Best Portland IPA?

Phaedrus is the real deal. Highly impressed.

 

Juice Box.

 

Since you're going to call me out by name....

If you read before you wrote, homie, you'd have seen that the IPAs were *ALL* made within the city limits of Portland. Could we have included unincorporated areas with Portland mailing addresses to get Cascade and another McMenamins? Sure, but we thought 73 was enough. Is there any way we could include one Milwaukie brewery and then explain this to breweries in Gresham, Beaverton or Oregon City? No. Did we include Breakside anyway, as a control, because we knew people like you would use this as an excuse to discredit the results if we didn't? Yes, and it did pretty well. RTFP, as they say.

As for the fresh hop Simcoe, which was written up in a totally separate project that was released the same day.... No, they did not have a fresh hop beer on tap on January 27. We wrote it up based on its showing in September. Many of our top 10 beers were seasonal, as they are every year.

Again, these are concerns you'd alleviate by reading the articles you're talking about before coming in to call me "terrible."

 

And yet, the same top five emerged from a tasting of just the top 10.

 

OK, so imagine we included just one brewery, which we like, from outside the city?

Fewer heads explode?

 

It's not so much a "technicality" as it is a "geographic reality."

Check out this site for more info: maps.google.com.

 

i really don't care that much to offer you a response.

 

Fair point. When I lead with misinformed snark, I should expect snark in return. And I shouldn't expect your list to be anything that it isn't, which was my error in the first place.

 

Well, a "geographic reality" would be something like a mountain range, river, canyon, or lake, not an arbitrary line on paper.

 

I'm going to address this first, since once I've said me piece I'll have no desire to continue down that path and it's not worth my time or your time going down it... and this is Beer Advocate not... uh... People Advocate?

The reason I think you're terrible is because of your apparent biological imperative to get into it with people who have different opinions/criticism. In this instance you're certainly justified because A) I misread/misunderstood, which wouldn't normally be grounds for it, but I did B) call you terrible, so fair game. I had never heard of you before last year, but I think it was before last years OBA's one of my friend pointed it how how you were getting in with it with people across a whole bunch of websites. Whenever I go into comment sections I see you going bickering with people, and case in point, here you are again. Whenever I see you on reddit, here, brewreublic, beervana, or wherever it's you bickering and being aggressive, even when it seems like you're just trying to clear up misconceptions.

I have no opinion of you as a person because I don't know you, but your online presence in painful. Your opinions always seem to have to be right, your methods always have to be right, and the only time you seem to join any conversations seems to be when it's about you.

You're right, and I knew that too. I knew it was 10 Best Beers of Oregon, but I was just reading the comment where you were explaining in the comments to someone else right before I made that comment and it overrode what I knew for whatever reason.

I really think that you the literal city limits is a bit hard nosed. Maybe Portland addresses, but ehhh. I agree there's no point in doing "Best Portland IPA" if you just open it greater-portland area, but at least hear me out on why it should be a case by case basis.

Fat Heads, most people [in the beer world] would call it an Ohio/PA brewery despite it has that weird franchise-esc situation here in Portland. But it has it's location here, it's own autonomy [ish], and their own development of recipes. Semper FiPa, definitely a Portland IPA, developed here, brewed here, whatever, Portland IPA. IBUsive, was originally an Ohio/PA recipe but tweaked when brewed here according to your article. Eh, yeah ok, I can accept that as a Portland IPA. But I notice the lack of Head Hunter, yes you pointed out they had issues obtain the hops for it but it has been brewed here. Was it merely left of because you couldn't obtain it? Or because you didn't think of it as a Portland IPA? Regardless, I don't think an unaltered IBUsive or Headhunter would be fair to call them "Portland IPAs," just because they're brewed here. All this leads up to the fact that the Breakside IPA was developed and brewed here in Portland for at least a year and some change before they opened their Milwaukie location.

So I think it should be situational, merely drawing lanes on the map is a little bit too tough.

 

Now that I think about it Workhorse and Megafauna might be the best IPAs in Portland with Megafauna bordering on truly great. I also love the lineup at Fat Heads, but I will never think of those as Portland IPAs. I think Eliot or the two from Laurelwood take it right now. I'd take those three over any from Breakside.

I just have a hard time putting any IPA from Breakside at the top. Too inconsistent for me. Obviously, this is subjective. Don't get me wrong, I think Breakside is a fantastic brewery. Probably the most adventurous, creative and prolific craft brewery in Portland. I like the majority of what they put out, but to me they're like a jack of all trades, master of none. I can't think of one that truly stands out as being exceptional or at the top of any list. That's just me though. I know I'm probably in the minority on this.

 

I've never noticed any inconsistency from Breakside's individual beers. Going down a line-up? Sure, I've certainly had a few less-than-stellar one-offs or seasonal offerings. Because yeah, they do a lot of stuff and sometimes you just get a miss. I think they've really dialed it in over the past couple years, and I don't remember ever getting a bad bottle or pour of any of their main offerings.

I mostly agree on Workhorse and Megafauna - both tend to get recognized as being good but it always feels like they're being overshadowed for how good they really are. Oddly enough, I liked this year's Fresh Hop Workhorse more than Breakside's Fresh Hop Simcoe and Wanderlust, but I think the base Breakside IPA is better than Workhorse. But they're all really damn good.

 

Maybe inconsistent isn't the right word as I think they're consistent in putting out mostly quality beers regardless of style. As far as their IPA, obviously it's received plenty of accolades and honestly, it's been a while since I've had it, but over the multiple times I have had it on tap and in bottle, I never found it to be exceptional. As I mentioned earlier, it's always been too bitter/dry and I usually get too much alcohol on the finish. As for Wanderlust, I enjoy that more, but as other comments have suggested, that one can be inconsistent, mainly in bottle, as it has become so ubiquitous on store shelves it's hard to know which one's are fresh or not. The one's I've had recently I picked up from Costco. They've been good, but it just seems to leave me wanting more, much like many of their beers. I'm no expert and I doubt there are many who would make this criticism, but I think it might do them some good to cut back on the number of styles they put out and focus more on their year round/flagship offerings.

 

https://twitter.com/block15brewing/status/705095315515318272

<3 <3 <3 <3

 

Yes! Hoping I can get some crowlers/growlers around Portland.

 

MOAR CANS FOR CHUCKS. IT IS COMMANDED.

 

This batch is draft only.

 

I know, just being obnoxious.

 

Okay, carry on.