Holiday Ale Festival 2014

Holiday Ale Festival 2014

Last night I went to the 2014 Holiday Ale Festival and I had a wonderful time! Great beer, good food and I saw lots of friends.

How awesome is Portland! We have many outstanding beer festivals, and we even get to enjoy one during the Christmas season!

If you have not ever been to the Holiday Ale Festival, do yourself a favor and go with a couple of friends and go taste the incredible beers! Many of these beers have been specially brewed for this event.

Details

The Holiday Ale Fest takes place downtown Portland at the Pioneer Courthouse Square and runs through Sunday Dec 7th at 5 PM.

You can buy general admission tickets at the door for $35 and with that you get a mug and 12 Tickets. Some beers are are 1 ticket for a “taster” and others are 2 tickets for a “taster”. You have to be 21 and over to attend this event.

The Beer!

There are 55 beers listed in the 2014 Holiday Ale Festival program guide and i have been lucky enough to sample more than 20 of those 55.

Of the ones that I have sampled – my absolute favorite is the McMenamins Edgefield Lord Of Misrule. It is an extraordinary beer!

I also very much enjoyed the following 8 beers –

Ex Novo Brewing Moonstriker

Feckin Brewery Top O’ The Feckin’ Mornin‘

Finnriver Stone and Pome Cider

Fort George Brewery Santa’s Dinner Jacket

Lompoc Brewing Pinot Noir Barrel Aged Cheval de Trait Beige

Old Town Brewing Bluth’s Original Chocolate Banana Hefeweizen

Reverend Nat’s Providence (served hot)

Widmer Frosty the Muchieman

There are two Holiday Ale beers that I keep hearing about, that I have yet to sample – Kells Brew Pub AKA Boom Roaster and Viking Aurora.

I hope get back to the 2014 Holiday Ale Festival to try out these two and a few more. I am sure that among the 25 or so beers at the Holiday Ale Festival that I have not yet sampled, that there are a few more delightful gems!

If you go to the 2014 Holiday Ale Festival, let me know which one you like best!

The Food

You will likely want to get some food to go with your beer and they have some great options at the Holiday Ale Fest! Bunk Sandwiches, Urban German and cheese from Willamette Valley Cheese Co.

Last night I had the Pork Belly Cubano from Bunk and – Oh baby! That is a great sandwich! get one for yourself and t6hank me later!

The Holiday Ale Festival Radio Interview

On Tuesday I had Preston Weesner and Chris Crabb from the Holiday Ale Festival on my Portland Radio Project radio show – Tasty Tuesday.

Here is a link to the podcast that Ken Wilson Media Maestro made from the live, in studio interview we did with Preston and Chris – – www.prp.fm/tasty-tuesday-dec-2-holiday-ale-festival

Friends!

One of the things I love the most about the portland beer scene is all of the great friends I made in that community ! Here are some photos of the people I ran into last night at the Holiday Ale Festival!

Brian Yaeger is the Author of the brand new book – Oregon Breweries and Ezra Johnson-Greenough is the founder of the excellent beer website –The New School: Dedicated to craft beer.

Brian will at the Holiday Ale Festival Thursday and Sunday selling copies of Oregon Breweries. It is wonderful book – I highly encourage you to buy a copy!