Home Archive by category "Portland" (Page 4)

Category: Portland

Review: Baerlic Brewing, Portland Oregon

BAERLIC BREWING, PORTLAND OREGON Baerlic Brewing in SE Portland was the fourth and final brewery we visited on Saturday, January 24th 2015. We had not been back to Baerlic since it opened and they have refined their recipes considerably since then. This was a great surprise. In the interim, we have been able to try their beers at a few festivals recently which was partly reason to revisit their location and provide you with this review. The brewery is located in the Ladd’s Edition neighborhood next to a large sports bar called Blitz on SE 11th. It should be pointed out that the brewery doesn’t have a kitchen, so no food available to order other than table snacks and they ‘highly’ recommend that you purchase something from one of the multitude of nearby restaurants and bring your own food in. There is also some great outdoor seating that is used year round. The inside seating area and bar area are bright, open, spacey, and have lots of seating available. Behind the bar they have a large board with the available beers on draft (see pictures) and they do have taster trays available to order as well as pints, growler fills, …

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Review: Pints Brewing Company, Portland Oregon

PINTS BREWING COMPANY, PORTLAND OREGON Pints in downtown Portland Oregon was the third of four breweries we visited on Saturday, January 24th 2015. This is a really cool place that’s been around for a number of years and with a good grasp on their beer production. The breweries location in Old Town is both a blessing for those that take mass transit (as it’s on the Max line) and painful for those that drive, as there is only limited metered on-street parking nearby. You can see from the pictures posted that they have two doorways to enter through at the front with a few signs and tables to sit on the sidewalk. They do allow you to take glass pints outside, so if you are willing to risk it, then you can take your pint outside and sip it under the sun, or in the case of those sitting outside when we visited, the fog. From the street, this looks like a coffee house, as the initial room you enter into is somewhat small with limited seating and a few TV’s that they show sports or whatever you ask them to turn on (Sci or History channel, etc.). We had …

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Review: Fat Head’s Brewing, Portland Oregon

FAT HEAD’S BREWING, PORTLAND OREGON I visited this brewery and restaurant on Wednesday January 15th with a good friend Stan. He’s got a LOT of experience with beer judging and tasting and was happy to visit with me. I would like to thank him for his willingness to help me become a better reviewer of beers as my skills at it are still somewhat lacking the vocabulary it really needs. This restaurant and brewery is really big and open. Some would call it corporate in nature as they have locations in more than one city across the US. The left the rafters exposed, hung industrial lighting, put the brewing tanks on the west side of the inside behind large windows. The food menu is really expansive and caters to the larger portion sizes common to the mid-west restaurant scene. They have just about any sort of food you can imagine. We have not been disappointed with the quick service and knowledgeable bar tenders. When we ordered a taster of all of their beers, they normally do paddles of 5 at a time, but the bartender just brought them to us 3 at a time until we had all 15 of …

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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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