Well the cherry harvest is upon us, which means one very important thing — time to tap the Devil’s Kriek! We brew our Belgian-style sour ale with cherries from Matt’s orchard once a year, then let it develop in tanks for a solid year before releasing it. As is also our new tradition, we debuted the Kriek at Belmont Station last night, along with a special reserve keg of ‘09 Devil’s Kriek. It’s flowing now at our Taproom in Hood River, and will be one of the many fine beers pouring at next week’s Portland International Beerfest, aka the PIB.

To celebrate the occasion, we’ve asked our esteemed Brewmaster Matt Swihart to delve deep into his process with some “Brewers Notes” for your reading pleasure. Here goes:

2010 DEVIL’S KRIEK
8.3% alcohol by vol, 15 bitterness units
brewed June-July 2009; released July 2010

“Brewer’s Notes” by Matt Swihart

This year’s release of the Devil’s Kriek, Double Mountain’s Cherry Sour Ale, marks the third year and third version of this Belgian-Kriek style beer. We view this beer as an ongoing experiment toward perfection. This new vintage features a lot more fruit, more exposure of the fruit to the beer, and a brown ale base, as opposed to the strong-blond Belgian beer base of the first two years. It’s a deeper, darker, more intensely cherried beast of a beer.

But first, a little history:

Our first batch of Devil’s Kriek was brewed back in July of 2007. We used some intense Bing cherries and some Morello sour cherries from my orchard in Odell, with the Devil’s Kitchen as our base beer (hence the name). It had an bright pink head capping a Barbera-red body, and showed intense sourness. We only brewed 3 bbls of this beer and held on to it tightly at the Taproom, releasing small quantities for Christmas time, our Anniversary Party, and for the ‘09 cherry harvest. I loved the beer, but wanted to be able to control the Brettanomyces (wild yeast) character, the sourness, and the intensity. I decided to experiment with different yeast pitching practices for the next year’s batch, to control the fermentation in a more repeatable way.

Last year’s Kriek (brewed in July ‘08) came in two different versions – a big batch (18bbl) with Bings and a 3 bbl batch with the lighter and more delicate Rainier cherries, which we called Rainier Kriek. The Bing version was held on the fruit for 9 months and was kept relatively cool throughout the entire process. Both the Rainier and Devil’s Kriek were a blend of three of four different fermentations, one with a blend of our house abbey and Kӧlsch yeast, one with “Brett”, and one with lactobacillus (later discarded). The Brett character showed up at about 8 months, the cherries were removed at that time as the pits were starting to throw a decent woody character that I did not want to develop further.

The resulting beer was more akin to a Pinot Noir, showing a light brett acidity and sour character and a very pretty red color with bright translucence. It was a subtle and complex beer, and very light on the palate by comparison to the previous batch. The Rainier version sat on the cherries longer, responded to cellar temperatures more quickly, and was held warmer for 10 months. It showed more acidity and dryness than the Bing version, as the brett was allowed more time to develop.

For the 2010 version, I wanted to return to more cherry intensity from the Bings, more color, and wanted the yeasts to work in concert. I decided to use a darker brown beer for the base of the beer, to double the quantity of cherries, and to use late harvest cherries, which had much more intensity the just-ripened 2008 crop that we used for the ‘09 Kriek.

2010 Devil’s Kriek

We have continued to use fresh cherries harvested from Double Mountain/Swihart Orchard in scenic Odell, just south of Hood River. As mentioned above, we doubled the amount of Bings for a whopping 1400 lbs of dark dessert cherries. It was an especially good cherry crop last year. Spring conditions were mild, with no early frost impact, and we had great weather for pollination with Hood River’s finest bees. As such, the trees set especially heavy, producing one of the best crops of cherries I have ever seen in my decade as a gentleman farmer.

Unfortunately, the market was flooded with cherries and the market for fresh crop crashed. This had a tremendous impact on the fruit bound for the Devil’s Kriek. Since the crop had no “home” for purchase, copious amounts of fruit — as much as 90% on some farms — were left on the trees unharvested. It would have cost more to pick the fruit than would have been returned in the depressed fruit market. The brewery took advantage of the unsold crop and let the fruit hang on the trees for an additional 10 days past optimum harvest. What this meant was the fruit produced more intense fruitiness, a richer and darker color and juice, and more sweetness in the finally harvested fruit. The beer picked up more tannin from the cherry skins, more color, and had more sugars available for the Brettanomyces wild yeast, to give the beer more tartness and the natural sour-beer character typical of the spontaneously fermented Lambic ales of the Lembeek region of Belgium.

Many of the Kriek style beers found in Belgium (”kriek” is the Flemish word for cherry) are started on a darker ale base, rather than the more typical paler worts used for Lambics. Rodenbach would probably be my favorite with cherries; Duchesse de Bourgogne, brewed without cherries, is one my desert-island beers. (Charlie is a big Liefmans fan.) In any event, the brown ale provides a nice sweetness and slight nuttiness to the beer, which complements the sweet cherry character and gives a little backbone to the woody/tannin character derived from the exposure of the beer to the cherry pits, which we do not remove from fermentation in our version of the beer. We achieve the brown ale color and character from dark roasted crystal malts and just a touch of the roasted barley.

This year’s beer continues the three yeast strain approach: we use our house Belgian ale variety, originally sourced from Rochefort brewery; our Kӧlsch strain; and the wild yeast Brettanomyces. The wild yeast is what gives the beer the tartness, the wine fruitiness, the slightly earthy character, and the barnyard funk.

The 2010 Devil’s Kriek was brewed in late June of 2009 and fermented alone for three weeks before racking to storage tanks with the macerated cherries. The fruit remained on the beer for the next 11 months and was allowed to cool down over winter naturally at cellar temperatures. The Brett character didn’t assert itself fully until the beer warmed up in late spring. I decided to keep the beer on the fruit until the absolutely last available moment prior to packaging, in the first week of July 2010.

We brewed next year’s batch of Devil’s Kriek on July 8th, 2010. It will be slightly less a brown beer, and will continue the three yeast strain approach of the past years. The cherry crop looks excellent up at the orchard and I am working with our farmer, Ron McNeil, to let the fruit for the brewery hang on the tree as long as possible to get the same intensity as the 2010 vintage. Hope you enjoy this year’s Kriek.

Cherrily yours,

Matt

Fourth of July Weekend is typically the true start of the summer season for us at our Taproom, and we’re celebrating in style with three killer nights of free live music. It all kicks off tonight (Friday 7/2) with THE ULTRONZ and their patented “Astro-Surf” awesomeness. Saturday brings us the great Loop Ninja, TONY SMILEY and his pal THE BIRD, who bring the rock just about as hard as a couple of poor boys can. Last but not least, we blow the place up Sunday with the triumphant return of the QUICK & EASY BOYS. Playin’ sets before and after the fireworks…YEAH BUD.

A quick reminder too that we’re now doing lunches seven days a week! We’ve also added a few new sandwiches to our bill of fare, including the Jersey Sub, the Jamon Torta, and the Pesto Chicken Torta. Tasty stuff. Our summer hours are 11:30am-11pm Monday-Thursday and 11:30am-Midnight Friday & Saturday. Keep it safe and fun this weekend y’all!

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.

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!

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.

Double Mountain co-founder and brewmaster extraordinaire Matt Swihart will be making a local appearance this Friday at our fave new beer haunt in the Valley, the Mount Hood Country Store. Owner Austin Taylor and family have done a great job of making the store a beer destination, with a cooler full of great beer choices and six taps in the back room. Matt will be pouring several DM beers and raffling off t-shirts — come on down and say hi.

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

It’s that time again — time to come on down to Double Mountain and help us celebrate three years of fantastic beers, tasty fare and good times with friends. We pay homage to our great family of fans every March with a big blowout party… It’s our way of saying thanks for supporting us all the year round.

This year’s gig promises to be bigger than ever, featuring

• a 40′x60′ heated tent right in front of the brewery;

• at least fourteen Double Mountain beers on tap, with some rarities from the “archive”;

• homestyle Mexican food specials, including some killer tamales made by Silvia’s mama;

• great bands all day and night. Here’s the lineup:

2:30pm PARIS SLIM (slide guitar blues guru)
4:30pm GARRETT BRENNAN and the GREAT SALT LICKS (acoustic roots supergroup)
7:00pm TONY SMILEY and the BIRD (our favorite loop ninja)
9:00pm CHRONICLE (conscious reggae, on the dance floor)

And as always, the entertainment is FREE!

For all you out-of-towners, our good friends at the Hood River Hotel are offering a special $89 rate in honor of our gig. Call (800) 386-1859 or visit them online at www.hoodriverhotel.com to book.

This year’s party will be kid-friendly until 8pm. If you have any questions, give us a buzz at 541-387-0042, or shoot us an email at info@doublemountainbrewery.com. Hope to see you on the 13th!

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.

Howdy folks, we have bunch of cool stuff happening in the next few weeks, as we anticipate snowstorms and first runs on Hood. Here’s the list as of now, reprinted from our Calendar page:

THURSDAY, NOV 5:
ALPENBREW RELEASE AT HENRY’S
Henry’s 12th Street Tavern, 10 NW 12th Ave, Portland
5:30pm start
Join us as we usher in the winter fun season with this year’s Portland premiere of Alpenbrew, a delicious brew we originally created for Mount Hood Meadows’ 40th anniversary. Somewhere between an english-style Pale and ESB, Alpenbrew features a nice nutty maltiness and earthy, spicy hops. We’ll be on hand to pour tastes, give out stuff and talk beer.

THURSDAY, NOV 12:
FA LA LA LA LA LA RELEASE AT VICTORY
Victory Bar, 3652 SE Division, Portland
5:30pm start
Yanni and the crew at Victory have been pining for a release party, so here we go. Fa La La La La is our winter ale offering, packed with enough rich malt and Centennial hops to fill Santa’s toy bag. Brewmaster Matt himself will be on hand to hang out and hold court. This one should be packed, so make it over early if you can.

THURSDAY, NOV 12:
DOUBLE MOUNTAIN NIGHT AT SUDS ‘N’ SUDS
Suds ‘n’ Suds, 1045 NW Kings Blvd., Covallis
6:30pm start
We’re not sure how a laundromat became the best place in Corvallis to drink craft beer, but it surely is… Joe and the crew will be tapping a murderer’s row of fine Double Mountain ales, including IRA, Hop Lava, Killer Green, Fa La La la La La, and Terrible Two, our bourbon-barrel-aged reserve brown ale. Charlie will be on hand to raffle off the schwag. Last year’s gig was awaesome, looking forward to even more awesomeness.

NEW DATE:
TUESDAY, NOV. 17:
BREWER’S DINNER AT LAURELHURST MARKET
Laurelhurst Market, 3155 E Burnside, Portland
Chef David Kreifels is putting together a blowout six-courses paired with Double Mountain beers. Laurelhurst is arguably the “it” spot of the moment, and we’re honored to be the focus of their first-ever beer dinner. We will publish the full menu once it’s been finalized, which should be any day now.