Hey guys. Just a set of quick reviews. I was in Portland this past weekend to catch a Celtics game, so I of course drank a bunch of beer. One night I met up local 2p2er ThaSaltCracka at the Rogue Ale House, along with his brother. Great guys to drink some beers with. The Rogue place was cool because you could get these carved wooden bottles that held 4 4oz glasses, so you could sample a ton of beer. We mostly just told the waiter to pick stuff out for us. I got pretty drunk so I can't give a very solid review. I know I had all of, but not limited to, the following: Brutal Bitter, I2PA, Chocolate Stout, Mocha Porter (I really liked this), Old Crustacean (crusty he called it, barleywine, pretty good I thought), Hazlenut (sans Sklansky's likeness.. probably my favorite sampling)... that's all I can remember. Not much more than that if any. After two of those samplers (we called 'em bats before realizing they were shaped like bottles), I also had a pint of Chocolate Stout, though I should have got the Hazlenut Brown Ale.
I hit up a couple other breweries when wandering around by myself, as well. One was called McMenamin's.. I guess they're all over town. I actually went to two. One in the uptown area while wandering. While there I sampled 3 beers: a pint of Hammerhead Ale, Nantucket, and a half pint of their IPA.
The Hammerhead was kind of a hopped up Amber Ale. Pretty close to an IPA, but not quite. I liked it quite a bit. It had a good malt character, with a good amount of hop flavor, and the hops were pretty citrusy. I'd probably say 3.5
's.
The Nantucket was a bitter, or so they said. When I think bitter I think of darker red ales. This was actually pretty golden, and not really bitter at all. It wasn't bad, really, but so far from its billing that I wouldn't order it again. 1.5
's.
Their IPA also left much to be desired. That same citrusy, hoppy flavor was there, but it was too sweet, and it lacked the crisp finish that I think is a must in order to crack my IPA rotation. Not awful, but nothing special. 2
's.
The next day I found another McMenamin's a few blocks up from my hotel, so I tried their Terminator Stout, which TSC suggested. It's got the nitrous tap, so it's basically their guiness. It was pretty good. Pretty nice semisweet flavor to it. Still, nothing special. 3
s. Though their beers didn't slay me, I did like both bars. They had a bunch more to choose from, too.
After the game, I went to a place called the rock bottom. I tried their Porter and their Stout. Both were kinda weak in my opinion. They were tasty and fine to drink, but there wasn't any strong smoky, roasted flavor too them. Each are probably 3
ers.
Rogue Ale house definitely was the highlight of my beer tasting festivities. I also stopped at a few non-brewery bars and had some black butte porter on tap. That stuff is just delicious.
And the Celtics won, so all in all a great weekend!