Chad’s First Portland Trail Blazers Game!

First off, if you haven’t been introduced to Chad who was originally known as 0101110, then you may want to read this post first:
http://eyeluvbeer.blogspot.com/2012/03/meet-0101110-our-new-friend.html
Thank you Fran Martini for recommending the name Chad. We love it! Fran is also known for her invention, The Serveza! Check it out!

So, back to the story…
We took Chad to his first Trail Blazers game Thursday night. He was super excited to see the sport we introduced to him via TV live at The Rose Garden. Chad knew going in that the Blazers have been struggling this season, but he told us he’d make sure the New Orleans Hornets went home with a loss, and indeed they did just that.

Chad had a great time watching the first half. He loved how the game started with loud music, lights and then proceeded to the introduction of the players. He got into the game too. Chad would swing his laser in the air when the Blazers made some great shots and blocks. I would say this extraterrestrial from planet Bräuzeer was on his way to becoming a true Portlander.

Chad thoroughly enjoying
the game

Interview: BrewCycle's Andrea Lins and Chuck Riegelman

STATS
Name: Andrea Lins
Hometown: Racine, Wisconsin
Website: http://brewcycleportland.com/
First Beer Consumed: Milwaukee's Best...embarassing I know.
Favorite Style of Beer: Porters
Preferred Watering Hole: Bridgeport Brewpub, I live really close which makes it too easy! They have great beer and an excellent late night menu!
Best Place for Pizza: Lucky Lab Beer Hall on NW Quimby.

STATS
Name: Chuck Riegelman
Hometown: Racine, Wisconsin
Website: http://brewcycleportland.com/
First Beer Consumed: Whatever my Dad had in the fridge, probably something cheap.
Favorite Style of Beer: IPAs, hands down.
Preferred Watering Hole: Bridgeport Brewpub. They have the most well-rounded IPA I’ve had since moving to Portland and the staff is great, too.
Best Place for Pizza: Lucky Lab.


I met the BrewCycle gang at the 2011 North American Organic Brewers Festival. I actually had the opportunity to help pedal the fifteen-person, 100% green, party machine from one section of the festival grounds to another. I think I must have snapped at least a dozen pictures of this thing. That’s what one does when they come across a marvel of engineering and design. I wanted to find out more about BrewCycle, the machine and the owner. Andrea and Chuck generously donated their time to answer a few questions.

When did you start BrewCycle?
We officially started July of 2011.

Who built the fifteen-person, 100% green, party machine?
It was built by Crawler Fabrications in Savannah, GA.

Have you added anything to the BrewCycle since you got it?
A BUNCH of signatures, we wanted to make the BrewCycle a little more personal. It’s been fun having riders come back for a second time and be able to point out their signature to the new riders they brought with them!

How often do you take the BrewCycle out?
Whenever we are booked! We run seven days a week starting as early as eleven am. As long as we have enough riders, we will be on the road!

Commuting, Work, The Fremont Bridge and Widmer Brothers Brewing

Commuting from Portland to Hillsboro everyday for work is a real drag, but there are a few things that make it tolerable. Here are (3) of them:

Work:
I enjoy the people I work with. Everyone is down to earth and easy to get along with. We all work well together and help each other out when needed.

Fremont Bridge (I405):
The Fremont Bridge has spectacular views. On a clear, sunny day it’s amazing to see the entire landscape that surrounds Portland. Of course, Mt. Hood catches the eye first, but the overall backdrop is just as beautiful. My favorite time is morning. The sunrise is sublime from the bridge. I wish I could stop and take a picture. On a day like yesterday, when a light dusting of snow covered the hills surrounding Portland, it’s just as pretty.

Widmer Brothers Brewing:
This kind of goes along with the Fremont Bridge as the bridge is what I’m on when I’m treated to the smell of beer being brewed below at Widmer. I love the aroma no matter what time of day it is. It’s an awesome smell and nothing compares. It stirs up memories of when The Henry Weinhard Brewery complex was in downtown Portland. I miss that place.

Henry Weinhard's Brewery, 1997 (photo by Brian Libby)

Just a cool pic I came across of  the Fremont Bridge under
construction.
(City of Portland Archives)

Interview: NoPo 'Beer' Run Club Founder, Dave Cornell

STATS

Name: Dave Cornell
Hometown: Austin, TX/Seattle, WA
Website: http://www.meetup.com/NoPo-Run-Club/
First Beer Consumed: Dos Equis Amber
Favorite Style of Beer: Stout/Porter
Preferred Watering Hole(s): When in Portland: BarBar, Bridgetown Beerhouse, or APEX and when in Austin: The Draught House Pub and Brewery
Best Place for Pizza: Sizzle Pie-Portland, Home Slice-Austin

This past summer I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Cornell at the North American Organic Brewers Festival. Dave is the founding member of the North Portland (or NoPo) Run Club; a ‘Meet Up’ group that puts in a good workout and then enjoys a few pints. I’ve had the pleasure of running with the club in its early stages and had a terrific time. Since then, the group has grown in size, are scheduling more runs and doing several other activities. Dave graciously offered up his time to answer a few questions.

What inspired you to start the NoPo Run Club?
When I was in flight school in Pensacola there was a local pub that had a run group where after a few runs you got a shirt and drank on the cheap, needless to say we thought that was pretty awesome. So after I left the Navy in ’06, I met up with a college buddy back in Austin and we started a similar club. We named it SoCo Run Club after the eclectic South Congress district of Austin that the bar was located in. Then, when I moved to Portland a couple years ago I immediately got to work looking for a bar, pub, or brewery to run out of. As soon as I found the Mississippi district I knew it was the place for the kind of club that doesn’t mind getting their hands (or in our case shoes) a little dirty on their way to a proper pint (or the occasional PBR). We ended choosing Mississippi Studios’ Bar Bar and have loved their outdoor patio, great craft beer, and A-mazing burgers ever since!

When was the first run and how did it go?
The first “official” run was back in May of last year. Funny enough, I was the only runner that day but truthfully, I had posted the “Meet-Up” just days prior so I honestly didn’t expect many, if anyone else, to join me.

Double Mountain’s 5th Anniversary Party

We left home base in Portland around 1pm. Our destination was Hood River for Double Mountain’s 5th Anniversary Party. The weather was actually shaping up nice. It was a little overcast at first, but the further we traveled east in the Columbia Gorge the more the sun was determined to reign the sky. By the time we arrived at the City Center exit for Hood River the sky was pretty much cloudless. It was going to be a great day.

In Hood River, we met up with our friend’s and Eyeluvbeer Senior Travel Correspondents, Mark and Brenda. We planned an overnight stay at the Hood River Hotel, which proved to be a wise choice as it turned out to be a long day of walking, standing and drinking delicious beer. Mark and I ended up heading directly over to Double Mountain to check out the scene and have a pint. The ladies opted to check out a few shops, but it wasn't long before they showed up to join us under the tent.

Meet 0101110, Our New Friend

Hi, I'm 0101110

Greetings Earthlings. I have been deployed from the planet Bräuzeer contained in the UDFj-39546284 Galaxy, which is approximately 13.2 billion light-years from Earth. We are fluent in 10,126 languages, including English. My planet Bräuzeer is interested in a liquid you create called beer. Where I'm from no such thing exists. We used our recently developed Hopdar Sensor Technology (HST) and have found the Pacific Northwest produces some of the best beer in the United States. After careful analysis we have chosen Oregon as our test site; Portland to be exact. Bräuzeer was amazed when they looked at their radar findings and saw 47+ breweries in the metropolitan area. Fascinated by this enormous number they have sent me, 0101110 to explore the love you humanoids have with beer. Oh, and don’t worry, we aren’t going to try to take over your planet like those Hollywood movies want you to believe.

Bräuzeer as seen from your crappy Hubble Space Telescope

Recap: Belmont Station's 15th Anniversary Celebration

On March 15^th, Portland had (2) reasons to celebrate. For one, it was my Birthday, but more importantly it was Belmont Station’s 15^th Year Anniversary. Belmont Station opened its doors in 1997. I don’t know the entire history behind the joint, but it was originally founded by the late, great Don Younger and Joy Campbell. I believe Joy is still involved with the Station, but I’m not entirely sure. I know Carl Signmaster, whose title is CBO (Chief Beer Officer) is entrenched with daily operations and I believe he's an owner. One day, I would love to sit down with Carl and hear how he became part of such a great place.

Belmont’s 15^th Anniversary celebration began at 3pm, but that darn work thing always gets in the way, so we didn’t end up getting there until around 7. Fortunately, there were still lots of great beer to be had. Ted Sobel of Brewers Union Local 180 brought his 4% Wotcha a La Citra Bitter and a special brew for the Station’s big day named 15-15-15, aka The Ides of Belmont Station. I had the 15-15-15; a cask conditioned beer. I’m not a huge Cask fan, but I had to try a beer that incorporates 15 malts and several hops. It turned out to be a winner. It had a nice dark, rich color similar to a stout and was definitely very malty. It went down the pipes easily. The other beer that I really favored from the evening was Barley Brown’s Tank Slapper. This Double IPA kicks Pliny’s ass. ‘Nough said. Shawn Kelso of 10 Barrel (former brewmaster for Barley Brown's) arranged for the Tank Slapper and Speed Wobble to be present on this special day. My cohort and fiancée favored the India Red Ale, Speed Wobble, which I read has never made it west of Baker City.

Ben Edmunds, Breakside's Brewer, Carl Signmaster, CBO of
Belmont Station and Shawn Kelso, 10 Barrel's Brewer

Belmont Station: 15th Anniversary Vintage Beer Sale & Party

An event not to missed tomorrow at Belmont Station!  This update just arrived in my inbox minutes ago:

We begin our 15th Anniversary celebration at 3PM tomorrow (Thursday March 15) with the tapping of 2 Firkins of Brewers Union beers and a fresh keg of Barley Brown's Speed Wobble India Red Ale. Also at 3PM we will sell a limited number of the following vintage beers, culled from our cold storage unit:

Alaskan Barleywine 2008 22oz
Deschutes Abyss 2007 22oz
Deschutes Abyss 2009 22oz
Deschutes Abyss 2010 22oz
Dogfish Head Bitches Brew 2010 750ml
Full Sail Black Gold 2009 22oz
Full Sail Top Sail 2010 & Imperial Porter 2011 2Pack 22 oz
Lompoc Bourbon Barrel LSD 2009 22oz
Oregon Trail Bourbon Porter #6 2011 22oz
Roots Epic Ale 2008 (signed & numbered #2 - #8!)
Russian River Consecration 2009 750ml
Stone Oaked Bastard 2006 12oz
Stone Oaked Bastard 2007 12oz
Stone Old Guardian 2007 22oz
Stone Vertical Epic 2007 22oz
Stone Vertical Epic 2009 22oz
Stone Vertical Epic 2010 22oz

Session #62: What Drives Beer Bloggers?

This is part of an ongoing series called The Session. The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. This month’s topic was chosen by one of Portland’s most notable craft beer promoters and bloggers, Angelo De leso. What follows is an attempt to give some insight as to what drives me to write my blog.

Eyeluvbeer’s blog roots are rather shallow. The first post was written in April, 2011. Before that, Eyeluvbeer, which began in the spring of 2010, was and still is a company that promotes our beer culture with “cleverly” designed stickers and t-shirts. The blog is an extension of that and was begun because I missed writing. At my day job, writing is limited to business like emails and blurbs that are technical in nature. The blog allows me to be creative. You may or may not be interested in reading everything or anything I write and that’s okay. It’s more of a personal outlet for me that brings inner satisfaction. I think my Fiancée thinks I’m crazy, but she’s very supportive. I could be doing worse things for sure.

The blog itself covers a wide variety of topics. I like writing about events I attend, new places I visit, people in the beer community and sometimes off the wall stuff. I don’t foresee any major changes in the future, except for maybe writing more posts per month, potentially getting into video and hoping someone out there might want to occasionally guest blog. Right now, my buddy Mark and his wife Brenda are my only contributors. The ultimate dream for the blog would be to have an editor (laugh). No matter how many times I look over something I always find mistakes. Fortunately those can be fixed after your post is live. Modern technology does have its advantages.

Cheers Fellow Bloggers,
Chris

Growler Fills at Gas Stations?

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I just read an article that Sunoco started a Craft Beer Exchange program which allows customers to fill growlers with craft beer at the same place they fill up their gas tanks. Currently, the program is only present in New York state with 40 of Sunoco’s APlus convenience stores equipped with beer filling stations. The company plans on expanding in to coastal South Carolina where 13 locations are slated to serve up growler fills. The typical Craft Beer Exchange offers as many as 12 rotating craft beers and the selections would change seasonally. I don’t think we’ll see this on the west coast just yet, as Sunoco operates most of its APlus convenience stores on the east coast. The fact that it could happen and most likely will at some point makes me feel indifferent. Part of me thinks it’s a really neat idea, but the other half thinks it’s bad. It makes me wonder if people will actually start going to the gas station to fill up their growlers and not patronize local breweries, pubs and bottle shops. I can see a larger corporation being very competitive with their growler fill prices and taking away business from the smaller guy. It also makes me wonder if this same concept could expand to say your local box store. I guess it all comes down to personal choices. We all have the right to choose where we shop, how we live, etc. Thoughts?

Typical Growler Filling Station
(Picture obtained from The Foaming Head)

SOURCES:
USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-03-04/cnbc-sunoco-beer/53323880/1
Craft Beer Exchange/Sunoco (Link Updated 9/25/2013):
http://www.gosunoco.com/aplus-food-and-beverages/craft-beer-exchange/