By Angelo M. De Ieso II

2008's Oregon Brewers Festival was the best yet with more beer and more attendees than ever before. The state's rich culture of craft beer was highlighted by more than 70 breweries offering their tasty selections to a boisterously jolly quaffing crowd.

The crowds on a Thursday afternoon at the OBF are big, but nothing compared to those on Friday and Saturday.

I always enjoy getting down to the festival early to ensure short lines and that the beers I really want to sample are still available. One thing I've learned from years past is that by Friday and Saturday, the festivities are in full swing and Tom McCall Park can feel a bit more like a moshpit with seemingly endless lines. Another time that I like to visit the festival is early Sunday afternoon. At this time I hoped to try the remainder of the beers undiscovered by my palate in hopes that many of them will still be available.  read more »

Jason Yester, who used to be the head brewer at Bristol Brewing, is opening a new brewpub right down the street from where I work. Listen to this lineup of their own and other beers that they are going to have on tap:

• Trinity Wit - A distinct and delicate flaked wheat beer flavored with orange peel and coriander.
• Trinity Chi - Golden Speciale, spicy hops and a complex malt interlay with a light fruit ester in this session beer.
• Trinity Flo - Our India Pale Ale combines both English and American brewing traditions to create an aromatic and pleasant hoppy treat.
• Trinity Saison - A French farmhouse ale, brewed using local seasonally available ingredients.

The World Beer Cup 2008 winners were announced this past Saturday (April 19) at the end of the Craft Brewers Conference. I created a little list of all the beers that won 2008 awards and have been reviewed on sevenpack. Granted we have not reviewed all of the 2008 winners (we try though!) [...]

Last year there were three major arrivals in the San Francisco Bay Area for lovers of fine beer: THE TRAPPIST in Oakland, easily one of my favorite bars going; THE MONK'S KETTLE in San Francisco's Mission District, a place I'm sorta on the fence about due to their high prices & limited seating; and  read more »

Would you believe me if I told you I had a new favorite beer? My most favoritist beer since the last most favoritist?  read more »

Beer hounds the world over are gossiping about the arrival this month in bottles of RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING s double IPA, PLINY THE ELDER . This beers been an on-tap favorite of many for a few years now, with some folks describing it in rapturous terms and traveling through hells half acre to drink a mere pint of it. I guess, having had a few pints of this in my time, Ive never quite really understood the whoop-de-do.  read more »

So I was checking out Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the first time in my life the other day, wandering through the beards and the big hair and the legwarmers, when I stumbled into this mini-mall thing with a cool bookstore. Turned the corner once I was inside, and there was a sign hanging up in front of a store saying SPUYTEN DUYVIL GROCERY . Spuyten Duyvil??!? You mean the famous Brooklyn beer bar that serves the rarest of Belgian beers?  read more »

(Santa Rosa, CA) - Co-Owner Natalie Cilurzo says the beer will be shipped starting tomorrow and could take two weeks two arrive. It sounds as though it will now be available at the pub.

The popularity of drinks festivals is immense. People pack events like the Great American Beer Festival because they are great places to sample a huge range of new brands and reacquaint one's self with old favorites. There are a number of events coming up that are worth attending. Here are just a few:

Whiskey Fest in Chicago, April 4: The folks at Malt Advocate bring together 200 of the world's finest, rarest, and most expensive, single malt and blended Scotch, Irish, Bourbon, Tennessee, Japanese, Welsh, Canadian and other whiskies from around the world for one night. General admission tickets for the event are $110 and you can get early admission VIP entry for just $150. Besides all of the whiskey, you will also find sipping rums, Tequila and beer. During the evening a number of seminars are held with distillery representatives taking guests through sensory experiences while providing history, humor and hard to find samples of great whiskey.  read more »

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