Portland Beer Week 2017 Highlights

Portland Beer Week this year starts on Thursday, and runs from June 8 – June 18th 2017, 11 days of beer events happening all over Portland. This is not an exhaustive list of events – visit the Portland Beer Week website for all the events – but I wanted to highlight what I think are some unique events and my own personal take on Portland Beer Week 2017 Highlights.

This is just one of many events celebrating libations in June: I shared highlights for Negroni Week June 5-11 yesterday, and then for tomorrow I have a post about  Sake PDX Festival, which is coming up on June 21. And there’s Oregon Cider Week (June 15-25), PDX Margarita Festival (June 17) and then the beer festivals of Portland International Beer Festival (June 23-25) and Kriekfest (June 24)! All these events are just running into each other back to back this month!

PDX Beer Week 2017

• Thursday June 8
  • The kickoff for Portland Beer Week 2017 is a party with a Beer Week Marketplace and Beer Garden at the Exchange Ballroom and Rooftop from 4-10pm, tickets $10, free for minors
    
  • Reuben’s Brews is is having a launch party at both Bailey’s Taproom and Upper Lip today. Oh and I’m totally pictured on the website as hanging out at Upper Lip here on the promo picture. I also believe this may be the day that they launch DownPour Draft in Ankeny Square, a 4 tap beer cart and garden in a food cart pod 11 AM – 7 PM Thursday – Sunday just for the summer.
  • Crux Fermentation Brewery is popping up at Side Street Tavern for the entire duration of PDX Beer Week starting today. Try one of 10 different Crux beers, including at least 5 pub-only offerings. Supposedly a kick-off party for this is to be announced shortly.
  • Firestone Walker is holding all week starting today June 8 and on a beer tap takeover at Beer O Clock offering both core and limited Vintage and Wild Ales including SLOambic, Parabajava, Pacific Gravity, Sucaba 2016, Helldorado 2015, Anniversary XX and more. Meanwhile, Culmination Brewing will be taking over the enter taplist at Lardo West/Downtown location, with 10 beers including the Official PDX Beer Week beer and other specialty releases. I can think of no perfect pairing for their Lardo Dirty Fries then beer and while you’re here try the latest Chefwich by Ricky Bella of Bit House Saloon, a Roasted Pork Tortellini with refried beans, guacamole, queso, spicy pickled pineapple. Proceeds benefit the TriMet Heroes.
    
• Friday June 9
  • The main event is Portland Fruit Beer Fest starts today and goes through Sunday. All ages and free to attend (just pay for tasting glass and tokens for drinks), the festival highlights fruit beers and fruited ciders. It is being held in the parking lot and street outside Burnside Brewery, expect a rainbow of fruits varying from Marionberry, Blood Orange, Pineapple, Strawberry Basil, Key Lime, Elderberry, Prickly Pear and Watermelon, and much more. At the preview, I was impressed with the Burnside Wheatberry Wine with Black Currant, Boysenberry, Blackberry Wheat Wine and the Breakside Mango Sticky Rice – what combination will you like, come and find out!
    
• Saturday June 10
  • Produce Row is celebrating Bend Breweries like 10 Barrel, Silver Moon, Worthy, Sun River Brewing & Atlas Cider from 4pm to 10pm with aspecialty BBQ food menu, lawn games, and the chance to win some great prizes from the raffle.
  • If you are looking for something unique, check out the Weird Beer Bonanza at Imperial Taproom from noon to midnight. A commemorative drinking jar costs $5, and drink tickets are $1.50 each. Tap list tentatively includes example weird beers like Coin Toss Brewing Caught in a Pickle Lager, Everybody’s Brewing (a to-be-named beer fermented with yeast cultured from Sauerkraut/Kimchi), Leikam Brewing Spicy Peanut Pale Ale, Loowit Brewing Goodnight Moon Man Imperial Stout (infused with squid ink, food grade glitter and star anise), Nectar Creek Raspberry Chocolate Mole Mead, Sierra Nevada / Mikkeler Thai-Style Iced Tea Ale and more.
  • At Loyal Legion as part of their week long series of events (including Whiskey Beer And Beer Pairing during Of PDX Beer Week 6/8-6/18), they are doing a Gin Fest featuring gin barrel-aged beers and barrel-aged gins. Expect barrel aged beers from Upright, De Garde, Gigantic and more.
• Sunday June 11
  • The highlight today besides continuation of events already mentioned earlier is a special Firestone Walker and Hair of the Dog Brewers Dinner at Hair of the Dog Brewery featuring an eight course meal with 14 beer pairings  beers from each brewery, tickets available at the Hair of the Dog Brewery.
• Monday June 12
  • One of my favorite events of Portland Beer Week is getting to know new breweries, which is sure to happen at the 4th annual New School Beer’s New Oregon Breweries Showcase at Baileys Taproom. The New Oregon Breweries Showcase features eleven of our state’s best new breweries (all breweries will have opened less than a year from the date of the event) and each brewery will have the brewer and/or owner present 5-8 PM and two of their beers on tap (open to close). No cover charge, beers individually priced.
    
• Tuesday June 13
  • Tonight is the Imperial Session Dinner featuring Block 15 Brewing and Ruse Brewing with 5 courses paired with beer. $75/person which include all courses, pairings, and gratuity, vegetarian options available if notified in advance, dinner starts at 7 PM (tickets at EventBrite).
    

    A post shared by Ryan Spencer (@imperialsession) on May 25, 2017 at 2:48pm PDT

  • A Sweet and Sour Dessert Pop up from 4-6 PM Culmination Brewing and Ruse Brewing and McMenamins Edgefield Brewery will offer Sour and Funky beers to be paired with desserts along with clean beers will be available to cleanse the palate. at the McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop. Tickets available at the bottle shop for $16
• Wednesday June 14
  • Culmination Brewing is offering a Beer Dinner with Woodsman Tavern at 7 PM. Tickets ($60) get you a welcome beer and 5 additional beers specially paired to one off dishes from Woodsman’s Executive Chef Ryan Gaul, and many beers for the dinner will have been previously unavailable outside of the taproom. Get the lineup and your tickets here
  • Sweet and Sour: A Dessert Beer Pairing is happening today over at Saraveza with a flight of 3 desserts and 3 beers.
• Thursday June 15
  • The 5th Annual Mussels from Brussels at Bazi Bierbrasserie featuring five breweries (Breakside, Culmination, Lompoc, pFriem, and Upright), five secret sauces created by each brewery for dipping in one pound of mussels served with fries, and paired with their Belgian-inspired beer. Seatings (10 persons per seating) will take place every 30 minutes between 5:30-8:30 PM with the winner announced at 9 PM – get your $28 ticket beforehand to reserve your seat
  • A great party seems to be in the works with the Modern Times Beer Dinner at Pizza Jerk with two seatings available (5 or 8 PM) and includes 4 courses both with beer pairings for $50. I’m a fan of both Pizza Jerk and Modern Times so this is a double win combination!
    
  • For another kind of party, head over between 3 – 9 PM to Stormbreaker Brewing for Beer and Wings Pairing (5×5) where you can get 5 different flavor wings (full wings) paired with 5 different 4 oz StormBreaker beers. Then, at Stormbreaker linger a lil longer to join in from the 7 – 8 event TENTx Talk: Beer & Spirit Pairings inside their tent where distillers from Bull Run Distillery, Indio Spirits Bottle Shop and Tasting Room, Stone Barn Brandyworks, and Eastside Distilling will be on hand to help explain what makes a beer and spirit pairing great in an interactive TENTx Talk for $15 while you also enjoy 4 different pairings (4 oz beer 1/4 oz spirit).
• Friday June 16
  • I’m not a big fan of IPA unless paired with food to balance it, but for you IPA lovers out there your best event of Portland Beer Week I think is the The Masters of IPA Invitational offering fourteen of the best India Pale Ale brewers from across the country, held outdoors 4 – 9 PM at Ecliptic Brewing and is all ages (obviously 21+ to drink) with Initial Admission to get your glass and 3 starter beer tickets for $10, and additional individual glass is $7, additional drink tickets are $2 each.
    
• Saturday June 17
  • The premiere event I think for today is the Portland Beer and Cheese Fest happening this year at Culmination Brewing Annex and includes 10 beers with 10 cheeses to pair with each beer carefully curated by Cheese Bar and Chizu owner Steve Jones. VIP Admission is $45 for early entrance noon – 4 PM and Regular Admission is $35 1 – 4 PM. For an idea of what this is like you can see my Beer and Cheese Fest 2015 recap.
     
  • After all that beer and cheese (or instead of going to that festival), check out beer for a cause (This event is a benefit for New Avenues For Youth) at the Rye Beer Fest at Happy Valley Station featuring 20+ Rye Beers and 18 Food Carts from 11 AM – 9 PM. General admission is a cheap $10 that includes the event glass and 8 drink tickets. This is a family friendly event.
  • For a little more active enjoyment of beer, consider the The StormBreaker Beer Quest and Mini Beer Fest. Starting at 10 AM – 1 PM, participants will run/bike/walk to each of the participating breweries to get a hole punch in their beer quest card in any order desired, and once you get your card filled out you will then back to StormBreaker and redeem your beer quest card to get tasters for the mini beer fest with beers from each of the North Portland breweries as your reward for every hole punch. A portion of the proceeds go to support HRCLL (Little League)
    
• Sunday June 18
  • Brewvana has several tours that are occurring during PDX Beer Week, and although I did not cover all of the here, you can see them at the Portland Beer Week website. The one I wanted to highlight though was this cool food and beer pairing tour called “Cooking With Craft Beer” that includes tasting tips, ingredients in beer, what tasting characteristics beer lends to food, what food to pair different beer styles with and how to cook with beer along a starting stop at The Commons Brewery to try cheeses paired with beers, then a stop a Nourish Northwest where you will learn how to cook with beer plus have lunch with paired beers of Baerlic Brewing.
  • The closing event for Portland Beer Week is the super fun Portland Beer Week + Gigantic Brewing SNACKDOWN! I recapped this event last year and already have my ticket to go this year. Held at The Evergreen event space above Loyal Legion this is a WWF style Smackdown themed food and beer pairing event where 10 of Portland Chefs and 10 Oregon Brewers are paired into 10 Brewer/Chef teams to make their greatest snack and beer pairing. Guests will choose their favorite pairing and the winners will be awarded the SNACKDOWN Belt while grooving to DJ Rev Shines for $49 Brewery/Chef Pairings: include
    
    • Hopworks / Toro Bravo (defending 2016 champs)
      
    • Baerlic Brewing / BIWA
    • The Commons / Lardo
    • Ecliptic Brewing / Loyal Legion
    • Culmination Brewing / Hotlips
    • pFriem Family Brewers / Bunk Sandwiches
    • Heater Allen Brewing / Old Salt Marketplace
    • Breakside Brewery / Salt n Straw Ice Cream
    • Buoy Beer / Danwei Canting
    • Gigantic Brewing / Mi Mero Mole
  • If you are looking for a more formal beer and food pairing, consider the beer dinner of Belgian style beers from pFriem Family Brewers with Vitaly Paley of Headwaters and in Headwaters’ Private Dining rooms on the Mezzanine level of the historic Heathman Hotel with Hors D’oeuvres and 5 courses.

Well, that’s my highlight – again it’s not the full list of events, which you can view the most updated information at the Portland Beer Week website.  I always find the website a bit cumbersome because you have to click on each day individually, and each event individually to see details, and no opening of new tabs so it’s a lot of clicking and navigating to browse it all – but hey that’s why I summarized what I think is the best for you here!