As we enter 2013 there are no shortage of exciting new beers coming out of Upright Brewing. Here is a look at what you can expect in bottles and on draft in January and February. Make sure to follow us on twitter at @uprightbrewing and on Facebook for even more up to date information.
Fatali Four
The annual Fatali Four is now available in the tasting room and at some beer shops in the Portland and Seattle areas. The chile pepper version of the brewery’s wheat based table beer spent a year in both wine and gin barrels, and coupled with the homegrown fruit has a complex profile but remains a supremely drinkable saison with only moderate acidity and a bone dry finish.
Fantasia
January 18th Bottle Release
The second batch of Fantasia has been resting in the brewery cellar since October and will be available in the tasting room January 18th. The beer is a barrel fermented blend of six oak casks that used a different variety of peaches than the first vintage, sourced from our friends at Baird Family Orchards. With an otherwise similar recipe employing warm aged hops and multiple yeasts and bacteria, the 2013 Fantasia finished with more saison qualities than 2012, and should prove to be a solid beer to continue cellaring for at least two additional years. A limited amount of draft Fantasia will be on tap the weekend of the release at the tasting room. Like last year bottles are $20 each, cases at $225 (limit one).
Hop & Vine Collaboration: Ampersand Chapter 7
A special brew made in collaboration with the Hop and Vine titled Ampersand Chapter 7 is available in the tasting room, albeit a very limited amount – two cases. The beer is based on the Saison Rahsaan brewed in the fall, which then took a wild turn by being rum barrel aged with a healthy amount of black truffles that had been preserved in the popular Italian amaro Fernet Branca. It’s a difficult one to describe but fans of the famous spirit and legendary fungus will surely enjoy the unique qualities of the beer.
Sole Composition
Sole Composition series beers are lined up for release at the brewery throughout winter. Currently the beer formerly known as O.P. is available under the shortened name of its base brew, M & M. A blend of both local whiskey and wine barrel aged Belgian-style stout, the beer has a big oak expression balanced by deep flavors of dark fruit and coconut along with a rich body. It’s a great late night or dessert beer and will age gracefully for quite some time. Coming soon in the SC series is a blend of two casks of Seven featuring different brettanomyces yeast strains, the Blend Edmunds which was put together from various fruit beers, and a single cask version of the 2011 Provision, a strong and malty biere de garde that matured over a year before being bottled.
Billy the Mountain
Upright’s annual 19th century style old ale, Billy the Mountain, is currently conditioning and will likely be released in early February. This vintage is a blend of fresh English style strong ale with a two year barrel aged version, yielding a complex beer that is intentionally bottled still (without carbonation) to accentuate it’s rich and wine-like qualities. People who cellar the beer for an extended period will find that it does slowly become carbonated as the brettanomyces yeasts works on the residual sugars, which also dries the beer out and adds a slight acidity.
Other Bottled Beer news:
Untitled “Bad Brains” bottles
The last few cases of the untitled dark lager are still available at the tasting room and the Chicago area is set to receive a small shipment of the beer in mid-January. The Bad Brains inspired label suits the well hopped bottled conditioned lager, which will become a biennial release. Its brother beer, the untitled Clash inspired pale version, will also become a regular on the opposite years.
Draft beer news:
The brewery produced a small batch abbey style tripel for winter named Spollen Angel, after one of our favorite colleagues Chris Spollen of Amnesia
Brewing. The beer is typical of the style – pale, strong, and dry. Using a new yeast strain that produces a more fruity aroma than our house saison strain, the Spollen Angel trudged through a fermentation that left the beer at a whopping 10.6% abv, our strongest to date! Look for it at the brewery, the Grain and Gristle and a few of the other beery bars in Portland.
Captain Beefheart should just be making it’s way around Portland now. It’s a collaborative brew with Jason McAdam of Burnside Brewing, a fellow meat enthusiast. The idea behind Captain Beefheart was to create a complex beverage with savory flavors rooted in the kitchen. Starting with a malty copper colored base, we then added Turkish bay leaf, long pepper, and sixty pounds of charred beef hearts to the kettle boil before rounding it all out with a soft finishing Scottish ale yeast. The beer drinks with pleasant aromatics from the spices and has a light minerality accentuated by the pound of salt also thrown in the kettle. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, although certainly falls into the experimental category!
Currently fermenting is a delicate chocolate stout, a beer we’re excited about. Using a mellow recipe that isn’t overly roasty or bitter, we made a straightforward stout at 5% abv and just added cacao nibs from Pink White Brown, a small artisan chocolate producer here in Portland. Look for kegs out and about starting in mid-January
*|Upright Brewing
240 N. Broadway
Suite 002
Portland, OR|*
