Hello All, I am heading out to Portland, Hood River, and Seattle in the early fall. I am looking for brewery recommendations, specifically smaller local places that may not bottle or distribute much. I tend towards citra/cascade based IPAs/DIPAs, coffee-forward stouts and funky, wild, sour ales. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Gerard
Here's your starting point for everything Portland, from breweries to bottle shops to restaurants: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-portland-spring-2014-update.165640/
The NW, and the Seattle area in particular, is brimming with good breweries who don't bottle/distribute. You could spend 4 days each in Seattle and Portland visiting places like HoTD and Elysian and have a great vacation, but I would encourage you to make time for spontaneous stops at unknown places too. Sometimes I feel like we funnel too much toward the few essential stops and make it about checking things off a list. Don't forget to try some of the places nobody mentions here, but you drive by it and it looks cool to you.
Here are the Seattle-area breweries that fit your criteria that I think you should hit: Fremont, Reuben's, Black Raven, Stoup, Georgetown, Big Time, Schooner Exact, and NW Peaks. I'm excited to try Rooftop --- a really new place --- but I haven't been there yet, so can't recommend.
Hood River: pFriem family brewers, Logsdon Farmhouse (if you go out on a Thurs-Sat) , Solera, Double Mountain
Rooftop misses the mark, IMO - mediocre homebrew at best. Your excitement may be quashed by disappointment.
All good suggestions. I'd try to organizing your trip by neighborhood, you could do something like this: Fremont\Ballard: Fremont Reuben's Stoup Populuxe NW Peaks I'd also add Uplander, funky nano brewery with some unique stuff Odin and Hales are also options as well as brouwers, 64 taps! Bigtime isn't far from Fremont and would be easy to add in. SODO\Georgetown Georgetown Schooner exact Machine house Epic You could also shoot up to west seattle to check out beer junction and Beveridge Place Pub, they'll be worth the trip. I don't know of any other breweries close to Black Raven but you could stop by Malt and Vine bottle shop. BR is one of Seattle's better breweries but the time's I've been there I've disappointed with the tap selections. Kind of a bummer as it's a trek for me. 2014 WA beer awards is also a good place to start.
Between PDX and Hood River, pop across the river into Washington and hit Walking Man Brewing. Sit at/near the bar, service there can be sloooooooooow. Hours are weird, so check to see when they are open.
