CoffeeBeer >> Pint Pleasures >> 2 Portland Taps and Breweries


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As part of my visit to America a few months ago, I arranged to rendezvous for a few days with my Bay Area friend Mistah Rick in Portland, Oregon to spend a few days exploring breweries, coffee roasters, and other esoterica. The biggest city in Oregon, Portland sits on the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and at one point was considered one of the most dangerous port cities in the world. But things soon mellowed, and by the 1960s it was popular with hippies and social activities. More recently it’s been associated with not only technological growth and innovation but also an abundance of breweries. And of course that was the main reason we were here.

After a surprisingly long flight day for me from Austin, Texas and through Phoenix, Arizona, complete with an hour’s delay, I finally arrived at the airport where I was met by Rick, who had flown in earlier. From there we took a tram downtown. And before we even checked into our accommodation for our first two nights, our very first stop straight off the tram was a quite interesting place: Treebeerd’s Taphouse, in the southwest quadrant of downtown Portland. This family-owned bar features 36 craft taps and also a small snack menu featuring things like handmade pretzels and cheese boards, but customers are invited to order food from outside and have it delivered which, as we were both quite hungry, is what we decided to do. But first things first: we found a place to park our stuff at a long tall table so that we could go peruse the beer menu. We both went for pints of Illusion IPA (7.2% ABV, Baerlic Brewing, Corvallis, Oregon), with Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic hops which turned out to be a very good choice. Sipping this beer produced a gorgeous washing wave over the palate, suggestive of redundant gorgeous gorgeousness: a dry honey nectar dream of golden caresses around the sides of my tongue. I suppose that describes it best; I had just experienced an overly long travel day, so bear with me.

Once we got our drinks sorted we could relax and catch up on things, specifically my week just spent in Rick walked across the road and ordered a couple of shrimp pho bowls from a Vietnamese restaurant called Luc Lac, while I ordered two more pints. The first of these was Flower in the Kettle (6.7% ABV, Wayfinder Beer, Portland, Oregon), a New England hazy with Mosaic, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops which went great with our pho bowls. The other pint was Beta 35.5 (Fort George Brewery, Astoria, Oregon), another New England hazy IPA almost coconut in character. Rick wanted to drink the whole pint down. With Simcoe, Mosaic, Columbus Cryo, and Mosaic Cryo hops, and Rahr Pilsner, GW Premium 2 Row, and Weyermann Acidulated malts, this brew was named for the fact that it’s a beta test for Wayfinder’s next IPA. This seemed quite appropriate for me and Rick, as we’re former computer programmers who used to write beta test plans for our software. Sure, we’ll be happy to run it through some tests!

Having opened in 2022 by a family from Wisconsin and partially inspired by the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Treebeerd is a very hip type of place. While we were there, very interesting music was playing, while one TV screen aired basketball playoffs and the other screen a film. (And no, it wasn’t The Fellowship of the Ring.)

On our first day in Portland, after walking across town to visit the breathtaking Portland Japanese Garden, Rick and I decided to have lunch up in the Slabtown neighbourhood, so we walked to the Breakside Brewery. This place is very big, with lots of outdoor seating in front and large murals all over the outside walls, and the inside seating is on two levels. As is often our choice, we decided to sit at the bar with a good view of the 16 beer taps, including plenty of IPAs. They also offer a couple of pilsners, a couple of stouts, and a sour--but it was the mostly gorgeous sounding IPAs that caught our eyes.

While we forged our way through the extensive lunch menu, we shared two pints. The first was Catching Tigers West Coast XPA (6.5% ABV), which offered a nice stripey character of dank grapefruit which the menu described as “allium and overripe peach”. The other pint was Thriving Metropolis West Coast IPA (7.0% ABV), also with a nice dankness reminiscent of an earthy teakwood fruit bowl full of guavas, melons, and peaches. Ooh, what a gorgeous place to be, right there at that moment in my mouth. After a great walk through redwoods and some peaceful meditations in the rain, brought on by the statue of Sacajewea which we passed twice, this beer was pretty much heaven. Both of our pints were served in “nucleated” glasses which produced a whirlpool of bubbles. Rick had never seen this before, and I told him about the importance of using this type of glass for carbonated beers and a smooth-bottomed glass for cask ales. For once I actually knew something about beer that Rick didn’t, because I’ve learned so many things from him over the years.

I have to admit I loved the Metropolis--but then again I’m a city girl.

For lunch we shared a plate--sorry, tower--of enough black bean nachos to feed a crowd, as well as a massive Caesar salad, and it was far too much food for two normal-sized people to even make a dent in. Just as we were starting to regret not having packed any crampons or pitons to help us scale the Nacho Mountain that stood temptingly in front of us, we noticed a row of little toys displayed behind the beer taps: a mini Etch-a-Sketch (just like one I have at home), a little camel (again like one I have at home), a Hello Kitty-style bunny rabbit, and a shark. And up the stairs we could see the brewery. At least these details got our minds off of our mutual failure to extract tortilla chips from our Jenga tower without knocking black beans and jalapeno slices all over the place.

Breakside Brewing was started in 2010 by Scott Lawrence as a small brewpub and restaurant in Northeast Portl and. As the wholly employee-owned brewery grew in size, five more locations were opened in Portland as well as a taproom in Astoria, with the Slabtown location having opened in 2017. Along with the pints and food, Breakside also offers 34oz or 64oz Draft Beer Fills to take away, as well as cans, bottles, growler bottles, and pint glasses.

Considering we hadn't even been in Portland for an entire day yet, these two venues definitely promised a rewarding few days to come.

Related Links

guinness eileen

Treebeerd's Taphouse, 822 Southwest 2nd Avenue, Portland, Oregon

guinness eileen

Breakside Brewery, 1570 Northwest 22nd Avenue, Portland, Oregon

PUB UPDATES:

  • HALLAMSHIRE HOUSE, SHEFFIELD: Back in early July I had a quick taste of Fonio (4.5% ABV, Thornbridge), which is a collaboration with Brooklyn Brewing of Brooklyn, New York. Fonio is an African grain that needs almost no water to grow, so it’s very sustainable. It was kind of interesting, but not terribly exciting, drinkable, but it didn’t grab me enough. I also went for a taste of The Union (6.0% ABV, Thornbridge), an IPA that was temptingly great and a true classic. But it was too strong for my lone walk home. And I went for a taste of Bell Hotel Session IPA (3.9% ABV, Round Corner Brewing Company, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire), which was hoppy as well. But I finally went for a pint of Sundialer (5.0% ABV, Verdant Brewery, Penryn, Cornwall). And wow, this was nice! What a great beer, the first really interesting pint I’d had after returning from my American trip. It’s really very kind of exciting.

    Recently I went for a cask pint of Silver Rider (4.3% ABV, Kelham Island Brewing Company, Sheffield South Yorkshire). A collaboration with Ossett Brewing, this is a really good, hoppy but balanced pint, and it reminds me of the Easy Rider we used to enjoy from Kelham Island back about 10 or 15 years ago. A quality classic beer, I must say. Not only is it Bastille Day, but it's also the Euro final featuring England v Spain, so naturally the pubs are full and people outside are a bit crazy.

    A week later I had a pint of Red Rye At Night (5.4, Thornbridge Brewing Company, Bakewell, Derbyshire), a rye IPA. I'm just a bit into rye IPAs at the moment, which is not too surprising since I love rye bread in all its forms. So why not drink a little rye as well? When I was in my early 20s my preferred festival tipple was often rye whiskey, but that was in the days before decent beer in America.

    On a rather weird but nicely balmy Tuesday I stopped in here in hopes that I could alter my slightly low mood. I suppose it's because I hadn’t actually talked to another human being (aside from Andrew at home) for several days, and I hadn’t felt inclined to seek out any conversation. But Doug was here, and we chatted a nice welcome chat about Mexican-British weddings and, of course, beer. After not being able to decide between two tasters I went for a half of each: as Doug put it, a main course of DoubleBack (4.6% ABV, Buxton Brewing Company, Buxton, Derbyshire), a cask New Zealand session IPA, and for dessert, a half of Summerhill Haze (4.3% ABV, Thornbridge Brewing Company, Bakewell, Derbyshire), a hazy pale on keg. They're both equally nice. A Double Back is a Peak District term, a manoeuvre you might need to do to find the actual path. So the beer, a collaboration with Tooth & Claw of Hartlepool, is nicely balanced. The Summerhill Haze features a blend of hops including Sabro, which is a hops I’m in love with, so no wonder Doug Considers this dessert. Ooh, stroke my palate again! When I first saw this a while back, I was curious to try it, simply because I grew up with the knowledge of AS Neill and his Summerhill school, to which my parents wanted to send my older brother and then, when that never happened, to send me. But then if all my dad’s relocation plans related to his career had actually happened, I would have lived in Stockholm, then in Teheran, and then in Togo by the time I turned 30. As it turned out, I'm just a self-made expat.
  • TWO SHEDS, SHEFFIELD: On a recent stop I had a pint of Hayward (4.2% ABV, Thornbridge Brewing Company, Bakewell, Derbyshire), which is a kiwi lime sour. Hayward is a popular type of kiwi--fruit, that is, as opposed to a bird or somebody from New Zealand. So this tastes pretty nice on kind of a strange day when the weather was varying between still cloudy, and balmy to suddenly gustily windy, chilly, and of course cloudy. Sheffield just can't give up its reputation as windy and rainy, even for an afternoon. Anyway, it was quite warm and humid in the pub, so once again I just couldn’t dress right. At least this sour was pleasant and made me feel like I was somewhere else in the world.

    On another visit I first had a taste of Unbeliever Passionfruit Sour (4.5% ABV, Abbeydale Brewing Company, Sheffield, South Yorkshire), which the barmaid Charlotte, who’s not a big fan of sour beers, described as a nice drinkable sour. Since I'd just had a pint of another sour the day before, I went for a pint of Honeycomb Pale (4.0% ABV, Seven Bro7ers Brewing Company, Salford, Greater Manchester). Fortunately I've learned that honey doesn't necessarily mean sweet, and I do like the taste of honey, as long as that's what i'm tasting and not the sweetness of the original bee nectar. Bees are pretty amazing at what they do, so I'll raise this pint to our furry six-legged friends. It's quite nice, although I wouldn't want more than a pint.

    And another time I had a taste of Fall For The Lakes (4.5% ABV, Abbeydale Brewing Company), which was described as a Transatlantic Pale Ale. It was drinkable enough. But I ended up going for a pint of Crush Hour (4.6% ABV, Vocation Brewing Company, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire), a hazy pale that kind of woke me up.
  • WALKLEY BEER COMPANY, SHEFFIELD: Back in June, the weekend after I returned from my trip to America, I stopped in and had a pint of Sea Monster Pale Ale (5.0% ABV, Tapstone Brewery, Chard, Somerset). This was really good: fruity and hoppy. The brewery, located in the Somerset hills, own some fields of hops that they’re growing, and currently the new varieties are Sweet Mary and Melonhead. Any brewery who’s growing and developing new varieties of hops is pretty much a hero in my book.

    On a quiet rainy but balmy Tuesday in July, I stopped in and had a taste of a new, very interesting sour. Pansori (4.0% ABV, Colbier Brewery, Bootle, Liverpool, Merseyside). Brewed with Omisa Berry and Jasper yeast, this is fascinating! Jay described it as both sour and sweet, and I see what he means. It’s not actually “sweet and sour”, but suggestive of a sour sweetness, if you can understand what I mean. I ended up going for two different halves. The cask beer was Galaxy Pale (4.4% ABV, Left Handed Giant, Bristol). This is a really nice and quite lovely single hopped Galaxy cask. My keg half was Liberation Frequency (4.0% ABV, Marble Brewing Company, Manchester), which is a gluten free pale ale with a really whoomph! hops character. Both of my halves looked alike, so I had the Left Handed on the right side (because I’m ambidextrous in my thinking. This one has Ekuanot, Mosaic, and Azacca hops, so no wonder.

    In late July, after the Tramlines Fringe Saturday, I got off the bus here to have a half of something exciting. And I succeeded! After Andy gave me a quick taste of the honestly too-strong Electric City NEIPA (6.5% ABV, Arbor Beers, Bristol), brewed with lovely Citra, Nectaron, and Strata hops, I decided I'd happily drink it at home out of one of their pint-sized cans, But since I was a walk away from home I went for a safer half of hazy cask Session IPA (4.6% ABV, Lune Brew Company, Galgate, Lancashire), brewed in the Lune Valley, with Nelson Sauvin and Amarillo, and oh my god it tastes heavenly! Oh yes! I am really, really rediscovering Amarillo. But do I know the way there? Nope, can't say I do.
  • VOCATION, SHEFFIELD: One Thursday after work I met a friend here for a pint. She was not in a good mood at all, and she was feeling too sick to even drink her beer, so I was pretty much on my own trying to figure out what I thought of my pint of Juice Wayne (4.8% ABV, Alphabet Brewing Company, Manchester), another New England IPA. I think I was enjoying it, even with the sun painfully in my eyes and the anger and misery from the other side of the table. I definitely liked the name, as I was feeling a bit like a covert superhero myself.
  • RAVEN, SHEFFIELD: I hadn’t been in this pub for quite some time, so I thought I’d check it out as it’s open on Mondays, when my favourite microbreweries are all closed. I first had a taste of Atlantic Pale Ale (4.1 ABV, North Brew Company, Leeds, West Yorkshire) that the barman actually warned was very smooth, and it was indeed too smooth for me. And then a taste of I’m Free Session Hazy Pale Ale (4.0%, Crafty Devil Brewing, Canton, Cardiff, Wales), a hazy pale that was quite drinkable. I also had a cheeky taste of Who’s Afraid of Jeff Goldblum? NEIPA (6.5% ABV, Sureshot Brewing Company, Manchester) , which was extremely appealing, but too strong for me when I was out by myself with a long uphill walk home ahead of me. So I went for a safe pint of Cryo Heathen (4.0% ABV, Abbeydale Brewing Company, Sheffield South Yorkshire), which was enjoyable. I hadn’t been here for probably a couple of years, and never on my own. But it was a warmish slightly rainy Monday, and I decided to give it a try. I sat in the front room with the regulars, which almost felt a bit forward of me, but I don't think any of them minded--they just seemed a bit surprised at first. Hey, I'm a well established solo pub visitor, and the barman seemed quite normal and knowledgeable. My pint was very light and gently drinkable, not too anything in particular, really.

BOTTLED/CANNED BEER UPDATE:

  • Mosaic NEIPA 6.2% ABV, Abbeydale Brewing Company, Sheffield, South Yorkshire). Another brew in Abbeydale’s Wanderer series, this is single hopped with Mosaic leaf, T90, pellets, and Cryo hops. The beer brings out the Mosaic in all of its characters--perhaps tiles of characters? I used to love to make mosaics when I was young, specifically those tile-by-number kits. So yep, here I am, creating a mosaic of different forms of the same hops on my tongue.
  • The Sun Swirls Within You IPA (6.0% ABV, Cloudwater Brewing Company, Manchester). On a recent trip to Manchester, I bought this at the brewery after being so impressed with Cloudwater’s beers. This offers a really nice gorgeous zippy hops of a hazy fruitiness, definitely suggesting grapefruit and guava with a touch of pineapple. It zazoonked my tongue like the heart of an artichoke. It helped clear my sinuses, just a little bit. Hopped with Lórien, Idaho 7, and Galaxy Spectrum hops, this is a therapeutic brew.