in the business - we couldn’t turn that down,” says Roberts, who figures he about broke even on the trip.

“We accomplished everything we set out to do, including getting invited back (for next year).”

In the meantime, another beer at the festival - Widmer’s Bourbon Bock - gave Roberts an idea for his next “brewer’s whim” limited-edition offering at Casey’s.

The Widmer beer, a test batch brewed specially for the festival, was aged in leftover bourbon barrels - a small but growing trend among brewers nationwide. The charred wood adds depth and an oaky character to bigger beers like bocks and stouts.

Roberts decided to give that a try with a keg of Procrastinator, with the results slated for release by the end of the month.

“I want to see what kind of reaction it gets,” he says. “You might get a good reaction in Portland or Seattle, but I’m not so sure about North Idaho.”

Then again, North Idaho is getting to be pretty sophisticated beer country. Just ask the people in Portland.

Regional roundup

Among the other regional participants in Portland was Helena’s Kessler Brewing, one of four Montana breweries represented, which poured its own tasty doppelbock. The beer used to be available in Spokane, before the brewery changed hands and regrouped a couple of years ago. If all goes well, we’ll see it here again in the near future.

From Idaho, Falls Brewing was joined by Sun Valley Brewing, which offered a mellow golden lager. There also were two Eastern Washington breweries, both from the Tri-Cities area: Cirque in Prosser and Ice Harbor in Pasco.

Cirque, which showcased its soft-bodied, hop-accented, pilsnerlike Triple Mash Ultra lager, recently lost its Spokane distributor, although you might see some old bottles kicking around on the shelves. Ice Harbor, which brought its bright, refreshing Kolsch-style golden ale, is still in the local market, with the Kolsch scheduled to debut in bottles soon.

Fred the Great

Along with the typical pilsners and pale ales, the Portland festival featured a number of beers that might best be described as novelties.

There was beer made with malts smoked over applewood, beer brewed with spruce tips, a Hawaiian wheat beer flavored with passion fruit and beers that used lemongrass, lavender and chamomile flowers instead of hops.

My personal favorite was a 10-hop, multiple-malt monster from Portland’s own Hair of the Dog Brewing: “Fred,” an 11.5-percent-alcohol, take-no-prisoners tribute to renowned Portland beer writer Fred Eckhardt.

While other Hair of the Dog beers are available in area specialty stores, Fred is too strong to be sold legally in Washington. The next time you’re in Portland, it’s worth picking up a few and tucking them away for special occasions.

Green beer

The festival lineup also included a couple of organic beers from Oregon breweries, made with certified organically grown barley and hops. Although they aren’t available around here, a new one from Northern California is, and it’s called Wolaver Pale Ale.

While the “organic” tag may seem like a gimmick, Wolaver is a well-made beer, golden amber with a soft, sweet malt body and a tangy hop finish. At around $1.50 per bottle, it’s toward the high end of the microbrew scale, but there are pricier ones on the shelves (and 10 percent of Wolaver’s profits go to support sustainable agriculture).

Look for it in specialty stores, with kegs expected to reach some of the area’s more adventurous taverns soon.

Hemp-seed touch

But perhaps the most distinctive - or, at least, daring - beer at the festival was Hempen Ale from Maryland’s Frederick Brewing, which was the first U.S. craft beer brewed with hemp seeds (although there have been a few imitators).

Frederick says the seeds give the brown ale “its creamy head and impart mellow herbal flavors and aromas.” The beer did seem to have some herbal character, but whether from hemp or hops, who could tell?

I figured that was the last hemp beer I’d find for a while, so I was surprised to see another one the following weekend right in our own back yard: Hempeweizen, a new summer specialty at Pend Oreille Brewing’s pub in Sandpoint. The seeds seemed to have a more pronounced presence in the lighter-bodied amber wheat beer, lending a nutty quality.

By the way, don’t expect to get anything more than a beer buzz from these brews. While hemp is a botanical relative of marijuana (not to mention hops), it contains only trace amounts of THC - marijuana’s active ingredient - and none shows up in the finished beer.