What: Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers festival started in 2007 as a celebration of Belgian style beers, with participating brewers all producing beers from the same strain of yeast. The 2009 event marks the first year that all Oregon Brewers Guild members, including breweries outside the Portland Metro area, will be eligible to participate.

This year’s yeast will be Wyeast 3822 Ingelmunster Ale (formerly known as Wyeast 3822 Dutch Castle), which is a unique Belgian ale yeast that produces spicy/phenolic aromas that are tart and dry on the palate, for a complex beer.

After sampling all the Belgian style ales, attendees will vote for their favorite in the “People’s Choice Awards.” To the victor goes the spoils, and in this case the winning brewery earns the right to host next year’s event, select the yeast strain and pick the 2010 charity beneficiary. Lucky Lab won the 2008 competition and has chosen to donate all the profits of the 2009 festival to the Oregon Humane Society.

When: Friday, May 1st and Saturday, May 2nd from Noon – 10 p.m.

Where: Lucky Labrador Beer Hall
1945 NW Quimby, Portland, OR 97209

How: Admission is free. There is a $5 charge for a tasting goblet, which is required to sample beers, and $1 for tastes. Tickets can be purchased at the festival entrance.

More information.

As you may know our family is 50,000 miles or so into an extended road trip, most of it in an RV. Some of the parks secure their bathrooms by putting a touchpad on the door. Enter the code, take a shower.

The code where were are staying tonight is “1214.”

You can probably figure out what brewery I thought of when I saw that.

Why is Bob Sylvester smiling?

First, you might ask, who is Bob Sylvester? He’s the founder, brewer, etc. at Saint Somewhere Brewing Co. The “where” in this brewery is Tarpon Springs, Florida. It’s tiny, last year selling about 140 barrels of beer (somewhat more than 4,000 gallons).

But there his beer was on “Good Morning America” Friday morning. The clip is here. ABC had DRAFT magazine publisher Austin Wilson on to talk about pairing wings with beer for the Super Bowl.

You have to watch until the very end, when they are a little rushed. They move the Cardinals football helmet, you see a champagne-size bottle and the host says it’s appropriate to include a Tampa Bay beer (Tarpon Springs is right up the road). It made my day since I was a) at the brewery Tuesday, b) Bob is a really good guy and c) he’s brewing good beer about as fast as he can.

If you are headed to Tampa for the game Sunday (typed with computer mouse in cheek) you could find bottles of Saint Somewhere at Total Wine not far south of the stadium last Monday. After GMA? Who knows?

If you are reading this in Wisconsin or Tennessee you may still be able to buy it to drink Sunday. Shelton Brothers distributes the beer. So if you can buy Cantillon at a nearby store there’s a chance you can buy Saint Somewhere. Bob thinks that’s another reason to be smiling.

A bit of American-Belgian brewing news from SBS Imports in Seattle:

“(SBS) is pleased to announce that Bell’s Brewery has agreed to be the 2009 partner for the latest brew in the De Proef Brewmaster’s Collaboration Series. The yet to be designed beer will be brewed in March at De Proef in Lochristi, Belgium and released to the USA market in September 2009.

“The initial beer in the series was Signature Ale - originally brewed in 2007 with Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing/Lost Abbey. Jason Perkins of Allagash collaborated in 2008 on Les Deux Brasseurs. Both beers have been exceptionally well-received by beer enthusiasts.

“‘Each year it is my pleasure to invite a noted American brewer to participate in this series,’ noted SBS Founder Alan Shapiro. “I am thrilled that John Mallet & Bell’s have agreed to be the 2009 partner.’

“‘I am really looking forward to this project,’ added Bell’s production manager, John Mallet. ‘I have several family ties to the area which makes this invite to brew with Dirk Naudts at De Proef even more special.’”

Dunce that I am in spending a morning with Perkins at Allagash last August I never got around to talking to him about brewing at De Proef or the resulting beer. Just too much going on at Allagash itself.

Brewers Publications, a division the Brewers Association and publisher of Brew Like a Monk, recently released the sixth edition of Michael Jackson’s Great Beers of Belgium.

This is a major upgrade from the third edition, the last that was generally available in the United States, because Jackson was particularly passionate about Belgian-brewed beers and relentless about making his work as up to date as possible.

A BA press release points out the “updated version contains listings covering 326 different beers across 13 style groups, on more than 500 pages of text and enhanced with nearly 800 color photographs.”

I haven’t seen V6 — we’ve been in Europe since beginning of September — but the last time I looked at V5 I was still astonished at how new the parts I’ve practically memorized seem and how much more new information Michael packed in.

Quite simply, this is a book that belongs in your library.