Gems From Local Breweries
Cask engines pouring proper, if sparklered, pints.
In a period not longer than a fortnight (probably), I plan to post the 2021 list of my Portland’s Best Breweries. After a year in which it expanded to 20 entries in a Covid-era celebration of excellence, this year it will be a more selective group. Thus am I touring the city for gems, expected and hidden. This gives some structure to the post-Covid bacchanal I had been planning for more than a year, but also means I have to take careful note of my findings. So without further delay, here are a few dandies I’ve discovered in the wild.
Assembly
Assembly Brewing was closed and not making beer most of Covid, and that means it’s been a long time between visits. I rectified the situation recently, and was pleased to see both changes and continuity. Co-founder and brewer George Johnson likes old-school brewpub beers. He seems to have a special fondness for dark ales, and they were standouts from the start. I was therefore pleased to see Assembly Stout (5.8%) was in excellent shape. A harmonious blend of dark roasted notes and caramel sweetness, it satisfied even on a hot summer day. More surprising was Kölsch, clear as a summer afternoon. It’s a wholly faithful example, but the toasty malts and bright, white-wine esters provided distinctive character. My sense is that George doesn’t love IPAs the way most do, and they remain workmanlike. But there are so many places to go if you want IPAs—Assembly is trying something different. As a bonus, while I can’t say anything about the authenticity of their Detroit-style pizza, it is nevertheless really tasty.
Little Beast
I have been drinking more Little Beast over the pandemic, but last week was my first return to the deep, relaxing shade of their beer garden (certainly in contention for Portland’s best al fresco drinking). Co-owner (along with Brenda Crow) Charles Porter has a special affinity for wild, barrel-aged beers. They’re among the best in the US, and he manages incredible balance and approachability in his various blends. He’s most famous for fruited wild ales, but he has been experimenting in hopped wild ales as well, and those have bridged over into an unexpected new vein of beer: IPAs. I was startled by Maiden West when I tried it a year ago—a bang-on piney West Coast hop bomb. But nothing prepared me for Fogmatic, a hazy. Made with Sultana and Citra, it is clean as a bell, without any of the fuzziness and chlorophyll of many over-hopped and overly complex examples out there. (It won an Oregon Beer Award last year as well.)
As much as I enjoyed it, though, I don’t go to Little Beast for IPAs. I go for unique beers like Hot Break and Bug Thief I can’t find anywhere else. Hot Break is a simple kettle sour (4.8%) that delivers on the promise these beers made years ago. The acidity is bright but very mellow, adding structure and crispness and making it perfectly thirst-quenching—but without the pucker. The Mandarina Bavaria hops harmonize with that acidity perfectly, giving it a long, tongue-swishing mid-palate fruitiness. You can have all the seltzers in the world—on a hot day give me Hot Break. (You see what they did there?)
Bug Thief is another wild-meets-hops affair. In this case it is a blend of strong saisons (7%) aged with Brettanomyces for nine months on oak before a saturating finish of Citra and Centennial dry-hopping. In less-adept hands, the beer would have been too spiky and dry from the wild yeasts (he used several strains). Instead, the yeast esters and citrus hop fruitiness soften the palate, making it gentle as a spring breeze.
Upright
Last but certainly not least, Upright, which has a brand-new sun-washed pub upstairs from the basement brewery to showcase its exceptional range of beers. This includes, oh joy!, not one by two cask engines. They represents the latest of founder Alex Ganum’s passions, along with his famous mixed fermentation, barrel-aged (and often fruited) ales, his farmhouse beers, a growing line of lagers to complement the flagship Engelberg Pilsner, and just to show off, a burgeoning line of IPAs. (Upright’s Money Avenue, a hazy, is the equal of any IPAs coming from breweries specializing in hops.)
But since I am trying to point you to specific beers, let’s consider one that went on cask over the weekend, an English summer ale. It is the kind of beer that must be served on cask. The malts have a summery honey sweetness, but they’re very light and delicate. The rough carbonation of a keg would scrub them of their character. Upright sprinkled enough floral hops to scent the beer and add a hint of bitterness. It opens up on cask and actually seems to gain strength as you drink. (Of course, it’s really the drinker who changes as their palate attunes to the beer’s wavelength.) I have no idea if Oregonians are ready to catch these wonderful cask ales Alex is pitching, but I hope so. Maybe with Away Days and Porter Brewing leading the current charge, these beers will finally find an audience.