Visiting Portland - Summer 2017 update

San Francisco native here and just about wrapping up my trip. I'm known in BA as a rough critic (why settle for mediocrity when there are amazing options?) so take this with a grain of salt.

Positives
Cascade - Never tried their beers because it's too expensive. At their taproom? Quite reasonable. Beers were not my fav, but they're good and if I lived here, I'd frequent as a hangout spot.

Growler Guys (SE) - 50 taps, great variety, and the bartender William was great to talk to and had cool recommendations

deGarde - Most CA visitors to PDX love their beer but didn't make the trip. For me, it made the OR trip worth it. Nothing to do in Tillamook, but TBH, wasn't feeling Pacific NW beers until we went here.

So-So
The Commons - I appreciate them academically more than I like them.

Great Notion - Had entire board, so tried 3 NE IPAs, Blueberry Muffin, Double Stack, and 3 wilds. All were fine, but nothing to go crazy for. But I guess for hazy, it's probably the best option in PNW.

Tin Bucket - I'm sure it's a great place. We were already sick of beer by the time we got here, and the ones we ordered ended up being gross. Bartender also wasn't particularly friendly

Lompoc Sidebar - Only tried their barrel aged stuff. Decent! I'd revisit. We were also impressed by the HH burger. Way better than it needed to be.

Yuck
Culmination - Different people recommended this place, but this was really disappointing. Tried lager, 2 IPAs, NE DIPA, stout, and a barrel aged tripel. Feels like they are a brewery who may hit their stride in a couple years, but right now feel amateurish. Phaedrus was the most solid, but also ordinary.

Deschutes - I'd been here before so I knew, but this was my wife's 1st time. I think they can make good specialty beers, and some of their core is great (Red Chair, BB, Obsidian). But they are pretty old school, and many have bested them even at that. I tried their wet hop DIPA and it was disgusting. All malt. Extremely disappointing.

Overall, I love hops but nothing here has gotten me excited. Instead it's the Saisons and wilds that have been the best.

Just my couple pennies.

 

Very happy to hear you had a positive experience and appreciate the shout out but...no way in hell am I letting Will know someone had a nice thing to say about him on Beer Advocate.

 

Thanks for your opinions and critiques but they lost their weight to me when you said you became "sick of beer" on what appeared to be a beer trip.

 

He couldn't taste the hype. Even at the most hypetastic brewery in town? DeGarde "saved" his trip? FFS, even discokitty got a better grip.

 

It's always interesting to hear someone's experience and trip report, thanks for sharing. Reading your comments, though, I felt I was missing some context. I have to admit I was unfamiliar with the reputation you have earned around BA as a rough critic, so I took a quick look through your past posts to see what kind of beers back home did make the cut. It seems you're a fan of Cellarmaker, SARA, and find some stuff from Alvarado Street, The Rare Barrel, and FW's Luponic Distortion series up to snuff. I just skimmed, so I might have missed some stuff, but does that sound about right?

Those are all great breweries, but they're fairly recent. Have you been into beer for much longer than you've been a member here? Besides hazy IPAs, saisons, and mixed-culture/wild beers, what are some other beer styles you enjoy?

From your post, it seems the trip was something of a disappointment, with only 2 breweries and William at GG as saving graces. Do you plan to visit Portland or other parts of the NW for beer again?

 

I guess I mean in the Pacific forums. The best way to put it is that if you ever visited Northern California, I would only recommend the places that are really good (Cellarmaker, Moonraker, SARA).

To me, beer geek popular places like Alvarado Street and Fieldwork are very much 2nd tier and I refuse to name in the same breath as the above 3. I get a lot of flack for saying that in the Pacific forums, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend for people to go seek them. Same for Russian River and Sierra Nevada. The Rare Barrel is kinda in between, and is somewhat polarizing.

My personal taste is that I enjoy most styles, with maybe the exception of Belgians (wit, pales, darks, dubbel, tripel, quads). I have been drinking beer for almost 20 years now, and started with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I didn't really get into the bigger world until much more recently, where I tried a bunch of new school hop brewers and got into that, then the barrel aged imperial stout stuff, etc. Now I also enjoy subtler styles like Pilsners and Lagers that I used to flee from. Probably the typical journey of a BA.

I respect the classics for what they are and what they brought to the beer world (Anchor, Sam Adams, SN, Russian River), but I don't necessarily enjoy many of their beers anymore. There are exceptions though. Hell, as boring as I think they are, Lagunitas brewed my favorite beer this year:

I really wanted to check out Hood River (and en route) for the hikes, pFriem and the famed Double Mountain pizza. But with the Eagle Creek fire, that really dashed my trip plans. I'd love to come back even if for that. And maybe Logsden will have a taproom by then. Are there Portland breweries that you think I ought to have checked out?

I'd also like to check out Seattle's beer scene, but in my little knowledge, only Cloudburst seems like it'd appeal to me. Not really sure what else. My wife's best friend currently lives in Seattle so I'm sure I'll have an opportunity in the future.

 

I'm really surprised you didn't go to Upright.

Holy Mountain for sure, maybe Urban Family, Reubens and Fremont.

 

Jesus, I thought I was a tough crowd.

 

Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but if you listen to this "tough critic" you are going to be missing out on a TON of great beer and cool places.

Not sure why Tin Bucket takes the blame for you being sick of beer and then ordering a bad beer. And the fact that you only got malt from the FH DIPA at deschutes makes me question everything about your post.

 

Did you miss the part where I said: "I'm sure it's a great place."? I didn't even say anything negative about it, aside from perhaps the nonchalant bartender.

Feel free to ignore my opinion. But forget about me, why don't you look at Untappd reviews from others for this current batch? There's a number of people who said the same thing, so are we all dismissable?

"Sadly missed from the sample tray lineup. Not fresh Centennial in anyway like Fremont, but its maltiness may appeal to others" (Terry & Emma)

"Wayyyyyyyyyy to sweet" (Justin H.)

 

Hahahahha! Don't even bother man. PNW IS the best spot in the country for beer. I've said good things about spots in Portland and STILL caught shit for it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't when it comes to the PNW beer scene. Beginning to think everyone is an old miserable man.

 

I guess putting Tin Bucket in the "So-So" category for reasons that appear to be your own doing is what I was replying to. I also dont know what your expectations were. Its kind of a sleepy beer bar that generally has a top-notch tap list and not much else.

As for the FH Deschutes beer, its generally rated pretty well/very well. So while it may not be your cup of tea and you found a few others on RateBeer that agree, i think descriptions like "all malt" and "disgusting" venture into hyperbole and not honest criticism (even self professed "tough criticism"). I have had many "malt bombs" over the years that beer would not even be close

 

I've met the man and had beers with him, so I understand his opinion a bit better.

The Portland beer scene or at least on here seems to be a bunch of Al Bundys desperately holding onto their glory beer drinking days at Polk High (Portland being Polk High) and are miserable that times have changed since they've been drinking. I find it comical.

 

lots of stretching and reaching here. perhaps you should become a fitness instructor

 

I already am, just an example of how good I'm at it.

 

if you think that's bad, you should listen to how people talk about development in portland in general.

maybe it's just that NW'ers are hoping to avoid the hype and lines and enjoy wandering into any random bar on the corner and finding a better beer selection than most "beer bars" on the east coast.

 

I don't think you said anything that crazy. Tin Bucket doesn't brew beer so I didn't take the "gross beer" as an insult, nor did you mention what beer was gross. I haven't had the Deschutes fresh hop but I, like probably everyone else on this forum, have had Inversion so there's no reason to doubt they could/would make a malty IPA. In fact some people actually like malty IPA's. That was a thing once.

To actually answer your question, I would recommend Upright, Breakside and Ex Novo. Obviously, since you don't like Belgians, Commons was a mistake.

In short, I would liken Deschutes to a visit to Anchor Steam (too cruel?), Lompoc to Magnolia (maybe Marin Brewing Company) and Commons to Almanac. I'm guessing you wouldn't recommend that as an SF itinerary.

I think you'd find a lot to like on a second visit.