Tony Howard's Top 6 Oregon beers

Halifax Collect scribe, Tony Howard, drinks beer on the reg in various states and capacities. He likes to drink local be it in the pub, on the porch or while headbanging at a show. Swig away, Tony.

Some people consider Portland to be the microbrew capital of United States because we have more microbreweries per capita than anywhere else in the country. More strip clubs too, but that's probably better left for another time. I tried, more or less, to list beers I thought might be easier to find outside of the NW... distribution can be kind of weird, but if you see any of these in your area, check 'em out.

6) Outburst Imperial IPA by Pyramid
Pretty much my standby if I can't find anything else, you really can't go wrong with a 22oz bottle of this. It smells and tastes like pine needles and citrus and at 8.5% ABV you'll get a nice buzz off it.

5) Citrus Mistress by Hop Valley
Apparently this is a one time brewing and it'll never be seen again. Shitty, because Citrus Mistress is fucking awesome. It's a relatively low alcohol IPA with lots of grapefruit and hop flavor without being overwhelming, so you can drink lots of it. Too bad this probably won't be around by summertime, because this is perfect patio drinking beer.

4) Black Butte Porter by Deschutes
Oddly enough my dad introduced me to this beer when I still lived in Arizona, for some reason it was like $6 for a sixer at Safeway there, which is actually cheaper than it is here. Weird. Anyway, this is a very good porter, really good as a nightcap during the winter. And not to sound like a total fatass, but it goes well with chocolate.

3) Kingpin Double Red Ale by Bridgeport
Triple hopped, with hints of rye and not too much malt. There is this killer hot dog place on Hawthorne called Zach's Shack that has this stuff on tap and as good as it is out of the bottle, Kingpin fresh on tap along with a veggie Chicago dog (which according to their Yelp reviews are pretty authentic) and a side of fries is pretty much one of the perfect end of the night meals.

2) Sweet Heat by Burnside Brewing
This is a weird one, but for those of us with adventurous taste it's totally worth picking up a bomber of this stuff. I can't imagine a six pack of this, or even more than one to be honest, but the concept of apricot wheatbeer dry hopped with sweet peppers is pretty awesome in smallish doses. It's a low ABV and totally makes for a good pre-dinner beer.

1) C-Note Imperial Pale Ale by Lompoc
A new one to me, but man is this good. 7 different types of hops whose names all start with the letter C. That could have easily gone wrong but the awesome folks at Lompoc knew what they are doing and this thing is pure flavor. It's like everything I like about a bunch of different IPAs, all at the same time with nothing I don't like and everything complimenting everything else. Two and a half thumbs up.
- Tony Howard