Visiting Russian River & Portland

Start with this thread: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-portland-spring-2016-update.405287/ . There should be a summer edition posted soon too. If ya still have questions after reading that thread, fire away!

 

If you're going to be at Russian River, your best bet for scoring bottles is the brewpub and surrounding area vs. finding it in OR. Lots of other stuff in Portland, but the only Pliny that gets distributed north anymore is kegs (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). The Visiting Portland thread referenced above will take care of the rest.

 

We get bottles every once in a while, but I don't think he was implying he was going to get bottles here.
Just get them from the brewery, or better yet, skip it and get better beer to take back.

 

If your going to be stop at Russian River I would go early . Theres almost always a line to get in. Ive been a few times over the last few years and have only been able to just walk in 1 time.
Now for Portland, I would say you should stop at Great Notion brewing. Their new for portland, but they make some of the best beer in the area.

 

Pliny on tap at Russian River is beyond words. There is no comparison between that experience and Pliny in the bottle. However, if you do still want bottles, get them from the brewery and for me they really have to be bottled within 7 days.

Visit the Portland visiting thread as others recommended. I would skip any pre-guided tours and do you own itinerary. With Uber/Lyft you won't have to worry about driving. And forget that Rogue every even crossed your mind as an option.

 

My wife and I visited Russian River a couple of Mondays ago. We arrived about 5 pm and got a seat immediately --- it was a Monday, so take that into consideration. We stayed for a few hours (and tipped our server accordingly). Numerous tables around us were buying cases of Pliny and other good stuff. We didn't buy Pliny but we did walk away with a case of assorted sours.

 

I am from New York and have been to both places in last year. Portland is loaded with great breweries and places to drink, easy to get around too. Make sure you get some Boneyard Notorious and hit Cascade for sours. Apex has an awesome selection too. SF area is awesome, hit Cellarmaker in San Fran and the drive to RR is very nice. Load up on RR sours too while you are there.

 

If your gonna stop at Apex remember its cash only... really silly. I Would just walk across the street to beer mongers, less taps but probably more bottles and forsure better pricing.

 

Ignoring the fact that you can find dozens of better IPAs in and around Portland, your best bet for Pliny bottles would be at Russian River itself. Its usually on tap fairly often around PDX. Apex, Higgins, County Cork seem to get it regularly.

As for the brew tour. I would just hit the visiting PDX thread and make your own tour using UBER, TRI-MET, BIKING, or WALKING. you could make your own epic tasting tour within a small 1/4 Mile square area in inner-SE. Growler Guys, Commons, Cascade, Green Dragon, Hair of the Dog, Apex, Beermongers, Imperial. If you somehow hit all of those, you would probably be barely able to walk

 

What breweries do the paid tours take people to? I've always figured they take you to the bigger name breweries, and you'd miss out on the really good places that way.

 

Iso: dozens of ipas > pliny

 

Block 15 - Sticky Hands
Fort George/Barley Browns/Melvins - 3 way
Barley Browns - ratchet strap
Barley Browns - hand truck
Barley Browns - pallet jack
Breakside - IPA
Breakside - wanderlust
Great notion - they're all great
Fort George - Vortex
Boneyard - RPM
Boneyard - hop a wheelie
Boneyard - hop venom
Three Magnets - little juice smoothie

 

I'd add in fresh IPA 97 from Silver Moon, too.

 

Il

I'll add silver moon tropic zombie and Maui wowie
RR BLIND PIG
hop venom (growler guys SE has it quite often)
Great notiOn Juice box
Three Magnets SUN IPA

All depends on taste. Pliny is great, but go out and taste the rainbow!

 

Give the guy a break. If he's never had Pliny, of course it's worth getting just to see for himself. ✌️

 

There are many very delicious IPAs and DIPAs in our neck of the woods and, for that reason, I've not seriously mourned the loss of RR and Pliny up here in Washington. But having quite recently visited RR down in Santa Rosa, I must admit that I do miss this fine nectar.

 

its still on tap all the time up here. just no bottles

 

Here are a few options (with links): Brewvana, BrewCycle, Pedalounge. I'm sure there are others, and it sounds like all of them can fine tune the tours to what people want. Any tour that stops at Tugboat should probably be skipped.