Noble Rot Presents: Beer Dinner with Heater Allen Brewing of McMinnville, Oregon Wednesday, November 19,  6:30PM - Noble Rot, Private Upstairs Dining $55 per person / $100 per couple (all-inclusive) Seats are going fast - reservations necessary. Call us at 503-233-1999 6:30PM Reception: Candied nuts and house made pork terrine / Beer: Pilsner & Bobtoberfest First Course: [...]

I scored a bottle of Heater Allen Schwarzbier last night, and the nice cashier at Belmont Station reported that Rick Allen had gotten his larger, 6-barrel brewery online (reducing somewhat my sense that I had scored! with the bottle I was holding). And so it is:

Brewer's Notes, July 7
We've been brewing on the new system for a little over a month now, and I think that we've gotten a pretty good handle on how to best make beer on this system. First, we've figured out that the system works best when we're using 300 to 350 pounds of grain. For most beers this equates to 6 barrel batches, not 7. Higher gravity beer batches will be even smaller. We also are mashing the grain in the Boil Kettle rather than in the Mash Tun. This gives us much better temperature control for our step mashes. We then pump the mash up to the Lauter Tun, clean out the Boil Kettle, and then strain the wort back into the Boil Kettle. This is classic modern German brewing, as opposed to the British tradition of single step infusion mashing, and as opposed to old-style German decoction brewing.

Today we're going to brew our second batch of Bobtoberfest. Each batch we're brewing will yield about 4 1/2 barrels. We'll combine the two batches in one of our 9 barrel lagering tanks (the first batch is currently lagering in one of our fermenters).

...

OK, I never said I was an expert, nor pretended to know everything so I'm not going to feel that bad to belatedly learn of Heater-Allen Brewing in nearby McMinnville...I'm not gonna feel bad, but I am going to...

I've been hearing rumblings about this place for a while now, and Jeff's post on Beervana jogged my memory and reminded me I need to call them. After getting of the phone with the Rick Allen, the affable owner and brewer for Heater-Allen, I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that he seems to be producing some great lagers and has been selling the beer almost as fast as he can brew it. The bad news, at least for us, is that he doesn't have enough suds to support a market like Portland. On a brighter note, I was told they have plans to upgrade from their current 20 gallon (not barrels, gallons) system to a "real" 7bbl system in the next few months. This should allow them to support Portland and possibly other areas as well.

I'll do my best to bring in the beers as soon as they can supply them, but in the meantime you'll have to take a voyage to McMinnville and buy them directly from the source. Just be sure to call first as availablility is extremely limited.

Many people lament the lack of lagers in our beery landscape, especially since the demise of Saxer, so these guys will definitely be a welcome addition to the scene.