(Photo: TheStreet)Portland, OR
There are gorgeous breweries all around Oregon, but it's tough to leave Portland once you're already there.
Yes, you could visit the Deschutes Brewery in Bend and taste its Inversion IPA there. But visiting Deschutes' Portland-based brewpub allows you to hit the Rogue Ales Brewery brewpub just a few blocks away, then head to the 100 taps of Henry's 12th Street Tavern in the old Henry Weinhard's brewery just a few blocks from that, the BridgePort Brewing facility just uptown from there and then Widmer Brothers Brewing just over the Willamette.
Honestly, if you're over the river anyway, you may as well head over to the Alameda Brewhouse and organic Laurelwood Public House and Brewery in the city's Northeast before heading down to its Southeast for a stop at Cascade Brewing's Barrel House and the extremely potent Hair Of The Dog Brewing. What we're trying to get across is that there are days' worth of breweries and brewpubs to consume in Portland alone, which makes it really difficult to justify a trip out to breweries elsewhere.
If you really want to get a taste of Oregon while sampling some of its finest brews, thought, head to Full Sail Brewery about an hour East in Hood River overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. Not only does it have a great tour and sit in the shadow of Mount Hood, but it also has a large deck looking out on sailboarders and kiteboarders on the Columbia who gave the brewery its name.
