And the hits just keep on comin’… We are very proud to welcome “THE VAPORIZER” as a full-time brand, joining “Kölsch”, “India Red Ale” (aka “IRA”), and “Hop Lava” Northwest IPA on our year-round roster. We brewed “THE VAPORIZER” as a seasonal last summer, and it was so well-received that we’ve decided to promote it to the starting lineup.

“THE VAPORIZER” is a golden-hued Pale Ale that features a beautifully hoppy aroma and flavor. The malt is 100% Gambrinus Pilsner, our sweet and supple house malt from Gambrinus Malting in British Columbia. The hops are primarily of the Challenger variety, grown on a single farm in the Yakima Valley. Matt and his team dry-hop “THE VAPORIZER” to pump up the hoppy goodness. It’s an appetizingly dry, clean and pure-tasting take on a hoppy Pale Ale, if we do say so ourselves. And we do. 6.0% alcohol by volume, 50 bittering units.

We’ll be celebrating the widespread release of “THE VAPORIZER” with a Kick-off Party at Apex, the hot new beer bar recently opened by local craft beer impresario Jesse McCann. Come on down this Thursday June 10 from 5 to 9pm — the team will be hanging out and raffling off Vaporizer t-shirts and other goodies. Apex is located at 1216 SE Division in Portland.

To whet your whistle, here’s four DM gigs a’happenin’ in the next five days:

Thursday April 29:
BONNE IDÉE RELEASE PARTY at SARAVEZA
1004 N. Killingsworth, Portland
6-9pm
We’ll be previewing this beautiful new Saison in advance of Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers festival (see below). Chef Spence will be sharing some handmade boudin blanc from the kitchen. Get there early to sample an extra-special treat: a 30L keg of “Bonne Idee Avec Kriek”, which is the regular Bonne Idee blended 85/15 with Devil’s Kriek 2010, from the maturation tank.

Also on Thursday:
DOUBLE MOUNTAIN NIGHT at CLOCKTOWER ALES
311 Union St., The Dalles OR
6-8pm
Join us as we help break in The Dalles’ newest beer destination, Clocktower Ales. We’ll be sharing several beers, talking shop with the faithful, and raffling off some DM gear.

Saturday May 1:
PORTLAND’S CHEERS TO BELGIAN BEERS
Hopworks Brewery, 2944 SE Powell Blvd, Portland
Noon-9pm $5
Join us and our fellow Oregon brewers as we each pour special beers made with the same Farmhouse yeast strain. We will be offering Bonne Idée and Bonne Idée Avec Kriek.

Also on Saturday:
MAZOT FEST
Mount Hood Meadows Ski Area
10am-2pm
We’ll be celebrating the end of the season with a fun gig up at Meadows’ Mid-Mountain Lodge, otherwise known as The Mazot. Skiers and riders can compete in a timed gate race for cash prizes, while spectators enjoy DM brews and barbecue. 50 cents of each pint purchased will go to help support Mountain Rescue, so it’s for a good cause too.

Of course we’re honored and humbled. But the question lingers: does this mean we’ll need to start updating our wardrobes?

Kölsch
Alpenbrew
India Red Ale
Hop Lava
Black Irish Stout (on nitro)
Porter A-Go-Go
Imperial Chaos Imperial Stout
Nitro Pale (on nitro)
Empire Strikes Back All-English IPA
Devil’s Kriek
Terrible Two Bourbon-Barrel Aged Brown Ale
*Li’l Red Pils ‘09
*Jumpin’ Jack Flash Pub Cider
*Fa La La La La ‘09
*The Vaporizer ‘09 Dry-Hopped Pale Ale

*These last four are one-and-done, we’ll only be tapping one keg of each on Saturday.

Since we only have 13 taps at the Taproom, we’re going to have to rotate some things around. We’ll probably have all of the special stuff on from the getgo, so it will pay to come early. We’ll be opening at noon.

For those of you who are curious about the band schedule, here it is again:

2:30pm: We start with a bang: Paris Slim and his band will be kickin’ some killer West Coast blues.
4:30pm: Next up we detour down the country-folk highway with Garrett Brennan and the Great Salt Licks, featuring Lewi Longmire and Paul Brainard (on pedal steel!).
7:00pm: A hot set as always from the incredible one-man supergroup Tony Smiley, with a little help from his friend The Bird. If you’ve never see Tony lay it down, you’re in for a special treat.
9:00pm: We wrap it up with some crucial reggae from Chronicle, a Portland band that knows how to make a party.

As always, the tunes are 100% free. Come early, come often…

Our food offerings for the day will feature our regular fare plus some fresh down-home Mexican food too. Silvia (one of our wonderful servers) asked her mama to make some of her famous tamales and killer salsas. Kitchen jockeys Mark & Jonny Face will be knocking out some tasty tacos too, piled on fresh tortillas from Tortilleria De Leon in Gresham.

A quick reminder that the gig is kid-friendly until 8pm, per OLCC regs. Our big tent will be heated, but bring something warm & dry regardless.

For you last minute travelers, the Hood River Hotel has a few rooms left at their standard $99/night rate.

Hope you can make it!

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

Please join us at the Double this Saturday February 13 in celebration of “Zwickelmania”, the Oregon Brewers Guild’s statewide open house celebration. Co-owner Charlie will be leading free tours at 12, 1, 2 ,3 and 4pm, with tank tastings and a beer & cheese tasting. You even get a complimentary pint glass, all FREE.

And… while you’re in town, make sure you check out Full Sail’s Zwickelmania tour and Beer+Chocolate pairing, yum.

Not to be outdone, our friends at Nora’s Table in Hood River are presenting a Beer Lover’s Menu in honor of Zwickelmania. Four courses, five beers, $75 per couple. Here’s the menu:

-House made pickles, artisan cheeses, charcuterie and crocatini, paired with Double Mountain Kolsch

-Rockfish Tacos with Tamarind-Chipotle Aoli and Cotija Cheese, paired with Full Sail Session Lager

-Cashew Chicken Curry with Seasonal Vegetables and Housemade Grilled Naan, paired with Double Mountain Hop Lava

-Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Tart, paired with Double Mountain Porter A-Go-Go & Full Sail Top Sail Bourbon Porter

Call them at 541-387-4000 for more info.

There are Zwickelmania events statewide: go to www.oregonbeer.org to scope ‘em out.

“You can’t get through winter without a nicely balanced, subtle porter. London Porters historically were the darker ales brewed for the working man, usually less roasty than their stout cousins. Our Porter combines chocolate and crystal malts balanced in the Double Mountain style, with whole-leaf Challengers in the hop back, and our Belgian house yeast. Moderate strength, so you can have a few. Brewed with organic Pilsner malt, chocolate malt and dark crystal malts, Summit and Challenger hops. 5.0% ABV, 32 BU.”

The gig will run from 6-9pm, with $3 happy hour pints all night. Matt will be down in the basement, raffling off DM schwag and talking shop with the faithful. Should be a fun night. The EastBurn is located at 1800 East Burnside in Portland; check them out online at www.theeastburn.com for more info.

A blend of dark malts (brown, roast, Carafa and roasted barley) gives The Chaos an aggressive, complex roastiness in both aroma and flavor. Kyle added two varieties of candi sugar and mucho bittering hops (around 90 BU) to give it plenty of punch. It’s a badass beer.

Belmont Station is at 4500 SE Stark in Portland. Click here to check out their website and learn more about the fest.

Imperial Chaos will be going on tap soon at a few select bars around Portland, and will be pouring at our Taproom in Hood River for the next couple of months.

Here’s wishing you all a happy, healthy, and beery 2010!

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.