Portland recommendations

I miss the old High Horse- you make great beer, dude!

 

Zach was Trillium's director of brewery operations during the hay day of Trillium. He finally has a chance to have full creative control over the beer (now that he's working for himself). It's easy to see why people would be excited about the IPAs coming from there.

 

Yes, kind of snotty, but I’m not sure you’re wrong. Given their pedigree, I’m sure that’s what people (including me) are hoping for. We could use a hype IPA / pastry stout brewery here.

I stopped by the other day for the first time. It’s honestly way too early to give them much of a fair assessment—they have like 6 beers. But so far, the IPA I had was good, not special. Of the two stouts, the vanilla/cacao was excellent, the coffee/cinnamon was quite solid. All in all, I wasn’t blown away but also felt it was a strong opening and am optimistic they will do some great things.

 

You certainly have hype IPA breweries right? At the very least Bissell fits that bill.

For pastry stouts there's plenty there as well right? Definitive, Mast Landing, Lone Pine...etc.?

I'm not a huge pastry stout guy so I don't look for it specifically, so I could be wrong. But I feel as if Portland specifically is full of IPA factories, so it depends on your definition of a "hype" brewery.

Now a lager-centric brewery...that is what Portland needs in my opinion...

 

I was being a little tongue in cheek saying we need a “hype” anything. I prefer to be under the radar especially since I don’t trade anymore. And yes, we are drowning in great IPAs, although I’m not sure any of them aside from Bissell are as hyped as they should be. The stout game could use a lot of work IMO.

 

Doesn't Barreled Souls fill that gap? I feel like everyone and their brother are checking in their beers lately.

 

Yes, this is the one outlier. I love BS, and their (barley/rye/wheat)wines are even better than their stouts. But a second brewery doing it even close to that well would be nice. Maybe I’m being greedy though.

 

I was going for more of a snarky vibe than snotty but I digress...

It will be interesting to see where these guys go. There's no shortage of great beer in Portland and my gut says these guys will do very well.

 

Ha! FTR, I only went with snotty because you said it first.

 

Had a great trip and will update

But, Rising tide is literally the worst. And I’ll add why later! Glad we’ve avoided this until trying it for shits and giggles on a Sunday. But man do they know how to cater to the basic bitches(men/women) and normies

 

I’ll look forward to your input. Rising Tide was one of at least three that we were planning to visit in early May.

 

Interested to hear the details on what made it such a bad visit. I generally agree RT is the Starbucks of local craft beer and rarely go there, but I’ve also generally had good experiences in their taproom, albeit it with fairly mediocre beer.

 

Portland trip was great.

Started the day meeting our friends for her birthday at Battery Steele. Nice to see a few versions of flume and a couple nice options of varying style. Keep in mind there are no samples and only one size appropriate pour for all beers. Which is fine. It wasn’t too busy around 12:15 but as time went on it filled up. Never saw a group wait more than a few minutes. Friends had already done definitive but decided they wanted to go back.

Definitive was great as well. Nice to get some Vitamin sea beer and lots of variety to try. Plenty of 5, 10, 12 pour size options. Again getting busy after 1 but manageable. We walked right in and got a seat. Keep in mind as we finished there and left ind way the crowds continued to increase. So I’d plan there around opening if you like an easier set up. Definitive opens at 11.

Headed to Bellflower from there and there was a wait. We wanted 4 to be outside which took much longer. The girl working is super nice and worked hard to get couples in when she could for 2 seaters. All in all she handles it very well given the set up. Enjoyed two versions of Scrugsy ipa. Galaxy and an enigma version. The barreled ages stout variants still on. Good beer just prepare to wait given the new dudes on the block.

Headed to lone pine after and was told nicely maybe a 30 minute wait. We were fine with that but he turns and says hey two tables opened up on the upper patio. So we scored seats immediately. The area was extremely busy. You do go in to order beers. And no matter the shape you are in just be cautious as you carry beers up to the new patio area. It’s Steeper than you think and everyone was shaking and spilling beers ha. It’s more funny than a concern. That was by far the most crowded. The view out to the water from up top was great. Good experience and a wide variety to try all styles.

Walked to Terlingua for dinner. Got to have a pour of the Bissell real ones. Excellent food as usual.

Walked to Austin for a quick one now around 7:15/30 or so. Crowded but got a seat right away. Only a quick small pour as we had to leave and meet our friends to end the evening at Novare Reis. Which was actually pretty chill and easy to get into. Excellent list as always and enjoyed our time.

On Sunday we went to Austin to just sit in the sun and have a pour. We were there at open and it was pretty dead the whole time. We finally decided hey there’s no line at rising and lots of dogs to see. So we had stopped at Coffee by design for a small cold brew. Not thinking it through my lady walked in with hers and they seated us. Before we even had someone come over and greet us for some food, a beer, a general hello. This manager woman comes over and blurts out to a woman, “yeah so just who so you know, we don’t let outside food in here. I’ll make an exception today” first, it’s a coffee and you’re a fucking subpar brewery so fuck off. How about a hi and smile first? We asked can we order a beer or do you know who our sever is. “I don’t know someone will come over”

Then the server comes over (picture that annoying f’ng small kid in office space Jennifer A hates) he walks up to me and sees my lady. A young looking, extremely in shape, long haired brunette with a wonderful smile and light blue top on. In no way resembles a man(just setting the scene here, not some lame bragging). “Heyyyy fellas, are we going to get some beeeerz now” Right then and there you lost her, completely. She now just got called a man in her second human interaction at RT. I ordered the can pour of ipa. Which was garbage that had to have sat for months. Opted for the west coast ipa and wait until he finally stopped talking to the girls over from us trying to order wine at a brewery. He grabs the other but he did try to charge us for the beer I very politely said when we were discussing beers I should’ve just taken the first option and this is just bad. Also, the table next to us had brought in food. And I totally get you have a policy and we do respect that. And we just hid the coffee and didn’t touch it after it was mentioned. She asked that party to leave. They were bullshit and left. When the food packaging wasn’t open and one of them could’ve just run it to a car. Either way we always knew we had a bad feeling about rising tide. But it was solidified by just two rough interactions from staff. To put in into perspective the dudes at Austin chatted up music, the beer, weekend crowds and general effort to be welcoming. Even coming out to say hello and how things were when they aren’t a place that serves you.

Lastly the bathroom. They are both now gender neutral. Both doors to the outside are wide open. But the one my lady went in had two stalls. She had a man taking a piss next to her while she was try to do the same. Had to walk out with a man to wash her hands. I also walked out of mine and bumped into a woman I had met before and we chatted a minute. My first experience chatting with a woman, in the woman’s room, after taking a piss. While it was odd to me my lady was more uncomfortable by it. She just didn’t like the fact a guy would be waiting outside of her stall for her to come out. That was kind of the last straw for us. Anyone who went to the bathroom seemed confused. If you could just lock the door to enter for each one since it seems they are only supposed to be one stall each then problem solved.

Overall the trip was great as usual. My #1 tip would be ditch the car. Walk, Uber, or just dd. Too many humans out to ever be behind the wheel. Outside of that just plan things that are your absolute hits for earlier in the day. Hope this helps a few folks!

 

I usually only go to Rising Tide to grab some sushi at Mr. Tuna. Then go back to Austin Street.

 

Thats actually a fantastic idea I’ve never considered

 

I wouldn't blame this one on Rising Tide. This is the way the bathrooms are at multiple places in Somerville/Cambridge/Boston.

For example, you're going to see the same thing if you go to Lovejoy Wharf.

And I'm not preaching or advocating for or against this, just an FYI that this will become more common.

 

Ha yeah, I just saunter over and get my food then head back to Austin Street. Although I believe I've heard the food is excellent at Austin Street too.

For what it's worth, I've been to Rising Tide maybe twice for beers, and don't recall anything terrible. Always seems like a fun vibe outside with bands playing. But I haven't been in a couple years.

 

Crap forgot the music part ha! It was just like general pop any bar would play. Which is fine but sort of like you know what you’re in for. It was already loud af. And given who I am and growing up in the hardcore scene loud music is not an issue for me. But this is loud. Then out of nowhere they jack it up even louder. Everyone kind of jumped a little ha. Eventually some server who came to us after the kid disappeared for a while asked if we were all good and I said yeah but some water would be nice. She had to ask again because it was so loud. Which we laughed about and we both agreed it was a bit much. She had it turned down which was actually kind of cool for her to go and ask to be done.

 

thanks for the reviews. I'm going to be up there in a couple weeks, sounds like (for me) the logistics aren't quite yet to the point of where I'd enjoy the taproom experience.

anyone have recs for bottle-shops that has good selection of cans I can't get in Mass? ideally close to 95, and/or west of Portland/saco area? Is City Tobacco & Bev in Sanford good?

 

you can stop at the city off 95 in seabrook(or is it Salisbury?) on the way up. Directly off the exit