2012 Portland Beer Week Events

In addition to having more breweries than any other city in the world, Portland enjoys one of the most advanced beer cultures — and a thirst for fun and educational craft beer events. Portland Beer Week aims to celebrate and expand that culture, not just by promoting Portland brewers and breweries, but tap houses, restaurants, food, and underexplored beer styles. Craft beer culture is not just about the beer itself but about the people, food, camaraderie, and education that comes along with this art form.

Festivals are a key component to this week’s Portland Beer Week; the return of the popular Portland Fruit Beer Festival (June 9 & 10) — in its second year, newcomers like the Rye Beer Fest (June 8), and the return of one of Oregon’s most unique events, an Olympics-style Brewers Summer Games (June 16).

Much more than a series of festivals though, Portland Beer Week aims to educate as well as entertain with a series of beer-related seminars, exploring everything from how to taste and evaluate beer, to pairing food with beer, barrel-aging beer, sour beers and blending, and wild and farmhouse-style ales.

Here is a list of just some of the events planned for Portland Beer Week, with more to come. Watch the Events Calendar for updates:

Portland Beer Week Kickoff Party and Official Beer Release at Spirit of 77
Date: Thursday June 7th
Time: 6-10pm
Location: Spirit of 77, 500 Northeast Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, Portland, OR 97232
Location Website: www.spiritof77bar.com

Rye Beer Fest
Date: June 8th
Time: 4-10pm
Location: Spirit of 77, 500 Northeast Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, Portland, OR 97232
Location Website: www.spiritof77bar.com
Cost: No cover
Description: The Rye Beer Fest is a celebration of the revival of rye beers brought to you by Taplister.com, and held at the Spirit of 77. The fest will feature special one off rye beers from a variety of NW favorite breweries to staples like, Upright’s Six and Oakshire’s Line Dry to name a few. Plus Spirit of 77 will feature special Rye food pairings and even discounted Rye Whiskey pairings to complement the beers with profits to benefit charity.

Humble Brewing Release Party
Date: June 8, 2012
Time: 7pm
Location: Bridgetown Beerhouse
Location Website: http://facebook.com/bridgetownbeerhouse
Cost: No charge, other than the beer you buy.
Description: In celebration of PDX Beer Week, Portland’s smallest brewery will be releasing something special. Try the beer, meet the brewer, and maybe win some humble schwag at Bridgetown Beerhouse.*

Clone Comparison Tasting: A collaboration with Artisanal Imports, Powered by Yeast, LOLA and PUB
Date: June 8, 2012
Time: 7 PM to close
Location:Portland U Brew
Location Website: www.portlandubrewandpub.com or www.lolabeerpdx.com
Cost: TBD
Description: Teaming up with Artisanal Imports and Powered by Yeast, the Ladies of Lagers and Ales (LOLA) gathered at the Portland U Brew to brew three clone beers from these importing and brand management companies. Come do a side by side tasting of the real versions of Tilburg’s Dutch Brown Ale, Sunner Kolsch and Kawk as well as the clone versions.

Portland Fruit Beer Festival Homebrewers Dinner
Date: June 8th
Time: 5-9pm
Location: Burnside Brewing Co. 701 E. Burnside, Portland, OR 97214
Location Website: www.portlandfruitbeerfest.com
Cost: $50
Description: A special catered dinner in Burnside Brewing’s south brewery space centered around the best Homebrew Fruit Beer entries into this years festival competition. 4 homebrewers fruit beers will be served alongside select pro fruit beer entries and brewers will be present to discuss brewing with fruit and it’s unique challenges and benefits.

Portland Fruit Beer Festival
Date: June 9th and 10th
Time: 11am-9pm Saturday 11-6pm Sunday
Location: 7th E. Burnside/Burnside Brewing
Location Website: www.portlandfruitbeerfest.com
Cost: $20
Description: The Portland Fruit Beer Festival returns with twice the space and twice the beer as before. Over 25 breweries are making beer for this years festival that explores the unique, creative and exotic possibilities of fruit beers. This All-Ages festival also features some of the best food and music and a pre-fest Homebrewers Dinner and competition.

Kölsch Day
Date: June 9th
Time: 1-9PM
Location: Prost! 4237 N. Mississippi AVE Portland, OR 97217
Location Website: prostportland.com
Cost: TBA No Cover
Description:  Kölsch Day
We will be featuring Zunft & Reissdorf Kölsch Biers, served as in Cologne, in .2L glasses(Kölsch-Stange), and delivered in trays(Kölschkranz) to your table by our staff.
Sit in the in the sun on our Biergarten and enjoy refreshing Kölsch all day long!

Double Mountain Brewer’s Dinner
Date: June 10th
Location: Interurban, 4057 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97227
Location Website: www.interurbanpdx.com
Description: Coursed Food & Beer Pairing Dinner featuring Selected Double Mountain brews by Charlie Devereux and food from Chef John Gorham.

“Wake Up Your Senses” Seminar
Date:  Sunday, June 10th
Time: 1-3pm
Location: Bad Habit Room (next door to Saraveza)
Location Website: www.saraveza.com
Description: Before a beer goes to market, there is extensive testing and tasting that happens to ensure quality and consistency. Meet the people whose jobs it is to make sure your beer tastes the way it is supposed to (the best job in the world, right?) and go through the evaluation process the way the pros do it. Lead by tasting experts: Amanda Benson, Deschutes, Sensory Staff, Lauren Woods Salazar, New Belgium Brewing, Sensory Staff Specialist/Blender and Tonya Cornett gold medal winning Brewmaster at 10 Barrel Brewing.

Join these ladies as they wake up your senses to the many layers of flavor and smells that beer has to offer. Also, hear from Brewmaster Tonya Cornett about how a brewer approaches the making and tasting of a new beer.

New Belgium Sour Blending Symposium
Date: June 11th, 2012
Time: 2 Sessions: at 2pm and 6pm
Location: Saraveza’s Bad Habit Room
Location Website: www.saraveza.com
Cost: $45
Description: Beer blending is a sensory art that has been relied on for centuries to ensure palatable beverages.  Many of today’s specialty beers originated as test blends, or in fact are themselves blends of several, or many, different beers. In this Portland Beer Week seminar and workshop, guests will take a trip into New Belgium’s oak cellar, affectionately known as “Cache la Foudre”, where they will learn about NBB’s history as America’s leading producer of Belgian-style sour beers, from the brewers and blenders themselves. Eric Salazar &Lauren Woods Salazar, the curators of NBB’s sour beer program, will lead a slideshow & interactive discussion on the genesis of Wild Ales such as La Folie, Le Terroir, & Eric’s Ale “from grain to glass”, with a focus on the blender’s art & techniques.  This will be followed by a one-of-a-kind, hands-on blending workshop where guests will be led through the process of experimenting & creating their own blended beer to-taste, using samples of single-barrel unblended base beer from New Belgium’s oak cellar, each dispensed from a bar-top gravity-fed cask. Guests will document their blend ratios & will be able to go home with a growler full of their very own, custom blended Portland Beer Week beer.

Brewers Burger Brawl
Date: June 12th
Time: TBA
Location: The Hop & Vine
Location Website: www.thehopandvine.com
Cost: no cover
Description: One of the more popular events of last year the Brewers Burger Brawl returns to the Hop & Vine. 5 Oregon brewers go head to head with their own burger recipe and beer pairing. Last year Burnside Brewing’s Jason Mcadam came out on top and has picked 4 new challengers to the throne this year. Sliders of each brewers burger will be available this year.

Firestone Walker Dinner
Date: June 12th
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Wildwood Restaurant & Bar, 1221 NW 21st Avenue, Portland, OR 97209
Location Website:  www.wildwoodrestaurant.com
Cost: TBA
Description: Expect lots of special barrel-aged and seasonal beers.

Stone Brewing Brewmasters Dinner with Mitch Steele
Date: June 12th
Time:
Location: Interurban, 4057 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97227
Location Website: www.interurbanpdx.com
Cost: TBA
Description: Coursed Food & Beer Pairing Dinner featuring Selected Stone brews by Mitch Steele and food from Chef John Gorham.

UnIPA Day
Date: Tuesday 6/12/12
Time: All Day
Location: Participating brewpubs and craft beer establishments in Portland
Location Website: www.beerconnections.com
Cost:
Description: The Northwest is known for its hoppy IPA’s, but there are many of other great styles of beer to try. Dozens of establishments will discount non-IPA beers, so this is the day to appreciate the Stouts, Porters, Goses, Ambers, Reds, Belgians and everything else that is UnIPA.

Barrel-Aged Beer Seminar
Date: June 13th
Time: 6-9pm
Location: Widmer Brothers Banquet Room, 955 North Russell Street  Portland, OR 97227
Location Website: www.widmerbrothers.com
Cost: TBA
Description: Returning from last year a seminar on barrel-aged beers MC’d by Breakside Brewery Brewmaster Ben Edmunds and presented by the Widmer Brothers. A panel of brewing experts that includes Mitch Steele, Brewmaster at Stone Brewing, Matt Van Wyk from Oakshire Brewing, Ben Edmunds and Widmer’s Doug Rehberg who will present both blended and unblended versions of the breweries upcoming ‘Kill Devil’ a rum barrel-aged Imperial Brown Ale. Attendees will get to sample from multiple extremely rare barrel-aged beers from each brewer.

Portland Beer Week Beer & Food Pairing Seminar
Date:  Thursday, 6.14.12
Time:  6:30
Location:  Wildwood Restaurant & Bar
Location Website:  www.wildwoodrestaurant.com
Cost: $50 (gratuity included)
Description:  Four chefs including Aaron Barnett (St. Jack), Nathaniel Price (Grain & Gristle), John Gorham (Toro Bravo), and Paul Kasten (Wildwood) will pair up with brewers Alex Ganum (Upright), Ben Edmunds (Breakside), Charlie Devereux (Double Mountain), and Nick Arzner (Block 15) to present eight food/beer pairings and lead a discussion of the topic.  Contact Shelly Jones (shelly(at)wildwoodrestaurant.com 503.225.0130) for seats.

Middle A Middle L Trivia & Blind Taste Test
Date: Friday 6/15/12
Time: 7:00pm
Location: The Beer Mongers
Location Website: www.beerconnections.com
Description: Test your general and beer knowledge at Trivia Night. PRIZES for Trivia winners. Alameda, Amnesia, Laurelwood, Lompoc and Lucky Lab have some of the best neighborhood brewpubs around town. Identify their beers and be eligible for prizes.

Double Mountain & Spirit of 77’s Timbers BBQ
Date: June 17th
Time: 3-7pm
Location: Spirit of 77, 500 Northeast Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, Portland, OR 97232
(503) 232-9977
Location Website: www.spiritof77bar.com
Cost: Free
Description: Double Mountain takes over the taps for a special Timbers viewing party featuring a big BBQ and lots of prizes. whole animals pig lamb.

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