Never fear, here comes the winter beer!

With the annual Portland Winter Ale Festival falling on the week of finals, the Apple Cup (Go Cougs!), and the game that sent Oregon to the BCS National Championships, its no wonder that we didn't make it there until Saturday night... and even this was cut short due to a last minute decision to go see New York's very talented and creative Les Savy Fav play at the Wonder Ballroom.  This is the fun filled life I lead, after school gets out, and I will not complain about the drink tickets I gave away that night.

However, its no wonder I'm still eager to try the many winter beers that this wonderful state has to offer.... especially when I find out my parents want me (me?!??!!) to cook Christmas dinner.  As I waited for the butcher at City Market (NW 21st, in PDX) to prepare the pork tenderloin that I will be making, I wandered around and found a beautiful selection of local brews; most of which were the winter specialties. 

After much debate and deliberation I settled on Oakshire Brewing's Ill Tempered Gnome Winter Ale.  I did this for two reasons:  1.) It had already ran out at the Winter Ale Festival when we wanted to try it, and 2.) The name reminds me of my little sister Michelle who gave me a fun little garden gnome when I moved to Portland last year.  Since we have a fun "sister" day planned up in Kirkland tomorrow, it seemed fitting.

The label on this says "Pure Winter Deliciousness", and I agree.  It seems to have the perfect combination of hoppiness and maltiness and is perfect by itself.  Its light bodied, but bold enough to stand on its own.  You can definitely taste some carmel notes in this one.  For more information about Oakshire and their beer go to http://oakbrew.com/.

This is what the beer looks like:

photo: amy perenchio

This is the cute little gnome on my bookshelf:

photo: amy perenchio