Barrel Roll, 022825

Barrel Roll

“Put a hot poker in and it all of a sudden it gets more interesting.” – David Sanguinetti

Barrel Roll

Carlton-area brewery hop farm and brewery gains new owner

In Mac, ‘Bierstacheln’ drinkers warm to a new manner of beer

By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA

Of the News-Register

The former Crowing Hen Brewery between Lafayette and Carlton is now Roots and Rye Hop Farm and Brewery.

Shelley Bigley, owner of Old Market Brewery’s two locations in Portland, purchased the 67-acre property, which she calls “foremost a hops farm” from Ryan and Michelle Rhea, who got things started in 2020. The brewery is located at 10282 N.E. Abbey Road. Tasting room hours are 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. New brews, and light snacks, have been added to the tap list and menu.

Small changes been made at the brewery and tasting room but the biggest change is what you first see when arriving at the 67-acre property: the hop farm has grown from one to 15 acres.

“We have lots of ideas but right now the focus is on figuring out the hops for a couple of years,” Bigley said.

“We want to make it a place for friends and family to come out, as they always have. We’ve always had families as the focus,” she said noting that children of former employees have come to work at her businesses or returned as customers with their own children.

Head brewer Bobby Stevens is taking on the brewing at the 5-barrel Root and Rye system. Bigley said Stevens views it as “a unique opportunity,” given the eight varieties of hops that will be grown on site (in addition to purchase of proprietary hops for use in some brews.)

“My first four brews at the farm are going to be a hazy IPA featuring galaxy, Idaho #7, and Centennial hops. A Mexican lager featuring Motueka hops (known for lime flavor/aroma), a cold IPA highlighting Nelson Sauvin hops and a blackberry, black currant, and black cherry kettle sour.

“I want to put a strong focus on lagers,” Stevens said.

Beers include some from the Crowing Hen days, including the award-winning French Prairie saison (6.4 ABV), Carlton Common “Pseudo-lager” (4.9 ABV) Rooster Reserve barleywine (11.6), Strange Brew Old English Ale (8.0) and some IPAs. New batches include Stevens’ Golden Hour blond ale (8.0), Dark Ritual black lager (5.0) and Mr. Slate’s Gravelberry (5.2), a wheat ale made with organic Oregon raspberries (and named for a Flintstones’ character.)

Crowing Hen, a project of Ryan and Michelle Rhea, started in 2021. It offered a vibrant and varied selection products, including several award winners, on tap and in cans.

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Newgrass in Newberg March 15

Wolves & People Brewery of Newberg presents the first Newgrass Blues and Bluegrass Festival, March 15, at LaJoie Theater at Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg. The event features live music all day, classes, and food and beer, Seminars are offered in fiddle, vocal and flatpicking. Beer, wine and cider tastings take place all day.

Wolves & People founder (and musician) Christian deBenedetti noted that the event has grown from a bluegrass jam at the Benjamin Road brewery “with three players and whole lot of ear-to-ear grins,” into a weekly 6 p.m. Thursday tradition drawing musicians from all over the Willamette Valley or beyond.

At Newgrass, McMinnville band Bootleg Jam performs in the lobby at noon, with LaJoie Theater shows starting at 1 p.m. with Sawtooth and Sons, from Yamhill County. Next up will be Tuesday String Band out of Monmouth, Josh Cole Band, and Never Come Down. A 7 p.m. Knuckle Grease Station takes the stage followed by headliners Broken Compass from Grass Valley, California.

Tickets are $15 to $50 for individual shows and passes; visit chehalemculturalcenter.org to buy tickets.

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Bierstacheln at The Bitter Monk

There’s busy and then there’s bierstacheln busy.

Monday evening, Feb. 17, at The Bitter Monk put some heat to the dark beers as owner David Sanguinetti wielded a hot poker in the German tradition of “beer spiking” – bierstacheln.

As a steady stream of customers brought him dark pints of beer, Sanguinetti used a propane torch to heat up the two inches at the end of a specially-designed rod, before swirling it for 30 seconds in a three-quarters’ full pint. Drinkers at the Third Street beer bar were instructed to first quaff down as far as the Bitter Monk symbol on the glass, to account for displacement by rising caramelized foam. After spiking, the head feels warm while the beer itself remains cool, but the heat changes the bouquet and lends a softness to the brew, and brings out flavors that strike people in different ways.

“I like the pillowy feel to the head,” said P.J. Emery of Carlton, drinking her first pint of beer in the bierstacheln manner.

“I think it’s a fun way (to enjoy beer), especially in the winter time,” said brewer Kevin Davey of Heater Allen. Their Mediator doppelbock was one of two featured beers for the spiking. The other was ForeLand Beer’s kafija (coffee) vanilla porter, a Latvian-style Baltic. (By night’s end customers were getting the heat treatment for a wide range of adjunct beers bought in The Bitter Monk cooler.)

Emery and others reported marshmallow aromas or tones, while Ross Caldwell of McMinnville said it was “Mostly the malt,” that came through drinking the Mediator fresh off the bierstacheln.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Caldwell said. “It’s kind of cool to hear about the tradition, and it’s a good way to extend the holiday season, especially these days.”

Sanguinetti had done bierstacheln in Portland but this was a first for McMinnville.

“I’m getting my timing down, here I have a little more open space, not in a dark corner,” referring to his first times doing bierstacheln, at ForeLand’s former Portland location,

Sanguinetti called it “super fun,” in his fourth time serving bierstacheln. “There’s tradition to it but it’s really interesting to see how the individual beer changes and finding ones that work,”he said. “But I don’t think it takes away from beer at all; you pick the right beer and it accentuates the qualities. The biggest thing I like is it’s theatrical, and peoples’ reaction is the coolest part,” he said.

Bierstacheln is suitable only for darker beers with plenty of residual sugars.

“I knew the Mediator was coming out, it was a natural feel, and we had a beer (the Baltic porter) that would be a good fit.”

He said, “It’s President’s Day, and I kinda want to take a hot poker to things this year, for some reason.”

Sanguinette has seen a version of heated beer while camping, and Davey cited a tradition using heated rocks added to a boil kettle.

“I wouldn’t call it 100 percent (the same), but there is fun to the actual practice. You definitely get the flavor and the foam, the carmelization of the sugars,” Davey said.

“I like how the profile has shifted from something a little more chocolatey, to more roasty,” Emery said of her beer. “If the doppelbock was smooth before, this makes it smoother. I really enjoy it and am glad I had the chance to do it. Not sure I’d like it in the middle of summer but it’s the perfect thing for winter.”

Asked how he knows when the rod is ready, Sanguinetti said, “experience: some people like it piping hot but a red hot poker does too much. I still want (the beer) to be cool, to be a beer and not a mulled experience.

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“Beers has become a kind of passe thing and this makes it fun again,” Sanguinetti said. “It’s why I got into the business in the first place. It’s interactive, and this isn’t just us being goofy, there is tradition to this, not just something we saw on Instagram or something.

“The first time I did it, it was with butane instead of propane, and it took about three minutes per beer,” Sanguinetti said — about five times longer than with propane. Sanguinetti envisions touring Northwest beer places with the hot poker, saying, “No one wants to meet the brewer but put a hot poker in and it all of a sudden it gets more interesting.”

As to further opportunities to try beers in this manner, he said, “It’s a winter thing, and we’re near the end of the season, so we’ll see. It would be fun to do with a theme.”

Golden Valley releases ‘Ale-paca’

New at McMinnville’s oldest brewery, Golden Valley, is the West Coast IPA named Ale-paca, a collaborative with the Tualatin Valley Ale Trail, whose mascot is the alpaca. Golden Valley participated thanks to its Beaverton restaurant location. The beer was brewed at Cooper Mountain Ale Works in Tigard.

Brewer Piper Gladwill noted that the grain bill was prepared for the group of brewers, who then decided on which hops to use and at what brew temperatures and times, to determine IBU.

Also new at Golden Valley are the 2025 version of Italian pilsner, at 4.2 percent, and the 6.5 percent ABV Cold IPA Boomerang Nebula, “named for the coldest spot in the universe,” Gladwill said. It’s available in 22-ounce bottles and on draft; as a cold IPA it carries a fruiter quality than most IPAs. Out next month will be Golden Valley’s