I'm going there in August. I like big beers (stouts, BWs, old ales). BBA even more. Can anyone maybe give me a top 5 list of breweries and/or bottle shops to hit? I know I'm going to HotD and probably the Belmont bottle shop.
If you're looking for barrel aged malt bombs, you're not going to find much in Portland outside of Hair of the Dog- particularly in the summer. That said, if you're going to luck into anything big and barrel aged, you might be able to do so at the Lompoc Fifth Quadrant, Breakside Brewing, and Hopworks (though HUB is a real long shot). If you can get outside of PDX, Block 15 might be able to satiate your need, and its next door neighbor Les Caves will have worthy bottles. Otherwise, the usual suspects found in multiple threads in the PNW forum apply for recommendations.
Lompoc Sidebar almost always has something (or multiple things) barrel-aged on tap. You'll also find barrel-aged stuff at Cascade, but not of the Stout, BW or Old Ale variety.
I'll plug Breakside Brewery in NE Portland. Their Aztec is a big, strong cocoa & chile pepper ale and they've been releasing other strong ales of late (Old Woody and Bourbon B-A Old Woody, also an Anniversary Wheatwine). Check their website or facebook page (they update it almost daily with a photo of the current drafts) before your visit.
i see the bba woody on the chalkboard, but not listed on their ba page, i would want to try that for sure.
Relatively few of their beers ever make it to the BA page. Breakside introduces several new beers every month (I think they approached 100 different ones in their first year brewing), MOST of which are only around a week or two... often not long enough for anyone to add/review. Don't let the lack of reviews dissuade you... Their location is maybe 10 minutes from downtown, but is probably 2 miles from the nearest good beer destinations (places like Saraveza, Concordia Ale House), so it's a little out of the way, but worth it in my opinion...
