Portland is the biggest city in Oregon and it boasts some of the finest restaurants and breweries in the entire state.
This lovely city with its hip, multicultural feel attracts people of all ages each year for its attractions, its nightlife, and perhaps most of all, the excellent Portland brewery scene.
Thought of as a smaller version of Seattle, Portland’s breweries house some of the most creative talents in industry!
Portland is the home of unique cuisine and entrepreneurial spirit, two features that are guaranteed to lead to the best breweries and pubs.
If you’ve been trying to decide where to go when you visit the Pacific Northwest, Portland should really be the very top of your list if you’re a beer lover!
Now that I’ve convinced you that a trip is totally worth the effort, let’s talk about the amazing Portland breweries and pubs you can visit while you are there!
15 Best Breweries in Portland
Level Beer
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This newcomer to the brewery scene in Portland is in an industrial part of town which is near the hustle and bustle of the airport.
They craft lower-alcohol beers and also many English styles. Order a flight to try some flavors you have never experienced before and enjoy the truly beautiful taproom while you taste new varieties.
There’s a nearby food cart pod if you need a snack and they have a dog run where pups can hang out if you have some local friends who need to bring a dog with them.
You can also sit outside in the delightful greenhouse patio. This is a chill Portland brewery with an awesome atmosphere!
Old Town Brewing
This is one of the lesser-known little gems of the brewery scene in Portland, and it really deserves a visit.
If you want to try a delicious hazy IPA that is award-winning each year, go to Old Town Brewing to get it! Their craft favorites win prizes at major beer competitions annually and it is easy to tell why.
Learn the location’s eclectic history, which is linked to the infamous Shanghai tunnel system in Portland, and see if the pub’s ghost Nina decides to give you a visit. This delightful bit of local trivia is well-known and your server can fill you in on some of the juicier details while you are there.
You can also nosh on some really good pizza while you sip your beer and this delicious Portland brewery slash restaurant.
Migration Brewing
This is a classic brewpub in Portland and comes complete with award-winning beers and truly delicious ales for you to try!
They recently added their own stouts and sours to the menu while also expanding into a barrel-aging model to help create new and totally individual beers.
Make sure to try the Mo-Haz-Ic IPA and the Cannonball Double Hoppy Red which are the current award winners that the pub has on offer.
Order a pizza or some pub food and if you plan ahead, you can also do a tour of the brewery!
Occidental Brewing
This brewery is the brainchild of locals Dan Engler and his nephew Ben, who made their first beer in 2011.
Their idea was that German-style beers could and should keep up with Portland’s IPA-heavy scene.
They have managed to prove that this is true with their hefeweizens and pilsners that are authentic and still somehow have that delightfully Portland craft beer edge to them.
Try the Mexican-style lager they just brewed called Cerveza Clara for a fun twist on their usual menu.
Order online for delivery to your hotel, or go to the brewery in Portland in person to get your beer and some fun merch!
Gigantic Brewing
Located in Southeast Portland, this brewery and tasting room is a great place to go if you like to sit and sip for a long time!
This is a casual and funky brewery space with lots of personality!
The owners make quirky beers that don’t really fit into any category and they have really loud and fun branding that makes each quirky beer extra fun to try. You will feel like you’ve walked into a comic store when you see their creative branding!
Try the Massive Barley Wine or the Blackberrry Bramble and then buy a poster with the label art on it. You can also get some merch with the colorful, comic-style beer labels on it!
This is a really fun experience that is just as much about the art as it is about the beer — great if you have a hard time choosing between the two!
Ruse
Another brewery locale that is young, hip and swanky, Ruse’s industrial location is a lot of fun.
They brew their own beers from custom yeast blends that create delightful IPA styles as well as hoppy traditional styles.
Stouts are always on the menu here and are worth a try, and you can get sours and saisons year-round as well.
Ruse is small, but it is growing and it deserves a stop for so many reasons! If peace and quiet and a delicious pint are what is on the menu, don’t hesitate to stop by Ruse.
Baerlic Brewing
This charming Southeast Portland taproom is one of the coziest on the list and it almost feels like a college coffee-house with its chalkboard style wall art and its eclectic feel!
The founders are both artists, and their artistic touch shows in everything around you… including, of course, the beer!
Their Punk Rock Time IPA is so Portland that you just have to try it, and they also make some really great German-style offerings like Das Haze Craze Hefeweizen.
This is one of the most Portland of all Portland breweries, and you just have to drop by if you are experiencing the pub scene while you are visiting.
Hair of the Dog Brewing
This brewery is as cool as its very clever name. This place has been around since 1993 and they know their stuff!
They age their pale ales and higher-alcohol brews in barrels which gives them a unique and special taste profile.
You can do super fun tastings here that are called sprints. Try a sprint of Fred, Adam, Bob, and Lila, or do another vertical sprint through different vintages.
This super fun locale sells bottles for as much as $2,000, so they are well worth the visit for more than one reason!
Montavilla Brew Works
This brewery is a brand just as much as it’s a place to enjoy a great brew!
Founder Michael Kora says that he wants to brew integrity-driven beers and you’ll find that everything on the menu reflects that goal precisely.
You can get nearly anything here, from an IPA to a sour, and the quaint little taproom in Portland is a great place to sit and sip.
Make sure to try a Red Krush or a Freeland BA Porter. Enjoy the outside seating area or buy something online and come pick it up!
Away Days
This lively location is a great combination of English alehouse blended with a European soccer bar.
This is a totally delightful experience where you can order a pastie and a beer while watching your favorite team play a game. Shout at the TV, or sip quietly in the corner, just like you would in a European pub.
Try the Krooscontrol Altbier, or stop in for their whimsical To-Go Beer that comes in a can. They do great daily specials as well, like the Four Beer Flights or To-Go Four packs.
Definitely consider trying out the Bucket Hat Bobby’s English Olde Ale while you’re in. This traditional beer is aged in bourbon barrels and is as classic an ale as you can find anywhere.
Culmination
This hip and low-key location has a little bit of everything to offer visitors. This location started as a side project near East Burnside but has really hit its stride in the last few years.
The vibe here is amazing and you can get a really great fruity and juicy IPA here as well as the truly delicious dark Czech lager that is brewed with coffee.
This is the site of lots of fun events like doughnut festivals and coffee days and there are consistent pop-ups for food trucks every week. Have fun chilling at the swanky bar or sit outside at a comfortable table.
Cascade
If sours are your jam, this is the place to go to get them!
Cascade is famous for their sours, and since there aren’t that many breweries in Portland that focus on such a singular style, Cascade gets all the traffic for sours in their area.
This ability to focus on something with such a unique flavor profile makes a stop here for a fruity sour an absolute must!
If you like beer creations as well, you can get the Gin Fizz-inspired sour or another cocktail recreation in beer form.
Make sure to try their Brunch Beer as well and consider taking home some to-go beer in colorful, 1970s-inspired cans.
This is one of my favorite places to go for a beer in Portland, as I just love a good sour!
Breakside
Largescale locations are often thought to be the enemy of true brewery ambiance and skill, but Breakside proves this prejudice to be wrong.
They seamlessly manage a large footprint in Milwaukie, OR and yet they still offer great IPAs that win awards every year!
The two-story facility that they just moved into still feels like a pub despite the size, and you can get a great pilsner or a lager to enjoy at your table.
This is a location that has a little bit of something for everyone. Bring friends here who aren’t sure what they like, and you can find them their new favorite beer.
Even if you’re more of a beer snob, they make their own seasonal offerings and every single one is worth a try.
Rosenstadt
Famous for their craft lagers, this is a brewery whose mission is to resurrect the much-maligned category of beers that houses Bud Light within it.
Devoted to saving the drinkers of light beers from public shame at every turn, owner Tobias Hahn creates light beers that are to die for.
Come in here to find out why light beer is actually cool and to eat some schnitzel and bratwurst!
Order the caramelly Altbier or try a pint of the rotating house beers that are seasonal on tap.
Gentle, dreamy, and sweet, these beers will make you wonder why you ever snubbed light beer. And trust us, it’s way better than Bud Light!
Great Notion
I love a milkshake IPA, and Great Notion is famous for theirs. This is a place for beer nerds who really love trying new things and twists on old favorites!
You literally can’t get a bad beer here, and every single thing on the menu is excellent.
You would think that experimenting with brewing with rare fruits and kids’ cereal in your brews would result in horrible outcomes, but somehow through Great Notion magic, it doesn’t!
How many places can you go to be delivered a hoppy creation that was brewed using a bowl of cereal? Make sure to save room for a dessert beer like their Double Stack.
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Much of the ambiance of what is truly Portland is the entrepreneurial spirit that the city is famous for.
The brewery scene is a great sector of Portland’s culture to see this in action, and every special creation that you are treated to when you sit down at a Portland brewery will help you understand why this is a special city.
While of course, you should plan to enjoy the zoo, the Chinese garden, and a few other Portland must-see places while you are visiting, but you absolutely would be cheating yourself if you didn’t make time for at least one day of beer tasting!
Honestly, there are so many breweries in the Portland area to try that you would need a week’s vacation just to try a large portion of them!
Head to Portland to experience the Pacific Northwest at its finest, to see some gorgeous scenery, and to gain a little understanding of the vigorously creative and independent spirit that the city is known for.
Make sure that you allow time to really savor the brewery and taproom scene in this bustling city because there really is nowhere else in the world that is quite like it!
