Portland Report # 1 – The Commons Brewery

IMG_6019
The Commons Brewery occupies a spacious corner on what I call the mid-Eastside near Lucky Lab, Cascade and Green Dragon. After barely avoiding a driver who REALLY wanted to turn right in front of us, my party of hearty beer tasters settled in to ease our jumpy, thank goodness the brakes work nerves.

I selected a taster tray to get a wide range from light to dark beers. Starting with Myrtle (my favorite) a lacto meets Meridian hop saison. #No Filter is a collaborative beer where Myrtle was slammed into Sweet Heat the Burnside Brewing pepper beer. This version had apricots and peppers and melded both nicely. Kthonias was a hazelnut Oud Bruin sour and it didn’t work so well for me. The two flavors cancelled each other out. More successful was the Pumpernickle Rye Saison which had a nice spice duo that complimented the base saison.

It is a huge space and it has plenty of elbow room in the tasting room and the brewery. (Side Note: more tables please) The bar area is nice and the beer descriptions though a bit chalk hazy are thorough enough for the beer fan. I was impressed by the diversity of the tap selections but a little less impressed by The Bruery prices on the 750ml bottles.
IMG_6020
I like that there is a cool little cheese and food kitchen tucked into the corner for nibbles and the bread that I got was a welcome addition to the tasting.