Portland Debrief: Part 2

On Oct. 23-26, I visited my friends Jason and Marcelle in Portland, Oregon, and got to sample some of what this craft beer capital has to offer. In total, I tried 38 news beers during the trip—a great learning experience for a new brewer and novice beer geek like me. It was like our own mini Great American Beer Festival. (See the previous post for Part 1 of the recap.)  

SATURDAY

Day 2 of my Portland trip started off with some much needed protein fortification—a tasty bacon-and-eggs breakfast. Jason, Marcelle and I spent much of our time at the house tormenting each other in racing or flight simulator videogames on the PS2, but this Saturday was shaping up to be an uncommonly sunny day in Portland. So we hit the road.

So did everyone else in Oregon, apparently. Our first stop, McMenamin's Edgefield, was slammed. This sprawling compound features a hotel, a restaurant, a brewery, a winery, a distillery, a 3-par golf course, several gardens and much more. It's great to see an organization like McMenamin's (which, according to its Web site, operates "more than 55 (and counting) neighborhood gathering spots in Oregon and Washington") be so successful while serving primarily their own beer alongside their food. Apparently they recently caved to include a couple of beers from the Big Three (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors) on the menu, but everything else is their own creation.

We skipped the line waiting for a table inside the estate's pub, called The Power Station, and grabbed three open seats at the end of the bar. We ordered the six-beer sampler and dug in. There was a lot to like among the Ruby Ale, Hammerhead Pale Ale, Sunflower IPA, Black Rabbit Porter, Terminator Stout and summer seasonal Copper Moon. My favorites were Ruby and Hammerhead. We also devoured an order of spinach-artichoke dip and chicken wings before elbowing our way back through the throngs who were waiting to be seated.

Next, we settled on the Pearl District's Rogue Ales Public House, which was also jumping thanks to a wedding reception underway at Rogue's adjoining distillery. We grabbed a sampler at this pub as well, tasting the Brutal Bitter, the Juniper Pale Ale, the Rogue Red and the Chocolate Stout. All were tasty aside from the Brutal Bitter, which I didn't care for. Before we left, I fulfilled one of my goals of the trip: having a draft Dead Guy Ale from Rogue's own tap. And since I didn't try to plant a sloppy kiss on the bride—or the groom—Jason and Marcelle allowed me to continue the day's tour.

Next up was Old Lompoc Brewery's Fifth Quadrant location. I had read about Lompoc (and more specifically their C-Note Imperial Pale Ale) in the tiny bit of pre-trip scouting I had done. Lompoc Fifth Quadrant is a restaurant/pub, but while we were trying to decide whether to sit at the bar or take a table a bartender said, "If you are only here for beers, the Sidebar is open for another 50 minutes." And she pointed off around the corner. And as it turns out, I was very glad she did.

We made our way around the corner and half a block to a section of the building that featured a large painted mural on the wall, a small sign and one open door. This dimly lit room with a stool-less bar, a few tables and about two dozen oak barrels full of fermenting beer only contained two people. And one was the bartender. Both were quite friendly and the patron later told me that he's been to the location pretty much every weekend since it opened. Just as the hours for the Sidebar are more exclusive, so are the beers they serve. This tasting room focuses on special batches (including ones fermenting in the oak barrels in the very same room) and seasonals.

Only six beers were on tap here, and none was the C-Note Imperial Pale Ale that I wanted to try. I was torn. We left to return to the larger restaurant/bar area that had C-Note but stopped along the way at Pix Patisserie, a decadent chocolatier on the corner. While Jason and Marcelle surveyed the mouth-watering display case, I kept thinking about the Bourbon Barrel-Aged Red Ale that was listed on tap at the Sidebar. Plus, the Sidebar sold the C-Note in 22 oz. bottles. So I quickly decided I would go drink a pint of the red ale and buy a bottle of C-Note to go. I asked Jason and Marcelle to meet me at the Sidebar when they were done at the chocolate shop.

Upon my return to the Sidebar, the bartender asked me, "Did you ditch your friends?" I explained they were at Pix and I then had a small sample of the Bourbon Barrel-Aged Red Ale, which as I recall had been brewed in 2007. It was delicious, with hints of bourbon as you might expect, so I ordered a glass. The snifter was a little over half full when the tap went dry—I had finished off the batch. I was instantly intrigued by the fleeting nature of this place and would certainly make this a regular stop if I was a local.

When Jason and Marcelle arrived from Pix, the bartender addressed them, "You guys just had chocolate? Try this," and poured them each a sample of Barrel Fermented Sockeye Stout. They both loved how it went with the chocolate, and Marcelle noted that Lompoc should put a stout-touting sign pointing from Pix toward the Sidebar. I sampled the stout, finished off my red ale and bought a Lompoc pint glass and a bottle of C-Note on our way out. (The affable bartender didn't even charge me for the superb half-beer I had been savoring: "It was basically a large sample," he said.)

Our final stop of the day was dinner at Gustav's on N.E. Sandy Boulevard. The friendly service continued there with our helpful waiter, who recommended an entree for me. To accompany it, I selected another new-to-me beer, the Spaten Oktoberfestbier Ur-Märzen. I wasn't keeping tasting notes this trip, but the beer, the friendship and the hearty German meal forged a fabulous culmination to a great October day in Portland.