Fred Fest 2010: Hair of the Dog Showcases in hometown of Portland, OR

Fred Fest 2010

In celebration of world renowned brewer, Fred Eckhardt, Hair of the Dog will be hosting their 5th annual Fred Fest. Fred, known to many beer lovers as an American style barleywine is just one of many spectacular brews from Portland’s very own HOTD.

Below is a blurb from FredFestPDX’s blog regarding details about the event:

Attendees will be treated not only to a rare assortment of hand-selected beers, but also light fare cooked in beer and a birthday cake — complete with a round of “Happy Birthday” — just for Fred. Cheeses, chocolate, candy and even cereal will be offered in abundance so attendees can experience some of Fred’s famed beer-and-food pairings.

Cost for the event is $50 in advance ($60 at the door for the few remaining tickets, if any) and includes a souvenir glass, free ticket for a raffle of bottled specialty beers and four hours of sampling, sipping and story-telling with Fred. Tickets *are* limited and they are going fast (they’ve sold out every year to date), so order yours today before it’s too late!

So get ready, Monday, May 10, 2010 from 6:00PM until 10:00 PM at Hair of the Dog Brewing Co.’s digs. You will be in the company of some amazingly unique and well executed beers.  As always, 100% of the proceeds from FredFest and the related auctions will go to a charity of Fred’s choice. This year, Fred has named the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as the 2010 recipient of the fest.

A quick side note- use the directions to the brewery that are posted on their website. Your GPS will bring you to a place that does not serve beer and that is very upsetting.

Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. makes several beers that are worth your time and pleasure. You have your attainable beers such as Blue Dot, a smooth IPA, Ruth, your quintessential American Pale Ale, Adam, first brewed in Dortmunder, Germany and Fred, a barleywine. Now, on to those HOTD beers that make my eyes pop out of my skull when I see them in bottles and, the unthinkable, on tap.  Fred from the wood is aged to perfection, Doggie Claws, a heavy, flavorful, seasonal barleywine and B.O.B (my personal favorite and a rarity that is not bottled to my knowledge) a lambic style beer aged in wine barrels.

HOTD is a highly respected brewery. All of their beers are easy to drink, entice your taste buds and encourage a greater love of beer. These are the reasons why we LOVE this brewery.

Preparing For Bacchanal: Dear Barleywine, a beer time capsule

The Barleywine Bounty: 14 for 2014

We here at Beer Blotter have full hearts. Sure we do. We love that mushy stuff.

Over time we have accumulated a bevy of wonderful fans and colleagues in beer. We want to give each of them a chance to tell their wonderful stories and share their great love for the beer they wrap their hands around each evening.

In preparation of Beveridge Place Pub’s Barleywine Bacchanal, a couple of our most favored contributing friends wrote monologues to their beloved – barleywine.

The muse…..14 bottles of recently released Barleywine. The goal…..to lock them away in February 2010 – and open them in February 2014. After 4 years of aging, I just hope we are invited to the uncapping.

Lets see the list:

Anchor Brewing Old Foghorn

Sierra Nevade Bigfoot Ale

North Coast Old Stock Ale

Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws

Alaskan Barleywine Ale

Marin Brewing Old Dipsea

Lagunitas Old Gnarlywine

Stone Brewing Old Guardian

Green Flash Barleywine

Great Divide Old Ruffian

Deschutes Mirror Mirror

Midnight Sun Arctic Devil

Flying Dog Horn Dog

Victory Old Horizontal

Damn that looks good. So, lets lend an ear to our friends and see how inspired they were:

To be locked away in youth…

A Letter

Dear Barleywine,

I write you this day with hope that you find my words, within yourself merriment, and that these words touch you deeply with the purpose steeped upon them.  The seasons have changed, brought bitter airs and quelled growth – ever bare, and within myself spawned yearning for warmth.  An engulfing fever, submerged so to leave no piece of thy depth unwrapped.  Might we emblaze the year’s provisions? Not lest our souls, and heart be abandoned.  The steam of my exhale, the burn of my blood aches for infusion with your essence.  I thirst for the remedy that lies in you, O impassioned elixir.  Might we meet today and churn glowing red from this dead place?  Might our tangling force back the encroaching destitution?  This season I ask of your hand in melting this glacial encasing, and that together, each Winter passed, our allegiance advanced, tactics tempered, passion prospered.  Will we be merged now my sweet nectar, and age together with graceful longevity?

With all my allegiance,

Timperial

…brought to maturity in the cool, dark confines…

A Poem

To break a young stallion takes patience, and time

Strewn flora, trot leaves wake scented with herb and pine

A steady handler calms the wind’s stir, strives to bring sweetness forth

Within of the eye of our student, great tales of a deeper worth

A bond is born in one moment’s blind plunge, foreseen in dark tomb

By hand interwoven in mane, violence seized, froth of realized womb

Only to be reborn from this earth, maturation sees that glimmer sprout

Complexity developed within, to be shared and savored without doubt…

…a time capsule locked and buried...for warmth in the frostbitten air of Winter 2014.