July is Oregon Craft Beer Month, and I will be highlighting every week an event or beer in honor of celebrating and promoting Oregon Craft Beer.
Especially if you live in Portland, there are so many breweries right here just in the city. In fact, the upcoming Portland Craft Beer Festival this weekend July 3 – 5 is focused exactly on that – celebrating just the beers made in the Portland city limits.
I’ve summarized everything up into 10 points you need to know about the Portland Craft Beer Festival (PCBF).
- The 5 Ws:
- What: A beer festival showcasing beers only from within the city limits of Portland. Even though Portland does host many beer festivals, this is the first one focusing only on Portland breweries.
- When:
- Friday, July 3, 2015 – 4pm to 10pm
- Saturday, July 4, 2015 – 12pm to 10pm
- Sunday, July 5, 2015 – 12pm to 7pm
- Who: Guests must be 21+ to drink alcoholic beverages. On Friday and Saturday admission is 21+ only, but Sunday is Family Day and open to all ages.
- Where: The Fields Neighborhood Park in the Pearl District, at 1099 NW Overton St, Portland, OR 97209
- Why: CaskAide, Inc. and its partner charities are the non-profit beneficiaries of the PCBF. This year, the charities that CaskAide is honored to partner with are The Oregon Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation, The James Beard Public Market and the Oregon Brew Crew
- Support Local! The beer list is great – with almost 100 beers being poured from Portland breweries. Even as a beer geek myself there are beers from breweries new or small I have never visited or only heard of, but PCBF has gathered them conveniently all in one location. Besides the beer being within the city limits, so are the wine and ciders alternatives if you don’t want to partake in beer. PCBF will be offering wine from Coopers Hall and fizzy wines from Hi Wheel, and cider from Cider Riot! and Reverand Nat’s.
- Portland Made Cheese! PCBF is showcasing two cheesemakers who make their cheese within the city limits, Ancient Heritage Dairy and Portland Creamery
Cheeses from Portland Creamery; Cheese from Ancient Heritage Diary - It’s a great value for a beer festival. $20 for a keepsake mug and 10 beer tickets. 1 ticket will yield one 4 oz pour and 4 tickets will buy a full pour. Advance ticket purchasers will receive 15 beer tickets and the mug for $20. which is a BIG DEAL! Additional tickets will be available for purchase at $1.00 apiece. Tickets will be available for advance purchase through Brown Paper Tickets.. It will be cash only at the PCBF festival. Your admission is good all weekend.
- PCBF cares about you stretching: they are holding free yoga classes for adults and for children 1 hour before the festival opens (aka the free yoga classes are at 11 AM) on Sunday
- There will be plenty of food to go with the drinks. PCBF is making sure we support several local food carts that will be on site, and also the offerings are diverse to satisfy whatever you feel like eating. They include Bunk Sandwiches with their always tasty sandwiches, The Dump Truck with their dumplings, Floyd’s Coffee Shop, Farm to Fire wood fired pizza, and Urban German Grill with their German sausages and pretzels. Additionally on Sunday there will be ice cream thanks to Ruby Jewel.
Example vegetarian sandwich from Bunk one season that was Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Apple Chutney, Gruyere & Horseradish sandwich; A sausage from Urban German Grill; Sample I had on a food cart tour from Dump Truck with a Potato Curry dumpling and a Mr Ma dumpling; Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwich - On Family Day Sunday, there will be a Children’s Craft Market with craft booths by kids. Support the kids! There will be free vision testing by The Oregon Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation and also face painting as well on Sunday Family Day.
- The Portland Beer Hall of Fame will be unveiled on Saturday, July 4 at 3 PM. The inaugural inductees will be announced by the Beer Goddess Lisa Morrison (also known as Beer O’Clock Radio host) and ballots will be available to vote on next year’s inductees.
- Thanks to BTU Brasserie there will be beer slushies to keep you cool
- It is very easy to not have to drive to PCBF. And there’s a reward for taking your bike to the fest.
- The Portland Streetcar runs from Downtown, Northwest, & the Inner Eastside and stops a block from The Fields Park.
- PCBF will be partnering with Lyft for safe rides to and from the festival (use PCBF code to get a free ride up to $20 for signin gup).
- PCBF will also have a bike valet (bring your own lock) courtesy of Spinlister, The Global Bike Share. Present your valet parking stub inside the festival for a free 4 oz. pour.
- Pedi-cabs will also be on hand – a scenic trip along the waterfront park for anyone looking to go back and forth from the Waterfront Blues Festival.
- And for those with designated drivers, there is a parking lot at Station Place Garage Lot 120 at 720 NW Lovejoy Court, at the west end of the Broadway Bridge.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be at PCBF on Friday, so check my Untappd profile at pechluck to see my thoughts on some of the beer, and my Instagram @pechluck or Twitter @pechluck for any pictures!
What do you think of the ideas of the Portland Craft Beer Festival – do you find it so very Portland like I do? What are your holiday weekend plans?
Beer slushies! I must have that. And, I love the idea of taking a pedicab along the waterfront and Lyft for a safe ride home. We might try to go Sunday. Love the free yoga class before it opens Sunday!
Free yoga classes! How interesting. I wouldn’t think of that in relation to beer. 🙂 Nice that they are showcasing so many local businesses. Supporting local is good.
Yes, I am a fan of how much they are supporting local! I also think the free yoga is a quirky idea, but I do see many people carrying yoga mats in the morning or after work so I suppose it is very Portland!
YES to the beer slushies! I really appreciate all the great information here, Pech! My husband and I have been wanting to check out the Portland Beer Festival for years. MUST check it out ASAP. Cheers!