BUOY BEER COMPANY, ASTORIA OR
We spent Saturday traveling to the coast from Portland to hit the Tillamook cheese factory and some of the breweries in Astoria, Cathlamet, Longview, and St.Helens. Here’s the breakdown of the first brewery we went to.
Bouy Beer Company,http://www.buoybeer.com/
No. 1 Eighth (8th) Street, Astoria, OR 97103 | Taproom 503.325.4540 | Office 503.468.0800
The brewery is situated behind some industrial buildings by the trolly tracks, built on the pier. Inside they have a few spaces for customers to sit at, a main restaurant room, taproom, and an entry hallway. The brewing tanks are located to the left as you enter and they are visible to you. There are no ‘kid-free’ areas at this brewery, so if you hate criPODS you’re SOL. The tap room had plenty of empty tables at lunchtime when we got there. The server was super friendly and food came out in less than 10 mins after ordering, which surprised us all. The beers came out (as you can see in the image) on taster trays that hold 6 each.
Here’s a review of the beers we tried:
| Style | Beer Name | ABV | IBU | Thoughts |
| Helles | HELLES | 5.3% | 19 | This Helles had a standard German approach to it. Lite in flavor and crisp like a standard Pils. |
| Czech Pils | CZECH PILS | 6.2% | 35 | This Czech Pils is also a lighter beer that features Saaz hops. The beer does have subtle complexities and rounded malt flavor profiles. |
| Lager | DUNKEL | 5.5% | 20 | This lager has a smooth initial mouth feel. You can find the balance with the Tettnang hops in a full finish. This is a 2014 Great American Beer Festival silver medal winner. |
| Cream Ale | CREAM ALE | 5.7% | 19 | This ale is a little unbalanced, it’s initial flavor profile is not completely friendly to the beer novice. There are hints of hops on the back end and aftertaste. |
| Pale Ale | PALE ALE | 5.2% | 8 | One of the better beers they have on tap. Made with Pale, Crystal, and Munich malts, the balance between the malt and hops speak to floral and citrus notes with a full bodied approach. |
| NW Red Ale | NW RED ALE | 6.7% | 65 | Another winner here. This is a stronger, alcohol forward and malt bodied red. Late kettle additions and dry-hopping with Ultra and Sterling hops provide a dry and bitter backend. |
| NW IPA | IPA | 7.5% | 70 | Standard NW style IPA that has enough esters and lite malt characters to be almost sessionable. |
| Stout | OATMEAL STOUT | 6% | 6 | Stout made with oats to help round out the smooth characters. It has chocolate (bitter) and roasted malts on the nose, front and mid mouth. The bitters on the back are from the chocolate and toasted malts. |
| IPA | IPA No. 3 | 7% | 75 | This is an experimental beer. None of us liked it. It was somewhat rancid smelling and didn’t taste much better. |
| Winter Ale | WINTER ALE | 7.4% | 67 | This is a typical winter fest style ale. It has spice, caramel, and toasted nose and palette appeal. |
| Maibock | HELLES BOCK | 7.6% | 34 | Strong malt help this Maibock a lot. It does have a standard color and nose for a bock beer. There was an odd taste on the aftertaste, so it didn’t really go down that well. |