Beervana

We've been busy this summer sampling a myriad beer festivals. Over the past year we have sampled nearly 100 different craft beers. Portland truly embodies Beervana - the enlightenment of all things beer. Portland has great water (fed by snow melt), access to fresh and local hops, more breweries than any other city in the world, open consumers, and a desire to share their creations.

At the end of June, we got to sample organic beer at the North American Organic Brewers Festival. The picture shows some organic beer in a compostable corn cup and one of the beer tokens - made of recycled plastic of course! The highlight for us was a strawberry brew by Samuel Smiths. It was similar to soda-pop, but with an alcohol content.

Last year I went to the Portland International Beerfest (link). I didn't hate it, so in mid-July the whole crew went to the Park Blocks. Our favorite from this festival, which is available in the U.S., is the Spaten Premium Lager.

On the last full weekend of July, we went to the Oregon Brewers Festival. It was just as big and just as awesome as last year. We found a good number of beers we liked. Unfortunately, not all are available stores. One of the best was by Full Sail, the LTD03 (available in 22 states). Another star was the Chuck-A-Nut Lager (we have yet to find it in the wild).