Protip: Sierra Nevada Ovila Quad is on the Shelves

I have been one to bash Sierra Nevada Brewing, for their recent corporate tax dodge, and for shamelessly passing off all-dried-hop beers as "Fresh Hop Ales" (again and again and again).  That doesn't prevent me from being a huge fan of many of their beers.  And as an inveterate cheapskate, I find that some of their high-end beers are sold at very sensible prices compared to their peers.

Case in point, Sierra Nevada Ovila Quad brewed with plums, on the shelf now in corked 375ml bottles for about $4.  I picked up a couple last year in a grocery store almost by accident, and then was heartsick a couple days later when I couldn't find any more for sale anywhere in town.  But I saw them on the shelf today, grabbed six of them, and then decided to share the love with you, dear readers.

If you like a good Belgian quad, you'll want to try this beer, it hits all the bases (flowery Belgian yeasts, dark plummy richness, and a nice alcohol burn).  The corked bottle argues against cellaring, but if this year's vintage is anything like last year's, it's good to go right now.  Act fast, it's an occasional seasonal, and they'll go fast at that price.

Alphabet of New Oregon Breweries

The other day Dave invited me over to help out with a growler of delicious Omegatex IPA he'd brought back from a visit to Fort George.  "We also checked out this new brewpub in Astoria called Buoy."  In my Omegatex-addled bliss I was hearing that as "Bowie", like how Texans pronounce "Bowie knife", or how George Clinton pronounces "David Bowie" at about 3:00 in Make My Funk the P. Funk, until he showed me the logo with an ocean buoy on it.  I used to be so good at keeping up with new breweries, but I had never heard of this one.

A couple days later I was reading about the OBG's Malt Ball, which included a beer from another Oregon brewery I had never heard of:  Claim 52 in Eugene.  It made me think that there is almost an A-Z of Oregon breweries that are so new that I haven't tried their beer yet.  That's a bit of a stretch, but let's try and come up with an alphabet of Oregon breweries that have opened in... oh, the last three years (so that we can at least get through the letter G).

I'll get it started, please help me out with the rest, since I'm obviously no longer keeping up with current events, or even past events [Thanks to commenters for J-O, R-U.  And for telling us that apparently Yachats and Zigzag are on the way!]:

• Agrarian
• Buoy
• Claim 52
• de Garde
• Ecliptic
• Falling Sky
• Gigantic
• Humble
• I ???
• Juniper
• Kells
• Logsdon
• Mazama
• North Rim
• Oblivion
• Plank Town
• Q ???
• Rat Hole 
• Solera
• Thunder Island
• Uptown Market
• Viking Braggot Company
• Worthy
• X ???
• Y ???
• Z ???

Wow, that list is very Eugene-heavy.  Is Eugene the next Bend?  Is Ninkasi the beer that made Eugene famous?

One-day only special:  If you happen to be reading this today, March 13, 2014, you can meet the brewers from letters A and P tonight at the White Owl Social Club (SE 8th and Main Street, just down the street from my house).