Events: Portland Fruit Beer Fest

 

Last weekend we went to the Fruit Beer Festival at Burnside Brewing Company. Beer festivals in Portland are pretty spectacular. I'm still in awe that there can be that many people in a small cramped space, all drinking, and everyone is friendly, happy, awesome and not at all annoying. How is that even possible? Also at this even the glasses were actually glass and I didn't see any broken glass anywhere. Portlanders, you're amazing.

Fruit beers, as you might have guessed already, are brewed with fruit. My favorites from the day were the Whack & Unwrap from Oakshire Brewing (tasted exactly like a dark chocolate orange,) The Bad Apple from 2 towns Cider house (10.5% ABV, wow!), and the Extinction Ale from Deschutes. Chuck got those last two, and I had only a few sips but they were amazing. I seem to have a habit of picking out some of the weirdest flavors, like the Strawberry Mandarin Wit from Flat Tail Brewing. It was so sour, kind of amazing in its own way but wow. I made some funny faces while drinking that, I'm sure.

 

The event also featured live music and we thoroughly enjoyed the bluegrass band Left Coast Country. They sounded great while also looking very Left Coast. You can't see him well in the picture above, but the bearded bass player was wearing an "Obey" t-shirt. Perfect! It was my assessment that they were perfect for a beer festival and should play them all. Actually, looks like they are playing the Organic Brewer's festival at the end of the month too. Yay! 

Of course the original location of Sizzle Pie is right across the street from this festival, and after we drank all that beer we were starving, so we had plenty of yummy vegan pizza before heading home. Pictured above are the Spiral Tap (with such good caramelized onions) and the Bad Reputation (with Daiya vegan mozzarella, olives & mushrooms.) Always so good, and amazing post-beer festival.