10 Best Oregon Craft Beers

Flavors from a beer mecca

By Aubrey Laurence

Compiling a short list of the best beers from Oregon is a nearly impossible task. The Beaver State is a beer mecca and it is considered by many to be one of the top craft-beer states in the nation. Its largest city, Portland (aka Beervana), has more breweries than any other city on earth, and cities such as Bend and Hood River have some of the highest numbers of breweries per capita in America. And, it’s still growing. In fact, the state is garnering so many new breweries—and at such a rapid rate—that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with them.

All of that said, the beers below—and those in our Top Oregon IPAs on page XX—represent a small sampling of the state’s finest beers. This list, which includes a variety of beer styles, only scratches the surface of the state’s growing and evolving beer landscape. Excluded from this list are elusive one-offs, limited-release beers, rare seasonals, hard-to-find barrel-aged beers and the like.

In no particular order, let’s take a flavor journey through Oregon.

Adam
Hair of the Dog Brewing Co., Portland

In 1994, Alan Sprints sold his first Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. beer. It was a dark and mysterious beer called Adambier (now simply named Adam, after Sprints’ friend who passed away). The beer is based off a historic style called Adambier, which was a top-fermented altbier originally brewed in Dortmund, Germany. This “hearty old world ale” is rich and wholesome with deep flavors of bread, wood, roast, smoke, leather, chocolate and dark fruits. A good dose of hop bitterness surfaces in the finish, while delicate yeast esters dance through your olfactory system.

Black Butte Porter
Deschutes Brewery, Bend

Founded in 1988, Deschutes is now the sixth-largest craft brewery in the United States (according to the Brewers Association and based on 2013 beer sales volume), and much of its success is due to one of its first beers: Black Butte Porter. Velvety-smooth and painfully easy to drink, Black Butte Porter has a soft roastiness with rich flavors of chocolate and coffee with sugar and cream. The beer’s sweetness is complemented by a tremendously balanced amount of bitterness. Deschutes produces many highly acclaimed beers, but Black Butte Porter is the flagship beer that put the brewery on the map. And, more than a quarter century after its release, it’s still one of the finest porters on the market.

Cascade Apricot Ale
Cascade Brewing, Portland

Apricot Ale is a Northwest-style sour ale that is a blend of aged blond ales, aged on fresh apricots for an additional eight months. Tart fruit flavors, lofted by an effervescent carbonation, exudes from start to finish. Sweet apricot flavors and a tangy tartness linger well into the aftertaste.

Chocolate Stout
Rogue Ales, Newport

Deeply rich and highly rewarding, Rogue’s Chocolate Stout explodes with chocolate and char from start to finish. A subtle, oat-y and milk-like sweetness cleaves off the beer’s bitter hop bite, just as mouthwatering notes of pine, grass and burnt crust build on your tongue. These are just some of the reasons why this beer has garnered more than three dozen awards from competitions all over the world.

Easy Day Kölsch
Worthy Brewing Co., Bend

For a beer with only 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, this refreshing German-style ale will surprise you with a great amount of flavor. Smooth, soft and light on the palate, it’s loaded with cracker-like malt flavors, a subtle honey-like sweetness, a nip of lemon, and a balanced hop bitterness that wafts with gentle herbal aromas.

Four Play
Upright Brewing, Portland

This barrel-aged sour ale is based on the brewery’s wheat beer named Four. But, unlike Four, Four Play spends a year in casks with tart cherries, Brettanomyces yeast and lactobacillus. The result is a snappy, refreshingly fruity and tart beer with rich cherry flavors throughout, along with some wholesome notes of oak in its dry finish. It’s highly drinkable yet incredibly complex.

Old Boardhead Barleywine
Full Sail Brewing Co., Hood River

This full-bodied brew has deep flavors of caramel, dark fruits, toast, toffee and tobacco, and it has a nice and spicy bitterness that cuts through the sweetness. As you continue to sip, herbal hop aromas surface and the 9 percent alcohol by volume slowly soothes your throat. Old Boardhead ages tremendously well, so if you can cellar some bottles for a few years, your patience will be rewarded. Vintage versions tend to have a mellowed hop profile and an incredibly complex mélange of malt flavors, including notes of molasses, rich caramel, figs, raisins and brown sugar.

Organic Secession Cascadian Dark Ale
Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB), Portland

As CDAs and black IPAs go, this is one of the finest examples on the market. The flavor combination of dark chocolate, citrus and sweet pine is heavenly, and that’s just the beginning of this beer’s complex flavor profile. Unfortunately, it is only available from March through the early summer, or until bottles sell out.

Seizoen Bretta
Logsdon Farmhouse Organic Ales, Hood River

This Belgian-inspired, farmhouse saison is brewed in small batches on Logsdon’s farm brewery in Hood River. It’s unfiltered and bottle-conditioned with pear juice. It’s a pleasantly spicy, estery and earthy brew with notes of light grains, tea, lemon and grapes. The addition of Brettanomyces yeast contributes a bit of funky goodness, depth and dryness.

Sweet Heat
Burnside Brewing Co., Portland

This unique and curiously refreshing, unfiltered wheat beer is made with apricots and Scotch Bonnet peppers from Jamaica. Hops take the backseat, allowing the interplay between the chewy-sweet apricots and the throat-warming peppers to really sing. Meanwhile, elements of sourness and tartness add to the beer’s depth. This odd combination of ingredients somehow culminates into a highly delectable and spicy beer that is a pleasure to drink. No wonder it received a gold medal at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival.

Resources

Hair of the Dog Brewing Co.: www.hairofthedog.com
Deschutes Brewery: www.deschutesbrewery.com
Cascade Brewing: www.cascadebrewing.com
Rogue Ales: www.rogue.com
Worthy Brewing Co.: www.worthybrewing.com
Upright Brewing: www.uprightbrewing.com
Full Sail Brewing Co.: www.fullsailbrewing.com
Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB): www.hopworksbeer.com
Logsdon Farmhouse Organic Ales: www.farmhousebeer.com
Burnside Brewing Co.: www.burnsidebrewco.com

Editor’s Note: Want to try even more Northwest favorites? Read about the top 10 Washington State beers at www.OutdoorsNW.com/2014/Top-10-Washington-Beers and the Top Washington State IPAs at www.OutdoorsNW.com/2014/Top-Washington-IPAs

Aubrey is a freelance writer who has written about craft beer, hiking and mountain climbing for more than a decade. He has hiked, climbed and tasted beer across the U.S. and in more than a dozen countries on six continents (but not at the same time). He lives in Bellingham with his No. 1 climbing partner (his wife) and their three cats.

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