A very friendly Oregon-based forum member will come over to Belgium in a couple of weeks and we will trade beers. Any West Coast beers you can recommend that he would have access to that you think I should try? Fresh IPA’s for sure, maybe one or two sour beers (no Russian River, that’s already covered), stouts, basically anything I guess. As long as it’s friggin’ awesome.
Logsdon Farm - Cerasus or Brett Peche
The Commons - Mertyl
Hahaha, they both use these silly Flemish names for their beers.
Not sure where they get the names. But tasty beers. Logsdon’s wife is Belgian so that probably plays into it. I think, or thought, Mertyl was named after a tree on the Oregon coast.
If you’re interested in sours, Crooked Stave and Trinity are available.
I had a Crooked Stave Petite with Passion Fruit recently. Awesome!
Sours:
The three base sour beers fro DeGarde are easily available across OR and worth the journey. I wish I could tell you to send your friend hunting for Ale Apothecary but the guy uses these cork and twine enclosures on his bottles that tend to leak in travel. Crooked Stave beers are excellent and if available then worth it. Cascade is solid, especially if you like fruited sours but I would take Logsdon’s Cerasus over Cascade’s cherry offering.
Malty:
Deschutes Black Butte whatever number they are on (28?) was just released and is an interesting take on the imperial stout/porter style.
If you really enjoy the taste of peat malt then you should ask for a bottle of Hair of the Dog Adam. Not sure how easy it is to find bottles outside of the brewery.
Not sure if the Firestone Walker barrel aged malt bombs sit on the shelf where shopping will be done but those are all good choices.
Saisons:
The Commons puts out a range of saisons and other Belgian styles that are solid. Maybe not worth bringing out since you have closer access to Fantome, Blauges, etc. Same goes for Logsdon.
Hoppy:
I’d just trust your friend to know what is locally available and fresh for him. If he can get you Pliny that’s cool. If he’s willing to take a growler and he can get it then you should beg for Boneyard’s Triple IPA which I think is better than Pliny (I’m just not a simcoe fan) but doesn’t get bottled.
I guess you mean myrtle?
Deschutes Green Monster, Double Mountain has a good hoppy one (hoplava)
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Yup
I believe Green Monster was a single release and possibly difficult to find at this point.
Thanks folks, I think I have more than enough suggestions.
One more question: does anyone know of any good meads to be found in Oregon? I sometimes make mead myself and would like to compare. Nothing very sweet, but melomel is ok.
Maybe in California but I’ve lived in the PNW for 50 plus years and haven’t found a commercial mead laying around yet. Probably in a big city bottle shop, but I can’t think of a big mead maker around here.
Moonlight Meadery’s website lists a few places in Oregon that carry their meads. Their typical meads are big melomels. Some may be a bit sweet, but they’re always well-balanced and I’ve never had a cloying one. Desire and Kurt’s Apple Pie are their flagships, and my personal favorite is Sumptuous, which is a killer mango melomel.