We took our pints out to the rooftop where we had a nearly 360-degree view of the skyline of Portland and the surrounding pine-covered hills. It was pretty magnificent, and as I do tend to jump up and down and twirl around when I’m seeing something magnificent, I used caution in this case so I wouldn’t fling myself off.

Migration Brewing Company was started back in 2010 by four partners, the initial venue being on Glisan Street. By 2018 they had opened their second venue, a 20,000-square-foot brewery on Northeast Wilkes in Gresham, and they also have a full-kitchen brewpub on North Williams Avenue, as well as two other pop-up venues besides the Rooftop. So their beer has definitely made a migration around the city. The Rooftop is open during the summer season on Thursday to Sunday, and besides the beer it also offers a choice of wines and some canned cocktails. And, of course, a really great view.

Later that evening after dinner, we had yet another altitudinous round of pints, but not nearly as high up. Located in Portland’s Pearl District, 10 Barrel Brewing Company’s beer garden is located on the rooftop of the brewpub. Fortunately by the time we stopped in, it wasn’t too cold for sitting outside, as the inner covered portion of the small rooftop was pretty crowded.

I went for a pint of Sights of Science (6.2% ABV, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Portland, Oregon). Hopped with Mosaic, Citra, and Nugget hops and with 50 IBUs, this American IPA was a really decent beer! It was clear and cryo-hoppy, and just what I needed. Rick’s pint was Birds of Paradise (6.2% ABV, 10 Barrel). Again with 50 IBUs, this was also clear and bright, but there was something quite sensual about it, perhaps best described as paradisiacal. Rick and I decided it was like a Yakima Chief rose festival on our palates.

The head brewer at 10 Barrel is Brandon Whalen, who was the R&D brewer at Breakside Brewing in Stumptown, and before that a brewery in upstate New York. So he’s got a lot of experience making interesting brews.

10 Barrel offers food as well, with the menu featuring shared plates, burgers, pulled pork, savoury pies (with suspiciously pizza-sounding fillings), and salads. There is a downstairs room as well, but we were on a rooftop theme this evening. So there we were, sitting outside, wishing upon a star and sipping high above the street below.

On our first full day in Portland, Rick and I travelled across the river to meet for a couple of pints with a second cousin of mine whom I had yet to meet. At this point Jesse was relatively new to Portland, and of course Rick and I were just visiting, so somehow Wayfinder Beer sounded like an appropriately-named pub at which to meet.

As it was another pleasantly temperate evening we sat outside at a large table in the front beer garden. Because Jesse had lived for a few years in Munich, he ordered a German-style pretzel, with beer cheese and two different mustards, for us all to share. We all went for Wayfinder’s own beers, so Jesse opted for a pint of Kellerhell (4.7% ABV), which was a helles style lager. The pint I chose was Winged Creatures West Coast IPA (7.1% ABV). Brewed with Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic hops, this was slightly tropical with just a hint of dank. Rick went for a pint of Flower In The Kettle Hazy IPA (7.0% ABV), a New England hazy with Mosaic, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops--in fact the same beer he’d had the day before at Treebeerd’s downtown. Again, it was very good.

Wayfinder seems to be mostly lager-centric, using old and new brewing techniques. Their beers mix ancient brewing methods with Narziss-style German precision and American craft methods. So they offer different styles of lager including Helles, rice lager, Vienna style lager, Czech pilsner, and Bavarian style lager--and of course IPAs.

For dinner Rick and I ordered a second round of the same beers and shared a cauliflower Bahn Mi sandwich, while Jesse went for the sausage sandwich. As we were all leaving, I went inside to use the toilet and listened for a bit to a pretty good bluegrass band called Thunder Ridge. Apparently it was the twice-monthly Wild West Wednesday, so we just happened to time our visit right. Other special events at Wayfinder have featured a Mussels from Brussels tasting competition and, of course, the inevitable Sunday trivia quiz.

Before we met up with Jesse, Rick and I stopped at a place not far from Wayfinder, Living Häus Beer Company, to share a couple of swift halfs. This brewpub is in a large room with brick walls, with one of those magnificently massive ceiling fans spinning just above our heads. The music that was playing while we were there was pretty cool as well. The space reminded me a bit of Drake’s Dealership in Oakland or the original Elysian Brewing in Seattle, which were both formerly car showrooms, making me wonder about the history of the building itself.

All of the beers brewed by Living Häus are named after people, which is kind of nice. Our first half was Ozzy (6.8% ABV). Brewed with Nelson and Amarillo hops, this West Coast IPA is a collaboration with Hatty Alice, Great Notion, Ruse, and Belmont Station. And ooh, yes! It started with that swoon-inducing Oomph! wave across the palate that I so love. The other half was Nancy (6.5% ABV), an IPA double dry hopped with Mosaic and also hopped with Citra Cryo, Citra Incognito, Mosaic Incognito, Mosaic Pellets, and Strata Pellets. It was nicely bitingly hoppy! Zip, zoop, ZING! We were happy to have such a zippy start to the evening.

On our last afternoon in Portland, we headed back over to the southeast quadrant where our first stop for a couple of half pints was the Little Beast Brewing Company Beer Garden. The front garden out on the pavement was fairly busy, so we headed back to the side section where partners Lawless Barbecue were busy cooking and preparing Kansas City style food. The strong smell of barbecued meat--which was surprisingly pleasant even to a non-meat-eating pescatarian like myself--filled the air. As today was a little bit nippy, it felt good to sit under the patio heater.

My half pint was Pinetop West Coast IPA (6.4% ABV). Although it’s brewed with fresh Centennial, Mosaic, and Chinook hops, with a name that suggests pine resin, I found it had a bit of a sweet edge. But perhaps it was like a thick pine forest accented with a subtle waft of blooming sage blossom blowing up from the desert, which was a smell I recalled from my childhood camping trips. Rick’s half was A Thousand Flowers (6.6% ABV), which was another West Coast IPA. Hopped with Simcoe and Centennial and then dry hopped with Citra Cryo, this was quite decent, and that’s all I could really think to say about it. As we sipped our halfs we took some photos of my Sasquatch earrings leaning against my Little Beast Brewery glass.

While we walked all around the Southeast side of Portland, we decided to check out an interesting-sounding brewery, Hopworks. But as we were on the north side of Powell Street, otherwise known as Highway 26, and the brewery was on the south side, it looked as though there was no way for us to get across the extremely busy freeway of a boulevard without getting broadsided by fast-moving traffic. Since neither of us felt like risking our lives just for a pint, we ended up walking about a half mile out of our way just to get to a pedestrian crossing.

When we finally walked into the brewery, we found ourselves in a huge modern warehouse of a place. This was our second beer stop of the day, and as we had plans to meet up with an old friend of mine later on, we decided the best thing to do was to share a flight of five 5.75-ounce tasters. Once we were served our flight, we carried it over to one of the tall tables near the window.

Our first taster was Ferocious Citrus IPA (6.2% ABV). With 50 IBUs, this hazy tangerine IPA was very, very smooth. It definitely tasted of tangerine, in a pale ale sort of way. We both agreed it was, well, okay. Next was the interestingly named Pink Boots Cold IPA (6.6% ABV), also with 50 IBUs. Sales of this beer support the Pink Boots Society, whose mission is to help women and non-binary individuals in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry to advance their careers. With a hint of mango and melon balanced with malt, this was probably the best of our five choices, although it was also extremely smooth and pale. Our third choice was Patagonia Organic Kernza IPA (6.2% ABV, 50 IBUs). This had been brewed with kernza, which is a deep-rooted perennial grain that requires little water. It tasted very mildly of tangerine with a possible suggestion of pine hiding in there somewhere. Once again this was okay but, um, just not interesting to either of us. Fourth on our flight was Earth to Beer Organic IPA (6.2% ABV, again 55 IBUs). Described as having suggestions of “citrus, pine, and tropical candy”, this was again pretty boring to each of our palates. Sales of this beer benefit Oregon Wildlife which advocates and cares for wildlife, waterways, and wilderness.

At this point we were looking forward to our fifth choice, the definitely-not-pale Motherland Russian Imperial Stout (9.4% ABV, with 45 IBUs). Described as tasting like chocolate, dried cherries, and dark caramel, this was unfortunately just too sweet to drink.

At this point we were both getting so bored with our tasters that we finished up the most interesting one, Pink Boots, and left the rest of our flight behind, because in an exciting brewery city like Portland, we just felt that not one of the other tasters was worth bothering about. We were both pretty disappointed, and it’s possible we just made the wrong choices, and perhaps we were just tired. But considering not one of five different beers excited us in the least, I just don’t think Hopworks is our particular cup of tea (or, more properly, beer).

There’s also a Hopworks in Vancouver, Washington, and one at Portland International Airport, which could be quite handy if you're passing through and want to try it.

Sadly, in the midst of being disappointed by our flight, my friend texted to say he sadly had to cancel driving down to Portland later. So Rick and I decided to forge on with our beer quest, once again fording the mighty Powell Boulevard and working our way over into an odd little residential and light-industrial mixture of an area, with several breweries and taprooms placed here and there.

The one we decided to try was the Baerlic Beer Company. This place really appealed to me in a minimalist sort of way. Inside the brewery is a record shop out of which punk and noise music emanated, and in front was a covered garden area directly across a narrow street from somebody’s house. And on the walls over each booth were graphics of popular hops varieties.

By this point it was quite windy outside, so we ordered our pints at the bar and sat at a window table. I had a pint of Punk Rock Time (6.0% ABV), described as a woodworker gin barrel aged IPA and containing Brett yeast. The barman told us it was the brewery’s flagship beer, and it definitely had that Portland character, but with touches of leather and citrus zest. Rick had a pint of Sun Break (6.8% ABV), a West Coast IPA with Nelson Sauvin, Cascade, and Strata hops. This was an easy-drinking IPA with a hint of that Wow! factor. It must have been from the Nelson Sauvin.

Baerlic has two other venues in Portland, one on Northeast Halsey Street and one on Northeast Alberta Street. By this time of the late afternoon we were both feeling quite tired, but these fine pints, which we knew we would definitely finish, would happily propel us to our next destination, hopefully to find something to eat.

Coincidentally, our next stop was when we accidentally stumbled onto an expansive food truck park, the Hawthorne Asylum Food Cart Pod, where inside one building was a very interesting-looking beer tap. We went in and stood at the bar, where we had tastes of several beers. The first one, Hophoria IPA (6.1% ABV, Evasion Brewing, McMinnville, Oregon), was brewed with Citra and Mosaic hops and offered a good fruity hops character. But it also seemed to possess more of the haziness we were starting to tire of at this point. Another taste was of the Pallet Jack IPA (7.0% ABV, Barley Brown’s Brewery, Baker City, Oregon), which was pretty good, citric with a touch of pine. But we finally decided to split a pint of Sherman IPA (6.5% ABV, Fort George Brewing Company, Astoria, Oregon), simply because we’ve both been thoroughly delighted with Fort George’s beers. And the Sherman was perfectly acceptable for an IPA, which was what we needed while we sat outside on a bench and decided where to have dinner.

There were plenty of options around us. But we were a bit overwhelmed by all of the different food trucks, and as it was creeping up into Saturday night the crowds of people were rapidly expanding. I finally suggested we should find some pizza, either nearby or back near our hotel. Hey, at least I made a decision. And our pizza restaurant choice turned out to be excellent.

One last venue to mention was just around the corner from our first B&B accommodation. At the end of the evening spent having beer and food with my second cousin Jesse, before retiring for the night Rick and I decided to check out the Cheerful Tortoise. It felt very lively and a bit chaotic when we entered, with a really earthy semi-punky streetwise crowd and TVs around the walls that were blasting all sorts of things. We decided to share two pints. The first was RPM IPA (6.5% ABV, Boneyard Beer Company, Bend, Oregon), a hoppy bitter, dry hopped with six Northwest hops, with a bit of dank, and the other was Escape Artist (6.6% ABV, Everybody’s Brewing, White Salmon, Washington), which had almost an El Dorado-style sweaty exotic aura, a bit tropical and citrus. When I looked it up online, I found that the hops used were Centennial, Citra, and El Dorado. So I was correct in my assessment. And the names of both pints seemed quite appropriate for the environment. While we were there, everybody and everything did seem quite cheerful, although it was a shame that there were no giant tortoises present.

It will probably be a few more years before we meet again back in Portland, but it’s definitely a city well worth visiting for beer.