The Green Dragon will be holding a “Hallucinator Flashback and Collaborator Homecoming” party. Publican Jim Parker says they’ll have the last keg of this year’s Hallucinator as well as the most recent batch of Hopnosis. Hallucinator auteurs Mike Rasmussen and Gary Corbin will be in attendance as well as Brian “Hopnosis Brewer” Butenschoen. Parker says all other Collaborator brewers who wear their nifty Collaborator letterman’s jacket drink $2 Collaborator pints all night.

The Green Dragon
928 SE 9th Ave, Portland
(503) 517-066

Via John Foyston

The beer, the myth, the legend. The blackness, the coffee-ness. The oak-i-ness. The one, the only … the Abyss.

Belmont Station
4500 S.E. Stark St., Portland
503-232-8538

May 12-18, 2008 is designated as a time for all legal-drinking-age Americans to explore and celebrate the flavorful beverages produced by our small, traditional and independent brewers. Craft brewers produce flavorful beers that combine classic European recipes with bold American innovation.

For more information, visit AmericanCraftBrewWeek.org

Even though I’ve been living in Portland since 2004 and have attended all the other beer festivals numerous times, the Holiday Ale Festival and I never seemed to work out our schedules. This year, that all changed and I was pretty excited to sample the great winter warmers under the Christmas holiday tree in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

So, Saturday morning arrives and Eryn, the baby and I are getting ready to arrive when the gates open at 11:00 when it dawns on me the OLCC may not let kids in similar to what they tried to do with the OBF last Summer. So, a quick review of the Website and some calls to Dave and Andrew who are also attending reveals that I’m right, no kids allowed.

Looking back on it, it got pretty crowded in there and it’s not a great place for kids, but shouldn’t I have the right to make that decision? What exactly does the OLCC think it is preventing by not allowing children to join their parents at an event and setting that is about tasting, sampling and exploring beers with mostly responsible people? And in the eyes of the OLCC, why can I take my kid to OBF but not the PIB or Holiday Ale Fest?

In Maureen Ogle’s Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer I learned there used to be a rich history in this country of family outings to the beer gardens and I wish we viewed these festivals more in that same way. In my opinion, the more we continue to demonize alcohol consumption instead of educate responsibility, the more kids are going to continue to abuse it.

I guess all these arcane rulings including some recent decisions related to minors at music venues is summed up nicely by this shirt we saw at the Holiday Ale Fest.

As for me… I think I’ve got it under control.