The second benefit will be held on Tuesday, April 17th for the Portland Fruit Tree Project. The Portland Fruit Tree Project is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide individuals and families that have limited access to healthy food with fresh produce. They connect communities by empowering neighbors . . . → Read More: Benefits at Hawthorne!]]> The Hawthorne Hophouse is hosting a couple fundraising events in the upcoming weeks! First will be a benefit for the Treehouse Nursery School on Tuesday, April 10th. We will donate 15% of all sales between 6pm and 9pm to the Portland preschool whose mission is to provide an earth-based, early childhood education program in an organic, creative and loving environment.

The second benefit will be held on Tuesday, April 17th for the Portland Fruit Tree Project. The Portland Fruit Tree Project is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide individuals and families that have limited access to healthy food with fresh produce. They connect communities by empowering neighbors to share the harvest of their backyard fruit trees that would otherwise go to waste. The locally grown and cost-free produce is sustainably harvested and distributed by volunteers to individuals and communities that have a little or no access to fresh produce. We will be donating 20% of all sales between 5pm and 8pm on April 17th to this incredible grassroots organization. There will also be a raffle and informational booth for you to check out when you come in and support the cause!

So this Tuesday night, treat yourself to a delicious dinner with great brews at the Hawthorne Hophouse and 15% of what you spend will go towards keeping music in the lives of kids!

Live music at Hawthorne starts at 3pm with the Robert Richter Duo, followed by Dan McDonald at 6pm with Julie McCarl and friends bringing in the . . . → Read More: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!]]> St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner and the Hophouse has you covered. Both the Fifteenth Avenue and Hawthorne Hophouses will have a great line up of Irish music, Irish-style brews on tap and corned beef & cabbage.  And to ensure that you won’t be sacrificing quality while you satisfy your annual craving for green beer, our good friends at Natian are brewin’ up a keg of green beer for each Hophouse.

Live music at Hawthorne starts at 3pm with the Robert Richter Duo, followed by Dan McDonald at 6pm with Julie McCarl and friends bringing in the final set starting at 9pm.  The Fifteenth Ave. Hophouse  will have Sporting Paddy kicking off the festivities at 5:30pm and Stone Crowe taking the stage at 8:30pm to finish the night.

So freshen up your green attire and come in for some Irish pints, food and music for a Happy St. Patty’s Day!

We will also offer lunch fare during brunch hours so you will . . . → Read More: Brunch at Fifteenth]]> Starting the first weekend in March, the Fifteenth Avenue Hophouse will be open for brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 10-3!  We are crafting up a well-rounded and delicious food and cocktail menu with traditional items like Eggs Benedict, a killer Bloody Mary and fresh squeezed Mimosas to less traditional items such as a Grilled Cheddar and Fried Egg Sandwich and Mulled Lager with honey and lemon. We know weekend brunch is a staple for most Portlanders and we are excited to bring it to the Hophouse!

We will also offer lunch fare during brunch hours so you will still be able to get your favorite burger or salad.  At 3pm we will switch over to our Happy Hour and Dinner menu.  Unfortunately we will not be able to offer Happy Hour food items during brunch hours on Sunday. However, the Happy Hour food menu will be available from 3-close on Sundays and Portland beers will still be discounted all day Sunday.

So come March, think of us when you’re looking for weekend brunch! We’ll get the full menu posted once it is finalized.

Turkey and Beer?

Turkey day is around the corner. Or tofurkey, or possibly a ham. Regardless, we’re having a growler fill sale tomorrow, Wednesday only,  in order to provide you with some excellent, appropriate beer to have at your big meal. Most beers are $10/fill. Bring your own growler or fill ours ($7). The only beers that are excluded from this sale are the one-offs which cost bazillion dollars.

Beers that pair well with turkey/ chicken/game hens

Kolsch: Whenever I’m having a meal at a friend’s house and I’m not sure which beer to bring, I always try a . . . → Read More: Turkey and Beer?]]>

Turkey and Beer?

Turkey day is around the corner. Or tofurkey, or possibly a ham. Regardless, we’re having a growler fill sale tomorrow, Wednesday only,  in order to provide you with some excellent, appropriate beer to have at your big meal. Most beers are $10/fill. Bring your own growler or fill ours ($7). The only beers that are excluded from this sale are the one-offs which cost bazillion dollars.

Beers that pair well with turkey/ chicken/game hens

Kolsch: Whenever I’m having a meal at a friend’s house and I’m not sure which beer to bring, I always try a Kolsch (with an umlaut, no less). This beer is a little mellower in style than a German Pils. It’s a hybrid beer using top-fermented yeast (making it technically ale) but then it undergoes a cold fermentation (lagering) which produces a beer that is light in body. Sometimes there’s a bit of wheat in the malt, but it’s mostly made of all barley.  It’s pale with a white head, clear-ish, and has a bit of biscuit and sourdough on the nose. There are several good versions of Kolsch on the market right now, but the most infamous Kolsch at the Hophouse is brewed by Double Mountain of Hood River.

Lager: If you’re just now weaning yourself off the Miller Light, consider a more tasty lager. Lagers of course are fermented and conditioned at cool temperatures, which slows the yeast metabolism. The elements produced by ale fermentations are notably absent from these beers. The flavors are cleaner, less complex, and more focused on malt and almost nothing else. Of course, there are some hoppy lagers, but the lagers that are mass-produced in the US today are mostly malty.

So if you’re a fan of hops, but are going to a family gathering with lots of “regular” beer drinkers, consider bringing one of the craft lagers such as Hopworks Lager or Everybody’s Local Logger Lager. These beers are just way more interesting and tasty to drink. This is also a good choice if you’ve got a lot of heavy drinkers and are trying to keep your Uncle Mickey from being completely obnoxious – these beers have a low ABV, but are filling and tasty so your guests .

Pilsners (or pilseners as the beer geeks spell) are great lagers with turkey, too. If you’re a traditionalist, try a Bohemian/German/Czech Pilsener, any of which are based on an original recipe, and brewed a burnished-gold colored beer with a complex caramel nose, and a Saaz-hop aroma. There are also a lot of good samples of these on the market today. Lagunitas has a solid one which I get in bottles in the summer. But Heater Allen has an excellent Pils, brewed right over in McMinnville. Rick Allen is a celebrated brewer, and has created an all-lager brewery that is achieving nation-wide fame for his good beers. For an Oregon brewery to not make ales … for this to succeed, it has to be good beer.

Pale Ale / IPA: I love an IPA with turkey or chicken. Not a double, and not one that will overwhelm the taste buds, but a simple, clean, fairly hoppy IPA with a slight malt balance. This is Portland’s favorite beer, and I would drink that with anything. There are so many single IPA’s out there, but I’ve been drinking Boneyard’s RPM for a while now, and it’s ruined me for some of the others. Consider Natian’s IPA, brewed in Portland. Or the one from Burnside. Coalition has a nice IPA right now which we don’t have right now, but I’m sure they’d fill a growler for you. Migration’s Pale Ale which we should have on tap. Or Deschutes Red Chair – that’s an excellent in-between beer. Hoppier than a simple pale ale, not hoppy enough to be considered by Portland-centric IPA drinkers. But that’s a great beer for turkey, skiing, surfing, whatever.

Beers that don’t pair well with turkey, but instead with duck/ham/roast beef

I’m lumping these types of beers (turkey or non-turkey) into two categories, which is over-simplifying the situation. Of course you can drink whatever you want with any meal. However, if you’re going to have a heavier meal for Thanksgiving in general, you’re going to want a heavier beer to balance the food. Heavier is probably not the word – instead, more complex, higher ABV, stronger taste and aroma. There are many winter ales that fit this bill that are all hitting the market right now. Oakshire’s Ill-Tempered Gnome. Natian’s Old Grogham.

Whatever your pleasure, stop by for a growler fill. The reduced cost makes it $2.50/pint, and its fun to bring a big jar of beer to Thanksgiving and watch your guests all fight over it. Draft beer is … just better, somehow. And what a great way to bring something new to a meal with friends and family. You can leave them the growler as a holiday gift.

We’re right on the cusp of release of winter seasonals. True, we haven’t gotten through all of the heavily-spiced pumpkin porters out there yet, but if you’re getting a little full of those, and are looking for a nice winter ale, come to the Hophouse.

Oakshire, out of Eugene, just released their infamous Ill-Tempered Gnome, which is a nice lightly spiced winter ale, not a huge ABV and extremely drinkable. Not hard core like many of the strong ales out there. Had some at our birthday party, and that’s a seasonal I could drink all night!

Natian, . . . → Read More: New Beers]]>

drink this!

We’re right on the cusp of release of winter seasonals. True, we haven’t gotten through all of the heavily-spiced pumpkin porters out there yet, but if you’re getting a little full of those, and are looking for a nice winter ale, come to the Hophouse.

Oakshire, out of Eugene, just released their infamous Ill-Tempered Gnome, which is a nice lightly spiced winter ale, not a huge ABV and extremely drinkable. Not hard core like many of the strong ales out there. Had some at our birthday party, and that’s a seasonal I could drink all night!

Natian, of Portland, also just released their Old Grogham Winter Ale. Palisade hops were added throughout the boil and dry hop schedule, along with high alpha American hops for bittering, Noble hops for aroma and a few other varieties in-between to balance the heavy malt profile. Rum-soaked Oregon oak spires added during the final stages of fermentation bring flavor notes of caramel and vanilla to complement the bitterness.

Of course we’ll have more winter seasonals on soon, in the coming weeks. As the weather gets frostier, stop by for a snifter of winter beer … it will warm your toes!

We’ve got pulled pork sandwiches, veggie chili, butternut squash soup, crostini, cut vegetables, and 24 taps of beer!

Live music is Bitterroot, starts at 6:00 pm.

Entrance is $10/adult. You get unlimited buffet and a pint, and the first 100 entrants get free stuff. Then you enter a raffle with each beer you drink, lots of free stuff. Gift certificates, glasses, tshirts, beer hats, stop by!

Free stuff!

Oh, yes. Kids are free. Against our better judgment.

Thanks to all of you for making our first year a success!  Hope . . . → Read More: Party is happening … Now!]]> Come on down. Check out our cool tent.

We’ve got pulled pork sandwiches, veggie chili, butternut squash soup, crostini, cut vegetables, and 24 taps of beer!

Live music is Bitterroot, starts at 6:00 pm.

Entrance is $10/adult. You get unlimited buffet and a pint, and the first 100 entrants get free stuff. Then you enter a raffle with each beer you drink, lots of free stuff. Gift certificates, glasses, tshirts, beer hats, stop by!

Free stuff!

Oh, yes. Kids are free. Against our better judgment.

Thanks to all of you for making our first year a success!  Hope to see you soon.