I’m going to be in and around the Portland area from the 19th through 24th. I haven’t been there since 2009 and was wondering what breweries are a must see? I was planning on checking out the Commons, but I need some guidance since there are so many to choose from.
If you are going to Commons you should probably check out Hair of the Dog and Cascade Brewing which are right there.
Cascade is well know for it’s sours and barrel aged offering while Hair of the Dog does some unique bigger beers. Neither are my thing but they have really good reputations.
I am more into stuff offered by Burnside, Migration, Laurelwood, etc
So many breweries the easier question is probably want do you want to drink and then finding an area that scratches that itch. If you find one brewery chances are good there’s a few more in the immediate area.
I liked The Commons a lot and if you’re there you might as well go down the street to Cascade if you like sour beer. (I’m not personally a big fan of HOTD.) Across the street from Cascade is a Rogue location (former Green Dragon) that stocks both Rogue and other beer. Base Camp is a few blocks away as well. I think there is at least one other brewery/brewpub in the area and a number of bars.
Thanks guys. I do like sours and I’ll have to check out Cascade. I’ve had some of the bottles of Cascade before and thought it a bit spendy, but probably better from the source. I’ll try to check out some of the others that you mentioned.
I’ve lived here 4 years and still haven’t been to them all so, that might indicate how hard of an question that is to answer!
Are you going to be able to get around town fairly easily? Car? Transit?
Up in NorthEast you’ve got Widmer, which is big commercial, but the tasting room is pretty awesome with a lot of experiemental draft only offerings. Just up the road from them is Ecliptic (John Harris) that’s very tasty. A little further up Mississippi is Stormbreaker which is also pretty good.
Up in Northwest Industrial there’s not a whole lot of breweries (although that is changing). Breakside just opened their slabtown location, and Sasquatch is open now on 32nd avenue. A couple of places I really like (I work in that neighborhood) are the Abbey Bar, great draft and bottle Belgian/Euro beer selection and the McMenamins 23rd Ave Bottle shop, which has a pretty good selection.
In SouthEast I would recommend Zoiglhaus and Montavilla Brew Werks. Unfortunately the places in SE aren’t as closely packed together. Inner southeast has Laurelwood, Lucky Labrador and a handful of others.
I don’t even know what’s in SouthWest right now off the top of my head. Not a lot.
In downtown you have several of the bigger/older places to choose from. 10 Barrel and Deschutes have brewpubs in Downtown along with Bridgeport (which is not doing well as of late) and Fat Heads.
That should get you started. Enjoy your trip!
Along with the Commons, Breakside and Gigantic are favorites of mine.
Another vote for Breakside. They have great food as well.
You just missed the start of the Oregon Brewer’s Fest.
I’ll be heading in that direction in a short while: the 32 bus in Vancouver to downtown, the 60 bus across the river to Portland, the Yellow light rail line to downtown Portland, and a short walk to Tom McCall waterfront park. Then I’ll be serving on Sunday from noon to three.
For food in Portland, I loved “Lardo”. The name says it all.
Higgins is also one we like. Great charcuterie plate.
It’s been a month since I’ve been back. The family and I had a great time. I got to go to Breakside, The Commons, Full Sail, and Fort George. Pfriem was the best surprise and every beer that I tasted there was spot on from the Helles to the IPA. I’ve never seen so many IPAs in cans at the stores. The food highlight was eating fresh Dungeness Crab on the beach in WA.
I wasn’t a big fan of pFriem the time I went but that was not too long into opening and they probably deserve another shot.
I like Double Mountain out at Hood River, if only because I really enjoy their steam porter and their casks.
The drive from Portland to Hood River is great scenery. I had a bald eagle soar right over the car on one drive. It was almost close enough to touch. I did have my credit card info stolen at a gas station in Cascade Falls on the way back to Portland one time. That was one of my lesser favorite drives along the Columbia River.
pFriem DEFINITELY deserves another shot. Their beers are outstanding.
Until Alesong came along, I considered pFriem to be the best in the state.