This was my third trip to Oregon, and I very much enjoy the area. As I have mentioned in a previous post, Portland is known as "Beervana" due to the large number of breweries in the area.
I always look forward to taking advantage of that fact when I visit my friend Alan. We planned our own beer tour on the first day of my visit. Unfortunately, the trip was several weeks ago, so time (not to mention the beer) have started to dull my memories. I do remember that our first stop was not a bar, club or restaurant but a food cart to grab some lunch. After walking past the various carts lining Alder Street, Ninth Avenue, and Tenth Avenue, we chose Emame’s Ethiopian Cuisine. While the food was excellent, it turned out not to be quite as enjoyable as our beer crawl progressed.
I do not remember the name of first bar that we visited, but it was know for the number of whiskeys it carried as can be seen in my photos. Instead of a whiskey, I had a pint of the Total Domination IPA from Ninkasi Brewing Company. I finished the glass, but I would not say that I particularly enjoyed the brew. Our second stop on the tour was Silver Dollar Pizza II. I enjoyed a glass of the Sweet Leaf from Off The Rail Brewing which is located in Forest Grove, Oregon.
For our next stop, we crossed Broadway and stopped into Bailey’s Taproom. This place recently replaced their previous method of displaying the list of their beers with a large display located above the bar. I enjoyed a very nice Kölsch-style ale from Occidental Brewing Company which is named Cloudy Summer. Alan has trouble finishing off his Bourbon Barrel Cappuccino Stout from Lagunitas Brewing Company. Together, we managed to finish off the glass. After Bailey’s, we crossed Ankeny which is a small side street and stepped into Tugboat Brewing Company where I had a Amber Lamps.
Things now start getting particularly hazy. Luckily, I have my handy dandy Twitter account to remind me of the beers I consumed, albeit not exactly where I consumed them. The next beer on the list is a hefeweizen from Pyramid Breweries which is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. For a time, this brew was branded as "Haywire Hefeweizen", but the name has since reverted back to just "Hefeweizen" with the "Haywire" being dropped by the wayside.
The hefeweizen was followed by Twilight Summer Ale from Deschutes Brewery which is one of the Oregon's more well-known breweries. Skipping ahead to Saturday, I accompanied Alan along with his wife and daughter to a picnic for his company which Alan has been responsible for organizing. At the picnic, I had bottles of Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter both of which are from Deschutes. I also had a bottle of Widmer Hefeweizen from Widmer Brothers Brewery. At the picnic, I enjoyed a small box of maple and bacon ice cream from Fifty Licks Ice Cream in Portland. The maple leaf on the box represents the maple flavor is not a reference to my previous stop in Canada.
Backing up a bit, Friday night continued with beer tastings at the Cascade Brewing Barrel House. I chose to taste sour beers which were on the fruity side. I had the 2011 Nightfall Blackberry, the 2010 Apricot Ale, the 2010 Sang Royal, and the 2010 Kriek. Honestly, I mostly remember those beers being difficult to drink.
Moving on to Saturday night, Alan and I decided to hit some bars in his Lake Oswego neighborhood. We started with some beers at Maher's Irish Brew Pub. There I enjoyed some Magners Irish Cider with Guinness layered on top. The next stop was Firehouse Pub where we ordered a couple of baskets of chicken wings. The wings were over the top on the hot sauce. The extra hot wings led to copious amounts of beer of which I lost track. According to Twitter, I had a blonde ale from some brewing company with "Island" in the name. That turns out to be not particularly useful information. We finished up the night down the street at Gemini Bar and Grill, but those beers are also lost to the drunken haze.
I did have one more Oregon brew before flying home. In the Portland airport, I had a draft of Mom Hefeweizen from Rogue. It seems this beer is also known as Half-E-Weizen, but I will not hold the various names against it. Anyway, that beer is the end of my trip to Vancouver and Portland. Next up in Jim's travels is Boston and then Los Angeles, possibly Santa Clara, maybe a return trip to Montreal, and one or two trips to Las Vegas.
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