Dragon Tales 6.6
Dragon Tales 6.6
Submitted by Jim Parker on June 8, 2008 - 4:05pm.
Welcome to your weekly dose of news and brews from the Green Dragon Bistro & Brewpub.
In this issue:
Meet the “Chick Brewer”... and more
Ready to “puck off?”
Who are those guys?
Get happy!
Get out – in two weeks.
Meet the “Chick Brewer” ... and more
Tonya Cornett, head brewer at Bend Brewing Company is the reigning World Beer Cup Small Brewpub Brewmaster of the Year. She is also a former Great American Beer Festival gold medalist for her Hophead Imperial IPA. And she's won a whole boatload of other medals at regional, national and international competitions.
But, to me, she will always be the “Chick Brewer.”
Thirteen years ago, I was the brewer at Dimmer's Brewpub in Fort Collins, Colo., when my pal Sandy Jones of H.C. Berger Brewing asked me if his tasting room and retail person could come brew with me. He had a 50-barrel brew system and I was brewing on a 10-barrel, much better suited to her goal of becoming a pub brewer.
I agreed and Tonya Riddle (her maiden name) became my de facto assistant brewer for the next few months. Wanting to make sure she was serious about brewing, I assigned this mere whisp of a girl the dirtiest, nastiest and most arduous tasks in the brewhouse. She hauled the grain bags (that weighed more than half her weight) out of the downstairs storage. She shoveled more than a half ton of wet grain out of the mash tun after each brew. She scrubbed the fermenters, the mash tun and the kettle.
The payoff was that after five brews she could bring in her own recipe, do the full brew herself – with me doing the grunt work – and name the beer when it went on tap at the pub. So Riddle's Red and the “Chick Brewer” were born.
I really can't claim to have “taught” Tonya much that summer. I did try to indoctrinate her into the “Parker Method” of brewing. That involves a “hot Scotchie” (a blend of sweet wort and Scotch whisky) as a brewday breakfast drink, and taking a shot of Jameson's with each hop addition – to ensure proper hop isomerization. But she wasn't buying it. In fact, I know that quite often when I would send her to the bar for our two shots of Jameson's, she'd come back with a Jameson's for me and ice tea for herself.
She learned much more attending the Siebel Institute in Chicago, where she won a scholarship to the Doemen's Brewing Academy in Germany. And, several years later, she landed here in Oregon, at the BBC where she has been making quite a name for herself. While in Bend, she met our own Lolo Lancaster, who was working at Deschutes at the time, and the two became good friends.
All that explains why the Green Dragon is the only pub outside of the Bend Brewing Company that has poured Tonya's two World Beer Cup gold medal-winning beers: Black Diamond Dark Lager and Outback X strong old ale.
And it is also why she is making a special trip over the mountain to participate in our Meet the Brewer night on Tuesday, June 24. She will be bringing Hophead for a rare Portland appearance, as well as some of her other goodies. The fun, as always, starts at 6 p.m.
More Meet the Brewer fun
This coming Tuesday will be a special group Meet the Brewer with the Oregon Brewers Guild. Guild Executive Director Brian Butenschoen will be bringing a few of his favorite local brewers in for a membership drive for SNOB – Supporters of Native Oregon Beer. SNOB is the Enthusiast Membership category of the Guild. For $20 a year, SNOBs get a membership card, a SNOB shirt (which changes every year), discounts on Guild events like the annual Brewers Dinner on the eve of the Oregon Brewers Fest and inside info on the Oregon beer scene. The SNOBs are nearing their 2,000th member , and, with a little luck, you could become that milestone member at the Meet the Brewer night Tuesday, June 10.
The following week, the boys from the New Old Lompoc will be bringing some of their crazy creations to share.
And, in a special Wednesday Meet the Brewer on June 25th, assistant brewmaster Grady Hull from the New Belgium mothership in Fort Collins will bring some of the special New Belgium beers we rarely see here in Puddle Town.
Ready to “puck off?”
Shuffleboard has to be one of the greatest – if not the greatest bar beer drinking games ever invented. Unlike pool, pinball or shuffleboard, you can play with a beer in your hand (in fact, if balances out the puck in your other hand. Unlike darts, you can completely nullify your opponent's best shots by knocking them off the board. And, the game lends itself to more smack talk than any other. For instance when you nudge your opponent's four-point puck off the end of the board and leave yours teetering over the edge for a five-point shot, you can smile, give a little wink and say, “puck off!”
The Dragon's new shuffleboard table has arrived as promised and is ready for your beer-drinking, smack-talking, puck thumping fun. Practice up because the Green Dragon Bar Games Triathlon is still in the works. We'll announce the date in an upcoming Dragon Tales.
Who are those guys?
You may have noticed a couple of new faces around the Dragon (as well as a headless, limbless torso). We now have our own little family of mannequin models for all of our Green Dragon wear. You will find them on the new shelf above the Meet the Brewers bar (where they are less likely to freak out opening and closing workers who think they are alone in the building only to see a vaguely human shape sitting on the bar.)
There's a Poppa mannequin, Momma mannequin and even Baby mannequin, sporting the popular Green Dragon onesie. But something is missing (aside from the aforementioned arms, legs and head on the baby). The happy family doesn't have a name. So, if anyone has any bright ideas of what to call our newest – and quietest – coworkers, either collectively or individually, drop a line to PDXGreenDragon@yahoo.com. You could win a nifty prize.
Get Happy!
The new happy hour menu is ready for your after work enjoyment. GM Andrew Sloan and the kitchen crew have come up with some new tasty tidbits to go with your afternoon pints and they are all just a mere $3.
Look for such nummy goodies as Potato Fritters, Beer-battered Onion Rings and Cajun Cornbread with Jalapeño Jelly starting today. The full menu will be in place next week.
Get out – in two weeks
The lovely day-glo green posting is on the window and that can only mean one thing: Our Sidewalk Cafe license is in the works. The latest word is it may be as soon as two weeks that you can park yourself at one of our outdoor picnic tables and enjoy a tasty brew and some grubbin' snacks. Keep your eyes peeled for “pints on the patio.”
On Tap and On the Way
Here's what's on tap as of 3:31 p.m. Today:
Rogue I2PA
Eerie Brewing Ol' Red Scottish Ale
Anchor Liberty Ale
Great Divide Denver Pale Ale
BridgePort ESB
Paulaner Pil
Nostradamus
Fort George Nut Red Ale
Double Mountain Molten Lava
Pike Monk's Uncle Tripel
Laughing Dog Devil Dog Double IPA
Bison Chocolate Stout
New Belgium La Fleur Misseur
Czechvar
Bear Republic Tom's Brown
Beer Valley Leefer Madness Imperial IPA
Hoegaarden Wit
New Old Lompoc Sockeye Stout (nitro)
What's in the beer vault
Pike IPA
Trumer Pils
Ninkasi Total Domination
Fish Mudshark Porter
Ninkasi Schwag
Spaten Premium Bock
New Belgium Mighty Arrow
Willamette Imperial IPA
Ninkasi Oatis Oatmeal Stout (with vanilla bean “dry beaning”)
Avery IPA
Redstone Sunshine Nectar mead
Bear Republic Racer 5
Pyramid Slingshot
Stone Pale Ale
Lagunitas Censored
Mad River Jamaica Red
Schneider Aventinus
Bear Republic Black Mamba
That's it for now, have a great weekend.
Cheers,
Jim Parker
and the Green Dragon crew