Oregon Brewer's Festival, Drink Up!

We started the day by biking around Portland on the greenbelt trails, along the river and to Gresham and back. I like to start my tastings at a negative calorie count, that way there is no guilt involved. :o) During our time here in Portland there have been three beer festivals: North American Organic Brewer's Festival, Portland International Beerfest and now the Oregon's Brewer's Festival. We were too cheap to participate in the first two, but when the Brewer's Fest rolled around, we finally figured "why not?".

This little token will buy you three ounces of beer. Num!

Directions on where to go!

Admission to the festival was free, but to taste and drink beer you had to purchase a commemorative plastic mug for $6 and then buy wooden tokens for $1 each. To get a 3oz tasting it cost 1 token, and 4 tokens bought you a full mug. We bought one mug to split between us (yes, we can't completely overcome the cheapness, baby steps here), and then 12 tokens. The lines seemed long, and there were a million people at the festival, so we figured we'd split 3 full beers and be done with it. But, when we got in line we realized that a full mug really equaled three samples, so it made no sense to buy a full mug for 4 tokens (you could get the same amount for only three plus waiting in line for each one). The economical side of us won, and we decided we'd go with the try 12 sample strategy instead. 

Representation from around the world by Friday afternoon

Inside one of the tasting tents

Sky, with a mug full of beer (we got hooked up at one tasting,
the guy poured a full beer!)

About nine samples in we stumbled on a Couch Surfing friend we'd made at the birthday bash and picnic, and he and his friends absorbed us in their group. We sampled the rest of our tokens' worth and then headed to a local Vietnamese restaurant. Again, the greatness of Insta-Friends on behalf of Couch Surfing.

Our new Portland friends!

 Here are the beers we sampled, in case you're interested:

To see more pictures of the festival, click here.

Happy Beer Tasting,

M.