The event is hosted by Portland Monthly in partnership with Fred Meyer and benefits Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. For $17, attendees can try tastings of beer from 10 local breweries and sliders from 7 local brewhouse chefs competing for the title of Best Burger- which the audience gets to vote for (the cost is $12 if not partaking in beer).

The list of brewhouse participants:

• Alameda Brewhouse
• BridgePort Brewery
• Buckman Brewery
• Burnside Brewing Co
• Deschutes Brewery
• Full Sail Brewing Co
• Henry's Tavern
• Laurelwood Brewing Co
• Ninkasi Brewing
• Widmer Brothers Brewing

The burgers are slider sized, but not really. For the second year in a row, I brought home leftovers instead of throwing out the burgers just because I was too full to finish them/wanted to save room to try them all. I didn't want to be wasteful of my food, and this time I was more clever in that I brought several ziploc bags in my bag. Now onto the burger food photos…

Laurelwood Public House & Brewery, the winner last year, came this year with a TEXAS BBQ BURGER: Smoked brisket, horseradish coleslaw, crispy Walla Walla onions, and Laurelwood’s signature Free Range Red BBQ sauce. Laurelwood Public House & Brewery offered a choice of either the organic pale ale or the organic free range red- I chose the Red in my sample cup

Burnside Brewing Co had the most hype as you watched them prepare their BURNSIDE BURGER: Liquid nitrogen-dipped and duck fat fried beef patty with ketchup, grilled onion, bacon, and cheddar powders, served with dill pickle “caviar”. The condiments teased us as we watched the prep show- dehydrated and food science executed onion, ketchup, cheddar, and duck fat all in powder, along with that white tub of dill pickle caviar…Unfortunately, I think everyone was disappointed that the flavors from those toppings didn't come through, and the burger was slightly dry though I could taste the extra savoryness from the duck fat.

It turned out my favorite and the one I voted for would be BridgePort Brewing Company's BIG ISLAND LITTLE BURGER: Beef and pork belly grind, char siu glaze, house cured pork belly, spicy sambal slaw, cilantro chimichurri, and tangy pickled red onions served on a toasted BridgePort Bakery Portuguese Sweet roll. It was a lot going on, but the sweetness and the herby earthiness of the chimichurri (which seemed more like a pesto to me) and the umami of the pork belly also all individually were good. 

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I also really liked the beer they were serving- the citrusy lined ale of Summer Squeeze which has infusion of lemongrass and yuzu.

In a very respectable second place for me was the Widmer Brothers Brewing THE GASTHAUS BURGER: Local Oregon beef, butter lettuce, Inaba Farms tomatoes and caramelized onion topped with smoked blue cheese & Nelson IPA fondue, served on a toasted brioche bun. Messy, but I do love cheese.There were three beers you could choose from and I went with their Okto, a seasonal ale for the fall.

Also in the high mess to eat category was Deschutes Brewery's THE YELLOW BELLY BURGER: Spicy pesto, candied yellow pear tomatoes, whipped goat cheese, and Obsidian Stout braised pork belly perched atop Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub’s classic spent-grain fed Coleman Ranch beef patty and elegantly gift-wrapped with a whole-grain mustard ciabatta bun. Yeah, they can barely get the description to fit on their sign! From one of the photos, you can see from this angle you can almost imagine this looks like the tomatoes are two eyes, and it's a goofy burger face… Heh heh heh. I think I'm delirious from the heat and food.

I also really liked the beer Deschutes brought- they also had 3 options and I went with The Cyclist, a hefeweizen and lemonade brew. It was really refreshing with the tangy citrus really coming through to give a nice summer tartness to the Hefeweizen like a preinfused Shandy.

Just as competitive as all these delicious burgers above was the more simple and classic Alameda Brewhouse's TILLAMOOK CHEDDAR PEPPER BACON BURGER: Frank’s Choice free ground beef, Zenner’s thick cut pepper bacon, Tillamook cheddar cheese on a Kaiser bun. I liked how they didn't throw a boatload of condiments on top- they let the wonderful seasoning of the beef with just a bit of bacon and cheddar say all they needed. Their assembly line was efficient and showed they had thought carefully about the logistics of serving out food so there wouldn't be lines.

Finally, the 7th burger… Henry's Tavern brought the HENRY’S HITMAN BURGER: Brioche bun topped with a burger patty, pesto aioli, provolone cheese, mixed greens, pickled sweet pepper, and jalapeño stuffed olives. I skipped the Henry's Tavern beer for Buckman Brewing experiments of the Ginger and the Chamomile beers

I hope they continue to look for improving space to hold it in- this year I appreciated how it was more spread out in the Fred Meyer parking lot rather then on the streets outside the Whole Food (who was last year's co-sponsor), but it was also Portland's first past 90 degree day… in fact the recorded high temp I believe was 97. Everyone was baking as the heat reflected back up from the asphalt, even as we all tried to hide from the microwave of the sun in some of the shade they tried to provide but just didn't have enough of.

Overall though, this event was organized well with the red and white checkered tablecloths and jars of flowers and fanned out Portland Monthly's that made this event once again classy and beautiful to the eye as well as filling to the stomach, all for a good cause. 100% of net proceeds will go directly to the Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon Summer Meals Program that helps provide funds for organizations to serve meals to low-income children during the summer when school is not in session.

Beer 'N' Burgers 2011