In celebration of Oregon Craft Beer Month, The Abbey Pub (purveyor of delicious, hard- to-find beers) offers up – one keg only – the Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale from Astoria’s Fort George Brewery. Oatmeal in a pale ale? Aren’t oats just for stouts, like the well-known Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout? Apparently not.
Brewers have been using oats in beers since the Middle Ages and have clung to the practice because oats were thought to be healthful and nourishing, which they are. Now a bit of science: oats add smoothness to beer due to their high content of proteins, lipids and gums.
This American pale ale is creamy smooth (not watery, but not heavy), thanks in large part to the 50 pounds of oats Fort George tosses into the mixing pot. A very drinkable straw-colored beer with a pleasantly bitter taste, the Sunrise weighs in at a very reasonable 5.5 percent. Don’t forget to check out oregoncraftbeermonth.com for upcoming events in our neck of the woods.
This article appears in Jul 14-20, 2011.
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