Beer in PDX - as good as Stone Brewery? (Portland: how much, home)

[OmShanti]

I am a serious fan of high quality, craft beer (not the hoppy IPA stuff, but Hefes and lighter ales) and have a seriously amazing brewery right down the street - Stone Brewery. Stone Brewing Co.

I don't know if it had made it to the Pacific Northwest yet, but this place is a San Diego hub for beer. Gourmet, organic, raised on their farm, delicious food, movie nights (The Big Lebowski is coming up!) and a huge brewery and bar for all the beer enjoying that you want. They encourage people to hang out, drink (responsibly), and have fun. There's a few other smaller craft brew places around too that are my hangouts for various days of the week - I know the owners of most of them that's how much I'm there with my group of friends.

Is there any hangout breweries like that in Portland that have good beer? (Not Pabst, Coors, Miller, Bud, etc...craft brew!)

I've heard that PDX is the Microbrew/Craft brew capitol of the world. I thought San Diego was - we have over 50 craft breweries around the county - but National Geographic says Portland is

I've done some google searches and havn't come up with much, but just from a website it's hard to garner the popularity and quality of a place.

[PNW-type-gal]

You have to be kidding.

Start here:

Oregon Brewers Guild
Oregon Brewers Festival

[OmShanti]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

You have to be kidding.

Start here:

Oregon Brewers Guild
Oregon Brewers Festival

I did come up upon those links, and am pretty excited I'll be moved by the Oregon Brewers Festival.

I really want some info on hangout spots and input on cool places to spend an afternoon and meet some people (I will be leaving all of my friends behind). The list is great, but again, not looking for a list I want a personal opinion on THE best places to go. I can't get that from a website.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by OmShanti

I did come up upon those links, and am pretty excited I'll be moved by the Oregon Brewers Festival.

I really want some info on hangout spots and input on cool places to spend an afternoon and meet some people (I will be leaving all of my friends behind). The list is great, but again, not looking for a list I want a personal opinion on THE best places to go. I can't get that from a website.

You can't get that here, either - there are all kinds of pubs, breweries, taverns which appeal to different people. Generally the difference between Portland and other cities is that even mediocre taverns and bars have some good beer on tap.

For starters, when you get here try:
BRIDGEPORT

Also the Bridgeport Pub on Hawthorne.

Try all the McMenamin's
McMenamins - Home Page
they have everything from your standard pub in a strip mall up through converted grade schools and other old buildings. A lot of them have live music as well.

Also, not on the menu, try a Rubinator at McMenamin's - half Ruby and half Terminator Stout.


There are also a bunch of homebrew stores that have brewing nights - you can make your own beer, store it on-site and then bottle it there and take it home as well. Steinbart's, Bader Brewing (I forget which Bader twin was the "replicator" columnist for Brewing magazine for years, but you can find a replica recipe for just about anything) up in Vancouver.....

[hamellr]

Portland has a rich beer culture. The first brewery was built the year after the city incorporated in 1852. Henry Weinhard bought his second Oregon brewery in 1862 and increased production from 2000 barrels to 40,000 in ten years. They switched to brewing Root Beer during prohibition, and then went back to beer afterwards. The original brewery building is now a fairly upscale pub with over 100 beers on tap. The other two building have long been torn down.

The McMenamins chain alone has 55 locations. They were the first "brew pub" with the Hillsdale pub in 1985. According to Museumofthecity.org there are 81 Brewing companies and 87 breweries in Oregon. 38 of those are within Portland city limits.

There are Portlanders who will spend an entire weekend driving around and drinking a pint at each brewpub of a certain chain. There are also busses that do the same thing (and people pay good cash to do so!) The Naked Bike Ride, and the Santa Parade both started in and center around Brewpubs.

Some of the best built fermenting and brewing equipment in the world comes from two Oregon companies. One deals exclusively in Beer equipment, while the other also dabbles in building equipment for wineries and distilleries (of which Oregon has a lot of both too.)

The official Oregon Travel web site has an entire page dedicated to Oregon Breweries.

Rouge Breweries has a modest list of medals. Most of these companies practice sustainability to one extent or another. And there is a fairly nice blog about the Oregon Brew scene.

[Rob Allen]

What part of town will you be in? That will help narrow it down. There are too many to start listing them here.

But what the hell, let's try:

You can find a McMenamins - Home Page in many neighborhoods; I've always had good beer and good times in any McMenamin's I've ever been in.

The other big names in craft beer here are Portland Brewing/MacTarnahan's, Bridgeport, Widmer Bros. (known for their hefeweizen), Rogue, Full Sail, and Deschutes. All of them have pubs of their own in addition to being available all over town. There are also well-known independents like Hopworks, Lucky Labrador, New Old Lompoc, Raccoon Lodge, Hair of the Dog and Rock Bottom (which is part of a chain, but there's only one in Portland).

I'm sure I've forgotten a few good ones, and there are places that don't brew their own beer but have lots of great beer available, like the 50+ taps at the Dublin Pub.

I think you're going to like it here.

[Metlakatla]

Some people will tell you McMenamins is good...but their places are more about environment and ambiance than really good craft beer though now and then they come out with something fairly okay. They're chain "microbreweries"...though I don't know that anything is actually brewed on site anymore at their places--- but some of the buildings they're set up in are amazing and worth seeing in their own right. The reason I brought them up is because there tends to be mention of them in any conversation regarding the Portland/Oregon beer scene. Some people love them and to others they're the MickeyD's of microbrews.

Otherwise, Horse Brass Pub is good for English style. Pyramid Breweries has Oregon Honey Beer. You'll definitely end up at Amnesia when you're doing your microbrew exploration. You'll want to go to the Biercafe at Belmont Station...not a microbrewery in it's own right but rather a showcase type place for local craft beer certain times of the year they even have lambic on tap.

Edit...to say that I wrote my couple of sentences about McMenamin's before any of the other responses mentioning it (got called away from my desk and it sat there unposted for awhile). It wasn't directed at any of those, just a personal opinion.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

There is also a very good chance that your next door neighbor makes his or her own beer.
Mine do.

[Rob Allen]

McMenamin's definitely brews onsite. Not all of their pubs are breweries, but they have 16 breweries in Oregon (10 of them in the Portland area) and 8 more in Washington (2 of them near Portland). McMenamins - McMenamins Breweries Home

[bitko]

My ultimate FAVE McMenamin's is the Fulton Pub on SW Nebraska Ave in John's Landing in Portland.

McMenamins - Fulton Pub & Brewery Home

There you'll discover Captain Neon's Fermentation Chamber - where the ale is ALIVE!!!!!

I'm unsure if they host live entrainment. The music they play is always good, though as are the folks working there and the patrons.

As for pub grub, you have Ken's Communication Breakdown Burger and wonderful appetizers (what you eat before you eat).

Like the fellow above, McMenamin's is one of many craft brewers in the mighty yet gorgeous Pacific NorthWest. The West Coast is the best coast that gets better the further North you go. All of the brews, however, are strong ales. So one or two pints do me just fine.

As context, my fave brew is Guinness on draught and in the nitro charge draught cans. Guinness is around 4.4 ABV and 126 calories per 12 ounces (versus 110 cals for nasty Bud light and 96 cals for nastier Michelob ultra).