Visiting Portland (Fall/Winter 2014 update)

Discussion in 'Northwest' started by guajolote, Jul 17, 2014.

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  1. guajolote

    guajolote Maven (1,359) Sep 12, 2008 Oregon

    Surely many of us agree that this forum could use an easily searchable/bump-able "I'm visiting Portland, where should I go?" thread. Here, I'll attempt to cull the consensus "must-hits," along with other highly recommended PDX breweries, brew pubs, bottle shops & beer bars that appear in this type of BA thread. Recommendations & suggestions are encouraged.

    (Almost) Universally Recommended "Must-Hit" Breweries & Brew Pubs
    Cascade Brewing Barrel House
    The Commons Brewery
    Deschutes Portland Pub
    Hair of the Dog
    Upright Brewing

    Other Highly Recommended Breweries & Brew Pubs
    Breakside Brewery
    Gigantic Brewing
    Hopworks Urban Brewery / Hopworks Bike Bar
    Laurelwood Brewing (multiple locations)
    Lompoc Brewing (multiple locations)

    Highly Recommended Beer Bars / Bottle Shops
    APEX (Taproom, Bottles-to-go)
    Bailey's Taproom/Upper Lip (Taproom, 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 Green Dragon (Taproom, Food)
    The Hop & Vine (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills, Food)
    Horse Brass Pub (Taproom, Food)
    Imperial Bottle Shop (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills)
    John's Marketplace (Bottle Shop)
    Oregon 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)
    White Owl Social Club (Taproom, Food)
    Growler Guys PDX (Taproom and Growler Fills)
    ---------------------------------------------------
    (A Few) Beer-centric Restaurants
    Just about any decent restaurant in PDX has an acceptable beer list. Many are more-than-acceptable. This might be the most debatable section of this thread.

    Bazi Bierbrasserie
    Cheese Bar
    Cheese and Crack Snack Shop
    Grain & Gristle
    Higgins Restaurant
    Lardo
    Raven & Rose / The Rookery

    Eater PDX (a great food resource)
    ---------------------------------------------
    Portland BeerFly listing: http://beeradvocate.com/beerfly/city/16
    Willamette Week's 2014 Beer Guide: http://www.wweek.com/portland/beerguide

    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 few potential Pub Crawl maps
    Cascade > HotD > Bailey's > Deschutes > Upright > HUB/Side Bar
    Inner SE Pub/Brewery Crawl (APEX -> Beermongers -> The Commons -> HotD -> Cascade -> Base Camp -> Burnside)
    Sunnyside Pub Crawl (Horse Brass -> Belmont Station -> Hawthorne Hop House -> Bazi Bierbrasserie)
    North Portland Pub Crawl (Amnesia -> Bridgetown Beerhouse -> Prost! -> HUB BikeBar -> Lompoc Sidebar/5Q)

    Transit
    PDX Bus (free and awesome app)
    Trimet

    PDX Airport Info
    The beer flows at PDX as well. There are two Laurelwood brewpubs (concourses A & E), a Rogue brewpub (concourse D), and several other restaurants with good tap lists. Rogue and Laurelwood are both past security, so you can pick up bottles or growlers and carry them on the plane. There are also Made in Oregon stores past security with very good bottle selections.

    *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 often cited in the Northwest BA forum. Exploration and experimentation are certainly encouraged!
     
    #1 guajolote, Jul 17, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 6, 2014
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  2. guajolote

    guajolote Maven (1,359) Sep 12, 2008 Oregon

    It was time for some housekeeping. I figured since we're already a month into summer, I'd just do a summer/fall catch-all update.

    Updates in version 6:
    * fixed broken links for Bridgetown Beerhouse & Roscoe's. Lompoc's site appears to be down currently, hopefully that'll be resolved.
    * checked all links for accuracy & to ensure they're working
    * changed the layout to flow a little better
    * removed the list of links to other "Visiting PDX" threads as they were all over a year old.

    Original thread
    Update v.1 (winter 2013)
    Update v.2 (spring 2013)
    Update v.3 (summer 2013)
    Update v.4 (fall/winter 2013-14)
    Update v.5 (spring 2014)
     
    #2 guajolote, Jul 17, 2014
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  3. TheeWalrusHunter

    TheeWalrusHunter Initiate (0) Aug 23, 2013 Oregon

    I didn't notice the willamete week 2014 beer guide. That's a nice add.

    Also , I'm not sure if the list of breweries, and bars has been subjected to current debate or reflects new openings or those who have elevated their game. I know I know - there will always be debate and this isn't a catch all list but It seems like there were some notable openings in the past year. Anybody down to add (or remove) some establishments? Just curious to hear some discussion.
     
    #3 TheeWalrusHunter, Jul 17, 2014
  4. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,849) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I check the on-line tap list for the PDX Growler Guys fairly often, and am amazed by the things I often see on their taplist. Some of the more interesting things I saw on it the other day included vitus (which I've yet to see anywhere in Eugene so far), sculpin, Islander IPA, 3 way IPA, RuinTen, Ginormous, Half Hitch, Double Jack, La Folie, Hand Truck, 1809 Berliner Weiss and Celebrator doppelbock.... and those are just the beers I find personally interesting. Other than Tin Bucket, I don't see any other, what I would call dedicated Growler Stations on the list, so maybe they could be added as well?

    Doesn't hurt that Brendan (TaborTime) is an all around good guy who is passionate about craft beer and contributes to this forum fairly frequently.
     
    #4 John_M, Jul 17, 2014
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  5. jomobono

    jomobono Savant (1,148) Mar 12, 2012 Massachusetts

    I went to the Growler Guys this week and they were super nice, great place for out-of-towners to go to as it is a one stop shop if you have limited time, plus you can get flights and full pours and they love giving advice on where to go and just talking about beer for hours on end! Definitely should be added, thanks @TaborTime!

    And thanks @guajolote for making this, it helped me A LOT on my trip this week. Please come by The Commons this Friday if you can, as I said in my post I'll be pouring some Tree House and Hill Farmstead in appreciation for everyone's hospitality.
     
    #5 jomobono, Jul 17, 2014
  6. guajolote

    guajolote Maven (1,359) Sep 12, 2008 Oregon

    Ah! I knew I forgot something in the "updates" post! Thanks for pointing that out, @TheeWalrusHunter!

    I'm all for adding the Growler Guys location @John_M. Can you make that change? I no longer have editing capability.

    @jomobono Glad to hear it! Unfortunately, won't be in PDX til Saturday. Thanks for the offer though.
     
    #6 guajolote, Jul 18, 2014
  7. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,849) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    My IT skills are pretty weak. I added it, but I didn't know how to make the GG name the prompt for their website. If someone can tell me how to do that, I'll tidy up the listing. Sorry.
     
    #7 John_M, Jul 18, 2014
  8. RedMedicine

    RedMedicine Initiate (0) Jun 3, 2005 Oregon

    If you type "Growler Guys" then highlight it and click the little link button on the formatting bar above (looks like a chain link) it will give you the option to enter the web address.

    And I agree, their taplist is consistently impressive.
     
    #8 RedMedicine, Jul 18, 2014
  9. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,849) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Thanks. Gaujolote sent me an instruction list as well. I'll check momentarily to see how well I can follow instructions. :slight_smile:

    All taken care of. Thanks guys!
     
    #9 John_M, Jul 18, 2014
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2014
  10. crusian

    crusian Pooh-Bah (1,989) May 14, 2010 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    Kid friendly or not would be a nice addition he said knowing full well he'll get roasted for it.
     
    #10 crusian, Jul 20, 2014
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  11. Reidrover

    Reidrover Grand Pooh-Bah (4,886) Jan 14, 2003 Oregon
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I know this might not go over well, but at least one McMenamins establishment ( non strip mall locations) should be added.
    The beer is ordinary but they are a large piece of Oregon beer culture.
     
    #11 Reidrover, Jul 20, 2014
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  12. vurt

    vurt Grand Pooh-Bah (4,504) Apr 11, 2004 Oregon
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    "The beer is ordinary but they are a large part of Oregon beer culture"...and they're family-friendly, offer good food, are comfortable, are visually interesting, and a walk on the grounds of the Grand Lodge/Cornelius Pass Roadhouse/Edgefield is quite nice.
     
    #12 vurt, Jul 20, 2014
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  13. John_M

    John_M Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,849) Oct 25, 2003 Washington
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Completely agree about McM. While not memorable or particularly exciting, the beer is still quite tolerable (IMHO), and for the very reasons mentioned by Reidrover and Vurt, I think Kennedy School and Edgefield are "must visit" spots for anyone coming to PDX for the first time (or who has never been to either location before).
     
    #13 John_M, Jul 21, 2014
  14. TaborTime

    TaborTime Pundit (928) Dec 10, 2013 Oregon
    Trader

    @jomobono & @John_M -once again, appreciate your mentions and kind words.

    I completely agree with Edgefield as a 'must visit' spot. It's been a highlight for every single out-of-towner I've taken there. As noted, their beer isn't the highlight, but it's passable for a nice summer day strolling the grounds.
     
    #14 TaborTime, Jul 22, 2014
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  15. dphi

    dphi Zealot (534) Apr 14, 2013 Oregon

    I think for a lot of people coming from other cities, McMenamins beers would be pretty well received - we're just spoiled here. Having said that, I've enjoyed a lot of the one-off beers I've had at the various locations.
     
    #15 dphi, Jul 22, 2014
  16. JohnCassillo

    JohnCassillo Initiate (0) Mar 29, 2013 California

    Thanks for putting this together, guys! Looks like I'll be in Portland in a couple weeks for work -- so will be putting this to good use.
     
    #16 JohnCassillo, Jul 23, 2014
  17. JohnCassillo

    JohnCassillo Initiate (0) Mar 29, 2013 California

    Quick question -- ends up I'm definitely going to be up there starting this Sunday. Would you recommend the Downtown Whole Foods for local bottle selection? Planned on hitting up several spots listed out, but saw that Whole Foods was nearby and figured I'd ask about that as well. Thanks in advance!
     
    #17 JohnCassillo, Jul 30, 2014
  18. derftron

    derftron Pooh-Bah (1,663) Feb 8, 2012 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah


    they have a decent selection for sure. if you are looking for the mother load, I suggest Johns Market or Belmont Station
     
    #18 derftron, Jul 30, 2014
  19. JohnCassillo

    JohnCassillo Initiate (0) Mar 29, 2013 California

    Thanks! Yeah, was planning to head to Belmont Station for sure. Just figured if work pulled me into something and couldn't get over there, wanted to make sure I had a back-up ready.
     
    #19 JohnCassillo, Jul 31, 2014
  20. OregonHopmonster

    OregonHopmonster Initiate (0) Jan 15, 2011 Oregon

    Totally agree. I took my sister-in-law and her husband out there and we played some par-3. You cannot argue with a really short golf course with something like 6 bars along the course, plus concession carts driving around selling 22's of IPA!
     
    #20 OregonHopmonster, Jul 31, 2014
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