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Although there are many noteworthy beer weeks across this great land, there are few that offer the variety, imagination, and bombastic flavors that are about to flow during many a wild night in Portland, Oregon during Portland Beer Week. The happenings are too many to cover righteously here, as trying to detail 10 days (June 6-16) of delicious delectations would be too much for this page to bear.
But here’s a taste: a Rye Beer Fest, an official beer brewed by Breakside Brewery and Gigantic Brewing, Washington and Colorado beer nights, a brewmasters dinner with Stone and New Belgium breweries, and a battle between authentic Belgian beers vs. Belgian-style beers brewed in America.
The emerald in the crown of Portland’s Beer Week is the Portland Fruit Beer Festival. It all goes down this Saturday and Sunday at Burnside Brewing, where you’ll find the masses reveling in the levity of fructose and hop fusions. The event, now in its third year, will feature more than 25 brewers serving 40-plus beers. While more Session styles will be featured this year, there will still be plenty of big flavors and varieties on hand, with nearly all the beers featured being small batch, one-time-only offerings.
Of the 21 taps, 4 will feature small batch beauties, including firkin cask offerings from Oakshire Brewing and Double Mountain Brewery, Burnside’s Lime Kolsch infused with coconut, and an oak barreled version of New Belgium’s Love, aged with nectarines and cherries (to be tapped at 10 am Saturday for VIP opening only). There will also be hard ciders on hand for those looking for gluten-free options, including Rhubarbarian, made with 2.5 tons of rhubarb per 100 barrels, brewed by 2 Towns Ciderhouse.
But it’s not just a booze fest. The Fruit Fest is a family-friendly event that will feature fresh fruit juices and sodas for the kids, plus food vendors providing barbecue and oven baked pizza, as well as beer-flavored ice cream. For the adults, there will be a passion fruit, pineapple, and mango brewed wit collaboration from Hopworks Urban Brewing/Automatic Brewing (San Diego); a barrel aged wit brewed with grapefruit, blood oranges, orange peel, and orange juice from Upright Brewing; and Burnside’s Ivil Kruschu Baltic Porter (8.7% ABV) aged in Asian rum barrels with blueberry puree, mission figs, and dates.
Luckily for me, I’ve tried them all and each offered something new for the palate to savor. So come get your fruit on and prepare yourself for PDX Beer Week. You won’t wanna miss the beer being served.
