Brew It Yourself

Cost and tailored taste draw thousands to eugene’s hopping home brew scene

Members of the cascade brewers society and others sample the entries in the sasquatch homebrew competition. winner to be revealed june 7. Below: Brandt Weaver.

Of the hundreds of varieties of craft beers available at microbreweries throughout Oregon, bacon, oyster, horseradish, fig, beet and pork chop are not mouth-watering flavors that often come to mind when craving a cold pint. But according to members of the Cascade Brewers Society (CBS), home-brewed creations like Curry Stout, Licorice Logger or Beet Weiser are mighty tasty.  Continue reading 

Cask Masters

Local brewers bring old-fashioned cask ale back to life

Plank Town Brewing’s John Crane pulls an ale while steve van rossem looks on. Right: A couple dines at Brewers Union Local 180.

The traditional cask-conditioned style of beer is very much alive, and you can see its influence growing in Oregon’s craft beer industry, where local brewers like Plank Town in Springfield and Oakridge’s Brewers Union Local 180 are making concentrated efforts to keep it a living force in the beer world — a time and place far from the English and European pubs where they were once the norm. Continue reading 

Camas Time

A recent trip to a hiking destination near Oakridge reminded me that early May is peak bloom time for camas lilies. Camas can bloom quite a bit earlier in some locations (on the west-facing grassy slope at the Masonic Cemetery, for instance, and the well-drained, sunny top of the Oak Knoll in Hendricks Park).  Continue reading 

Whutsup Worldcup

Killian Doherty juggles a soccer ball

From June 12 to July 13, billions of people will watch the world’s most popular sports event: the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th such tournament — and the second to be held in Brazil. Of the 203 national teams that competed in regional tournaments in order to qualify, only 31 teams will travel to Brazil to join the host nation for the 2014 cup. Continue reading 

Summer Guide 2014

Let’s face it — we had a rough winter. OK, so maybe we didn’t weather the so-called “polar vortex,” but with two snowstorms, an ice storm of epic proportions and temperatures plummeting to below 7 degrees in December, there were plenty of “what the hell?!” moments.  Continue reading 

Food Coma

Serving up morsels of Eugene food and drink news

The fourth annual Eugene Beer Week kicks off Monday, June 2, and this year’s lineup of events is full of flavor, fun and education. Find the full schedule at eugenebeerweek.org. Here’s our recommendation of how to celebrate each day: Monday, June 2: Beer Family Feud, 7 pm at the Bier Stein Tuesday, June 3: Bend Invades Eugene, on tap all day at the Bier Stein Wednesday, June 4: Cider is the New Beer Fest, 5 pm to 10 pm at 16 Tons Taphouse Thursday, June 5: In-House Cask Ale Fest, all day at Plank Town Continue reading 

Places and Spaces

Showing out-of-towners unique Eugene

Eugene Weekly asked geographer Al Urquhart to let us in on some of his favorite spaces and places in Eugene. What would he show summer visitors from larger Western cities — Portland, Seattle? We don’t want sites simply of local interest. With these places and spaces Urquhart said he is trying to show the unique character of Eugene and Springfield. Urquhart taught cultural geography at the UO for about 30 years and has been keenly interested in the unfolding of this area. Let us know what you would add or subtract from this list.   Continue reading