Is a Beer Vacation in Your Future?

Special to Seattlest by Matt Wakefield.

If the end of Seattle’s big beer festival season has got you down in the dregs, step back from the ledge and extend the buzz with a weekend beer vacation in our neighbor to the south, Portland.

More than 70,000 beer lovers are expected to make the stumbling pilgrimage to Portland’s Oregon Brewer’s Festival, running today through Sunday at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. If you love beer, this is the place to be, whether you’re an aficionado or a swiller; a spitter or a guzzler.

The festival features beers from around the country, but representing the Puget Sound are local boys Scuttlebutt (bringing their Tripel 7 Belgian), Pyramid (Haywire Hefe), Pike Brewing (Monks Uncle Belgian Style Tripel), Redhook (TBD beer), Lazyboy (Lazyboy IPA) and Elysian (Loser Pale Ale).

For the hardcore hopheads, there is a Buzz Tent where only the crème de la crème beers will be served. The steep $20 admission to the tent includes eight tastings from these prized beers, which include Deschutes’ Bourbon Quad, Alaskan Barley Wine, Redhook’s Raspberry Tripel and McMenamin’s Old St. Francis Base Camp Coffee Stout.

For those not inclined to imbibe, the festival features live music, homebrewing demonstrations, festival foods and a root beer garden with free handcrafted root beers for minors and designated drivers.

To get there, you can either drive the 3-ish hours, or let Amtrak be your designated driver. Trains leave at 7:30 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. daily and cost only $80-90 round trip. Alaska Air also makes regular flights, and even gives you a chance to start the beer appreciation early with complimentary Northwest microbrews.

Thursday-Sunday, July 23-26 // Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland, OR // $10 package: one mug, one program, four tokens; $20 package: one mug, one program, 14 tokens; $50 package: two mugs, two programs, 38 tokens