Summer Seasonals Dominate a Revitalized Oregon Brewers Festival

In the weeks leading up to the Oregon Brewers Festival – Brew Fest or OBF for short – there was a lot of controversy about the changes this year: no more plastic mugs and returning to glass, the pour sizes being 3 ounces instead of 4, another day added to the festival, etc. Within an hour of entering the hallowed ground of Portland’s beautiful Waterfront Park, all the hubbub died, the taps flowed, the raucous bands enlivened the crowd, and the levity of the moment washed away the critics, leaving just a collection of beer lovers and the objects of their affection. The Fest was back and as great as it’s ever been, if not better, for 2013.

This was my fourth trip to this venerated gathering, the 26th iteration of this celebration of craft beer, so I’m only just learning the ways of Brew Fest’s long history. It was founded in 1986 by 3 of the 4 Portland craft brewers at the time: Portland Brewing, BridgePort Brewing and Widmer Brothers Brewing. Today, Portland claims 51 breweries in operation and at the festival, 82 total brewery taps from across America provided 30 varieties of beer to more than 80,000 revelers. In so many ways, the growth and success of OBF is a microcosm of craft beer’s explosive nationwide growth over the past 30 years.

I made my first round of tastings on Thursday and within an hour of arrival, I met a few ladies in their 60s. I only noticed them because they were loudly carrying on by the glass rinse and pissed as hell that there were no stouts or porters this year. It was true, as there were only a few darker beers on hand (an English Brown, a Cascadian Dark Ale/Black IPA, and an Imperial Red) with the rest being pure summer fare: Berliner Weisses, wits, hopped up Lagers, fruit beers, Saisons, cream ales, wheat ales, Kölschs, and plenty of IPAs (though seemingly fewer than in years past). I sampled 28 of the 82 taps during the 7 hours I spent there over two days, and there wasn’t a single beer I didn’t find refreshing or unique. 

Last year, there was a basic OBF mobile app, which only listed the taps and a map that many of the fest faithful swore at as they went from tap to tap. This year, the organizers provided an excellent mobile friendly site listing all the beers, allowing us to track what we liked and what we wanted to have, making the whole experience easier for us screen freaks.

As for entertainment, there were bands that played on a stage and the roaming Transcendental Brass Band who always kept things going with jumping soul, funk, rock, and jazz. There were people dressed in very little clothing, those in the funniest beer shirts you’ll ever see, people in silly hats, businessmen dressed as Belgian monks (complete with partially shaved heads), small children roaming around, a wonderful proportion of women in attendance (more than I’d seen at a festival before) and generally a lot of obnoxious reveling as we sipped the best summer suds around. And to ensure we were doing just that, as is tradition each year, every 10 to 15 minutes a shout would go up in the tent – a thunderous “WOOOO” filled the space as we lifted our glasses in collective prost. Just the way we like it.