Portland has a lot of great brewpubs and tasting rooms, and they vary in approach from foundational, Gritty McDuff’s, to traditional, Shipyard, to continental, Oxbow, to outdoorsy, Rising Tide. However, for a distinct experience, try the Urban Farm Fermentory & Gruit Brewing Co., a relaxed, New Agey drinking experience just across the street from the Lone Pine/Goodfire, back to back operations, and despite their good reps, I’ll not direct you to them due to their sin of tapping too many IPAs. The approach to brewing at Urban Farm Fermentory is creative and pretty unique, featuring beer, mead, cider, kambucha and jun. What’s jun? Check out the bottom right corner of the photo. The illustrated explanation may help. Or not. They even had a pettable dachshund at the bar. Is any hot dog safe in a room of people drinking beer…and some other beverages I’ll tentatively identify as related…? Well, the other customers may have been vegetarians. And we’d already eaten, so…Anyway, said dachshund, seemed as chilled as the two-leggers. I particularly like a sourish brew called Biscuit Phrase, which somehow had a yogurt component. Didn’t hurt, may have helped, good beer, whatever the case.
Mike at Large 