Thanksgiving Turkey & Beer? Portland Holiday Beer Growler Sale | Hawthorne & NE 15th Ave

To get your prepared for all these Portland Thanksgiving Day events and feasts, our sponsors at the 15th Ave Hophouse (near Broadway) and Hawthorne Hophouse are having a Beer Growler sale tomorrow. There is also info below abut which beers go best with turkey, ham, roast, and more.

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Related Portland Events & Info:

• All Week: MANY Portland Thanksgiving Day Weekend Events: Parade, Dinner Feasts, Music, Theater, & More
• Win Beer Package ($100): Portland Holiday Ale Festival @ Pioneer Courthouse Square |17,000+ Attendees
• Friday: Portland Thanksgiving Shopping & Black Friday Sale | Little Boxes, OVER 90 Stores

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From our sponsors:
Portland Holiday Beer Growler Sale
November 23, 2011 | NE 11AM-11PM | SE 12PM-Midnight

15th Ave Hophouse | 1517 NE Brazee St. | Portland, OR 97212
Hawthorne Hophouse | 4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd Portland, OR 97214
(503) 477-9619 | More info: http://oregonhophouse.com/

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Thanksgiving Turkeys and Beer?

Turkey day is around the corner. Or tofurkey, or possibly a ham. Regardless, we're having a growler fill sale tomorrow, Wednesday, in order to provide you with some excellent, appropriate beer to have at your big meal. Most beers are $10/fill. Bring your own growler or fill ours ($7). The only beers that are excluded from this sale are the one-offs which cost bazillion dollars.

Beers that pair well with turkey/chicken/game hens 

Kolsch:
Whenever I'm having a meal at a friend's house and I'm not sure which beer to bring, I always try a Kolsch (with an umlaut, no less). This beer is a little mellower in style than a German Pils. It's a hybrid beer using top-fermented yeast (making it technically ale) but then it undergoes a cold fermentation (lagering) which produces a beer that is light in body. Sometimes there's a bit of wheat in the malt, but it's mostly made of all barley. It's pale with a white head, clear-ish, and has a bit of biscuit and sourdough on the nose. There are several good versions of Kolsch on the market right now, but the most infamous Kolsch at the Hophouse is brewed by Double Mountain of Hood River.

Lager:
If you're just now weaning yourself off the Miller Light, consider a more tasty lager. Lagers of course are fermented and conditioned at cool temperatures, which slows the yeast metabolism. The elements produced by ale fermentations are notably absent from these beers. The flavors are cleaner, less complex, and more focused on malt and almost nothing else. Of course, there are some hoppy lagers, but the lagers that are mass-produced in the US today are mostly malty.

So if you're a fan of hops, but are going to a family gathering with lots of ¬Å“regular¬Â beer drinkers, consider bringing one of the craft lagers such as Hopworks Lager or Everybody's Local Logger Lager. These beers are just way more interesting and tasty to drink than the mass-produced swill. This is also a good choice if you've got a lot of heavy drinkers and are trying to keep your Uncle Mickey from being completely obnoxious - these beers have a low ABV, but are filling and tasty so your guests may not overindulge.

Pilsners (or Pilseners as the beer geeks spell) are great lagers with turkey, too. If you're a traditionalist, try a Bohemian/German/Czech Pilsener, any of which are based on an original recipe, and brewed a burnished-gold colored beer with a complex caramel nose, and a Saaz-hop aroma. There are also a lot of good samples of these on the market today. Lagunitas has a solid one which I get in bottles in the summer. But Heater Allen has an excellent Pils, brewed right over in McMinnville. Rick Allen is a celebrated brewer, and has created an all-lager brewery that is achieving nation-wide fame for his good beers.

Pale Ale / IPA:
I love an IPA with turkey or chicken. Not a double, and not one that will overwhelm the taste buds, but a simple, clean, fairly hoppy IPA with a slight malt balance. This is Portland's favorite beer, and I would drink that with anything. There are so many single IPA's out there, but I've been drinking Boneyard's RPM for a while now, and it's ruined me for some of the others. Consider Natian's IPA, brewed in Portland. Or the one from Burnside. Coalition has a nice IPA right now which we don't have right now, but I'm sure they'd fill a growler for you. Migration's Pale Ale which we should have on tap. Or Deschutes Red Chair - that's an excellent in-between beer. Hoppier than a simple pale ale, not hoppy enough to be considered by Portland-centric IPA drinkers. But that's a great beer for turkey, skiing, surfing, whatever. And you can get that in six packs at any supermarket.

Beers that don't pair well with turkey, but instead with duck/ham/roast beef

I'm lumping these types of beers (turkey or non-turkey) into two categories, which is over-simplifying the situation. Of course you can drink whatever you want with any meal. However, if you're going to have a heavier meal for Thanksgiving in general, you're going to want a heavier beer to balance the food. Heavier is probably not the word - instead, more complex, higher ABV, stronger taste and aroma. There are many winter ales that fit this bill that are all hitting the market right now. Oakshire's Ill-Tempered Gnome. Natian's Old Grogham.

Whatever your pleasure, stop by for a growler fill. The reduced cost makes it $2.50/pint, and its fun to bring a big jar of beer to Thanksgiving and watch your guests all fight over it. Draft beer is ¬Â¦ just better, somehow. And what a great way to bring something new to a meal with friends and family. You can leave them the growler as a holiday gift.

Either way, have a great holiday. Cheers!