Today in Portland: New Old Lompoc Throws a Holiday Beer Release Party

Lompoc is seriously underrated.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or choose to not partake in religious festivities- you can still drink damn good beer. This holiday season, New Old Lompoc is releasing 8 beers.

The Lompoc brewers have been as busy as elves preparing for the holiday season. This year, they are releasing eight different holiday beers – including two for Hanukkah. Come join Jerry, Dave, Bryan, Zach & Sam at the Lompoc Holiday Beers Release Party today – Tuesday, Nov. 30th – from 4 to 10 pm at the Lompoc Sidebar, located at 3901 N Williams Ave. next to Pix Patisserie.

This year’s offerings include Blitzen Golden Ale, Brewdolph Belgian Style Red, C-Son’s Greetings Imperial IPA , Holiday Cheer Porter, Jolly Bock German Style Bock, Old Tavern Rat Barley Wine, 8 Malty Nights Chocolate Rye, and Bourbon Barrel Aged 8 Malty Nights.

All beers will be on tap at all five Lompoc pubs (New Old Lompoc, Hedge House, Oaks Bottom, Fifth Quadrant and Sidebar) November 30. Two of the beers, C’son’s Greetings and Bourbon Barrel Aged 8 Malty Nights will also be available in 22 ounce bottles – great stocking stuffers!

Also, Lompoc will be pouring a special brew at the Holiday Ale Festival in Portland this Wednesday through Sunday.  If you go, try the Franc’ly Brewdolph, a Belgian style red ale brewed with the Belgian Ardennes yeast strain in October ’09 and aged in Cabernet Franc barrels for 13 months. It was then blended in a tank with the this year’s Brewdolph.  It has a malty and creamy body, a mild fruitiness, and a spicy, oak flavor.

What better gift than the gift of beer? None. Below is the list of beers being released:

Blitzen is a holiday golden ale brewed with figs, cinnamon and nutmeg.  It’s light bodied with fruity and spicy flavors and an aroma reminiscent of bread pudding (4.9% ABV).  Brewdolph Belgian style red ale features a malty and creamy body. Brewed with the Belgian Ardennes yeast strain, it boasts a mild fruitiness and a spicy clove character (7.7% ABV).

C-Son’s Greetings is the big brother to the brewery’s popular C-Note.   It features a rich caramel malty body with an endless developing hop presence from all seven of the “C” hops – Crystal, Cluster, Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Columbus and Challenger (8% ABV).  Holiday Cheer is a robust vanilla porter that combines big chocolate flavor and a full body with mellow vanilla notes, compliments of whole vanilla beans in the conditioning tank (6.8% ABV).

Jolly Bock is a lager brewed with a generous amount of Munich malt to develop the deep amber color and rich malt flavor. The malty flavor is balanced with a spicy hop bitterness (7.3% ABV).  Old Tavern Rat is a dark amber colored barleywine that was aged for almost a year prior to its release.  The beer’s strong bitterness is balanced with the sweetness of caramel and toffee flavors (9.4% ABV).

Portland’s first Hanukkah seasonal, 8 Malty Nights is a Chocolate Rye that features a roasted chocolate flavor and a sweet finish. It is dark brown in color and lightly hopped with English style hops (6.5% ABV).  Bourbon Barrel Aged 8 Malty Nights was brewed for Hannukah 2009 and aged in bourbon barrels for nine months.  It features a roasted chocolate flavor with hints of bourbon and oak (6.5% ABV).

We’ll also be pouring a special brew at the Holiday Ale Festival this Wednesday through Sunday.  If you go, try our Franc’ly Brewdolph, a Belgian style red ale brewed with the Belgian Ardennes yeast strain in October ’09 and aged in Cabernet Franc barrels for 13 months.  It was then blended in a tank with the this year’s Brewdolph.  It has a malty and creamy body, a mild fruitiness, and a spicy, oak flavor.

Portland on the Horizon: Apex, Saraveza, County Cork – Oh My!

Saraveza's Imperial IPA festival is on tap for this weekend

You might have seen our editor’s “24 Hour Guide” to drinking in Portland. Its pretty incredible, so please check it out.

But we are at the dawn of a new trip to the PDX playground of beer. After visiting the city several times over the past few years, we are running out of new places to visit.

Now hold up quick before you start the attack: we know that you could visit a Horse Brass, Concordia Ale House, Belmont Station, Green Dragon, Deschutes, and Henry’s Tavern about 1000 times. I could stand another trip to Hopworks Urban Pub (HUB), The Beermongers, or New Old Lompoc’s barrel room – Sidebar. Seriously, we know.

But I thrive on new experiences and I am going to be in one of the best beer cities in the U S of A. So what are a few other places we might explore?

 

Saraveza – Imperial IPA Fest

 

Ok ok ok – this one is not new at all. I’m somewhat ashamed that I have been to Portland at least a half-dozen times without even a “pop in” to this Northeast Portland spectacle. Saraveza is one of the more celebrated Portland beer pubs and deserves better than a “Trip #7″ scheduling.

But, as it turns out, we might be right on time. This week Saraveza is holding Imperial IPA Fest. The festival began yesterday (July 14) and runs through Sunday, July 18. It features over 30 different imperial IPAs, including offerings from Oregon brewers Laurelwood, Deschutes, Beer Valley, Oakshire, Alameda, Ninkasi, Lucky Lab, Double Mountain and even Gilgamesh (making a debut). Thursday showcases Pike Brewing and our boys from Everett, WA – Lazy Boy Brewing.

We’ll be there on Friday, tasting favorites from Hopworks!

 

County Cork

 

Another classic Portland beer bar that has escaped us – County Cork. The Cork is a classic English-style pub with a rumored connection with Columbia Distributing. Because of the connection, they appear to have Russian River beers on tap the majority of the time. A pint of Pliny or a pint of Blind Pig are generally in the cards.

On top of those beers, the Cork has an excellent menu. I’m fairly excited to try their scotch egg, hoping it exceeds the fried and battered monstrosity over at Horse Brass.

We’ll be by there tonight.

 

The Mother Load – Apex – A Beer Bar

 

Last, but certainly not least, is Apex. Apex is an attempt at creating the perfect beer bar experience for the NW. Tons of taps, incredibly rare beers, outdoor hanging space, and bike-centric, Apex meets the needs of the new world beer bar.

What built our immense excitement for this place? Its real-time tap list, which currently shows me that I should be there drinking their beer – right now! Hair of the Dog Blue Dot, Alameda Yellow Wolf 2x IPA, Double Mountain Vaporizer, New Belgium/Elysian Trip III (this still exists!!!) & Orgone Peppercorn IPA (what!?). Its pretty damn impressive.

A great description of Apex and its aura was posted at the Beer Cave recently. We also received a glowing endorsement from Seattle Beer Week & Brouwer’s Cafe‘s Ian Roberts, one of our most respected beer sages. Its safe to say that we will be visiting Apex this weekend. Expect a 52 Weeks writeup on this grog spot soon!

Anything else new? Please let us know at beerblotter@gmail.com

 

In Portland this Weekend? Check Out a Rare Old Lompoc Release

Oh yes the Sidebar - home to Lompoc's best beer.

In the past, I had a very strange almost uninterested attitude about the New Old Lompoc Brewery down in Portland, Oregon. To me, the brewery was a random neighborhood novelty that made a pretty impressive hoppy ale (Lompoc’s C-Note Imperial Pale Ale).

I was wrong. I know that now. I am sorry to you Lompoc, you deserve better than that.

Last year, I took a trip down to Portland to check out some of the places that I had left off of past tours. One of those places was Sidebar, one of the five locations that Lompoc maintains.

Sidebar is at their brewery. Its essentially the Williams St. entrance to the brewery, a small, relatively hidden portal to beer barrel heaven.

Upon entering you smell malt and bourbon. The back wall is lined with bourbon and wine barrels used by the brewery for their limited line of barrel-aged ales.

When we were there Sidebar was pouring its Oak-Aged Doppelbock and its Black Dawn Imperial (SUPER) Coffee Stout. Both of these beers were shockingly amazing. The Doppelbock is still to this date, my favorite Doppelbock on earth.

So, I received notice today that they are going at it again. Lompoc will release Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Side Porter and its Spring Bock this Friday, over at Sidebar.

From their release:

The Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Side Porter was originally brewed July 7, 2009. Aged in bourbon barrels for eight months, then cellared for an additional two, it features a strong vanilla aroma with hints of oak and chocolate flavors, 7.5% ABV.

Our Spring Bock is an amber colored strong lager with a smooth malty flavor profile and a sweet finish, 8.1% ABV.

Sounds good eh? Wait there’s more. They are also pouring a few other interesting ales:

We’ll also be pouring Flamingo – our Condor Pale Ale fermented with 35 lbs of sour cherries in a wine barrel and aged for three months, 2008 SaazAll Pilsner, Bob’s Memorial Braggot and Centennial IPA. And, as with all of our release parties, there will be delicious Lompoc grub to nosh on – hope to see you there!

Go if you can, let us know how the beer tastes!