Planning an Oregon Beer-Cation. Thoughts?

I know that Big Time here in Seattle will fill a plastic pop bottle or milk jug, but that's just at Big Time. Never seen it anywhere else.

 

Places fill all growler type containers (by that i mean things specifically bought for filling beer). Some places will fill other types of containers like mason jars and nalgenes - its dependent on the place.

 

If you make the right choice of going to Block 15, you should also hit up Corvallis Brewing Supply as I'm pretty sure they have plenty of Ale Apothecary. They are about 2 blocks away from each other.

 

People seem to like their Mint Stout. I liked the SMaSH beer they did for COBW, but they chose Simcoe as their hop which is polarizing for some. Everything else I had from them was decent but not what I'd recommend over any of the other places discussed above.

 

No way to know without asking, but it's probably a coin toss whether any given place will fill a Nalgene. 32oz growlers are pretty cheap and plentiful if you're looking to score a few to bring back local beer. Won't be able to use them again in Cali, so pick some with local brewery logos you like to act as a memento.

 

Fair enough. I don't think any Double Barrel Jesus made it over here at all though. Crux and Ale Apothecary are probably the two main exceptions in Bend's favor. For out-of-state beers distributed to OR, though, it would be foolish for the OP to pass up anything on the wet side on the assumption they could find it over here. Pleasant surprises await here and there, but our smallness and isolation compared to Eugene, etc. means distributors are less likely to send rarities and higher price-point beers this way (or our local retailers are less likely to pull the trigger on a pricey case of 22s). It's great for local beer geeks that stuff sits on shelves longer here, but I'm pretty sure it affects the buying decisions of the various beer sellers.

 

I definitely wouldn't suggest that either, but based on his itinerary Bend would be the third stop after Eugene and PDX, so I assume it would be more of a "Hey, look what I found!" situation rather than not buying something in one of the other metros and hoping to find it there. Luckily for OP there's a beer store in Portland that actually updates it's bottle list, so he can sort of plan ahead.

I'm sure that's also true, but if their buyers are as geeky as I am I would bet they make exceptions for kick ass rare stuff whenever the budget allows. We're perpetually tight on space and I have to be a bit selective when it comes to loading up on unproven beers, but every now and then I have to go out on a limb and snag something that sounds awesome, even if it ends up not being a huge selling beer. When it comes down to it, the freedom to buy whatever ever we want without having to get corporate approval is about the only advantage that the independent shops have over Freddies and New Seasons.