Peaks and Pints has been making lists — and checking them twice — and at the top of every list is pFriem Family Brewers. Tonight, the Hood River, Oregon, brewery will be at Peaks & Pints for a lodge meeting we’ve titled, “We’re pFrieming of a Craft Beer Christmas.” At 5 p.m., coveted pFriem craft beers such as Belgian Christmas Ale, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Barleywine, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout, and Winter Ale will be on tap. Be sure to “holidaze” your outfit tonight as Peaks & Pints will be decked out for the holidays, with pFriem gifts o’plenty under the tree. In conjunction, Peaks & Pints suggests you take a whirl through five pFriem goodies — an in-house, all-day flight we’re calling Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: pFreim Party.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: pFriem Party
pFriem Pilsner
4.9% ABV
Since its 2012 founding in Hood River, Oregon, pFreim has become one of the most consistently decorated breweries in the United States. Best known for its range of consistently excellent lagers — including its flagship pFriem Pilsner — what’s driven the success is a potent combination of meticulous brewing and reverence for traditional European styles. Their Pilsner offers pastoral aromas of flowers and meadow grains combined nicely with a typical maltiness to provide what we could only describe as a “pilsner” scent. The taste is the best part, though, with a deep dryness at the back of the mouth and the faint minerality that’s so crucial to a pilsner. pFriem’s Pilsner goes down easy as a breeze off the Columbia River.
pFriem Las Piñas
6.6% ABV
Seattle native Josh Pfriem began homebrewing while at Western Washington University in his early 20s then moved to Utah as a ski bum. He worked at Utah Brewers Cooperative for a few years before moving back to his old college town of Bellingham to brew at Chuckanut Brewery, where he helped win the Great American Beer Festival Small Brewpub of the Year in 2009. He moved to Hood River, Oregon to work at Full Sail but left in December 2011 to open pFriem Family Brewers — across the highway from Full Sail along the banks of the Columbia River — in August 2012. Barrel-aged with fresh, chopped Costa Rican pineapple, their Las Piñas golden hued fruited sour is your liquid passport to the tropics. It hits the nose with pineapple, white grape and jasmine followed by flavors of lemon, guava, and pine before a bright, tart, spritzy finish.
pFriem Belgian Christmas
8% ABV, 30 IBU
pFriem Belgian Christmas Ale changes from moment to moment. This big dubbel-based holiday ale is brewed with German Perle hops, candi sugar, coriander and Belgian ale yeast that changes flavor with every sip. Just as you think it’s a toffee delight it morphs into chocolate-covered orange. Then raisin. And cinnamon pastry. Oh, and dried cherry. And …
pFriem Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine
11% ABV, 33 IBU
Brewed with Demerara sugar and aged in bourbon barrels, pFriem Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine offers caramel and baking spice aromas. A hearty sip brings out fig and dried plum, expectant of beers showing the benefit of age. Brown sugar and dried fruit linger on the pallet, highlighted by a sophisticated resonance of American oak.
pFriem Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
11.5% ABV
pFriem’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout absorbs the tannins of Oola Distiller’s Bourbon barrels for a full year, resulting in a midnight black color topped with a dense, creamy, and chocolate mousse foam. Powerful aromas of cocoa, caramel, coconut, toasted oak, and chocolate covered berries hit the nose, followed by big flavors of ripe cherries, red velvet cake with a hint of char and a touch of Bourbon. It finishes with a kiss of oak tannins and a mouth coating richness.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
