PORTLAND, OREGON
Opened 2005, East Portland’s ROOTS ORGANIC BREWING COMPANY brings a loose Caribbean theme to dingy baby blue-tanned warehouse, visited December ‘09. Salvaged material, cement floors, and a dusty beer bottle collection match the rustic setting of many likeminded Jamaican watering holes. Stickers and pictures line interior walls and the L-shaped bar featured fine Belgian beer bottled selection (Bosteels; LA Chouffe; Maredsous; St, Feuillien) to go along with simple American cuisine and snacks such as Roots Black Bean Nachos.
Brewer Max Skewes’ easily identifiable stylistic fare were conditioned in rear glass-encased brew tanks. To the far right, a friendly event space for weddings and private ceremonies exists.
Lovely silken Cask Conditioned Younger’s Nightmare saddled black chocolate-y espresso theme with bourbon-burgundy-port illusions and hop-charred black cherry-pureed grape souring. Another fine dark beer, Chocolate Habanero Stout, provided hop-roasted alcohol-burnt habanero spicing for cocoa-malted brown chocolate sugaring. Dried fig-date entry, mild cherry tartness, and slight walnut char gave chocolate-spiced winter seasonal, Festivus Old English Ale, mocha porter-like depth.
In lieu of hops, interesting Burghead Heather Ale used old recipe heather-tips to engage light mocha-fruited herbage and orange-soured lemon-limed juniper bittering.
Standard fare such as woody resin-hopped maize-dried yellow-fruited Roots Organic Nevermined Pale Ale, crystal-malted pine-hopped dark-spiced plum-sugared apple-sweet Roots Island Red and piney dry-hopped spruce-lingered spice-tingled red-orange-fruited Woody IPA did not disappoint.