Wayfinder brewing

 

Nestled into inner south east , Wayfinder has modern wood, brick feel. Great outside seating and inside . Beer club was a Sunday night, fairly light crowd , but that meant great service.

Only a 3 man group this week.

Beers tried 

HELL - HELLES LAGERBIER

HELLES FREEZES OVER > helles, with frozen lemonade on top ( a take on a radler)- will call this the end of summer drink , only Rob partaked on this one . Will say the creamy head looked just like the regular helles so well executed.

HIDDEN HAND - BLACK LAGER

TERRIFICA - ITALIAN-STYLE PILSNER

DEADSOMMAR - PALE AUTUMNAL LAGER

THRONE OF ASHES - SMOKED HELLES

FUNERAL BOCK - DOUBLE-DECOCTED BLACK BOCK

THE ORIGINAL - COLD IPA

FLOWER IN THE KETTLE - HAZY IPA

Nice variety of styles. While they have the Oregon requisite IPA selection, they also had multiple light beers (pilsners) and dark.

The smoked helles got a hearty thumbs up with multiple orders. Rob found the funeral bock to be his favorite of the dark.

Food- fine , we had schnitzel, mac and cheese and steak on fries . Would say good not great , but good enough for a brewpub.

Overall a pleasant vibe, good service, good beer selection. A fine brewpub to hang with friends

Steeplejack brewing

 Beer + church , why not.

New brewery in northeast Portland set in an old church.

Food and beer orders all done through an app. A little quirky but service was speedy.

But on to the beer and food.

We had Kolsch, table beer, ,Pilsner, 2 stouts , hazy ipa, west coast ipa .

Food- pork tacos (street style), potato croquettes , fries, and a Brookie. 

All were delicious except the brookie (brownie cookie) which was a little underwhelming.

Repeat beer orders- Pilsner , west coast ipa

Other than the early closing (10pm on Friday) place was packed. But speedy service and friendly servers the crowds were not an issue

Backwoods brewing

 First entry for 2023. Had a quorum of 4 (John, Ben, Rob, Todd)

A nice brewpub in the pearl. They have a large selection on their tap lists , 3+ IPAs, 3+ Stouts , a pale, pilsner, sour, ... 

Diverse food - The groups opted for sandwiches- reuben, cheesesteak , patty melt. Food was fine/adequate didn't blow the socks off but solid. Menus had typical salads, burgers, nachos, sings, etc... selection

Now back to beer:

they had a golden stout- it was indeed golden . However in 3 taster trays they all tasted different so not really sure what it tastes like.

The sour -same issue as the golden stout- different tastes for everyone.

dreamsickle - orange and vanilla flavored, it definitely had those flavors not bad a little wierd

As to darks

Pecan porter- flavorful

King size stout - rumored to taste like snickers - different people got this to mixed levels. Overall on the sweeter side of stouts

Coca nut stout- porter with some coconut overtones, 

Smores golden stout- the mystery golden stout, base don different tasters hard to know

Johns tasting rating

Exploration IPA (1), Off grid IPA (2), King size stout (3), Party Acres IPA (4_ Dreamsickle (5) , Rough current sour (6) 

Robs favorite- pilsner. To him stouts/porters tasty but better in snifter size (10 or 12oz)

overall pleasant place for a trip

Rob