I love visiting new places and checking out their local beer stores or bodegas. Especially Portland. When you walk into any 7 11 or gas station, they have amazing beer. One night while my friend and I were exhausted from work and just wanted to veg in our hotel room at the Jupiter, we went and got some beers to try from the local gas station down the street. However, the only bad thing about drinking good beer out of your hotel room is the only cup you have to drink out of is a plastic one…

First up: Bridgeport Big Brews Stumpton Tart-framboise with Oregon raspberries. 50% ale aged in oak barrels and 50% ale brewed with raspberries. 7.7% abv. This pours a beautiful cherry oak. It smells like oak, sweet raspberries and sour!  It tastes like sweet raspberry jam with a slight fake raspberry taste and then followed by a lot of oak (almost a tad too much) and then a touch of sour. It seems a tad cough-syrup-y; slightly but still drinkable. Glad I tried it. Not sure if I would ever get it again. It’s slightly too fake and slightly too oaky for me.

Next up: Southern Oregon Brewing Co- Nice Rack IPA. 5.5% abv. This pours a golden resin. It smells like wheat and citrus. It tastes like light pine, light grapefruit skin and wheat. Eh. It is ok. Not really my thing. It is way too blah; middle of the road for me. It is definitely  not memorable. Which sucks because we really liked the name and we were hoping this might be our go to beer for our business.

And last but not least (we did have to get up early): Woodshed Red by Southern Oregon Brewing Co. 6.3% abv Red Ale. This pours a red mahogony. It smells like sweet malt, slight caramel and a touch of honey. It tastes like sweet toffee malt then slightly  grapefruit skin and a touch of pine, then a nice dry, bitter ending. This is decent red ale. It is way better than their Nice Rack IPA. It  is not something crazy fantastic, but it is good.

Not too shabby for a gas station visit. I freaking love Portland!