Stumptown's story of visiting Lagunitas and Russian River made me think of our trip this past summer to Denver where I visited the brewing downtown spots while the wife was at a conference. Great Divide was by far the best brewery I visited: really small operation, with only about 8-10 or so guys there on a weekday bottling up some Hercules IIPA. Got to try everything they had on tap, and then wandered out to walk to the Breckenridge pub across from Coors field (3 blocks away). Man, Denver is a beautiful city.

Anyway, my wife and I are now planning a trip to the PNW this summer for a family reunion (my uncle lives in Seattle). I'm wanting to head to Portland as well.

My question to anyone in the area: What would be the top brewing spots around there to hit? I know of some of the bigger places (Rogue, Full Sail, Bridgeport, etc), but I'm also interested in some of the smaller places a midwesterner might not have heard of. I saw a couple posts over at HBD that were helpful, but there are so many places listed that I'd rather know some homebrewer faves. Big/hoppy beers most welcome.

Thanks in advance!

A trip over to the coast and Pacific city would be on my list to visit the Pelican Brewery. Not only some great beers there, but with the brewpub/resturant right on the beach, it makes for a great place to relax and unwind for a while!!

My favorite breweries in Portland are:
Roots
Alameda
Amnesia
in no particular order.

My favorite places to get beer that aren't breweries are the Rogue public house, Higgins and Concordia ale house.

In Seattle I like Elysian, I think they have three locations now. One location is right down the street from Pyramid.

The bar section of the McCormick and Schmick's (good casual restaurant, seafood heavy) at River Place in Portland is called the "Pilsner Room" and it has most of the Full Sail beers on tap as well as some good guest taps. I believe Full Sail actually does have a small brewing operation there, IIRC.

John is obviously a man of great taste.

Amnesia is great. Cool, atmosphere and nice beers. Sausages grilled on the BBQ. Copacetic IPA is my favorite. Roots is also a nice, low key place.

A few blocks away from Amnesia is Fifth Quadrant, which is an excellent brewery, and they have "happy hour" all weekend. It's a nice little pub. The C-Note is a good IPA. Try the Lompoc Strong Draught, which is essentially a hoppy pale, except it looks black and has a touch of smoked malt. Nice beer.

Laurelwood (two going on five locations) has won a lot of awards, and has some very nice beers. Keep in mind that this place is a little too kid friendly, even if you have your kids with you.

By Summer, Christian Ettinger's new Hopworks Urban Brewery will be open. He won a ton of awards at Laurelwood, is a hell of a brewer and a nice guy. Looking forward to this place. By summer there will also be a new Deschutes Brewing pub in Portland; should have some nice specials there.

A fun beer crawl can be done by hopping (pun intended) on the trolly downtown and taking it out to NW 23rd. You can then walk to both the New Old Lompoc (sister brewery of Fifth Quadrant -- same beers) and one of the Laurelwoods. There are also two McMenamin pubs out there. Then hop back on the trolly and on your way back downtown you can stop at Bridgeport Brewing, Rogue Alehouse, the new Deschutes alehouse, Henry's 12th Street (100 taps), Tugboat Brewing and with a little walk Stumptown Coffee (about 50 Belgians). Or stay on the trolley and take it all the way to Riverplace and visit the Full Sail brewery there (in the McCormick and Schmicks).

If you are mobile, you can drive out to Concordia Alehouse, which has what I think is the best draught selection in town (order anything by Ninkasi, if they have it). If you like smoke so thick it will take 6 mos. off your life and have a hankering for stale beer, you will LOVE the "world famous" Horse Brass Pub. Another great trip would be to head out to the Gorge and visit Walking Man Brewing (Stevenson, Washington).

That said, a lot of visitors to Portland are underwhelmed by the beer here. I agree with them. There is a ton of good beer, and it is everywhere. Beer golf courses. Beer movie theaters. Kid friendly pubs. 100 diffrent bottles at the corner market. You will not find mind-blowing beer, however, like you do down in California at places like Pizza Port or Russian River. And for some reason people talk about the beers here being really hoppy; I'd totally disagree with that, at least as far as Portland proper is concerned. I don't think there is a single beer brewed in Portland that I would consider "really hoppy," with the possible exception of Widmer's "Broken Halo." That's just my opinion.

Stumptown put down a great list that I agree with. The HorseBrass beers aren't so stale. They just taste that way because of the puff of smoke that you gulp with every quaff.

I disagree on the mind-blowing beers. Portland has plenty of them. They are generally amongst the many special releases and they don't last long.

Rogue in Newport is a nice place. It is right next to the Oregon Aquarium. I sent the wife and kids to look at the fish, while I drank like one. Pelican Pub and brewery is also such an awsome place. Good beer, good scenery! My kids were climbing up the big sand dunes, and running down all while I was enjoying a Wee Heavy... Another great beer place in Oregon.

Elysian in Seattle (Capital Hill) is a good place. The Pike Brewery at the market is good. If you go to Tacoma, the Engine House #9 makes some good beers. The best saison that I've ever had I found at the Powerhouse in Puyallup.

Near Portland you have the Walking Man Brewery in Stevenson, WA. They make some really good beers. Try their Homo Erectus. One of my personal faves.

Ya what Stumptown said!

I second his recommends and here are my notes:

Amenesia(good sausages)

Roots (ok...stuff...all organic if you are into that...good way point when crossing the city from east to west or vice versa)

New Old Lompc, 5th quadrant, or Oaks Bottom (all same group of owners/brewers) are great...love the 3 different IPA's at New Old...and if you go...have the pulled pork sandwich

Laurelwood east or west is great(if you want to tie in a few places at once go to the west side one and then you can hit New Old Lompoc plus like Stumptown said a McMenamins)

If you are looking for casks and the whole European English style pub try the County Cork(which would make you close to Alameda brewing) OR even better The Moon and Six Pence. The Moon is a cleaner less smokey version of Horsebrass. The beer is better too..IMHO.

You can't go wrong at Widmer/Portland Brewings tap room, Rogue's Ale House, Bridgeport, Public Market, Rose and Raindrop(great unique selection).

I will also agree with everyone else who mentioned Walking Man in Stevenson,Wa. Check hours before you go but the sampler is a great intro to Walking Man. The Bonneville Hot Springs resort is near by...drop the wife off for a massage and go have a brew...or stay the night at the resort...great private hot tubs.

Last but not least...if you can plan the trip around the last week in July....COME TO OREGON BREWERS FEST...it will save you from having to run around. You can also be assured the best weather. The last week in July is the most temperate week on average here in Oregon.

Bud: I would have mentioned Rose and Raindrop first, but sadly it is no more.

Thanks guys, these were exactly what I'm looking for.
Pelican sounds like something my wife would love, and the trolley trip sounds like a lot of fun.
Thanks a lot; I'll have fun reading up on these.

I've only been as far west as Colorado, so i've not really had many PNW beers- some Full Sail, one Deschutes (Mirror Mirror), and then some Rogue, Pyramid & Bridgeport beers but that's about it. Really looking forward to trying beers i've not had yet.

in Seattle:

Elysian is good.
Big Time has heavy hoppy beers - way to heavy, in my opinion (but the food is pretty good)
Mannys Pale/Rogers Pilsner (not sure the name of the brewery - Georgetown maybe?) - not sure if they have a brewpub or not, but quite tasty
Hales Ales - tasty beer, tasty food as I remember
Baron Brewing - delicious German beers, I don't know if they have a pub
Maritime Pacific - good beer, never been to their pub

That's all that I know of... My current favorites are Mannys and Baron.

The Pelican works great cause you can kill the "see the coast" and the "I wanna drink beer" things ...2 in one shot!

At the Pelican, be sure to get the onion ring tower!!!!

I haven't had the onion tower but definately go to Pelican hungry. I haven't been to a brewery with better food. The fish and chips and pizzas are a personal favorite.

As much of a Rogue fanboy as I am, definately do Pelican if you go to the coast. You can get all the Rogue beer and atmostphere at the public house in Portland (and a distillery tour if you want).

This trip is quickly approaching (leaving June 22).

I think the Seattle International Beer Fest has been added to the agenda because a homebrewer friend in the area is interested in going. All these things (Saturday @ NHC in Denver, SIB) have seemed to fall right into our plans.

Still looking forward to hitting The Pelican & maybe Walking Man. The trolley thing sounds great, but i think my wife would sooner jab herself (and me) in the eye than go to that many breweries. In watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episode on PNW, I locked my sites on Apizza Scholls, a place that makes handmade pizza in Portland that is open maybe 4 hrs a night before they sell out. They had a fantastic beer selection (not huge, but really good beers- Lagunitas IPA/Maximus IPA, Old Rasputin), and the pizza sounded amazing. Anyone tried that place?

Any further suggestions on places to visit would be great. We're bringing the camping gear for Glacier Nat'l Park, so rustic/woodsy places are welcome.

The SIB is definitely a good one, the same festival is held in Portland as well (PIB). I prefer it to the OBF.

The trolley only runs on Sunday and dose not really go anywhere near all those bars. It runs on the Max lines between the Loyd Center Mall and the Central Library and maybe fun for the historical tour thing if you are into that. It does not go into NW pdx, the Lite car rail does and I have never found it very convenient. You can practically walk faster than that thing.

Here is a good map of all the pdx beer spots and beyond:

http://www.guestontap.com/map.shtml

Some places may not be on there but any of us could tell you were to go.

I don't usually like to talk crap about any of the pdx watering holes because I would rather you make your own conclusion, but when it comes to Mcm's it is a different story. If someone were to come to pdx and find the beers underwhelming its probably because they went to a McMenimans. They have a rep for bad service and so so food. There standard line up is ok but their seasonals are hit or miss, usually miss and I have given up ordering them. What they do well is in the atmosphere department and for that you want to go to the Kennedy School (which is close to Concordia Ale House, a must) or Edgfield which have a lot going on in one location, multiple bars, brewery, winery, distillery, hotel, three par course.

If I were coming to oregon on vacation I would do a beer tour on the coast, pdx, and the gorge. Other spots on the coast, Bill's tavern in Cannon Beach and Ft. George, the new Rough, and The Wet Dog in Astoria and plenty of places to camp, in fact there is a nice spot about 15 miles outside of town on hwy 30. If you think you may go to Walking Man, witch I suggest, there is plenty of good camping out there as well. From pdx you can hit the McMs Edgfield, site seeing at Multnomah Falls, then Hood River where you can find, Full Sail, Double Mountain, and the Big Horse. On the other side of the river in WA is Walking Man in Stevenson.

Eric I would suggest writing the Oregon Brewers Guild(http://oregonbeer.org/contact.html) and ask them to mail you a copy of the 2007 Oregon Brewpub Guide.

It is a great glossy color fold out map and brochure of all the breweries and brewpubs in the state. It also has a listing of bottle shops, brew supply shops, and beet events.

Addresses and phone numbers are listed for each location. The map includes a legend which lists the services at each location too(kid freindly, lunch/dinner served, smoking, entertainment, outdoor seating,etc...).

I live here and keep one in the car just to refer to when we are out on the town.

The listing is for all of Oregon but also has a great detail map of the Portland area locations too.

It is a must have. You can sometimes find it at some brew pubs and bottle shops.

Have fun!

At McCormick and Schmick's try to AVOID the clam chowder with a condom in it.. (sorry, silly reference to story about McCormick and Schmick's in LA)

Just don't go to McCormick and Schmick's....beer on tap..at least at the one in Bridgeport sucks.

one would assume that youd avoid ANYTHING with a condom in it, do they advertise a clam chowder without condoms? myself id not only avoid that one dish, but the whole establishment, i just dont trust a cook who thinks that latex prophylactics is the hight of fine dining

Thanks, Bud, I sent an email on that OR guide.

Dave, those sound like great suggestions, thanks. I'll look up some more on them.

You guys all forgot to mention Rainier Beer. Main stay for me when I lived in Olympia and Juneau. The brewery tour was cool, they used to have the coolest commercials on TV.

I know we are all older with more "sophisticated tastes", but we can't forget the free beers at the end of the tour that used to get us through those times of no money.

CLB

I can only think of one bar in town that has Rainier on tap, Vendetta. I maybe mistaken but I think it was Miller that bought out Rainier, Olympia Brewing, and definitely Blitz-Weinhards which is at least in part contract brewed by Full Sail. Oly is not available anywhere and I think Rainier is brewed at some other Miller location in WA. The last I drove by it, the old Rainier brewery was a Tulley's coffee factory. My buddies and I where always fond of the Rainier pounders in college.

End of an era...............very sad. The big boys will try to have control worldwide soon.

Thank god that homebrewing is the rising force in beer. We get to make what we like and everyday more people are discovering that fact.

CLB

If you want fancy schmancy pizza, I prefer Ken's Artisan Pizza over Apizza Scholls. Similar styles, but I think Ken's crusts are better and AS tends to burn the bottoms of their pizzas. Ken's doesn't have quite the same beer selection, but it's acceptable. Scholls beers tend to be overpriced by Portland standards.

I'll put in one more vote for Pelican. I've never had a beer there that I wouldn't order again. I can't say that about any other brewpub I've visited. Laurelwood runs a late happy hour after 9pm. The kids are all in bed by then (or at least should be, we've had our 3 year old there until 9:30 before).

Bend Desschutes Brewery
McMinnamins all over Portland area
Walking Man Brewery in Stevenson Wa
BJ Pizza in Portland has some good brews brewed in house
Of course everything that the others listed along the coast
Belmont station has 900 beers in stock here in portland

Ya I haven't been impressed by Belmont Station. Then again I am a bit spoiled as I have a Market of Choice near my house and also work close to John's

IMHO John's Market place is way better than Belmont station and has more out of the ordinary stuff. Plus they have better prices.

Give them a try....http://www.johnsmarketplace.com/

Ignore the beer listings on the website as they can be a bit more outdated. I put the URL up more as a way of finding them etc... The place looks just like an old supermarket on the outside put has an awesome selection of stuff.

If you do here you could hit the Lucky Lab Pub that is just a few blocks away. Also about 1 mile from here is Old Market pub and brewery which pretty good too.

In my experience, John's doesn't take nearly as good of care of their beer as Belmont. Given OLCC control over what beers can be imported, the selection is always going to be similar. There's not much you can do there (though Belmont's selection is bigger, especially in the new location).

I don't think enough good things can be said about Pelican. I wanted to hit them up one more time before I move but it isn't going to happen. I might come out this winter to do Pelican (and visit the GFs family).

As for the crust at A pizza scholls, they mean to char it. It's a New York thing. It is supposed to be the best new york style pizza west of the Mississippi. Personally I like Ken's or even Pizzicato about as much but I think a new yorker would tell you that APS is the best.

I think we've planned out our trip to hit Pelican on our way to the Inn at Otter Crest, coming from Portland. Should be an awesome drive.
Thanks a lot for the tips, guys.

Just checking in- NHC was good, and went to Seattle Internat'l Beerfest yesterday. Lots of the beers were out, but still found some great stuff. Tried Achel and Orval for the first time (haven't been able to find Achel where I live). Achel was a fave, but the Orval was extremely interesting after settling - lots of carbonation. While camping in Glacier Park, Deschutes' IPA was really good (Missoula had a somewhat limited beer selection).

Looking forward to hitting Pelican & Inn at Otter Crest in the next couple of days, just trying to maneuver schedules around July 4th. Thanks again for the tips!

I was at pelican on Saturday afternoon. It was packed but we got a table outside. Beautiful day. The food was great. Had the shark bites and onion ring tower to start it off. Washed that down with a sampler. Then had a cask IPA with dinner. Had the seafood red curry which was great. Everyone else that was with us had good food as well.

I hit Golden Valley brewery in McMinnville on the way back to PDX yesterday. I had the ten tap sampler which was very tasty. had a great nacho as well. If you go...sit on the patio.

I plan on hitting Pelican in August. FWIW there is a nice little campground that we like to go to that is just north of there. looking foward to going there again.

http://www.co.tillamook.or.us/gov/Parks/Whalen%20Island.pdf

My (in)famous street car booze cruise appears in today's Portland Tribune and Guest on Tap. Earned me $50 in Mac's Taproom and $25 in Laurelwood gift certificates too!!!

http://www.guestontap.com/

Nice work man. Cheers!

Just got home from this trip. I'll post a link to pics when they're up.

Grant, I just wanted to say THANKS for that campground tip! We drove out from Tacoma on July 3rd and called the place (they didn't really answer the phone consistently, but did return messages) and headed over and got one of their 30 spots. Definitely one of the best campsites we had our whole trip. Nice, quiet, and within walking distance of the beach. It was only about 5 miles from the Pelican, too. So thanks! Have fun when you go.

Rogue Public House was good on the 4th - the fireworks in Newport were cool. Also visited Roots in Portland on the way to the campsite on the 3rd- the Chocolate Habanero Porter was interesting. Pelican was awesome- had the crab cakes to start and then the fish and chips, both fantastic. Nice weather, great beach spot. The Cream Ale was good, but the cask IPA was just awesome. Was going to pick up a bottle of the Pelican Grand Cru, but it was like $15. So i opted for a bottle of the IPA. After eating at Apizza Scholls Thursday, we stopped at Belmont Station (right in the neighborhood on our way to the interstate). Took home about 9 beers from the trip- Moylan's Hopsickle, a couple Dick's beers, a Green Flash IIPA, a couple Lagunitas, a Rogue I can't get at home, and a Stone Epic 070707.

Also stayed at the Inn at Otter Crest on the 4th. Great spot on the beach- really scenic, nice rocky beach. Pool was a bit crowded, but it was a holiday. Nice sprawling kind of place, so there were plenty of places we could've walked to if we had time. One night wasn't really enough to enjoy it enough. Thanks for that tip Denny!

Glad you had a good time Eric. We enjoy camping at Whalen Island. It is not big, and does not have RV hookups, but we still like it! Its proximity to Pacific City, and the Pelican is what I like.

I am looking foward to sitting outside at the Pelican Pub, tipping a few pints while watching my kids wear themself out climbing up, then running down the big sand dune there.

Grant

My wife and I are considering a vacation in Oregon this year. Any new hot spots or places mentioned here that aren't around any more?

N8's house....

Portland spots that are newish: Hopworks Urban Brewery , Green Dragon, The Belgian Embassy, Max Fanno's...I am sure I will remember more when I get home

"N8's house...."

If I had heard good things about his beer, I might consider that.

Who said you were invited??

Denny

Actually, I'm heading to Dallas area in June. So, I'll need a few Dallas hotspots, if there are any..

I went to Big Bucks, in Grapevine, a few weeks ago. I'll definitely go back.

I guess I never posted the link to the pics from our trip. You'll have to dig through them all, but you can see some of the Pelican, maybe one or two at Roots, Rogue, and a couple at the Seattle Beerfest. Also, there are some pics of Whalen Island and Cape Kiwanda. Brewboy, i can't recommend that area enough. Beautiful, and The Pelican is well worth the trip.

http://www.chupetunes.com/Vacation_2007.html

Thanks, Eric.