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The sudsy celebration that started Portland's obsession
with gathering to slurp tiny tasters of craft brews is back for its 24th
year. These days it has metastasized into a juggernaut of an event
featuring more than 80 breweries from across the country, live bands,
food, home brewing, and drunken frat brahs. But at its heart, it's still
just about more than 70,000 local and visiting beer lovers communing
with their favorite beverage on the planet. Since 2009, Preston Weesner
has given the fest's most committed übergeeks a more intimate set of
sips in OBF's "Buzz Tent." That's where the local beer industry insider
and "chugmaster" houses one-off kegs of the craft brew world's weirdest
and wildest beers—the kinds of expensive, experimental suds that
brewmasters have held onto for a number of years but don't have in
enough volume to sell commercially. Weesner says he's excited to tap the
lone keg of Full Sail's Old Boardhead Barleywine Ale, which brewmaster
John Harris (the man behind McMenamins Terminator Stout and Deschutes
Black Butte Porter) made back in 1995. Weesner is tasting more than 60
"buzz beers" in the course of the four-day fest, tweeting the names of
the beers as he starts serving them. But he warns that when each special
keg runs out, they're gone for good. "If you're not there when it gets
tapped you might not get it at all…," he warns. "You might just hear how good it was."
GO: Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Southwest Naito Parkway between Southwest Harrison and Northwest Glisan streets. Noon-9 pm Thursday-Saturday, noon-7 pm Sunday, July 28-31. Free entry. $6 souvenir mug required to drink; taster tokens $1. General info at oregonbrewfest.com. Buzz Tent tasters costs two tokens. Follow the Buzz Tent on Twitter: @OBFBuzzTent to find out what they are currently pouring.
WWeek 2015