Best beer bars in the PNW

I always go straight to Max's whenever I'm back in the DMV area. :-)


Sorry to hear that about Churchkey. I haven't been back there in 4 or 5 years now, but back then at least, they were clearly the preeminent beer bar in the area. Casey at Max's mentioned that for ultra rare kegs coming into the area, typically they and the Churchkey were at the top of the list of recipients.

 

The GG in pdx is vastly superior to the one here in eugene. Here in eugene, its crazy to even compare the local GG with the bier stein. Is the pdx GG better than biet stein? I honestly can't answer that (probably depends on what factors are most important to you), but you could certainly make the argument.

Also, I'm guessing that many of the folks that have weighed in on this so far have never been to the bier stein.

 

While you're at it, visit the Eugene GG's as well. You'll have an even better idea why he was so surprised by the folks on here listing GG as one of their favorite places.

The local GG tap list isn't awful, but it doesn't even remotely compare to the type of things you guys see on a regular basis in PDX. "Uninspired" is the word that I think most aptly describes the Eugene GG taplist.

 

Are you sure about the Matt? I'm pretty sure the first release was in 09, and I'm virtually positive that magnums of Matt were never sold at TJ's.

$10.99 seems like an incredible deal today, but I remember worrying that I might have been overpaying a bit for it when I bought a bottle back in the late 90's. I was accustomed to buying 6 packs of SNPA, Blue Heron, and Red Hook ESB for $5 or $6 back then, so $11 for just over 50 ounces of beer didn't seem like all THAT great a deal at the time. However, I couldn't resist the idea of getting a magnum of Fred, so I splurged and got a bottle. Of course I ended up drinking the entire bottle on a warm Saturday afternoon in Sacto, passed out on the couch and woke up with a pretty nasty hangover the next day, which made me rethink my decision. My GF reminded me that given the abv., that was like drinking a couple of bottles of wine all by myself, so what a surprise that I wasn't feeling all that great the next day.

Ah, memories.... Good times...

 

More than any other thing I can think of, this is what sets the PDX beer scene apart from all others. Coming from out of the area, I think it's virtually impossible to wrap your head around just how pervasive the craft beer culture is in PDX. If a place sells beer in PDX, no matter where the location, or how much of a dump the place is, you can be virtually certain there will be craft beer available there as well. Furthermore, more times than not, it will be a pretty damn good craft beer selection at that.

When I first moved to Portland back in 04, I thought I knew the town fairly well, and so what to expect. Working downtown, I would invariably go for a walk at lunch, and back in those days, I would pick up my coffee at the Stumptown on SW 3rd Avenue. Imagine my complete shock the first time I stopped in, to find 3 or 4 tap handles there, and a cold box stuffed with an impressive import and craft beer selection. I actually just assumed the tap handles were decoration and not functional, as I'd never seen draft beer sold in a coffee shop before (in fact, the owner was into Belgian beers, and so invariably there was always one or two Belgian offerings on tap).

Ever have one of those "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto" moments? From a craft beer standpoint at least, it used to happen to me pretty regularly back in 2004.