Astoria Brewing Company – Astoria, OR
Over the weekend, we also made it out to Astoria, OR to check out the town and to visit the couple of local breweries in town. The drive from Portland is about two hours, but I like the drive out to the coast. Once in Astoria, Astoria Brewing Company was our first stop.
Astoria Brewing Company is part of the Wet Dog Cafe. The place sits right next to the Columbia River, and offers a great view from the dining room (photo above). Unfortunately, the view was the best part about our experience here.
In walking into Astoria Brewing, you get the sense that it's probably very well patronized during the summer. There's a lot of action in this place: a bunch of big beer signs highlighting the brewery's creatively named beers (while some are clever, I felt like the names and cartoon labels/beer shirts were a bit cheesy and over-the-top), a souvenir shop (where $2 will get you a souvenir beer list), and a game room. While not my taste, I'm sure it works for this place given its location. There's also a good selection of guest beers on tap.
Beer Review: Mash Tun Black & Gold Imperial IPA
Mash Tun is my neighborhood brewpub. In the few months we've lived in Portland, I've been to the Mash Tun a handful of times and have tried several of the brewpub's beers. Unfortunately, I've found that most of the beers they brew are middle of the road. I stopped in this week to find a special house beer on tap:
Black & Gold Imperial IPA
As other brewers around town are brewing and releasing black IPAs right now, I found the name of this beer to be a bit misleading. The beer isn't black; and it's not gold. While it's described as being 'slightly darker', I found the color to be a pretty typical amber color you'd expect to find with an Imperial IPA. The beer is actually named for a football team, and as far as I could tell, has nothing to do with the color of the beer itself.
Big Horse Brew Pub – Hood River, OR
We rounded out our brew tour of Hood River, OR this weekend with a stop at Big Horse Brew Pub. This place is much more of a neighborhood brew pub than a full blown brewery, especially when compared to the other Hood River options - Full Sail Brewing and Double Mountain Brewery. Nonetheless, we ordered a couple beers and some food, and enjoyed the view from the 3rd floor dining room/bar area.
Beers we had from Big Horse:
Noonan Smoked Chocolate Porter
