Visiting Portland (2022)

I totally agree. Beer writers and other industry people love and rave about VE much more than us. Good for VE, but I've never understood it. Maybe it's due to that they replaced an out of state brewery that many of them didn't like. Personally, I think the beer at Fat Head's was much better than what VE is putting out.

 

Are there any under the radar breweries in the Portland area that specialize in mixed fermentation beer?

I live out in California but usually visit Portland once or twice a year and I'm always looking to bring back a bottle of something interesting to share. I've brought back a couple bottles from Upright which are always well received.

 

Need to shoehorn Trap Door in somehow. Before moving here my in-laws took me there and now it's in the rotation.

 

Von Ebert and Little Beast both have mixed fermentation programs. Breakside and Ruse do too, but they have less output (in quantify) than the other two. You might also find some de Garde at the bottleshops around town, but they're spontaneous fermentation. For my money, Upright, are the kings of mixed fermentation beers.

 

Upright is really at the top of their game.

Wolves & People are making some wonderful mixed fermentation ales as well. Their offerings can be found at the John's and Belmont Station, the latter always has some wonderfully weird wild ales on tap.

 

A couple maps I made that I used in December 2019 (I think a handful have closed so I recommend doing your due diligence)


https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Way...0d32664b2!2m2!1d-122.6554651!2d45.5050147!3e2



https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Hop...3a2f625234a69!2m2!1d-122.70904!2d45.53959!3e2


https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Des...287bb5867!2m2!1d-122.6482385!2d45.4877096!3e2

 

I agree with Shelby that Cheap Charlie’s is going to be the go-to option for you out that way. But you’re in luck: it’s actually one of the best bottle shops in the Portland metro. Enjoy!

 

Some due diligence for the first map: Base Camp Brewing is closed, but Ecliptic's new place, The Moon Room, opened in that spot. Beerwise, that's definitely an upgrade.

Also, that map puts you right around the corner from P-Nut, the new Chuckanut taproom near Baerlic and The Beermongers. No atmosphere, but some of the best lagers in the country.

 

totally agree on Upright, love pretty much everything they do. Will need to check out what Von Ebert and Little Beast are doing. To an earlier poster's point. I routinely see Von Ebert and Little beast mentioned as some the best breweries in Portland but have never found the time to make it out to either of their taprooms.

Little beast gets some distro in California. Picked up a 4 pack of their cans once, which was decent but definitely not fresh. Unfortunately they didn't have canning date labeled.

also will be on the lookout for Wolves and People. A short side trip out to Newberg and then McMinnville for Heater Allen next time I'm in town sounds like a good time.

 

FYI, Heater Allen's taproom is still closed because, eh, well, you know...

 

If you make it to McMinnville, you might add the ForeLand tasting room to your itinerary. I haven't visited the place, so I can't talk about the location, but they do make very good beer (primarily IPAs and lagers, but they've started adding saisons to their portfolio).

 

My love and admiration of Cnut is well documented, but, 'good atmosphere' hasn't been their strong suit. It's almost like they focus on beer quality or something.

 

And I revere them for that. Indeed, I support them the best way I know how: By buying their beers and frequently recommending them to other people. I also DO NOT consider P-Nut's lack of atmosphere as a strike against it. Go there with a friend and that's all the atmosphere you need.

That said, I'm gonna point out that "outstanding beer" and "good atmosphere" aren't mutually exclusive, and they don't need to be.

 

Even when they first opened here, and I know that many of you will know that "sparse" might be applied to their aesthetic, which isn't a bad thing. But, they had a penchant for hanging local art that was, well......

 

Hey gang, to give an update, I ultimately found a place in Gresham, although I'm right next to a TriMet MAX station and plan on zipping to downtown on the weekends to finally visit some of my favorites from my tenure of being a beer buyer in Los Angeles (Wayfinder for sure, Hair of the Dog, Little Beast for the brett goodies, and of course Great Notion for the gimmick beers). Do any of y'all ever meet up, or would a bar or venue in town accommodate a mini-share? Would love to crack some of these So Cal exclusives that made the move in exchange for some goddamn pilsner!

A little in the weeds, here, but a California distributor, Lime Ventures, picked up a large chunk of the Shelton Bros portfolio when they folded. They are now importing Drei Fonteinen, Cantillon, Ridgeway under the TTB label of Lime Ventures Imports... has anyone seen any of these in town? My contact at Lime Ventures said I should be able to find stuff, but I haven't done much searching.

 

I checked out Cheap Charlies, thanks! Lots of fresh pFreim made it easy to stuff a box of goodies! Only pitfall was there were quite a number of IPAs that were 90 days out from the canning date, but that may be how they rotate stock into the fridge. Conversely, I saw cans of Volatile Substance canned 01/05, but it was on the warm rack. Pass. I popped in Tuesday to buy a Hop Pass and saw a distributor drop off a stack of RPM IPA cans at the front of the store, only to find the stack still there on Friday evening when I popped in for bubbles.

Hate to be a stickler, but I'm willing to travel to any place that is aggressive about rotating stock and insisting distributors drop shipments into the cold box. Does anyone have a suggestion for a place that keeps all their pale beers only chilled and generally doesn't exceed 60 days from canning for their IPAs?