It is cold and wet on the North Coast for most of the year. Some say this gives our coastal towns a grey, fishy, Innsmouth-type vibe. But we like to think it adds character. It certainly limits our wardrobe choices (character-building), influences our diets (I’ll grant you there is a lot of fish but we get some fine vegetables for about two months out of the year), and makes us vastly more appreciative of good weather when it does happen.

Important astrological events are currently transpiring in the skies above but here in Astoria, we would never know. Because it is raining. And it has been raining. And it will continue to rain.

Fortunately for us - there are many activities that are only enhanced by blustery weather, low and chilly overcast skies and double digit days of drizzle. Here are a few of them:

1. Drinking beer

2. Being inside

3. Sitting by the fire

4. Talking to your friends

5. Listening to music

We’ll be doing all of these things and more this weekend at Beer Tree Fest.

We’ve tried to embrace the spirit of trees for this festival, which isn’t hard, there are a lot of trees around here (probably also good for character-building). From a super huge Christmas tree made of beer kegs to a tap list of beer made with trees, to tree vendors and traditional tree-time music, Beer Tree Fest is full of tree stuff.

Even the font used for the Beer Tree Fest logo comes from a tree. The logo was designed by in-house designer, Skyler, who did some research into the origins of the font (Grecian Light Face), which was faithfully and carefully converted to a digital font from a historic wood typeface by Wood Type Revival (“…working to enrich the modern typographic landscape by reintroducing forgotten faces to a digital world”). Skyler notes that this typeface was uniquely well-suited to build a tree out of, graphically-speaking, with its exaggerated slab serifs that hang down like the branches of an evergreen tree, as well as its wooden providence.

If you think a lot about fonts, you’ll know that the history of moveable type and specifically the mass production of cheap, standard typefaces beginning in the mid-nineteenth century is curious, dramatic and fraught.

If you don’t think about fonts much - this will get you started. Wood is the perfect medium for large fonts because it doesn’t warp when heated. But wood type is also less durable and harder to preserve. Which makes it special.

Things that come from trees are special. Whether fonts or beer. The thing about trees is that they’re a lot bigger than us. Conceptually - but also literally. Even the small ones. They’re connected to each other in vast, complex mycelial networks. Their taxonomic range is vast: the noble fir, the tallest true fir in the world, can grow up to 200 feet but the dwarf willow is only 2.5” tall. They stretch on and on, grow through centuries, living even after they die. Some of them are fireproof. Some of them are firewood. The American Chestnut was decimated by blight but that didn’t stop us from making a tree beer with local Oregon chestnuts -

SOLSTICE DEMON

A substantially malty, silky smooth Nitro Brown Ale brewed with local, wild-foraged Oregon Chestnuts.

We lightly roasted these beautiful, wild-foraged and hand-processed nuts in small batches (over an open fire, you might say), before dumping them into the mash. For a few years now, our brewers have headed out into the chestnut groves to personally hand-harvest chestnuts for a special chestnut beer. On this continent, we’ve been making beer with chestnuts to supplement or replace malts since the first Europeans arrived and struggled to grow enough grain to feed themselves and also make beer. Chestnuts were wild, plentiful and acted a lot like a malt in the mash. Unlike other nuts, chestnuts are low in oil and have a high starch content which makes them more nutritious. Through the brewing process - the starch becomes fermentable sugar, and the sugar becomes alcohol. If you’re interested - you could read more about our specific chestnuts and why they’re so special here.

It takes a long time to process chestnuts by hand - which is just about the only way you can process them. The result is a beer with a smooth, creamy texture and a soothing, mellow bitterness, balancing the toasty malts. It’s a unique and labor intensive beer - perfect for the dark times.

Solstice Demon was brewed to banish the ghosts, trolls, evil spirits and dwellers in the darkness. Just in time for the Winter Solstice. It’s only on draft at the Pub this weekend.

Also at the Pub this weekend

MALIBU GRAND PRIX

A super-charged, explosively flavorful West Coast IPA from your friends at Fort George & Breakside Brewing.

We’ve been beer friends for over a decade, we’ve been neighbors in Astoria for years, we’ve been brewing together for the last two hours. Though the road to Malibu Grand Prix has been much longer than its namesake novelty go-kart track, the result is guaranteed to be more fun, more adventurous and more enduring with new experimental hop varieties and every flavor boosting, fun-enhancing hop ingredient we could muster. Like Nelson Amplifier Oil, Mosaic Hyperboost, Simcoe CO2 Extract, Dolcita Cryo/Lupomax and experimental hop Bract 106.