I will be in Portland next month while my girlfriend is on a layover, I'll only be there for less than a day, but was only planning on hitting up HotD. We will be staying at Crown Plaza Downtown; can any Portlanders suggest good bottle shops within reasonable walking distance from that hotel and brewery? Thanks in advance!
This is a pretty good resource, and is an excellent starting point. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-portland-spring-2014-update.165640/ PDX has excellent public transportation, so I would look into that as well. There are a number of places that are fairly close to HOTD and your hotel, though it's debatable whether you would find them to be within reasonable walkng distance. I personally think that the walk over to Beer Mongers from HOTD is easily doable, but that's just my opinion. Have fun.
John_M is right about the quality of public transportation here. You might consider catching the Portland Streetcar (CL Line) at NE Broadway & 2nd and riding west across the river. Get off at NW 11th & Couch and you'll be a block away from Whole Foods in the Pearl District. Good regional bottle selection. Also, Bailey's Taproom is a few blocks away from there, and you can check their website to see what bottles they have available to go. Another option: Walk from your hotel to the Interstate/Rose Quarter MAX Station (about half a mile or so) and take the Yellow Line up to the North Killingsworth Station. Then walk 5 blocks east to Saraveza. Excellent bottle selection, good food, and always something interesting on tap.
Would we really say Saraveza has an "excellent" bottle selection? They always have some interesting stuff, but it's more a small and curated selection ... and they often are out of stuff you would expect to find at a major bottle shop. Just thinking an out of towner may be better served at a bigger spot like Beermongers or Belmont if they can get there.
if you're at PDX airport, go to the Made in Oregon store on the Terminal D/E side. ridiculous bottle selection, better than some bottle shops in town. good variety of stuff including Cascade, Logsdon, Commons, Laurelwood, Gigantic, etc.
Beer Mongers isn't that far from HOTD. I usually bike it, but I'd imagine it would be a 20-30 min walk.
I'd sign up for Car2Go right now and take one to Belmont station. Doesn't cost anything to sign up, only when you use it, and there's sure to be some around your hotel. The round trip will take you just over 20 minutes and cost you less than $10; way cheaper than a taxi, way faster than transit, way less fatiguing than walking half an hour with a box full of bombers... plus you get to hit up Belmont Station, which in my opinion, is the best bottleshop in PDX.
If you do this, you could just make it a circle as well and hit Imperial Bottle Shop, Apex, and Beermongers on your way back from Belmont. It's a little round about but if you've got personal transport it would be worth it.
last time i was back i did basically just this same thing, but backwards. waited in beermongers to meet a friend who was going to meet me for lunch, got beer and tacos at apex, stopped off for one at imperial, decided to swing through horse brass on my way to belmont. not a bad little loop.
