Visiting Portland - Summer 2016 update

America's version

 

Maybe we should start calling ours "George".

 

That could get confusing. There's already a city called George Washington...

 

We can liberate it from the eastsiders. The only reason anybody knows about the current George is because of the amphitheater.

 

AKA "Vantucky" or "The 'Couve"


Be sure to check out The Thirsty Sasquatch and Ben's Bottle Shop (which gets a few breweries you can't find in Oregon - like Reuben's Brews and Holy Mountain).

 

Give a shout when you'll be in Vancouver. As noted by the responses of others, people generally spend very little time here so I always like to share if possible- maybe we can grab a beer if you're up for it.

 

Thanks again for this thread. My first trip to Portland and besides the traffic I really liked it. Definitely will be back. I ended up going to Loyal Legion which was a great place. Wasn't impressed with Double Mountain IPA's or the Ecliptic on cask, but the Sticky Hands made up for it. Next trip I want to try The IPA's of Barley Brown, Breakside, Fat Heads and Great Notion. I look forward to my next visit.

 

In my opinion, Sticky Hands is one of the best DIPAs Oregon has to offer. Barley Browns, Breakside, and Boneyard are also pumping out amazing stuff. Double Mountain's IPA game has never been a personal favorite, but their kriek's and saisons are tasty.

 

Thanks for the offer but I am actually seeing a buddy while I am there this time. Last time he took me to both Heathen & Loowit (both or which I liked a lot).

This time he is planning something that includes team trivia.... But he promised me the place has great beers!

 

Just FYI the Portland bikeshare is now up and running.

Biketown

They've got an app, but that's not required (it just makes it a little easier).

 

I was fortunate to have friends that live in portland, but they've recently moved out of the city.. heading down for OBF and booked a hostel downtown for a couple nights, will see how it goes..

 

Which Portland brew pubs have the best food?

 

This place doesn't get much (if any) mention on these forums, but I really enjoy West Coast Drinkery in the SW. They are a tap room, not a brewpub, but they make some fantastic pizzas (they have a nice new pizza oven). They also always have a great tap list -- Barley Browns and Boneyard IPAs and PAs on all the time, a de Garde beer last time I was in, as well as many other great options. They usually have about 25 beers on tap as well as about 5 or 6 ciders, some wine, Kombucha, and root beer. They just had a party in the last couple of weeks and they had Supplication, BCBS, Black Butte Birthday Reserve XXVIII, and Pinot Suave all on tap. They also get some really good bottles in as well (got my regular Bourbon County Stout bottles and my one bottle of Bourbon County Coffee Stout there when they were released last year and I heard very little of the coffee made it into Oregon). The establishment itself is a really nice place to enjoy a beer and watch a ball game as well. They are kid-friendly and they also have a nice patio area where you can bring your dog. The staff has always been really helpful and knowledgeable about the beers as well. The owners are also in there quite a bit and they are super friendly. Not necessarily saying that this place should be added to these lists (that was not the point of this post), but I thought it would be a good recommendation for anyone that finds themselves in that area.

West Coast Drinkery (FB page)
Tap List

I haven't actually eaten any food at HoTD, but I will second the Deschutes recommendation ... very tasty food though the long wait times (depending on when you go) tend to turn me away. I also really like the food at Great Notion. Their brat pot pie is delicious. I was going there weekly for a couple of months and it was almost just as much for that damned pot pie as it was for their beer.

There are a plethora of great places in Portland, so I have no doubt that wherever you end up, there will be good food to eat and great beers to enjoy. Cheers!

 

I'm a big fan of the food at HotD... And with those high octane beers, you better eat something...

 

Yeah, I go there once in a while as it's pretty close and would agree with most of what you said. Though they were charging more for BCBS than anyone else I saw and had BCBBW for sale after the refund offer had expired. When I let the owner know, he didn't seem to care - doubt he let anyone know when they bought one and they were still on the shelf when I went later, kinda lame in my opinion.

 

Great Notion's burgers are solid, and HotD has some great wings.

 

Yeah that would kind of suck for someone to not be aware of the infection issues and buy a bottle of BCBBW after the recall window was closed. Although, I'm not sure how that is typically supposed to work when a brewery confirms that they released a bad product. In my opinion the responsibility is on the brewery to work with their distributors to ensure all of the infected or faulty product is pulled from the shelves. There is no way to guarantee that a specific shop owner would even be aware of the recall unless they were directed by the brewery or distributor to pull the bad product. Again though, I have no knowledge of how this typically works in situations like this.

 

Yeah, he knew about the fact that they were infected and GI was doing refunds (not sure if he found this out on his own or was told by the distributor), he just didn't know that GI had since slapped an expiration date on refund claims and that it had already passed. I'm not sure if distributors are contacted by GI and if so, how they're supposed to handle it. You would think they'd pull any unsold stock from stores but I wouldn't be surprised if this was not the case.

 

Yeah I actually saw BCBBW available at a few different shops after the deadline was over. I never asked the shop owners about it, but thought it strange that Goose Island wouldn't do everything in their power to ensure all of these bottles were pulled from shelves. While the refund period was still open I was actually tempted to purchase a bottle just because I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about and could simply get a refund if it ended up tasting bad. I ended up not doing it because that seemed like a lot of work for just a single bottle, but I wouldn't be surprised if some people did. I actually still have my unopened coffee that I never claimed the refund for. It just wasn't worth the effort for me just for a single bottle.