Here for the Beer: American Home Brewing Conference in Portland

It was with some sadness that we left Our Gracious Host and Hostess and headed off to Portland. As we drove north through Oregon we recognised names such as the Willamette Valley, the Cascade Ranges and the Deschutes River. Yes, as well as the stunning scenery, we were in the midst of hop-growing land. So, naturally we stopped for lunch at a brewery: Hop Valley Brewing Company in Springfield, to be precise. 

We sampled half a dozen beers, of which the Doubledelic Imperial IPA and the Paint the Town Brown were my favourites. The burger menu was significant - I couldn't face that much food, so I just took a picture of the menu instead. We shared a plate of nachos between us. One thing is for sure; we will not starve on this trip.  

  

In the accustomed manner, as soon as we arrived in Portland (we still need to adjust to driving through rush-hour traffic in a city on the wrong side of the road), we dumped our bags in our hotel and caught a cab to the nearest craft beer venue. A quick word on that; the craft beer venues are plentiful. It is not unusual to find at least one on every corner of the block. 

We chose wisely (and often), beginning at Breakside Brewery in Slabtown. The sours were sour and the IPAs were hoppy. My comment on the Breakside IPA was 'citrus and pine - it's what you'd expect from an IPA from these parts, but it's a very good one.' Over the next few days I was to notice how what we call West Coast IPAs are generally just called 'IPAs', and what we know as New England IPAs are called 'Hazy IPAs': there appears to be some coastal rivalry going down. 

Fourth Wave by Breakside Brewery is a superb dessert beer, tasting of rich creamy coffee aged in bourbon barrels

The American Homebrewing Conference began the next day, so we were up bright and early to catch a light-rail train to the Conference Centre. (This is the sort of system that is being installed in Canberra, and if it runs this efficiently, there should be no complaints.) The Conference Centre itself is rather a large building with some impressive artwork.

The Dream by Michael Florin on MLK Jr Blvd

Chinese dragon boat, given to Portland in 1989 in recognition of its status as dragon boat centre of the country

Portal by Bill Hope

River Song by Lucinda Parker

Principa by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest Foucault pendulum.

While Him Outdoors judged literally hundreds of beers, I did a Cicerone workshop. The Cicerone Certification Program 'certifies and educates beer professionals in order to elevate the beer experience for consumers'. A certified cicerone is pretty much the beer equivalent of a sommelier; she has knowledge of beer styles, storage and serving, and food matching. 

It's a highly-respected qualification in the beer world, and one I was keen to learn more about. The introductory workshop had us learning lots of information and trying out our new-found skills in practical sessions of beer-tasting and note-taking. I would recommend it to anyone who works in the industry and would like to add professional knowledge to a passionate hobby.

The rest of the day featured a Home Brewing Conference Expo and a Kick-Off Party, at which all the local commercial breweries had stalls serving free beer to discerning drinkers. There are a lot of said breweries in these parts, as I may have mentioned (at last count there were 58 in Portland and 84 in the Portland Metro area), so here are some photos of the home-brewers and the professionals side by side. 

Colouring-in at Ninkasi Brewing Company

And in black and white

The good ones 'sold out' quickly

Beer, Beaches, Books and the Bard (and some more trees)

Ferndale Cemetery may not be everyone's idea of a morning walk, but it is a beautiful, peaceful place with great views and interesting history.

We continued our drive up the coast to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The Visitor Centre is on the seafront - another quick opportunity to whip off the shoes and walk along the beach.

As we drove into the woods, we saw these magnificent beasts by the roadside. The Roosevelt Elk are protected and they show no fear, as they graze gracefully and magnanimously allow photos.

 

And then we went for another walk through the woods and there were more trees. The species of Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) includes the tallest living trees on earth. They're big.

 

Out of the woods, and back to the sea - are you sensing a theme yet? Our route was to take us inland from Cresent City, but not before we stopped to admire the lighthouse. Battery Point Light was one of the first lighthouses on the California coast. At high tide it is cut off from the mainland, but fortunately it was low tide so we were able to walk across to it. 

I'm not usually a fan of net curtains, but these I can really get behind.

We set off inland through another forest of Coastal Redwoods. These ones are in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Named after Jedediah Strong Smith, a clerk, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer and explorer, this is the least developed of the redwoods parks and one of the most impressive. A dirt track winds through the trees and their size and proximity is overwhelming. 

Also known to some as the location for the forest moon of Endor from Return of the Jedi, you may spot a couple of gormless-looking eewoks among the trees if you look closely. 

We continued our drive and stopped for dinner at Common Block Brewing Company. Here we discovered good food, great beer (the Brick & Mortar Porter was deliciously chocolately with a touch bitterness, and the Cheek to Cheek Grapefruit IPA combines sweet malt with hop bitterness and extra grapefruit zest), and the game of cornhole.

Common Block Brewing Cheek to Cheek Grapefruit IPA

Cornhole may look like some deranged deck game for listless cruise-liner passengers to play, but it is, apparently, very serious business. There are heaps of rules, according to the ACO (American Cornhole Association), but basically you take it in turns to throw a bean bag at a sloping board, and get three points for a bag in the hole; one point for a bag on the board; and immense satisfaction if your knock your opponent's bag off the board. We were naturals... Apparently the way to decide tossing order (yes, that's tossing order) is that the ugliest person goes first. We didn't see that rule until later, so no one can have any complaints. 

Suitably refreshed and entertained, we continued to Ashland, which was to be our home for the night (and the next day). Our Gracious Host and Hostess had booked this place on-line and it was fabulous. It was once a 40-acre lavender farm. The owner sold it to move to a smaller place - the new owners planted a (totally legit in this state) cannabis crop and made $1 million in the first year. They the 'forgot' to plant anything the next year, went broke and had to foreclose on the house. The original owner bought it back and now rents it out to people like us. 

It still bears many traces of the purple plant, which frame the spectacular views perfectly. I was to spend some time in the pool and was also intrigued by the collection of oriental artefacts.

Him Outdoors went for a run with the glorious backdrop of Mt Shasta and the Cascade ranges.

Meanwhile, Our Gracious Hostess and I made good use of our time indulging in the main reason for coming to this area: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It's a pretty big deal in these parts. First, I discovered these great books in which the stories of Shakespeare are illustrated with Lego. 

In Ashland itself we saw two Shakespeare performances. Between them we walked around the compact town with its neat streets and boutique shops. I was particularly drawn to the book shop where the window display featured books arranged by colour rather than author, title or subject. This is for all my friends who have ever worked in a bookshop!

As to the reason we are here; in the afternoon, we watched a version of Henry V, in which director Rosa Joshi incorporated innovative costume and set design to keep the pace moving briskly and precisely. The lead performance from Daniel Jose Molina is supremely confident (verging on psychotic) and the American accent and modern delivery ruins the rhythm but it sharpens the humour and militancy. The artifice of the warm-up routines on stage is one favoured of many amateur dramatic societies and would be better cut. However, when the actors move their own stage furniture into different configurations to assist the audience to 'piece out our imperfections with your thought' it is one of the highlights of the production. 

The evening's show was Love's Labour's Lost featuring the same Daniel Jose Molina as the King of Navarre and Stephen Michael Spencer channelling Jack Black in the role of Lord Berowne. Alejandra Escalante played the visiting Princess of France with a deft touch and a sparkling vivacity; the scenes with her companions were fresh and fun. Amanda Dehnert's direction was a bit messy, relying on tropes such as a band, finger painting on clothing and generally riotous behaviour, which overwhelmed the words and, at times, the story. While it was entertaining and diverting, it went on too long and forgot to recognise that the audience longs to revel simply in the genius of the bard rather than the bells and whistles of the ringmaster. I just loved being part of it all, however, as we sat in an outdoor amphitheater under the stars and fairy lights.