We've Moved!

How exciting. You can find our further adventures (and all previous posts) over at the Beers Trip Club!

https://beerstrip.club

"Planning" Session at Ruse Brewing

Athletics

It started as a short hike from the house to the bar for a wee nip and done local flavor but turned into a friendly test of "skill" when it was discovered the neighborhood speed cameras could detect is running past. Usain Bolt can sprint 27.something mph over 100m. We managed ~13-14 over 30 feet. Not bad, not bad. Subs room for improvement.

Stop 5: Fort George Lovell Tap Room

Cozy!

Tate:  Liked the cask conditioned stout
Ryan: #toomuchbeerandbbqatthelastplaceouch
Derrick:
Neil:
Arc:

Footware on point

Stop 6: Astoria brewing company

Great space with heavy metal.  Quiet.  Suck it Buoy.

Tate: Rauch Helles = Smoked lager...damn good, didn't like the kolsch or amber.
Ryan:
Derrick:. This lager... It fucks, amiright? I'm liking the dungeon crawler stout as well
Neil:
Arc:

Sammy being Sammy

Stop 4: Reach Break

Great clean space with 5 beers.  5 amazing beers.

Arc:
Neil:
Ryan: liked them all. The cocoa was a bit much but nice in small quantities. Holla to the BBQ food truck and their delicious Vietnam Nom Nom pulled pork sandwich.
Tate: Saison to start was great, especially with the BBQ pulled pork over potato chips with pineapple and pickled onion.  Moved on to the stouts and they were all good.
Derrick:. Ordered the string 11.4% Bathyl to start.  It's smooth.  Really enjoy the Clark II saison.  Nucifera stout is also amazing.

Stop 3: Seaside Brewery

Cool place that was once a jail.  Soooooo many families!  Food was so quick it came out before the beer.  4 chips for my chips and salsa side.  Fish that's been cooked all day.  At least I learned where never to go back to.

Tate: Kolsch was good
Arc:
Ryan:
Derrick:
Neil:

Stop 2: Bill's Tavern

Friendly, busy place with a comfy feel in a comfy town.  This is the first stop that Sammy Quatch the 3rd.

Tate: blackberry and pale
Ryan: blackberry and summer IPA
Derrick: loved summer IPA

All: the red is "real bad"

Stop 1: Public Coast

This place was great, the Brewer invited us in to see the operation and got a done straight from the bucket samples.  Coconut Brown!
Tate: tangerine, black stack, toasted grandma
Ryan: imperial IPA, coconut brown. Hated toested grandma
Derrick: toasted grandma, uncle punk pumpkin ale

Stop #11 / Old Ivy Brewing

After our morning history lesson, we took one more pass through downtown.  A small farmers market provided a snack and some questionable local music and art.

Don't spook the natives with talk of "ports" or "lands"

From there, a short couple of blocks took us to the last stop on our tour, Old Ivy brewing.  A small place with a friendly, relaxed vibe, it fit in alongside the other stops on the journey.

Empty chair not symbolic of anything

Interesting beers were tried, including a corn-based lager and a brown ale with figs.  Both hit the spot, and gave us the fuel we'd need for the long car ride back across the bridge.

---

Our trip was shorter than usual, but still very enjoyable.  It also brought us a surprising fondness for the town of Vancouver.  Quiet, no crowds, and a lot of interesting beer choices.  We all spoke of making future visits, and will probably actually think fondly of the place.  Shocking, I know.

We're hoping that this trip will not be the only one of 2016.  Talks of one-day adventures here in our little beer metropolis are being considered, and would be a good chance to try places we've been meaning to go to for a long time.  So, keep checking this bloggy for more brew-tales.  Maybe you'll see some soon!

Cheers!

Oh, wait, that's a lame sign off.

Bock bock!

That's better.

Laters,
neil

Stop #10 / Fort Vancouver

Having not grown up in the northwest, my elementary schooling never contained any info about the history up here.  Oh, if you want background on the California missions, as well as the applicable missionary position (teehee), well, I've got that in spades.  But, we never learned about anything that happened above the redwoods.

Thus, with a wander through the historic site of Fort Vancouver, I was forced to make up my own story of the past.  I'm sure the following is pretty close to what really happened, anyway.

A Song of Trees and Flannel

It started in, oh lets say, 1879.  Early settlers in Portland, fed up with the long lines at the popular dirtpods, (mounds of mud and sticks that people would gather at, sometimes ironically, though they weren't sure what that meant), would look elsewhere for their artisan rickets and locally sourced dysentery.  They considered going west, but had to stop that migration when more than a third of them drowned from water not falling from the sky, but rising from the ground.  It was the ocean, and it was way too corporate.  So, instead, they went north.

Fencing to keep the colonial hipsters out

The natives called it Big-Box-and-Chain-wee-un-suk-la.  That was too complicated to say, so the immigrants just stole the name of a cool outpost in Canada and made it their own.  They hoped for a quiet life, and to lure confused explorers who were expecting hockey and poutine upon arriving.

And that has continued...until this day.

Now you know as much as I do.

I was not drinking when I wrote this.  I thought I should make that clear.

Stop #9 / morning interlude

This is what you see the morning after making stop #8.

Your standard, post-late night fast food delusion

Be safe out there kids.  Don't do drive thru.

Stop #8 / interlude

Choices were made.

Questionable, late night choices

More later.  If possible.

Stop #7 / Fortside Brewing

So, take a look at this picture, and then answer the question that follows;

Down, and to the left

Is that grey-haired fella sitting barely in the frame, in actuality, disgraced, former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber?  One of us was somewhat convinced that it was.  One of us drinks, by the way (but you knew that).  We couldn't verify this, but what if it was?

You wouldn't care.

No, of course not.  Neither would I.

But, if it was, I think that would be a fascinating way to disrespect your former state.  "Hey, no-longer constituents, you know that boozy thing you're so good at making?  I'm not gonna drink it!  Nope, I'm crossing the state border to drink Washington beer.  How do you like them apples?  Oh, and we've got LOTS of apples up here, so, you know, I hope you really like them.  Pricks."

Politics is weird, man.

Vote beer!

Fortside had some nice brews in their garage-like space, by the way, including two on nitro (a chocolate and a brown) that really hit the late night spot. As we sipped our tasters, we discussed the serious issues of the day, and considered all the vital matters to the affect the world on a daily basis.  And butts.  I mean, ya, one of us drinks.  So, you know.

Stop #6 / Trusty Brewing

I knew it would be tough for the next place to be treated fairly after the great heathen experience (band name alert!  Ladies and gentlemen, The Great Heathen Experience!).  Unfortunately, Trusty Brewing would be the victim of post-great beer enjoyment.

It's not your fault

The pub had a comfortable and inviting layout along with a friendly bartender.  But, alas, I couldn't get into it.  Maybe we'll try again another time, when we haven't had beers at five other spots immediately before.  Oh yeah, that might have had something to do with it too.

Cool bathroom artwork though!

Stop #5 / Heathen Brewing

There are no pictures from inside our fifth stop, the Heathen Brewing Feral House.  Why you ask?  Well, it's hard to take photos when both of your hands are holding delicious, alcoholic nectar.  Which glass are you gonna put down to grab your phone?  The Dunkel?  The Wee Heavy Scotch Ale?  Nope, neither.

So, really, if it's anyone's fault that there are no pics from this place, it's Darwin.  Only two hands?  What kind of evolution is that when there's so much good beer to be had.  Pfft.  Like the guy with over 900 ligaments in his body is going to make that choice.  Come on!

Yes, I really liked this place.  Everyone did in fact, as there were enough beers to choose from to allow for almost no doubles on the taster flights.  A cool theme (for us godless types) and an appealing menu makes Heathen the type of place I would definitely cross the river for again.  My favorite spot so far, obviously.

Editor's note: the author lies. Have some photos of adorable taster goblets:

Stop #4 / Loowit Brewing

Hey look, beer!

One of the cooler things about going to breweries is being able to see the elements of the brewing operation.  It means that, as you sit there drinking the final product, dear new beerlings are being born just steps away.

The blurry circle of life

Loowit was similar to the prior stops, with a friendly atmosphere, open seating, and decent beers.  Nothing extraordinarily, but another nice stop.  And, of course, the scent of yeasty discovery.