Portland OR

Check out this thread. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-portland-spring-2015-update.276595/
There are a ton of great breweries here. Picking three is damn difficult.

 

What styles do you like? I'd make different recommendations depending on your answer.

Matter of fact, it would be easier for me to suggest 3 beer bars instead of 3 breweries/brewpubs. If you are indeed a "hopster," for instance, it would be a shame for you to come to Oregon and not sample something from Barley Browns or Boneyard. Neither of those breweries are in Portland, but it is generally easy to find their beers.

 

Picking three would be next to impossible... But if time is an issue - Cascade Barrel House, The Commons and Hair of the Dog are within walking distance of each other.

 

Wait, coming to the NW, and not searching for Cali beers? Weird.

 

The more 'hop-forward' breweries in town would be Breakside and Gigantic.

 

In the NW 99.9% of the breweries make several hop bombs. Getting your hop fix up here is s o easy, you'll likely go home bored with hops, and lookingat other styles.

 

Portland has a number of breweries that really aren't hop oriented at all though - cascade, commons, hotd, upright to name a few

 

Besides Fat Head's and Breakside the best Oregon IPA's you can find in PDX will be at beer bars.

For the most part, the more 'remote' OR breweries (Bend, Corvalis, Hood River, Baker City) are making the best hoppy beers in the state.

 

I don't know, man. Besides those, Workhorse is still one of the top Portland-made "regular" IPAs, IMO.

 

Agreed. Should add that as an addendum.

 

I'm will be staying in the pearl district for 5 days. My wife and I are coming from IL and want to hit as many breweries as possible. Can I get pearl district/downtown breweries and/or beer bars? Big Name breweries/bars or new ones- we are open to any!