1. After a couple of morning hours of coffee, Wordle, and writing, I leapt into the Camry with Debbie and buzzed her to the Friendly Street Cafe where she met up with Laura and I journeyed to the foot of Skinner Butte where Jeff lives. I'd hoped for another get together with Jeff, Margaret, and Michael today, but only Jeff and I were free to get together and we made the most of our time together. Jeff offered me a cup of coffee, we sat down at his dining table, and we yakked enthusiastically for nearly three hours about mutual friends, the world of jam bands, Jeff's radio show, books, our decades of shared history, and much, much more. Jeff cooked up a superb vegetable/cheese egg scramble with toast. I got to see work he's had done on his house. Some of our conversation was grievous. I didn't know that David, Jeff and Louise's son, died since I last saw Jeff in May, 2019. This came up when Jeff told me about a tree he planted in his back yard in memory of Louise (she died in 2018) and the three memorial trees he'd planted on the grounds of the longhouse at Lane Community College.
I enjoy meeting with friends in coffee houses, cafes, and taprooms. In fact, I'd asked Jeff if he wanted to go to a local cafe for breakfast today. I'm elated that he wanted to get together at his house, a place where I've visited many times and where, today, we easily and comfortably slid right back into the flow of so many great sessions of yakkin' away we've enjoyed over the last 35+ years.
2. I left Jeff's house shortly after 1 p.m. and picked up Debbie at Laura's. Debbie wanted to do some solo thrift store shopping and so while she shopped I decided this afternoon would be a good time to SAVE THE PORTER!
Earlier in the week, I'd looked at Hop Valley's website and, to my delight, I saw the brewery had two porters on tap in their tasting room.
The taproom server poured me a couple of sampler-sized pours and for no really good reason I decided to drink a half a pint of Payback Porter first. It was served to me fairly cold, so I drank it very slowly, letting it warm up a bit and, as it did, its dark chocolate and coffee flavors asserted themselves. I did the same with my half pint of Sin Bin. The Payback Porter had a touch of subtle bitterness that I found pleasing. I also enjoyed that Sin Bin had very little bitterness. Like Payback, the Sin Bin was a dark chocolate and coffee porter. It was oh so slightly sweeter than Payback and its alcohol content was slightly lighter.
My approach to drinking beer worked at Hop Valley! Summed up, it's "Love the one you're with."
In that spirit of drinking, I enjoyed both these porters, would not recommend one over the other, and it felt good to find two porters in one tasting room. I haven't found a lot of porters on tap in Eugene (that's why I campaign to SAVE THE PORTER!) and slowly sipping on these beers until Debbie arrived was a pleasure.
3. I've spent some time while in Eugene reading tap lists, hoping to find porters to save (!). By far, the most interesting porter of all is being served at Viking Braggot. They decided to make a porter that is a winter ale with a strong malt spine and with pureed (liquified?) winter squash. It's a stronger porter than many, weighing in a 8.4% a.b.v. I ordered one when Debbie and I arrived at Viking Braggot and, as I had hoped, this porter had a heavier mouthfeel than the porters I'd tasted earlier and it had the warming quality that I love in winter ales.
My Winter Squash Porter was served in a 9 oz glass, a perfect amount, and it paired really well with the mushroom cakes Debbie and I ordered. I was slowly relishing my beer and our appetizer when Patrick and Meagan arrived. Before long, we ordered dinner. I could only eat half of my Scandi Wrap, a combination of roasted cauliflower and potatoes along with goat cheese, smoked gouda, onion, lettuce, and red pepper-hazelnut sauce all inside a grilled flatbread. The other half will provide me with a great Sunday lunch or dinner. The Scandi Wrap came with a side and I ordered one of the tastiest beer cheese soups I've ever eaten, a great combination of IPA, cheddar cheese, smoked cheddar, and caraway seed seasoning.
The dinner was delicious. I loved that Patrick and Meagan joined us. We caravanned back to Anne's house and yakked for a while. Patrick and Meagan had other plans for the evening and headed back into the night and Debbie and I hit the hay early, as we tend to do these days.
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