Double Mountain Brewery Blog

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…

Brewer’s Dinner at EaT Wed, July 29: The Menu

Hey everyone, here’s a copy of the menu and the vital info for our Brewer’s Dinner at EaT Oyster Bar next week:

Matt & I will be there to enjoy the festivities and do our standup routine. Give them a call and make a rezzie ASAP if you’re interested in coming.
Cheers, Charlie

1st Annual “Cookout”, Sat August 1

Time for a good old-fashioned street party, Double Mountain style. We will be closing the entire street in front of the brewery, erecting a big stage, wheeling in a bbq smoker and some grills, and cuttin’ loose. The menu will include hot dogs, hamburgers, salmon burgers, brats, and pulled pork barbecue. There will be live music all day, culminating with headliners The Quick & Easy Boys. Family friendly until 8pm, featuring a Kids Tent with games and activities. Admission is free. Don’t forget your sunscreen!

(Check back in the next week or so for the full music lineup with start times…)

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