On April 2nd of this year, Oakshire Brewing had about 75 barrels (2325 gallons) of fermentation space and about 20 barrels (620 gal.) of bright tank space. A bright tank is the vessel in which we keg the beer from.  On July 2nd (that means Thursday, folks), Oakshire brewing will be sporting a whooping 215 barrels of fermentation space (6,665 gal.) and roughly 60 barrels (1860 gal.) of bright tank space.  90 days and nearly a 3 fold expansion.  A-B/In-bev and Miller/SAB/Molson/Coors you’d better watch out. Oakshire Brewing is on the move!  Pictures coming later this week of the final tank shuffle and “big boy” tank install.

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to attend the North American Organic Beer Fest in Portland.  Organized by Roots Brewing and Abram Goldman-Armstrong, this annual event at Overlook PArk keeps getting bigger and bigger.  We blew through about 8 kegs of our Watershed IPA and Overcast Espresso Stout.  People were so thrilled they threw enough votes our way to take third in the people’s choice Best of Show for Watershed.  We’re glad you all liked it, so feel free to ask for it at your favorite Portland watering hole. I’ll be brewing overnight in two weeks to get you all enough volume. more on that later…….

Cascadian Dark from HUB, or was it Elliot Bay??

That little solar panel cart was used to brew beer onsite-cool!

Oh, and the whole fest was powered by a vegetable oil generator. Pretty sweet! We’ll see you there next year.

Finally, we have been cleared by the government to bottle our Overcast Espresso Stout!

Here’s the final artwork:

First run begins on Thursday July 16th. Wish us luck.

Check out the State of Suds issue in the latest Eugene Weekly:

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2009/06/25/stateofthesuds/feature2.html

Last weekend I got a chance to head up to Pacific City and Pelican Brewpub for the Annual Brewers Summer Games.  Darron Welch and crew do a great job throwing this event to raise money for two groups in the area.  This is a chance for Oregon (and Washington) brewers to kick back and have a little fun competition and all the while help raise money for a charitable cause.  Events included keg toss, swill beer toss, keg dolly course, mash relay, keg sled run and the punishing pub to surf keg run where teams had to run a full keg down the beach, submerge it and race back up the beach. Brutal.  Great times were had by all.

Beautiful weekend to take the family to the coast!

DJ Chris from Oakshire ready to spin the sound.

How far can you toss a 1/4 bbl?

lots of beer was spilled in "service with a smile"

Sunsetting over beautiful Pacific City as the summer games draw to a close.

Perhaps Oakshire will take a crack at the coveted trophy next year.

One of the great things about Oakshire Brewing is the ongoing commitment to seasonals, one-offs, and barrel aging.  Right after I arrived, we purchased two bourbon barrels and promptly began to age beer.  (We pulled the threeish kegs of Overcast Espresso stout and a few lucky dogs will be pouring it soon!-the Watershed IPA is tasting great, but will get a little more wood exposure)  We plan to get more bourbon barrels in the mix, but for now I set my sites on the plentiful harvest here in Wine country. Luckily, I made conatct with Eric at Sokol Blosser Winery in Dundee. He happened to have some well taken care of Pinoit Noir barrels that we could purchase.  Last Wed, I took the newly painted rig up to Dundee to fetch them. Cool place, Sokol Blosser.

I met up with Doug, the assistant winemaker and Forrest. They helped me load ten barrels from various coopers.  All the barrel were used three times and had pinot in them for about 16 months each. They smelled awesome!

And the scenery at the winery was wonderful. It was a beautiful sunny morning.  I’d like to go back for a tasting.

On the way out to the winery, I happened upon a couple of hop fields.  Zowee! They took me by surprise.  As a brewer from the flatlands, I never really got to see my ingredients firsthand, except for the occasional malt house.  This was nirvana. On the way back I snapped a couple of pix.

Now that’s freshness in every glass!!!

We’re not sure what all is going into the barrels but we have some solid ideas.  Stay tuned for more…

We were contacted recently by Alex Lee at Laundrylist.org because our new summer seasonal Line Dry Rye came up on his radar. From their site:

Project Laundry List is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization which aims to demonstrate that personal choices can make a difference for the Earth and its people.

Mission Statement

Project Laundry List is making air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable as a simple and effective way to save energy.

Principles

• It is not enough to define a problem and offer no solutions.
• Our consumption patterns create the demand for electricity.
• The generation of nuclear power is an inefficient energy source producing an abundance of hazardous waste of which we cannot safely dispose.
• Raising awareness of existing alternatives to nuclear power and large hydroelectric projects will help people and corporations to make appropriate technological choices.
• Nobody should have to live, work, or play near a nuclear facility.
• No culture or community should be destroyed by a hydroelectric facility or any other monolithic corporate project.
• The sun is the most powerful nuclear reactor and can serve many purposes—none of which should be ignored.
• All citizens nation-wide should have the legal right to hang out their laundry.
• North Americans, as all people, must lead by example.
• Frugality, or thrift, needs to be a universally practiced virtue.

We’re going to send Alex a few samples and some tap handle stickers since this one won’t be bottled for production.

Give your Dryer a break today and Drink a Line Dry tonight……..

Who’s Stan you say? C’mon people, I think you know.  He only wrote, BrewLike a Monk (website found at http://www.brewlikeamonk.com/ ) , regularly blogs at Appellation Beer, writes for several publications and is now writing THE book on wheat beers.  And if that’s not enoughh coolness, he’s been traveling the world(well, US, Canada, and most of Europe) with his wife and daughter.  You should check out the VERY informative and witty blog at Slow Travelers. An amazing trip, IMO. And you can see me and the family outside their traveling “home” here:

Happy Travels Stan. We’ll just live vicariously through you and your family. See you in Denver.

Yes!!  We’ve been cleared to put all of our hoppy goodness into bottles for you.  Please look for Oakshire Beer in all the usual bottle locations before the end of July.