Actually, I don’t quite know what to make of it. It’s good? It’s certainly not bad, and easily drinkable if it was given to you. They say it tastes better if you age it, but I didn’t want year old fruitcake.

I love fruit beers. I hate fruit beers. In my experience, I have found there is very little middle ground between awesome and vomit. So you can imagine my intrigue then when presented with an entire lineup of potential greats…or terribles. I can report however, that with the exception of an Orange Marmalade ale I tried (my apologies to the sink), it was all good. In a few cases, really good. A couple highlights were the Mango IPA from Breakside, Lucky Lab Cherry Kolsch, and a Framboise from someone whose name eludes me at the moment. In fact, there were so many good ones, I’d be hard pressed to describe them all.

If I only had one complaint to give, it was just the nature of a festival of rare beer. By the time we arrived on Sunday, several of the ones we were hoping to try were long gone (no more apple bier … #cry). So keep that in mind for next year. Also, someone tell Burnside to have a larger menu. But I digress.

In all, it was a fantastic time, and a wonderful addition to the pantheon of beer tasting events Beervana has to offer. Now if youll excuse me, I’m off to hunt down some Fruli Strawberry Beer.

To the gent behind the rare taps, your socks are amazing.

I bought another bottle on Saturday because I was trying to fill out my beer selection because we were having guests over for dinner.    Selections outside of ambers and IPAs were slim and the only one that appealed to me was the Glissade.     I took a risk and bought it again, and I call it a “risk” because I couldn’t remember how much I liked it.

Damn the aging memory demons, but this stuff is awesome!  It’s very easy to drink and given that it’s brewed by SN, I expected to be punched in the mouth by hops.    There’s a bit of hop there, but only enough to tame the mighty malt content.

I’d have bought more on Saturday, but buying a 12 pack seemed overkill, and they didn’t have six packs in stock, so I ended up with a single 22oz bottle.    I’m going to stop  by the store on my way home and buy the 12pack!

A Phone App!

When I first conceived of this site, it’s primary purpose was for SJ and I to remember what beer we have already had, and if it was any good. A silly testament to how much we drink. Then I figured we could open it up to a few people to add content, and there you go. Three years later, its still doing what it did before. Provide irreverent, periodic and biased reviews of beer we like to drink (or like to bash on). Well, that is all well and good, but frankly it’s time consuming to write all this stuff. Now that Twitter/Facebook/Yelp/Foursquare/etc has taught us that we dont need to communicate longform anymore, I have to decided to evolve Frosty Goodness to go along with my shrinking attention spa… oh look a birdie.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah. Soon, Frosty Goodness will be an app that allows ANYONE to record the beer they drink, if they thought it was any good, and share the list with the world. With any luck, it will be released on iTunes and the Android Market at around he same time, and soon, I will be able to figure out if I’ve had that odd Colorado microbrew without relying on the WordPress search feature, or even worse … my brain.

In addition to the standard reviews, you will also soon notice other little bits of fun such as videos, and a new focus on home brews. Also in a matter of weeks, the crew at Frosty Goodness will be finally putting the malt where their mouth is, and brewing their own beer. Stay tuned for the full accounting of the brewing experience, as well as the chance to get your hands on one of the exclusive first batch.

Thanks for sticking with us. Now, back to the reviews.

UPDATE: As soon as we launched, I found a billion things on the template that are broken. Oy! Thats what I get for launching after an stout, ESB, and two glasses of port. Bear with us while we fly to fix things. Sorry!!

Three Creeks Brewing

I love Sisters, so naturally Three Creeks had an early leg up. The beer selection, while not overly large, was tasty. For the most part, all the brews in question were good. If you take away the generally slow service, and lack of labeling on the taster tray (I had to ask the waitress), the lineup was definately worth recommending.

Run Away!: Anvil Amber.  The only beer on the list that I couldn’t finish was the Anvil Amber. Weird, overly malty, and just generally not good, this sad loner was all that was left on the mighty tray.

Runner Up: Old Prospector Pale. There is nothing bad to say about OPP. It was good, easy drinkin’, and could easily be a cooler filler at a summer BBQ. Its only failing was that it was so “normal”, that it didn’t really stand out.

Winner: Stonefly Rye. Cloudy and wheaty, with a touch of the always fun Rye malt to keep it smooth. I appreciated that they didn’t try to dump a bunch of hops in it. Let the Rye stand on its own I say. And here it does.

Bend Brewing Company

50 oz!! That is an amazing amount of beer for one “taste sitting”. Kudos to you, Bend. Unlike Three Creeks, Bend Brewing had a giant selection, and the taster tray showed them all off. Almost all of the offerings were good enough to get a solo pint of. Even the Imperial Red, which is never a Frosty favorite, was a smooth swig. What’s truly impressive though, is that out of the entire tray, there was only one beer that wasn’t worthy of finishing. And that beer was:

Run Away!: Pinnacle Porter. I like porters in general, but when you add that super roasted to flavor to any dark beer, it turns to instant yuck. Dark beer is a balancing act, and this show just fell in the shark tank.

Runner Up: Black Diamond Dark Lager. Because my Turkey Melt was good, I’m going to forgive the server for adding a lime to this beer glass. Really guys, is this Corona? If the beer can’t stand up without fruit added, you’re selling it on the wrong side of the border. That being said, its lighter than it looks, and goes down smooth and tasty, even on a 90 degree day.

Winner: Paulina Plunge Pale Ale. I know it seems kind of a cop out to choose something so simple as the best of the bunch. But when you’ve already had 45 oz. of unique interesting beer flavors, sometimes the one you “just enjoy drinking” turns out to be the best. Easy drinkin’ at its finest. If they don’t bottle this, they should. Hey, I even bought a shirt.

So there you have it. Portland gets a ton of credit for being a beer haven, but I think it important not to forget its cousin to the east. I only hit two breweries, and already can’t wait to get back. 50 oz. people! The gauntlet has been thrown.

This year, I loaded up with the carbs for breakfast, so I was able to plow through considerably more beer without feeling ill. Unfortunately, the blueberry pancakes didn’t do anything for my ability to remember what I’d had. Instead, I relied on the miracle of modern smartphone technology to help me catalogue my drunken exploits. (And I only dropped my phone in beer once!)

Special thanks go out to the Taplister guys for the free schwag and friendly conversation. Also, I would like to give props to the amazing place with the crazy nut varieties. I was too drunk to remember the name of your business, but a toast to you anyway.

Of the brews, three really stood out among the rest.

Natian Destination Red
Did you know this Portland brewery existed? Me neither. Still, the combo of the Oregon Honey into the Red Ale really made for a fun combination. Perfect for summer, and was truly the first beer at the fest that I had that was truly “good”. Keep it up Natian…whoever you are.

Moylan Pomegranate Wheat
Fruit beer is a scary concept. It is usually either awesome (Stumptown Tart) or horrible (almost everyone else). Well, whatever the magic sauce is,  Moylan’s found it. The pomegranate isn’t overpowering, the wheat balances it, making it an ideal beer for a warm summer outing. Usually picky SwillJockey drank the equivalent of 5 tokens worth of the stuff, so thats saying something.

Cascade Summer Gose
Hurray for the local boys. Known for their super fruity Krieks, the Cascade Brewing guys at Racoon Lodge created a nice Belgian Sour that was the right balance between fruity, and wheat. This was probably my favorite from the whole fest. There was enough flavor to keep it interesting (unlike many watery offerings from the various tents, but still light and cool enough to be drinkable in the 80 degree sun.

So there you have it. With water in hand, I let my liver recover, and thank skylark, SwillJockey, and the OBF folks for another drunk worthy year. Prost!

Still, if honest and un-politically correct commentary is what you’re after, watch our RSS feed starting at noon. Myself, skylark, and the SwillJockey will do our best to stay sober enough to write something meaningful.

Or we’ll just do what we normally do.