PNW Lagers

I'm a huge fan of Heater Allen. I like many of the ones I've had from Full Sail too. I need to try more of them, so I'll be taking notes from this thread.

 

Heater Allen and Chuckanut are the first that come to mind. Upright has a great pilsner, and Crux's Prowell Spring's pre-pro lager is nice.

 

Reuben's in Seattle makes some nice lagers.

Black Raven's lagers - Hochzeit, Schwarzeit (also Sunthief).

There's a newish brewery in Newberg, OR called Long's the looks like they're specializing in lagers and I've heard good things.

In Portland, you can get Occidental; solid, solid stuff.

Fort George's 1811 pre-prohibition is solid.

I believe Buoy out in Astoria is focusing on lagers.

And, or course, there's Full Sail. I think the lagers are the best stuff they do.

Silver City does some solid lagers - Ziggy Zoggy, Gold Mountain, etc.

Deschuttes Pine Mountain Pilsner is nice.

Orlisson is all lager and solid.

 

Long makes good beers but they're at least a few bucks more than Heater Allen, I know which one I'd go for first. Though their porter is really nice.

Ninkasi's lager series has had a few hits.

 

Heater Allen.

 

Damn I love me some lager. Heater Allen is legit and I hope to see them distribute up to WA. Chuckanut is stellar - their Pils and Helles being top notch.

Four Winds Pils (new recipe w/ Motueka) from BC is a crisp/lemon-y take on a Czech Pils that people seem to dig. I thought it was decent. Gtown's Roger's is actually stylistically a decent Czech, IMO. I personally haven't been a fan of Black Raven's lagers.

Reuben's is tapping a Zwickelbier soon. Looking forward to checking that out.

I've wondered when/if Fremont would jump in the lager game. Seems like they have the infrastructure to lager, plus a canning line & a wicked outdoor space. Ready for them to pump out some solid pilsner!

 

The 77 Select has always tasted lager-ish to me...

 

Doesn't look like Heater Allen needs another mention, but I'll do it anyway. Their Lenzbock is very tasty, and the Rauch Dunkel is absolutely luscious.

Upright's Engelberg Pilsner is outstanding.

I also really enjoyed both the German Pils and the Czech Pils from Buoy Brewing when I visited their taproom last February.

 

Orlison's Havanuther is wonderful. It's simple but clean and has this malty center that I don't often get elsewhere.

 

Hair of the Dog just tapped Brandy BeerWeek, a brandy barrel aged pale lager, which Alan says is some of his best work this year. Has anybody had it yet? I was thinking about trying some tonight but I wasn't in love with BeerWeek or Bourbon BeerWeek.

 

My current top 6 avail in PDX: Heater Allen (duh), pFriem Pils (it took a year to get here, but rad), Airways Pre-Flight Pils, Hop Valley Czech Your Head (just does it for me), Upright Engelberg, The Commons current Pils w/ Andechs yeast.

If we're including Kolsch-style, I'd include Upright's recent foray and Breakside's soon-to-be-canned-hot-damn version.

 

Haven't been mentioned here yet but personally I really like Base Camp's Rye Pils and NW Fest lagers. Both pretty solid. Their IPL is decent but not in the same class as the pils and fest.

Not a fan of their big bottle/can format though. I would rather have bottles or standard 12/16 oz cans in four or six packs.

 

That sounds fantastic. Good thing I was already planning a visit to The Commons this weekend.

 

Believe it or not, there is a fine lager brewery in of all places..Albany, OR. Deluxe Brewing is lager only brewery that has some tasty brews. They also are in the process of doing some distilling. Last I heard they will have whiskey available by the end of summer (or so).

 

Deluxe is OK..they need a couple of years to be good.
I have to do a call out for Caldera Lawnmower. Been drinking this below 4% lager this summer and havd a case to bring down to my weeks camping in Souther Oregon.
Great lager.low alc at Budweiser pricing..$6.19 at Freddys

 

I agree that they have room to improve but they still have some tasty stuff. I will have to try me some Lawnmower this summer.

 

Most of the breweries mentioned in this thread don't seem to have made it east of the Cascades in Washington, so I haven't been able to try them.

Of what's available in my neck of the woods, while I gotta throw out praise for Chuckanut for their pils, I think Orlison is worthy of praise as a lager-only brewery that is not spending all their time genuflecting to the tried-and-true German styles.

 

Alpine (WA) is almost all lagers.

 

They're pretty nice for back-packing trips, or even just a long day hike where you don't want to have to lug around a sixer or glass bottles. Although for every day drinking, I'd definitely prefer a smaller format option too.

It seems like that is sort of an issue for most of the decent lagers brewed up here in the Northwest. All of the Heater Allen beers, as well as Breakside's Pils would be a lot more common in my fridge if I could buy them in something smaller than a bomber.