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The Blitz-Weinhard brewery, the longest continuously operating
brewery in America, has been dying a slow death over on
Burnside Street since Miller Brewing Co. bought the pride
of Portland last August. So I got out my stash of original
Henry's and invited Brian Butenschoen, renowned beer judge,
over to compare notes.
Butenschoen, no surprise, pronounced the new Henry's not
as well-balanced as the original. "It doesn't taste as well-made,"
he said. "I got a skunky, cheap beer nose at first." We
agreed that the original Henry's was much hoppier, with
more malt complexity. When we introduced Portland's Henry
Saxer Public Lager into the mix, the craft beer placed
above both the original and the Tumwater Henry's. One year
later, Miller still hasn't got it right.
In an attempt to find out exactly what happened to the
beer Portland loved so well, I headed north to Olympia.
But I wasn't granted audience with a live brewer. Instead,
Miller's corporate offices in Milwaukee, Wisc., sent an
email stating that the company had not made any "significant
changes to Henry's."
Fortunately, my trip was not entirely in vain. Not everything
brewed in Olympia, it seems, is Philip Morris' corporate
swill.
Olympia's Fish Brewing Company makes ales proudly
brewed in what it calls the "Republic of Cascadia," a kind
of borderless phantasmagoria that roughly includes Oregon,
Washington, British Columbia, Idaho and Northern California.
Cascadia exists not only as a mere bio-region, according
to Fish Brewing's Scott Miller, but as a separate reality.
Cascadian passports are available at the Fishbowl brewpub,
which "allows all the good people of our area to hold dual
citizenship in both their recognized state and in Cascadia."
The Earth Day release of Fish Brewing's gorgeously malty
Detonator Dopplebock is dedicated to the removal
of dams that kill fish. And the brewery donates a portion
of the proceeds from its Wild Salmon Pale Ale to
Save Our Wild Salmon. As if that weren't enough, sales from
Fish's Thorton Creek Ale, a dark amber with big caramel
malt notes, help to preserve Seattle's Thorton Creek watershed.
But aside from all being such damn nice guys, their beer
plain tastes good. Their crown jewel is the Organic Amber
Ale. Similar in style to a German altbier, its sweet,
complex malt character belies a medium-light body, making
it a highly quaffable ale.
Fish hopes to go completely organic one day, according
to Martin Bills, vice president of operations: "The region
supports it. It's not a marketing thing, it's a commitment
by the brewery."
So next time you reach for that beer from Olympia, ask
yourself: Are you a subject of corporate America, or a citizen
of Cascadia?
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