Friday, September 30, 2011

Astoria Brewing Company

The Wet Dog Cafe
144 11th Street
Astoria, Oregon
503.325.6975

Land in Portland Sunday; depart for the Oregon Coast on Tuesday.  For many years now I have been intrigued by the mentions of Fort George Brewing Co. and have uttered the words “we should go on a brew trip to Astoria” many times.  All it took Jonah and I was a move to Alaska, then a quick one-week trip back to Portland to seize the opportunity.  Like many good brew trips, we needed more than one brewery to visit so I referenced The Beer Mapping Project and found that Astoria has TWO breweries.  We had found our first stop, the Wet Dog CafĂ© which houses the Astoria Brewing Company.


What an amazing view!  As I'm typing this up, I'm searching for a photo to prove these words but there are no great shots of the ocean.  How did that happen???  Oh well, I guess it’ll be a pleasant surprise when you visit yourself.  We watched container ships and gill-netters moving across the water and moved our chairs inch-by-inch to try to stay in the sunlight (it can get a little chilly on the Oregon Coast).  Most importantly, we sampled some great beer.  Jonah and I both got the taster tray that included 6oz samplers of 5 styles of beer.  I just loved their presentation of the samplers in the miniaturized beer steins. 


Here are some highlights…
Strawberry Blonde Ale – it was great!  I’m not much of a fruit beer connoisseur but Strawberry is a great fruit to pair with beer, brings a little tartness into the mix.

Old Red Beard Amber Ale – this was a favorite around the table.  Both William (my brother) and Shannon (my sister) indulged in a pint of this rich amber.

Lincoln Lager – William’s second pint and a true winner in its contest against the West Coast Lager from my sampler tray.  When a craft brewery takes the lager style to another level, celebrations should always occur.

My list of beers that we tried got lost in the shuffle traveling back home, on it was the correct name for the Imperial Stout that was on Jonah’s sampler tray (Imperial Bad Ass Stout?).  It was rich, yet easy to drink without any overwhelming additive flavors, by far one of the best beers on the menu. 


After all those samplers we needed to work some fullness off, so we went in search of the Astoria Column and fell in love with the historical town of Astoria on the way.  I could totally live here. 




Thursday, September 22, 2011

Photo Contest Entries

We are in the mist of the voting portion of the Facebook Photo Contest.
Vote on your favorites before Friday Sept 23 at 5pm AK time.
Check out the competitors...
 Nobad Days

 Karol Syzmula

 Andrew Deaett

Andrew Deaett

 Cathy Long

 Mariko Sasaki

 Micah Renfeldt

Leif Stavig

 Shannon Reed

 Molly Wolf

Molly Wolf

Kevin Synder

 Kate Cary

Shannon Reed

Friday, September 2, 2011

Photo Contest!


It is time for the first Let's Talk About Beer photo contest!
Here are the rules.

1. The contest is taking place on facebook, click here to "like" the page and post your photos.

2. Post your photos of your favorite beers, of you drinking your favorite beers, or/and of you at your favorite brewery.  You have from Sept 2nd to Sept 16th at 5pm (AK time) to submit your entries.

3. On Sept 16th at 5pm (AK time) I will make a photo album of all the entries.  Then you get to vote!

4.  From Sept 16th 5pm to Sept 23rd at 5pm (AK time) you can vote for your favorite photos.

5. The photo with the most "likes" wins a LTAB t-shirt!

Goodluck!

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