Which state produces better craft beers?
Pac 12 North Craft Beer Championship
- Thread starter YellowSnow
- Start date
I have to vote for my #MyDuckTards in this one and have been thoroughly impressed with the Oregon craft beer options.
My favorite all time session beer style is the classic German/Czech Pils and I've never been able to find a great one by an American craft brewer (Trummer is decent, but nothing speshial). It sounds like it's hard to get the right euro fag malt on this side of the pond.
Alas, I stumbled onto the Zoiglhaus Pils from PDX and it is fantastic. Pfreim's Pils is pretty solid as well.
@haie
My favorite all time session beer style is the classic German/Czech Pils and I've never been able to find a great one by an American craft brewer (Trummer is decent, but nothing speshial). It sounds like it's hard to get the right euro fag malt on this side of the pond.
Alas, I stumbled onto the Zoiglhaus Pils from PDX and it is fantastic. Pfreim's Pils is pretty solid as well.
@haie
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Tuff to admit, but it's true. Both are great states for beer, though. Tough to find many places better outside of Colorado and the Northeast.
1to392831weretaken
New Fish
There's a point of beer goodness where you're just sort of topped out from a quality standpoint and just market-saturating. Both states have been there for some time. Cloudburst and Fremont in Seattle, Skookum in Smokey Point, Structures and Wander in Bellingham all do things that rival anything I've had in Oregon. If I lived in Oregon and drank more of their beer, I'd probably say the same thing in reverse (had a maple syrup and coffee breakfast stout from Great Notion in Portland just the other day that was, as the kids say, dudical). Plenty of great shit in California, Colorado, etc. etc. etc., too.
If you live in a non-shithole town in either state, there is a brewer nearby with something for you. The end.
(Yella, for German beers, see if you can find something from Chuckanut. That's their thing.)
If you live in a non-shithole town in either state, there is a brewer nearby with something for you. The end.
(Yella, for German beers, see if you can find something from Chuckanut. That's their thing.)
Around 2004 I was stationed near Nashville after spending the previous 2 years in Germany and 3 years before that in Colorado. I went to buy beer and it was nothing but crap: Bud, Miller, etc. Sam Adams was the best thing on the shelf and there wasn’t a brewery in site. I almost drove to St Louis just to buy Fat Tire.
Fast forward to today living in Lexington and I’ve got 2 breweries within a mile of my house and another half dozen or so in the city. I was Charleston, SC last week and that town has about a dozen or more breweries.
You can argue about which state has better beer but I think it’s splitting hairs at this point. You can find good beer just about anywhere in this country. After living through some dark tims circa 2004-2005 I am certainly thankful.
Fast forward to today living in Lexington and I’ve got 2 breweries within a mile of my house and another half dozen or so in the city. I was Charleston, SC last week and that town has about a dozen or more breweries.
You can argue about which state has better beer but I think it’s splitting hairs at this point. You can find good beer just about anywhere in this country. After living through some dark tims circa 2004-2005 I am certainly thankful.
Skookum is the shit and not many know about it. Their hazies rival anything else in the PNW, including the stuff that Reubens cranks out (their Triple Crush is amazing and will get you drunk). Fremont has kinda jumped the shark, IMO. Their barrel-aged stuff is the only thing worth buying, but they jacked prices on them by $7-10 a bottle this past winter and there are many more options out there other than B-Bomb these days.
Generally I agree with you about the market being saturated, though. Beer 10 years ago to today was like going through an industrial revolution phase.
I agree on the "topped out" standpoint and saturation of the market. But having lived down in OR coming up on 10 months, I find myself drinking a shit ton more local beer than I did in Seattle. My local supermarket has one of the best craft beer selections of any store I've shopped at in my life.
MikeDamone
Active poster
I remember my craft beer phase
Phases are for fags. I’ve been doing the same old shit for decades.
TurdBomber
Active poster
Entirely too much IPA in Seattle. Yeah, Yeah, prattle on lads. Whatever. You're drinking the Star Jeans of Beers.
Ever since Bud Grant died, there hasn't been a Scotch/Scottish Ale worth shit brewed anywhere in the PNW, but for two very good ones from Bridgeport, which is now closed thanks to Portland Antifa Faggots, and Cold Smoke from Montana. Washington has no Scottish Ale worth shit anymore, and that chaps my Scottish Brogue Ass to no end. One more reason I spend much time East of the Mountains, as I can buy Kettle House Cold Smoke in Cle Elum.
Ever since Bud Grant died, there hasn't been a Scotch/Scottish Ale worth shit brewed anywhere in the PNW, but for two very good ones from Bridgeport, which is now closed thanks to Portland Antifa Faggots, and Cold Smoke from Montana. Washington has no Scottish Ale worth shit anymore, and that chaps my Scottish Brogue Ass to no end. One more reason I spend much time East of the Mountains, as I can buy Kettle House Cold Smoke in Cle Elum.
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Well shit @TurdBomber i didn’t know they closed. Guess it was 2019 so pre Antifa fags getting their reads down. I always thought their IPA was great although I’m not a huge IPA guy.
My son BTW had as tuff as a Scottish name as it gets. I’ll tell you some time over whiskey at Tumalo happy hour with @dflea
https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2019/2/12/oregons-oldest-brewery-bridgeport-has-closed
TurdBomber
Active poster
The closure of Bridgeport is an immeasurable loss to Portland. Been going there since the mid-90s and the beer was still great even after the gentrification of the neighborhood and the expensive, lavish remodel of their space.
Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores.
Seems like there ain't nobody, wants to come down here no more.
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad track.
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back,
To your hometown. Your hometown.
The Boss used to be so MAGA
TurdBomber
Active poster
Well you still have Deschutes. Great beers, but what a let-down their taproom is/was in downtown Bend. Wow. I was shocked when I went there the first time. Did they borrow an interior designer from an old Denny's? Fuck me.
Always wound up in the cocktail lounge at that McMenamins, even though I'm not crazy about their beer, so downed as many Whisky Sours or Bourbons as possible before seeing the in-laws.
Anyhow, Bend still has some good beer joints, and even the ones by the roundabouts on Century don't suck. But hitting Bridgeport in Portland for lunch at the midpoint between Seattle and Bend was a family ritual I miss.
Always wound up in the cocktail lounge at that McMenamins, even though I'm not crazy about their beer, so downed as many Whisky Sours or Bourbons as possible before seeing the in-laws.
Anyhow, Bend still has some good beer joints, and even the ones by the roundabouts on Century don't suck. But hitting Bridgeport in Portland for lunch at the midpoint between Seattle and Bend was a family ritual I miss.
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I have to vote for my #MyDuckTards in this one and have been thoroughly impressed with the Oregon craft beer options.
My favorite all time session beer style is the classic German/Czech Pils and I've never been able to find a great one by an American craft brewer (Trummer is decent, but nothing speshial). It sounds like it's hard to get the right euro fag malt on this side of the pond.
Alas, I stumbled onto the Zoiglhaus Pils from PDX and it is fantastic. Pfreim's Pils is pretty solid as well.
@haie
If you like German culture and beer, Zoiglhaus is one of the best establishments in the entire Northwest. Right off of 205 and is convenient for both sides of the river.
HM:
Cascadia Brothers in WA for Crazy 88 Lager (low abv, gameday beer), and Loowit (they do 9%+ beer very well)
Hopworks, Fort George, and Crux in OR (they all put out random, excellent shit every year)
A lot of breweries in the South Sound region have locations I really want to visit this summer if I have time, such as Silver City and Valholl
Cascadia Brothers in WA for Crazy 88 Lager (low abv, gameday beer), and Loowit (they do 9%+ beer very well)
Hopworks, Fort George, and Crux in OR (they all put out random, excellent shit every year)
A lot of breweries in the South Sound region have locations I really want to visit this summer if I have time, such as Silver City and Valholl
Fremont sucks, IMO. Their standard fare stuff is not good. Matchless' lead brewer started his own place in Tacoma called Sig Brewing. All the Matchless I've had in the past year has been not as good as it used to be. Sig makes some good stuff, as does E9. I would put both above the two former breweries at this point.
Mostly these kinds of lists come down to what style of beer you prefer.
1to392831weretaken
New Fish
Was going to say exactly this. I like big stouts (and sours when I'm in the mood for something light). Fremont stouts/barleywines are good. Darkstar is a fine base stout for what I can pick it up for in a six-pack. Their specialty stuff is overpriced, but I never pay for it since I always have it when I'm digging into my brother's collection of verticals.
My favorite beer is out of St. Louis of all places (Abraxas), but it's $20 per bottle, so special occasions only. Firestone Walker, like Pumpy: good at everything. Used to be into The Abyss from Deschutes, but they've gone too heavy with the bourbon and priced it stupid like Fremont. Way back in the day, Pikop Andropov from Hales was the shit--thickest blackest beer money could buy at the time. Anymore, it's hard to say which brewery is better than which when the stuff I usually like best is all small release and comes and goes. I know it's hard to beat some of the specialty stouts from Evil Twin in New York, but they're hard to find here. I've walked into Cloudburst to find three stouts on tap that all rocked my balls, but the most recent time, they didn't have a stout on at all. Ditto Structures (although they have one now that's fucking amazing). Wander's base stout is meh, but when they do something special, it's usually right up there. My brother just turned me on to Great Notion, and they're a similar kind of brewery that tries big things and can seemingly do no wrong.
It's splitting hairs, and at this point it just comes down to where you live, therefore what's readily available, and what style you're into. One thing's for sure is that you get what you pay for, and once you have some of this big specialty stuff, it's harder to appreciate the off the shelf beer. My drinking habit has gotten car-payment expensive!...