Beer # 30: Mountain Brewing Imperial Porter

Brewery: Mountain Brewing Co. (Portland, Oregon) 

Style: American Imperial Porter

Who I drank it with: My beer buddies! 

Mood: Relieved yet still stressed

The Conversation Over Beer: Well this beer is actually my own home brewed creation that has been sitting in the bottle since October. I have been slowly aging it to see how it is improving; a bottle of this hasn’t been opened for months. I decided to have this beer last to celebrate the end of the 30 days of beer with some buddies after class. The conversation mostly just was over each of the beers I had over my journey this past month. It was a really good night. 

Grading the Beer: 

Im afraid to say I will not be grading this beer, since it is my own creation, I wouldn’t want to include any personal bias. But I must say, it is pretty darn tasty. 

Beer # 29: Ninkasi Spring Reign

Brewery: NInkasi Brewing (Eugene, Oregon)

Style: American Blonde Ale 

Who I drank it with: Some buddies over lunch

Mood: Neutral 

The Conversation Over Beer: Summer, summer, SUMMER!!! Summer is on its way and its time to start planning those camping trips. We all sit here sipping on some lighter spring beer hoping for good/warm weather. 

Grading the Beer: 

Appearance: Poured a light golden body with a huge foamy white head. 

Smell: Interesting mix of sweet honey malts, spice and a blend of piney and citrusy hops. 

Taste: Semi sweet upfront followed by hop bitterness. Getting some honey tasting malts paired with piney yet grapefruit tasting spicy hops in the finish. 

Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with lots of carbonation. 

Overall: B- 

Beer # 28: Hopworks 7 Grain Survival Stout

Brewery: Hopworks Urban Brewery (Portland, Oregon)

Style: American Stout

Who I drank it with: Good ol’ thesis project & the girlfriend 

Mood: Eh/overwhelmed. 

The Conversation Over Beer: As my girlfriend and I sit here, slaving away at our homework, we can both see the light at the end of the tunnel. She will be graduating this next week from grad school, and I will be finishing up my bachelors at the end of the summer. We mostly are just sitting here trying to make plans that involve starting our lives and not our next term. Exciting stuff! 

Grading the beer: 

Appearance: Pours pitch black and is accompanied by a dark mocha head. 

Smell: 7 grains equals a lot going on with this beer, tons of aromas! Getting chocolate, espresso, coffee beans, roasted dark malts, smoke, leather and burnt caramel. Mmmmmmm.

Taste: Roasted, semi bitter dark chocolate up front followed by a slew of coffee flavors and spices. Dark malts come midway with a slight hop character in the backend followed by more coffee and espresso.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with low carbonation.

Overall: B+  

Beer # 27: Harvester Experiment Ale

Brewery: Harvester Brewing (Portland, Oregon)

Style: Gluten Free American Amber/Red Ale

Who I drank it with: old college buddies take 2 + extreme amounts of homework.

Mood: Still doing great! 

The Conversation Over Beer: Still have some friends from my old college up enjoying the weekend. This beer was drank over some dinner while we relive old nights in the greek system down at Oregon State. (Sadly this beer was partially poured out because of how awful it was). 

Grading the beer: 

Appearance: Poured a very dark amber with a nice off white head. Pretty decent amount of lacing left on glass.

Smell: This beer kinda smells like earth, and when i say earth, I mean dirt. Lots of odd aromas coming out of this beer. A mixture of tabacco, chestnuts, leather and floral hops.

Taste: Oh boy is this pretty darn bad. Smells like dirt, taste like dirt. Getting a roasted malt backbone with earthy flavors and a slight floral hop character on the backend. 

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied and well carbonated. 

Overall: D 

Beer # 26: Lompoc C-Note

Brewery: New Old Lompoc Brewery (Portland, Oregon)

Style: Imperial IPA (India Pale Ale)

Who I drank it with: With my girl friends sorority sisters during movie night! 

Mood: Good! 

The Conversation Over Beer: Its great to see old friends again, and since we all have busy lives we all don’t get to see each other too often besides on facebook. This beer and many others were all shared during a movie and catching up. 

Grading the beer: 

Appearance: Super dark amber/copper with a big off white head. 

Smell: Big northwest piney hops with a nice caramel malt profile. Semi sweet on the back end. 

Taste: Again, pretty straight forward like the nose. Big piney hops up front with a semi-sweet caramel malt backbone. Very nice. 

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a dry finish. 

Overall: B+

Beer # 25: Pelican Dorymans Dark Ale

Brewery: Pelican Brewery (Pacific City, Oregon)

Style: American Brown Ale

Who I drank it with: My homework, yet again, and with the dog and girlfriend. 

Mood: eh

The Conversation Over Beer: Both of us are entrenched in home while watching some TV. Oh what a fun night, at least there is beer involved. 

Grading the beer: 

Appearance: Dark orange-ish brown in color with a off white head. 

Smell: Faint, but I am getting some semi-sweet dark malts, chocolate and molasses. 

Taste: Clean and crisp flavors of dark malts with a combination of bittering hops on the backend that help balance things out. Getting some dark fruit character as well. 

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a clean crisp finish. 

Overall: C+ 

Beer # 24: Three Creeks Five Pine Chocolate Porter

Brewery: Three Creeks Brewing (Sisters, Oregon) 

Style: American Porter 

Who I drank it with: With a couple of friends, pre concert beer! 

Mood: Excited//Pumped 

The Conversation Over Beer: Podcast, music, beer, women and then more beer. Went to see Red Fang and we decided to have some beers before hand at a local beer bar just down the road from the venue. Excellent night. 

Grading the Beer: 

Appearance: Pours a super dark brown, but not quite black with monstrous tan/mocha head. 

Smell: Its like a mixture of light hops, milk chocolate, roasted malts and coffee beans

Taste: Sweet almost bittering chocolate first comes to mind, but then is filled with hints to floral hops, coffee and also semi sweet malt. This is a super clean, straight forward ale.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with almost too much carbonation for one beer. Really dry finish that is actually some one nice. 

Overall: B

Beer # 23: Deschutes Red Chair

Brewery: Deschutes Brewing (Bend, Oregon)

Style: American Pale Ale 

Who I drank it with: Some buddies over lunch

Mood: Neutral 

The Conversation Over Beer: We are all actually contemplating how we are going to finish school projects without losing “it.” 

Grading the Beer: 

Appearance: Pours a clear copperish orange with a massive off white head. 

Smell: Tons of piney and citrus hops paired together with a semi-sweet malt profile. 

Taste: A nice one two punch of citrus hops and piney hops hit your tongue followed by that semi-sweet malt character that I had found in the nose. This is one very well balanced beer. 

Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with a good amount of carbonation.

Overall: B+

Beer # 22: Hopvalley Alpha Centauri Binary IPA

Brewery: Hopvalley Brewing (Springfield, Oregon) 

Style: Imperial IPA (India Pale Ale) 

Who I drank it with: Buddies at a beer tasting! 

Mood: Happy, excited

The Conversation Over Beer: Mostly just about beer, but that is what happens at a beer tasting :). Most of the conversation was all about the online beer world, previous beer releases and up coming releases. Nothing better than a bunch of grown ups acting like a bunch of kids playing with Pokemon cards. 

Grading the Beer: 

Appearance: Pours a hazy orange-ish brown with a medium sized off white head. 

Smell: Semi-sweet arrangement of citrusy (grapefruit) and fruity (pineapple + banana) hops paired with a caramel malt aromas. 

Taste: Again, the beer has a semi-sweet quality that makes it pretty darn tasty. Lots of citrus hops up front followed by a bitter piney hop character in the finish. Nice caramel backbone to give it balance. 

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied beer with a great deal amount of carbonation. Alcohol is nice and warming without a bite. 

Overall: B- 

Beer # 21: Heater Allen Coastal Lager

Brewery: Heater Allen Brewing (McMinnville, Oregon) 

Style: American Amber/Red Lager 

Who I drank it with: A wood fire

Mood: Tired, some what bored

The Conversation Over Beer: Continuing my “connecting beer with random places or objects,” a great beer can make a good time great, but in the opposite direction, a bad beer can make a bad time worse. While I am not currently having a bad time, Im in a tired bored mood and this beer in particular just put fuel on the fire. 

Grading the Beer: 

Appearance: Pours a dark golden amber color, fairly cloudy. Nice amount of white head.

Smell: Mostly dominated by a semi-sweet malt base with a slight fruity hop character. Lager yeast apparent. 

Taste: A weird combination of these fruity hops, lager yeast and a big malt base. Not my type of beer by any means. There is a weird off flavor to this beer that isn’t agreeing with me. 

Mouthfeel: Thin and slick. Weird. Good amount of carbonation though. 

Overall: D