Oregon Beer Odyssey and The Hop and Vine offer class on rare Italian beers

Portland, OR, April 19, 2010: Local beer educators Oregon Beer Odyssey and wine/beer bar The Hop and Vine (1914 N Killingsworth) are teaming up this Saturday afternoon to offer a tasting class on some of the most buzzed-about craft beers from Italy. In recent years, small artisanal brewers in Northern Italy have grown and expanded the market for craft beer with styles—many using exotic fruits, spices, and wild yeasts—that are unique and nearly impossible to categorize. Connected to and inspired by the Slow Foods Movement, Italian breweries have caught the attention of international beer writers and more general publications such as the New York Times. This is the first time that such as workshop will be offered in Portland

Yetta Vorobik, the owner of the Hop and Vine, and Ben Edmunds, the owner of Oregon Beer Odyssey and a brewer at Breakside Brewery, collaborated to bring together a set of beers that show the diversity and skill of Italy’s brewers. Breweries featured will include Birra del Borgo, Birrificio Le Baladin, and Birrificio Barley. “We’ll be tasting nine different beers,” says Edmunds. “We’ll begin with some of the beers that imitate more traditional styles, such as saison and Belgian strong dark ale; from there we’ll head into the strong fruit and spice ales that have made Italy’s beers so highly sought after.” Italian beers are notoriously hard to find and expensive; the cost to buy and taste all of the featured beers at retail would exceed one hundred and fifty dollars. The class format offers participants the opportunity to taste a variety of beers in generous samples for a reasonable price.

Beers of Italy will be offered at the Hop and Vine this Saturday, April 24, from 2:30 until 4:15. Edmunds and the Oregon Beer Odyssey staff will lead the tasting while teaching attendees about the culture and history of Italian brewing. The cost is $35 per person; pre-registration is required and can be done on the OBO website, www.oregonbeerodyssey.com, or at the Hop and Vine.

About Oregon Beer Odyssey:

Oregon Beer Odyssey was founded in 2010 by Ben Edmunds, Jason Yale, and Robert Bosworth. We are an LLC dedicated to promoting appreciation and knowledge of craft beer through formal tastings and classes. We are the first business in Portland entirely devoted to beer education.

Our classes aim to educate a broad audience about the diversity and quality of craft beer, both from the Northwest and around the world. In an intimate, small-group setting, customers can enjoy themselves, while sampling world-class beers. We value our independence. Unaffiliated with any specific brewery, we are not tied to serving any specific type of beer or promoting any single company. Our recommendations and classes feature the honest and unfiltered opinions of a highly beer-knowledgeable staff