Portland Breweries

Technically, I believe this belongs in the Northwest section. Also, there should be numerous discussions from similar posts people have made. However, there's also BeerAdvocates Portland guide http://www.beeradvocate.com/place/city/16/ which is ranked for your convenience. One might also ask, what are your favorite styles, since there are some really polarizing representations (sours, Belgians, etc).

That being said, I just came back from Portland a few hours ago. I found Breakside to be a waste of time. Cascade is great, if you like sours. Hair of the Dog had great food. If you head east (like to Hood River after going to Multnomah Falls), Pfriem is fairly enjoyable and Double Mountain is also close by. Hope this helps.

 

There are great visiting threads in the Northwest forums.

That said, you definitely want to skip Mcmenamins. I'd recommend you think "regionally". The density of breweries in Portland is so great, you can hit 3 or 4 in easy walking in a given area. Take the Pearl where you have Deschutes. You can go from Deschutes, to Rogue, to Fat Heads (and they have a great tap list beyond Fat Heads beers) with 2 minutes of walking.

So, must visits:

Upright. It's a tiny spot but it's very Portland. And they belong in the saison conversation with HF and SARA. Easy to cruist from HotD to them.
Commons. You want table beer? This is the spot. So drinkable, so delicious. While there you should hit Baerlic (cool newish brewery), beer mongers (excellent beer shop with some good taps), Apex (right across the street from beer mongers and with a crazy tap list), and maybe Imperial (a bottle shop down division a bit, but great).
Breakside. Maybe the most experimental, all across the board brewery in Portland.
Stormbreaker. One of the best new breweries to open this year in PDX. From there you can walk to Ecliptic and, if you dig cider, Reverend Nats.
Cascade barrel house. From Cascade you can hit Growler Guys PDX (always a crazy good tap list and super friendly - you can bring in food, etc - they'll usually have some Barley Browns on and you should drink it), and maybe Green Dragon. Given a choice, I'd choose Growler Guys over green dragon though.

Not a brewery, but you'd be stupid if you didn't go to Belmont Station. And, if you like lagers, you should grab something (anything?) from heater allen. The best unsung Portland area brewery.

 

Breakside in Portland (Dekum) or in Milwaukee? Milwaukee has WAY more taps. It's a bit out of the way but it's worth it. I think Dekum has 8 taps and usually 3 are something "interesting". Milwaukee has 20+. Right now Milwaukee has: a belgian blonde aged on gewurtztraminer grapes (sp?), a 100% brett blonde, a dry hopped brett rye, a gin barrel aged saison, a cedar aged quad with pinot, an aquavit aged ipa, a smoked helles, a mexican coffee style stout, and a lot more.

 

@jellikit when are you planning to visit Rose City?