The Beermongers Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Portland beer geek favorite bottle shop/beer bar The BeerMongers is celebrating its milestone 10th Anniversary from September 1-8 with 11 special collaboration beers. The Beermongers have a lot to celebrate; not only have they gotten together with some of their favorite brewers and closest friends, but they will commemorate being open for 3,652 consecutive days, despite the circumstances.
More from a press release:
The BeerMongers first opened their doors on September 5, 2009 with a simple goal: sell a great selection of beer, curated by a knowledgeable staff. The taphouse and bottle shop has since earned a reputation for being one of Portland’s best places to shop for beer, share rare and vintage bottles, and create community. As a result of this commitment, The BeerMongers has dedicated themselves to opening every day of the year, where you can always find a friendly face and a good beer.
According to Owner Sean Campbell, “We never planned on being open every day, it just happened organically.” The community that has developed around that idea has been inspirational, allowing The BeerMongers to host community potlucks annually on major holidays when most establishments aren’t open. “We all felt like our community needed a place to gather on holidays,” says Campbell. “We are grateful to all our customers who have become our good friends, and we look forward to celebrating our first 10 years with them. Cheers!”
Over their last decade of business, The BeerMongers has consistently ranked amongst the top bottle shops and beer bars in the hyper-competitive Portland market by local and national publications such as Willamette Week, The Portland Mercury, The Oregonian/OregonLive, Yelp!, Thrillist, New School Beer, and RateBeer.com.
In 2018, The BeerMongers was selected as the Best Beer Bar in Oregon by CraftBeer.com, the online presence of the Brewer’s Association, in their annual Best Beer Bars in America rankings.
During the week leading up to the official 10th Anniversary, The BeerMongers will gradually release 11 unique and creative collaboration beers they’ve brewed with friends from around the region. The pinnacle of the week will be reached on what they are dubbing The Big Day: Thursday, September 5, their 10th anniversary. Each day of that week will also feature an event that highlights The BeerMongers’ greater role as a beer-loving community space.
The festivities begin on Sunday, September 1 with a Vintage Beer Sale, where they will rummage through their extensive collection of carefully-aged beers and extract some treasures.
A Full Schedule of the Week’s Events:
- Sunday, September 1 - Cellar Sale, featuring carefully-chosen aged beers from The BeerMongers’ extensive cellar stock
- Monday, September 2 - Labor Day Cookout & Potluck, where friends and family (21+) are encouraged to bring a dish to share and gather for food, fun, and festivities
- Tuesday, September 3 - High Stakes Cribbage Tournament at 6pm, plus 1st Annual Russell Awards in memory of Russell Riebesehl
- Wednesday, September 4 - G.O.A.T. Bottleshare (Greatest of All Time), starting at 6pm
- Thursday, September 5 - The Big Day! 3,652 Days in a Row! 11 Beers for 10 Years!
- Friday, September 6 - Trappist Beer Appreciation Day (Cheese too!)
- Saturday, September 7 & Sunday, September 8 - Outdoor Beer Garden and Games
Anniversary Collaboration Beers
Barley Brown’s Cascadian Dark Pilsner (Draft)
Owner Sean Campbell and Manager Chris Tappan traveled out to Baker City and met with long-time friend Tyler Brown, owner of the multi-award winning Barley Brown’s Brewery. After several long-winded conversations over beers, they decided to brew a Cascadian Dark Pilsner. Rich in flavor but light in body, this beer shows why Barley Brown’s is still one of Oregon’s best craft breweries.
Trap Door & Stormbreaker “Flip Ya For Real” Hazy DIPA (Draft/Cans)
Trap Door has quickly become one of our favorite breweries in the region by making excellent IPAs and creating memorable can art. Stormbreaker has been a friend of the BeerMongers since they opened five years ago and has made a beer for our bike racing team “Good to the Last Lap” Session IPA. For this special 10th Anniversary beer they crafted a Hazy DIPA at both breweries with the usual suspects - Cashmere, Citra, Mosaic, Vic Secret & El Dorado. Each brewery made the hop additions in reverse order of the other.
Block 15 “The Pitch” Oregon Amber Lager Conditioned in Pitched Barrels (Draft/Bottles)
Nick Arzner and Chris Althouse from Block 15 hosted Sean and Chris from BeerMongers for lunch and beers back in May to discuss an Anniversary beer project. “The Pitch” is an expression of Oregon-grown ingredients paired with the Block 15 brewers’ passion for honoring traditional brewing techniques. This amber Lager was brewed with Pelton, Metolious, and Lamonta malts from Mecca Grade in central Oregon, hopped with Oregon-grown Goldings, fermented with pilsner yeast and then cold-conditioned in freshly pitched oak barrels--an old world lagering technique that imparts unique notes of pint, citrus, smoke and spice.
Wayfinder & Breakside American Pale Ale (Draft)
Kevin Davey (Wayfinder), Ben Edmunds (Breakside), Sean Campbell and Chris Tappan (The BeerMongers) met over a few Lagers on the brilliant patio at Wayfinder to discuss the state of the beer world. We were trying to come up with a beer style that would be exciting for the brewers to make and also made a statement about what we felt was going on in craft beer at this time. We decided a crushable, flavorful American Pale Ale would be just the beer for our collaboration. Featuring some classic hops and new varieties too and coming in under 5% abv….mission accomplished
Von Ebert Kumquat Farmhouse (Draft)
Head brewer Sam Pecoraro of Von Ebert was one of the first employees of The BeerMongers. While at the BeerMongers he introduced us to Kumquats and I have always wanted to make a beer with him and that delicious little citrus fruit. The base beer was brewed at the Pearl location on Wednesday August 7th, Jason Hansen was the lead brewer. . Grain bill included Pils and Vienna with Malted Wheat and Flaked Oats. Fermented with Sigmund’s Voss Kveik yeast this beer will condition on 20 pounds of fresh Kumquats until The Big Day.
Alesong The BeerMongers Biscotti(Draft/Bottles)
“A blend of rich imperial stouts matured in Heaven Hills Bourbon barrels and finished on orange peel, cocoa nibs, coffee, Jacobsen sea salt and hazelnuts. Crafted in celebration of 10 successful years of mongering at The BeerMongers and as a nod towards the next 10!”
Upright & Danodan Extra Special Herbs (Draft/Bottles)
This version of “Special Herbs” blends Danodan’s whole hemp flower extract with lemongrass, hyssop, Sichuan peppercorns, and two varieties of orange peel in place of hops, an homage to Gruit style brews. Aged in spirit and wine casks with wild yeasts the flavor profile is a fitting tribute to the Farmhouse genre and a celebration of the end of hemp prohibition.
Alvarado Street West Coast IPA (Draft)
This beer was brewed August 13th at the Alvarado Street pub in Monterey CA, by Wade and Corey. Chris and Sean traveled to Monterey to help out. We met the brewing team plus owner JC and giant man Brock, we tried some beers, some rum drinks and came up with a plan. Classic bright West Coast IPA with some new hop varieties. Featuring Waimea and Motueka this 6.5% IPA should look old school but have less bitterness than Classic West Coast IPA.
Ex Novo & Level Rustic English Old Ale (Draft)
For this project we attempted to recreate one of our favorite beers from recent years. Some batches of the classic Burton Bridge Olde Expensive Ale picked up some brettanomyces character and we loved it. This beer is a blend of barrel aged beers and fresh beer from both Ex Novo and Level. “Nutty, vanilla, whiskey, mild oak, raisin and dried fruit from the caramel malt, touch of bittersweet chocolate. The Brett is light now but should develop over time, it adds subtle tartness and acidity that will disguise itself nicely in the blend.” Estimated ABV 8.5%
Modern Times & Baerlic Coffee Vienna Lager (Draft/Can)
This classic Vienna style Lager was brewed by our neighbors and friends at Baerlic with a little help from Mat Sandoval of Modern Times. Their process for utilizing coffee (roasted at Modern Times) made this beer the perfect combination of traditional and modern brewing techniques and the spirit of collaboration.
Ruse & Indie Hops Fresh Hop IPA (Draft)
Mysterious….we love Ruse and in a few short years they have made their mark on the Portland beer scene. This project is a work in progress. Our neighbors in the Ford Building Indie Hops assured us there will be some Fresh Hops available in time for a Fresh Hop IPA likely with experimental hops…we will find out on September 5th!