Portland, OR...(Advice)

Looks like like we finally get out first "Beer" vacation. We have decided to spend 4 days in Portland, OR. NO rental car, just checkin out the city and the beer. I got the flights figured out now I just need a hotel and I want to try and land somewhere close to pub crawling territory.
Any hints or clues?

What's your price range for hotels? The whole region is pub crawling territory, but did you have some breweries you were more interested in seeing than others?

Hawgbranch said:

Looks like like we finally get out first "Beer" vacation. We have decided to spend 4 days in Portland, OR. NO rental car, just checkin out the city and the beer. I got the flights figured out now I just need a hotel and I want to try and land somewhere close to pub crawling territory.
Any hints or clues?

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it's been a while since I've been there but there are some nice hotels right in the center of town. Try to make to Henry's if you can. It's the the old Weinhardts brewery converted into a Restaurant. They have a great bar with at least 50 beers on tap. I was working while was up there, so I didn't get to know it too well. Portland was a fun place to be.

You can get most places pretty easily by the Max that runs through town. Are you more interesting in pubs, bars or breweries to visit because there are plenty everywhere. If i know where you are staying I could probably help you out more.

I would highly recomend the brew bus! brewbus.com I belive is the website. It was a great way to take a brwery tour (we did Bridgeport) and try several different brew pubs without driving. Also, a must go is the Horse Brass Pub. LOTS of beers on tap and in the bottles; great place! Have fun!

Deschutes brewpub and Bridgeport!

If you want to save money you can stay at the Mcmenamins White Eagle pub. It's an "European" style hotel, so they have small rooms and shared bathrooms. But, its clean, cheap (45 dollars a night), above a brewpub (well they don't actually brew at this location), across the street from the Widmer brewery, and two blocks from the MAX that can take you everywhere else. Also, the building is supposedly haunted as it was the sight of lots of shanghaiing around the turn of the century.

If money is less of an issue and you want more of a full service hotel. McMenamins Kennedy School is a very cool spot, nothing like a Turkish Spa first thing in the morning to cure a hang over.

+ on Deschutes and Bridgeport, Horsebrass is great, but I haven't been there since Oregon banned smoking indoors and can't imagine that place sans the cloud of smoke. The Hopworks Urban Brewery gets a ton of great reviews and Amnesia has an amazing Chinook, Amarillo IPA.

Also, Portland is a very wired city with free wifi almost anywhere. When in doubt, bring a laptop and just jump on Yelp and search for bars, breweries, restaurants, whatever... it never fails.

while there are some good places in Portland West of the river, I would try to get a place to stay on the East side of the river. There is a motel on Powell that is not too far from Hopworks that would be an okay central point and has easy access to get to the west side. You can also check out Trimet.org for bus and MAX schedules, once you do get downtown that will all be free. If you aren't looking for a "sexy" vacation you can stay at the Hawthorne Hostel, which will be within walking distance of the Bridgeport Brewpub, Lucky Lab, Roots, etc.

I personally enjoy Amnesia and Roots the best but if you have a day to take a day-trip checking out Double Mountain in Hood River (slightly over an hour drive but you can the "scenic columbia gorge highway" out there for a longer, more scenic drive).

Geez, great information!
We just want to sample the local craft beers and a good brewery tour. Of course I will take the SWMBO somewhere nice one evening while we are there. Downtown sounds pretty good. The trip up the "Gorge Highway" sounds great too.

+1 for Hopworks. Have been there and had a really good time. Good food, nice place and great beers. Laurelwood has some good beers as well. If you go to a pub I would try to get some Ninkasi Brewing Company beers (Total Domination IPA or Tricerahops) some of my favorites from an up and coming brewery out of Eugene. Also Belmont Station has a good selection of bottles and a biercafe.

i've been in portland for 6 years now and there are a few places you really need to try.

1. Tugboat brewery in downtown portland in the smallest brewery in the NW literally no bigger than my appartment but they make some pretty good beer,and it is located directly underneath Mary's, one of the trashiest strip clubs in the city


2. any of the Mcminimens good beer and decent food. you'll find them all over the city. some are brew pubs and some are theater pubs, if you go make you sure you get the terminator on nitro.

3. Amnesia brewery is the best small brewery in the city. It's in north portland on alberta st and well worth the short cab ride. desolation IPA is amazing, if you get that and a burger from their outdoor BBQ, and I promise you will be a happy SOB

also henry's tavern in downtown on burnside st is worth checking out. they have great food and over 100 beers on tap, no brewery though

e-mail if you have any questions

[email protected]

Henry's has good beers but to me it reeks of pretentiousness. The food is also good but overpriced. I recommend going to the Rogue Pub on 1339 NW Flanders. If you want to watch movies, several McMenamins play movies while you eat dinner and drink beer. They also have several locations that have hotels, like Kennedy School and Edgefield. Edgefield is way out in BFE though, you'd need a car or be willing to ride the MAX a long time to get into town. The Horsebrass pub is the closest thing to an authentic british pub and a Portland icon.

All fantastic information. Looks like it may only be 3 days and there's many to see.
Thanks for the email Beck.
I have never been to a Theater Pub.......

Check your hotel for the free neighborhood maps. They break down the shopping, eating (read brewpubs), and points of interest areas neighborhood by neighborhood. I'll only second the previously posted suggestions!!

I personally will do everything in my power to now stay away from McMenamins. They wronged me one too many times. The last, flagging me at a concert after having one beer and claiming I was slurring my speech without saying a word to the ID checker. I contacted on of their COO's about the incident and didn't hear a word back. Being a customer service guy myself that was unacceptable. Even if the response would have been "tough **** dude. Deal with it" it would have been better than being completely ignored.

Service is horrible, beer is inconsistent and there are tons better breweries in town. Wow, that's something I thought I'd never put in writing about the McM's.

+1 on staying away from McMenamins. If it were not for the cheap happy hour hamburgers I wouldn't touch the place. I have heard they often serve green beer after talking with a few people who used to work at the Kennedy School.

They may be a big part of Portland, but there are way better things to be tasting while you are here.

EvilTOJ said:

Henry's has good beers but to me it reeks of pretentiousness.

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I get this feeling from a lot of places in Portland, but not necessarily pubs/breweries... And don't get me wrong, Portland is sweet, and it IS the land of the nectar of the Gods. Realistically, the pretentiousness probably isn't more prevalent than any other city, but my oldest and best buddy lives there and he is a hipster, so when I go to visit, I'm overexposed to pretentiousness.

ANYWAY... Regardless of my rant, you're going to have a great time! I feel like there are three beer pilgrimages to be done in one's lifetime: 1) Germany; 2) Belgium; 3) Portland. You're on your way!

EvilTOJ said:

Henry's has good beers but to me it reeks of pretentiousness.

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What do you expect Evil, a) it's on the west side, b) it's in the Pearl.

No doubt about Henry's being pretentious, I mean just look at the size of that place. That said, I'm still more than happy to pony up to the bar (they have a wicked cool "ice rink" bar) while my girl rummages through Powells. I find McMenamins fascinating because I have not found one person who goes there for the beer. Still, they buy and restore really cool, historic places. If you go on a Saturday night see what's happening at the Alladin theater. I went there in November and they had a midnight showing of Batman (Tim Burton version) preceeded by a stand-up comic all for 3 bucks.

P.S. sucks that you were cut off at a show. That's why I always bring a flask of bourbon.

svudah said:

I find McMenamins fascinating because I have not found one person who goes there for the beer. Still, they buy and restore really cool, historic places.

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And occasionally, they mysteriously burn down during renovation/construction...