Visiting Portland - Spring/Summer 2018 update

A few years back, it became clear that this forum could use an "I'm visiting Portland, where should I go?" thread. In this thread, I'll attempt to cull the "must-hit" spots generally agreed upon by Portland BAs. Of course, recommendations & suggestions are encouraged.

(Almost) Universally Recommended "Must-Visit" Breweries & Brew Pubs
Breakside Brewery (multiple locations)
Cascade Brewing Barrel House
Great Notion Brewing (second NW PDX location opening spring/summer of 2018)
Hair of the Dog Brewing
Upright Brewing (now accepts credit cards!)

Other Highly Recommended Breweries & Brew Pubs
Baerlic Brewing
Culmination Brewing
Deschutes Portland Pub
Ex Novo Brewing
Gigantic Brewing
Hopworks Urban Brewery (multiple locations)
Laurelwood Brewing (multiple locations)
Lompoc Brewing (multiple locations)
Occidental Brewing
Wayfinder Beer

The Newcomers (breweries opening in the past year-ish)
Little Beast Brewing Beer Garden (opening May/June 2018)
Modern Times Belmont Fermentorium (opened January 2018)
Mount Hood Brewing (opening spring/summer 2018)
The Thirsty Monk (transitioning ownership from Bazi Bierbrasserie & adding a brewery in spring 2018)
Von Ebert Brewing (opened March 2018 in the former Fat Head's location)
West Coast Grocery Company (probably opening late spring/summer 2018)

Highly Recommended Beer Bars / Bottle Shops
APEX (Taproom, Bottles-to-go; Cash Only w/onsite ATM)
Bailey's Taproom/The Upper Lip (Taproom, Crowler Fills, Growler Fills, Bottle List)
The Beermongers (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills)
Belmont Station (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills, Food)
Bridgetown Beerhouse (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills)
The Growler Guys PDX (Taproom, Crowler Fills, Growler Fills, Bottles-to-go)
Horse Brass Pub (Taproom, Food)
Imperial Bottle Shop (Two locations - SE Division & NE Alberta) (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills)
John's Marketplace (Bottle Shop)
Loyal Legion (Taproom, Growler Fills, Food)
N.W.I.P.A. (Taproom, Bottle Shop)
Hawthorne Hophouse (Taproom, Growler Fills, Food)
Roscoe's (Taproom, Growler Fills, Food)
Saraveza (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills, Food)
Tin Bucket (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Counter Pressure Growler Fills)
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(A Few) Beer-centric Restaurants*
Cheese Bar
Grain & Gristle
Higgins Restaurant
Interurban
Lardo
Raven & Rose / The Rookery
Stammtisch
Victory Bar
White Owl Social Club

* Just about any decent restaurant in PDX has a good/very good beer list. This might be the most debatable section of this thread. Eater PDX is a great food resource.
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Other Resources (places, events, releases, news/information, etc.)
Portland BeerFly listing
Willamette Week's 2018 Beer Guide
Brewpublic
The Brew Site
New School Beer
Oregon Beer Growler
Portland Craft Beer Events Calendar

Some Helpful Maps
digita7693’s map (beer map, restaurants, hotels, cafes, to-do)
The Beer Mapping Project
Oregon & Washington Brew Map
Oregon Beer Country map

A couple of (potentially dangerous) pub crawls
The "Walk it Off" Pub Crawl (HotD > Bailey's > Deschutes > Upright > Burnside > Cascade)
Inner SE Pub/Brewery Crawl (APEX > Beermongers > Baerlic > HotD > Commons > Cascade > Base Camp > Burnside)
North Portland Pub Crawl (StormBreaker > Bridgetown Beerhouse > BikeBar > Sidebar > Tin Bucket > Ecliptic)

Want to know if XYZ bar/brewery allows kids?
"PDX with kids" BA thread
Bars that Allow Children in Portland
Best Kid-Friendly Portland Brewpubs
Kid-Friendly Portland Breweries

Need shippers for all the beer you bought?
Portland Wine Storage
Rose City Wine Vaults & Storage

Transit
Biketown
PDX Bus (free and awesome app)
Trimet
Uber and Lyft are currently operating in Portland.

Portland Airport
PDX is a great bar that just happens to be an airport. If you have time to kill, there is a Deschutes Brewpub (concourse D), a Laurelwood brewpub (concourse A), a yet-to-open Hopworks brewpub (replacing the concourse E Laurelwood pub), a Henry's Tavern outpost, and several other restaurants with good tap lists. Deschutes, Laurelwood, Hopworks, Henry's, and Country Cat are all past security and all fill growlers, so you can get a fill and carry it on. There are also Made in Oregon stores and a Timberline Lodge gift store past security with good bottle selections. Timberline Lodge generally has very fresh bottles & cans on the shelves.

** Disclaimer: This post is not intended to be a catch-all for Portland beer establishments. There are literally hundreds of well-regarded beer institutions throughout the greater Portland area -- many of which are not listed in this post. This thread is an attempt to present the most frequently recommended and highest-regarded spots cited in the Northwest BA forum. Exploration and experimentation are certainly encouraged!

 

Again, late with an update. Since spring is halfway over, I decided to just make a spring/summer update.

Updates to version 17:
* Moved Deschutes from "universally recommended" to "other highly recommended." Feel free to disagree, but they just seem to not be bringing it lately. However, the pub is still a really nice place to visit with good beer and solid food.
* Added Wayfinder Beer to the "other highly recommended list."
* Brought back the "Newcomers" section after being absent for the past couple updates. I tired to only add places that are open or seem to have pretty solid spring/summer opening dates. There are several more breweries that may open in 2018, but no solid dates as of this update.
* Added Interurban, Stammtisch, and Victory Bar to the beer-centric restaurant section.
* Re-wrote the airport paragraph to reflect the changes there (Rogue replaced by Deschutes, Laurelwood concourse E being replaced by HUB, and the addition of the Timberline Lodge store).

Past versions:
Original thread
Update 1 (winter 2013)
Update 2 (spring 2013)
Update 3 (summer 2013)
Update 4 (fall/winter 2013-14)
Update 5 (spring 2014)
Update 6 (fall/winter 2014)
Update 7 (winter 2015)
Update 8 (spring 2015)
Update 9 (summer 2015)
Update 10 (fall 2015)
Update 11 (winter 2016)
Update 12 (spring 2016)
Update 13 (summer 2016)
Update 14 (fall/winter 2016-17)
Update 15 (summer 2017)
Update 16 (fall/winter 2017-18)

Enjoy!

 

Good idea!

* Apex is divisive, but still my favorite.
* Backyard Social - still haven't been there, but the patio was killer when it was Hop & Vine.
* Back patio at Belmont Station.
* Migration Brewing has a large patio and decent beer.
* Roadside Attraction has a funky, fairly large patio and a good beer list.
* Burnside Brewing has a fairly large patio.
* Eastburn has a nice patio with swing chairs that are fun/dangerous.
* Proper Pint in Woodstock has a nice patio and usually has a good/great taplist.
* Wayfinder's patio looks really nice, but I haven't been there in nice weather (yet).

 

This is true. They're currently only doing Saturday can releases at the NW brewery. Double Stack cans this weekend.

I haven't been to the Alberta pub since they started selling cans, but as I understand it, they've sent leftover cans to that location. Not sure if they have any right now, but I'm sure someone around here has been there recently and can confirm.

 

Little Beast opened yesterday. Read more here.

I'm stoked. I was bummed when Hedge House closed. Lompoc isn't my favorite brewery in town, but I loved drinking at that location. I'm really glad that it will continue as a beer-centric location, and, at least for my preferences, have better beer and (probably) better food. Looks like they really brightened the interior up as well. Can't wait to check it out.

And oh by the way, StormBreaker opened its second location in St. John's last week.