Review: Ex Novo Brewing Co., Portland OR.

EX NOVO BREWING CO, PORTLAND OREGON We visited Ex Novo on a recent ‘Wednesday Hoppiness Hour’ trip here in Portland (4 Feb. 2015). This is a non-profit brewery. For those that aren’t sure what that means, they donate 100% of the net profits to “organizations that are working to affect positive social change both in Portland and around the world.” This is not the only bar/restaurant in Portland that has this model. It prevents them from being bought out by a larger company (InBev) while producing a top quality product. They do pay their staff and owners a decent living wage, don’t mistake that for a second, just the rest of the $$ after they pay their bills and wages go towards a number of organizations that deserve support. The brewery location is close-in North Portland across the street from a neighborhood park (with baseball and soccer fields). The on-street parking is a little bit limited and you may have to walk a little bit if you go during peek hours. The inside of the brewery mixes raw-wood and cool art with an upstairs seating area, bar seating and small dining area on the main floor. The production tanks are …

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Review: Fat Head’s Brewing, Portland Oregon

FAT HEAD’S BREWING, PORTLAND OREGON I visited this brewery and restaurant on Wednesday January 15th with a good friend Stan. He’s got a LOT of experience with beer judging and tasting and was happy to visit with me. I would like to thank him for his willingness to help me become a better reviewer of beers as my skills at it are still somewhat lacking the vocabulary it really needs. This restaurant and brewery is really big and open. Some would call it corporate in nature as they have locations in more than one city across the US. The left the rafters exposed, hung industrial lighting, put the brewing tanks on the west side of the inside behind large windows. The food menu is really expansive and caters to the larger portion sizes common to the mid-west restaurant scene. They have just about any sort of food you can imagine. We have not been disappointed with the quick service and knowledgeable bar tenders. When we ordered a taster of all of their beers, they normally do paddles of 5 at a time, but the bartender just brought them to us 3 at a time until we had all 15 of …

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Review: Fábrica Maravillas, Madrid Spain

FÁBRICA MARAVILLAS, MADRID SPAIN On an early January afternoon we ventured out in Madrid seeking one of the only local breweries in town. This brewery is on a small old city street called Calle Valverde, not far from where our hotel was located. This brewery has a few tables outside to sit at when it’s warm and just a few tables inside and a bar to sit at if you can find a seat. They do have menus available in English and Spanish which give the descriptions of the beer and light tapas food they offer. Inside you will find modern decor, exposed wood and brick make the vibe really hip compared to many shops and eateries in the neighborhood that are not so. The staff is super friendly and willing to help you with the beers, which the offer in a couple of different sizes. I’ve read the owner and brewer is from Chicago, which explains the Americdan style microbrewery vibe to the joint. We definitely recommend this spot to anyone seeking good craft beer in Madrid! You will see in the pictures that they do have their brewing equipment just behind the bar and you can ask the …

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Taproom: Stop Madrid, Madrid Spain

STOP MADRID, MADRID SPAIN This has been a neighborhood hangout for over 100 years and if the walls could talk? OY VEY!!!. Old wood framing the shelves of wine and tapas display and hand tiled flooring speaks to the age and established character. Incredible wines available by the glass with friendly staff to help you decide, even in English! We were hesitant at first due to the crowd of people inside, but luckily found a table (barrel top) to sit at in the back. The servers did provide us some tapas for free with our beers, nothing special. We did notice that a number of people around us had ordered a variety of food and it looked delicious. The wine selection is pretty amazing (as you can see from the pictures) and really cheap per glass. Their beers range from local, regional and a few international bottles and drafts. Yes, you can see that they have a Mexican beer listed, it’s an import you know. 🙂 Below is a list of the few beers that I was able to try while we sat. The bar did slowly get more and more crowded as we were there, so we bailed after …

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Taproom: BierCab, Barcelona Spain

BIER CAB, BARCELONA SPAIN One of the many beer bars in Barcelona, we visited the Bier Cab after lunchtime (afternoon). The location provides you with both a ‘tap-house’ with 30 taps of local, regional, and international drafts, as well as the attached ‘bottle-shop’ with a large variety of beers to purchase. The location is in the central part of Barcelona, not far from tons of shopping and nightlife. It is open earlier in the day as most bars are, and provides a full menu of food. We didn’t order anything while we were there off the menu, but what we did see people enjoying a variety of burgers and other dishes. The beer list is an electronic reader/keg board behind the bar with lots of information about each of their drafts. They also update their website in real time with their tap-list, so if you’re wondering what they have, check that out. The bar/restaurant space has large windows in the front that look out onto the street and a beautiful wooden bar with glasses overhead (as you can see in the picture). We sat across from it and people watched as we sipped our beers. We did enter the bottle …

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Beer Tasting, 29 Dec. 2014, Dusseldorf Germany

BEER TASTING & PARTY 12/29/14, DÜSSELDORF GERMANY During our recent visit to Germany, we were invited to a party at our friend Franzi’s flat in Düsseldorf on Dec. 29th to celebrate the holidays with some of her friends. She also wanted to use this opportunity to do some beer tastings and took us to one of the local liquor stores earlier in the day. This was like walking into beer heaven in Germany for me. Trinkgut as shown in the picture actually had rows and rows of bottled local and regional German beers. We had a great time picking out the beers to try that night and below is the reviews of the one’s we were able to try. One thing that should be noted is that the beer prices in Germany are considerably lower than in the states, most of the 22oz. singles like the ones pictured were no more than $2-$3/each. I also noticed that there were only 3 or 4 beers available in cans (6 or 12 packs), and not refrigerated. I did ask one of the brewers that we spoke with on the trip about the lack of can’s and there was no real good explanation …

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