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Good times in Hood River !!

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This place is awesome! Hood River is located on the Columbia River and is an outdoor enthusiast’s  dream. Hood River is home to some great craft breweries. It’s also famous for windsurfing, kite boarding, mountain/road biking, camping, and hiking.

My first stop was at Double Mountain Brewing, 2013-07-05_14-54-31_760located in the beautiful downtown Hood River. The brewery is full of cyclists wearing bicycle shoes and jerseys and has a wonderful vibe and inviting atmosphere. David was nice enough to stop in the middle of his busy lunch hour to check out some Oowee leather sleeves. We chatted a little bit about making Double Mountain some unique handmade beer gifts. I was very impressed with all the beers that I tried. I enjoyed one of their delicious Dapper Dan nitro infused brown ale with a club sandwich for lunch. I would recommend Double Mountain to anyone visiting the Hood River area.

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Pfriem Brewing is just down the hill from Double Mountain. It’s located right on the beautiful Columbia River, overlooking a park full of families/kids playing on climbing walls and windsurfers getting ready to go out on the river. I meet with Stephanie who was kind enough to give me a few minutes of her time to show her some fine leather products. Pfriem Brewing has a bunch of really great beers on tap, including a super hoppy IPA that any hop-head would be eager to try. They are about to start bottling, so keep eye out for their IPA on you grocery store shelves.

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(On left) Brent, Katie, and Baby Hugo

 

West Coast

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Oregon Coast

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Rogue Brewing located in Newport, Oregon. There are  two locations in Newport one on each side of the Yaquina Bay on the Oregon coast. Rogue is one the state’s oldest and most well known breweries, established in 1988. The brewery was original started in a basement in Ashland, Oregon and then moved up to a garage in Newport now know as the Rogue public house locate on the north side of the Yaquina River Bay. There is also production brewery directly across the bay.  We first visited the production Brewery on the south side of the river where we meet with Brad, who was a supper nice guy, and enjoyed a few of Rogue’s delicious brews. They have a whoppin’ 40 BEERS ON TAP! Brad and I agreed that Oowee leather pint sleeves and leather beer huggers would be a great fit for the brewery. While I enjoyed all the beers I drank at Rogue the Beard Beer was one of my favorites. This beer was made from wide yeast found in the brewer’s beard. After a few beers with Brad we headed over to the Public house to eat some lunch with friends and taste some more beers. We ended up hanging out with Sawyer Mizer who is the Caption of the Mothership according to his business card. The beer, my delicious salmon sandwich and everyone we meet at Rogue were great!

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Pelican Pub & Brewery

We headed north up the Oregon Coast to find ourselves at one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited. Not only where we looking at an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean, big sand dunes, and surfers catching waves, but we were also enjoying all of this from the patio of Pelican Pub & Brewery. I enjoyed the view while drinking a delicious, easy drinking and appropriately named Surfer’s Summer Ale that was on tap as there seasonal.

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Independence Day in Portland OR

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Celebrating Independence Day in the great state of Oregon!photo Oregon is home to about 167 craft breweries and is well known for delicious craft beer and great outdoor activities. I’m looking forward to spending 10 days drinking craft beer, riding bicycles, camping, sightseeing and visiting with new and old friends. My good friend, Sheri Baker was kind enough to escort me on this trip to Oregon and show me around her hometown of Portland.  I am looking forward to spending some  time with my childhood friend Michael Wimberly, Sheri, Claire and a few new friends for some Pacific coast camping this Fourth of July weekend. I intend to spread the Oowee product love all over the city of Portland and it surrounding areas.,and hope to introduce myself  and my products to the Portland craft-beer scene. Wish me luck, I will keep you posted.

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Asheville Beer Week 2013 Review

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The Asheville Beer Week was a fabulous success for the 2nd year in a row. This past rollicking event was to celebrate all things beer. Our awesome city embraced and showcased breweries from all over. The week long events included tastings, dinner with beer pairings, beer education, and live music. We had so many delicious flavors to celebrate in such a short amount of time.

Brusin’ Ales did tons to help get this event together and kudos to all the volunteers that helped wrangle this event! Oowee Products was the official sponsor for the event so we crafted some limited edition “Asheville Beer Week 2013” leather pint sleeves. weed merch

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We kicked things off at the Mill Room for the VIP launch party. We enjoyed delectable treats from Mela, tunes, great folks, and of course, great beverages. The next day the Wedge hosted a event  with Just Economics called “Just Brew It”. There was a fantastic turn out and lots of homebrew awards.

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l am a self proclaimed, picky little bitch (PLB) about most things and beer is no exception.  The Wicked Weed had some pretty deliciously, fruity Saisons and they all delivered a punch. Luckily, they serve some tasty items to nosh on to help maintain an upright position.  My favorite Thirsty Monk event was the Allagash/NewBelgium tap takeover. This is where I found my love for New Belgium’s Trippel. images  Alagash’s Four was interesting and I’m not sure what to say about their Interlude beer. I think they were just using us as a tasting ground for that one.  The Hops and Vines had some interesting tastings. My favorite was the Trappist 10, it scored 100% in Beer Advocate! http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/207/645 It’s a power player at 11.5%.  It definitely passed my PLB test; I liked it so much that I bought a couple to cellar as well as to drink up during our spring Asheville evenings. I think I need to visit Brusin’ Ales to get more!

 

The Saturday events started at the RiverBend Malt House where the founders were giving a tour and describing the grains and all the nitty gritty of malt house life. Then, comes the long awaited Asheville Beer Festival! Although, I love the dark beers, I started with Saisons. I tend to enjoy the higher gravity beers more but in a festival one needs to maintain, so I sampled the lighter libations as well. I had some really great beers and some mediocre beers.  The one stand out in my mind was Catawba Valley Brewing Company’s King Coconut Porter. Whoa! Toasty coconut, chocolate taste bud explosion in my mouth… Your mouth will love it too! Good stuff. We got to talk to the brewer and he definitely puts his loving care into making this beer. The last beer that left an impression on me was Wicked Weed’s Triple. It packs in some serious flavor! After the festival we jumped in a cab home and settled down in the back yard to enjoy the rest of the day in our beer bliss.