Double Mountain Brewery Blog

Here comes the Molten Lava!

We’re celebrating our recent facility expansion by brewing a couple batches of “MOLTEN LAVA” Imperial IPA, which has been on hiatus since ‘08. Molten is the bigger, meaner older brother of Hop Lava, brewed with mainly the same ingredients (pilsner malt / crystal malt / Cascade and Centennial hops, with Simcoe too) — but lots more of them. Big and yet somehow balanced, in the Double Mountain style. Substantially dry-hopped for superior aroma. 8% ABV, 90+ BU.

Please join us for a Release Party at Fire On the Mountain, 1706 E. Burnside, Portland on Thursday, May 13 from 5-9pm. We will be there to enjoy pints with friends and raffle off some DM gear, including limited-edition Molten Lava t-shirts. Music by “Equaleyes” starts at 7.

MOLTEN LAVA will also be our featured beer at the Sasquatch Brewfest in Eugene on May 15, and will be front-and-center at several Washington beer events on our schedule, including:
• Tues 5/18: DM Brewers Night at the Porterhouse Pub, West Seattle
• Wed 5/19: Oregon Brewers Night at the Naked City Taproom, Seattle
• Wed 5/19: DM Brewers Night at the Green Frog Acoustic Pub, Bellingham
Hope to see you at one of our gigs!

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Release Parties

“EMPIRE STRIKES BACK” All-English IPA Release Parties

Friday, March 5th
Brother John’s Public House
1227 NW Galveston Ave, Bend
5-9pm

We’ll be in attendance to talk shop and raffle off some schwag at both of these events.

Charlie talks about the Beer:

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is a concept beer that answers the question, “what happens when you make a big Northwest-style IPA with all-English malt and hops?” We are unabashedly local when it comes to raw materials here at Double Mountain, and rightly so, given their impeccable quality. But as a big fan of big British beers, I figured a Brit-inspired brew (on steroids) would make for a nice contrast to our regular line-up. And so I decided to use my self-allotted once-a-year recipe (last year’s was Das Boot, an altbier) to give it a go. Our brewer Kyle Larsen brought me up to speed on the current ins-and-outs of our brewing system and we knocked out the batch together.

Straight out of the gate, we knew this would be a malty affair, as the Maris Otter “pale” malt from Crisp Maltings appeared anything but pale. Maris Otter is floor-malted and turned by hand, which suggest some inherent variability. Our batch of 20 bags was a darkish khaki color with some mild scorch marks — not at all like our beloved house Pilsner malt grown in British Columbia. We added a bag of Crisp “Coloured Malt” to add richness and color. The malt yielded particularly well, giving us a nicely high starting gravity above what we’d been shooting for. (In our world, this is a good problem to have…)

As expected, the Fuggles and Kent Goldings hops we sourced via Hopunion were very muted by Yakima standards; the Fuggles were nicely spicy, the Goldings herbal. We packed the hopback with copious quantities, then saved a bunch for dry-hopping. After a two week fermentation with our house yeast, we rested the beer on 1+ lbs per barrel of Goldings for about two weeks. The final product came in at around 6% ABV and 65 BU.

The resulting beer is big and aromatically malty, very mouth-filling for its strength, with a decided lean towards sticky toffee flavors and aromas. The hopping almost devoid of the citrus character we associate with “hoppy” beers here in the Northwest, but they do provide a backbone of clean bitterness, and a tad of spicy/herbal hop aroma. The mid-palate hop flavors are pretty much overwhelmed, however, by the massive malt attack. Definitely a malt-lover’s IPA…I don’t think anyone would ever guess it had over three lbs per barrel of hops in it. But that’s how it goes in the world of one-off brewing.

So if you’re psyched to take a brief (and I do mean brief — we only made about 40 kegs’ worth) sojourn into the land of malty goodness, come find me at one of the gigs listed above. I’ll be waiting. Cheers, Charlie Devereux

DM is Down with the Puget Sound

Well, it’s happening, our little brand is growin’ up. Last week saw the maiden voyage of IRA, Hop Lava, Fa La La, etc., up to the Puget Sound market, delivered to six superbad (i.e., awesome) accounts. We’re basically dipping our little toe in the big sea that is our neighbor to the north, planting seeds (yes I’m mixing metaphors again) in the best places in advance of widespread distribution there.

So if you’re in the area, look for us (in alphabetical order) at:
Beveridge Place Pub (West Seattle)
Brouwer’s Cafe (Fremont)
Dray Tavern (Ballard)
Latona Pub (Green Lake)
Naked City Taphouse (Greenwood)
Red Hot Tavern (Tacoma)

To kick things off proper, we’ll be doing a Meet-The-Brewer gig at Naked City on Tuesday, December 15. Working out the details right now, but expect a bunch of beers to taste, schwag to raffle, and idle chitchat from Matt & Charlie.

Fa La La La La: Game On

A big thank you to Yoni Laos and the staff at Victory Bar for hosting our Portland premier of Fa La La La La, our big tasty winter ale. And a big apology to anyone who didn’t get there before the two kegs blew. But don’t fret, there’s more where that came from… here’s a list of the accounts in Portland who’ve received their kegs of the Fa today:

Amnesia Brewing
Atomic Pizza
Bye and Bye
Concordia Ale House
Horse Brass
Kenton Club
LaurelThirst Pub
Mash Tun
Moon and Sixpence
Russell St. BBQ
Wankers Corner

We’ll update this list next week. (Roughly 80 kegs earmarked for Portland this year…)

more about The Cookout

We’re gearing up for our big summer shindig this weekend, our First Annual “Cookout”. It’s basically a noon-to-night street party, replete with live music all day, good eats, a kid’s tent, many beers and fun for everyone. We’ve been granted permission to fence off the entire block in front of the brewery, erect a big stage and fire up the grills. The kid’s tent will have activities sponsored by Helping Hands Against Violence, a local nonprofit. The event will be family-friendly until 8pm, and we’re permitted to play music until 10pm. Admission is totally free.

The Bands:
1pm “Loveland” (Matt Mesa’s new roots rock band)
3pm “Candybones” (local grooving space rangers)
5pm “The Manimals” (funky hip-hop soul from Portland)
7pm The Quick & Easy Boys (our honky-tonk funk trailblazers)

The Menu:
Burgers & Dogs
Sausages
Salmon Burgers w/ wasabi aoli
Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches
Shave Ice
Sodas

The Beers:
Kolsch
IRA
Hop Lava
Pilsner
Little Red Pils
Oaked Idle Hands (scotch ale aged in oak barrels)
Devil’s Kriek
Rainier Kriek

Come on down, it should be a blast…

Matt talks about the Krieks

Today we unveil this year’s vintage of Devil’s Kriek, our Lambic-style beer made with Bing cherries grown on my orchard, Double Mountain Orchards, in the Hood River Valley near Odell. We’re also releasing a limited-edition sister brew called Rainier Kriek, which used Rainiers instead, also from my trees. Bings and Rainiers are both great dessert cherries, with Bings having a very deep red color and the Rainiers being a yellow/orange cherry, sweeter on the palate and more subtle in its richness compared to the Bings.

The base for our Krieks is a blend of three batches of a strong golden-colored beer, each fermented with a different yeast: our house ale yeast, which is of Belgian origin; our house Kölsch yeast; and the notorious wild yeast Brettanomyces. We’ve used Brettanomyces before, in the Red Devil, the IRB and in last year’s Devil’s Kriek. “Brett” contribues subtle fruitiness and barnyard character (think of smells in an old barn on a cold day) at low-level intensity and a horse blanket character (think of smells in a horse barn on a very hot day) at high intensity. Brett is also a component of many spontaneously-fermented French wines, as has legions of both fans and detractors in the winemaking world.

Devil’s Kriek was held on the cherries for 9 months, then transferred and stored cool at 34F for the remaining 3 months. The Rainier Kriek sat on cherries for the entire 12 month process at cellar temperatures ranging from 50F to 75F. The warmer ferment on the fruit allowed the Brett to assert itself more fully, driving the acidity lower and kicking out a stronger wild-yeast character. We brewed 20 barrels of Devil’s Kriek in a regular fermenter, along with 3 barrels of Rainier Kriek in a mobile mini-fermenter that was originally in service as a yeast propagation tank at Widmer.

I find the Devil’s Kriek to be more subtle and refined than the 2008 version. There was definitely more inky color and yeast character in the 2008; here in the 2009 release, the Bings threw less color but more cherry flavor. The beer comes across much more similar to a Pinot Noir than, say, a Bordeaux. — more elegant, without the big tart funky overtones of last year’s Kriek.

Meanwhile, the Ranier Kriek is plenty funky. Not as big as Cantillon perhaps, but the Rainier flavor really carries through, both in terms of the yellow/orange sunset hue and in the more subtle cherry notes. If the Bing version is more wine-like in approachability, the Rainier version is more typically assertive in the fashion of classic Belgian sours. As such, it’s not for everyone. But it’s OK if our beers aren’t for everyone.

At the brewery and at the Puckerfest at Belmont Station, we will serve the two versions of the beers with some just-picked cherries from the 2009 crop. It’s fun to taste the beers with their cherries and draw comparisons between the fresh fruit components and what they may have contributed to the final beer.

Please come by the Biercafe at the Station tonight or our Taproom in Hood River, have a glass and tell us what you think. This year’s Krieks will only be available at the Taproom and at some special events (like Puckerfest) throughout the year. The good news is that we should have Devil’s Kriek continuously on tap for the rest of 2009, and probably longer.

Our intent now and forever is to brew some form of Kriek annually at harvest time with cherries from my place, age the beer a full year, and serve the final result with the cherry crop that goes into the next year’s batch.

Cheers, Matt

July is a Big Month

You probably know by now that July is Oregon Craft Beer Month, replete with tastings, festivals and general merriment by the truckload. Here’s a peek at some of the fun we’ll be having:

Devil’s Kriek Release Party
Friday, July 10
6-9pm
Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark, Portland
It’s an honor for us to kick off Puckerfest at Belmont Station with the release of this year’s Devil’s Kriek, our Belgian-inspired ale brewed with cherries from Matt’s orchard in Odell. Matt will be on hand to give a short talk, and to share some cherries from this year’s harvest. We’ll also have a quarter-barrel of Rainier Kriek, a super-limited sister brew made with Rainiers instead of Bings. This is an event not to be missed. Check back later this week for a blog post from Matt with more detail on the brewing process, tasting notes and whatnot.

Double Mountain Night at the Bier Stein
Thursday, July 16
5-8pm
The Bier Stein, 345 E. 11th Ave., Eugene
Here’s a chance for those of you in Eugene to get a bigger taste of what we have to offer. Charlie will be there with four beers in tow: Pilsner (a Taproom-only beer this year), Little Red Pils (a hoppy lager made with 90% Vienna malt), IRA and Hop Lava. We’ll be raffling off some shirts and glasses, too.

Oregon Brewers Festival
Thurs-Sun, July 23-26
noon-close
Waterfront Park, Portland
Yes, we’re finally in the OBF… we’ll be pouring IRA this year. We’ll also be pouring a keg of something good at the Brewers Dinner on Wednesday night. Come on down to the mack daddy of all summer beer fests and have some fun. Check out more info at www.oregonbrewfest.com.
Beer Dinner at EaT
Wed, July 29
7-10pm
EaT Oyster Bar, 3808 N. Williams, Portland
Come join us for what is sure to be a fabulous five-course feast at EaT, the awesome New Orleans-style oyster bar that’s taken the Portland bivalve scene by storm since opening last November. We’ll have the menu together by the end of the week; to reserve your spot, call EaT at 503-281-1222 or better yet, drop in. [Click here to check out the Willamette Week's glowing review of EaT.]

Double Mountain First Annual “Cookout”
Sat, Aug 1
noon-10pm
4th Street, Hood River (right in front of the brewery)
OK, this one’s not in July, but hey… We’re closing the entire street, puttin’ up the stage, firing up the grills and cuttin’ loose. This will be a good old fashioned street party, replete with salmon burgers, brats, pulled pork barbecue, lots of liquid libations, and the party-time sounds of our friends The Quick & Easy Boys, along with a slew of other groups. Admission free; kids welcome until 8pm.

Check back here or at our Facebook page for more details as they come available.

Cheers,
Charlie

2nd Anniversary Party — Final Info

Here’s some final info in preparation for our upcoming 2nd Anniversary Party:

WHO/WHAT/WHERE/WHEN:
Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom
2nd Anniversary Street Party
8 Fourth Street (btwn Cascade & Columbia)
Hood River Oregon USA
Saturday March 14, 2009
Noon-11pm

BEER LIST:
1. Kölsch
2. Alpenbrew
3. IRA
4. Hop Lava
5. Standard Porter
6. Black Irish Stout
7. Das Boot (Dry-hopped Altbier)
8. Ardennes (Belgian-Style Strong Golden Ale)
9. IRB (India Red Blend, Barrel-Aged)
10. FaLaLaLaLa (’08 Reserve)
and…
11. the premiere of some bourbon-barrel brown ale, aged at the brewery since summer.

MUSIC SCHEDULE:
3:00pm: Chickweed
5:30pm: Jack Straw
8:00pm: Quick & Easy Boys

FOOD MENU:
-salmon burgers and other goodies outside on the grill
-our regular pizza/salads/sandwiches menu, too.

WEATHER FORECAST:
-Variable, could be a bit chilly and/or rainy. No worries — we’ll be setting up a 40′x40′ tent out front in the street, with a 10′x20′ tent which will connect it to the garage. We’ll have several propane heaters around… but make sure you bring a sweater just in case.

FAMILY FRIENDLY:
Yep, kids are welcome until 8pm.

ACCOMMODATIONS:
The Hood River Hotel, within walking distance of the brewery, has discounted rooms starting at $89/night, which includes a breakfast voucher. Call them at 800-386-1859 and mention the Anniversary Party when you reserve. Almost all booked up. Other good options include the Hood River Inn and the Vagabond Lodge. For the most comprehensive list of lodging options, check out the Mt Hood Meadows website: “MHM Get Here Stay Here — Lodging Info”

Hope you all can make it! -Charlie

“Das Boot” Release Party at Saraveza Fri Mar 6th 5-8pm

Come join the staffs of Double Mountain and Saraveza as we tap the first kegs of a new Double Mountain specialty brew, and enjoy some seriously comfortable German-themed food goodies. The fun starts at 5pm with some free mini Sauerbraten pasties – get them while they last. We’ll also be raffling off some Double Mountain shirts and glassware throughout the evening.

The idea for “Das Boot: The Beer” arose at our company Holiday Party this past December. We piled our whole staff into the Jupiter Hotel, where much debauchery ensued, including a little session of ‘Pass the Boot’, better known these days (thanks to the great movie “Beerfest”) as ‘Das Boot’. “Beerfest” is the heartwarming saga of two German-American brothers who recruit a team of world-class beer drinkers to defeat their snotty native-German half-cousins at Beerfest — a raucous, high-stakes, underground drinking competition that takes place every year in Munich during Oktoberfest. The final tie-breaking event of the competition is called ‘Das Boot’… basically a chug race featuring 3-liter boot-shaped glasses and chants of “Das Boot! Das Boot!”

Anyway, I thought ‘Das Boot’ would be a fun name for a beer, a German-style beer…especially since I’m a sucker for double-meanings. One of my favorite movies of all time is the eponymous “Das Boot” (”The Boat”, in German), an epic 1981 film about a WWII Nazi submarine and its fearless crew. If you’re over 40 and saw a few flicks in college, you probably know “Das Boot”, the sub; and if you’re under 40, odds are likely that you’ve memorized every last scene in “Beerfest” by now…so there you go. Either way it’s all good. Matt gave me the go-ahead to cobble a recipe together and showed me the ropes in the brewhouse (it’s been almost ten years since I’ve brewed commercially), and together we knocked it out.

The result is a dark ale broadly in the style of an altbier, which is to say a brownish German-style ale that’s cold-fermented more like a lager, adding roundness. It’s a tad ‘bigger’ in every respect than most traditional altbiers — but that’s just how we roll. Brewed with Pilsner, Munich and chocolate malts, Kölsch yeast, and a variety of German hops; dry-hopped with whole Hallertaus for extra aroma. 6.2% ABV, 50BU.

About the food: Chef Spencer Lack has been delivering some killer eats out of Saraveza’s little kitchen since day one. For those of you unfamiliar with the pasty (pronounced pass-tee), it’s a pastry hand-pie with a savory filling — sort of a big Anglo version of an empanada. Terrific pub food. Spence is working on a Sauerbraten (German-style marinated beef) pasty that should prove a hearty complement to Das Boot’s malty richness.

Saraveza Bottle Shop & Pasty Tavern is located at 1004 N Killingsworth in Portland. Check’em out online at www.saraveza.com, or call them at 503-206-4252 for more info.

FYI there will be no chugging or submarine races of any variety… at least not officially sanctioned. But the first person who can correctly explain to me the numerous cosmic connections between “Das Boot” and “Beerfest”, beyond the boot itself…well that person might just be getting some free DM schwag.

Hope to see you there -Charlie

Save the Date: 2nd Anniversary Party, Sat. March 14!

Mark your calendars — it’s time for another anniversary gig! We’ve decided to up the ante this year, with a big tent out in front of the brewery. As is our budding tradition, we’ll be packing the taps with as many beers as we can fit, and firing up some barbecue out front too.

And we’ll have some awesome bands, including Chickweed, the all-female bluegrass trio that’s rocked our Taproom many times; Jack Straw, the legendary acoustic rockers from the Portland scene, and headliners The Quick & Easy Boys, who are currently taking the Northwest (and our livers) by storm with their “face-melting Honkadelic” stylings.

We are gonna party like it’s 2009…and as always, NO COVER! It’s our way of saying thanks for all of your support throughout the year.

For those of you coming from out of town who’d like to spend the night, we’ve arranged for a special discount rate at the Hood River Hotel, within walking distance of the brewery, starting at $89/night, including breakfast. Sweet deal. Call them at 800-386-1859 and mention the Anniversary Party when you reserve.

With any luck we’ll see you there on the 14th; thanks again for supporting Double Mountain!