You’ll have to forgive me here- what follows is a recap and highlight reel of a trip my wife and I took to Oregon to visit my parents over a year ago and the brewery highlights along the way. This means that this is all pulled from my memory, given my lack of memory of anything deeper into the past than this morning, my wife has happily agreed to help out here and beef up my own memory and remind me what I liked and if there was anything I did not like.
The Great Northwest (yes, I do insist on adding "great" in front of it as a descriptor) is where I am from, where I first learned to love good beer, and from where my taste in beer is really inspired. When I lived there, however, my knowledge of the brewing process and the actual participation in it was much less mature, so I had never done more than actually just drink the beer for the sake of drinking beer. This time, after some minimal brewing experience behind me, I got the opportunity to enjoy it more and really take in all of the exciting things they are still doing with beer. Our trip was not for beer. My wife had never been to that area and I wanted to see my family and take her to see where I was really from. Having said that she is always encouraging me to try more and more beer in any city we go to (rough life I know). The first stop on our tour was Portland, Oregon.
Portland itself presents a difficult first stop: where to go first. Widmer is based directly out of Portland but there are literally a half dozen other small breweries within the city or nearby that just beg to be sampled. The one thing I was sure of is that Rock Bottom was off the list (someday I will devote an entire post to my distaste of these large chain niche breweries but for now I’ll just say it wasn’t on my list of choices). We decided to enjoy the flavor and offerings of the Deschutes Brewery, Portland, OR. To be clear we did not make it to the actual brew house in Portland. The restaurant was a few blocks away from where we were staying, and we were hungry... so it was dinner and beer.
The Black Butte Porter is my all time favorite beer, it has been for years. I find it nearly impossible to find on the east coast but suffice it to say if I found a place that had it on tap I would probably jump around and squeal like a little girl. My wife had the Obsidian Stout. Both beers are obviously delicious. From the porter I get more of a roasted malty flavor from and the stout is smooth to the palate.
The other popular brew is their Mirror Pond Pale Ale. It always strikes me as odd- for a region that brews such amazing dark brews, the most popular still remain the pale ales. The Full Sail brewery in Hood River, Oregon still has their Extra Pale Ale as the most popular brew. Recently a friend of mine from work was making a trip out to the northwest and asked me for recommendations in Portland. Deschutes was where I told him to go. It was the first one in my head and out of my mouth, and for me that has to be the most ringing endorsement I can make. From what I hear, he tried the Black Butte and I have probably ruined him from "generic" beer for the rest of his life. Mission accomplished! The next time my wife and I go, I will do my best to expand our horizons and try some other local brews...but I can’t say I’m completely willing to part without a taste of Black Butte Porter while I am there.
The next stop on our trip was the Oregon Coast. If you haven’t been there, imagine the California or Florida coasts, but only really, really cold. Nestled in the heart of the Oregon coast is the Rogue Brewery. These are the people who were microbrewing before microbrewing was cool. One of the mostly widely available micros (it may count as a craft brewery but I didn’t feel like checking) is the Rouge Dead Guy Ale. It's a German style ale with good and hearty malt flavor. We had the beer tasting sampler here (always a good way to go when you are looking to try a lot of good beer) and I don’t believe they have a brew I did not like. While Dead Guy is their most famous beer and one you can find almost anywhere these days, I also really enjoy their Shakespeare Stout which is fairly available. My wife reminded me of their Chipotle Ale. You have to respect any place that is willing to take chances with their brew and I have to contend that this absolutely qualifies. The food was good, too...especially if you're a fan of brew house food. Thankfully, my wife and I both are.
A little bit closer to home were two much smaller breweries. The Steelhead Brewery in Eugene, Oregon is part of a small chain of breweries with a few locations on the West Coast. The beer isn’t bad, but to be honest there is nothing that really blew me away. When we talked about it recently we both decided that the best thing we remembered about the brewery was the hummus appetizer we had, which was pretty good. But I think in some ways, it’s telling that the most distinct memory from a brewery was the food.
The last stop on our brewery tour was found completely by accident and is right off I-5 in Springfield, Oregon. Looking for a quick lunch one day, we took advantage of the joys of mobile internet access and found the Hop Valley Brewery nearby. Food at this place was good but the highlight by far for us was the Vanilla Porter. Its flavor was smooth and rich, and given that this was November in Oregon it absolutely hit the spot. Although we didn't try it, they make a Vanilla Porter cheesecake at this place. If we hadn't stuffed ourselves full of their great food and beer, we probably would have had room for dessert.
We aren’t sure when we will make it back, but whenever we do, I know there will be more beer on the agenda. For all the hype recently about local food and ingredients, why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of the place that grows Cascade and Willamette hops right in their own backyard?
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