Review: Trusty Brewing Co., Vancouver, WA

Review: Trusty Brewing Co., Vancouver, WA The second brewery visited on Friday, Feb. 10th in downtown Vancouver was Trusty Brewing Company. Located just down the street from Old Ivy Taproom and Brewery (prior review to this one), Trusty is in the old Dirty Hands Brewing location at the corner of Evergreen and Broadway. The brewery/restaurant has a small outdoor patio with tables out front and a few rooms with different sized tables to accomodate small and larger parties. The interior as you can see is a lot of old wood, classic and retro decor, a couple of large boards with the available beers and some food listings and a smaller bar to sit at. The food prep area is just next to the bar, so you can watch them make your food if you so prefer. This visit was the thrid time I’ve been since Dirty Hands sold. The first couple of times the beer wasn’t as good as it was this time around. My friends and I spent about an hour talking about them and the evolution of some of the other breweries downtown. I appreciate their low beer and food prices, while offering a decent variety of beers. …

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Review: Old Ivy Brewery and Taproom, Vancouver, WA

Review: Old Ivy Brewery and Taproom, Vancouver, WA Located in downtown Vancouver, the Old Ivy Brewery and Taproom has been around for a few years with a strong lineup of beers and a newly renovated food menu. This is one of the many stops that I visit on Fridays with my “Couve Crew” after work, we usually start here or at one of the other breweries in the downtown area. If we don’t start there, we’ll typically make a stop there for at least a pint over the course of the evening. This time around, I visited them on Friday, Feb. 10th solo before meeting the guys down the street at Trusty Brewing (which will be reviewed next). I’ve got to say that the Old Ivy head brewer, Chris Spollen, has done a tremendous job of making some solid, consistent beers. I was lucky a few years or so ago to home-brew some beer at a mutual friends (Erin Stephens) and got to chat with Chris about his approach to brewing and see his skills first hand. The taproom and brewery has a great paito space that is wonderful during the summer months, but not so much when it’s rainy …

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Review: Great Notion Brewing, Portland, OR

Review: Great Notion Brewing, Portland, OR One of the great new additions to the Portland brewing scene in 2016 is Great Notion Brewing. I have been able to visit them a few times since they opened and most recently on Feb. 7th, 2017 with a few of my beer loving friends for happy hour. Great Notion is known for pushing the flavor boundaries of barrel aged and unfiltered beers, most notibly their fruit and sour beers. The one warning I have to give about this great brewery, is that they are an all ages restaurant, so unless you can handle being around a lot of kids, you might want to try and visit them during later hours. The brewery is located in the former “Mash Tun Brewing” location on NE 22nd, just south of NE Alberta St. next to Pine St. Biscuits. They are in the heart of the Alberta Arts District and have a lot of local customers but their parking is limited to on-street so you may have to walk a little bit to get there if it’s during regular dining hours. The front of the business is pretty non-descript with a sign above their front door and …

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Review: Victor-23 Brewing, Vancouver, WA

Review: Victor-23 Brewing, Vancouver, WA One of the newest breweries in Vancouver, Victor-23 Brewing opened back in September 2016 and is going strong today. Their name is based on the historical figure D.B. Cooper, who hijacked a commercial flight out of Portland and jumped from it over the Cascades with $200,000 in randsom money, never to be seen again. They use the airline and parachute theme with their branding and decor at the brewery location with some great artwork, and the name Victor-23 was the call-sign of that infamous flight. It works pretty well in creating a unique environment to enjoy their local brews. As shown, you can see a pretty good sized brewing system in place and they’ve started barrel aging some of their beers recently. They are also doing some custom blends with smaller batches to experiement with the product. You have to ask for them at the bar, they are not on the beer list. One of the great things about them, is that they are located less than 2 minutes away from my job, so I’m able to stop by on a Friday for drinks with my friends without much hassle. I was lucky to visit …

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Review: Zoiglhaus Brewing Company, Portland, OR

Review: Zoiglhaus Brewing Company, Portland, OR Late in 2015 a new brewery opened in SE Portland called Zoiglhaus Brewing. The brewer was from one of our favorite local breweries, Pints Brewing, so we had to go check them out. While it’s a typically not the best idea to visit a newly opened restaurant/brewery right after they open, we took the chance and drove down to SE and test our luck. We are glad that we did the first time, and have been back a few times since as their beer lineup and food is worth the stop if you’re in SE by I-205/SE Foster. You should note that they have a large parking lot on the north end of the building if you can’t find any on-street parking in front. They do have a couple of large dining room areas, bar area, kids play area, and a production room in the back. You can see the brew kettles from the bar area if you look to the NE from it. They were not producing any beer on site when we visited them the first time, but since have started production on site. We have kept track of the beers since …

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Review: Bent Shovel Brewing, Clackamas County, OR

Review: Bent Shovel Brewing, Clackamas County, OR The fourth brewery and final stop for the Sunday, Nov. 20th 2016 expedition was Bent Shovel Brewing located in rural Clackamas county, SE of Damascas just off of the Clackamas River. We again had no idea what to expect when we got there, quickly realized that the brewery was in the barn of the brewers yard. There were chickens running about, a few canopies to sit under, and inside the barn was the production tanks (10bbl system), some swag on the wall, a small bar to order at with the chalkboard of available drafts on it, and they do offer full pints, tasters, growlers, swag, and kegs to go. For a Sunday afternoon, there was a lot of people there inside so we ended up sitting outside under one of the canopies. Also, they don’t have an outside bathroom, but a porta-potty, so if that’s an issue for you, then don’t go. When we went in and talked with the brewer/owner Rick Strauss, he said that he and his friends started home brewing many many years ago and they kept getting great feedback and winning awards/medals for their home brews, so they decided …

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