World-class brews at the Portland Beer Festival.
One of the country's top beer gatherings, The Oregon Brewer's Festival, is coming up. Located in Portland's Tom McCall Waterfront Park, this year's event will be held from July 25 - July 28. More than 70 brewers are participating, including Alaskan, Anderson Valley, Bridgeport, Full Sail, Hales, MacTarnahan's, Red Hook, and Sierra Nevada.Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are the country's leading producers of hops, and Northwest brewers take full advantage of the local bounty and add hops, hops, and more hops throughout the brewing process. Traditional European brewers think these beers are crazy. But once you taste a finely crafted Northwest IPA or ESB, there's no going back.
In addition to beer, there's Greek, Mexican, and German food, as well as burgers and pizza. There's live entertainment daily and arts, crafts, and beer paraphernalia aplenty.
Admission is free. An empty mug costs $4 and then tokens, which buy you a taste, are $1 each. A full mug cost four tokens. Your first step on arrival should be locating the porta-potties. For details, visit http://www.oregonbrewfest.com/index.htm
If you don't have a designated driver, try to get a room at the RiverPlace Hotel, stumbling distance from the festival. http://www.riverplacehotel.com
