August 24th, 2011
#bbc11 . Deschutes Brewing Company
To Beervana and back: Our Beerventures of PDX and BBC ’11
#bbc11
Take a flight, drink some beer, meet some bloggers. Thoughts that circled my mind as I packed for Beervana on 8/15/2011. Endless expectations surfaced, but high hopes can often shatter, so it was left to fate. Now, mere memories, those thoughts are replaced by a brim-full week in a city that floats in a virtual pint glass.
To kick off the trip, Brian @seacoastbevlabs, Sean @2beerguys, Ryan @thirstynobeard and Amber @aljpeace, began this “beerventure” at Logan Airport, in Boston Beer Works, swapping stories and pints of Back Bay IPA, and Buckeye Oatmeal Stout before a late night flight. Oh, how naive we were!
Quote of the day, “Fire in the Hole!” Sean
Day 1
A short walk from the ever cool Jupiter Hotel, over the Burnside Bridge, led us to Voo Doo Donuts, a Portland institution. Food Props go to the maple bacon donut. 2 strips of bacon stacked on a glazed donut with maple frosting. Nuff said.
Now, the beer. We sipped our way through the following breweries/pubs/bottle shops on day 1, stopping only to add great new friend Megan and old friend Angelo @brewpublic to our merry crew.
- Rock Bottom Brewery
- Deschutes
- Burnside Brewing Company (twice)
- Coalition
- Buy the Bottle
- Saraveza
- Apex
Beer Props of the day:
Amber: Old Rasputin @ Apex
Sean: Zombie Flanders @ Rock Bottom
Ryan: Sweet Heat @ Burnside
Brian: Oatmeal Pale Ale @ Burnside
Quote of the day, “I need a warm bottle of milk” Sean
Day one in PDX…Rocked it.
Day 2
What to do to keep up your everyday drinking momentum? Balance it out with a lot of walking and some bad ass breakfasts. Day 2 was no exception. With a 2 mile walk under our belts, as well as some mean biscuits from Pine State biscuits, it was time for some Hair of the Dog, literally.
Day 2 Breweries/Pubs/Bottle Shops:
- Hair of the Dog
- Cascade
- Green Dragon Bistro/Buckman Village Brewing
- Belmont Station
- Horse Brass Pub
- Apex (Shout-out to King “C” and the secret tap)
Beer Props of the day:
Amber: Little Fred and a Pickle platter at Hair of the Dog. Say that 3 times fast.
Ryan: Drinking a Gruit and watching a troupe of gypsy dancers at The Green Dragon. Ryan does a mean polka.
Sean: Watching goats graze whilst sipping on Sang Royal at Cascade. No goats were milked during the drinking of his beer.
Brian: Enjoying the newly tapped Stoic, from the Deschutes Woody trailer, while shopping for beer. Life changing.
Quote of the day, “I walked 2 miles for a biscuit?” Ryan
Day 3
10 O’Clock is early in Beertown. At least for us it was, and walking doesn’t always cut it when you’ve got a list of breweries the size of a 5 year olds Christmas list. We decided to rent bikes, form a gang, and burn some rubber. Our cab driver the night before recommend a make-your-own pancake joint called Slappy Cakes, so we were hell bent on checking it out! It was really cool, I mean hot, and prepared us for the pub crawl(s) to come!
Day 3 Breweries/Pubs on the crawl:
- Hop Works (Pre-crawl)- Cool digs, some re-imagined bike parts as decor and tap handles. Most beautiful flight award.
- Widmer Brothers– Shout out to the Gestalt, Pitch Black IPA and X-369…also the samples from our waiter of the 114.
- Deschutes Street Fair- Media passes, great beer, food and music…lots of blogger meet-ups.
- Lucky Labrador- Sweet tour and 13 house taps + 2 guest taps. Fantastic beer!
- Old Lompoc- Good times getting to know some new friends-in- beer over a beer.
Katie Ann/ Amber Lin crawl consisted of Alan @growlerfils, Katie @katie_casey, Zack, and the usual contenders. We hit Voo Doo again, Burnside, and a divey Karaoke joint. Better times were never had with a posse like that.
Quote of the day, “There’s a back entrance?” Brian
This concludes our pre-conference stumbling. Stay tuned for BBC11: Rise of the Blogger
Peace & Beer
Amber
