Home Archive by category "Oregon" (Page 5)

Category: Oregon

Humbug Lager Fest, Portland OR

HUMBUG LAGER FEST, PORTLAND OR The 2014 Humbug LagerFest is back again to celebrate lager beers this holiday season! It took place on Saturday December 13th, at Occidental Brewing in Portland Oregon. This year they had 18 lagers on draft for sampling. There was no price for admission, tokens were $1/ea and 1 token = 1 sample. The brewery utilized it’s two main rooms to pour 8 samples at each. The main room had tables and some barrels to stand at. There were a LOT of people there when I stopped by, so finding a place to stand was tricky. The bartenders were working really fast, and there was little to no waiting at the bar for pours. The 2nd room which is used for storage of empties was used for the food stand and a LOT of the empty pre-production cans from the brewery along two sides. Occidental Brewing is located in the far north end of Portland, in the St. John’s neighborhood under the St. John’s bridge, just a few blocks from the Willamette River. The brewery is the south side of an industrial building and there’s plenty of on-street parking. The food stand this year was from …

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Holiday Ale Festival, Portland OR

HOLIDAY ALE FESTIVAL, PORTLAND OR The 2014 Winter Holiday Ale Festival in downtown Portland, December 3rd-6th, is one of the funner festivals to attend for beer lovers. This year like every year we’ve gone in the past, had a number of seasonal/one-off’s/rare beers that are made especially for this event by local and west coast brewers. There is no cost for admission (as with most beer fests), the cost comes in buying the tasting glass/plastic cup, and the tokens or tickets. The standard package was $35 and included a plastic tasting mug and 12 tickets. 3 oz. tastes were normally 1 ticket, but some specialty beers were 2, 3, or even 4 per pour with 4-8 tickets for a full mug (10oz) pour. I did try a few of the more ‘expensive’ rare beers and none of them disappointed. The festival has been downtown Portland at Pioneer Courthouse Sq. for quite a few years, and the layout of the fest has been consistent, which we all appreciated. They have an upper tasting area w/ a side bar and two main tasting areas with food vendors in between. The tents are heated, and unfortunately on Saturday afternoon, it was warm outside …

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Review: Gigantic Brewing, Portland OR

GIGANTIC BREWING, PORTLAND OR This is the second spot we went to on during a little Sunday brewery tour (30 Dec. 2014). Gigantic Brewing Company is located in deep South East Portland a few blocks south of SE Holgate in an industrial area with on-street parking. This is a somewhat small building with room for about 30 people inside and a large patio out front. If it’s cold outside, you may not be able to find a place to sit inside, so be prepared to stand. There is a food cart parked next door (literally 10 paces from the door) that has food during normal business hours. The decor inside is somewhat of an art gallery with prints and objects for sale, as well as a big TV to watch Timbers matches on. We’ve never ran into kids inside, as I’m going to take a guess that it’s considered a bar. During warm months, there might be some outside on the patio when it’s open. Oh, and the patio is dog friendly as well. Regarding their beers, Gigantic has made a name for itself with strong, in your face beers. They have slowly expanded what they have on tap at …

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Review: Migration Brewing, Portland OR

MIGRATION BREWING, PORTLAND OR We stopped by Migration on a Sunday afternoon (30 Dec. 2014) as it’s one of our favorite NE breweries in Portland and it’s super conveniently located just south of NE Sandy off of 28th. They have a really friendly neighborhood vibe and super knowledgeable staff that make sure you’re taken care of. Years ago, when they first opened, they had a patio and small inside that was always packed. Now, they have an annex next to the main room and that helps keep the crowds spread out. As with most small breweries that serve food, you will run into CRIpods everywhere, there is no safe place except standing at the bar. On that note, the patio is super cool to hang out at when it’s nice outside and watch the kids run around if you’re into that. The walls have some sports memorabilia in tribute to the Trailblazers and the Timbers. Look up and check out their limited run scarves hanging in the rafters. They do put sports on their HDTV’s and run food/beer specials during games. Regarding their food, it’s somewhat limited to what you might consider as bar food, but it works when you’re …

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Review: Laurelwood Brewing, Portland OR

LAURELWOOD BREWING, PORTLAND OR This was the second stop on our Black Friday brewery crawl (28 Nov. 2014). The NE Sandy brewery location has some parking on the back and east side of the building. Inside, it has some windows to look in on what the brewers are up to and a full accompaniment of swag from clothing, hats, sauces (mustard, BBQ, etc.) for purchase at the front counter. The restaurant itself is broken into a few parts. The two main sections inside are for kids and large groups, the patio is only used during warm weather months. The bar area has self seating as well as seated booths towards the back. Keep in mind, that there are always a lot of kids in this restaurant, so you can not really get away from the criPODS if that’s important to you when enjoying a beer. The bar area is where we sat, next to the NE Sandy street entrance at a long table top in front of a huge picture window to watch the cars and people go by. The service at this location has always been good, and the bartender was quick to come over. Their menu is full …

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Review: Alameda Brewing, Portland OR

ALAMEDA BREWING, PORTLAND OR We stopped at a few breweries on Black Friday (28 Nov. 2014) when we were out and about, and this was were we went for lunch. We’ve been to Alameda brewing (EST. 1996) a number of times in the past and it’s always been a decent experience. As this is a brewery in a busy business/residential neighborhood, you need to be warned that there is a good chance that the table next to you, will have kids at it. Their food is better than bar food overall, with a large variety of sammiches, burgers, salads, and various other styles of food represented. The servers can be super busy at times, so you gotta be patient or sit at their bar top for quick service. The building itself is really echo-y (high ceilings), with brewery swag in a case to look at the front and brewery equipment/tanks being right there next to the bar. Their brewers work during the day, so if you stop at lunch, you might see them working, which is cool. Overall, it’s a decent place to go, their beers tend to be more middle of the road than memorable. I can honestly recommend …

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