It’s already late January and you haven’t yet added a single souvenir glass this year to your collection of beerfest glassware. Well, rant about it on Facebook because this is a travesty of justice! Who’s gonna make that collection great again if you don’t get out there and tick those fest-only beers off your list or on Untappd? Fortuitously, you’ve got four great Portland Beer Festival options—Celebrating the Craft, Collabofest, Artisinful, and NW Coffee Invitational—all before the clock strikes Sunday.
Here's where you're going to want to be drinking over the next three days:
1. “Celebrating the Craft” at Migration Brewing, Thur Jan 26 (tonight), 6 pm
Eight breweries dogpile on the craft that gives connoisseurs hard-to-find or never-seen-before creations. And best of all, all eight beers cost $6 each, with no additional admission fee. Dig on some Commons’ Viognier Grisette, a tart table beer made with grape juice. Half of the beers are unique IPAs: Coalition’s Space Funk, an intentionally affected version of their citrus-infused Space Fruit IPA; Great Notion’s Mandela, dry hopped with Nelson (get it?) Sauvin hops; Fat Heads’ Semper FiPA; and a black one from Baerlic called Dark Thoughts that has been cold-steeped with roasted malts. Whoa. Better still, 10 percent of the entire night’s proceeds go to the National Brain Tumor Society, in support of the National Brain Tumor Society, inspired by Portland’s beer blog Brewpublic, as founder Angelo De Ieso battles a debilitating brain tumor.
Migration Brewing Annex, 2828 NE Glisan
2. Collabofest at Base Camp Brewing, Sat Jan 28, 2-8 pm
The third annual Collabofest brings together 16 local breweries in collaborative matrimony. The result of eight fermented couplings is 16 unique beers, each with a theme. For example, the Alameda and StormBreaker union is inspired by Blue Star Donuts. StormBreaker’s the Passion of the Homer riffs off Blue Star's passion fruit and cocoa nib donut. It's a Cascadian dark ale aged on passion fruit and cocoa nibs while Alameda’s Coffee and Donutella layers coffee, cocoa, milk sugar, and hazelnuts onto a pale ale base. Having sampled some of the beers pouring at the fest, the one-two punch of Ecliptic's hoppy Space Mountain IPA and Mt. Tabor's acidified take on it with Space Mountain Sour IPA work deliciously in tandem. The pair of hazy IPAs from Hopworks (Astrale Wavelength) and Ruse (Astral Frequency) are sure to be crowd faves.
Base Camp Brewing, 930 SE Oak, $25 (tickets here)
3. Artisinful Portland Beer and Chocolate Fest at Culmination Brewing, Sat Jan 28, noon-5 pm
File under: Another Portlandy marriage made in heaven. Artisinful once again brings together many of the best chocolatiers in the area such as Creo, Woodblock, Moonstruck, Ranger, and five more, to allow those rich, exotic flavors to tango with beers from Dragon’s Gate Brewery (ultra-rich Le Morte D’Arthur), Oakshire (a Christmasy imperial apple spiced porter), the Commons Bourbon Little Brother (if chocolate were to selectively swipe right on a beer mate), and several sour cherry kriek-style beers from the likes of Culmination, Ruse, and Logsdon. Over a dozen beers will be featured, and paid admission includes eight drink tickets with additional tickets costing $1.
Culmination Brewing, 2117 NE Oregon, $21 (tickets here)
4. Northwest Coffee Invitational Beer Fest at Goose Hollow Inn, Sat Jan 28, noon-7 pm
Now in its fourth year, this all-coffee-beer event will see 16 one-off drafts each making hoppy Baby sit in a corner while coffee beans take the spotlight. In additional to stellar Portland representations from the likes of Gigantic, Montavilla, and Zoiglhaus, attendees will see how Southern Coastal Oregon sips via Chetco Brewing from Brookings, Yachats Brewing and Farmstore from Yachats, and 7 Devils Brewing from Coos Bay.
Goose Hollow Inn, 1927 SW Jefferson, $15
