Portland Brewpub Beer Tours

Beer – is there a better reason to visit Portland? For Amy and I, that was reason enough to celebrate her birthday in Portland, Oregon. She had never been, but heard all my stories of good times in the land of hops. My tales of beer-topia, where every bar is a brewpub and bathrooms are denoted by sign of barley or hops – guess which is which!

To help us navigate such tricky beer house rules, we enlisted my good friend Dieselboi, of VBC Brewpub Tour fame. Accompanied by his loving and patient wife, the four of us went beer tasting.

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Brewpub Roadtrip: Vancouver, Canada!

I’m at Lucky lab in downtown Portland, Oregon, or PDX as its known around here. The conversation is good and the beer better. Lucky Lab, like almost every self-respecting bar in PDX, brews its own beer.

With my glass full of hops, my mind on malt, I learn that I’m about to have a three-day weekend. Its President’s Day and I’m in Portland. What to do? Where to go? I know – Vancouver! And not as in Vancouver, Washington, but Vancouver as in Canada!

At first, I was tempted to make the five-hour road trip solo. I wanted to go that bad. I figured this might be my only international trip in 2008, and I didn’t want to miss the chance to cross another border.

Its not that this would be my first trip to Canada – I went to Montréal with my family long ago. But this would be my first trip as an adult and I was excited. Both because I’d heard it was a beautiful city, filled with amazing sights, but also because it is another bastion of good beer.

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