Eugene City Brewery

844 Olive Street 

Eugene, Oregon

541.345.4155 
www.rouge.com 

I'm back in Eugene, my old stomping grounds, home of the mighty Oregon Ducks and delicious Willamette Valley beer.  When I lived in Eugene, I really enjoyed going to Eugene City Brewery.  It has great food, a relaxed atmosphere, and a wide variety of Rogue beers.  ECB is not technically owned by Rogue; it is a Rogue brewery.  That's where I was confused before, I thought that ECB was a brewery that had its own beers and was acquired by Rogue, this is not the case.  The name Eugene City Brewery is a historic name of a brewery that was established in 1866 and was open for 7 years.  The pub, now named Rogue Ales Public House, was the location of Eugene City Brewery in 1866 and housed a Henry Weinhard's distributor from 1890-1914.  This space, furthering its beer history, was revived as a brewery by West Brother's BBQ restaurant in 1996.  In 2004, Rogue Ales purchased the building, renovated the facilities, and restored the brewery's historic name: Eugene City Brewery was reborn.

So now we're here in 2011 and at Rogue's Public House: Eugene City Brewery.  While researching for this trip I asked the question "Does anybody care about Eugene City Brewery anymore?"  Even though I got little response through my social networks, the answer was overwhelming when I stepped into the pub: it was packed!  Trivia night + the eve of a Duck game brought hoards of people in.  This includes my own hoard of lovely Eugenians (and Portlanders) I miss so much: Shannon, William, Erik, Amy, Spencer, Brandy, and Joy.  Then Amy's roommate Adam popped by, followed by my parents, and Shannon's friends Jenny and Scott.  It seems more and more like people love it here!

What's not to love?  This place has a ton of beer to choose from.  Track Town Ales are the beers that are brewed in-house by Nate Sampson.  Nate loves to experiment, so if you're looking for something out of the ordinary definitely choose a Track Town seasonal.  The other beers are obviously Rogue ales; these ales are brewed on at Rogue's flagship brewery in Newport.  Lots of beers to choose from, all of them sounding delicious after a day of plane travel.  I went with the Wet Hop Ale; it had the earthy, fresh taste that makes the wet hop season something to look forward to.  Our waiter informed me that Rogue and Track Town both brewed wet hop ales with the same recipe but differing in type of hops used.  Rogue used cascade hops while Track Town used crystal hops.  In the end, I preferred the Rogue version; I'm a sucker for darker beers.

Astoria Brewing Company

The Wet Dog Cafe

144 11th Street

Astoria, Oregon

503.325.6975

www.facebook.com/wetdogcafe

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 Café 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. 

Happy Birthday Shannon!

 

Hope you had a delicious birthday beer!

Once More For Seattle

Tulips at Pike Place Market

Another post about Seattle!  I know.... but if you wanted a different point of view of the whirlwind trip to the Emerald City, check out my sister's blog Simply Shannon.  What a great pub crawl partner!

The Pike Brewing Company

1415 First Avenue

Seattle, WA 98122

206.622.6044

www.pikebrewing.com

The hustle and bustle of Pike Place Market was obvious with the arrival of the first run of Copper River Salmon (daytime work plug!).  Living in a small town, this is what I miss: the fresh food, the diverse selection, and the fishmongers yelling at you to pick their fish because well, it's the best!  In the heart of all this stimulation is Pike Brewing Company.  My parents, Shannon, and I just stumbled across it's cozy, tucked away location.  It's lower than street level; look for directions to head downstairs by glowing Pike Brew signs. 

Before my parents, Kim and Bill, headed back to Portland (everyone had come up from there to visit me) we followed the signs and ordered some beers.  I have had Pike Brewing Company beers before, they are very available in Oregon and have excellent labeling that draws the eye, but Pike on draft is far superior.  Especially Shannon's choice of the Naughty Nelly: if you ever get a chance to do a compare or contrast, do it!


I ordered the Kilt Lifter Scottish Red Ale which I found wonderfully malty without being to thick.  My dad got the Pike Dry Wit, a white ale which steered him away from his usual wheat ale.  My mom got the Pike Pale Ale, which calls itself an amber ale but seemed to lie between the two styles.  I found myself grabbing for her beer more than once which calls for an excellent review!

The moral of this story is, if you like Pike Brewing Company's bottles and labels, make the trip to Pike Place Market in Seattle for the pub effect.  The place has ambiance, brew history posted all over the walls, and a variety of beers on tap.  And afterward you can wander the nosy market hoping not to get smacked by a flying fish.

Stay tuned to hear about the other Seattle brews I sampled while in town.