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Releasing Quarterly, Migration Brewing explores rich and bold flavors while collaborating with artisan farmers and suppliers! These are premium releases and the ultimate brewers expression of craft.
Unique ingredients aged in special barrels, you'll taste a huge range of flavors, balanced with intent.
Dipping into the cocktail world, we bring you this take on the Singapore Sling. Originally made at the exclusive Raffles Hotel in Singapore, this cocktail inspired beer. Pouring a deep ruby to crimson colored red, your nose will be awakened by a cherry Luden-like aroma intermingled with some herbaceous notes akin to juniper and anise. After primary fermentation, the beer was transferred onto 300 pounds of stemmed Lapin cherries from Hood River, and lactic acid-producing bacteria was introduced. Aged for six months in Hood River Distillers gin barrels brought to life the spicy, herbal components to counterbalance the sweet flavor of the cherries from our friends at Piatt Family Farm.
Label Fowl: The Western Tanager
via Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife: “The bright yellow, red, and black plumage of the male Western Tanager, so conspicuous in open situations is very obscure in forested areas where it tends to blend into the shaded foliage. The species perhaps is best known in migration when it visits city parks, orchards, and other open urban and suburban areas. It is attracted to birdbaths but seldom to bird feeders.
It breeds in open coniferous forests and mixed coniferous and deciduous woodlands, primarily in mountains. They usually nest in conifers – rarely deciduous trees – at varying heights, usually well out on a branch, often at the fork of a horizontal limb. The nest is constructed of twigs, rootlets, moss, and coarse grass, lined generally with fine rootlets, occasionally with horse or cow hair. An opportunistic forager of insects, primarily wasps, ants, beetles, and wood borers, it spends most of its time in the canopy of trees or shrubs.
The Western tanager is a widespread summer resident throughout virtually all conifer forests of Oregon, especially Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine. It is a common to abundant migrant that may occur anywhere in the state from alpine meadows, sagebrush and suburban neighborhoods.“
Rich and complex, this beer starts with a foundation of the finest English Maris Otter malt which brings a nutty richness and roundness to the beer. Three different types of caramel malts exhibit toffee and a range of fruit (cherry, plums and raisins) while a dash of chocolate malt rounds out the malt bill. Maple syrup was added during the run-off of the wort as well as during fermentation to provide extra sugars. The maple sweetness is not overpowering and integrates into the beer without being cloyingly sweet.
The concept started out as a conversation to a strong English style ale that would age in barrel. “What if we used maple syrup barrels, they’re available” progressed to “Oh, I have a family friend that has a maple syrup farm” and thus began the construction of this beer.
The maple ingredient came from our friends at Glenna Farms. Glenna Farms was established in 1995 when Rick and Kristine Glenna purchased an 80-acre maple syrup operation from Arthur V. Olson. The century old sugar bush is located next to a dairy farm, which was purchased from Mr. Olson by Rick’s parents, was well known for producing one of nature’s finest sweeteners, pure maple syrup.
Label Fowl: The Pileated Woodpecker
via Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife: “The Pileated woodpecker was the model for the cartoon character, Woody Woodpecker. It is a large black-and-white bird with a bold red feathered crest and distinctive call. You may hear its powerful drumming before you see it.
In Oregon, its habitat includes older forests in the Blue Mountains, East and West Cascades, Klamath Mountains, Willamette Valley and Coast Range ecoregions. They prefer mature forests and younger forests with large snags and logs, requiring large diameter snags for nesting and foraging.“
This popular winter warmer recently won a silver medal at the 2022 Oregon Beer Awards and has been aged 12 months in American Whiskey Barrels from local distillery Westward.
“This is always one of our favorite collaborations. We’ve had the pleasure to work with Westward over the past 5 years and this is the latest iteration of our partnership,” said Mike Branes, Co-Founder and Head Brewer at Migration Brewing. “We’ve been making Frankie Stout for over 10 years now and it’s developed a cult following at our pubs. This year we decided it’d be fun to have a limited release of the whiskey barrel aged version to some of our favorite local beer shops,” notes Branes.
Label Fowl: The Vaux Swift
via Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife: “This small swift is best known for its quick flight and dazzling aerial agility, perching only when nesting or roosting. It is aerodynamically designed for fast speeds with long, pointed wings, short stout legs, and a compact body. The Vaux’s swift is a transient and summer resident nesting in older forests and brick chimneys statewide except the southeast part of Oregon.“
This Norwegian farmhouse beer aged in Pinot Noir barrels forms the ultimate beer-wine hybrid.
Blurring the lines between beer and wine, we explored the marriage of flavors between grape and grain and barrels. The objective of this beer style is to achieve a balance between the wine and beer and their characters. The wide variety of raw material selection and
brewing techniques result in a very broad sensory spectrum in this beer style. The grape varieties used (red or white) should be recognizable. Accordingly, acid notes as well as harmoniously integrated Brettanomyces aromas are possible. Barrel-aged versions show their typical aromas that again add to the complexity.
Using a blonde ale base recipe, we fermented the beer at elevated temperatures with a Norwegian farmhouse yeast strain, in the style of Kviek beer. We then racked the beer into Pinot Noir barrels with whole Pinot Noir grapes from Ribbon Ridge Winery out of Newberg. By putting whole clusters of fruit, we hoped to achieve some carbonic maceration of the grapes to create a fruity yet soft tannin flavor. Take note of the flavors of strawberry, raspberries, and cherries as they integrate with the soft tannins of the barrels.
Label Fowl: The Red Winged Blackbird
via Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife: “The male Red-winged blackbird, sentry of the marsh during the breeding season, continually announces its territory to all present with its oak-a-tee song, and tenaciously defends against flyby predators. The male is territorial, polygynous, larger than the female, and glossy black with a broad bar of red-orange, bordered with yellow, on wing writs. Females are less conspicuous in behavior, light brown, with a heavily streaked breast, and buffy supercilium. This is one of the most abundant and studied birds in North America.”