Old St. Francis is great, we stayed there last January, the soaking pool with open ceiling is amazing.
Definitely break the Ale Trail into a couple days, more fun and safer too.
Speaking of Portland, this is a good read, in a little off the mainstream sort of way, by the Author of Fight Club.
Very good information here. If you hit up Deschutes in Portland, Powell’s is less than a 5 minute walk. My wife and I enjoyed browsing the book aisles after Deschutes on our walk back to our hotel. If you’ve never tried Thai or like Thai cuisine, Pok Pok is a must.
If you have an extra few hours, I’d recommend going to Pacific City to hit up Pelican City Brewing. They’ve a beautiful view and good beers. You can even walk over to explore the dunes if it’s not raining.
If you happen to be in Portland on a Wednesday night, come by the Green Dragon Taproom/Buckman Botanical Brewery (909 SE Yamhill) around 6 PM. I’ll buy you a beer from one of 50 on draught and you can try one of our Green Dragon Brew Crew releases. We’re a group of 6 homebrewers that brew on their nano system and keep 4-25 gallon conicals as busy as we can. We also try to work in about a dozen guest brewers from the local clubs every year. Every Wednesday evening we release one of our beers.
Lot’s of other great places nearby. Cascade Barrel House is right across the street.
Will put Green Dragon on my list!
This is not beer related, but the Japanese Gardens on the hill overlooking Portland is beautiful. It is right next to the Experimental Rose Gardens, which probably won’t be in bloom until the summer.
I’d rather drink through Seattle but we’re going up for eight days. We have to take a break at some point and while we’re in Seattle we’re visiting family that has little kids in the house. Probably not the best place to show up after drinking all day.
That’s where we brewed the Rye IPA for NHC 2012.
Pinski. I’ll be up there this week for work and visiting my brother. He lives in aloha. We’ll be out Tues and Wed night.
Cool, hope you can make it by. I’m usually there by about 5:30 or so. At six one of us gets up and talks about the beer so that’s a good way to find us, or ask one of the servers where the brew crew is and they’ll point us out to you. Can’t recall what is being released this week but I’ll send you a message when I find out. Cheers!
Sounds good
Planning on going to Laurelwood and hopworks tomorrow night. Green dragon on Wednesday.
Getting ready to head back to socal. Great trip to Portland. I made it to Laurelwood, hopworks, John’s market, three brothers, vertigo, green Dragon (met up with Pinski) and base camp.
Going second week in may, so if you find any new must-sees let me know.
Will do that, Paul. Maybe I will do a quick write up when we get back.
I destroyed Portland and Hood River, took a break in Seattle and now I am trying to slay the bend ale trail.
So far I am very jealous of you locals. I’m not even a big ipa fan but I have really enjoyed the ipas up here.
Welcome! Have fun and safe travels.
Saw Pinski last night at Green Dragon. Good beer and great conversation.
We ate a very big lunch at Higgins yesterday. Had the charcuterie plat to start, then the smoked pork loin over cheddar polenta with Rhubarb BBQ sauce. Washed down with a cask beer that was good, but I can’t remember the brewery right now. Then we ate very light in the evening.
It was a good day.
First night in Portland we did Bellmont Station, as Michael Fairbrother was pouring Moonlight Mead. Had a few beers with Bernice on the bar side. Went to Horsebrass after that.
Bridgeporty is above.
Last day we did some food carts, Powell’s, and wandered around. We meet Rodney Kibzey and Kate at Cascade, then went to Commons. On our way back on the Street Car we stopped at Bridgeport for a bite to eat and cor old times sake.