Portland Beer Fest

The Spring beer fest this weekend, or the Oregon beer fest in July?

The one in July

I go every year but I live in the area. It can get crowded, especially Friday night and Saturday late afternoon/evening. It's best to go Thursday night, Friday during the day, or early afternoon on Saturday. Some of the more popular beers run out quickly, so try those on Thursday if you can. The Pliny the Elder ran out last year very quickly, and some of the others didn't make it to Saturday.

It's a beautiful setting along the waterfront in Downtown Portland. There's plenty of room. One thing I like best about Downtown Portland is that the public transit (light rail trains and busses) are free as long as you don't travel too far away from downtown. That way you can book a cheaper hotel across the river and ride the train (less than 10 minutes) across the river to the festival. It's a fun ride too. If you love beer, than you can easily walk or take public transportation to lots of great places. You can easily get to Widmer, Rogue, Bridgeport, Baily's tap house, Laurelwood NW, New Old Lompoc, Mcmenamins, Quimby (Lucky Labrador) and others by foot or light rail.

Even if you think the festival is too crowded, going to Portland is like one giant city-wide beer festival. So for that reason alone I suggest that you go.

Thank you for the feed back. I really like Portland and I always stop at the Horsebrass on my way through. I know the area a bit and am familiar with the Max. I'm thinking of going down early and spending a day taking some pictures at the zoo as I hear good things about the zoo and have never been.

Well, you probably know that there is a Max station at the zoo. I haven't been there since the 90's so don't remeber too much about it. The rose garden and japanese garden in the same area are great photo ops (especially the rose garden, and it's free).