Hey Denny,
We need to get one of these to Drew. I’d love to hear what he things. I think it’s maybe THEE best Saison I’ve had yet. Everything these guys do is amazing. Even Bad Santa will make you reconsider Sasquach Beer!
Saison on gin barrels. Who’d a thunk?
Company photo… Too lazy to pick up my socks for a POV
I envy you Jim, you being much closer to beer heaven than we are. Our youngest daughter spent 4 years at Willamette U, and another 3 at Oregon State. She actually worked her way through her MPH at Oregon State tending bar and waiting tables at a small brew pub in Salem. During her college years we spent a lot of time on the central Oregon Coast when visiting. Pelican has some solid brews and one of the most beautiful settings of all the breweries we ever visited. Another favorite on the way back down to Newport where we usually stayed was Rusty Truck. Staying in Newport, we did some crabbing on the pier that starts in Rogue’s parking lot. Always a reason to go to the nearest rest room with frequency
I miss those days. She now lives and works in Seattle, so I guess we’ll have to find some good spots there. The only places that beat the Central Oregon coast in my book are Bend and San Diego, and that’s only for the beer. What a beautiful area!
Saison aged in gin barrels??? I would assume that would be awesome! Hard to find though. And probably expensive. I once aged a barley wine in brandy barrels and it was the best barley wine I ever brewed for sure. But dang, hard to find brandy barrels now days that aren’t under $500.
Interesting (maybe) story…Darron Welch, founder and brewmaster of Pelican, started put as a homebrewer buying kits in the same store I frequented. I raninto him there one day and asked him why Pelican didn’t brew any Belgian styles. He went into a long rant about how he hated evrything about the style and would NEVER brew one. Fast forward a few years…Pelican has gotten big and popular and hired other brewers. They start making Belgian styles, and now Pelican has won more medals for Belgian styles than any other.
Gin barrels make everything better IMO! Alesong put out a Gin Baerrle Pharmhouse a year or so back. A hoppy saison aged in gin barrels. It was my idea of a perfect beer.
I have to say that I had never heard of Pelican. Looked at their site and what a ridiculously awesome place. It isn’t that same feel here in the Midwest overlooking a corn field. That Saison sounds great. Thanks Jim for making me realize I need to travel to Oregon.
Slightly off topic, but Gigantic makes a gin barreled IPA that uses Old Tom barrels. I am not a fan of gin at all, but I’ve had two gin barrel aged beers that I’ve loved. I saw the Queen of hearts at a bottle shop and almost bought it for a friend of ours. She likes saisons and gin, so it seemed perfect. Might have to grab it if I can still find it.
This part is true, but I don’t think that’s a negative. They are keeping pace with Portland. Pelican used to be a pilsner and Tsumani stout and that was pretty much it. They’ve released a lot of new beers in the last few years or so and really expanded their repertoire. (at least as far as what has caught my attention) Beak Breaker DIPA is really good, this years version of Bad Santa was better than years past, and these barrel aged beers are really top notch. Even if it’s just “on par” with Portland, that’s pretty damn good.
I meant it as the bar is raised high in the Portland area and I didn’t have any bad beers at any of the breweries that I visited. I wish that I had that kind of choice where I live.