Best Portland IPA?

Discussion in 'Northwest' started by blackwing, Jun 26, 2012.

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  1. blackwing

    blackwing Initiate (0) Apr 9, 2012 Oregon

    Looking to throw on a new local IPA on tap, in Portland. Besides Double Mountain, anybody got any recommendations? For both single and double IPAs?
    Or best Oregon IPA besides Ninkasi, Fort George or any other big names?
    Looking forward to hearing from all you beer advocates!
    -Alberta Street Public House
     
    #1 blackwing, Jun 26, 2012
    sjantiflow likes this.
  2. hopsbreath

    hopsbreath Savant (1,157) Aug 28, 2009 Florida

    Not made in Portland, but the Bend made Boneyard RPM is my favorite IPA in the state. Kegs seem to be relatively available too since it's not too uncommon around town. Hop Venom is their IIPA and also quite worthy.
     
    #2 hopsbreath, Jun 26, 2012
    sjantiflow, muchloveforhops3, flexabull and 4 others like this.
  3. CaptainTripps

    CaptainTripps Initiate (0) Aug 8, 2010 Arizona

    RPM by Boneyard Brewing
     
    #3 CaptainTripps, Jun 26, 2012
    muchloveforhops3, vkv822 and libbey like this.
  4. mudbug

    mudbug Pooh-Bah (1,762) Mar 27, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    Boneyard, Blue Dot by HotD
     
    #4 mudbug, Jun 26, 2012
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  5. eatabagofbooger

    eatabagofbooger Initiate (0) Mar 27, 2009 Oregon

    I came to say exactly this. Blue Dot is inconsistent, like much of what HotD puts out, but when it's good, it's my favourite IPA/DIPA (way better than PtE and PtY in my opinion). And Boneyard just kills it. Both RPM and Hop Venom are fantastic!
     
    #5 eatabagofbooger, Jun 26, 2012
  6. RedMedicine

    RedMedicine Initiate (0) Jun 3, 2005 Oregon

    RPM is the best in OR, for sure.

    Portland though? Lucky Lab Super Dog is my favorite and underrated IMO. Wish it was on tap outside of the LL locations.

    I only had a few pints of Upright's Supercool IPA but I thought that was killer.
     
    #6 RedMedicine, Jun 26, 2012
  7. MADhombrewer

    MADhombrewer Initiate (0) Jun 4, 2008 Oregon

    Hopworks IPA
    Gigantic IPA
    Workhorse (I don't think they release it to other places, but it had to be said)
    10 barrel apocalypse.
     
    #7 MADhombrewer, Jun 26, 2012
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  8. distantmantra

    distantmantra Pooh-Bah (2,954) May 23, 2011 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Workhorse is finding it's way outside the brewery. It's even been on tap in Seattle this week.
     
    #8 distantmantra, Jun 26, 2012
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  9. ggfunk

    ggfunk Initiate (0) Mar 29, 2010 Oregon

    RPM and Hop Venom are predictable answers. They are also correct answers.
     
    #9 ggfunk, Jun 26, 2012
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  10. Docer

    Docer Initiate (0) Nov 20, 2008 Washington

    Yeah, gotta add Workhorse from Laurelwood. Dry-hopped 4 times originally. It was better though however back in the day when it was their regular when Chad brewed it. My favorite IPA ever.. look forward to seeing what he will do now that he is in Bend doing his Worthy Brewing thing.

    RPM is my go-to IPA. Blue Dot is only usually reliable at the source. The bottles can be very scary and inconsistent. I've had enough bad ones to never buy them again, or any HotD bottles.

    I really dig Alameda's Yellow Wolf. Highly underrated.
     
    #10 Docer, Jun 26, 2012
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  11. Shmeal

    Shmeal Initiate (0) Nov 9, 2009 Oregon

    Hop Venom is the best IIPA in the world in my opinion.

    RPM or Duet for IPA i think.
     
    #11 Shmeal, Jun 26, 2012
    chikunwing, philhyde, LoPo87 and 1 other person like this.
  12. m4ttj0nes

    m4ttj0nes Zealot (611) Feb 21, 2012 Oregon
    Trader

    RPM if I want a few, Venom if I want a couple.
     
    #12 m4ttj0nes, Jun 26, 2012
  13. maltmaster420

    maltmaster420 Initiate (0) Aug 17, 2005 Oregon

    Word of warning on the Blue Dot: HOTD uses Golden Gate couplers, and they're almost impossible to find on the market because they haven't been manufactured in 15 years. McMenamin's is the only other brewery I know of that uses them, and with 50+ pubs and thousands of kegs in circulation they've done their best to buy up every coupler available. If Columbia has a set up that they'll sell/lend to you I'd say go for the Blue Dot, but otherwise it's not worth the hassle.

    Regarding other IPAs, everyone else has already covered the Boneyard and Apocalypse, but I was going to toss out the 10 Barrel ISA as a suggestion. It's pretty damn hoppy (especially now that Shawn has had his way with the recipe), but since it's dry and only about 5% abv it could make a nice sessionable option for the summer months.
     
    #13 maltmaster420, Jun 26, 2012
  14. MADhombrewer

    MADhombrewer Initiate (0) Jun 4, 2008 Oregon

    I was wondering of the Apocolypse was the only one that was revamped. Now that I knowthe ISA is as well I will definitely give it another shot. Thanks.
     
    #14 MADhombrewer, Jun 26, 2012
  15. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,849) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I realize this is off topic, but... is there any advantage to using that sort of system? Just curious, because...

    As you probably know, a limited amount of HOTD beer makes it's way to the East Coast. Some years ago, for God knows what reason, the SEPA distributor obtained a keg of Blue Dot. The beer showed up on several DIPA event lists, causing considerable excitement. You can probably imagine where I'm going with this... at every event where it was featured, the beer bar in question never actually tapped the beer. They wanted to, but couldn't (as it took a special tap system that they couldn't obtain, for some reason). So the keg would be returned to the distributor, only to show up some months later at some other hapless beer bar DIPA event. I think the last such event was sometime last summer... the bar in question was able to tap the keg, but the beer didn't come out right, and afte a few glassses, they gave up and stopped pouring it. My understanding was that at that point the keg was so old, none of the beer poured was very good anyway.

    I've long since given up any hope of ever seeing Blue Dot here on the East Coast.
     
    #15 John_M, Jun 26, 2012
  16. maltmaster420

    maltmaster420 Initiate (0) Aug 17, 2005 Oregon

    The only "advantage" is that it would cost a bunch of money to reconfigure all of the kegs to accept sankey taps, and since Alan doesn't seem too concerned with selling kegs I doubt he's interested in dropping a bunch of cash on a project like that.
     
    #16 maltmaster420, Jun 26, 2012
  17. blackwing

    blackwing Initiate (0) Apr 9, 2012 Oregon

    Shoot, I forgot to mention "besides boneyard". Yeah we alternate between the RPM and Hop Venom constantly, I was looking for someone who doesn't have as many accounts as Boneyard. Thanks for the input, has anybody noticed the Hop Venom smells like weed? Just saying...
    I think I'm gunning for the Laurelwood IPA and supposedly Terminal Gravity makes a killer DIPA
    -Alberta Street Public House
     
    #17 blackwing, Jun 27, 2012
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  18. ggfunk

    ggfunk Initiate (0) Mar 29, 2010 Oregon

    I do love me some green mammoth as well!
     
    #18 ggfunk, Jun 28, 2012
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  19. amiles

    amiles Initiate (0) Feb 4, 2007 Oregon

    I would agree with most everyone regarding Boneyard... though I did have a Walking Man IPA tonight at Horse Brass and forgot how well that brew tastes too. Technically WA but local enough!

    I always enjoy Hopworks IPA as well. It's different but excellent. If you can acquire Laurelwood Workhorse... that'd be another good choice.
     
    #19 amiles, Jun 28, 2012
  20. djbreezy

    djbreezy Maven (1,499) Dec 16, 2008 Washington

    Tugboat Hop Gold
     
    #20 djbreezy, Jun 28, 2012
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