I had the opportunity to try the Full Sail Brewing Slipknot Imperial IPA.  It was a very nice amber with a powerful hop aroma.  It had a strong citrus aroma that was very pleasant.  The bitterness was a little too much for me.  According to the website, this one clocks in at 80 IBUs and [...]

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Sarah (my wife) was kind enough to pick up bottles of The Abyss from Deschutes last night.  This beer won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival and was called the best stout in the world by Men’s Journal.  It was released in mid-January and pretty much every store in the Portland area [...]

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I had the opportunity to head out tonight for a couple of beers with some coworkers. We met at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Hillsboro. I started out with their seasonal, Sleepy Hollow Nut Brown Ale. I’ve had it before, but it’s been a couple of years. I enjoyed it in [...]

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Last night we had a marvelous dinner at the Red Star Tavern in downtown Portland.  We both had the Chef’s 3 course taster menu.  Each course was paired with a beer by the chef.
1st Course
Organic Butter Lettuce, Baked Fig Vinaigrette, Toasted Almonds, Powdered Goat Cheese
Beer: Roots Organic Brewing Saison
2nd Course
Wood Grilled Kobe Beef, Marinated Treviso, [...]

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I had another great holiday ale tonight - Wreck the Halls from Full Sail Brewing in Hood River.  Wreck the Halls is a very hoppy IPA, but not as in your face as some IPAs.  Great beer!

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My favorite holiday ale so far, and this is by no means an exhaustive search, is Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale.  It is delightfully hoppy and altogether very tasty.  Even better, from my perspective, is that my wife considers it too hoppy and so I don’t have to share it!
I have also enjoyed Deschutes Brewing’s Jubelale [...]

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I had the chance to go down to the 2007 Holiday Ale Festival in Portland this last weekend.  The beers were great, but the experience left a little to be desired.  We got downtown at about 6 on Friday night and the line to get in was long…  Once we got in the place was [...]

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I had the opportunity to attend the 2007 Oregon Bounty Fresh Hop Beer Tastival in Troutdale, OR last weekend.  It was my first time attending.  It was a lot of fun and a very interesting experience.  It was sponsored by Oregon Bounty, the Oregon Brewers Guild, the Oregon Hop Growers Association, and McMenamins.  We sampled [...]

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