The Portland half of my Oregon Trip started at the NW Slabtown location of Breakside Brewing that had Empire Strikes Back playing on the waiting area TV. So mood bettered, I chose to get the sampler tray featuring collaborations and it had a list of heavy hitters: Alesong, Fremont, The Rare Barrel, Sunriver and the new Gorges Beer Co. Of the beers only the Hazelnut Super Stout struck an off chord. The Fremont collab was just too sweet for me. The Winner by a nose was the Gorgeous George Pale Ale that was just right. Most of the beers were hoppy but also in the 5% range as well.
The next brewery stop was a late night visit to Wayfinder where I had their coffee version of Devil’s Hand, Hidden Hand. Man, that aroma should be bottled. That was good coffee there and the black lager mixed perfectly with it. If not my favorite overall beer then it was a close # 2.
The next day was wine related but a visit to Hair of the Dog was snuck in. I vacillated between their special wood-aged beer and their special concrete-aged beer. HotD has an egg shaped fermenter that they use that is not their traditional barrel. I went for Fred since I wasn’t in an Otis Oatmeal stout mood, but after a few sips of the heavy coconut and burn from the Fred, I wish I had. It was good but fits into that, 5 ounces would have been fine category.
Other beers were had but that will be detailed in a later post.
