Stealing, and slightly modifying, an idea from a couple mainpage threads, what are 5 beers and/or breweries from the NW you miss? LaConnor being good. Their IPA was one of the best, and their brewery was a destination for other brewers back in the Arlen Harris days. I miss that version of the brewery. Orchard Street Stock Ale. OSB didn't survive too long after I got here, but I still have a soft spot for their Stock Ale. Supposedly the recipe still lives among Bellingham's homebrewing community. I've (so far unsuccessfully) campaigned a brewery here to whip up a batch. I'll stay with it though. Fish Brewing. Their core beers were solid and enjoyable, and their big beers were really good. Some of the first barrel-aged beers I had. Leviathan and Old Woody are still fond memories. Logsdon. That Seizoen Bretta might be the best Brett beer I've ever had. Really enjoyed their stuff. Full Sail/Henry Weinhardts. Henry's was a good bargain buy for those weeks when payday was soooo far away. Full Sail had some decent core beers and some very good specialty stuff. OK, what y'all got?
The old Full Sail, for sure. And I miss pre-sale Widmer. Hair of the Dog at the top of any "I miss this brewery" list. Two others that disappeared with less fanfare that I enjoyed were Burnside and Klamath Basin.
Logsdon was great, and old Full Sail was a staple for me. Locally, I miss when Mad River made good beer. I miss Ninkasi too. I think theyre still around but they've just lost any appeal for me a long time ago.
They're still around, and Jamie Floyd is still head of the brewing side. A friend was in touch with him after their semi-recent fire. But, in the late 00s-early 10s, they were absolutely the hottest thing thing the NW. Any time we wanted a slammed night at the Green Frog, we'd book a Ninkasi Brewers Night and have Jamie come up with a couple kegs of stuff otherwise not available around here. We'd just blow through beer, and get so many folks in that you could barely move.
Logsdon: This brewery must have been founded with me specifically in mind. Excellent, locally brewed saisons and other Belgian styles in a beautiful setting? Beer nirvana. Hair of the Dog: What more needs to be said? Yes, carbonation was all over the map but when they nailed it, they nailed it. And Blue Dot early on was a thing of beauty. Cascade: Pricey, sure, but they made some of my favorite sour/wild ales from anywhere. BridgePort: Blue Heron was one of my staples in the early days. So for nostalgic reasons only, I miss that brewery. Redhook: OK, technically I think they are still around in some form—but the high water mark fur me was when they first still had a brewery in Fremont and then later when they had a huge facility in Woodinville. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure both places are long gone. Again, another early staple for me was ESB, so they’ll always have a spot in the old ticker. Upright: For extra credit. I enjoyed their saisons a lot. Hey Oregon! What’s the deal?
You're not wrong. In fact, the Woodinville location is now owned by Delille winery. It's essentially a tasting room/overpriced restaurant for Delille.
I thought it was a great location but I guess wine took over that area. Our own mini-Napa Valley nestled among the office parks.
Yep. They're mostly just tasting rooms for various wineries out of Walla Walla and Yakima. Wine customers don't want to make the drive over (and bring their money) to central Washington, so... If you can't bring Mohammed to the mountain, bring the mountain... On a positive note, the existence of the tasting rooms seems to have fostered an increased interest in craft breweries in the area. The visitor/tourist rag for the area now lists the location of winery tasting rooms, cideries, brewpubs and select restaurants.
1. Sweet Heat & Kali-Ma from Burnside/Calypso from Roots - whatever you wanna call this beer i drank a shit-ton of it and i'm sad it doesn't live on. thanks ezra for screwing that up for everyone with your offensive artwork (lol) 2. Acadian Farms & Brewery in Carson, WA - amazing location, amazing view, kind people, mason jar beers. aminals. fresh produce. always gave me something to look forward to on the trip back from hood river. iykyk. 3. Peche n' Brett from Logsdon Farmhouse Ales - definitely one of the most perfect beers to come out of the PNW during my time there. drank a shelf bottle from a NY grocery store about a year ago and it was bangin. used to love the annual conversation about if its real peaches or concentrate this year. 4. Outlander Brewing (nigel/dragon years) in Seattle, WA - most interesting beers and space and people... not world class by any means but something that sticks out as one I miss because i always looked forward to being challenged there and having a good discussion with the owners. didn't go to brouwers or fremont without a quick stop here. 5. Fat Head's in PDX - a good amount of industry people would drink here because townie regulars never went there. i read countless books at this bar and always loved that they did trappist-style belgian beers. it was like the biggest airport beer bar that's not in an airport. you could lose yourself in there for hours and it was so anti-PDX that it was actually next level hipster. And that Mike guy made some pretty good IPAs as well! Honorable Mentions: Rev. Nat's, Widmer Gasthaus, Green Dragon, Raccoon Lodge, Ale Apothecary Spencer & El Cuatro (early batches)...
I loved Sound Brewing, especially the Monks Indiscretion. Logsdon made some amazing beers that I miss dearly too. We had a brewery in Spokane called Ramblin Road that made some great beers and I wish they were still around I miss when Fremont was making good hoppy beer, especially The Brother and Sister.
I heartily endorse nearly all of this, with the exception of Full Sail/Weinhard, about which I could care less.
Sure. Same with Celebrate Walla Walla and a host of other events. Apparently, it's not enough, at least according to the winery principles I've spoken to. They feel as if they're constantly having to convince locals that there really is good wine made in the Columbia Valley and Walla Walla. So there's the annual Walla Walla on Tour event and a boatload of winery tasting rooms in Woodinville. My wife and I visit Walla Walla a couple times a year typically (we're wine club members at Gifford Hirlinger). While no one is going to mistake Walla Walla for Napa, there's still plenty to do there. There's a vibrant restaurant scene and tasting rooms everywhere. The Syrah, Cabs, Merlot and Bordeaux style blends made there are clearly world class, so it's no problem finding good wine to drink.
I still scratch my head thinking about Fat Heads. Only went a couple of times, primarily because I hated trying to find parking around that part of pdx. Even the times I went, I'd be lying if I said I had a fantastic time (though I didn't have a bad time). I worked in Morgantown WV for a short while back in 2012/2013, so I went up to Pittsburgh pretty often (almost every weekend). During that time I drank a lot of Head Hunter and visited the FH saloon a couple times. So I felt like I knew what to expect when they opened up the outpost in the Pearl. Maybe they didn't market themselves very well, or maybe that's just a difficult area to make a go of it in PDX (Henry's went belly up pretty quickly around there as well). Also, their beer was good, but the ipa's they made were very atypical for the PNW (much more malt forward I thought). I tried all the ipa's, dipa's and tipa's I could get my hands on, but very few of them impressed me (I had really been looking forward to trying hop juju). They weren't badly made; just weren't made in a style that appealed to me. I know back East a lot of consumers feel headhunter is one of the best ipa's on the planet, but I'll be damned if I can understand why. I drank an ocean of the stuff at places like Smokin Joe's and Pipers Pub on East Carson St., because it and two hearted were typically the only decent ipa's available. Despite all that, I was surprised they pulled up stakes so soon after arriving in PDX. Maybe they misjudged the market? If so, they're not the only place I could say that about.
The Commons - stellar farmhouse ales that just weren't appreciated by enough people. And maybe a bad decision to move into the massive space that eventually became Modern Times (and now Living Haus). I was there one of the last days they were open and they had their first-ever IPA on tap called Is This What You Wanted? Upright - they were probably best known for their saisons, but they could absolutely nail English styles & cask ales. Another brewery that didn't appeal to a wider base, especially before they started making IPAs. Hop & Vine - not a beer or brewery, but they always had a great taplist. The food was good too. And they had one of the low-key best patios in the city, IMO. Widmer X-114 IPA - my first favorite Oregon IPA after I moved here mid-2010. X114 is now known as Citra, and it was just a fantastic IPA that was like $6 for a sixer. I drank so much of that in summer 2011. And as mentioned a few times already, Logsdon. Seizoen Bretta and Peche n Brett were all-timers. Honorable Mentions: Cascade Barrel House, Hawthorne Hophouse, Crux Half Hitch when it was just called Crux Double IPA, and *ahem* Apex
In no particular order: Cascade- I had a craving for their Honey Ginger Lime the other day, and it drove me a little bit crazy. There's nothing else like it. And their Sang Noir Drie Zwarte Pieten, which I had at the Holiday Ale Fest many years ago, was one of the first sour beers that I truly loved. Upright- It makes me sad that there is no more Wee Heavy or Special Herbs or Flora Rustica. And for some reason I was thinking of their delectable, slightly tart Saison du Blodgett the other day. Hair of the Dog- I miss the steady availability of Adam. I should've drank a lot more Fred and Matt. But the beer I miss the most, and have actually dreamed about several times, is Bourbon Maple Fred. The Commons- I miss their old space over on SE Stephens, and their tasty table beers, like Gin Enkel. They also made a terrific rauch helles. Logsdon- I'm on the same page as @BBThunderbolt : Seizoen Bretta is one of the best brett beers I've ever had. Honorable Mention: I know that ForeLand is very much alive, but I don't know if we're ever going to see Cast Shadow again.
Snoqualmie Brewing Little Si Kölsch: a core beer memory is sitting in the front lawn at our Snoqualmie house (staring directly at Mt. Si) drinking a growler of this, which had been filled at the brewery minutes before. The first time I can remember viewing beer through a lens of “these guys are making delicious beer, not at Newcastle, Sierra Nevada, or even Redhook, but right in my neighborhood.” The Commons Flemish Kiss: the closest I’ve come to an American Orval. I hold out hope that Mike Wright becomes less of a brewing hermit. Cascade Brewing: Art Larrance musing about the artistry of barrel aged sour beer, Kentucky Peach, Brambleberry Quad, Sang Noir. Oakshire (the Dan Russo era): Hellshires (even the sour one), Heart Shaped Box (always preferred cherry years to raspberry years), the name “Very Ill Tempered Gnome” for an imperial version of “Ill Tempered Gnome” still makes me giggle. A dream brewery tour getting a taste of fresh hop beer from the zwickel before launching into pulling nails in the barrel room.
I used to know a lot of PNW wineries, but since my uncle, a journalist who lucked into writing a wine column for my hometown newspaper (a gig that he held down for 33yrs, many of which were after what was ostensibly his retirement), passed away in 2011, and the magazine he helped found has shut down, I've lost touch with the wine scene. Probably why I've never heard of that winery!
Delille is a pretty big deal winery. Maybe not on a par with Leonetti, Cayuse, or Reynvaan, but on a par with Long Shadows and Abeja I would say. Anyway, they're pretty highly regarded. Their wine is expensive, but I wouldn't say over priced for the quality level. The restaurant is another matter. It's a glorified gastropub, but with Barking Frog prices. A small plate of pretty ordinary tomato sauce pasta there will set you back $30.
I think for most OG Portland beer geeks, our list will look similar to this. First getting into beer and having these types of breweries available in/around town felt like stumbling and tripping over a michelin star restaurant by accident. "this was here all along?". what really stands out is how unique each brewery is/was. maybe its because ive tried so many styles, and had so much beer in my life, but I'm rarely WOWED by a beer/brewery anymore. it all seems so similar nowadays
