July is Craft Beer month in Oregon, and this giant festival that takes place at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park right by the river seems to be the culmination of this celebration of beer. Although I had heard that this event gets pretty crowded, being a Portland newbie I had to check it out!
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| The weather on Saturday was absolutely gorgeous! Also, I’m loving this dress that I got for a great deal at Madewell while I was Michigan–it’s hard to see in this picture but it’s got a cute little floral print and also the back is really fun! |
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| There were over 80 different breweries at the Festival; most were from Oregon (hence the name, obviously) but there were also some breweries from other states as well |
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| There was definitely some colorful people watching… |
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| …and all sorts of interesting things for sale–anyone need a kilt? |
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| Each brewery only had one beer on tap and they used a token system for payment |
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| You had to buy a tasting glass to participate and then it was one token for a taste and four tokens for a full beer |
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| Cam wanted to wear a unique beer t-shirt so he went with his Goldstar Beer one my sister got him in Israel |
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| The majority of the beers seemed to be wheat beers or really hoppy ales, neither of which are my favorite |
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| There were also really long lines at pretty much every tap |
We didn’t end up staying at the festival for too long because the lines were just so crazy! Granted I have a feeling Saturday was probably the busiest day of the event, but still. I wasn’t a huge fan of the style of a lot of the beers they had on tap, and it was a little tough to figure out where specific breweries/beers were located at the event. There are so many great breweries right in downtown Portland along with so many other bars/restaurants that have awesome draft beer selections that it didn’t really make sense to have to wait in 20-minute lines just to get a beer! I am glad we checked it out since obviously it’s a very popular summer event here in Portland, however, it’s definitely not one of those things that I feel like we’ll have to go to next year now that I’ve experienced it.
I hope everyone had a great weekend! Xoxo
PS: I’m linking up with Sami today!
