Craft Beer Tour 2021: Vancouver, WA
These photos were taken Tuesday, September 28, day 14 of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, when I visited Trap Door Brewing in Vancouver, Washington. Yes, you read that right, I am in Washington.
Hopefully you have been following along and recall that when we left off, I was planning to drive to Boise in the morning. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2021: Yakima, WA
These photos were taken September 25, day 11 of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, and I must admit, I was looking forward to what this day would bring. Actually, I had a very good idea of what this day would bring because I was headed to Yakima, Washington; home of Bale Breaker Brewing Company, one of only two breweries I consider to be one of my destination breweries.
A destination brewery to me, is one that if I am within 200 miles of it, I must do all I can to get there. As I was staying a mere 193 miles from them, I don’t see that I had much of a choice in the matter. I knew I was going to find fresh hop beers there. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2021: Grains of Wrath Brewery
These photos were taken September 24, day 10 of my Craft Beer Tour 2021; a day that started off innocent enough, but resulted in a couple unexpected surprises. One surprise I should have remembered, but 2020 must have screwed with me; the second was totally unexpected and the fact that everyone was wearing masks made it totally mind-blowing.
So, it was Friday morning and I had arrived the previous Saturday, it was time to go before I bored them; I announced I would leave for Yakima, Washington in the morning. As I sat down to Google Maps to figure out how long it would take to get there and whether or not there were any breweries along the way, I remembered Grains of Wrath in Camas. When I put it as a destination I discovered it was only 30 minutes away; and I knew they would have the fresh hop IPAs that I was looking for. Matt was game and we had a few hours before we could pick up Dom; game on. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2021: Hood River, OR
These photos were taken September 23, day nine of my Craft Beer Tour 2021. As Dom was recovering with her parents, and Matt loves showing off Oregon to me, we headed off to Hood River to visit pFreim Family Brewers and Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River; the fact that we had to go through the Columbia River Gorge to get there was icing on the cake.
We started off at pFreim Family Brewers, which seemed to begin filling up as we arrived. Matt got a quinoa salad and I set up a flight made up of their Pilsner (because you kind of have to), Jammy Pale Ale (really was jammy), Strata IPA, Kolsch, pFreim IPA, and Flanders Blonde (first time ever). Each of them seemed to be better than the last, and I am falling in love with Strata hops.
pFreim Family Brewers is located at 707 Portway Avenue in Hood River. They are open daily and offer can’s, bottles, and crowlers to-go. I think I noticed a dog or two on their patio. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2021: Oregon City, OR
These photos were taken between September 18 and 22, days four through eight of my Craft Beer Tour 2021. There were several repeat visits, including McMenamins, Oregon City Brewing Company, and Shattered Oak Brewing, and a first time visit to Stickmen Brewing Company.
When I left Bend the weather had turned crappy, which was probably a good thing for Bend as the evening before had been quite smoky so I am sure the wind and rain helped clear that out, but it also cleared me out. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2021: Bend, OR
These photos were taken September 17 and 18, days three and four of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, aka the search for fresh hopped beers; this time in Bend, Oregon. The breweries I visited were The Ale Apothecary, Crux Fermentation Project, Boss Rambler Beer Club, and GoodLife Brewing.
I intended to spend two nights in Bend, but the place I was staying at the first night didn’t have room for me for Saturday night, so I was going to have to play it by ear. I remember when I got out of the car when I arrived how great the air smelled, and there was a blue sky. To be honest, the air quality from Sacramento on had sucked due to the fires that had been in the area. I had put a post on Facebook asking the first bend brewery I should visit, and The Ale Apothecary was the first that came up that I had been to before, so I set my GPS for it and headed over. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2021: Klamath Falls, OR
These photos were taken over the course of two days, September 16 and 17, days two and three of my Craft Beer Tour 2021, or the quest for the best fresh, wet hop IPA in the land; no judgement though. Anyway, as the title suggests this takes place in and around Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Blame it on old age or whatever you want, but for some reason I thought I had been to Klamath Falls back in 2018, but when I got into town nothing looked familiar and when I looked through the list of breweries I had visited in Oregon, I realized I was thinking of Grants Pass and I had never been here before. As I thought about it, I remembered I never traveled to Bend, the eventual destination, from the south. I was on the other side of the state. Continue reading
Craft Beer Tour 2021: Sacramento Area
So, I am on the road again; this time for the Craft Beer Tour 2021, which I considered calling the COVID Beer Tour, but let’s keep our fingers crossed. This is the first road trip I have done without Buddy in a very long time, so please forgive me if I forget to mention whether or not the location is dog friendly or not. This is also the first time that I am trying out using AirBNB, which as of this writing, has been okay.
These photos were taken September 15, day one of this adventure. Now, to be honest, I was not exactly aiming for Sacramento as my destination for day one; I wanted to go to Roseville, but AirBNB figured it was close enough, and they don’t really tell you where you are going to be until you make the reservation, but the price was right, so I ended up spending the night in Sacramento. Continue reading
Craft Beer LB Fest 2021 Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the 5th Annual Craft Beer LB Fest, which was held at the Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site in Long Beach. The family friendly event featured craft beer from about a dozen Long Beach breweries, a couple homebrew clubs, and one cidery.
While I have attended each of the prior events, it seems that I typically had several events to photograph the same day, so I always attended the VIP session; I was late for the VIP session this time and it really showed me just how crowded this festival gets. Continue reading
El Segundo Brewing 10th Anniversary Photos
These photos were taken Saturday afternoon at the El Segundo Brewing Company tasting room, where El Segundo Brewing celebrated their 10 year anniversary. The event included the release of their Hüftgold Festbier and VollerKOLSCHster, as well as the re-release of their 10th anniversary triple IPA. The Slice and Pint provided bratwursts and sauerkraut, and Röckenwagner Bakery provided their giant pretzels. Live Bavarian polka music was provided by Hammerstein Band (their singer had a beautiful voice).
This was a very fun event, and very well attended; I heard several people mention that is almost seemed like the pre-COVID days. With all the smiles and a tap list boasting more than 20 available brews, I have to agree. Continue reading