Hi, I've never been to Portland before and will be visiting with an old friend as part of a beercation in November We arrive in Portland at 10am on a Tuesday morning and depart at midday on the Thursday so have around 48 hours here to take in as much good beer as we can Realise there are alreadyt threads similar to this asking about reccomendations (of which I've read a few) but having consulted beerfly I've come up with the a list of places I think we should visit so am more after fine tuning more than anything else! So not knowing Portland at all can anyone help put these into a sensible order to visit? In terms of accomodation I'm weighing up between a hotel in downtown or stopping at McMenamins Kennedy School which appears to be about 3 miles out of town - anything else worth visiting in this neighbourhood? Anyone stayed here? Also - have I missed any gems out? Reailise I can only do so much in 48 hours but like to think I've captured most of the best bars to hit (largely based on ratings as much as anything) Finally - I really want to take some Pliny the Elder back home with me How easy is this to get hold of in bottle shops in Portland? Feel free to BM me if you prefer and thanks in advance Ruds the bars I had in mind:- Belmont Station Baileys Taproom Deschutes Concordia Cascade Brewing Apex Hair of the Dog Henrys 12th St
Cheers - I'd nearly listed those two as they had good reviews - but for 48 hours I had to draw the line somewhere! I'll definately bear this pair in mind!
Sounds to me as if you have a pretty good selection of stops for your 48 hour beercation. To anwer your other questions.... I have indeed stayed at Kennedy School and I think it's great. Unfortunately, so do a lot of other people, so even in November, I would recommend making your reservation well in advance (though if you plan on staying there Tuesday and Wednesday, you should be OK). Assuming you have a car, it's no more than 10 or 15 minutes to get to most places downtown or on the SouthEast side from there. In terms of obtaining bottles of pliny, unless you want to pay high bar prices, you'll need to be lucky to find any. Most places that get it in, typically get no more than a couple of cases, and they often run through their allotment in just a couple of days. Some places will set purchasing limits, which helps somewhat, but even so.... unless you happen to arrive right when the monthly RR delivery occurs, you probably are going to be out of luck. In any event, places to check for Pliny when you're in town include beermongers, john's marketplace, belmont station, beaumont market, cork (on NE Alberta) and bottles. (the latter three are all fairly close to Kennedy School). Personally, I would take Henry's off your list and replace it with Green Dragon and/or the Horse Brass. Regardless, sounds like a very solid selection of places you've picked out to visit.
add Beer Mongers to that list, its directly across the street from Apex. I would skip on Concordia unless you're staying at Kennedy McMenamins. I would also skip Henrys 12th st. Might consider adding Horsebrass pub and Roscoes.
Thanks for the tips We won't be in a car, our beercations always rule this out, so it will be public transport or taxi's and a good old fashioned walk when appropriate! I checked Kennedy school for availability last night and as you may expect we are still good for a room on the first Tuesday/Wednesday of November but will bear in mind what you've said about it getting booked up Horse Brass sounding like one to add to the list!
Thanks for the advice, johnmichaelsen and yourself have steered me away from Henrys and onto Horsebrass! Think I must have missed Horsebrass when checking through Beerfly as it sounds pretty good to me!
Not sure how to embed codes but here's the route i would do. http://goo.gl/maps/48ko Deschutes Baileys Short bus ride Hair of the dog Cascade short bus ride or walk Apex/beer mongers - i didn't route Apex since it's literally across the street. Short bus ride Belmont station Horsebrass If you have a smart phone there's a good bus app called PDXBUS.
