A Guide to the Portland Fruit Beer Festival

The Portland Fruit Beer Festival happens this weekend, and though a lot has been said about it already, I have a few things to add. Many people have labeled fruit beer "chick beer" or "girl beer", as Boneyard Brewing has called one of its beers (a beer that will not be at the festival). While there is some truth to that notion, there is a whole hell of a lot more that fruit beers can bring to the table that should be considered. In the same regard, there are a few other unique offerings and aspects of this festival worth discussing, not the least of which are the 31 Flavors of fruit beer that will be represented.

Kegging barrel-aged Marionberry Berliner-Weisse

If you think fruit beer is for girls or is just too sweet, one-note, or boring artificially-flavored beer, then this beer list will have something to teach you. Fruit is a huge flavor component in most drinks. True, it is mostly citrus fruit, but still. The chief problem with many fruit beers (or at least the ones that give the genre a bad name) are that they are unbalanced, with the beer acting just as a delivery mechanism for the fruit. When done right, the fruit adds nuances and subtleties, or bright, juicy, mouthwatering characteristics.

Ben Love of Hopworks presents Chupacabra Chili Stout

Let's take as examples a few of my favorites, all of these ones I have personally tried:

New Belgium's Peach Love
Love is the base beer used for New Belgium’s sour series of beer like La Folie. This super sour single barrel beer was aged in Whiskey Barrels with Peaches. 8.5%Abv. Ultra rare!

Block 15 Brewing's Psidium
Guava Fruit Farmhouse Ale blended with a Sour Golden
Rustic farmhouse ale matured with guava fruit. Brewed with Belgian Pilsner, French Pale & Wheat malts; Saaz & Citra hops; French farmhouse yeast. 6% alc/vol

Pink Guava

Upright Brewing's Barrel-Aged Pure Wit with Orange and Tangelo Peel
A single cask version of our seasonal Belgian-style wit with a pound of dried sweet orange peel added to the barrel. This tart and hazy wheat beer has a tremendous nose but remains light and snappy on the palate. 4.5%

Upright Brewing's Gin Barrel-Aged Four with Strawberries
Upright's flagship wheat beer aged with Oregon strawberry puree in a Ransom Distillery Old Tom Gin barrel. The otherwise straightforward brew picks up a mix of the fruit character and the unique botanical notes that only come from the one of a kind local gin casks. 5%

What I am most looking forward to trying:
None of these I have been able to taste yet unless you count Block 15's entry which I had a little more than a year ago when it won the Cheers To Belgian Beers competition. I am looking forward to seeing how it aged and am betting its even better with the addition of Brettanomyces.

Breakside's Mango IPA
Our flagship IPA brewed with a twist: we tweaked the recipe on our best selling beer to suit it to the flavors of fresh mango. Mango additions in the mash, kettle, hopback, and conditioning tank allow this otherwise-mellow fruit to complement and enhance the Citra, Cascade, and Ahtanum hop profile of this IPA. OG: 1.063 FG: 1.010 ABV: 6.8% IBU: approx. 55

Block 15: 2010 La Ferme’ de Demons (the Demon’s Farm)
Black farmhouse ale brewed with Belgian Pilsner, French Wheat, Candi Sugar, roast malt and farmhouse yeast. Aged for over 8 months in three barrel types; Pinot Noir, Oregon Oak, and Bourbon with Brettanomyces. After barrel aging and blending, this dark ruby black ale is further matured with a touch of Oregon Tart Cherry. A demonic brew to quench only the most sinister thirst. 8.75%alc/vol 31 IBU’s.

Hopworks Belgian Applebiere
An Abbey Ale crossed with a Cider and fermented with Chimay yeast.
51% Organic Wheat 49% fresh pressed Organic Apple Cider 6+% abv

Widmer's Himbeere Gose mid dem Eibisch

Ninkasi's Pinot Barrel-Aged Oatis with Cherries
Oatis Oatmeal stout with cherries aged in Pinot Noir Casks. 7.2 % and 50 ibus.

Coalition Brewing's Wheat the People
An American style wheat aged 2 months in a St. Josef's chardonnay barrel, this beer has light notes of bartlett pears and wine grape, with a sweet and tangy finish of fresh mandarin and tangelo. Starting at 4.4% abv, this beer spontaneously fermented to ~5.2% with the addition of 60 lbs of fresh fruit.

Widmer Brothers Brewing's Himbeere Gose mit dem Eibisch
Gose with raspberries and hibiscus ABV: 5.3% OG: 11.7P AE: 2.3P

While the festival has 31 beers total many of them are one-off kegs some even as small as 1/6 barrels so you will not be able to get them all at any one given time but fest organizers have planned to have atleast the main 15 on for both days with multiple kegs while specialties rotate on in the rare fruit taps located inside the brewery itself. To help people find out what is on at any given time the taps will be updated live via the festival twitter @FruitBeerFest and the Facebook page so make sure to follow them. If you are a twitter user there is also a hashtag for the festival #pfbf. For the full beer list on both the regular and rare taps hit up the website.

Fifty Licks - Handmade Ice Cream

One of the unique offerings of the Portland Fruit Beer Festival? Ice Cream. Sure, that alone is nothing new, but when paired with the right kind of beer, I think it can be revelatory. It's an idea I have been mulling over in my head for a little bit now, and this seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

Photo by Patrick Coleman - Thrillist

I mentioned the idea to ex-Portland Mercury food editor and current Thrillist editor Patrick Alan Coleman and he jumped at the idea and we collaborated to come up with a few interesting fruit beer and ice cream combinations that you can find on Thrillist here.

This is where fine purveyors of that most glorious combination of sugar, ice and cream come in Fifty Licks uses only the finest local and direct trade ingredients and ditched the frozen can method. Every small batch of their unique ice cream is smooth and creamy, and available in a variety of delicious, creative flavors like:

Photo from Food Carts Portland

Tahitian Vanilla:

We swirl fruity, tropical Tahitian vanilla with a hint of swarthy, smoky Mexican vanilla to create this epic ice cream. This will change the way you think about vanilla.

Maple with Bacon:

Imagine crispy bacon piled high over stacks of maple-drizzled pancakes. Yummy maple ice cream studded with humanely raised, nitrate & hormone free bacon.

Caramelized Apple:

Inside is a pint of award-winning Washington apple cider boiled down into a buttery, bittersweet caramel. The flavor of fresh, tart apples shines brightly.

Stumptown Coffee:

Starring Stumptown's perfectly-balanced organic Latin American and East African coffee. They buy the beans directly from the farmers so everyone gets their fair share.

Coconut-Lemon-Saffron Sorbet:

An alluring blend of creamy coconut milk and lemon, infused with saffron, cardamom, and star anise. This sorbet is an intoxicating journey down the silk road. A dairy-free delight. (Vegan)

The festival is also partnering with Brewvana Portland Brewery Tours who are offering discounted trips on their bus to and from the Portland Fruit Beer Festival making a few stops along the way. For only $30 you get a ride to and from the festival plus a glass and ticket package that includes 1 gold flaked festival glass and 10 beer tickets. Check out the schedule and deal here or contact: Brewvana@gmail.com

The festival is also lucky enough to be able to be FREE to enter and ALL-AGES friendly though of course a tasting glass ($6) and tickets ($1 each) are required

If all goes according to plan than Burnside Brewing hopes to expand and double the size of the festival next year which would truly be something.

Saturday June 11th 11am-9pm

Sunday June 12th 11am-6pm

Burnside Brewing parking lot

7th and East Burnside

Portland, OR