Visiting Portland - Fall/Winter 2016-17 update

Discussion in 'Northwest' started by guajolote, Oct 15, 2016.

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  1. guajolote

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

    A while back, it became clear that this forum could use an "I'm visiting Portland, where should I go?" thread. In this thread, I'll attempt to cull the "must-hit" spots generally agreed upon by Portland BAs. Of course, recommendations & suggestions are encouraged.

    (Almost) Universally Recommended "Must-Visit" Breweries & Brew Pubs
    Breakside Brewery (multiple locations)
    Cascade Brewing Barrel House
    The Commons Brewery
    Deschutes Portland Pub
    Great Notion Brewing
    Hair of the Dog Brewing
    Upright Brewing (cash/check only)

    Other Highly Recommended Breweries & Brew Pubs
    Baerlic Brewing
    Culmination Brewing
    Ex Novo Brewing
    Fat Head's Brewery
    Gigantic Brewing
    Hopworks Urban Brewery (multiple locations)
    Laurelwood Brewing (multiple locations)
    Lompoc Brewing (multiple locations)
    Occidental Brewing

    The Newcomers (breweries opened in the past year-ish)
    Double Mountain Woodstock Taproom (August 2016)
    Grixsen Brewing (May 2016)
    Mt. Tabor Brewing (September 2016)
    Ruse Brewing (Located within Culmination Brewing) (Winter 2016)
    Scout Beer Brewery & Taproom (September 2016)
    Wayfinder Beer (October 2016)

    Highly Recommended Beer Bars / Bottle Shops
    APEX (Taproom, Bottles-to-go; Cash Only w/onsite ATM)
    Bailey's Taproom/The Upper Lip (Taproom, Crowler Fills, 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 Growler Guys PDX (Taproom, Crowler Fills, Growler Fills, Bottles-to-go)
    Horse Brass Pub (Taproom, Food)
    Imperial Bottle Shop (Taproom, Bottle Shop, Growler Fills, Bottle Fills)
    John's Marketplace (Bottle Shop)
    Loyal Legion (Taproom, Growler Fills, Food)
    N.W.I.P.A. (Taproom, Bottle Shop)
    Oregon Hophouse: Hawthorne | 15th Avenue (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)
    ---------------------------------------------------
    (A Few) Beer-centric Restaurants*
    Bazi Bierbrasserie
    Cheese Bar
    Grain & Gristle
    Higgins Restaurant
    Lardo
    Raven & Rose / The Rookery
    White Owl Social Club

    * Just about any decent restaurant in PDX has a good/very good beer list. This might be the most debatable section of this thread. Eater PDX is a great food resource.
    ----------------------------------------------------
    Other Resources (places, events, releases, news/information, etc.)
    Portland BeerFly listing
    Willamette Week's 2016 Beer Guide
    Brewpublic
    The Brew Site
    New School Beer
    Oregon Beer Growler
    Portland Craft Beer Events Calendar

    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 couple of potential(ly dangerous) pub crawls
    The "Walk it Off" Pub Crawl (HotD > Bailey's > Deschutes > Upright > Burnside > Cascade)
    Inner SE Pub/Brewery Crawl (APEX > Beermongers > Baerlic > HotD > Commons > Cascade > Base Camp > Burnside)
    North Portland Pub Crawl (StormBreaker > Bridgetown Beerhouse > BikeBar > Sidebar > Tin Bucket > Ecliptic)

    Want to know if XYZ bar/brewery allows kids?
    "PDX with kids" BA thread
    Bars that Allow Children in Portland
    Best Kid-Friendly Portland Brewpubs
    Kid-Friendly Portland Breweries

    Need shippers for all the beer you bought?
    Portland Wine Storage
    Rose City Wine Vaults & Storage

    Transit
    Biketown
    PDX Bus (free and awesome app)
    Trimet
    And yes, Uber and Lyft are currently operating in Portland.

    Portland Airport
    PDX is a great bar that just happens to be an airport. If you have time to kill, there are two Laurelwood brewpubs (concourses A & E), a Rogue brewpub (concourse D), a Henry's Tavern outpost, and several other restaurants with good tap lists. Laurelwood, Rogue, Henry's, and Country Cat are all past security and all fill growlers, so you can get a fill and carry it on. There are also Made in Oregon stores past security with 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 cited in the Northwest BA forum. Exploration and experimentation are certainly encouraged!
     
    #1 guajolote, Oct 15, 2016
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  2. BBThunderbolt

    BBThunderbolt Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,846) Sep 24, 2007 Kiribati
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Again, thanks for putting this together. Thanks, and Cheers!
     
    #2 BBThunderbolt, Oct 15, 2016
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  3. guajolote

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

    Once again, late with the update.

    New & changes for Update #14:
    * Moved Great Notion from the Newcomers list to the "Must Visit" list.
    * Added Biketown to the Transit section.
    * Checked all links & updated if necessary.

    * Added the following to the Newcomers list:
    Double Mountain Taproom
    Mt. Tabor Brewing
    Scout Beer
    Wayfinder Beer

    * Removed the following from the Newcomers list:
    BackPedal Brewing (July 2015)
    The Labrewatory (October 2015)
    Leikam Brewing (August 2015)
    Montavilla Brew Works (July 2015)
    Zoiglhaus Brewing (September 2015)

    Past versions:
    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)
    Update v.6 (fall/winter 2014)
    Update v.7 (winter 2015)
    Update v.8 (spring 2015)
    Update v.9 (summer 2015)
    Update v.10 (fall 2015)
    Update v.11 (winter 2016)
    Update v.12 (spring 2016)
    Update v.13 (summer 2016)
     
    #3 guajolote, Oct 15, 2016
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  4. sharpski

    sharpski Grand Pooh-Bah (3,100) Oct 11, 2010 Oregon
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Nonsense, we're at the very beginning of Fall/Winter!
     
    #4 sharpski, Oct 16, 2016
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  5. Reidrover

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

    I know I am a lover of the less loved...but what about Ecliptic, Base Camp and Burnside?
     
    #5 Reidrover, Oct 16, 2016
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  6. Reidrover

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

    and wouldn't it be great if Block 15 opened a place in Portland!
     
    #6 Reidrover, Oct 16, 2016
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  7. guajolote

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

    There's a reason I include that disclaimer at the bottom of the OP. Obviously not everyone will agree with what goes on this list, and opinions and suggestions about places not listed are certainly encouraged. But honestly, I rarely hear praise for any of the breweries you listed. And personally, none of them do much for me as far as the quality of the beer, and it's not for a lack of trying. If I was in the minority, and there was a lot of clamoring for those places to be added, then I'd do it. I also try to be mindful of the amount of places listed. If I added everything, this thread could just be a link to the Portland Beerfly listing.

    The spirit of this thread is to help visitors, not locals, make decisions about the best places to go in their (usually) limited amount of time in Portland. And frankly, I'd never recommend any of those places to visitors over the places on the list.

    Edit: I just remembered that all of the places you listed are included in the pub crawl maps I suggest later in the post, so they're not completely shut out. :wink:
     
    #7 guajolote, Oct 16, 2016
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  8. John_M

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

    Very well said.

    I have some personal favorites as well that aren't on this list, and really don't need to be or deserve to be, exactly for the reasons you articulate. In fact, though I think the current post is an outstanding resource, it already feels a bit unwieldy and difficult to use, as I feel like there's almost an overwhelming amount of information for an out I town visitor to sift through.
     
    #8 John_M, Oct 16, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2016
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  9. guajolote

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

    I can't disagree with that. What's amazing to me is that this list is only a fraction of the places a beer lover could go in Portland & be happy.
     
    #9 guajolote, Oct 16, 2016
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  10. distantmantra

    distantmantra Pooh-Bah (2,954) May 23, 2011 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Great OT! I love the inclusion of places that are kid friendly/not kid friendly.
     
    #10 distantmantra, Oct 16, 2016
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  11. vurt

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

    A beer-fan friend of mine visited Portland recently for a few days, and we went to a good number of places. Another friend commented, "Congratulations on seeing 1% of the Portland beer scene."

    I might argue that he really saw 2% or 4%, but it's hard to argue we did more than scratch the surface.
     
    #11 vurt, Oct 17, 2016
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  12. Askchucky

    Askchucky Zealot (528) May 2, 2011 Illinois
    Trader

    This is a great resource! I am heading out there the first weekend of November. Any non-beer (aka wine and cocktail) recommendations to keep the spouses happy? Will have a car.
     
    #12 Askchucky, Oct 17, 2016
  13. John_M

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

    As always, I'm required to remind everyone that this is beer advocate, not wine or spirit advocate. That being said, if you have a car, then your question becomes a matter of time and volition. The Willamette valley is roughly an hour from downtown pdx, and is replete with numerous world class wineries. You'll probably want to commit the better part of a day if you want to visit the wine country, especially if you decide to visit places like Heater Allen, Wolves & People and Golden Valley Brewing while you're out there. Check times and hours online before heading out, as many places have reduced hours of operation this time of year.

    If you want to just stay in town, there are any number of wine bars and even a few winery tasting rooms. My favorite place happens to be right down the street from Bailey's taproom, and is called Oregon Wines on Broadway. The emphasis is on pinot noir at OWOB, but they also have a limited selection of whites, reds from the Columbia Valley and Walla Walla, and even a small selection of craft beer and imports. In terms of wine, they do flights, and also sell wine by the glass, bottle and sample size (roughly a 2 ounce pour).

    I'm not a big cocktail guy, so will lets others in this forum help you with that. Have fun.
     
    #13 John_M, Oct 17, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2016
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  14. guajolote

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

    All the places in the Restaurant section of the OP (except Cheese Bar) have good cocktail lists. I also think most or all of them have wine, but I'm not sure about selection as I never check. Also from the list above, Great Notion, Loyal Legion, Hawthorne Hophouse, and Roscoe's offer wine & cocktails.
     
    #14 guajolote, Oct 17, 2016
  15. FonyBones

    FonyBones Devotee (380) Dec 19, 2015 New York

    Just wanted to say thanks to @guajolote for putting together this thread and for everyone who has made contributions to it (and previous versions).

    I visited Portland two weeks ago for a couple days to kick off a west coast road trip. It was my first visit and this thread was very helpful. It wasn't strictly a beercation so I only scratched the surface of what Portland has to offer but the sheer number of local/regional offerings offered at every tap room/bar/restaurant I went to was astounding.

    It was particularly awesome sampling all the fresh hop beers on tap. Not something we get a lot of out east. The fresh hopped beers I tried at Cascade really stood out but I had more good beers than I can remember.

    Good people, good times!
     
    #15 FonyBones, Oct 17, 2016
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  16. Aestro

    Aestro Devotee (360) Nov 29, 2009 Oregon

    I love Hale Pele. It's a Tiki Bar that is kitschy but not trashy, and the owner put a lot of work into developing a menu with a lot of classic tiki cocktails. Really awesome, and opened me up on rum a lot.

    Rum Club did the same - lots of good Rum and other cocktails. Enzo is a nice wine bar. Clyde Common is a nationally recognized cocktail bar that usually has a few good beers on tap. Expatriate is expensive but has incredible cocktails and good food. Kachka's infused vodkas are fantastic, and it has an interesting and mostly good menu.
     
    #16 Aestro, Oct 19, 2016
  17. guajolote

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

    Damn! There's way too much stuff going on in PDX this weekend!

    Friday:
    * Brewpublic's 8th Brewniversary at Saraveza
    * Baerlic Wood Worker series Harshmellow Mtn. bottle release

    Saturday:
    * Killer Beer Fest at Bailey's Taproom
    * Other Half tap takeover at Saraveza
    * Mango Juice Jr. crowler release at Great Notion
    * Ecliptic Brewing 3rd anniversary party/Third Orbit Imperial Porter bottle release
    * Bamboo Sushi pop-up at Culmination

    Sunday:
    * Killer Beer Week Recovery Beerunch at Laurelwood

    Plus, (and I know it's not in Portland), de Garde is dropping bottles of Petit Necarine & Petit Peche today.

    I'm probably missing some stuff too. I need to start looking for a second job. And a liver transplant donor.
     
    #17 guajolote, Oct 20, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2016
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  18. DCintheMSP

    DCintheMSP Devotee (323) Jan 8, 2014 Minnesota

    Hey fellow BAers! I am currently planning a trip to PDX in January with my wife. I wanted to know if it is worth the drive to De Garde if it will consume one day of a four day trip? Can you only purchase bottles at De Garde or do they show up then disappear quickly from bottle shops? Wife is certainly interested in winery tours, so maybe we could pair them (De Garde/Wineries) if that's reasonable? Also, would it be worth getting a driver one day for a winery tour? Thanks in advance for any help!

    Also, am willing to travel with anything you might want if you're interested in an in-person trade for stuff from MN/WI/IA. I don't like doing the shipping, as it costs too much to send stuff, but am willing to travel with whatever as we are flying Southwest.
     
    #18 DCintheMSP, Oct 27, 2016
  19. derftron

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

    you could do deGarde in a 1/2 day. only about 1hr 45min from Portland. I highly suggest it, plus there are other breweries at the coast you could go to if you wanted.

    They distribute bottles to Portland, but the brewery will have a FAR better selection than what you would be able to scavenge around PDX
     
    #19 derftron, Oct 27, 2016
  20. John_M

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

    I generally agree with this, but recommend that you try to contact the brewery (dG) in advance to find out what's on offer during your visit, or at least check their facebook page before heading over. That's assuming you're heading over there primarily for a bottle pick up. They do tend to run out of things, and there have been times when they were down to no more than 2 or 3 different bottles for "to go" purchase. That being said, the on premise bottle purchase selection is killer, and they always have some interesting things on tap. So even if the bottle selection isn't all that great, if you're a big fan of dG, it probably would still be a fun trip for you.

    I would also suggest that you take a look at the online bottle selection at Arch Bridge over in Oregon City. They typically have up to 6 or 7 different dG bottles for purchase at any given time.

    In terms of combining winery visits/tours with a dG trip, that's certainly very doable. Assuming you're heading out to dG via hiway 26/hiway 6, you could jump off at hiway 47, drive south and hit wineries like Elk Cove, Patton Valley, Adea and the like (those are the places I would recommend). All of those wineries are just a short drive south of Forest Grove, and so wouldn't be much out of your way on your drive to the coast.

    In terms of getting a driver, I can't really answer that, and would suggest that's up to you. The wife and I always drive ourselves, but then we're careful about limiting the number of wineries we visit, and we tend to spit most of the wines we sample. However, if you don't spit and you plan to hit 8 or 9 different wineries, then getting a driver might make good sense.

    Be sure to double check tasting room information regarding times and dates that they're open. A lot of places have significantly reduced hours during the winter. Have fun!
     
    #20 John_M, Oct 27, 2016
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