Horse Brass Pub presents Old Tavern Rat Barleywine Invitational Brewfest
The legendary Horse Brass Pub and Portland Beer Week present the inaugural Old Tavern Rat Barleywine Invitational Brewfest
Like a fine wine, barley-wine improves with age just like the 49 year-old legendary Portland bar the Horse Brass Pub. On February 28th and March 1st, 2025, the iconic Portland bar that helped kickoff Oregon craft beer industry will host the inaugural Old Tavern Rat Barleywine Invitational Brewfest featuring the vintage and classic barleywine style of beer. The Old Tavern Rat Barleywine fest pays tribute to late Horse Brass founder Don Younger, and similar barleywine festivals hosted by fellow iconic beer bars Brouwer's Cafe in Seattle (RIP) and Toronado in San Francisco.
The Horse Brass Pub is famous for pouring the first locally brewed beers on draft alongside intriguing imports, and becoming the setting in which the landmark Oregon brewpub bill SB 813 was crafted in 1985 to allow breweries to open restaurants and brew on-site. Publican Don Younger famously purchased the former pizza pub on a drunken night in 1976, finding the bill of sale on a napkin the following day for the Horse Brass. A steward of craft beer and pub culture, Younger inspired the industry and shared both wisdom and assistance to brewers and entrepreneurs from California's Sierra Nevada to Oregon's Widmer Brothers, Belmont Station, and Stumptown Coffee.
Don Younger was a famous character, known worldwide as a connoisseur of cigarettes, beer, scotch, and preservationist of authentic British-pub and dive bar culture. Younger would hold court at the bar almost daily, regaling anyone wise enough to listen with an enlightening story or good laugh. In 1998 Lompoc Brewing released the "Old Tavern Rat Barleywine", a strong beer with Younger's nickname and featuring a painting of Don by The Oregonian beer writer John Foyston. It was one of many beers inspired by Younger, including Rogue Ales' "Younger's Special Bitter" (YSB), and Hair of the Dog Brewing's "Don." In 2011 Don Younger passed away and ownership passed to longtime Horse Brass employee Joellen Piluso, and Lompoc Brewing founder, friend and business partner Jerry Fechter. New ownership has kept the Horse Brass alive and intact, a favorite dimly lit, worn, and eclectic pub filled with vintage signs, old photos and heirlooms, twinkling lights, and some of the fish & chips and extensive beer list in the country.
Barleywines are not wine at all, the name refers to the strength (typically in the 9-13% abv range) and the intensity of flavors from rich toffee, leather, and dark fruit flavors of English-style barleywine, to the nutty, honey-like flavors and burly bitterness of American interpretations. Many barleywines are aged for months or years in oak barrels that held bourbon, scotch, sometimes red wine or rum and impart their own woody, tannic, boozy, and spicy flavors into these complex ales meant for sipping. As a style of beer owing to England and to America, the Horse Brass Pub serves as the perfect setting for a celebration of these semi-obscure barleywine beers that push the boundaries of time, flavor and age just as the Horse Brass has for the last 49 years.
OLD TAVERN RAT BARLEYWINE INVITATIONAL BREWFEST
Friday February 28th from 4-9pm
Saturday March 1st from 12-8pm
No General Admission Cost/VIP package cost TBD
The Old Tavern Rat Barleywine Invitational Beerfest is an old fashioned hard liver beer fest for scallywags, scoundrels and old tavern rats, in other words all the best people. The 2-day invitational will feature 20 young, old, and barrel-aged barleywines on draft at Horse Brass' new event room and in the sheltered breezeway next to the pub. In addition to draft barleywines, a bottle pour bar of vintage cellared pours will be available while supplies last.
Expect beers from Anchorage Brewing, Firestone Walker, Reuben's Brews, Fort George, Fremont Brewing, pFriem Family Brewers, Pelican Brewing, Alesong Brewing & Blending, Hair of the Dog, Ruse Brewing, Gigantic Brewing, Sunriver Brewing, Block 15 Brewing, Obelisk Beer, and more!
Horse Brass Pub
4534 SE Belmont St
Portland, OR 97215