Hey guys I'm looking for some help here. My girlfriend just moved out to Eugene, OR for grad school and is looking for some beer to pick up and ship back to me. Is there anything special in her immediate area that may be on the shelves or will she have to travel a bit to get lots of the great Oregon beer. I know there are tons of great breweries and beer in the state but it is also much larger than where I live in CT so traveling is much further. Some places I am interested in trying to get shipped back that I know of are Hair of the Dog, Deschutes, and Upright. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tim
It depends on what you like. "Good and special" are opinions if you ask me. Depends on what kind of beer you like. If you don't know what you like it's hard for someone here to tell you what you want. Maybe pick a style of beer you like or a brewery you like and look at the top 250.
It's not going to tell you exact what she might find in Eugene, but for a general sense of what's available currently in Oregon, http://www.belmont-station.com/index.php?id=bottles is a good place to start.
If selection is your number one criteria, go to the Bier Stein. The selection here isn't quite as excellent as what you'll find at Belmont Station or John's marketplace up in Portland, but it's the best by far in terms of what you'll find in Eugene. As for your other questions, that's a hard one for me to answer. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything particularly remarkable recently released from Eugene breweries, but that's just my opinion. Anyway, depending on what you're particularly interested in, there are a fair number of fresh hop beer and Oktoberfest beers available right now. Bier Stein has some RR stuff available, if you're trying to find something fairly rare otherwise, and 16 tons tap house has a great sale of BB XXVI right now ($15 a bottle). Both places were just recently supplied with Midnight Sun stuff, so you'll find things like Bar Fly and Berserker on the shelf right now. We're also fairly well supplied with Cascade and upright stuff as well, if that might interest you. HOTD is limited to the obvious stuff; blue dot, fred, adam and doggie claws. If your GF can bring back a growler of something, there is a fair amount of Boneyard and Barley Brown around riight now as well. Both places brew outstanding IPA's and DIPA's. There's a lot of stuff available down here, and something I might recommend, that I've recommend previously, is that your GF walk though some place like the Bier Stein, read to you what's avaiable at the Bier Stein, and shop for beer like that. There's a lot of great stuff available down here, so it's kind of hard to make a lot recommendation, without a bit more information as to what you're hoping to find.
Thank you guys for the advice! I am sure she'll really enjoy the beer out there and trying the places you suggested. I really appreciate the tips and help.
