We have heard a lot about Laurelwood Brewing from a bunch of people here in Portland but I have never had time to visit and taste their beers before. Laurelwood Brewing is Portland’s original certified organic brewery.

We stopped in during the late afternoon for a pint and it happened to be happy hour- score! Again, ti being so hot, all I wanted was to try their IPA.

Workhorse IPA- 7.5% abv and 80 IBU. This pours an orange teak. It smells like sweet jucy mango, pine and fresh grapefruit. It smells absolutely delish. It tastes like grass, pine forest, grapefruit skin and a field of mangoes and passionfruit. Mmm good. My favorite IPA so far in Portland.

And we had time for just one more:

So I decided to try their Barleywine- This pours a reddish chocolate brown. It smells like sweet malt, slight milk chocolate and a touch of caramel. It tastes a bit light for a barleywine; but nice for sipping outside on a hot day. It tastes like sweet toffee and a touch of malt; not too much roastiness and a bit like watered down milk chocolate. There is some slight tea flavor in their as well. It’s nice but a touch too sweet.

Laurelwood seemed pretty great for being an Organic brewery. Usually if my husband sees the word Organic, he is actually not going to order it. He claims not many organic breweries make great beer..not sure why that is actually. But Laurelwood is one for trying if you happen to be in Portland.

We happened to fall upon Amnesia while walking around the Mississippi street area of Portland. And again, it being a hot day. we wanted to sit and have a beer. I had never heard of them before, so we decided to try them. They had a ton of tables outside which seemed perfect for relaxing and enjoying a pint. They have mostly beers under 6%abv. The had the standard Pale  Ale, ESB, Porter, Summer Ale and Lagers. Nothing that was really grabbing my attention. But still, we were already there so I might as well try their IPA.

Desolation IPA-6.2% abv. This pours a rich orange amber. It smells like sweet malt, touch of pine and citrus. It tastes like a standard middle of the road IPA. It is great on a hot day but nothing memorable. It has the normal hops, slight pine and citrus flavors to it. It has a decent dry hoppy finish. It did not make me want to stay and try another beer.

Next up: We were meeting a few friends and collegues at HUB.

HUB stands for Hopworks Urban Brewery. Portland’s only Eco-Brewpub.

We had tried some of their beers at last year’s Portland Brewery festival. So first up:

Organic Hopworks IPA- 6.6%abv. 75IBU’s. This pours a clear orange teak. It smells like citrus, slightly juicy mangos and deep pine. It tastes like juicy mangoes, citrus, fresh pine forest and a great juicy slightly bitter grapefruit skin ending. Very drinkable. A great IPA.

Velvet ESB (Black ESB)-Pours a pitch black. It smells like roasted malt, slight chocolate, and sweet toffee with slight vanilla. It tastes like sweet roasted
malt, with HUGE vanilla, and bitter coffee. It ends pretty bitterly.  In a good way bit seems a liitle too sweet for an ESB.

Those were the only 2 I got to try as I was being pulled to go to Green Dragon, which is another fantastic beer bar to get to if you are ever in Portland.

So lessons learned:

Laurelwood: Yes, go try their beers. Don’t get scared by the fact that they are organic.

Amnesia: Nothing to write home about, but a cute spot to enjoy the sun.

HUB- Great beers going on here. Eco, Organic but oh so good.