Back in
March for my #BirthdayBierTour
my husband, Kona, and I ventured down to Oregon for a long weekend of Beer
Shenanigans. We headed out Friday
morning and ventured to Astoria, Or
to have lunch at Fort George
Brewery. As we drove into the little
town where the Goonies
was filmed, on one side there were a lot of old Victorian Houses and buildings
lining a hill and on the other side docks leading out to the Columbia River. Once at Fort George we got a sampler tray of
beers, some of which we have had before, including Plazm, The Optimist, and
Bourbon Barrel aged Cavatica Stout. Ones
we hadn’t had before were the Divinity, Nut Red Ale, Working Girl Porter,
Helles, and Brett Stout.
Fort George
makes plenty of awesome beers including their yearly 3-Way IPA that is
different every year as they collaborate with two new breweries each year. The brewery had an upstairs bar that we
didn’t get to hang out in since it doesn’t open until later in the day. They also have a separate taproom next door
with an expanded beer list, but sadly that was also not open at the time we
were there.
After Fort
George we headed down the road to Buoy Brewing,
located on one of the piers gazing out at the river. Their space was gorgeous, with the highlight
being giant windows lining the entire half of the pub facing the water. Since they are located essentially on a dock,
they had a bunch of sea lions swimming in the water or chilling on the pier
posts. As you enter the brewery they
have a giant glass floor looking down at the sea lions. We sat at the bar and ordered a flight of
pretty much everything they had on tap.
All their beers were solid, and clean.
They made quite a few lager and German style beers that were quite tasty
and true to style, and their Raspberry Chocolate Stout was like a dessert in a
glass.
After taking
some pictures of the sea lions, we headed down the Oregon coast and stopped at Haystack Rock in Cannon
Beach. We went for a walk and threw the
ball for Kona to tire her out. The beach
was gorgeous, and the famous rock from the Goonies was a pretty sight. We then headed to Portland for the remainder
of our beer weekend.
We stayed at
the Courtyard in the heart of
downtown, which was also dog friendly.
On our previous trip to Portland we stayed on the east side of the
Willamette River,so this gave us the opportunity to check out more of downtown
and the west side of the city. Our first
stop was the Deschutes
Brewery Pub for some beer and food.
We did a flight of the rotating/seasonal offerings, and then had an
Obsidian Stout on Nitro, which paired great with my elk burger.
After we got
some food in our bellies we were set to do some more drinking, so we headed a
few blocks over to the newly opened Fat
Head’s Brewery. Fat Head started in
Cleveland, and just recently built a pub in Portland. The space inside was large with vaulted
ceilings and cool artwork all around.
There were giant glass windows looking in on the brewery which also
added to the ambiance. We did a flight
of beers there, trying almost everything they had on tap. Some of the favorites were the Imperial Bean
Me Up Coffee Stout, Weiss Weiss Baby, and the IBUsive.
Following
Fat Head’s our palates were done with doing taster flights, so we headed to the
beer bar Bailey’s Taproom. They are known for having a pretty good tap
and bottle list with rarer beers and very Oregon focused. We had a few beers there while chatting to
our neighbors who happened to work for 10 barrel brewing. We then headed next door to Tugboat Brewing to see what they were
about. It was a very small hole in the
wall brewery and kitchen that catered to locals and hippies. Their beer wasn’t very good so I opted for a
cider I knew I liked. We then decided that
we’d probably had enough alcohol for the day and went back to the hotel to
crash.
That wraps
up our first day full of beer and driving, stay tuned for days 2 and 3.
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