Home Archive by category "Brewery" (Page 12)

Category: Brewery

Review: Brannon’s Pub and Brewery, Beaverton Oregon

BRANNON’S PUB AND BREWERY, BEAVERTON OREGON UPDATE: This brewery/restaurnat closed in 2016 due to management issues. We spent our usual Wednesday happy-hour outing this week (21 January 2015) taking a little road trip out to Beaverton Oregon to visit Brannon’s Brewery. This is basically a brewery in a strip mall. Totally a commercial vibe like a chain restaurant with lots of brushed metal and a huge dinning area, brewery equipment in the back behind windows, game room w/ darts, banquet rooms, and bar area with tables and bar seating (no kids in that area). I do have to mention that the bar has odd shaped tables around the outside wall and LCD TVs in the wall at each of the bar tables with USB and outlets to plug your stuff in, which is nice. There is also a tablet that is attached to the wall that controls the TV and has stuff on it that you can ‘do’ while there. The TV at the table (literally 1 foot from your face) is incredibly distracting and makes it easy to ignore the people you are sitting with. The food menu has a good variety of American fare with slightly elevated prices. …

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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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Review: Fábrica Maravillas, Madrid Spain

FÁBRICA MARAVILLAS, MADRID SPAIN On an early January afternoon we ventured out in Madrid seeking one of the only local breweries in town. This brewery is on a small old city street called Calle Valverde, not far from where our hotel was located. This brewery has a few tables outside to sit at when it’s warm and just a few tables inside and a bar to sit at if you can find a seat. They do have menus available in English and Spanish which give the descriptions of the beer and light tapas food they offer. Inside you will find modern decor, exposed wood and brick make the vibe really hip compared to many shops and eateries in the neighborhood that are not so. The staff is super friendly and willing to help you with the beers, which the offer in a couple of different sizes. I’ve read the owner and brewer is from Chicago, which explains the Americdan style microbrewery vibe to the joint. We definitely recommend this spot to anyone seeking good craft beer in Madrid! You will see in the pictures that they do have their brewing equipment just behind the bar and you can ask the …

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Review: Blacklab Brewhouse & Kitchen, Barcelona Spain

BLACK LAB BREWHOUSE & KITCHEN, BARCELONA SPAIN We discovered the BlackLab Brewhouse + Kitchen in Barcelona during our trip in January this year (2015) and were lucky enough to meet the brewer and owner Matt during our visit. Matt is an ex-pat from Duluth MN. that brought his love for beer with him when he moved to Barcelona. The location is on the NE side of the Meseu d’Historia de Catalunya building on the Barcelona waterfront and recently opened, so the inside is somewhat ‘modern’ in style, with minimal decorations and vibe. There is outdoor seating and plenty of indoor space at the bar and restaurant rooms. The menu is somewhat of a cross between Asian-fusion and pub food. We ordered some fries and they were hot, spicy, and delicious. They offer tastings of any of their beers (which they only had 2 of their own as they had just opened a few weeks prior and their brewing equipment was not there yet) and any of the guest taps they have. The super friendly servers/bar tenders speak English, Spanish and a variety of other languages and love chatting with the customers. This really does make this place friendly and easy …

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Review: Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona, Spain

FÀBRICA MORITZ, BARCELONA SPAIN Moritz is a large scale, international beer producer that has opened a ‘microbrewery’ in Barcelona. So imagine if Miller/Coors opened a ‘specialty’ beer bar with just their beers on draft. I know that Mortiz doesn’t make the best product in Europe, but it’s great to see them marketing their product in a cool way with a wonderful space and awesome food. When we visited the location in Barcelona, we didn’t realize that there are 4 different parts to this brewery taking up almost 1/2 of the block it’s located at (production in the basement as well). To include: Wine & Beer bar, Restaurant, bakery, and gift shop. Each has a different vibe and a separate entrance, but linked together with passages inside. The color scheme is vibrant florescent orange (like their logo) in the lighting overhead and it is really trippy. The location is purely modern in design with exposed brick, with a cross between cafe and upscale dining. The bakery has fresh sweets, breads and various eats to go, the gift shop is truly amazing. The marketing dept must have carte-blanche and an unlimited budget because they have tons of crazy stuff with their logo …

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Review of 5 Breweries, Altstadt Dusseldorf Germany

5 BREWERIES IN ALTSTADT, DÜSSELDORF GERMANY We spent a few days in Düsseldorf visiting some of our friends, and were lucky enough to have the time to visit the Altstadt, or “Old Town” area which is one of my favorite places in Germany. This is a beautiful, classic town center that holds a LOT of breweries, restaurants, shops and bars. Every time we visit, we try to spend as much time as we can in this district discovering new and exciting things to buy, drink and eat. This time around we noticed a large Ferris wheel that was built recently on the river-walk/promenade which operates year round. While the weather was cold, rainy and foggy (late Dec. 2014), we made the best of it and walked around as much as we could. The breweries located in the Altstadt range from 100’s of years old, to just a few years old. The variety of Altbiers that are available is somewhat stunning, as this one type of beer usually has a full body, present malt and grain build, and sometimes a floral to spicy hop presence. You will find that every brewery does it differently and sometimes more successfully than others. Just …

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