Portland Pub Crawl at BBC11

We the conference organizers are excited to work with local Portland bloggers who will organize and lead a pub crawl (really a brewery crawl) on Thursday evening, August 18, before the conference. One thing we know from past experience is that blogger conferences can be MUCH better if you go into them having met a number of bloggers the night before. Below is a writeup provided by two of these bloggers, Bill Night from It’s Pub Night and Charles Culp from An Ear For a Beer.

Thursday Pub Crawl

The Portland Beer Bloggers would like to welcome the attendees of the 2011 Beer Bloggers Conference to our fair city.  We are very proud of our beer scene, and can think of no better way to share it with you than with a pub crawl the night before the conference, highlighting four breweries that show what makes Portland Portland.  The crawl — held Thursday night before the BBC begins — will be led by local bloggers, and you will get the chance to meet several of us along the way.  Visit http://PDX.Be/erBlogPubCrawl to see a map of the whole pub crawl, and read on for descriptions of the stops.

Upright Brewing, opened in 2009 by brewer/owner Alex Ganum, quickly earned a reputation as one of the most exciting and innovative breweries in Portland with its lineup of open-fermented Franco-Belgian farmhouse ales.  As if that wasn’t enough, Upright also produces exceptional lagers and an impressive range of creative barrel-conditioned beers.  A tasting at Upright is like a visit to your coolest beer friend’s basement hideout, and this private event for the BBC is a great way to kick off the crawl.

Our next stop is the Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House in Northwest Portland, where as luck would have it the Deschutes Street Fare — celebrating Deschutes’ 23rd anniversary — will be taking place.  In addition to the pub’s usual offerings of Deschutes classics and experimental batches brewed right here in Portland, the Street Fare will feature an assortment of Portland’s famous food carts.

Next we will visit the Northwest Portland outpost of a Portland brewing institution — the Lucky Labrador.  Beloved for the laid-back atmosphere of its four pubs — including plenty of dog-friendly outdoor seating — the Lucky Lab serves a variety of ales and lagers in honest 20-ounce pint glasses.  You haven’t been to Portland if you haven’t been to the Lucky Lab.

Just a short walk down Raleigh Street takes us to the New Old Lompoc which, despite the “New” in its name, is the original location of Portland’s Lompoc Brewing empire, founded in the year 2000.  Lompoc’s solid year-round lineup is usually augmented with one or two seasonal ales, as well as a cask-conditioned selection and a nitro tap.

After our visit to the New Old Lompoc, we’ll take the Portland Streetcar back to Deschutes, which is just a short walk from the light rail line back to the Doubletree Hotel.  If you’re not ready to head back to your room, feel free to hang out a while longer at Deschutes, take a short walk to the Rogue or Bridgeport pubs nearby, or visit Bailey’s Taproom, downtown Portland’s finest beer bar.  Just remember to save some of your strength for the rest of the Beer Bloggers Conference.  Welcome to Portland!