Just a short entry today.  Sitting at Spin laundry enjoying an IPA from Ft. George brewery.  Watching as the sun sets lighting the clouds ablaze with a pink glow and Passover begins.  We wish tonight for all people to be free, regardless of monetary wealth, skin color, political ideology, sexual or gender identity, religion, creed, or any of the other things that separate and enslave us all.
Think about freedom tonight, yours, your neighbor's, your children's, your coworker's and all the people that we meet everyday.

June 22nd, 2014

OK.  Utah awaits with its forbidden beer and wine industry thriving because no matter how hard they try, we beer enthusiasts cannot be kept out of Utah!  Later this week I will be in Utah, working every night late because the Utah show runs from 12 to 11 everyday for four days.  Beer will be consumed during this time period I can promise you. 

So more news coming from the road.

Jason

May 30th, 2014

As I am trying to get started as a writer I think I should have another beer.  Kolsch is my drink tonight.  I bought a growler of a Kolsch, Stormbreaker Total ReKolsch*, a delicious beer, bought at one of my favorite places, Belmont Station.  This place is a gem of a store/bar that has literally thousands of bottles of beer for sale on one side and on the other a series of taps that require two sides of a sheet to list them all.  Food is not their strong point but they know beer, and remember, No Beer, No Peace, Know Beer, Know Peace.   

Keep Portland Beered

There is a bumper sticker you can buy in Portland made famous by Music Millennium. It is "Keep Portland Weird." Like all iconic things there is now a bumper sticker that says "Keep Portland Beered." A small city as things go Portland is now infamous for having more strip clubs and adult businesses per capita than any other larger city. This is partially because Portland has extremely aggressive free speech laws. The other thing that Portland has become famous for is it is now the "greatest city in the world for beer." I think this is because we have fairly lenient laws about minors in pubs. Not as lenient as one of Wisconsin's laws that allows parents to give minors beer in restaurants and pubs but pretty damn lenient. Add to this a DIY mentality that borders on OCD and you get a the Starbucks effect for microbreweries. Every neighborhood seems to have one and if it is a neighborhood that is in the beginning thralls of gentrification you are guaranteed to have some hip bearded men riding their fixed gear bicycles down to brew giant tankers of IPA and Wheat ale. The good part of this is that we have a fabulous assortment of places to go, sit back, and drink something that is made the way beer should be. Just a few of the great places I've been lately are Migration Brewing on 28th and Glisan in NE Portland, Amnesia in the Mississippi district, and Saraveza on Killingsworth near I-5. This latest pub is not a microbrewery but instead is a repository for beer. Coolers line the walls with all styles of beer. Old beer signs litter the wall and provide amusement while your waiting for your beer, and the taps, Oh the taps! We sampled a flight of beers picked by our very knowledgeable (and bearded) bartender. Every beer we sampled seemed to be better than the last. This pub gets my five stein rating for providing good handmade food with sensational beers from local breweries as well as ones from around the world.
So for now, Cheers, and lift a pint to peace.
http://saraveza.com/

Beer in America

I have several passions in life. My family, my bicycle, food, art, politics and of course beer. As I travel the United States helping my wife in her jewelry business I will be sampling the microbreweries of our great country and seeing if they compare to the #1 beer city in the world. Our own Portland. See you there.