Tell me where to go in Portland, OR......

What's up!

Going to Portland OR for the first time this October. Wading through the 50+ breweries that city has is a little overwhelming....

So Portlanders, where does a east coast beer geek need to go? I'll be there for 3 straight days...

Hair of the Dog is my #1. If you like sours then you have to go to Cascade.
Laurelwood
Gigantic
Hop Works.

That's just 5 you won't be sorry with.

Much obliged

Deschutes! I'm a former east coaster myself, but been to Portland a few times.

there are a crap ton all over so it all depends on what you want to drink.

Green dragon (owned by rouge, mostly a tap house, but they have a brewery in the back), cascade barrel house (if you're here tuesday, go to tap it tuesday, always fun!) and hair of the dog and lucky lab is all within walking distance. (if you don't mind a 8-10 block walk, enough to sober up a titch )

HUB, Gigantic, P.U.B. (portland u brew, tiny brewery with a homebrew shop attached) are all kinda close.

Just for the experience, you need to stop by either McMenamins, Kennedy school or Edgefield (in troutdale, just outside of portland east)

Although the "Big'uns" are fun to visit, Widmer, Dechutes, Rogue, Mactarnahans/Portland brewing, HUB.... all are fun..

But if you're only here 3 days... I'd say the NEED TO VISIT ones are

McMenamins Edgefield or Kennedy school.
Cascade if you like sours, walk over to hair of the dog and lucky lab
Widmer is in a fun little spot and you can walk over to another mcmenamins (White eagle)
HUB and gigantic are super close to each other

those are my votes... but i wouldn't hesitate to do a pub crawl!

http://beermapping.com/maps/citymaps.php?m=portlandor#lat=undefined&lng=undefined&z=2

It has been a couple of years but there was this little place, I think it was called Tugboat brewery, really liked them. It was in the downtown area. I had had a few by the time I got there.

One of my favorites in the Portland area is the Raccoon Lodge on the Beaverton Hillsdale Highway. Great food and some really innovative brews.

Broham1 said:

Portland: Breakside (both locations), Cascade, Commons, Deschutes, Gigantic, Hair of the Dog, Hopworks, Upright.

These are a few of my favorites. If you can venture east to Hood River, add Full Sail, Double Mountain, and Pfriem (SO GOOD!) to the list.

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My reply to a similar post.

I was there in July. I'd recommend Breakside, Deschutes, Pints, Commons, Occidental and Upright. Laurelwood was also good.

My favorite was Occidental, but I love German beers.

IMHO,
I'm going to be the first to say avoid all McMenammins. For someone visiting from out of town for the beer putting up with mediocre beer in historic surroundings with crappy service they aren't worth it when you have 51 other breweries to check out. Tugboat is worth a pass too, nothing special beer and dirty tap lines have been my experiences there.
Now for the positive-
Cascade Barrel House for amazing sour beers, generally at least a dozen on tap (currently 14).
Hopworks for all around good beers and food, with organic ingredients using ecologically friendly methods like running the brewery's burners on biodiesel produced from oil from their kitchen's fryers. Great Portland brewing culture vibe.
Hair of the Dog for award winning, innovative beers. One of the Original Gangsters of the Portland brewing scene. Lots of beers at their pub that aren't distributed like their mild. Great food.
Breakside for very creative beers that often contain unique ingredients. Many are collaborations with local chefs. Nice vibe in their pub too.
Laurelwood for a very solid, wide, variety of beers with better than average pub food. Also one that has been around and spawned other breweries like Worthy in Bend.
Deschutes because they have tons of beers on tap at their pub that aren't distributed and often are very good. They're a big regional brewery, but the pub showcases their roots and creativity. In a nice part of the Pearl District to check out too, and close to Powell's Books.

The Commons makes excellent beers but their tap room is open limited hours, and Upright's tap room is the same but both are easy to find on tap around the beer bars in Portland. Beer bars to check out should include Belmont Station, Apex, Bailey's, Horse Brass, Roscoe's, and the growler filling places around.
BTW, Raccoon Lodge is owned by the same guys who own Cascade Barrel House, so save time by only going to Cascade. The brewery attached to the Green Dragon is called Buckman Botanical Brewery (although the Oregon Brew Crew homebrew club has a nano brewery system there too) and makes good beers available at the bar. Otherwise, Green Dragon is an OK beer bar but there are better ones.

After Pdxal's write up there is not much else to add other if the timing works you should try to swing by an Oregon Brew Crew meeting. We have a very active club and the meetings are an awesome place to try some great homebrew.

oregonbrewcrew.org

Thanks to all, this will keep me busy. Cascade Barrel House sounds really good, we both love sours.

I forgot to mention Migration Brewing.

We also went to Cascade. It was very good, but expensive.

For beer bars, we liked Apex.

Spartan1979 said:

I forgot to mention Migration Brewing.

We also went to Cascade. It was very good, but expensive.

For beer bars, we liked Apex.

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Cascade is expensive... but it's an experience! i try to go after work every so often as it's right by my office. But the expense kills it

I loved Deschutes when I went in February. If you like micro distillers then I would say goto Rogue and taste some of their small batch liquors. Can't say I had a bad experience at any of the breweries I went to.