Oregon Local Portland Breweries

[laserghost]

– Howdy –

Making a short visit to Portland in a few weeks and I have no idea what's going on in the local beer scene. Who are some of the best / most interesting nano and micro breweries right now?

I'm staying near the convention center, and will be limited to bicycle and public transit.

Cheers!

 

[enkamania]

I recently visited Breakside Brewery and it was great. Food was great as well.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

McMenamins is a must. No particular one, but they all offer something a bit different.

Base Camp and Hair of the Dog are also worth checking out. Just south of the convention center.

 

[iijakii]

Cascade and Commons for more unique beers. You can go to any corner and get a good IPA.

 

[pdxal]

You can take the light rail, Max, south from the convention center area and easily hit Commons, Cascade Barrel House, and Base Camp, which are all within walking distance. Also, Green Dragon and Loyal Legion are nearby and have lots of taps. Hair of the Dog is a little farther south and west, but not far.
I have to respectfully disagree with McMenamin's- generally nice, historic, locations but with bad service and lackluster beer. I'd hit every other brewery in town before them. Especially as a tourist looking to sample Portland beer.
Also, if you go north and west by bike or transit you can easily hit Upright near the Rose Garden; plus Widmer (for big breweries), and Labrewatory and Ex Novo just up the hill on Russell.

 

[bob1852]

Cascade and Commons for more unique beers. You can go to any corner and get a good IPA.

This!

Spent six weeks in Portland this summer and went to both of these multiple times....

You can take the light rail, Max, south from the convention center area and easily hit Commons, Cascade Barrel House, and Base Camp, which are all within walking distance. Also, Green Dragon and Loyal Legion are nearby and have lots of taps. Hair of the Dog is a little farther south and west, but not far.
I have to respectfully disagree with McMenamin's- generally nice, historic, locations but with bad service and lackluster beer. I'd hit every other brewery in town before them. Especially as a tourist looking to sample Portland beer.
Also, if you go north and west by bike or transit you can easily hit Upright near the Rose Garden; plus Widmer (for big breweries), and Labrewatory and Ex Novo just up the hill on Russell.

I agree on McMenamins.....it's meh, in my opinion....and avoid Lucky Lab. They don't seem to clean their beer lines very often and the beers were gross.

Cascade and Commons are musts...

Base Camp is good, but be careful getting there....lots of homeless camps have popped up around there.

In that part of town, I also enjoyed Grixsen (a bit south of there but easy to get to via bus, and relatively new, but good beers and nice atmosphere). Also, Baerlic is pretty good and on the bus line to Grixsen.

Imperial Bottle Shop has some nice offerings as well, and occasionally some Russian River stuff on tap or in bottle.

If you go to Green Dragon, ask what's on tap 19. It's usually not on their list, but it is often something desirable (like Pliny).

Burnside, Migration, and Culmination are all a long walk frim the Convention Center, and all pretty good.

Gigantic is a bus ride to the south, but worth the trip.

Ecliptic (to the North) was good I thought...the head brewer developed many popular beer recipes when he worked at Full Sail and Deschutes earlier in his career.

Breakside SE is hard to get to via mass transit, but a great place.


If you can get a car, check out Bent Shovel out towards Oregon City. Tiny place (basically on a small ranch), but good beers. Hit Drinking Horse on the way there, or back, if you go.

 

[bob1852]

Btw, the public transportation is very thorough in Portland...you can get nearly anywhere pretty quick...so don't limit your searches to SE Portland...

 

[laserghost]

Terrific!! Thanks everyone. Will report back.

 

[General_Jah]

I just wanted to check in and see what breweries you liked? About to fly out to portland myself and want to check out some breweries. Will have a car so anywhere around there is an option.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

It's not a brewery, but I highly recommend Belmont Station for it's incredible beer selection, both bottled and on tap!

 

[Sailingeric]

Widmer Brewery has a tour, $5 but you get a lot of beer and a glass to take home and their pub has good food and a lot beers they you can only get there. Ecliptic up the street near Mississippi Ave is good too.

 

[TrickyDick]

Thanks for the tips!

I'll be there in a couple weeks. Headed to Eugene, then Bend, then Crater Lake, then through the valley and up the coast to Portland for a few days. Make a reservation at Le Pigeon. Any recommended breweries, tap-houses, restaurants, wineries, must-see places appreciated!!
TD

By the way, where is the Green Dragon place, cannot find it on Google maps....

 

[iijakii]

Thanks for the tips!

I'll be there in a couple weeks. Headed to Eugene, then Bend, then Crater Lake, then through the valley and up the coast to Portland for a few days. Make a reservation at Le Pigeon. Any recommended breweries, tap-houses, restaurants, wineries, must-see places appreciated!!
TD

By the way, where is the Green Dragon place, cannot find it on Google maps....

Rogue bought Green Dragon last year. I havent been in since, not sure if they ruined it or not.

 

[bob1852]

Hit up Loyal Legion. ~88 Oregon beers on tap.

 

[pdxal]

Rogue bought Green Dragon last year. I havent been in since, not sure if they ruined it or not.

Actually, Rogue bought Green Dragon a long time ago, but changed it from Green Dragon to Rogue Eastside Pub and Pilot Brewery about a year ago.
And, it's gone totally corporate, devoid of any of the previous charm, and you can basically just get Rogue beers with very few guest taps like they used to have.
For brewery recommendations look earlier in the thread. The other change, though, is that The Commons is going to close at their location and rent the space to Modern Times starting in a few months.
If you're going up the coast hit De Garde in Tillamook for sours, as well as Pelican in Pacific City or Tillamook.

 

[pdxsteve]

Check out Willamette Week's beer guide: http://www.wweek.com/beer-guide-2017/
Don't miss Great Notion - really outstanding hazy IPAs. After that, Ex Novo, Gigantic, Breakside, and Ecliptic.
On the coast, Ft George! Skip Pelican - blah overpriced beer.

 

[bilder]

If you go through Coos Bay, check out 7 Devils Brewing Co.

They are the best (read only) brewery in the county.

 

[zipster222]

Highly recommend Rosco's in east Portland for great collection of local brews and great food with fun atmosphere. You can check their continuously changing offerings at their live cam chalkboard at http://www.roscoespdx.com.

 

[enkamania]

After GABF, Great Notion has to be on the list. Ripe IPA was the best beer I had

 

[iijakii]

Went to Great Notion for the first time last weekend. Have had one of their IPAs somewhere before and it was good, but man their whole lineup was solid. Juice Jr wet hop was fantastic. They had a Blueberry Muffins sour that was insane. Legit smelled and tasted exactly like a blueberry muffin, and not in a weird way either. Would love to know how they do that.

 

[TrickyDick]

Very cool thanks for sharing. Planning to take the car out to go for breakfast at country cat then stop for some coffee someplace - haven’t decided yet. Then maybe head over to great notion and pick up a case of Crowlers - juice IPA or something or another to bring back on the plane. And then we’re going to go to the Japanese garden and from there play it by ear. Only two more days left in Portland, from what we’ve seen tonight, a very unique city.
TD

 

[radwizard]

Yeah, Great Notion is pretty tasty. The Tin Bucket is a tap room/bottle shop pretty close to Great Notion. They have bottles of De Garde for purchase, and perhaps on tap. I would highly recommend giving De Garde a taste. It is truly a unique brewery on the Oregon Coast.

 

[pdxal]

Enjoy the rest of your visit.