Got the orange. Has the body of a stout and some sweetness. The typical chocolate flavors were more akin to scorched wort and under-roasted coffee beans unfortunately. 2.75/5 stars.
I like chocolate. Dark chocolate especially. I like oranges. Despite the pain of peeling them (compared to an apple, ready to go in an edible wrapper), I enjoy eating them all winter long. I really like orange juice, too. I do not like chocolate oranges, orange-infused chocolate, or any other variation thereof. I’m not really sure why, since so many other people seem to like them. Perhaps it’s the acidic bitterness of the orange oils clashing with the earthy bitterness of the chocolate. Perhaps its just the fact that I expect more sweetness in an orange-flavored treat than the chocolate allows me to perceive, and my disappointed palate rebels. Whatever the reason, I keep trying them and am continuously disappointed.
Chocolate oranges are not the only things that disappoint me despite my desire to like them. Cream ales, banana-flavored candy, black licorice, and Ferment Brewing Company are all on that list. My first experience with Ferment was shortly after they opened in the spring of 2019. I like to try new breweries, but I approach them with expectations held in suspense (as much as humanly possible). My friend and I have a rule with new breweries where we try them soon after they open, then give them a year to work out the bugs before we try again. So, let’s start with the first impression of Ferment, including that grain of salt that we take with an untested operation.
Ferment Brewing has a beautiful brewpub. Like the pFriem tasting room down the street, Ferment is situated just above the Columbia on a riverfront park in Hood River, OR. It is situated in two stories, with brewing equipment taking up the bottom level and both indoor and outdoor spaces on the second level. That gives you a great view of the river and the Washington riverbank, guaranteed to be spectacular on a clear day. There is bar service both inside and outside (through a small serving window), so you can really enjoy the outdoor vibes of the gorge while eating and drinking. Everything is industrial-modern and just screams, “startup capital,” especially for an outfit with no previously established presence. I was prepared to be impressed. Obviously, if they spent this much money on the buildout, location, and decor, they would be likewise invested in their primary product (beer). My first beer was decent. It ranked firmly in the center of the Oregon craft beer bell curve, and considering the newness of the brewery I gave it high-passing marks. The second beer I tried was not good. It was the first time that I had fresh beer on premises that I could distinctly taste off flavors. The beer was skunked. My friend took it back to the bar, and after a brief mansplaining of the style by the server, returned it for something else. He got something that should be fairly difficult to mess up (a style that I successfully made myself in my intermittent homebrewing). It was thin, watery, and tasted more like a cream ale than the dry stout it was advertised to be. I tasted it as well and confirmed its undrinkability. That was enough. We paid our bill and left, determined to wait a year and try again.
Fast-forward to January, 2022. It has now been almost three years since our original visit, and, thanks to a generous relative, we have another opportunity to try an offering from Ferment. Within that timeframe, the brewery has expanded operations significantly. Now, anywhere that I go to buy beer there is typically something canned, bottled, or on draft available with Ferment branding. They have received over 18,000 beer ratings on Untappd at the time of writing, with an average of 3.81/5 stars. That’s very good, considering many of my favorite Portland-area breweries have ratings in the neighborhood of 3.9. It’s also more than could be reasonably faked by friends and family (read: Amazon reviews). Despite what naysayers might think, Untappd is about as democratic as you can make beer reviews, so more than a few people like the beer that Ferment puts out. I was ready to be brought into the fold.
The Whack & Peel stout is well-branded. The bottle is dipped in orange wax, so, combined with the brown glass, it is immediately apparent what flavors will be in the beer. The collaboration with a high-end grocery also primes the senses to be wowed. I mean, they used orange peels from three different parts of the world (Spain, Haiti, and Paraguay), for chrissake! And aged the stout in liquor barrels! With that much hype, it was hard to see how it could go wrong. Unfortunately, it did go a little wrong. Better than the prior experience, but not as much progress as I would hope for in three years. Perhaps rum barrels were the wrong choice. Aging beer in rum barrels tends to give it a lot of alcohol heat without any additional flavors. Perhaps the number of different orange peel varieties confused the profile. I came to the disappointing conclusion that they base stout most likely wasn’t very good. If anything, the barrel aging and addition of the orange improved the beer. And that’s coming from me, the guy who doesn’t like chocolate oranges.
Nothing for it but to give them another three years to clean up their act and make better beer. I remain, eternally optimistic.
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A Beer a Day 