PDX is the three letter representation of Portland, OR (mostly used to designate Portland International Airport) where I spent five days last week on vacation. This was a wonderful vacation for many reasons, but pertaining to this blog, one reason stands out -- Portland has recently been declared the Beer Capital of the United States of America. Portland is renowned not only for the quality of its native ales, but also for the sheer number of microbreweries within and without its city limits (not sure on the exact numbers, but I'm pretty sure its over 40 breweries within 6 miles of city center).
Our first night in Portland, my wife and I visited Bridgeport Brewery, where I had a 22 oz. bottle of their wonderful Hop Czar Imperial IPA. Bridgeport is widely known for their regular IPA, which can be found at nearly every grocery store in the Pacific Northwest (including Costco, which is good information). Here at Lopez Beer, we've decided to classify the Bridgeport IPA as an old-style IPA, or an English IPA, as opposed to a Northwest IPA. While B-port is a very balanced and hoppy beer, it doesn't register in the hop-your-socks-off register of most NW IPAs, largely due to the age of the recipe (Bridgeport has been making the IPA for some time, and so deserves our respect). That said, the Hop Czar is a very respectable Imperial IPA and falls much closer to the northwest version of an IPA. I found the malt a little too strong, but such is always expected with a high ABV Imperial. ****
1 comment:
silas here. just wanted to post some shameless self promotion. the porterhouse has a facebook group now. join me and we will rule the world (insert maniacal laughter here)! see you at the pub!
Post a Comment