The Portland brewery tour took the scenic route from Cascade Barrel House to Burnside Brewing in order to look in the window of the tiny Natian Brewery. Doesn’t get much more nano than Natian.  At Burnside, there was a long table open that fit all of us, conveniently enough. This was the first place of the day for me that seemed to put about the same amount of emphasis on food as on their beer, and so it felt a little odd to just order a couple pitchers and a sampler tray. Oh well. At least we didn’t take up their 12-top for too long.

Sampler tray and pitcher at Burnside Brewing — Portland, OR

Rob’s Picks
• IPA – 6.5% – Hoppy start, malty finish. Good and crisp.
• Sweet Heat – 4.9% – Lemony and spicy — nice. A bit bready. Interesting. Can’t quite taste the apricot, which is fine with me.
• Stout – 5.4% – Slow start, but good dry coffee stout flavor.
• Alter Ego Imperial IPA – 8.3% – Floral aroma. Complex hoppy flavor, malty base not overpowering. Good.
• Pinot Noir Barreled Oyster Strong Ale – 10% – Wow! Awesome balance of pinot noir and dark beer flavors. Didn’t taste the oyster, which was fine with me, but the person sitting next to me did. Life is funny that way.

The Rest
• Oatmeal Pale Ale – 5.5% – Floral hoppiness, malty blahness. Okay, but not too interesting.
• Stock Ale – 5.4% – Great malty finish, but start is not too strong.
• Bourbon Barreled Stout – 6.5% – Very bourbony, maybe too much so. Good stout, but it’s overpowered by the bourbon blast. Person sitting next to me really liked it, though.

One thing I’m happily surprised about is even though my tasting notes were very concise for the breweries on this tour, I’m able to remember a large percentage of the beers by reading them. Maybe it won’t be another three years before I go on another one of these tours.