Review: Drinking Horse Brewing Company, Clackamas, OR

Review: Drinking Horse Brewing Company, Clackamas, OR The third brewery we stopped at on our Sunday, Nov. 20th 2016 expedition was Drinking Horse Brewing Company located in Clackamas OR. Clackamas is a suburb to the South East of Portland. You will find this brewery behind the Wichita Pub in an industrial complex/building just off of HW212. Parking isn’t an issue, there’s plenty of that around. Their signage has a little to be desired, so you need to keep an eye out for them when you’re driving through. Like most breweries just starting out, the easiest way to have a taproom is at the production facility. They have a small bar set up and a few random tables and chairs to hang out at while you sample or have a pint. They do have a ping-pong table by the front entrance and some couches to hang out on if you so desire. The brewing production kettles are towards the back, and they do have some barrels that they are doing some aging in along one wall as well. The large chalkboard above the seating area has their lineup, which the day we visited had nine beers listed and a few ‘comming …

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Review: Grixsen Brewing Company, Portland, OR

Review: Grixsen Brewing Company, Portland, OR The second brewery we stopped at on Sunday, Nov. 20th 2016 was Grixsen Brewing Company. They are located in SE Portland off of SE Division St. & 10th. Devin, Stan (the not-so-grumpy-stan) and I were not sure what to expect going out to this brewery, as we had not had their beers before and from what we had seen online, they are doing a pretty decent job of making a wide variety of styles. So, after having lunch at Wayfinder in close-in SE, we drove down to Grixsen (less than 5 min away by car) and found them off of SE Division in an up-in-comming neighborhood. The outside doesn’t look like much, but they do have a couple of rooms you can hang out in, one is the taproom with the bar and tables, the other has a ping-pong table and sofas to hang out in. The production area is back beyond the taproom and is visible from it. The beer list is next to the bar, you can’t miss it. They have a pretty good lineup of beers available by taster, pint, and growler fill. Be it that we went on a Sunday …

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Review: Wayfinder Beer, Portland, OR

Review: Wayfinder Beer, Portland, OR We set out on Sunday 20th November 2016 to visit 4 breweries that were new and unknown to us in the Portland/metro area. The first stop was Wayfinder, they had the best (only) food reviews of the four breweries we intended to visit, so that’s where we started. They are located in the SE industrial district of Portland, about 1/2 a block from Produce Row on on SE 2nd. They have a huge patio and walkup to the front of the brewery/restaurant, and inside, they have a bar area, restaurant area, brewing production area, and overall commercial vibe. The unfortunate thing was that they were not producing beer on site when we visited in Nov. They were doing collaborations with various other breweries, and still are to this day. We were able to find a table in the bar area, and ordered a lineup of tasters of their beers (all 4 of them) and some food for lunch. The menu changes between lunch and dinner, so depending on when you go, it will range from decent ‘top end’ bar food, to really good dinner food. The beer list is quite extensive with imports from Europe …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: KettleHouse Brewing Co., Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #38)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: KettleHouse Brewing Co., Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #38) (recovered post) The 38th and final brewery visited during our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was the KettleHouse Brewing Company in Missoula Montana. The Northside Brewery location was our final tour stop for Missoula and the trip, unfortunately they were not pouring when we arrived. Luckily I’ve been to this and their downtown south location on a prior trip to Missoula and had experienced the beers before. If you go to Missoula, make sure you get to the breweries prior to 8pm. By law, breweries/taprooms are not allowed to serve after 8pm, but can do growler fills until 9pm. I know this doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it is. We finished up our dinner and sampling at Flathead Lake and did the quick drive up to KettleHouse thinking we’d get there in time, but we didn’t. As you can see from the pictures, they are located in an old shipping terminal along the railroad tracks. It’s kind of a hard place to get to if you don’t have navigation, so make sure you have that or a good map. …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Flathead Lake Brewing Co., Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #37)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Flathead Lake Brewing Co., Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #37) (recovered post) The 37th brewery visited during our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was the Flathead Lake Brewing Company and Pubhouse in Missoula Montana. It was approaching dinner time, and we decided to visit Flathead Lake Brewings downtown Missoula location to get some food and try their lineup. This is a higher-end restaurant and pubhouse with no brewery production on site, but they do have a great setting for hanging out. The building they are located in has two floors. The upstairs is the ‘sports bar’ type vibe, the first floor room is more for the ‘fine dining’ approach. We did take a look at the upstairs, but decided for the beer tasting and dinner to stick with the first floor. As this was not the first time I’d been to this pubhouse, I was looking forward to trying their beers again, and perhaps some of the guest taps they had available from Blackfoot, Blacksmith, and Big Sky. We settled on a table towards the back of the dining area, and ordered up a round of their tasters and …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Draught Works Brewery, Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #36)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Draught Works Brewery, Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #36) (recovered post) The 36th brewery visited during our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was the Draught Works Brewery in Missoula Montana. The third stop in Missoula brought us to a larger and popular brewery just down the street from Imagine Nation. This brewery used to be a recycling center, and it’s got a really local vibe going on. When we pulled up, we were super lucky and got a parking spot, we didn’t know that there was live music going on, but alas there was a band playing and their patio and inside were really packed with people. As summer hangouts go, you couldn’t do much better than this for a wide range of beers, comfortable setting, and great music. The patio is quite large, and the production tanks are just inside the door. The main room is huge with tons of tables and a long bar to sit or order at. We found ourselves a couple of spots at the bar, taking turns standing. The bartenders were really busy, but willing to pour us a full lineup of samples …

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