BREW-HA!

Our trip was a success. We attended one wedding, visited four breweries, and drank a lot of beer. The wedding brew was a success. In addition to the Black Butte Porter clone I had brewed for the to be wed couple, I brought an equal amount of IPA, as well as a few oatmeal stouts and brown ales. There was also some home-brewed cider that James' brother brought. It was the first home-cider and now I want to try it. The wedding was beautiful. It took place at the Leach Botanical Gardens in Portland. If you're in the area, I suggest you check it out because it is a beautiful place. The day after the wedding we began checking out the breweries in Portland. I had a few in mind but my dad handed me a pamphlet that listed all of the breweries in Oregon, highlighting all in Portland. There are 138 listed in Oregon with 48 residing in Portland. So there were a lot to choose from.

My wife is the sly raccoon , so I picked the first place based on that. It's called the Raccoon Lodge and Brewpub and their brewery is called Cascade brewing. In my opinion, this was the coolest brewery we were to visit on the trip. Maybe it was because we visited them at 11:00 in the morning or maybe it was the fact that they cask condition and had two sour beers on tap!

Also when the bartender saw our enthusiasm, he brought us a sample tray of all of their beers.

I had the Noyeaux, the sourer of the two sours, at 8.5 ABV it was a blend of Belgian blonds, and aged in white port barrels with raspberries and toasted pits of apricots. It was a very complex beer that kind of tasted like sour candy. Sandra had the Busta Brown, which was a 7.5%er and as dark and roasted as any good porter. Grandpa Frank had a No Doubt Stout, which was a very thick and delicious stout at 6.5%. Of the samples, the other one that stood out was

the Cascade Imperial IPA, which had 8.5% ABV and 72 IBUs and is hopped with columbus, centennial, and chinook: the three Cs strike again.

The next brew-pub we visited was the Laurelwood Pizza Company. Some of their beer is

all organic and all is very tasty. Here we got a taster wheel with 8 samples. I had the Workhorse

IPA, which had 7.5% ABV and 80 IBUs, it has three dry hop additions. Grandpa Frank had the Space Stout that has a lot of coffee flavor. It has the same stats as the Workhorse with 7.5%

and 80 IBUs. Laurelwood must like the coffee flavor in the dark beers because one of their seasonals was an Espresso Stout, which unfortunately we did not try. Aunt Denise joined the tasters this trip. She and Sandra both had the Free Range Red, one of their all organic beers. It had 5.9% and 60 IBUs, with a medium body that has caramel sweetness. At this point we needed some food to keep us going, so we ordered a few pizzas. The crust at Laurelwood is

made with the leftover grain from their Tree Hugger Porter and instead of using sugar

they use malt syrup. It was pretty tasty.

The final stop in Portland we were to make was at the BridgePort Brewing Company, one of

Portland's oldest breweries and who you might know from beers, such as BridgePort IPA, Ropewalk, and Blue Heron. Here we only had the sampler tray. Of the samples I liked their ESB

the best, maybe because I've never had it.

On our trip to Moscow, we made a return to the first craft brewery I grew to love, the

Coeur d'Alene Brewing Company's Alehouse. I was sad to see that they were out of their

Scottish, but not too sad to drink a Pullman Porter and Rockford Bay IPA. Sandra got the

Vanilla Bourbon Stout and the Rockford Bay IPA and we took home a growler of the IPA.

All in all a pretty good trip.