Where to go in Portland

My buddy is going to Portland next week and was asking me what breweries to hit up. I have never been, but I sent him to the Beer Mapping Project. But any help for those who are there or have been would be great. Thanks.

Which one?

I got a issue of imbibe for free on my last order from morebeer and it has a list of places in Portland

They have this info on their site:

http://www.imbibemagazine.com/Portland-Oregon-Drinks-Scene

Let's put it this way: any randomly chosen batch of five brewpubs in Portland will produce a good experience. Does he have wheels? If he is overwhelmed by the choices, go to the Horse Brass. That will cut things down to 44 taps.

I say visit Hopwerks Urban Brewery...and then what david_42 said.

Portland, OR. No wheels, so transportation has to be public. But I don't know where he's staying so I guess that doesn't help any.

Personally I would not miss Bridgeport or Laurelwood Brew Pub. But it is pretty hard to go wrong with most any of the pubs in town. You can get to most nearly everywhere with the public transportation in Portland. Just pick a pub an area of town and stay awhile!

With no wheels he can hit quite a few right around downtown or close in east side. All in the Pearl and NW are Rogue, Deschutes, Bridgeport, Lucky Lab, Laurelwood and Bridgeport and Dechutes have a couple great seasonal fresh hop beers right now. Close in east side, don't miss Roots and Amnesia. A little further out east side Hopworks and Alameda Brewpub both have good beer and food.

+1 on the Horse Brass pub. TONS of taps, cask ale also. He can get a really good selection of beers there and the pub itself is also great. And this time of year, who knows? Maybe they have Deschutes Jubelale on cask. They're known to get unusual casks.

Higgins Restaurant is a nice gourmet place that pairs beer with food, though not cheap.

Moon and Sixpence is another nice Brit styled pub but with less taps than Horse Brass and a bit more mellow.

Full Sail has a waterfront bar. Bridgeport has a pub. Widmer too. And I hear Deschutes has a taproom in PDX now too.

He should call Hair of the Dog Brewing and ask for a tour. They're not open to the public generally, but if he's a traveling homebrewer and asks Alan or whoever answers the phone, maybe they're give him a little inside tour.

Lucky Lab is a fun space, but their beers were never first rate when I lived there.

Also, a few things:

The Bridgeport pub on Hawthorne is just a little pub. It's not the brewpub. The brewpub from what I recall, and it's been years since I went, is in Northwest PDX.

If he's going to hit Laurelwood pub in the Hollywood district in NE, the Moon and Sixpence is about two blocks away and has a much nicer atmosphere. The Laurelwood has some nice beers but the space is generic. Moon and Sixpence is cozier, IMHO, more like a British pub.

If he wants to take bottles home, he should Google "Belmont Station" in Portland. They *used* to be directly next to the Horse Brass Pub, but I think they moved. They have a TON of bottle to take home. Or if he finds himself nears a "Natures Northwest" supermarket, if they still exist, they have a great selection too. They could been bought out by Whole Foods by now though, dunno....

Bear in mind, I lived there from 93 to 2002, so he should check locations on Google to verfiy.

Natures is gone. They resurfaced as New Seasons after being bought out by Wild Oats which was in turn bought out by Whole Paycheck. I guess I forgot about Widmer (shows you what I think of their beers these days). Horse Brass is great now that there is no smoking, but without wheels, Henry's in the Pearl has more taps and is within walking distance of all the downtown Breweries metioned in my earlier post. As far as taking beer on the plane, he won't get through security with it, but Rogue and Laurelwood both have pubs on the airplane side of security where you can buy 22's and carry them on the plane, just as an fyi. Sometimes the airport Rogue even has one of John's Locker Stock beers on tap.

oswegan said:

Natures is gone. They resurfaced as New Seasons after being bought out by Wild Oats which was in turn bought out by Whole Paycheck. I guess I forgot about Widmer (shows you what I think of their beers these days). Horse Brass is great now that there is no smoking, but without wheels, Henry's in the Pearl has more taps and is within walking distance of all the downtown Breweries metioned in my earlier post. As far as taking beer on the plane, he won't get through security with it, but Rogue and Laurelwood both have pubs on the airplane side of security where you can buy 22's and carry them on the plane, just as an fyi. Sometimes the airport Rogue even has one of John's Locker Stock beers on tap.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the updated info. Don't know Henry's in the Pearl District.

Why wouldn't he be able to take beers on the plane? If he puts them in his checked bag, he should have no problem as long as he packs them well. I've brought all sorts of alcohol back and forth from the States to Croatia without any broken bottles or security troubles at all. They don't care about you having bottles in your checked bags.