Portland: The Final Day...

Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon.  While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places.  On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun.  I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip!  Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like.

Day 7

On the morning of day 7, our friends Shea and Kathleen had to head back home to DC.  We bid them an early adieu and then gathered up our things for one more day of adventure before heading home ourselves.

We started out the day with a walk through Laurelhurst Park, waiting for the chill morning to warm up with the sun.

A strange little shrine discovered in the park...

Not far from here was Laurelhurst Market (where we had previously had a fancy dinner) and we got there just at 11 when they opened for lunch.  By day this place is a deli and butcher shop.  We dined upon a stellar charcuterie plate of house made meat products, followed by a fantastic grilled pork rillette sandwich--one of the top meals for me this trip.

Sokol Blosser Winery

Suitably full, we headed next to Sokol Blosser Winery not too far outside of Portland.  We tasted through some fantastic wines, talked Minnesota beer with the expat server, molested a nesting robin, and ordered some wines to be shipped back home.  With a beautiful view of rolling hills, farms, and acres of grape vines, this was a beautiful stop.  We stayed a little longer than expected, but enjoyed ourselves plenty.

McMenamins John Barleycorns

On the way home we stopped at another McMenamins property: John Barleycorns.  This brewpub was one of their few properties built from scratch and not a revamped historic property.  We had been pleased with the beers from Edgefield and Kennedy School previously on this trip and figured this was a good spot for some food and a sampler before getting back into town.  While each McMenamins brewery does have a few standard beer recipes they make, the process and equipment differs at each site, and the brewers are allowed to do other beers as well.  The beers at this site were not nearly as good as the others.  The hoppy beers especially had problems ranging from astringency to a bit of diacetyl.  The best of the bunch was the Nesting Doll Imperial Stout, but even that was still a little thin for the style.  Our server was(admittedly) new, but incredibly inattentive.  Despite the place being nearly empty at this afternoon hour, I had to go searching for her twice.  The food was less than stellar.  This stop was a bust and not nearly up to par with the other McMenamins spots we've visited.  Based on this visit I can not recommend it to anyone.

Keep Portland weird?

Once back in Portland we stopped back at Paxton Gate, a crazy store specializing in taxidermy, fossils, carnivorous plants, and more.  We had stopped in here previously and decided to come back for an amazing display of moths and butterflies for our home.  Seriously this place is creepy and cool.

Ecliptic Brewing

Just a few blocks away from the Shop of Curiosities was Ecliptic Brewing.  Started by a former brewer for McMenamins, Deschutes, and then Full Sail, this place's style blends beer and astronomy.  Most of the names come from astronomic features.  We were seated outside and tried through a sampler of the beers.  I did not like the Orbiter IPA--giving it a 2.75 for being overly sweet.  The Hypernova Triple IPA, however was quite tasty and got a 4.  The Zenith Grapefruit Gose was pleasant and refreshing getting a 3.75.  The Capella Porter was the top for me getting a solid 4.5--the best dark beer of the entire trip to Oregon.  Overall this place has some pretty good beers and I'll be watching them in the future.

StormBreaker Brewing

Just a few more blocks away, surrounded by cute shops, restaurants, and more is StormBreaker Brewing.  This place was brand new the last time I was in the area, and both that time and this visit we kept hitting the area when the brewery was closed.  This last day, we finally managed to find the taproom open for business.  The space is large, with a sizable patio area to boot.  I could tell Sj was about ready to call it a day, but she was a trooper and stuck it out for one more brewery visit.  I think I'll keep her.

Being honest here, I didn't have high expectations going in, but the beers were really quite good.  Our server pretty much disappeared once we had our sampler--I had wanted to get a whole pint of something else, but by the time we tracked her down we were just ready to get going.  The top beer for both of us was Keep It In Your Schwarz--an unusual coffee infused dark lager (4.25).  Other highlights were Handfuls of Hops IPA and Triple Double (a DIPA) both garnering 4's.  The loser of the flight was the Hoppy Marijuanukah which was a hoppy smoked beer that really didn't work well for me (2.75).  I'd go back to StormBreaker for sure based on the beers.

McMenamins Kennedy School Theater Bar

Back home at the hotel we needed one more stamp in our passports to get our magical free prizes, so stopped in to the Theater Bar.  We hadn't even realized there was a separate bar, just figuring it was for theater concessions.  Another beer and cocktail in hand we wandered off to buy some last minute things from the gift shop and get dinner at the restaurant.  Then to pack (boxing up a whole wine shipper full of beers) and get a good night's rest.

Day 8

The last day was mostly for travel by plane back to Minnesota, but I thought I'd mention the airport at PDX.  First off, they have a Made in Oregon store past the onerous security check which stocks a good variety of local wines and beers for not too much over the typical store price.  They also furnish carrying boxes for the plane.  Yeah, we picked up a few extras here--they had Logsdon and Cascade beers!

Rogue Public House

While we didn't make it to the actual Rogue Brewery this trip, we finished up waiting for our flight by having lunch a final beer sampler at the Rogue Public House.  Not bad.  I've heard since that the Laurelwood Pub is better, but that was in another concourse.  Next time!

And that is the end of our epic trip!  Below is the final tally of booze-tastic places we visited.  I think we did a respectable job!

Final Tally:
Breweries: 21
Distilleries: 3
Pubs/Bars: 17
Meaderies: 1
Cideries: 1
Wineries: 1

So Many Breweries, So Little Time: Portland Day 5

Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon.  While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places.  On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun.  I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip!  Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like.

Day 5

We started out our fifth day with a good base of a sturdy breakfast at the wonderfully rural looking and hipster friendly Pine State Biscuits.  Yummy biscuits and gravy!  I recommend this place but there was a sizable line and not a lot of seating so get there early!

The view from line at Pine State...

The Commons Brewery

Stomachs full of rapidly expanding biscuits, our next stop was  The Commons Brewery, which had been suggested by several of my friends as a great newcomer to the Portland brewery scene.  Starting as a 1 barrel nano system, they have already upgraded first to a 7 bbl, and now again to a 15 bbl brewhouse.  Rapid growth can be bad, but in the case of Commons, I think it's a good thing indeed.  We were nearly the first ones there, coming in just as they opened (I'd heard the place gets crowded and wanted to beat the rush).  We ordered samplers to taste through all 12 beers they had on tap.  Watching our server rinse off the sticky overflow from the outside of the sampler glasses with a little condiment bottle made me realize that these guys really care about their beers and how they are presented.

Shall we talk about the beers?  Out of 12 beers the lowest score I gave was a 3.5 for the Pils (just not quite perfect, but still drinkable).  The rest were all 3.75-4 beers, which for me is well above average.  Most were Belgian in character with a few different takes on saisons and a French Biere de Garde that was very tasty.  My favorite was the Myrtle--sour, tart, with a spritzy hoppy finish (4.5).  This was followed by The Croze--lemony and refreshing (4.25).  I think our whole group was pretty happy with our time here!  Well worth a visit to Commons.

Cascade Barrel House

From Commons, it was just a short walk on a sunny day to Cascade Barrel House.  This is Cascade's barrel aging (and serving) facility and is known throughout the land as one of the top American producers of sour beers.  I've written up Cascade in the past so I'm not going too much into it today--but this brewery was on our must-revisit list for sure!  Between the four of us we tried all the available sour beers and the special Derby Day concoction that tasted like a mint julep.  I think the fan favorite was the Framblanc--a tart raspberry sour made with white raspberry.  I can't say enough good things about this brewery and it is a must-do for any beer enthusiast in the Portland area.  Pretty much every beer I tasted got at least a 4 or higher score.

Culmination Brewing

Not far away was another young brewery that we had discovered on our tasting travels: Culmination Brewing.  This was located in a small, but newer strip-mall.  We had tried their triple IPA Ferret The Younger at the McMenamins 23rd Ave Bottle Shop earlier in our visit and that made me jump this brewery up on our list--unfortunately they didn't have it on tap at the brewery.  Sad Face.  Culmination had a nice vibe once inside the taproom, but it was getting a little warm for comfort at this time of day.  They had a good looking food list and a variety beers to try.  Pretty much all of the beers were above average (average score for me was 3.5) with my favorite being the Euphoric IPA and the Euphoric Brett IPA.  The most unusual beer was made with tea with mango and passion fruit--none of us were quite sure what to make of this one, but it stood out from the crowd of other beers on the trip.  While this wasn't our favorite brewery of the trip, they certainly have potential for greater things over the coming years.

Stung Fermented

While at Culmination, Shea (I think) noticed a small sign for Stung Fermented across the parking lot.  Curious, we wandered over and had one of the better surprise experiences of the trip.  This is a very new meadery (for those not in the know, mead is a fermented honey beverage) specializing in dry, carbonated meads.  Most of the commercial and homebrewed meads I've had have been on the sweeter side, and most often are served more as desert wines, so I was excited to try these.  The issue with dry meads is that the sweet honey character is often lost and the result can be less than exciting.

We were greeted by Patrick Lawrence, the assistant mead maker, who was manning the shopfront.  He walked us through the line-up with tastings of their three core Worker Series meads (lower alcohol champagne-like meads).  I'm going into more depth on these!

Trinity: The flagship--mild, easy to drink, would go great with foods as a palate cleanser.  3.75
Mosaic: This one is actually made with Mosaic hops and had an amazing hoppy, blackberry aroma.  4
Standard: Ginger on the nose.  Carbonation strong.  Mild honey character.  3.75
Farmhouse: Funky aroma with a very dry finish.  Not my favorite.  3
Caffe: Crazy coffee and vanilla on the aroma and flavor.  A strange and intriguing mix.  4
Gose: A take on the coriander and salted tart beer style of the same name.  Odd for a mead, but interesting.  A bit too much coriander in it, but the salt adds some different character to the drink. 3.5

We had accumulated another couple on the tasting tour by now and Patrick gave us an impromptu tour of the meadery as well.  These guys are totally into the science behind the process and it shows in their finished product, as well as the fact that all their fermentors are all named after scientists!  We got to try two special meads directly from the fermentors and these were the stand-out hits of the visit--these were bigger, badder meads and the first of their Queen Series.  One was made with local blackberry honey and had a nice tart finish that made me smile (4.25).  The other was made with high desert honey and had an incredible earthy flavor redolent of sage and mesquite wood (4.5).  We really liked this place and I think they'll be going places soon.

Coalition Brewing

Moving on from Stung, we headed for yet another brewery!  Coalition Brewing was not far from where we planned to have dinner, so we walked there prior.  By this time we were a little beered-out but the meads had reinvigorated us for one more stop.  OK, mostly I pushed for one more stop and my group grudgingly allowed it.  Coalition is located in what looks like an old warehouse.  This is a 10 barrel brewery set into a very tiny and narrow space that frankly looks way too small to hold all that equipment!  This is very much a production spot, but near the entrance they have a set of taps set up for selling pints and samples as well, and some outside seating.  Here I tried: Space Fruit IPA (3.75), Dropping Science DIPA--love the name and the beer (4), and Bosc Mode a brett beer made with local Bosc pears (4).  This is not the most picturesque of breweries, but he beers were solid for sure.  I'm also pleased that they routinely get together with homebrewers to make taproom only beers.

In our travels we stopped at Yarnia to fulfill Kathleen's need for yarn.  Yes, Yarnia

Laurelhurst Market

For dinner, not far from Coalition, we headed for Laurelhurst Market.  During the day this place is a deli and fancy butcher shop, but at night it turns into a high-end steak-oriented restaurant.  We had a wonderful dinner with great service and various outrageous cocktails.  Not our cheapest meal for sure, but worth the trip.

Have you noticed how my write-ups get shorter as the day of indulgence goes on?

McMenamins Honors Bar

As mentioned in previous entries, our hotel (McMenamins Kennedy School) has a total of 5 bars in the building, and we had to catch them all!  Once safe at home and no longer requiring Sj to drive, we had to catch her up on the cocktail action.  We started with the Honors Bar.  Located in the old principal's office, this is a very small (fits 8-10 people) spot with a couple beers on tap and plenty of cocktails.  In winter months they run the world's tiniest wood stove to warm the place up.  By this point I was getting tired and just had a Jam Session IPA from the brewery--hurray for session IPA's!  We ended up downstairs in the Boiler Room Bar again and played a wacky card game that Shea and Kathleen taught us.  We got our drank on this day!

Running Tally:
Breweries: 16
Distilleries: 2
Pubs/Bars: 8
Meaderies: 1

How To Eat & Drink Your Way Through Portland Oregon (Day 2)

(Warning: do not read if you are averse to hearing about the gratuitous intake of large quantities of unusual foods and fermented beverages!)

I awoke to a ray of sunlight dappling the surface of the psychedelic Gothic fantasy painting hanging upon the wall of our room in the McMenamins Kennedy School.  Quickly, for there was no time to waste, I sprang into motion!  An hour later, much less urgently, but sated on house-roasted coffee, myself and Sj left the tangled grounds to pursue the succulent object of our desires--Voodoo Donuts!  We opted for the less crowded but also less "classic" second location, in an old service station.  We waited only 5 minutes for the tasty dough treats here rather than the hour at the original site.  Voodoo Maple Bacon donuts...I've had the beer of the same name from Rogue and was now able to compare with the original inspiration.  Crispy salty bacon atop the sweet maple-glazed long john is simply sublime.  We also shared a mustachioed maple custard and another topped with rice krispies, chocolate and peanut butter.  Who needs lunch?  The vibe in the place was cool and shabby at the same time, accentuated by the young child in line pop-and-locking along to the blaring rap music.

Sj wearing the appropriate colors...

After finishing our caloric load for the morning, we headed out for a new area of the city to visit The Meadow, another place featured on Bizarre Foods America.  Having seen the episode and then tasting local dishes featuring the sea salts from this boutique dealer, I had to get to the shop!  Talk about specialty store: one wall was entirely artisanal chocolates, another was cocktail bitters (all tastable and well named) and a third section filled with rows upon rows of salts.  The place is small and packed with glass jars and bottles, like a cross between an old herbalist shop and a mad scientist's laboratory.  My kind of shop for sure!  One can taste all the salts, which gets a bit fatiguing on the palate, but is an amazing experience.  Products range from sea salts with unique tastes and textures, to some smoked on a variety of exotic woods, to a  plethora of flavored salts as well.  I ended up getting the Meadow sampler and a small but pricey glass jar of truffle salt.  I am very excited about trying these in my home chefery!

Our next stop was Laurelhurst Market (also visited by Andrew Zimmern) for a "light" lunch.  We entered the classy new building to find a working butcher's counter teaming with unusual cuts of beef, sausages, duck fat, and other wondrous and unrecognizable meat products.  During they day they serve sandwiches from the counter, but at night they open up the main restaurant as a fancy steak place.  We sampled a deli meat made of boar heart (better than it sounds,) then split a couple of sandwiches: the lamb leg was superb, but the grilled pork rillet sandwich was probably the best sandwich I've ever had in my life.  The shredded meat is formed into a fatty square, lightly sizzled on a grill which crisps the outside to a flavor and texture of bacon, but the center virtually melts in your mouth.  I want to move to Portland so I can have this again. 

Heavy with more food than we had expected to eat, it was past time to get to a brewery.  This is Portland after all.  On the way to one brewery that particular morning we passed no less than three others.  One can scarcely spit in the city without hitting a brewery.  Our goal this morning was the appropriately named Hair Of The Dog Brewing Company, recommended strongly by my friend Andrew and sundry others as a must-visit.  The brewery is located in a somewhat shady industrial area of town, in the shadow of the massive overpasses and just a block away from a cardboard box shanty-town.  I wouldn't want to visit here in the evening, but this time of day it was just starting to fill up with a mixture of locals and other beer tourists.  It has an old warehouse feel, with hanging salmon tapestries adding a bit of color and decoration.  We tried individual samples of all the beers, served in a very cool stemware cordial glass (which we bought to take home with us.)  Every beer was good, but the very best was the Adam: a dark ale with a smoke, leather and sweet complexity to it, reminiscent of Surly Smoke.  The Winter seasonal Doggie Claws from 2012 was an amazing aged barleywine.  The Fred From the Wood sampling that particular day was aged on peaches and lacked carbonation, making it taste more like a peach mead, but I'm not complaining!  A great experience and not to be missed if you are in Portland.

Beer Heaven!

From here we traveled a few miles to Apex: a beer bar and bottle shop with a vibe in between a hipster and biker bar.  They have some old pinball machines and a large outdoor seating area. There is a large back wall of coolers full of aged and special release beers that you can buy to drink there or take home.  Bottles of Cantillon and Eclipse were lurking in there, but with a hefty price tag attached.  I had a tulip glass of Boneyard Brewing's Nefarious Triple IPA that is brewed specifically for them.  It was like drinking a hoppy mango mimosa and I would put this beer up against Pliny the Younger and Heady Topper any day.  I washed the beer down with a Pliny the Elder that tasted like hoppy water after that!  Word to the wise, this joint makes you pay up as you order each beer...no tabs.  They are also cash only--shocking if they want folks to put down $75 for a bottle of Cantillon!  Across the street is Beer Mongers: a similar small bar and bottle shop with beers that a little more accessible.

Not far from here we visited our 5th and final brewery in Portland (counting the McMenamins.)  Gigantic is a somewhat oxymoronic/ironic name, since the brewery is tiny, with a tasting room big enough room for a picnic and 2 high top tables.  They had three beers on tap including an excellent Vienna lager, a very well balanced IPA and a mediocre DIPA.  We ended up talking with some local beer geeks over our samples and getting some info on things we should try on the second leg of our journey to Bend. 

Our last stop of the night was Beast (within walking distance to our hotel), a restaurant we had heard about when the chef, Naomi Pomeroy was on Top Chef Masters.  Just prior to our walk, the skies let loose with a deluge of rain, making our walk a bit damp, but by the time our dinner was over the weather had cleared.  The restaurant has two seatings per night, family style with shared tables.  The dinner we had was six courses of wonderful and unusual fresh, seasonal fare, with wine pairings (they did have some beers, but I figured why not!)  As usual I was quite taken with the charcuterie plate of 6 different items including a mini steak tartar on cracker with tiny quail egg nestled atop.  I should have captured its splendor on film, but I jumped into my mouth and down my throat too quickly to do so.  The dinner was amazing, and portion sizes were just right so we did not feel ill after the meal.  We ended up getting to know our table-mates and three couples at the table were celebrating anniversaries.  A really nice guy named Randy who was sitting next to me also had a beer going to second round of NHC...a very small world indeed! 

We had taken part in the early seating (6:30) and were done with dinner way too early to go to bed.  We strolled through the lush verdure of an old neighborhood back to our base of operations at the Kennedy School.  Taking this time to further explore our environs, we peeked into the Detention bar, where they have a lot of bourbons and Scotches, but also too much cigar smoke.  Heading down the hall we settled on the Honors Bar, just big enough for about 6 people.  Sj had some sort of cocktail and I had a pint of Ruby (their trusty raspberry ale.)  When the bar closed down at 10PM we moved on to the Cyprus Room, a bar specializing in quiet Caribbean tunes and rum drinks.  I'm sure my friend Tim would have known just what tropical concoction to order there, but I ended up with some Laphroig instead!  Just a short stagger and off to bed.  Sj and I really managed to make the most of this day.

Up Next:  To Hood River and Bend!