Base Camp love.

Really? You and I must have very different tastes. I can appreciate a good lager (I'm a total fanboy for Heater Allen), but everything I've had from base camp tastes like amateur homebrew to me.

 

I'm a bad person, because I'm a lager fanboy,and yet, I have not had any of their stuff. Will try soon so I can complain about how I'm not impressed. Or something.

 

Their packaging is the best part of their product unfortunately.

 

Very cool atmosphere and packaging but their beer is in the bottom tier in PDX for me.

 

If you are looking for traditional German lagers Heater Allen is one of the best.

 

I just had Base Camp Rye Pils today for lunch. I was planning to have just a glass and finish the bomber in the evening. I drank the whole thing immediately (and had a very unproductive afternoon as a result). I really liked this beer a lot. I've never been this impressed with any German lager, so maybe I'm just not a traditional lager fan. I am a huge malt fan, and I have a hunch that I enjoy quite a few beers that are dissed as "like home brew" perhaps because I do like a good malty beer that may resemble home brew. I certainly hope enough people like it to keep it on the shelves! The aluminum bottle is pretty cool too, but it originally made me fear for the worse for the contents as being to gimmicky. As of now, nice can/bottle, great beer. I'm going to grab the IPL on my next beer run.

 

I have had the two beers in question and found both very nice.
I don't think they are going for the trad German lagers that Heater-Allen are, more a Oregon twist on lagers.

 

For the most part, I've found their beers to be totally acceptable and inoffensive. Nothing crazy and experimental going on there, but the beer hits the spot for those days I just want a beer and don't want to think about it too much. Cross Channel Mild is a perfect example. A beer like that with great balance where you can adtually taste the malt and only 3.3% ABV is unfortunately a highly unusual beer in Portland. I'm just glad Basecamp did it right.

 

Dig their lagers, dig their packaging. Glad to see them get distro up in WA now.

 

My thoughts, which are worth, well...

Base camp has a beautiful design, love the idea and enjoy going there from time to time. I am not blown away by any of their beers, but I have also not been turned off.
In my opinion, this is another case of the "portland problem." In myriad other cities this place would be praised, but in pdx there so many other great choices, even within a mile, that base camp is derided for being unimaginative and lack luster.

Cheers

 

I would agree with the previous post. Living in or around PDX has turned us into a bunch of spoiled rotten beer snobs!! I was in Bend last week and was very underwhelmed by the beer scene there but when you compare everything to PDX you will be disappointed more often than not. I've taken tons of beercations and San Diego and maybe Munich are the only ones that compare for me. Base camp doesn't make horrible beer but when you compare to places like breakside, gigantic, hair of the dog, cascade and many others their beer just isn't that exciting. That being said I still go there from time to time and will continue to...they do have a pretty cool atmosphere going on

 

I'm not a Base Camp fan, but I really do enjoy the menu of the Middle Eastern food cart parked out front. The chicken shawarma is awesome; worth going to the brewery just to eat.

 

Underwhelmed by the beer scene in Bend?! You really must be a hardcore beer snob.

 

You lost me at underwhelmed by Bend beer scene.

 

10 barrel was great. Boneyard has awesome beer but had just 3 beers on tap when i was there. I can get hop venom/RPM and shotgun a lot of places without driving 3 hrs to Bend. Totally not impressed by crux, BBC, worthy, silver moon or cascade lakes. So yeah 2 out of the 6 places I went had awesome beer. Didn't do deschutes cause we have 1 in PDX.

 

Can you describe what that "Oregon twist" on lagers are, that make it different from traditional German lagers?

 

In two words: MOAR HOPS!!1!!

 

For what it's worth, solid lagers in flashy packaging aren't going to be popular in any US markets. Not a Portland problem - just the way it is in the US these days.