Upright Brewing Blog

Fantasia & Blend Love

2012-01-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

Between now Upright's third anniversary in late March, two new sour fruit beers will be released. The first, titled Fantasia, after the musical term (not the movie, even though I enjoy it somewhat regularly), is one I'm really excited about. The project started early in the summer of 2010 after meeting Trevor Baird whose family operates an orchard that produces stunning fruit, most notably peaches. It was a tremendously friendly Trevor who planted the idea in my head to make a peach beer, and so I set about to brew something totally different from anything I've done before. The process started in July when it was time to begin propagating some lactobacillus and brettanomyces, which don't reproduce all that quickly. I wanted a healthy and respectable pitch to get the flavors I had in mind, and by the time the peaches were ripe and ready, which landed the third week of August, the yeast and bacteria were plenty ready to go. The few weeks leading up to the brewday were also spent procuring some appropriate oak barrels, eight in total sourced from four different wineries here in Oregon. After finally getting the call from Trevor that the peaches would be ready on the 23rd, everything was in order and Gerritt fired up the brewhouse while myself and a few very hardworking friends unloaded 800 pounds of fruit and spent most of the day cutting them up and stuffing them into the barrels.

It took quite a while, and the wort enjoyed an extra long boil in the meantime much like traditional lambic worts. The recipe was pretty simple, all barley (unlike the wheaten lambic style), but employing warm aged hops from the 2008 harvest. By the end of the boil, all eight barrels were full of the fruit plus a mixture of saison yeast and the aforementioned lactobacillus and brettanomyces. The wort was then cooled and pumped directly into the barrels, all of them getting filled to roughly 2/3 or 3/4 capacity to allow room for the fermentation (one that was filled a little much clogged the breathable bung with peach flesh and blew it out like a shotgun during a bottling run, which created one of the most incredible messes in Upright history), which after a couple weeks was on it's tail end and the barrels were topped off with one of two beers; the Four and the Tokay d' Portland, a small batch barrel aged experiment of sorts. At that point, the Fantasia was ready for extended maturation in the casks, so it was hard bunged and set aside until the following August when seven of the eight barrels were blended and bottled shortly thereafter. Those bottles have been conditioning in the back of the brewery since, and as soon as we get it labeled later this month they'll finally be at the end of their journey and ready to enjoy or to cellar for even more time as I expect this beer to continue developing for two years. After that the fruit character will likely dull a bit even though the beer will still be tasty.

The Fantasia is very lambic-esque, despite the fact that it wasn't brewed strictly to style. I suspect the aromatic similarity is due to the primary fermentation being carried out not only with the three yeasts and bacteria intentionally pitched but also with who knows what the fruit had on it. Fresh fruit is notorious for carrying all sorts of "wild" yeasts, and the Fantasia certainly has a pleasant complexity thanks to that. The Four Play on the other hand, a brew that has been released twice by Upright now, has used a puree from Oregon Fruit Products. I use their fruit often for all sorts of barrel aged beers. They're packaged aseptically, so there's never any surprises; the flavor is always consistent and excellent, and they're pureed so no hours and hours of destemming and cutting. I know, sucking the romance right out of it, but next time I get 800 pounds of peaches or 400 pounds of cherries, etc., I'll give you a call and you can see exactly how romantic it is after half the day has passed.

The Four Play has been a bit of a cult beer for us. It's always generated a fair deal of hype (much to my dismay) and sells out pretty quickly. Basically a barrel aged sour cherry version of the Four, it has what I think is a perfect balance of funk and fruit. This separates it greatly from the Fantasia or even more so from red fruit lambic-style beers which can be so forward that the grain-based beer gets completely buried. Well, I'm stoked to say that Upright is taking its most popular beer and retiring it. The Four Play, whose release coincides with the brewery anniversary, is being turned into a similar brew named after a colleague and friend, Ben Love of the upcoming Gigantic Brewing Company. The new beer, titled Blend Love, is essentially the Four Play but with barrel aged Six with raspberries mixed in. The inaugural release, blended earlier today, used 25% of the Six. It's an evolution of the Four Play, giving it added layers - more malt, more alcohol, deeper color, and more fruit (but still in check with the malt profile). I'm into it, and hope that you will be too! For those that loved the Four Play, don't be dismayed as the brewery is securing more space for barrel aging and is strongly considering producing a couple batches of Four Play annually to keep on tap year round at the tasting room, besides making several more new annual releases, but of course that's ripe for a future blog posting.

Fatali Four

2011-12-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

The Fatali Four is going out the door today. Roughly half the batch is headed to our distributors in BC and here in Portland, while the remainder will trickle out the tasting room over several weeks, or as is happening right now, will find its way in a glass on my desk. This second bottling of the Fatali only varies from the previous by the addition of one first use old tom gin barrel. The rest is aged in three former pinot noir barrels that have been filled with beer at least twice, with two of those incorporating some mixture of brettanomyces and/or lactobacillus. The interesting thing is that the gin barrel portion brings a whole new dimension to the beer, even while representing a mere 25% of the blend. The nose, which was dominated by tropical notes last year, is full of bright lime and other citrus elements; aromas I personally am very fond of. Once on the tongue, the flavors of the 2010 vintage return with a bit less heat, but the gin character comes through here too in a way that people familiar with Ransom's wonderful spirit will recognize. Add in bits of brett and oak character along with a pinch of sulfur and you've got a 4.5% beer with a whole lot going on. I'm curious to hear what others think about the change this year, so please comment as I practically never fix recipes and am always open to more changes in the future.

Also worth noting is that Jason and Jay from Burnside dropped by during the blending and we decided to produce a couple Sweet Heat/Fatali kegs. I'm planning on bringing one of only two Fatali kegs over to their place tomorrow and we should have the blended kegs ready soon. Expect to see one on tap at the Grain and Gristle and the other at Burnside in the near future!

Big thanks to Snob Ritch for growing enough chiles in such an adverse year! Dr. Greenthumb, this brew wouldn't exist without you!

The One

2011-12-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

It's official. After working with a handful of different yeasts since opening in the spring of 2009, I've finally found a strain that has that elusive mix of flavor and functionality. For the past few months now, the four year round "numbered" beers and a couple seasonals have been fermented with one that many beer geeks and brewers are familiar with - the Ardennes, or Chouffe yeast. It's awesome! Here's why:

- excellent attenuation, but like the French saison strain still leaves a pleasantly full body
- ferments quickly and dependably, with extra short lag phases
- has a huge temperature range, much lower than typical Belgian yeasts
- settles out fantastically
- low sulfur production
- forms a nice harvest-able layer mid-fermentation all the way through to terminal gravity being reached

To elaborate on these points and why they are important, a more detailed explanation:

The high attenuation level is obviously key in making refreshing, farmhouse-style beers. Dryness is a wonderful thing, making higher gravity beers like the Six and Seven still reasonable pint pours as they won't fill you up. Often beers that are well attenuated come across thin, but each yeast has a distinct mouthfeel and this one leaves the beers with a great balance between crisp and creamy.

Fast fermentations are welcome for reasons of increased capacity anywhere, but the short lag phases are especially important here because these beers are all made in open fermenters where every hour that the wort sits waiting for the yeast to get rolling, airborne bacterial contamination is a concern. This is also why the cooler temperatures are better, as most common beer contaminants thrive above 80 F, which is where our last strain needed to be to work properly. The wide temperature range of the Ardennes yeast is nice because it allows for relatively cool fermentations, so beers like the Five and Six or perhaps upcoming seasonals or one-offs, which I want to push in a biere de garde-like direction with more delicate yeast profiles, become easier to control, around 60 F. At the same time, I can produce the Four and Seven around 10 degrees warmer and get a solid but still not overpowering Belgian-esque profile.

Every strain previously used here was a poor flocculator, and too often, particularly in draft versions, the beers had much more yeast than I'd like. It contributes a harsher bitterness and clouds/distorts the finish as well. That's now a thing of the past here, and while most of the beers retain a protein haze from the use of certain malts or raw grains, they should never pour with excess yeast again. In addition to that, all former strains employed here were significant sulfur producers, and sometimes no matter what we tried the sulfur couldn't be completely stripped out. The new yeast, jokingly dubbed Mc Ill Ganome, produces some sulfur during fermentation and, like most strains, quickly dissipates without any unusual effort on the brewers end.

The best thing of all though, is the ability to crop this yeast right off the top. Typically the timing works out that I can simply scoop it off with a stainless steel pitcher and go from tank to tank. Otherwise if it needs to be stored for a bit I attach a vacuum pump to the yeast brink that has a 1/2" diameter stainless steel "wand" and suck the yeast off. It's pretty cool, and the electric pump works better than the reversed bike pump I rigged that would burn an entire day's worth of calories for either Gerritt or I to operate. This top cropped yeast is especially pure and healthy, and is the main reason for having the open fermenters in the first place. Took nearly three years to find the one, but it was certainly worth the work and wait.

Malty winter releases

2011-10-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

The past couple days were spent brewing two special beers at Upright, both of which warrant some detailing as their processing is somewhat unusual.

The one we ran through the brewhouse today is simply named "Provision" and will be our entry for the Holiday Ale Festival. The following description was admittedly written earlier for the festival program, but puts it together concisely:

Upright Provision is a malty farmhouse-style beer with layered aromatics and flavors. Its depth comes from a blend of 80% freshly brewed biere de garde-style beer and 20% English-style old ale. The French inspired portion is made traditionally with true lager yeast at an elevated temperature and openly fermented, while the old ale follows historic suit by being aged in an oak barrel for one year with brettanomyces, a yeast first isolated from 19th century examples. The resulting blend has a complex nose and is richly flavored but not overly heavy.

The specifics regarding aromas and flavors are purposely kept vague here because the actual blending is roughly two weeks out, and I'm honestly unsure how much of the bold old ale nose will work into the finished beer, although I'll be able to adjust that stated 20% however much necessary to achieve a desirable profile. Expect the biere de garde base to be quite malt forward but balanced on the palate and relatively clean. I suspect this beer will bottle very well and plan to fill 5 or 10 cases under the Sole Composition label for release sometime in December. Another fun note is that the barrel of old ale that gets worked into the Provision will be refilled right away with the blend itself; another little project that should mature nicely throughout the bulk of 2012.

Yesterday the mash tun had its biggest workout of the year, taking in over 900 pounds of malt for the annual Billy the Mountain brew. In the previous two releases the beer has been 100% barrel aged with brettanomyces, yielding a firmly tart beer that while I still enjoy thoroughly (particularly around 60 F and from a large wine glass around midnight), I simply felt like changing it up this year. The recipe remains similar: gravity, grist, ibu's, yeast strain, and fermentation temperature are all the same or very close, but this late 2011 version will be done in a similar way to the Provision, blending in around 20% of the 2010 barrel aged brew into what's fermenting as I write this. It will be a significant departure from batches one and two for certain, with more hop presence, more straightforward aromatics, and less acidity. Like the previous Billy, this one will be bottled still to accentuate the vinous qualities, although the high proportion of young beer will lend this vintage to a more dramatic evolution in the bottle (or keg for that matter) as the bit of brettanomyces slowly works on the residual sugars. Expect this one to be out by years end, but no rush as it will likely hit a pleasant stride from the spring through 2012 and far beyond.

Stout of Monte Fisto

2011-08-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I was joking around at the brewery after getting into a discussion about the Rocky movies with Gerritt and Angelo and ended up finding several of Apollo Creed's nicknames online, all of which are pretty amusing. One in particular caught my attention, The Count of Monte Fisto. It just seemed ripe to change that "Count" into "Stout". Also around that time I was introduced to a new hop variety named apollo, and so a new beer was born out of sheer humor.

The Stout of Monte Fisto ended up being brewed in May. The recipe was slightly different than anything I'd done in the past, using Briess' flavorful Ashburne Mild malt as a base along with my favorite chocolate and roast malts, roughly 5% oats and a pinch of roasted raw wheat. No caramel malt was used as the Ashburne Mild seemed to have plenty of depth. A blend of roughly 1/3 American ale yeast and 2/3 Scottish ale yeast fermented the beer. Of course this was all revolving around apollo hops, which were the only variety tossed into the kettle.

I wasn't exactly keen on brewing a traditional Russian-style imperial stout, but still wanted something with oomph. The beer is probably best described as an imperial American stout, as it has a very solid bitterness (about 60 ibu's) with a medium level of hop flavor, finishing at 8.25% abv.

After filling three whiskey barrels from Oregon's own Big Bottom Whiskey, we were left with 7 kegs of the "straight" version which will be sporadically released over the next few months (look for it at the Beermongers second anniversary September 10 & 11). The whiskey barrel portion is aging in the far corner of the brewery and is likely to be blended before the end of the year.

It was a blast getting to brew a beer so atypical from Upright's other releases, and I hope that the local beer enthusiasts enjoy this one-off brew.

Four new beers!

2011-08-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

In what may be typical fashion, there's plenty of different and unusual beers in the works at Upright. Because of increased flexibility thanks to a few extra tanks installed early in the year, we've been able to work in more one-off brews as well as expand the number of batches maturing in oak barrels. For quick updates on new draft-only beers, I added a section to the website here. There are two coming up very soon in particular, a smoked helles and a low gravity saison. Both should be ready to keg and within the next couple weeks.

The helles uses the same yeast as the Engelberg Pilsener, but the similarity basically ends there as it's about as smokey as the pils is hoppy. The brewery's smoker can only accommodate 40 or so pounds at a time, so it took a pretty solid chunk of the day to do the 160 pounds that went into the beer. The smoking process was however a wonderful time that was shared with Jonathon Carmean from Saraveza and Neil Yandow from the Belmont Station. As I write this the beer is over one month in and lagering away behind me. Samples from the tank have shown an unsurprisingly smokey nose but somewhat soft flavors which should make for a nice beer in the end. It fermented a bit more dry than expected but I expect it to have enough malt character to balance the maple and ash wood smoke out.

The saison, dubbed "Todo Modo" after one of Charles Mingus' compositions from Cumbia and Jazz Fusion, is a true session beer at 3.8% abv. It's somewhat heavily hopped using a couple varieties for aroma and flavor that we don't normally employ - east kent golding and santiam, the latter providing an attractive nose of white pepper. Todo Modo is fermented with the classic Saison Dupont yeast, so the overall fermentation profile is a significant departure from beers using the brewery's somewhat new house yeast strain. Besides the main portion which will be kegged soon, one oak barrel was also filled and there is a loose plan to blend it down the road with an oak barrel of the Monk and Mingus made in the spring for the Cheers to Belgian Beers festival.

There are a couple exciting bottled releases coming up halfway soon as well. Wednesday I'll be blending four oak barrels worth of Late Harvest, Upright's annual spiced brown ale. The 2011 recipe was brewed in November with coriander, bitter orange peel, and long pepper, and has been maturing in two wine barrels, one Old Tom Gin barrel and one Whippersnapper Whiskey barrel. While the recipe changes every year, certain aspects are carried over like layered aromatics and mid-level acidity. The Late Harvest has always been one of my favorite beers to sip on slowly or try pairing with food as it's more complex and challenging than just about anything else coming from the brewery. As the schedule stands, expect a release toward the end of September.

For the sour beer fans out there we've got a special beer nearing the end of its processing journey. In fact, it's all bottled up and simply waiting for labels while it continues to condition in the back of the brewery. The beer is named "Fantasia" after the musical term it evokes. It began 364 days ago when with the help of several friends, 800 pounds of fresh peaches from Baird Family Orchards were stuffed into eight oak barrels while the brew was underway. A simple grist of organic pale malt with a pinch of light caramel and rolled barley was mashed and ran off into the kettle as usual before the beer took it's first odd turn by using aged hops and a long boil of 3.5 hours. Instead of fermenting the beer in stainless steel tanks, it was pumped directly to the peach filled barrels with a mix of saison yeast, brettanomyces, and lactobacillus. Roughly two weeks later, after the bulk of the malt and fruit sugars were used up by the organisms, the barrels were topped off with a mix of freshly brewed Four or other barrel aged beer and bunged up until a few weeks ago when they were blended and then bottled. I would describe the profile as somewhat similar to a straight lambic, with a peach nose like perfume up against the earthy and funky brettanomyces and wild yeast aromas. 100 pounds of peaches per barrel is quite a bit, and the high level of skin contributed lots of tannin that give the beer a great edge. By the time labels are ready and the Fantasia is released this fall, the conditioning should be just right, or in the beginning of what is surely a very long sweet spot.

On a different note altogether, I'd like to express my own excitement in having another professional brewer in the family! One of my many cousins, Jose Guzzi, has just started a nano brewery in Tucuman, a province in northern Argentina. It's about the opposite of the beer paradise that Portland has become over the years, but he's sure to help grow the "cerveza artisanal" movement of the country. If you ever happen to be down there you can find his beers by contacting him here.

Spring pipeline

2011-04-26T17:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last update regarding seasonal and one-off beers from Upright, so here's a rundown:

Pure Wit - a draft batch was released a few weeks ago and has been on at the tasting room and a bit around town too. A second batch was bottled last week and should be done conditioning soon. These batches of wit use a very different recipe than the previous one we released a while ago, incorporating more raw wheat to make the beer creamier and lend the distinct white appearance of the style. We're really happy with the changes and think that our extra dry and tart interpretation is a nice alternative to other less aggressive examples. A special version is currently maturing in a Patton Valley Pinot Noir barrel with a pound of sweet orange peel. That one will be poured at the new Fruit Beer fest in June.

Monk and Mingus - while this brew uses the same name as our entry to the Cheers to Belgian Beers festival last year, it couldn't be more different. We collaborated again with Corey Blodgett, the ex-Oregon brewer now in charge at Maritime Pacific in Seattle. Both of us were feeling like making a hoppy brew instead of the malt forward recipe from 2010, so we made a Belgian-style pale ale with tons of liberty and tettnanger hops. The beer is deep gold in color and has a big nose that oddly has dark berry aromatics underneath the huge hoppiness, finishing extra dry and chalky with some lasting bitterness. It was a neat yeast to work with in the open fermenter as it behaves unlike anything I've seen - it top crops so well that it needed to be punched down back into suspension repeatedly throughout the fermentation - bizarre! A portion of the Monk and Mingus is in a former pinot barrel as well, likely to be bottled for the Sole Composition series later this year.

Flora Rustica is a bit behind this year as the spring yarrow needed for the brew is not out yet, but on a bright note our new neighbor at the PSU farmers market this year (Viridian Farms) should be able to supply fresh calendula flowers to either replace or augment the dry version used in the first batch. Expect the bottles to be released sometime in July with the debut at the Grain and Gristle featuring one of only a few kegs.

The Sole Composition series which started only a few months ago has been going great. So far the beers released have been the 14+ month barrel aged Seven with brettanomyces, Special Herbs, Noel, Whipper Snapper Six, and Tokay d' Portland, of which only the Noel is still available. Soon I hope to bottle two new floral beers. One is Rose City Seven, using rose hips, petals, and hibiscus. It's a blend from a Whipper Snapper whiskey barrel and a wine barrel, with just a bit of tartness. The other is an Old Tom barrel full of the Four with chrysanthemum flowers and some homegrown yellow rose as well. Both should be out within the next month or so.

Unconventional yeast

2011-03-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer - this is a very production focused, geeky post:

Upright has been fermenting it's year-round beers with a very particular yeast strain that goes by the name French Saison. I started using it at home a year or two before opening the brewery and was really intrigued by the fact that it was so distinct in how it tastes and behaves. At this point, after having used the French Saison (or 3711 as it's known in the Wyeast catalog) in nearly 100 fermentations I feel like I could write a book about it, or perhaps that I need to write a book about it. To get some stuff out, a rant I suppose. For you brewers reading this, no explanation is necessary regarding how oddly intense a relationship can be with a seemingly simple single celled organism.

The first 5 liters of yeast slurry at the brewery came late. It was the third week of March 2009 and we had just broken in the brewhouse with Billy the Mountain a few days before, made with some English ale yeast we got from another local brewer. The 3711, being a less common yeast, needed a longer lead time after ordering than most strains, so when it finally arrived I was extra ready to brew with it. Since I still wanted to test the yeast a bit before using it on something to be released right away, and eager to fill some of the barrels I had procured from a friend of a friend winemaker, I decided to make a pilot batch of the Four for long term aging (later becoming the 2010 Four Play). That brew went pretty smooth at first, and it was certainly fun to simply take the screw-top bag that the yeast is packaged in and dump it into the huge open-top fermenter. The first surprise with the 3711 was after skimming the top of the heady foam once the fermentation was underway only to find that it wasn't forming a thick layer at the top, making harvesting the yeast impossible. I optimistically thought that maybe the next day it would be up there, but it wasn't. At this point it was critical to find a way to reuse the yeast, so I started pulling something like 10-13 gallons into a keg from the bottom port while the beer was in peak fermentation, when the highest concentration of yeast is in suspension. This would essentially act as a yeast starter, and it was necessary to store it at room temperature with some sort of CO2 blow off attached while it continued to ferment until it was time to brew again. That's the way the French Saison yeast has been cropped from the open fermenters this whole time. It's frustrating because it doesn't really provide an adequate number of cells to allow for for quick and consistent fermentations .

Harvesting the 3711 hasn't been the only difficult aspect in using it. It's a super attenuating strain, meaning that given the opportunity it will consume all of the sugars available in the beer. All of them. One problem with this is that the beers are then hard to balance, especially after bottle conditioning, when the acidity and bitterness really pop. Another issue is that because of the extended fermentation, or consumption of these sugars over the few months after the beer should be done, more CO2 is produced making it impossible to produce consistent carbonation levels. These are issues that in my years of brewing have never come up with any other strain.

Why has Upright been using this finicky yeast? Because when we can control it, it makes great beer. My favorite part about it is that in the different recipes it produces very different profiles (many strains taste very similar throughout a range of worts or beers). The aromas it creates are generally floral and complex, truly unlike any other yeast. It actually highlights grain flavors beautifully, with no sharpness, although it does subdue hop aromas and flavors which necessitates larger amounts than we would otherwise. Overall, it's mellow for a supposed French or Belgian strain, being very well rounded and smooth. Another great aspect of it is that the beers always end up with a satisfying mouthfeel, even after drying out which would render many thin and watery. The 3711 also has a great lasting finish with character, not too delicate even when only minimally adjusting Portland's hyper soft water. It's best application is without a doubt for barrel-aged beers which have time to ferment out completely before being packaged, eliminating the extended CO2 production issue and again highlighting the pleasant full-bodied nature of it. It's also great for simulating historic beers that would have dried out excessively because of wild yeast, a property that gives seasonals like the Gose and Flora Rustica a stronger link to the past.

All this yeast is on my mind because two batches in progress at Upright are using a new strain. It's the third used on the year-round beers in recent months. The first alternate to the 3711, while tasting great, didn't crop well in the open fermenters. This second one, propagated from a bottle of of one my favorite Belgian beers, is showing promise. The flavors are unique and in many ways similar to the 3711, without any peculiar sharp or high notes. It's quite heady at peak fermentation, so much so that the first batch blew way over the lip of the 20 bbl fermenter, making an incredible mess. Right now the recipes are being reworked to produce 14 bbls in one day as opposed to 20 bbls over to days to leave room for the unusually high foam. The only issue to tackle is that it isn't drying the beers out as much as I'd like, so the recipes and processes are being tinkered with to get the balance I'm looking for. It seems to top crop reasonably well, and after building a special positive pressure room a couple years ago to house the brewery's open-top tanks, that may be the best thing about it. The method of harvesting is worth noting, only because it's a bit amusing - we altered a bike pump to pull a vacuum and hook it up to our 1/2 bbl yeast brink. One of us uses a stainless steel wand connected to the brink to suck the yeast off while the other pumps away. Still unconventional, for sure.

Upcoming events and beers

2011-02-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

There's been plenty going on in the brewery and more in store for the following months leading into spring, so here's a quick rundown of notable events and new batches:

The second annual oyster stout is being bottled tomorrow and set for a release the 22nd at the Grain and Gristle after enjoying a proper conditioning time. This batch is tasting noticeably saltier than the previous and stands out as being more of a true oyster stout. In fact, the higher salt and mineral level actually slowed the entire fermentation down but luckily it finished just fine. The bulk of the batch will be bottled with only a few kegs being filled for the brewery tasting room and Grain and Gristle. Two firkins are also getting filled tomorrow, one for Bailey's taproom going on Monday night and another packed with Oregon black truffles for the official release on the 22nd. I won't know how that will taste until it gets tapped that night, but I'm expecting it to be delicious.

Last week we blended four oak barrels that will comprise the upcoming release of Four Play. It's more fruity and tart than the original and fixing to be an excellent beer to drink in the coming warmer weather or cellar for special occasions. This batch will be released at the brewery's second anniversary March 20th and have a new label too.

Now that the brewery is starting to amass so many different single cask or small batch beers being aged in oak we're starting a series called Sole Composition to release them in bottled form direct from the tasting room. These will be a variety of beers often using unusual ingredients or processes that should make them truly distinct. All the bottles will be labeled and numbered by hand. Detailed information on each will be posted in the tasting room and also on this blog around the time of their release. Expect the first of them to be available within a couple weeks.

Upright had three new tanks built by our neighbor and friends at Metalcraft Fabrication which have just been hooked up as of last week. In one of the new fermenters a batch of Engelberg Pilsener is chugging along, a hoppy German-style pils we plan to have on draft year-round. We also have a coffee stout in the works and our take on a kopstootje which will be based on a French Biere de Garde style but lightly spiced with the same botanicals used in Bols Genever. As always, more info to come.

Safe as Milk

2011-01-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

We brewed an IPA. No really, we did. But it's probably not what you're thinking. Nothing crazy, but we decided to make a traditional English-style IPA. It has half the bitterness and hop charge that some popular west coast or American IPA's have, but hey, it's a start. It all sprang from a discussion regarding what yeast strain to use on our upcoming oyster stout. Last year we used a Scottish strain which certainly made for a tasty profile, but nonetheless we were interested in trying something new. Because the oyster stout is of British origin, it made sense to use a yeast along those lines. Luckily, our supplier has one that goes right by that name - "British Ale". I'd used it a couple times in homebrews and enjoyed the overall character, and since we were still waiting on the extra friendly folks at Hama Hama Oyster Company to provide us with the beer's highlight ingredients, we figured it would be fun to use the yeast on something else in the meantime. The Willamette hops that we got from the 2010 harvest were especially nice, and so it was an easy decision to make the English-style IPA with them as the sole flavor and aroma hop.

I suppose there isn't a tremendous amount to say about the beer as we brewed it pretty authentically, in my opinion (maybe Ted from Brewers Union Local 180 would argue that though). Roughly 40-45 ibu's, not excessively hopped or carbonated for that matter, yet still displaying the wonderfully woody and floral Willamettes in the forefront. When you make saison-esque beers all day, it's an enormous blast to do something different like this. Look for it at the usual beery bars including my new venture, the Grain and Gristle.

What's with the name? Safe as Milk is the first album from Captain Beefheart who passed away about a month ago. He was a musician/person that was way out there, in a very good way as the Upright brewers and his devout fans would acknowledge.

Curious about the oyster stout? It's only a handful of days in so far. It got off to a somewhat slow start, likely because of excessive mineral content in the Hama Hama juice retarding the fermentation. Could have been too much zinc, copper, sodium or something else for that matter, it's hard to tell. It's moving along great now though and we expect it to produce a brew as tasty as the first batch or better. A late Febrauary release is likely, and I'm toying with the idea of filling a firkin of it with black truffles. The fungus, not the chocolates. Stay tuned for that.

Fatali Four

2010-12-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

On the same day that we're celebrating the release of Billy the Mountain we'll also be putting out another new beer called Fatali Four. Last year we produced a few kegs of it in the fall but we liked it so much that became an easy decision to do it again, this time as a bottled beer. The original was simply an oak barrel's worth of the Four that had fatali chiles thrown into it for a month and half. The chiles were grown by our friend Ritch Marvin and gave the beer a nice level of heat along with some really exotic tropical aromas. The interesting thing about this new bottled version is that while we essentially incorporated the fresh chiles in exactly the same way, we ended up using base beers of varying ages and with different yeasts and bacteria. In fact, one-third of the blend is from our second brew back in March 2009 (a barrel that was part of the Four Play brew, including brettanomyces and lactobacillus but without cherries). The other portions of the blend include a barrel from late summer 2009 with two strains of brettanomyces and another that spent only a few months on oak with no additional organisms. Needless to say, we ended up with a pretty unique flavor profile that still has all the heat and tropical notes of last year's batch. The bottles will first be available at the Billy the Mountain release party at the Grain and Gristle Wednesday the 29th along with a special 1/6 bbl that will surely go quick. That weekend at the brewery tasting room we'll have the bottles available for sale as well.

2010 Billy the Mountain

2010-12-18T17:38:00.000-08:00

In the conditioning room at the brewery are 3 kegs and about 70 cases of our annual old ale, Billy the Mountain. The style is open to interpretation and often ends up being produced with either a modern or a historical profile. At Upright we lean toward the latter, using a combination of barrel-aging and brettanomyces claussenii on a beer that would otherwise be considered an English-style strong ale.

The heart of the beer is a big and complex grist centered around three caramel malts of varying color and Briess Ashburne Mild malt, which is wonderfully rich and aromatic. A small amount of black barley is added as well to make the beer darker and give it a slight reddish hue. On the initial brewday a very concentrated wort is runoff into the kettle where we add hops in two additions for a projected 40-45 IBU's. A bit of molasses towards the end of the boil marks the end of the beer's main ingredients.

Billy the Mountain's primary fermentation uses a popular Enlgish ale yeast that ferments quickly and leaves the beer very full bodied and malty with attractive pale fruit aromas. At that point the beer is around 8% abv and quite hoppy and bright. It's then transferred into 4 former pinot noir barrels that have been inoculated with brettanomyces claussenii, a slow working yeast that was oringinally isolated from English beers in the early 20th century. Brett "C" is exciting to work with because it produces unique flavors in different worts/beers, unlike the two other common strains of brettanomyces that make more predictable aromas and flavors. As the Billy matures in the barrels, the brett "C" uses nearly half of the sugars left in the beer to reproduce, all the while increasing the acidity (and abv to over 9%) and yielding a large number of organic acids and esters that fill out the beer's flavor. By the end, which in the case of this second batch was about one year later, you can dissect the profile into different parts - deep malt character, tropical-like nose, slowly fading bitterness, bits of oxidation, oak and wine flavors. It's a fun beer to drink.

With the first batch that was released in January 2010 we felt that the medium to high level of carbonation distracted from the better parts of the beer and so decided to change that for the new batch, using a small amount of batch 3 (which was very recently brewed and transferred into the just blended barrels of batch 2) with it's relatively high sugar content and fresh yeast to prime and condition to a much lower level, likely to leave the beer on the still side which seems to be the most enjoyable way to drink it.

If this all sounds interesting you may be wondering when it will be released. We plan to give the beer some more time in the conditioning room to properly round out and will be officially releasing it on Wednesday, December 29th at the Grain and Gristle. You'll be able to taste one of only three kegs that evening starting at 6:30 pm and purchase bottles to go. We saved a few cases of the original brew from 2009 and will have those available for drinking at the bar as well. The brewery tasting room will have the new batch that weekend too during our normal tasting room hours.

Special Herbs

2010-12-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

Many of you may not know that I've been working on a new project with a couple partners called the Grain and Gristle. It's a craft beer focused pub in NE Portland that I hope will bring together some of the best local beers with excellent yet unpretentious food. We're currently working on a new website that will have all of the relevant details, but in the meantime I'd like to mention a really neat Upright beer that was just tapped today there. It's called Special Herbs, essentially a portion of our early summer seasonal, Reggae Junkie Gruit, aged in Ransom Old Tom gin barrels. We happened to get two of the barrels from the distillery right around the time that the beer was otherwise finished in mid-July. It seemed very appropriate to put the beer in there as it uses a blend of herbs and spices in place of the hops, while the unique gin also uses an interesting blend that includes cardomom amongst other potent aromatics. The resulting beer, after several months of maturation, has a character somewhat reminiscent of the Flora Rustica with plenty of citrus in the nose, especially lime. The flavor is snappy, bright and tart, while maintaining the gentle finish of the original beer. There's not much of it around so if you're curious, stop by the bar soon or check back at the brewery in the coming weeks.

Late Harvest

2010-11-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Just last week we released a second blend of Late Harvest, a brew we like to call a provision beer because while it’s quaffable now, is bottled with the intention of cellaring for up to 3 years. This batch uses the Six as a base. It’s a blend of 4 former pinot noir barrels: one with chocolate syrup from Alma here in Portland, two with different forms of black pepper and one straight up, each filled at different times ranging from as little as several weeks to nearly a year ago. The peppercorns, long pepper and Tasmanian peppercorn, are very aromatic, the first being remarkably fruity and bright while the latter are earthy and intense while also lending a numbing sensation to the mouthfeel. The finished beer is very tart and dry with lots of bite from the pepper as well as some from the rye and hops. That bite will mellow with age and the beer will round out with more chocolate and oak flavors coming through down the road.

Late Harvest is establishing itself as a beer we like to change up with every release, the only commonality is that it's always barrel aged, 7% abv, brown in color and brewed with spices of some sort. Expect to see it annually from here on out around the tail end of summer. For the third release, we'll be brewing a new recipe employing a much more simple grist than the previous two batches and using a mix of long pepper, coriander, and a special bitter orange peel that is unlike most varieties brewers use - this one is more dark, oily and burnt tasting, in a good way of course!

On a subject quite unrelated to beer, I'd like to write a small plug for a friend who recently put out his first batch of a great new bittersweet vermouth called Imbue. It's wonderful and worth seeking out for people with adventurous palates, a crowd I suspect reads this blog. Here's a recipe for a refreshing cocktail I came up with that can be served two different ways:

1 oz Imbue
1 oz gin
1 oz Galliano

Shake with plenty of ice and a bit of lime peel, serve with a dash of lime juice
Optional - top off with some soda or mineral water to turn it from sipper to slammer

Winter Beer

2010-10-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Now that we're starting to see many breweries winter seasonals we figured it would be a good time to get ours going so it's ready in time, which for Upright means mid-December. After using a new yeast on our fresh hop brew we decided to give it a go on our winter beer, in the fermenter right now. We brewed a farmhouse-style brown ale with some light spicing from cinnamon, allspice and star anise and added some cherry juice as well from our neighbors at the farmers market, Cherry Country. Next week we'll pick up some freshly emptied wine barrels from Ransom Wines and transfer the bulk of the batch into those for a short maturation period with the hope that the wine character will play nicely against the cherry flavors in the finished beer. Expect to see it on tap close to winter!

As far as other seasonal releases go we'll be blending and bottling a second batch of Billy the Mountain Old Ale soon and have just bottled a second blend of the Late Harvest, conditioning now. The Billy should be somewhat similar (but smoother overall) to the first batch with no major recipe or process changes while the Late Harvest is only similar in color and strength. This newest blend uses 4 different barrels of the Six as a base. Three of those barrels have different ingredients - chocolate syrup, Tasmanian peppercorns and long pepper. It's spicier and more tart than the original and should cellar well for years as will the Billy.

Fresh hops and peaches

2010-09-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

We just brewed up our fresh hop beer this past Tuesday which, as always, was a blast. This year we used Nugget hops from a grower in Hubbard that were nice and pungent, filling the brewery with their grassy aroma until we worked them into the brew shortly after picking them up, about 100 pounds for 10 barrels of beer which should make for a nice nose. The finished beer is still a bit of a mystery to us because it's currently fermenting with a special yeast strain that we've never used. In fact, the yeast was propagated from a bottle of one of our favorite Belgian beers by our yeast supplier. If the strain turns out to be something especially enjoyable then we plan to use it for a yet to be formulated winter beer, although after just receiving more Old Tom Gin barrels we're inclined to brew it soon so it can spend a couple months on oak.

We're also nearly a month past brewing our peach beer. That went really well and the beer is on it's way. Four of the barrels have been topped off after primary fermentation with a very strong barrel aged beer from last summer and are maturing in the tasting room while we're waiting for a fresh batch of Four to be transferred soon so we can top off the other set of barrels to make two separate blends down the road. Those won't be ready for quite some time, but we had so much fun getting it going that we'd like to make it annually.

The Redwood Smoked Lager ended up getting kegged instead of bottled for various reasons but we're happy it did. It should be in bars very soon (just went out the door about 10 minutes ago). That completes our series of lagers but starting early next year Upright will begin producing a lager year-round, likely Pilsener, Oktoberfest and Dunkel as the seasons change.

Coming soon, or not so soon

2010-08-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

People have been asking lately what's in the works as far as new beers go so here's a quick rundown of some exciting projects both big and small:

Fresh Hop - with harvest starting we expect to be brewing our second fresh hop beer in a couple weeks or so. While we haven't decided on a variety or yeast yet (house saison or good old American ale?) we do have a name: Tyler the Elder, after Saraveza's excellent bartender. This batch will be draft only. For those who don't feel like waiting we will have a small (5 gallon) keg of the Five on tap this Friday the 20th packed with fresh cascades clipped from my backyard this morning. The hot weekend seemed to help them out and they were smelling great.

Strong Lager - the brewery's next bottle release set for late September is a strong lager that we've left nameless and without a specific style declaration because it falls in between several. Ezra made a punk rock themed label that is a big departure from the heavily colored ones we've put out so far. It's extra pale and plenty hoppy while doing a good job of highlighting the ingredients.

Redwood Lager - currently fermenting is a dark lager we brewed with house-smoked malt. The wood was actually leftover scraps from our tasting trays and one of our tables - very old redwood that was once a large water storage vessel at a lumber mill in Albany Oregon. With the help of a couple friends we smoked 150 pounds of the grist in our custom built smoker and worked it into a recipe that will yield a full-bodied dark lager, not too unlike the color of the wood. This one is getting bottled just in time for fall and winter campers. Note to other local craft brewers: the smoker works great and handles about 40 pounds in a shot (we smoked each load for about 45 minutes). If anyone wants to borrow it just let us know, we'd love to see more smoked beers using different types of wood!

Fatali Four - last year we added some fatali peppers to an oak barrel of Four, lending it a fruity flavor and some heat as well. We enjoyed that batch quite a bit and plan to do a blend of three barrels this go round, all of which were brewed at different times ranging from April 2009 to just a month ago. The barrels also have different yeasts and bacteria in them as well which should make for a pretty complex profile. This brew may get kegged or bottled, not quite sure yet although we're leaning toward bottling.

Fresh Peach - after some difficulty in coordinating with a local peach grower (fruit harvests aren't as predictable as I thought) we're finally set to receive somewhere between 800-1000 pounds of peaches Monday morning that we'll be putting into a special recipe that incorporates barrel fermentation with brettanomyces claussenii and lactobacillus. It's a beer that won't be ready for quite some time but something to look forward to as the peaches we've been getting already from Baird Family Orchards have been amazing, not only in flavor and juiciness but especially in the aroma which I hope will integrate well into the beer.

Month of the Barrels

2010-07-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

Well the brewery's Month of the Barrels has kicked off to a great start. For those of you who haven't heard we are tapping a different single-barrel keg for four Fridays in a row. Here is a rundown of the beers:

July 2nd - a keg of Lambicus Six was tapped (and drained by the end of the weekend). It was simply a batch of our dark rye beer aged with brettanomyces for over a year in what was a Pinot Noir barrel. We were happy with the complexity it gained over that time which yielded a Flanders-esque brew. If you missed out expect it to be pouring at Bailey's Taproom on the 31st as part of their third anniversary barrel aged beer fest.

July 9th - Rose City Seven, our entry to the organic fest this year. It spent several months in a barrel that housed our Billy the Mountain Old Ale which uses a different strain of brettanomyces called claussenii, giving the beer a gentle acidity and some earthy notes to contrast the big floral component coming from hibiscus, rose hips and rose petals, all of which were added directly to the aging beer.

July 16th - Easily the beer I'm most excited about, this one is from a very nice Hungarian oak ex-Pinot Noir barrel that matured a batch of Four with homegrown yarrow and rose flowers infused into it. The finished beer is a throwback to our Flora Rustica but with a bit more body and wheat character. The nose and flavors are fresh and balanced. Between the beer's pleasant acidity and sessionable 4.5% abv I hope that we can turn some people onto what a not so extreme beer can achieve.

July 23rd - Another exciting beer this weekend, our Single Cask Anniversary ale. The base beer was a simple apricot farmhouse brew that ended up in an Old Tom gin barrel from Oregon's own Ransom distillery. This is one that is probably better experienced rather than described as there is quite a bit going aromatically and in the mouth as well. Of important note is that the Old Tom gin is not dominated by juniper like one might expect but rather has a more diverse botanical character that certainly shows up in the beer.

As we drained these barrels we've been collecting more to produce several casks worth of fruit beers as soon as fresh apricots and nectarines are available. These will be fermented directly in the barrels with a mixture of our house yeast, brettanomyces and lactobacillus. They likely won't be kegged or bottled anytime soon but will certainly provide for some interesting beer down the road.

French and Belgian inspired, and German

2010-06-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

So after leaving the brewery blog hanging for quite some time there's a good deal of beery news to report:

We just released a draft-only batch called Engelberg Pilsener, named after Mt.Angel. It's German-style: light, dry and full of hoppy flavor. We made a simple single malt (Canadian pilsener malt) and single hop (Mt. Angel-grown tettnanger) recipe using a Munich lager yeast. The finished beer came out remarkably dry so for the second batch set to be released around the third week of July we coaxed just a bit more mouthfeel and residual sugar out of it and used a different hop variety, hallertauer mittlefruh. The beer is currently on tap in the tasting room and at a handful of bars around town. When the second batch is ready both will be on hand to taste side-by-side.

For summer's two best local beer festivals we're bringing beers that incorporate unusual ingredients. The first to look forward to is the Organic fest at Overlook Park where one of Upright's two beers will be a special single barrel-aged cask of the Seven with hibiscus, rose hips and rose petals. The beer is set to be kegged directly from the barrel next week and will yield fewer than 5 kegs worth of beer. So far the flavors have been great with lots of floral character blending with the beer's citric quality and some deep background complexities.

At the Oregon Brewers Festival at the waterfront the Reggae Junkie Gruit will be making it's return after more than a year passed between when we produced the last batch. We liked it a lot the first time and plan on using the same recipe which blends Sichuan peppercorns, lemongrass, hyssop and bitter orange peel in place of the usual hops. It's a quenching and light beer that should be perfect for the event and the heat of late July.
Another exciting beer in the works is simply waiting for a label and should be out by early to mid July - Late Harvest. It's a spiced farmhouse-style dark amber we had planned on releasing as our 2009 fall beer but decided to barrel-age it instead. Four of the barrels had tasmanian peppercorns added to them, an extra aromatic and spicy peppercorn, and were blended and mostly bottled (about 80 cases and 3 kegs) while the fifth non-spiced barrel was kegged on its own and is exclusively on tap at our tasting room and Apex on Division street. The beer was brewed in early August and used grains of paradise and dried pomegranate seeds in the kettle before being fermented and transferred to the former Pinot Noir barrels that housed it completely undisturbed until recently. As soon as the labels are ready we'll set an official release date that will be wrapped around a party at the brewery.

Of somewhat small note are some recipe changes made to a couple of the year-round beers. First off, the the Seven now uses a combination of roughly half pilsener malt and half organic pale malt as it's base along with a small decrease in the munich malt, making the beer a tad lighter both in color and mouthfeel as well. We like the change and hope you do too. The second beer that changed is less likely to have such a difference in flavor or appearance (just brewed it today, we'll see) but good news nonetheless - our main malt supplier (Great Western of Vancouver WA) now has organic wheat malt which has replaced the former conventional product we were using. It looked, smelled and tasted great. That makes the Four and Five both about 95% organic and even more local which is important to us.

Well, that sums up our recent happenings. The next handful of months we plan to be kegging a few of our special one-off barrel-aging projects and make some barrel-fermented farmhouse-style fruit beers (with a grower we met at the PSU market) to get some new things going. Until next time..

Sixth-barrel series

2010-03-09T15:31:00.000-08:00

Since we now have an additional three taps at the brewery tasting room we're able to pour more seasonal beers and play around with extra-small batch projects. The first few of these were the Anglo-Saison, the Scottish Six and the De Ill Ganumberg, all of which were variations of year-round beers brewed with different yeasts and made only in five gallon batches.

Side note: De Ill Ganumberg was jokingly named after De Ranke Guldenberg, a wonderful Belgian beer that Gerritt (last name ill) and I (last name Ganum) propagated some yeast from. We got lots of questions about that one.

I'm excited to announce that we plan to produce these interesting mini-batches more often. We think that being able to taste a similar or identical wort fermented with two different yeasts side by side is not only fun but halfway educational too. It's certainly a way to recognize how important of a contributor the yeast is to the flavor profile of most beers. The next one to expect on tap will be a batch of the Six fermented with a newly available strain, Wyeast 3655 Belgian Schelde. It should be on within the next couple weeks. After that we'll have a yet to be fermented variation of the Seven - any ideas or requests for yeast strains? We'll be picking some up by Tuesday the 16th and welcome any suggestions.

Tasting room happenings

2010-02-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to announce that the brewery's little tasting room is beginning to settle in. We've setup an extra three taps for a total of nine, hung more local art and are getting ready to open Fridays by the end of the month. John Foyston recently gave us a nice writeup in Mix which has already begun to attract some new visitors to the cast of regulars and we're hoping to bring even more people this Saturday for the citywide brewery event Zwickelmania.

The new tasting room hours for Fridays are 4:30 - 9 pm and to kick it off we're throwing a release party on the 26th for our newest beer - Oyster Stout. We're setting up the space to flow much more smoothly than our first release party (for the Gose and Billy) so expect a more relaxed vibe and easier time of getting beers and bottles. We only filled five kegs of the stout but that will be plenty to serve all day on draft and we'll have bottles / cases to go for the usual prices of $8 / 90. Jason, Gerritt and I are really happy with the beer - a distinctly full-bodied and creamy stout with a touch of brine on the finish. During the release we'll have oysters on the half shell available for pairing which unsurprisingly go great with this beer.

Here are a couple recent and fun photos: new hop art commissioned from Kim Hamblin and a shot of our kettle vent (connected to the original chimney of the building) on a beautifully sunny day while brewing our anniversary beer, a farmhouse apricot ale for another party we're planning in late March.

Flora and food

2010-01-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

I'm often asked for food suggestions to accompany our beers, the last request being amusing in that it was texted to me while I was in front of a fish counter pondering the exact question myself. I was in the mood for some sort of seafood and excited to see fresh mackerel in the case, a fish that is unfortunately somewhat rare to find in such beautiful whole form. I asked the man behind the counter to bag one up for me and my close friend Christian who also doubles as Upright's most important assistant and general helper (she named the Turkey on Rye for instance).

After picking up a few more things we headed home and to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Mackerel is a very flavorful fish and I didn't want to obscure its own character so I filleted it and gave it a simple coating of salt, nothing else. That went into a hot oven to roast until just done, although like salmon it's a fish that is easy to cook and forgiving of a little extended cooking time. Alongside the fish we served up some bacon-fat sauteed dandelion greens and jasmine rice seasoned with cumin and fresh thyme.

At the table we enjoyed our dinner with the Flora Rustica. Sometimes I feel like that beer is made for meals like this. The aromatics wafting up from the huge cloud-like head have lots of bright notes that work great with the grounded quality of the bacon and dandelion greens. At the same time the Flora has a certain earthiness that is more on the tongue than in the nose, a character that is just robust enough to trade spots with the mackerel and match the cumin in the rice as well.

Another excellent option for the Flora Rustica was demonstrated by Ben from the restaurant Ned Ludd. We did a beer dinner there last September in which Ben joined our old-style saison with a salad of fall greens using an anise-hyssop vinaigrette. It worked great by heightening the herbaceous components of both the beer and salad.

The mackerel dinner and Flora wasn't the only tasty combination of the other night. While preparing the food I shucked a few oysters to have with the Black Pearl (tentative name for our oyster stout). This is kind of a can't lose situation, especially when the oysters are extra fresh and full flavored. I'm happy to report that the beer is essentially done conditioning and in fine form. We're still fixing to get the labels printed and will be releasing it sometime in February for all you stout and shellfish fans.

Upcoming brews

2010-01-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

Upright had a great bottle release event Sunday and I would like to thank several people. First off, the patient people who showed up to find an unusually long line and the quickly dwindling food and snack table. We certainly didn't expect the crowd that arrived and appreciate the great attitude that most everyone displayed. I'd also like to thank the crew at Ned Ludd for expertly smoking the dry-rubbed pork loin and my friends who stepped in to hand-wash glasses after I pulled a smooth one last week and broke the dishwasher (which just got fixed yesterday!).

Many of you who came Sunday had the opportunity to try a brand new beer, Auld Reekie. Abe Goldman-Armstrong suggested the title which is a nickname for the city of Edinburgh. The beer is rooted in a trip I took to Alsace in 2003. The local bars all seemed to have Lindemans Gueuze (which I consumed in copious amounts) and Adelscott, a peat-smoked amber lager. It wasn't the craftiest brew I've had but I liked the idea. The scotch enthusiast in me decided right then and there to reproduce that flavor profile down the road. After brewing our oyster stout recently I felt that the time was finally right. We harvested some of the Scottish ale yeast from that batch and set about making the Auld Reekie. Instead of our usual organic pale malt we used Weyermann Bohemian pilsener malt along with both domestic and English caramel malts and of course the peat-smoked malt as well. We pitched lots of yeast and fermented around 62F for a smooth and clean profile which seems to have worked well. I can't wait to try it with some scotch on the side! We'll tap more of it here when the Gose keg blows and expect to see it around town in the coming weeks.

Sunday I was often asked about the status of our oyster stout. Well, Jason came by last week to help us bottle it up so it's conditioning away as I write this. We did fill a few kegs which will make it out around the time that the bottles are ready, likely a few weeks from now. We decided on the name Black Pearl and plan to have another event/party at the brewery around this beer that will include a whole lot of oysters instead of the pork wonderland that was the Gose/Billy release. Of course check back here or on facebook/twitter/our website for the date and details soon. Speaking of, the website is on the cusp of being finished with a redesign so expect a much more up to date and accurate version within a week or two.

Monday was an exciting day here for the fact that we finally blended the rest of our second batch of beer. Some of you may remember the Pinot Barrel Four we kegged and released around August/September. It was a pilot batch of Four that had cherry puree added to it. Well that was only four of nine barrels total we had maturing. The remaining barrels spent an additional five months on oak before being drained this week. The blend is already showing substantial complexity thanks in part to brettanomyces clausennii (the same strain as in the Billy the Mountain) and a balanced acidity from lactobacillus bacteria. The plan is to let it "mingle" at room temperature for a week or so, cool it down for at least a couple weeks to smooth out and then bottle most under the name Four Play. This particular beer will require a somewhat extended bottle conditioning period so whenever it's ready we'll have yet another party here at the brewery.

As if all this new beer wasn't enough we're happy to announce that our entry for the Cheers to Belgian Beers festival this year will be brewed in collaboration with Corey Blodgett. He wrote a nice piece on his own blog about the joint project. We've yet to get together and iron out a recipe but do know from the dart toss that we'll be brewing something strong and dark. Mmm, anyone remember Corey's Biere de Noel?

Thanks Portland!

2009-12-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

I had the surprise and pleasure recently of checking Jeff Alworth's Beervana Blog to find that he picked the Upright Four for his Satori Award. I've got to say that it was all the more satisfying as when I pulled the blog up on the brewery computer I had in my hand a glass of the Four (although that's not all too unusual). I stopped what I was doing to reflect a bit on Jeff's eloquent words which really capture what that beer means to me:

...its lineage is long. I suspect that a time-traveler could take this beer to Southern Belgium in the 1880s and, with its wheat and lactic zing, it would be recognizable to the locals who loved tart, rustic beers.

Thanks for the award Jeff, it really means a lot to me. I'll keep brewing it up thanks to the support you and others have given us.

Back to Jeff's post though, he also touches on the fact that Portland is putting out some of the best food in the country right now. This isn't just happening in the wonderful little restaurants scattered all over town just like the breweries, but amongst so many home enthusiasts as well. They share much of the same mentality as local homebrewers, unsurprisingly since many of them are enamored by anything tasty and aromatic to land on their palettes. I must admit to loving this about Portland, how you can meet a stranger and discuss which mushrooms are tasting best from which vendor and also talk about new hop varieties or what exciting brew you enjoyed down the street at your neighborhood pub. That is never going to get old.

Beer release party!

2009-12-27T17:23:00.000-08:00

On Sunday January 10th we'll be releasing two special bottled beers at the brewery tasting room. The first of which is called Billy the Mountain and is a traditional English-style Old Ale. When Upright was finally ready to brew in March we had everything but the house yeast (still an extra week or so out) and couldn't wait to get going, so we snagged an English ale yeast from another local brewer to produce something neither Gerritt or I had ever made. Old Ale is an interesting style that has really deep flavors along with complex and alluring aromas. They are great to drink slowly and savor yet can be unusually drinkable thanks to a small amount of brettanomyces yeast that ferments much of the otherwise residual sugar. In producing ours we used a mix of two different domestic base malts and three English caramel malts. A pinch of black barley gives it extra color. Hopping is moderate, roughly 40 ibu's and with a pound per barrel of Mt.Angel grown tettnanger hops for flavor. The beer spent five months in used Pinot noir barrels and has been bottled and cellared at the brewery for about four months now. The finished beer is ready but will surely continue to evolve for some time to come as the brettanomyces continues to transform the existing aromas and flavors.

The Gose is Upright's first German-style brew. An excellent description of the style can be found here (thanks Angelo!). It's a fun beer that has remarkable quenching qualities and goes great with so many foods. For the release we'll have a small spread of different charcuterie that will pair especially well with both beers, likely including terrines, rillettes, and more. Only 55 cases of Billy the Mountain and almost 100 of the Gose were filled. That Sunday we'll also have both on tap, the Gose keg being one of three and the Old Ale being the sole keg. Expect to see an extra three taps pouring some surprises as well. Hope to see you there!

Wild boar terrine

2009-12-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

I've been using the brewery tasting room as an excuse to pursue my hobby of charcuterie and have been excitedly trying new recipes. The latest one is a terrine of wild boar. A terrine is essentially a sausage-like mixture of ground meat and fat that is then packed into a mold and cooked in a water bath. They are typically served sliced and cold with pickled vegetables and something sweet, two accompaniments that balance the richness and saltiness of the terrine.

Here is a recipe for the terrine I made last week. It filled a three pound mold so be sure to adjust the quantities accordingly if you have one of a different size.

2 & 1/4 pounds wild boar (or pork) shoulder
3/4 pound pork fatback
2 eggs
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp rye (or wheat) flour
3/4 - 1 cup shallot
2 tbsp fresh thyme
1 tsp ground coriander
8 juniper berries, ground
10 peppercorns, ground
4 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp curing salt (with sodium nitrite)
1 - 2 shots gin
pinch of vinegar

- grind the shoulder and fatback along with the shallots through a large or medium die, keep cold
- combine the eggs, cream, flour, spices, salt, and thyme
- mix the ground meat and fat with the egg/flour/etc. quickly but well while adding the gin and vinegar
- line the mold with plastic wrap and pack the forcemeat in
- set the oven at 300F and cook in a water bath to 150F
- let cool and then press with a weight (~2 pounds or more) for 1 - 2 days
- remove from the mold and enjoy!

This recipe makes a country-style terrine that is somewhat coarse in texture and very flavorful. I have been serving it in our brewery tasting room with spicy pickled green beans or okra and quince paste. The Upright Five pairs especially well with it - it's amazing how the thyme aromatics play with the hop character of the beer, plus the dryness and slight tartness really keep your palate fresh in between bites.

It's important to follow standard forcemeat procedures of starting with very cold meat and fat and chilling the grinder and bowls to ensure that the fat mixes properly with the meat. My instructions are pretty brief and basic so feel free to email or comment with any specific questions or for those so inclined find a good book like Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.

Oyster stout

2009-12-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

So last Thursday was one of my most memorable brew days ever - in a good way. It began a couple months ago when friend and fellow brewer Jason McAdam visited Upright to bullshit around. We talked about his upcoming venture Alchemy Brewing Company amongst other usual topics like charcuterie and beer. At some point our conversation went like this:

A - you must be itching to get brewing again huh?
J - well yeah of course
A - want to make a beer together before Alchemy gets rolling?
J - how about an oyster stout?

A few weeks later we met at the Horse Brass to write a recipe. This was an easy task since Jason and I have similar approaches to brewing. The only part that required a good bit of thought was how to incorporate the oysters? In the end we decided to add roughly ten gallons of oyster "liquor" that Jason picked up fresh from the coast off a train. We didn't want to brew an oyster stout without any oyster meat though so we also picked up eight dozen DeCourcy oysters from B.C. and cooked them during the kettle boil. After eating all the wort-soaked meat we cleaned and saved the shells to add later to the beer, post fermentation, like dryhopping.

Does oyster stout sound strange to you? It did to me, at least until someone convinced me to simply try some raw oysters with a nice stout. That was a few years ago. I found myself at the Rose and Raindrop one day (yeah I miss it too) and had that wonderful pairing experience. I think it was with the Pike 5X, a stout that I still thoroughly enjoy to this day. The beer surprisingly didn't overpower the shellfish. Instead the contrasting elements found an incredible harmony. Of course there are several different stouts and oysters out there but I encourage doubters to give it a shot with any two - just pick your favorites. That begs the question, "Isn't pairing the two different than actually combining them?" Yes, but the style isn't something we made up. It has roots in England going back to the early 19th century when oyster shells were used to aid in clarifying the beer. Some brewers started adding meat or juice to the stout as well, presumably for a more briny flavor profile. Sounds good to me.

For our local collaboration the "base" beer is a strong (medium strength by most standards, 16.6 plato) stout. We used chocolate wheat instead of the usual barley version along with a pinch of rolled rye. Otherwise the beer uses a straightforward recipe. Another Portland brewer let us use his Scottish ale yeast which ferments cleanly and should make for a pleasantly full-bodied beer. When I checked it today it was nearing the end of its fermentation, silky smooth and flavorful - definitely off to a good start. We plan to fill a few kegs when it's ready within a month and bottle the rest which will be available after another few weeks of conditioning.

- photos in this post by Annalou Vincent

Morcilla recipe

2009-11-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

Charcuterie and beer go hand in hand. That needs no explanation for anyone who has experienced the joy of pairing the two. Both have long and rich histories that tie into virtually every aspect of life from necessity and nourishment to delicacy and extravagance - like curing meat to make it last longer or brewing beer because the water supply is unsafe to pairing a foie gras and sweetbread terrine with truffles with a five year old lambic loaded with muscat grapes.

Blood sausage is not very popular here and in some ways understandably so, although one could easily argue that blood is one of the best parts of a pig and certainly one of the most beautiful - its color is amazingly deep. The flavors are likely much more calm and subdued than one might imagine with a texture that is actually quite pleasant. Not only is blood sausage tasty, but it provides a wonderful pairing to many beers.

I've had the great pleasure to visit northern Argentina several times to visit family and always look forward to the famous "asado argentino" on each trip. That asado typically starts with a couple different sausages, one being morcilla which uses a blood and meat mixture (many blood sausages are made without any form of meat). I've gotten all sorts of recipe tips from the locals of Tucuman and have tried it at home a couple times. Here is my interpretation for anyone interested in making some:

1 pint pork blood
1 pound pork shoulder, cut for grinding
2/3 pound pork fatback, also cut for grinding
1/2 cup cream and 4 tbsp bread crumbs, combined
1 & 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
1/4 - 1/3 cup green onion
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup dried currants (raisins, figs, cherry, etc. all work great)
2 shots of rum or appropriate fruit liquor
5 - 7 cloves
1/2 - 1 tbsp paprika or other chile powder
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp vinegar (white, apple, malt and wine all work fine)
1 - 3 tsp ground black pepper

- reserve a pinch of the fatback and grind the rest with the shoulder through a medium or fine plate, keep cold
- render the reserved fatback in a saucepot and add both onions until translucent
- add the rum or liquor and then the blood
- after the blood has liquified add the cloves, paprika and brown sugar
- rest for a few minutes and then cool down to roughly room temperature
- mix the blood and ground meat, cream and bread crumb mixture, salt and pepper, walnuts and dried fruit well but quickly
- stuff into hog casings, tie into desired lengths and poach in 165-175F water until brown juices appear when pricked, not blood, about 20 minutes
- cool in ice water for about five minutes, drain and dry

The morcilla is now ready to eat cold or be warmed on the grill. I always serve mine with bread and have found that many different beers work well with it but especially ones with a solid malt backbone - not necessarily sweet but flavorful. The Upright Six falls into this category. Its tartness cuts the fat and bit of sugar in the sausage nicely while the malty and fruity components of the brew go along with the currants and blood.

If you have any questions regarding the recipe don't hesitate to leave a comment or send an email to uprightbrewing@gmail.com

Session beers are one thing,

2009-11-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

but this is why we'll never make a non-alcoholic beer.

Seasonals and one-offs

2009-11-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Gerritt and I have been having a blast making new beers this fall. We bottled our Gose last week, a beer which required a bit of tweaking. All the cooking I've done in the past didn't do much to prepare me for the task of salting a three hundred gallon batch of beer so it took four additions before finally achieving the saltiness we were looking for. That beer will be in our conditioning room for the next few weeks before we release it.

Last week we also brewed Billy the Mountain Old Ale. It's finishing the fermentation now and will end up in four former Pinot noir barrels from Penner-Ash Wine Cellars with a gentle dose of brettanomyces claussenii. The Billy was actually the very first beer we made here in March. That batch was bottled a couple months ago and will be released in December. This second batch should be ready by next fall although we plan to fill (before the barrel aging) one keg for the Lucky Lab Strong Ale Fest and one firkin for the Belmont Station. Look for those to be under the name Studebacher Hoch Strong Ale.

The Dry Hopped Four we kegged recently has been a fun addition to the mix of one-off beers for the brewery. Most of the floral character from the standard Four is completely covered by the tea-like and lime-like aroma of the ahtanum hops that went into the conditioning tank. It should be making its way on draft around town at the usual places. Be sure to ask for it if you don't see it.

The schedule for this week includes brewing a ten barrel batch of Congo Pale Ale. It's essentially an IPA recipe that will be fermented somewhat cool with our French saison yeast and will be the hoppiest beer Upright has made. We're super excited as we don't get to play with hops the way most other brewers do out here and are hankering to make something along these lines.

Besides keeping you posted on what's new in the beer pipeline I want to get the word out that our tasting room is opening at 6pm before every weekday home game for the Blazers. We pour twelve ounce glasses of our year-round beers plus whatever couple seasonals happen to be on tap. Also - the first few cases of our dark rye beer "Six" are now available in the tasting room and should be out in stores in a week or two. You can always pick up bottles or growlers during our normal tasting room hours of 1-6pm Saturday and Sunday.

Lastly, here's a fun shot of a suggested pairing for the Five that includes bread, pickled okra and a classic pork terrine with walnuts.

An advantage to open fermentation

2009-11-01T16:25:00.001-08:00

On Saturday the open fermenters that are used to ferment all our year-round beers saved us. I had the lovely surprise of coming to work yesterday to find a large crew from Pacific Power working outside the Leftbank building that houses the brewery. They had Broadway blocked off and were in the middle of restoring power to the area after an automobile managed to take out a power pole which in turn caused two more to come down. It apparently happened around four in the morning and caused quite a mess. Needless to say I was unhappy about the situation as losing power in a brewery is never a good thing. I was particularly worried about a 20 barrel batch of FIve that we brewed Wednesday and Thursday which was in mid-fermentation. I thought the temperature would rise too much while our chilling unit was off (until 7:30 pm when power was restored). Fortunately the open fermenter and its large surface area on top managed to disipate plenty of the heat produced, letting the beer rise only a couple degrees fahrenheit which shouldn't be an issue at all in the finished beer. It's safe to assume that a typical closed vessel in the same situation would have warmed up much more to the point of possibly runining the batch or at the very least dratically altering it. Phew.

In other brewery news - I finally kegged the Fatali Four today directly from the oak barrel it was aging in. It should be on tap this coming weekend in our tasting room. The beer seems to have picked up lots of flavor from the chiles and even a bit of the Pinot noir flavor from the barrel after less than two months in there. Because the Four is such a light and delicate beer it draws and displays other ingredients easily making it fun and enjoyable to work with. I wanted to refill the barrel right away after draining it so I gave it a good hot rinsing and filled it back up with some fresh Four along with a couple strains of brettanomyces - lambicus and claussenii. Maybe we'll add some fruit to it or just let it go as is for a while. No rush on this one.

Last week I visited a friend of the brewery who kindly offered his hairless kiwis to me. They were growing on a series of vines and very ripe. I picked over two gallons worth of them and brought them back to the brewery where I de-stemmed and rinsed them. It looked like a perfect amount for our eleven gallon firkin which happened to be empty so I put them in and topped it off with the same batch of Four that filled the oak barrel mentioned above. It's currently fermenting away in the cask and is a bit of an experiment (never made a kiwi beer before) but should be fun regardless of how it comes out. I wonder if the kiwis will ferment to an unusual flavor or remain as they are in normal form? We'll find out whenever it gets tapped, probably in a few weeks or so.

Adventures in brewing with chiles

2009-10-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

There are currently twenty one former Pinot noir barrels full of various beers here at Upright. We get lots of questions about what exactly is aging in our oak barrels so for those who are curious here is a bit of information about two fun projects:

I love chiles. There really is nothing like them. The way that they fire up your body and mind is amazing. After enjoying two different chile beers from Roots the past couple years I decided to give it a shot myself. The first attempt became the Turkey on Rye, a barrel aged version of the Six which was a blend of two casks. One had locally prepared chocolate syrup while the other sat with a sun dried Turkish chile called Urfa Biber. We thought the Urfa Biber was a good choice for a couple reasons - the flavor profile matches well with the rye in the Six as well as the chocolate too but most importantly the heat arrives at the end. This allows the other flavors to come out first and gives the whole thing a nice linear quality. When we blended the barrels and packaged the beer we immediately refilled them and are now maturing a second batch using a pinch more Urfa Biber. For the chocolate portion we decided to change it up from the syrup (which caused quite the refermentation in the cask) and instead added a blend of roasted cacao nibs and cocoa powder. This second batch will be blended and released within a few months.

On Friday I'm planning to finish one oak barrel of a chile laden Four, a batch that will yield only four kegs. This beer is very different from the Turkey on Rye. The heat and flavor of the chiles is much more pronounced. We used some Fatali chiles that were grown by our friend Ritch who you may recognize from the current SNOB poster. For extra heat there is also one chocolate habañero in there as well. It's not as deep or complex as the Turkey on Rye but it's also not supposed to be. The Fatali Four is for people who love chiles. If that's you be sure to look for it in our tasting room in a couple weeks and check our twitter page to find out where the two kegs going out will end up.

Flavored malt beverages

2009-10-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we released two new bottled beers, Pure Wit and Flora Rustica. Both are available in our weekend tasting room and will be in stores soon.

Pure Wit is a traditional Belgian-style wheat beer made with a bit of coriander and bitter orange peel. It has layers of floral aromas and a distinct acidity and dryness to it resembling a champagne, making it a very food-friendly beer.

Flora Rustica is a Northwest-style saison inspired by the small and adventurous brewers of Belgium like Brasserie à Vapeur. The name comes from the Roman goddess of flowers and also the fact that this beer has roots in the past. It uses yarrow, calendula and hops which all play into the profile differently. The yarrow shows bright lime and herbaceous notes in the aroma while the hops provide a spicy and grassy character. As it warms the calendula comes through more strongly as a tea-like flavor while the beer finishes appetizingly dry, bitter and invigorating.

Currently in the brewery the dry-hopped Four is conditioning away and should be out on draft by the end of next week. The ahtanum hops seem to be adding more aromas every day and should display themselves well in the finished beer.

The Holy Herb was transferred onto the eucalyptus wood and bark pictured at the left last week. The beer is slowly picking up the aroma and flavors from the wood and is also providing a slight cooling sensation in the mouth. We'll let it rest on the eucalyptus for at least two more weeks before kegging it up.

Our gose is done fermenting and should be ready to bottle in a couple weeks. Taking its spot in the fermenter will be a brew we're very excited about - an oyster stout made in collaboration with Jason McAdam. Check back soon for more news on that.

Mixing it up

2009-10-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

We've only got three fermenters here at Upright and all of them have new one-off beers in process. The first one to expect is a yet to be named (any ideas?) hoppier version of the Four. The Four is typically brewed with a single addition of hallertauer mittelfruh hops. This special version has an extra fifteen pounds added at the end of the boil and will also have ahtanum hops added to the conditioning tank when it's transferred tomorrow.

In the closed fermenter is a batch of German-style Gose. My first experience with gose was while judging a homebrew competition several years ago. I never forgot the joy of drinking a salty wheat beer. I expect the brewery's house yeast to add nice layers to it. It's on the tail-end of its fermentation right now and will be bottled up after a bit of conditioning although one keg will certainly be filled for our tasting room.

The third new beer we're working on is Upright's winter seasonal, the Holy Herb. It's a medium-strength brown ale fermented with a very aromatic Biere de Garde yeast. Hyssop was added to the kettle and it will be conditioned on eucalyptus wood staves beginning tomorrow. I saved the wood from a tree that decided to call it quits after the big snow storm last December. It's retained its distinctive scent this whole time. The beer is loosely inspired by the Fantome Strange Ghost and will debut at the Holiday Ale Fest in early December.

Beery weekend

2009-10-08T09:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Upright Brewing Blog. We plan to not only write about brewery happenings and news but also joke around and have fun.

This weekend there is plenty going on in the craft beer community between the Fresh Hop Tastival in Oaks park as well as the one year anniversary of Angelo De Ieso's excellent Brewpublic blog being celebrated at Saraveza and Bailey's Taproom. We'll have beer at all three places - the Fresh Hop of Bel Air at the fest, the Turkey on Rye at Saraveza and a special dryhopped firkin of the Bel Air at Bailey's. In addition to those events we'll have our tasting room open as usual between one and six both Saturday and Sunday. Our four year round beers are on tap along with the Bel Air and our last keg of the Pinot Barrel aged Four.

Saturday will be the offical release date of the first bottles of Five which was produced with xanthohumol. We had a sample tested recently and achieved 1.6 mg/L of the compound which is well over ten times the amount typically found in beer. We plan to add it to every bottled batch of the Five and will be tinkering around with the process to get an even greater concentration in the future.

Smell ya later

The site and Blog are up!

2009-08-31T06:08:00.000-07:00

this is a test..... testing.....