Pacific NorthWest Trip: Portland, aka Beervana

This visit to Portland was our 3rd in the last two years, and the second in the past 6 months.  We had big plans!

Day 1:  We arrived in town a bit after 3:00pm and by that time, were able to go straight to our hotel to check in.  And, what do you think we did shortly therafter?  Visited a brewery of course!  We had picked out a few spots ahead of time we wanted to visit on this trip back to Portland, some of which were new and some of which we had been to before, but we tried to keep in mind that our moms were also traveling along, so we didn't want to make the days ALL about beer.

The first day we arrived in Portland, we set out with a plan in mind. Our first stop was "Hair of the Dog" brewery. We had discussed visiting this brewery before and it never made the itinerary, so it was a good place to start this time around. This brewery is located on the east side of the river, just over the Morrison Bridge. It is still relatively small, with a comfortable climate and set in a warehouse style building. There is a decent sized bar and many picnic tables to sit at and enjoy a fresh brew. Here we sampled Lila, Ruth, Blue Dot, Adam, and a Bourbon-Barrel Aged brew called Fred From the Wood. The bourbon barrel aged beer was definitely strong, but very drinkable. They rotate which beers are bourbon-barrel aged, so there is always a new treat on tap.  Hair of the Dog won our vote for best looking sampler glasses (see below).

Our next stop was a 10-15 minute walk, and was our perennial favorite,  Cascade Barrel House, which is home to a wide variety of sour beers.  This is their specialty and Cascade was one of our favorite finds on our first stop in Portland, and a place that we make a point of stopping each time we are in town.  Plus, we were bound and determined to introduce our moms to the mouth puckering world of sours!  In our experience, even though we generally seek out any sour beers, some of the flavors can be hit or miss.  We learned this the hard way when we ordered a sour style beer that had some tobacco flavors.  Yuck.  It tasted like tobacco spit, which was NOT desirable in our books.  For this reason, we almost always order a sampler at Cascade, and if we find a beer we like enough, we'll order a full glass.  Thankfully, Cascade keeps a pretty steady lineup of year round beers on tap, but they always have a few new beers as well.  Among the new ones this time around were Strawberry Cream, Blueberry, and a Spiced Red Apple beer, served straight from the cask (how cool!).

We each had a sampler, testing out the following sour beers: The Vine, Blueberry, Spiced Red Apple, Strawberry Cream, Apricot, Nightfall, and Sang Rouge.  Some of our favorites of those that we tried were the Nightfall and Sang Rouge. They have a great blend of berry flavors, with the quintessential sour twang. Cascade has definitely grown over the past couple of years, with a fuller menu and a wider range of flavors on tap.  Always keeping it fresh...

Our moms ordered an Apricot sour, which we both though would be pretty benign, but sadly missed the mark with Jen's mom and Megan's mom was not a huge fan either, though she did come around to a few from Megan's sampler. 

Needless to say, we could have spent a lot more time here, but with our present company, it was time to move on.  Our last stop this first evening, was Deschutes.  Deschutes is a more widely distributed brewer, but they have a great restaurant/bar with fantastic food served alongside what they have on tap. Once again, we indulged in samplers because we insist on trying a little bit of everything. This time around, we tried: Black Butte Porter, Twilight Ale, Mos Eisley, Extinction Stout, Hop in the Dark, and the India Red Lager. Deschutes has some great porters and stouts, even for those who typically don't care for these styles of beer. Everything is worth trying at least once!

Day 2:  Since we had a full day at our disposal, we hopped in the car and made our way to the town of Hood River, which is about an hour outside of Portland.  Hood River is known for its beautiful scenery and abundance of summer activities, such as windsurfing and biking.  Unfortunately, summer hadn't quite arrived in Portland, so the temperature was on the mild/chilly side, but nonetheless, the rain held off, so it was enjoyable.

Full Sail Brewing in Hood River, OR

While in Hood River, we had our sights set on Full Sail Brewing and Double Mountain Brewery. Full Sail has a huge brewery set-up and they offer hourly tours. They also have a small area set-up for food and drinks. Here comes the sampler selections of their most popular brews: Amber Ale, Session Premium Lager, Session Black Lager, Pale Ale, IPA, and two of their specials, The Limited Edition Lager '03 and the Limited Edition Lager '05. Full Sail rotates which limited editions they have on tap, so it's worth a stop by and a taste whenever you are in town. There is a great view from the tap room at this brewery, so it's a nice place to stop in the mid-afternoon for a relaxing beer and the scenery.

Beer list at Double Mountain (click to enlarge)

Though it was early in the day, we decided to make a second stop to check out another brewery in town, Double Mountain Brewing.  We were both glad we did, and the only thing we regret was not ordering the delicious looking pizza, which it seemed as though pretty much everyone else was doing!  We had actually tried one of their beers in Seattle at Collins Pub, but they do not sell in stores or deliver outside of the Pacific Northwest area.  We drank: Cluster F%&k (a decided favorite), Black Irish Stout, Goliathon, Ferocious Five, Peche Mode, Kolsch, Vaporizer, Hop Lava, India Red Ale, and Das Boot.  All of the beers were tasty and unique. They are going to be doing some great business out of Hood River for years to come!  The group favorite seemed to be the Clusterf#ck, a single hop IPA (with cluster hops, duh).  But, there were plenty of beers we enjoyed, so much that its a near certainty we'll be visiting them again the next time we are in town.

Double Mountain Brewing in Hood River

Chalkboard listing of beers at The Commons Brewery

We had a hard time figuring out where to go at night - we preferred to visit a new brewery, but had a hard time locating one that was within reasonable walking distance, or that had a tap room that would be open.  We settled on The Commons Brewery, which didn't look to be too far from PDX Green Dragon, which we could hit up after.  The tap room was supposedly only open until 9pm, so after our walk, we were cutting it close.  To top it off, we nearly walked right by the place, which didn't have much in the way of signage or a storefront.  Once, inside, we were literally smack in the middle of the brewery, and got to mingle with the owner while standing at the bar.  They invite you in to walk around their brewing facility and they are willing to discuss any of their beers and show you their processes.  We learned they had just opened back in December, but already had a nice lineup of beers and we managed to sample each.  They also had just installed a new brew kettle that they were preparing to begin using within the next couple of days. Being a brand new brewery, they had a short brew list, but everything was fresh and seemed to be along the Belgian style. We sampled the following: Madrone, Blonde, Pils, Wit, Flemish Kiss, Walnut, Urban Farmhouse, and Pale Evening Ale. For new brewers, they have a bright future!

Inside the brewery/taproom at The Commons Brewery

We continued the night by heading back to one of our favorite beer bars in Portland, The Green Dragon. This is a popular location for locals to hang out with their friends, have a few drinks, and play some party games. Since they have over 50 beers on tap and many more in bottles, we quickly (and obviously) decided that it would be another sampler stop! For the first round we tried: Bourbon Barrel Baltic Porter with Raspberries by Flat Tail(a favorite of the night), Stumptown Tart by Bridgeport, Chamomellow by Buckman Botanical, Chatoe Rogue OREgasmic by Rogue, Jasmine Green Tea Mead by Buckman Botanical, Spiced IPA by Widmer, and Sweet Heat by Burnside (another amazing surprise).

Some of these beers exceeded expectations and we shared these new gems with the people sitting next to us who weren't sure what to order. The Sweet Heat is made with habanero peppers and definitely has some heat on the back of the palate, but the fruity notes chime in with perfect unison and make it a great summer beer. The Bourbon Barrel Baltic Porter by Flat Tail was another favorite because it was a sour style beer, surprisingly, and had great flavors, letting the raspberries flow in gently and keeping the beer from being too bitter or have an overly "bourbon" flavor. We then decided that we might as well do another round because there were too many beers catching our attention on the menu! Round two: Two Gypsies Our Side by Stillwater/Mikeller, Maibock by Green Dragon, Scotch Barrel Aged Barleywine by JW Lees and Co, Supplication by Russian River, Flat Tail IPA by Flat Tail, Back in Black by 21st Amendment, Comatose IIPA by Good Life, Hop Lava on Cask by Double Mountain, and Ginger by Buckman Botanical.

The Buckman Botanical Beers are made with fresh ingredients that give them all a light taste without being overpowering. The Jasmine Green Tea would be fantastic on a hot day...similar to what we've been enduring in Chicago lately! Keep it nice and cold, and it's crisp and refreshing.

Meg and Jen at the 2nd Annual Portland Fruit Beer Fest

Day 3:   Prior to the trip, we bought tickets to the Portland Fruit Beer Fest, and decided it would be best to go early in the day to a) avoid crowds and b) appease our moms as far as not letting it dominate our day.

We attempted to sample just about everything that they had, and found that there were some great beers, and some not so great. Many of the breweries made beers especially for this event, so they weren't currently available to try anywhere else, even in the respective tap rooms. The list of beers at the festival are as follows: The Bad Apple by 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Levinator by Upright Brewing, Hip Hop Saison by New Belgium, Marionberry Habiscus Gose by Widmer, Whack & Unwrap by Oakshire, Bomb.com by Lompoc, Camera Obscura by Laurelwood, The Fruity Monk by Burnside, Festina Peche by Dogfish Head, Yuzu Belgian Style Golden by Elysian, Strawberry Mandarin Wit by Flat Tail, South by Fort George, What Up Apple-weizen by HUB, Hot Town Summer in the City by Gigantic, Lychee Lager by Lucky Labrador, Cherry Bourbon Renewal Porter by Ninkasi, Huckleberry Hound by Alameda, Raspberry Sour by 10 Barrel, Ching Ching by Bend, Femme Fatale by Boneyard, Tropical Storm by Block 15, Red Light District by Burnside, and Saigon Saison by The Commons. As you can see, there was a lot to choose from and a lot to drink! Since none of the beers were very hoppy, our palates could handle tasting many different things that day.

An hour or so into our our tasting, we took a break for some food and to rest our legs.  We headed inside and were lucky enough to squeeze around a table in the pub.  Burnside had a few "fruit" beers not being featured at the festival, so we each tried one - Jen had the 'Fruity Monk,' and Megan tried the International Incident, which was AMAZING! As Megan commented on Untappd, it was Sweet Heat enraged..and it was a delicious choice with the burger that we had for lunch. Everywhere you turn, there is something great to try!  Later that night, we finished up some of our cache of beers at the hotel - Granville Brewing's Cascadian Dark Ale (from Vancouver),  Elysian Brewing Company's Fallout (another one of the 12 Beers of the Apocalypse), and Deshutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale. 

All in all, it was another great weekend in Portland and we felt like it had been a successful one.  These beers, combined with some great food from the Portland food trucks, was a fitting end to our 3 days in the Rose City.  There is always something new, another brewery, a variation of a beer that we had previously tried, or another festival.  We both agree that Portland is an amazing place and definitely a place for any beer lover!

See you soon Portland, see you soon!

Jen & Meg