Your Favorite Portland Winery/Brewery or Pub/Sites (Forest Grove, Hood River: houses, theatres)

[lolavanatta]

My BF and I are visiting Portland the first week in September (and considering moving there from Baltimore - we are 26 yr old). Our favorite past times are wine, beer, food, live music and the outdoors. I'd love to hear some opinions on the best places to taste these infamous microbrews. Also, any wineries in the area? Favorite sites? Sounds? Must-sees? Cheap/tasty eats?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I did a bunch of searches but am just not finding enough good info.

Thanks!
Lola

[MJinAustin]

Deschutes brewery is a must. Excellent beer. Excellent food.

[John Shaft]

Oh, my...where to begin? I can't believe you're not finding much info. I second the Deschutes Brewery, although I haven't been to the one in Portland yet. There's only like a billion other ones. McMenamins locations are worth a shot, too--many of their locations are built inside existing buildings so you get schools, theatres, etc. that have been converted to brewpubs. So there's unique atmospheres to these.

If you are up for a bit of driving around the general area, head out west/southwest of Portland to the wine country. There are a ton of wineries out there. Erath Vineyards has one of the better scenic locations, although I think there are better quality wines in the area. Ponzi Vineyards is one of the original innovators in Oregon's wine industry and they are closer to Portland than most of the others. The Carleton Winemakers Studio houses a bunch of very small labels so you can sample several labels at once. Cooper Mountain Vineyards has some sort of green-certified program (not a big draw for me but that makes it unique; plus their quality seems to be returning - the switch to green appeared to affect them for a while). Archery Summit is, I believe, by appointment only and is a sought-after label. And that is literally just scratching the surface.

You might also want to trek out to Forest Grove to SakeOne - a real-life sake brewery. I HIGHLY recommend it if you are in to sake at all.

[spacelord75]

Was just researching some things for my own vacation to Oregon/PDX and came across this thread. Having spent 2 weeks in Portland for work last year (the impetus for my vacation) I can tell you the places that I really, really liked as a fellow beer enthusiast. My personal favorite bars were Bridgeport, Widmer, and Henry's. Henry's has an absolutely amazing amount of beers on tap and a kind of cool atmosphere...we went there for happy hour pretty much daily. We also went to the Rogue Brewpub in the Pearl district and that was pretty cool too. Honestly there are so many you can just get a beer at each one and probably never hit them all.

[lolavanatta]

thanks for the great replies!

spacelord - henry's 12th street tavern?

[spacelord75]

Originally Posted by lolavanatta

thanks for the great replies!

spacelord - henry's 12th street tavern?

Yeah, that's it.

[babycoleslaw]

If you want to experience a beautiful drive and have a great beer at the end of it, head out east on I-84 to Hood River and stop at the Full Sail Brewing Co. They have fabulous food and great beer!
You can take the historic Hwy 30 as a detour off of 84 for some breathtaking stops in the Columbia Gorge and the waterfalls there...

[meltinjohn]

Originally Posted by MJinAustin

Deschutes brewery is a must. Excellent beer. Excellent food.

**** Deschutes, there is only one true brewpub to go and that my friends is the Lucky Labrador. Go to Roots but the beer is incredibly strong there.
Lucky Lab above all tho!

[roneb]

The previous posts mention most of the larger breweries/brew pub locations. But I'll second meltinjohn's vote for the Lucky Lab (especially the east side/Hawthorne location). Good brews and good food.

[pretzelman]

Baltimore can hold it's own for beer, but Portland will blow you away.

I'll third the Lucky Lab mention, and add Laurelwood (I like the old location at 40th & Sandy more than the new one, but check both for different brews).

And Widmer may well pour the cheapest pints of quality beer in the city (country?), it's only $2 a pint certain day & times and there are always several seasonals/non-bottles options, typically very nice stuff.

Oh and let's not forget Bridgeport, noted mainly by me for it's constant selection of at least 2-3 cask-conditioned options.....very nice.

I used to live in Portland and miss many things there but the amazing beer scene may be missed above all!

Have fun!