Twin Cities native here, I'm hoping I can call on the folks of the Northwest forum to give me a hand here. I've been lurking in this section for about a month now trying to plan out a vacation to the great state of Oregon for the end of September/early October. I'm spending the first part of my week in Portland and have been following this thread to track down all things PDX. On Oct. 1 I'll be heading down I-5 to visit family in Springfield through the weekend. I've done a couple searches on the area and know there's several options in the area but I'm hoping I can get some local advice as to what to hit up and what to avoid. I'm staying clear out on the eastern edge of Springfield and may not have my own car to get around so not sure of how much time or how much opportunity I'll have to hit up everything through the following weekend but hoping I can glean some advice from locals in the area like @John_M for where to go and what to buy. Specifically, in addition to any tastings I'd appreciate on what I grab in the area vs. what can't be found in Portland. I'm toying with bringing or shipping some local goodies from my neck of the woods (i.e. Surly, New Glarus, Toppling Goliath, etc.) to follow me on my trip and wondering what the odds are of being successful of walking into breweries or beer stores and offering some trade options for folks. Keep in mind I'll probably be doing the same thing in Portland for a few days before heading to the area. Thanks in advance folks! P.S. Would also love to know what's available in bottles vs. cans. That will help me in determining how to get everything back home.
Go to Corvalis for Block 15. In Eugene, I really like Agrarian Brewing. For shops, Bier Stein and 16 Tons are good.
Appreciate the advice but forgot the qualifier, I don't forsee side trips outside of Portland to Eugene/Springfield happening. If it was, I've got to imagine I'd waste a day dressing in orange and black and spending the day in Corvallis at Block 15 but this heart has bled green and yellow any time I hit the Pacific time zone. It's already killing me knowing I'll be spending time hitting wineries south of town instead of breweries!
Hop Valley makes damn fine beer. John_M is a mensch. Keep your eyes on the growler fill stations as they can get some amazing draft options for your visit or to take home. This is most of the info I have on Eugene/Springfield.
Umm, good luck? Seriously though, John_M should have some tips for you, that is if he survived his trip to earthquake country.
Hey SudsSavant! Welcome to Duck country (as UO football mania is now in full swing). As others have mentioned, for bottles and cans, your best bet would be Bier Stein and 16 tons (the taphouse, not the cafe). Eugene is also ground zero for Market of Choice (sort of local, whole foods wannabie), and some of them have an excellent selection as well (the ones on Willakenzie and Williamette seem to be particularly well stocked). These are all Eugene options, but as you probably know, even from the East Springfield area, you're typically no more than 10 or 15 minutes away from downtown Eugene. In terms of places with a great tap selection, you really have a lot of options (but again, most of those options are over in Eugene). Bier Stein and 16 tons are both excellent (and tend to keep their online draft lists up to date - Bier Steins tap list is in real time), as is the tap and growler. We also have a number of outstanding growler stations in town; along with the places I already mentioned, I would also recommend Growler Guys, Growler Nation, Growler University and the Steel Pail. As for breweries and brewpubs, again, Eugene is swamped with them as well. The more obvious places include Ninkasi, Oakshire, Hop Valley and Agrarian, but there's also a Rogue outpost in town, Falling Sky brewpub, Viking Braggot, Claim 52, Steelhead/McKenzie brewing and even a couple of McMenamins... and that's just what I can think of, off the top my head. Also, while Bend is more than a couple hours away, we get most of the beers that are made up that way. So expect to see on tap a decent selection of beers from Bend Brewing, Crux, 10 Barrel, Good Life, Silver Moon, Boneyard, and of course Deschutes. Also, given our proximity to Corvalils, we get a lot of stuff from Block 15 as well. With such a huge craft beer presence in Eugene, you'd think there'd be some carry over into Springfiled. Unfortunately, in my (limited) experience, that's not the case. There's Plank Town brewing (great food, but their beer has generally been no better than so-so, the times I visited), and the old Hop Valley outpost. The latter is definitely worth going to, for all that it's practically in Eugene as well (just East of I-5). There's also a Buffalo Wild Wings just down the street from the Hop Valley outpost, over in the Gateway Mall area. BWW has a decent, if not particularly remarkable or exciting draft selection. Supposedly, Springfield was schedueld to get their first growler station this summer, but I've heard nothing about it so far. They don't appear to have a website, but here's the listed address for it (it's called the Growler Underground). 521 Main St, Springfield, OR (541) 393-6834 In terms of the bottle selection in Eugene, when compared to PDX, the only reason you might find something here that you can't get in PDX, is because craft beer doesn't move nearly as fast here in Eugene. So sometimes you can find some interesting stuff in town that has long since been gobbled up in PDX (I think Bier Stein still has bottles of Abyss and Pelican Perfect Storm available). That being said, the Bier Stein has an outstanding bottle selection (nearly as good as Belmont Station.... but let's not kid ourselves. This is Eugene after all.), and you'll also find that generally, pricing is a bit better here in Eugene than what you'll encounter in PDX. Anyway, enjoy your stay. From what I hear, the next batch of Boneyard Notorious will be coming out soon, and so should be widely available during your visit. Unfortuantely, it sounds like you're going to miss the always excellent single batch fall bierfest over at Oakshire by just a few days. Have fun.
First off, thank you for the thorough and overwhelming response! I caught a glance at your reply on Monday and am still trying to take it all in. Apologies in my delay in replying back but between a stolen credit card, a water pipe burst, some family issues, and being buried at work, it's been an interesting week! It looks like I've got more than enough options to keep me occupied on my trip. Excuse my Minnesota ignorance with this question but what's the deal with all the growler fill stations? Are they just like bars with multiple beer options that also fill growlers or are they entirely different animals? In Minny we're still dealing with some backwater laws on the books like no sales on Sundays and restrictions on where you can buy your booze so growler fills here are only options for small time brewers like Dangerous Man or brewpubs like Town Hall Brewery. Heck, up until about a month ago you could only fill a growler that had that breweries' name on the bottle. Also, I still could use some advice (in Portland and/or Eugene/Springfield) on walking into a brewery or store and trying to do some beer trades for local treasures. I'm toying with bringing a few of my bottles of TG PseudoSue, Surly Darkness, and New Glarus Serendipity among others but I'm hesitant to organize an official trade since I don't know what my schedule and transportation options are going to be for the week. I've had a couple of folks at beer stores here tell me to go for it but I'm hesitant to go to the effort of bringing out all these bottles unless I know I'd hit some level of success. I'm already thinking I'll go overboard at the first beer store I hit up out there and will end up spending over a hundred bucks on packaging and shipping costs just to get my purchases home.
Sorry to hear about all the problems and disasters... definitely sounds like you could use a beer (or three). As to your question regarding the proliforation of growler stations, I wish I had a good answer for you. I'm assumng Oregon's fairly permissive laws make this a lucrative option for entrepeneurs. Most bars in Eugene that allow growler take outs allow both... you can hang out with a pint or three, and/or get a growler to go. Places like growler nation, growler university and growler guys, the emphasis is clearly on selling growlers to go... but they don't discourage patrons from hanging out and having a pint. Otherwise, yes... these places generally have a very nice range of draft selections... usually in the 30 tap handle range. In terms of your last question... I'm not entirely sure I know what you're asking. Stores like Bier Stein or 16 tons aren't going to trade you for beers they have on their shelf... they're not set up for that sort of thing, and of course they're in the business of making money. If you're asking about meeting up with someone and orchestrating a trade on site, I don't know of any place that would mind that... or care about that. Personally, other than the TG stuff you mentioned, I have access to all the other stuff you listed... also, in terms of trade stuff, I'm not sure what you would be interested in or what you'd want to trade for. Obviously, it doesn't make sense for me to trade you stuff that you can find right on the shelf at BS, 16 tons or MofC. I'm not trying to discourage, but I'm just not sure how much local interest there would be in making trades for some of the stuff you're talking about bringing. In terms of shipping materials... I have a whole bunch of stuff, and so would be happy to give you a couple of shipping boxes, if you need that. So that might save you some money. Sorry, but I'm not entirely sure I understand some of your questions and concerns.
Thanks for the head up. My intent wasn't to walk into a beer store like an old fur trader and hope for some good bartering to take place. My (limited) experiences of hitting up breweries and stores outside of my area I tend to get into to some good conversations with folks working behind the counter or a local or two from the area. Typically their eyes light up whenever the word "Surly" gets brought up and by then I'm wishing I had a 4-pack of Furious to hand over just to make their day, kind of like Elvis and his Cadillacs. At a beer store I hit up pretty regularly I recently ended up getting into a conversation with the guy working that night for about a hour on all things craft beer. I mentioned I was headin out to Portland and Eugene and was looking at taking a couple of days to try and go to Cascade and Hair of the Dog. He's the one who put the thought in my head based on his suggestion of just taking some New Glarus stuff (probably not Spotted Cow) out with me and walk in to a few places. Then again, that may have been just his way to get me to buy a few more bottles on my way out the door. Appreciate the offer on the shipping materials, depending on how things go I may just take you up on that offer. I think I may scale back how much upper Midwest stuff I drag out there but if all else fails I'm sure I could slip on my Ducks hoodie and do an impromptu bottle share to make a few friends that Thursday night they take on Arizona.
OK, now I see what you're talking about. I know for a fact that's OK, as I've done it myself a few times. I'm on pretty decent terms with one of the managers at Bier Stein, and in the past I've brought by some heady topper and abrasive cans, as well as some head hunter. So yeah, if you happen to stop in with some Surly, TG or NG in tow, I'm sure you'll have little difficulty making new friends and striking up a converation with the staff. And yes, more than likely they'll want to give you something in exchange, typically something fairly limited and local :-)
FWIW, people walk in to the Station on a fairly regular basis with "out of market" bottles in tow. If they're content trading their local shelf beers for something we have in stock it's not uncommon for me (or whoever is working that day) to buy them something they're interested in and swap it for something they brought. I've also arranged a few in-store trades involving things from both party's cellars, but that usually takes a bit of pre-planning. It's really up to the whims of whoever is working and whether or not they're interested in what you brought, so consider it a bonus if it happens rather than walk in with expectations that a trade will occur. That said, if a bottle (or two) of Serendipity finds its way out here you could probably use it to pry some De Garde or Block 15 out of my girlfriend's cellar...
