Lagunitas Tasting Thurs. 11/6

 

From points distant and beyond we all converged on Petaluma in 1993 and ’94 with an unenunciated desire to be more than we were before. The core of Lagunitas came from Chicago, St Louis, Memphis, Walker Creek, and the highlands of Quincy.

The Chicago contingent initiated the brewing and the gravitational effect of its suchness did the rest. We all loved the beer but the mission was larger than the ordinary joy of a hoppy-sweet quaff. It was driven unseen by an urge to communicate with people, to find our diasporidic tribe, and to connect with other souls adrift on a culture that had lost its center and spun its inhabitants to the four winds to wander lost and bereft with a longing to re-enter the light. Beer, we have learned, has always been a good lubricant for social intercourse!

The Lagunitas Brewing Co. was not so much an act of ordinary ‘foundling’ as it was willed into being by the unspoken desire of supportive beer-lovers in Northern California after which they continued to nurture their creation and urged us forward to fulfill the unifying needs of that same beer-loving diaspora from coast to coast and beyond. It is good to have friends!

Tasting at Uptown from 5pm-8pm on Thursday, November 6th

2 Towns Cider & Flat Tail Tasting! 11/13

Three childhood friends—living in 2 different towns—banded together with meager savings and a love of craft brewing and cider to launch 2 Towns Ciderhouse in 2010. This trinity seeks to advance the craft cider industry through mixing both old and new cider techniques and experimentation.

2 Towns Ciderhouse started with the goal of bringing hard cider back to the people. With deep roots in American history, true craft cider deserves to be made with purpose and respect. Once the most popular drink in America, cider is making a comeback, and we are proud to be a part of this resurgence. We planted our own orchard in 2012, and continue to support other local apple growers by insisting on using only the finest fresh pressed-100% NW apples in our ciders. We never take shortcuts in the cider-making process, and never add any sugar or essence flavorings, but instead let the fresh, naturally fermented ingredients speak for themselves.

Joining Two Towns for our Thursday tasting will be Flat Tail Brewing, whose motto is "Work Hard, Eat, Drink & Enjoy Life"

Check it out! Try some beer, or some cider, or both!

Tasting starts at 5pm. Thursday, November 13th.

Firestone Walker Friday 11/14

 

It began innocently enough: a couple of brothers-in-law sitting around debating the subject of good and bad beer. Instead, their search for a decent ale led them to brew their own. Given Mr. Firestone’s winemaking bias and Mr. Walker’s complete lack of fermentation experience, they believed 60-gallon oak barrels were the appropriate vehicle in which to create their perfect elixir.

OK, so initial attempts were forgettable. But like so many great ideas, out of that disaster was born a handy invention – the Firestone Union. Based on classic brewing traditions from Burton-Upon Trent, this bizarre and unlikely system of linked barrels has the ability to produce rich and complex ales. In 1996 the accidental duo shelved their endless discussion on better beers and settled for building a world-class brewery that bore their names on California’s Central Coast……the debate was now over.

Tasting from 5pm-8pm at Uptown. Friday, November 14th.

Pyramid/Portland Brewing

 

Considered to be the epicenter of the American craft brewing resurgence, Portland, Oregon is home to more breweries than any other city in America. Portland Brewing was one of the first craft brewers in the city and created Portland’s original Amber Ale. A favorite throughout the years, when Portlander’s say “Gimme a Mac’s” it’s understood they want the crisp, distinct flavor that MacTarnahan’s Amber Ale is known for.

Tasting from 5pm-8pm

Uptown Halloween Party! 10/30

 

Costume contest with prizes!  Come dressed in costume for discounted pints!

This year's Halloween Party at Uptown will feature a tasting with 10 Barrel Brewing.  The tasting begins at 5pm!

Mazama Tasting Saturday 11/1

 

The Klamath tell many stories of the powerful gods Llao and Skell whose fights created the explosion of Mount Mazama. In 5700 BC this eruption created Oregon's famous Crater Lake. Llao's head is said to be the creaggy Wizard Island.

Mazama Brewing is a packaging brewery in Corvallis Oregon own and operated by Jeff and Kathy Tobin. They started home brewing in 1984 and knew they had found a passion in their new hobby. Their brewing pursuits included making beer styles that were once very difficult to find in the United States. This finally led to a long delay trip the Belgium in 2011, which provided the inspiration to start Mazama brewing.

This special tasting will feature a take home tulip style event featuring some powerful Belgian style beers (ABV 8% and up folks!)

Burnside Tasting Friday 11/28

 

When Burnside Brewing Co. opened its doors in 2010, the vision was concise. Focus on easy to drink beers that accompany and enhance the culinary experience. Brew master Jason McAdam is a creative trendsetter in brewing, bold enough to take risks and smart enough to leave a creative impression on your taste buds. He balances our desires for tradition such as the Oatmeal Pale, then throws in food inspired beers such as the Sweet Heat, an apricot wheat beer dry hopped with scotch bonnet peppers that is reminiscent of a Caribbean chutney.

Burnside has also extended this alchemist approach in their food using indigenous and handcrafted ingredients making anything possible. You will encounter tasty lineups such as the “Cohiba” duck confit cigar with a Stock Ale, homemade seasonal brewery sausages with our IPA, or a Brewery Burger with our signature Oatmeal Pale Ale.

Tasting at Uptown Market from 5pm-8pm on Friday, November 28th.

Pumpkin Carving Contest! 10/26

 

Sunday, October 26th at 2pm: Pumpkin carving contest at Uptown!

Beer!  Fun!  Prizes!

This weekend at Uptown:

Sunday October 26th we will be hosting a Pumpkin Carving Contest with a bonus BARREL AGED BEER TASTING.

That's right, we will be kicking off the rainy season right with a six-beer flight of barrel-aged goodness that will be sure top warm you up and brighten your spirits!

Carve a pumpkin, drink some beer, and be merry! Fall is here and we couldn't be more pleased!

Contest and tasting start at 2pm, prizes will be awarded!

We will provide the pumpkins and carving kits.

Ex Novo Tasting 10/17

Brewing great beer blends art and science. We exist to blend fine craft beer with positive social change. Ex Novo translates as "from scratch”, and we’ve been hard at work building a 10-barrel non-profit brewery from the ground up. That's right, we said non-profit. Don't get us wrong, we aren't opposed to making money. On the contrary, we want to make as much as we can, so we can give it away. We are committed to donating 100% of our net profits to organizations that are working to affect positive social change both in Portland and around the world.

Tasting at Uptown Market from 5pm-8pm

Sierra Nevada Tasting! 10/23

"Inspired by the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains, our beers are designed to be as bold, wild and unwavering as those storied granite peaks. With respect to tradition and an unbridled passion for innovation, Sierra Nevada beers are inspired by the philosophy that anything is possible. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of craft beer and we look forward to the day that flavorful beers are the standard throughout the world."

-Sierra Nevada

Tasting at Uptown Market Thursday, October 23rd from 5pm-8pm.  See you then!

Oakshire Tasting this Thursday! 10/2

 

Begun in October 2006 by brothers Jeff and Chris Althouse, Oakshire Brewing is a 15-barrel production brewery in Eugene, Oregon dedicated to making fine craft beer.  What began as a home-brewing hobby and a love of beer has turned into award-winning beer on draft and in bottles throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The name Oakshire represents our core values: Strength, like the enduring Oak; Independence, which fuels our innovation; and Community, remembering our place within the whole.

-Oakshire Brewing

Tasting this Thursday at Uptown! 5pm-8pm

Woodchuck Cider Tasting! 10/3

 

We set out to create a truly American hard cider – a feat that hadn’t really been accomplished in the last 200+ years. (Sorry, but we just can’t count the stuff your grandpa made in “The Woodshed.”) The crafting process started with the Vermont Old-Fashioned Hard Cider we already had on hand. Countless changes were made, not the least of which was taking the alcohol content down from 12% to 5%. After three months of blood, sweat and tears, a new cider was born. (Don’t worry, we kept all the blood sweat and tears out of the cider.)

The Vermontiest of Vermonters are sometimes called “woodchucks” and this seemed like a pretty good name for our small-batch, Vermont-based cider.

-Woodchuck Cider

Tasting at Uptown from 5pm-8pm!

Pelican Tasting 10/9

In 1995, Jeff Schons and Mary Jones purchased an old brick building on the oceanfront in Pacific City.  Over Sunday morning coffee, Jeff and Mary came up with the idea of opening an oceanfront micro-brewery.  As they knew almost nothing about the brewing process, they decided to attend a Craft Brewers conference in Portland.

While at the conference it occurred to Mary that there might be a brewer there that might be interested in joining the Pelican Pub & Brewery.  On a hand-written 3 x 5 notecard tacked to a bulletin board, Mary scribbled the details of what they were looking for.

It was this notecard that caught Darron Welch's attention.  After several eager phone calls to Jeff and Mary, Darron and his fiance moved to Pacific City and Darron began brewing test batches of beer down the street in mini-storage units while the Pelican was under construction.  On May 4, 1996, the Pelican opened its doors and the rest is history.

Tasting at Uptown from 5pm-8pm

Friday Night Double-Whammy! 10/10

Classically refined, but not styled as a traditional "sweet beer" beer alternative, Crispin ciders are crisp and clean, not sweet and sticky and never sacrifice superior quality refreshment satisfaction for overbearing complexity.

Always true to the fruit, Crispin Hard Ciders are naturally fermented using fresh-pressed apple or pear juice, not from concentrate, from a premium blend of fruit from the west coast. Additionally, Crispin Ciders do not contain added malt, grape wine, or spirit alcohol. Crispin Ciders are all Gluten Free.

Crispin offers 7 different apple ciders: Original, Brut, The Saint, The Bohemian, Honey Crisp, and Cidre Blanc Boxed Still cider. In addition there is the fully imported Browns Lane, which is a classic English Dry Cider. Crispin now also offers 3 different pear ciders: Pacific Pear, Blackberry Pear, and Lion Belge.

Silver Moon Brewery has a profound history with Bend, Oregon. What started as Bend's first brew shop evolved into Bend's 3rd local brewery and tasting room, as well as the only brewery that doubled as a speakeasy.

As residents of Bend know, friendships are born at brew events. It was at a craft beer event in 2009 that former owner Tyler Reichart met Matt Barrett and James Watts. Over time, an idea was planted and formulated. Soon after, Matt and James turned a small dream to solid reality by becoming the new owners of Silver Moon Brewery.

Matt and James plan to honor the grounded roots of Silver Moon by continuing to brew extraordinary beer, hosting local music, and celebrating the people that made the pub what it is today.

The trio took over the brewery in July 2013, bringing with them a branding which signifies the new lunar phase in Silver Moon's journey. And while Matt and James are planning a modest remodel of the taproom, they will keep the music scene alive as well as continue to explore the art of craft brewing. They are also excited to give back to the community by being involved in local non-profits.

Friday Night Tasting Double-Whammy begins at 5pm and goes until 8pm.

21st Amendment! 10/24

 

In 2000, Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan founded the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco’s historic South Park neighborhood. The popular brewpub is now at the heart of the new city center, just south of the financial district and only two blocks from the San Francisco Giants baseball park. In addition to eight rotating taps of multiple award-winning hand-crafted house beers, the pub has been voted “Best Brewpub”, “Best Burger” and “Best Happy Hour” by the San Francisco press.

Freccia and O’Sullivan met in early 1995 in San Francisco. Both had just moved from southern California to the Bay area when they heard the calling of beer. O’Sullivan, a former photographer and paralegal, “traded his suits for boots and was saved by beer”. He moved to Berkeley and took a job as assistant brewer at the Triple Rock Brewery there. Freccia, a writer, actor and, by extension, restaurant professional, was also an avid homebrewer. Frustrated with the lack of beer culture in the L.A. area, he moved to San Francisco and began writing for the Celebrator Beer News, the west’s largest beer publication. Freccia and O’Sullivan met, became friends and, while sitting together in a summer class on brewing science at UC Davis, hatched their plan for what would become the 21st Amendment.

Tasting at Uptown Market from 5pm-8pm

Biketoberfest & Epic Tasting 9/18

 

Biketoberfest will feature beer, sausages, fresh hot pretzels, and more beer!  All for a great cause!

Proceeds to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society:

The mission of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

LLS is the world's largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. LLS funds lifesaving blood cancer research around the world and provides free information and support services.

We will have a tasting with Epic Brewing to go along with the festivities starting at 5pm.

A little about Epic:

David Cole and Peter Erickson are the founders and co-owners of Epic Brewing Company. Cole and Erickson, originally from California, started an international aquaculture company in Utah in 1992. In 2008, Utah law changed allowing these two entrepreneurs to pursue their longtime dream of opening a strong beer microbrewery in Utah, like those they frequented in the Golden State.

Together, they have teamed with Brewmaster Kevin Crompton, formerly from Bohemian Brewery. Crompton has been brewing for more than 20 years (since 1994) and has brewed for three Utah breweries and another in Hawaii.

Admittedly, beer geeks, foodies and "Epic" adventure junkies, the three share a passion for making and drinking fine ales and lagers. The Epic team has a strong belief in doing everything "all out."

Event from 4pm-8pm

Two Kilts Tasting 9/20

Two Kilts Brewing Co. opened in the spring of 2011 with a mix of repurposed stainless steel tanks coming together to make a not so pretty 6 barrel brewery. With limited funds to get started it would have to do, and do it did and very well at that. Brewers and owners Chris Dillon, and Alex Mcgaw agreed on a business theory that to this day has been a perfect approach for them. They said “We aren’t going to worry about anything but the beer. If we take good care of it, it will take care of us.” Three fast years later, they have done that and accomplished a lot.

Chris and Alex both have a substantial background in beer and both are extremely passionate about their craft. They share the same passion for family and tell us their customers are not just friends, and that coming from Irish roots, (Chris) and Scottish roots (Alex) they feel that their customers are family too. This is one of the many reasons the pub feels like home to so many.

Fire Mountain Tasting 9/19

Nestled in the rolling hills of Western Oregon, among the winding roads of Carlton, OR, is Fire Mountain Brew House. Amidst the wine country of Oregon, Fire Mountain Brewery is surrounded by natural beauty, a good start for a great ale!

Fire Mountain Brewery took its first breath of fire in September of 2009. After three years of planning, from the initial idea in 2006, and through the pile of paperwork in 2008, and building the brewery in 2009, we have come a long way.

We take exceptional pride in the quality of our brews and boast the finest of ingredients. Our main ingredient of malts, come from around the world (France, Germany, Canada, and UK) and from local Northwest growers. Our hops are the best grown, from Mt. Angel to Yakima in the Northwest, and from Germany and the Czech Republic. With such fine ingredients you can be sure we take our ales seriously.

We are a 15 Barrel brewery, turning out 12 to 15 Barrel batches of handcrafted ales and soon Lagers. We use steam to heat the hot liquor tank "700 hundred gallon water heater" and the brew kettle. Controls for steam are open and close globe valves by hand, no computer to run the system. Every step is manually done, and this allows us to have hands on controlling the process.

Our mash times are longer, as is our sparge time, we want flavors out of the malts that a 60 or 90 minute mash won’t accomplish, and this adds uniqueness to our beers.

We use horizontal and conical fermenters, and ferment on the cooler side. Fermentation takes longer and this adds to the character of our beer.

On the green side, our spent mash is picked up and fed to farm animals and or composted, you can say there are some happy cows in Carlton, OR too! Hops are composted to the garden as well as the spent yeast. The steam that is generated by the boiler comes from burning propane. Like natural gas this is a clean burning fuel and is very efficient. We use biodegradable cleaners only, but mostly recycled hot water - this cuts down on fuel consumption by almost 50%. In doing so, we are proud to do our part for the community and the sustainability of our environment.

The awesomeness comes from all of the people that support our brewery by enjoying the fine line of beers that we make.

-Fire Mountain Brew House

Tasting at Uptown Friday, September 19th from 5pm-8pm

Homebrew Class This Sunday! 1pm

 

Join Jason Rowley, Uptown's head brewer, this Sunday at 1pm for an interactive homebrew demonstration!  In this class, you will learn all the ins and outs of all grain brewing, and you will leave with the skills necessary to conduct your very own homebrew!

Class begins at 1pm and will go for about 4 hours.  There will be plenty of opportunities to take breaks for food and drink!

Throughout the process, Jason will go over brewing techniques, cleaning procedures, as well as tasting notes and history of the particular beer style you are brewing.

This month's brew will be a Wit.  There is a $35 fee to participate, includes a growler fill of the finished beer to take home and enjoy!  It will take  a few weeks for the beer to fully ferment and carbonate, we will send out an email when the beer is ready to go!

Double Mountain Tasting! 9/13

 

We currently make four year-round beers along with a wide and ever-changing variety of seasonals, one-offs, experiments, and labors of love. All of our beers feature Pilsner malt from Gambrinus Malting in British Columbia as the base ingredient, supplemented by various high-quality specialty malts and often copious amounts of hops.

Tasting starts at 3pm!