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.

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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.

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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.

Check out this draft beer list:

• Anchorage Brewing: A Deal With The Devil
  barleywine style ale brewed with galaxy hops. A starting gravity of 37 plato. Aged eleven months in Cognac barrels. 17.3% abv.

• Pelican Brewing: 2022 Mother of All Storms
  English-Style barleywine aged a year in Kentucky bourbon barrels. 14% abv.

• Ruse Brewing: 2023 Over the River, Under the Moon
  barleywine aged in pappy van winkle maple syrup barrels

• Firestone Walker Brewing: Sucuba
  English-style barleywine aged one year in Blanton’s & Weller Bourbon Barrels. 12.5% abv.

• Holy Mountain Brewing/Private Press Brewing: Crystal Sphere Messenger (2023)
  Munich-wine collaboration with Private Press Brewing aged in a variety of Kentucky bourbon barrels for 13 months. 14% abv.

• Lompoc Brewing: Old Tavern Rat Barleywine (2017) (Port barrels)
  A dark amber barleywine aged in Maryhill Winery Port barrels for eight months. 9.4% ABV

• Reuben's Brews Three Ryes Men
   Barleywine aged in multiple types of rye and whiskey barrels. 13.7% abv

• Fort George Brewing: Etymology
  A blend of English, American and Red Barleywine aged in Westward Whiskey and Russell Rye barrels. 13.1% abv.

• Fremont Brewing: Brew 7000 (2023)
  English-Style Barleywine Ale Aged in Bourbon Barrels. 13.9% abv.

• Fremont Brewing: 13th Anniversary (2022)
  Golden Barleywine Ale is aged in 8-13-year old Heaven Hill bourbon barrels and is a blend of 5, 7, 18, 20, and 28-month old barrel-aged golden barleywine ale. 13.6% abv.

• Pfriem: Bourbon Barrel-Aged Barleywine
  English-style Bourbon Barleywine ages for 10 months in Kentucky casks. 12% abv.

• Alesong Brewing & Blending: Maestro
  English-style barleywine aged in freshly emptied Heaven Hill bourbon barrels. 13.9% abv.

• Hair of the Dog: Ura
  12% abv barrel aged strong ale made with yuzu kosho pepper.

• Obelisk Beer: Beyond Oblivion
  English Style Barleywine - 12.7% abv

• Gigantic Brewing: MASSIVE (2019) (Scotch)
  Aged in select Highland Scotch, Islay Scotch, Rum and Rye Irish Whiskey barrels. 14.3% abv.

• Block 15 Brewing: Figgy Pudding
  English-style old ale brewed with black strap molasses and spiced with ceylon cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and aged in brandy barrels.

• Sunriver Brewing: 2024 Wood Series: Bourbon Barrel Barleywine
  American barleywine brewed in July 2023, packaged in July 2024.

• Sunriver Brewing: Not Tomorrow Yet American Barleywine
  non-barrel aged American barleywine brewed in November 2024

• Buoy Beer: Love Lost at Sea (2024)
  English-style barleywine aged 12 months in bourbon barrels. 12.4% ABV

• Breakside Brewery: LIFE Barleywine Vol. 4
  Fresh English-style barleywine showcase of Crisp malts. 9% abv.

• Sierra Nevada Brewing: Bigfoot Barleywine (2025)
  American-style hoppy barleywine with Cascade, Centennial, Chinook. 9.6% abv.

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