Absinthe

Great American Distillers Festival (October 19-20, 2012)

October 15, 2012 by Dave 1 Comment

The 8th annual Great American Distillers Festival takes place Friday and Saturday, October 19 and 20, 2012 at Tiffany Center (1410 SW Morrison). The fest runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.

This festival is a gathering of small distillers from across the country who come to Oregon – the Mecca of craft distilling, to share their products, their passion and their expertise in handcrafting spirits.There will be tastings, seminars, a mixology contest for bartenders and more!

A one day pass, which includes 5 taster tickets, is only $15. $25 gets you in both days, plus 10 taster tickets. Additional taster tickets can be purchased of course. Over 40 distillers will be in attendance.

Heather, our friend Diane, and I attended the festival in 2009 and enjoyed quite a few samples of interesting distillations. The move to the Tiffany Center downtown means taking public transit to the event is easy.

A Toast to Repeal Day 2011

December 5, 2011 by Dave Leave a Comment

Headline from the Oregonian, Dec 5 1933 Monday, December 5, 2011 marks the 78th anniversary of Repeal Day, the day in 1933 when three quarters of the states ratified the 21st Amendment to the Constitution and thus repealed the federal prohibition on the sale, manufacture, and consumption of alcoholic beverages!

Toast to our brewers, vintners, distillers, distributors, publicans, bartenders, waitrons, and friends on this anniversary. Head to to your local drinking establishment or throw a cocktail party!

Some local area bars are getting into the spirit of the occasion:

Teardrop Lounge (1015 NW Everett) is throwing their annual Repeal Day 2011 bash. Period dress encouraged – and you must know the password: “I’m here to see a man about a horse.”

Saraveza (1004 N Killingsworth) is celebrating with a special presentation of the film Prohibition’s “A Nation of Scofflaws” – in the Bad Habit room. Doors open at 5pm, film begins at 6pm. No cover!

At all Rogue pub locations Repeal Day means Double Taster Day.

And Imbibe Unfiltered has a five drink recipes suggestions to toast your right to imbibe.

For more information about my favorite secular holiday, visit RepealDay.org, a site created by local bartending and mixology blogger Jeffrey Mogenthaler, one of the first individuals to propose treating the anniversary as a holiday.

Great American Distillers Festival (October 22-23, 2011)

October 18, 2011 by Dave Leave a Comment

The 7th annual Great American Distillers Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, October 23 and 24 2011 at the Left Bank Annex (101 N Weidler), 1pm until 7pm both days.

This festival is a gathering of small distillers from across the country who come to Oregon – the Mecca of craft distilling, to share their products, their passion and their expertise in handcrafting spirits.There will be tastings, seminars, a mixology contest for bartenders and more!

A one day pass, which includes 3 taster tickets, is only $10. $16 gets you in both days. Additional taster tickets can be purchased of course. 50 distilleries will be in attendance.

Heather, our friend Diane, and I attended the festival in 2009 and enjoyed quite a few samples of interesting distillations, including several absinthes, New Deal‘s newly OLCC approved (at the time) Mud Puddle Chocolate Vodka, and Bend Distillery‘s Cofia Hazelnut Espresso Vodka, which would have been great on top of ice cream!

Portland Food Carts to become Booze Carts?

December 13, 2010 by Dave 3 Comments

With the news that Portland food cart owners are eyeing the possibility of liquor licenses, there’s some work to be done on the Portland Food Cart scene. For one thing, many carts will need new monikers to let the public know they have new offerings.

Some suggestions:

Potato Vodka Champion (SE 12th and Hawthorne)
Euro Trashed (SE 43rd and Belmont)
Lucille’s Coors Light Party Balls (SE 43rd and Belmont)
Azul Tequila Mexican Taqueria (SE 50th, South of Division) – This one already exists, alas they’re not (yet?) serving tequila
New Taste of India Pale Ale (SW 5th and Oak)
Ziba’s Zima (SW 9th and Alder)
Koi Infusion (SW 4th and College)

Over at Portland’s Least Popular Food Carts, Bill Oakley has one that may actually end up being a very popular cart:

Cooter’s Moonshine & SquirrelBurgers (NE 23rd & Alberta)

Any more ideas?

October 23-24: KillerBeerFest, Great American Distillers Festival, and Wonder Woman Day 2010

October 21, 2010 by Dave Leave a Comment

Beer, booze, and a buxom super hero – not a bad weekend!

Saturday

KillerBeerFest 2010

The climax of Brewpublic‘s 2nd Annual KillerBeerWeek is the KillerBeerFest at Bailey’s Taproom (213 SW Broadway), on Saturday, October 23 2010. Taps start pouring at 4pm!

“On this special night, Brewpublic has curated a line-up of never tasted before beers from the Pacific Northwest. barrel-aged brews, Belgian-style specialties, fruit and spice beers, and other mind melting one-of-a-kind and one-off brews.” [more]

Saturday-Sunday

Great American Distillers Festival 2010

The 2010 Great American Distillers Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, October 23 and 24 2010 at the Tiffany Center (1410 SW Morrison), 11am until 7pm both days.

Small distillers from around the country come to offer samples of spirits and share schwag in the form of buttons, stickers, and brochures. Once again the festival also features the Portland Cocktail Invitational, a competition sponsored by the Oregon Bartenders Guild and Imbibe Magazine. Two dozen star bartenders from across the country compete for the $1000 grand prize. [more]

Sunday

Wonder Woman Day 2010

Celebrate Wonder Woman Day V this Sunday, October 24 2010 at Excalibur Comics (2444 SE Hawthorne).

This free heroic charity event takes place during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and is a benefit for Portland’s Bradley Angle organization, Raphael House, and other domestic violence programs. [more]

For even more stuff to do this weekend, check out Around The Sun, PDX Pipeline, and Blogging Portland on the Cheap!