End of USA holiday

From http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/

Sitting here at Seattle airport at the start of our long journey home after almost a month over on West Coast, USA, which took in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, with several hours to wait for our flight, I thought I might pass some of the time by posting another blog entry.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I'd tried Fuller's latest creation, Wild River, when I was down in London last month and I was sitting here catching up with July's What's Brewing, when I came across Roger Protz's regular column, in which Wild River is featured. He had apparently also recently visited North West USA and commented on its status as a major hop growing region, noting particularly how American hops, as used in Fuller's Wild River, are "bolder, brassier and offer more aggressive fruit characteristics" than, say, the varieties grown in Kent.

Certainly, Wild River did taste a little more bitter than, say, LP, but, at just 4.5% abv, it lacks the kick that you get from US IPA's in particular, which are more normally 6% or greater. Not that I'm advocating all our brewers back home should go down this path of stronger and stronger beers, a la Brewdog - far from it. It is, however, nice to drink strong, hoppy beers when you're on holiday and don't have to drive anywhere!

Whenever I come Statside, I'm always looking for other trends in beers and brewing, and I've noticed a few references to "sour" or "wild" beers, as they call them. Just yesterday, we were having lunch at Standing Stone (http://www.standingstonebrewing.com/index.html) brewpub in beautiful Ashland, SO, and I picked up a few of the beer magazines they leave around for customers and noticed this article on the subject:

(click on to enlarge)

They also seem to have lots of publications on beer and brewing - heaps more than are available to us. Here's just four of them I picked up:

Another trend I noticed was some of the local microbreweries now canning some of their products, as an alternative to bottling. I wondered how they were able to do this, given their size, but then I read this article in one of the above magazines:

Craft canning indeed! I did try a couple of samples and they weren't too bad.

Another article commented on the Olympics and quoted:

"Rapidly growing craft beer scene"? It seems that the hundreds of real ale breweries and centuries of tradition in the UK have been overlooked a bit here!

Much more like it was this advert from Sierra Nevada:

What a great idea - Beer Camp! Where can I sign up?

Further articles featured included "Craft beer and veganism" - a bit too esoteric for me, I'm afraid.

The newest brewery I came across when over here had barely got off the ground - Conner Fields Brewing from the Applegate Valley, a prime wine-growing region in Southern Oregon. It's just 2 guys who are currently fabricating their brewing equipment themselves. Their only outlet so far is the Saturday morning Farmers' Market in Grants Pass. I almost felt obliged to encourage them and so, initially, I bought a "growler" of their Dry Stout. I enjoyed it, so, the following week, I went back and refilled my growler with their pale ale and had a chat with Josh and John and wished them well. Hopefully, when I go back next year, they'll be in full production. They don't have a web site yet, but you can find them on Facebook.

OK - enough. Looking forward to some hand-pulled cask ale this coming week - it's still very much a minority, niche market here. You'll usually find a few in the big cities, but when you're out in the sticks, as I've been most of the time for the last month, then it's a bit harder to come by.

Cheers,

Ian