Inn Beervana: Portland's Beer Guesthouse

Twitter may actually have a purpose in life. The other day I came across a tweet from Brian Yaeger, beer writer extraordinaire. Seriously, this guy has quite the writing track record according to his 'New School' bio. The man has a Master’s in Professional Writing with a thesis on beer, is the author of ‘Red, White, and Blue: An American Beer Odyssey’ and is actively working on a guidebook to Oregon breweries.

Okay, enough about Mr. Yaeger. Well, maybe not. Brian’s tweet, which was a re-tweet, turned me on to another facet of his life. He and his wife, Kimberley run a beer-themed B&B. A B&B (Bed & Beer) appropriately named ‘Inn Beervana’. Located in the Hawthorne District of Southeast Portland, the Inn is just minutes from downtown and within walking distance of the famed Horse Brass Pub and Belmont Station, as well as numerous tap houses, restaurants, food cart pods and parks. I haven’t been a guest at the Inn, nor do I know anyone that has, but judging from the details and excellent reviews I would not hesitate to recommend this place. On top of that, they have reasonable rates, allow dogs and donate a portion of each booking to Habitat for Humanity-Portland, All Hands Raised (Portland Schools Foundation), & the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation (creating scholarships for brewers from the PacNW). Oh, and when you check-in, a mixed six-pack of Oregon craft beer will be patiently waiting for you in the fridge. What’s not to love!

Fantastic hand painted hops on the wall
Photo. Credit: Lara Ferroni

Beer, The Food Scrap Compost Bin and Fruit Flies

Ever since we started using the food scraps compost bin provided by the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (www.portlandcomposts.com) I have noticed an ever increasing presence of fruit flies in our house. Prior, we had hardy an issue. Yes, occasionally one or two of these small, winged flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, would come out of the wood work and make an appearance when a bottle of wine was uncorked. Today, they're now permanent members of our household. I blame the food scrap bin for these additional free loading “fifteen hundred bass drum-lugging bug-eyed monkeys”*. We empty the bin into our green roll cart on a daily basis and wash it frequently, but that hasn’t made a dent. We now have official occupiers living in our house. They enjoy sipping on my beer too and that’s where I draw the line. Let the battle commence. Mayor Sam Adams, what would you do?

Our new, free loading tenants.
(Image: Wikipedia)

*PUSA - Back Porch

Super Bowl XLVI, Fun Beer Facts

Super Bowl 46 will be touching down this Sunday, February 5^th at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.  The Patriots and Giants will give us a good battle to watch, and certainly the commercials and half-time show will keep us glued to our boob tubes.  If you’re consuming beer on game day, you may not be aware that you're contributing to some notable statistics.  The cleverly designed poster by Save On Brew breaks it all down for us.