Portland Beers by Style
Sip your way through city’s best lagers, saisons, stouts and IPAs.
Nathan Tucker
There is simply no better city for beer drinking than Portland. The Rose City’s 70+ breweries offer everything from the most aggressive double IPAs to styles inspired by the traditional ales of rural Europe. Use our expert guide to choose the choicest brews in your favorite style.
IPAs and Imperial IPAs
Breakside IPA
While they’re known for innovative experiments like smoky ambers and basil-spiked blondes, Breakside Brewery stakes its reputation on this flagship IPA, which won a gold medal at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival for its precisely balanced tropical and evergreen flavors.
Megafauna Imperial IPA
Laurelwood Brewing’s Workhorse IPA has long been a gold standard for the style. When available, Megafauna is a robust upgrade that beautifully harmonizes tropical fruit notes with resinous pine, floral aromas and no small amount of alcohol, at 9.5% alcohol by volume (ABV).
Gigantic IPA
Boasting a citrusy punch and a drinkability that masks its 7.3% ABV, this gorgeous orange concoction is the only beer Southeast Portland’s Gigantic Brewing makes year-round.
Over Ripe IPA
This hazy IPA is brewed with a unique blend of robust hops and sweet fruit — savor the flavors of cantaloupe, guava, papaya and pineapple. This beer alone is worth the trip to one of Great Notion’s tap rooms; the wide variety of other IPAs on offer are worth a taste too.
Portland Brewery Tours
Go behind the scenes and see how your favorite lagers and ales are made.
Mississippi/Williams Brewery Tour
Mississippi/Williams boasts a high concentration of quality craft breweries — experience some top-notch Beervana brews on our North Portland pub crawl.
Pearl District & NW Portland Brewery Tour
Experience a diverse mix of Portland beer giants, local favorites and regional trendsetters on this tour of Pearl District and Northwest Portland / Nob Hill breweries.
Central Eastside Brewery Tour
With its myriad breweries and beer bars, Portland’s bustling Central Eastside practically overflows with award-winning suds — this guide to local favorites will help you build your own brewpub crawl.
Lagers and Pilsners
Engleberg Pilsner
A well-hopped gem that the brewers at Upright Brewing originally made just for themselves, this crisp, refreshing lager balanced with rare German Tettnang hops is almost impossible to get outside of Portland — which is good, because it’s best at peak freshness.
Lager
Perhaps the best testament to the accessibility of Portland beer: at nearly every convenience store in town, you’ll find pounders of Hopworks’ clean, delicious, organic lager, balancing a light malt body with delicately herbal Perle hops. Eat your heart out, Bud.
Pyxis Pilsner
Ecliptic Brewing’s spin on the German-style lager, this drinkable brew is crisp, balanced and refreshing. It offers an appealing blend of sweetness and noble-hops-forward bitterness.
Non-Beer Beverages
Explore Portland's other delicious drinks, from coffee to craft cocktails and more.
Dark Beers
The Abyss
In Deschutes Brewery’s celebrated yearly release, which always sells out quickly, layers of flavor and aroma from aging in bourbon, oak and pinot noir barrels dance over a deep, rich base of molasses, vanilla and cherry bark.
Black Lab Stout
This brew from Lucky Labrador offers everything you want in a dark beer — it’s sweet, creamy and oh-so-satisfying. Bold malty flavors balance out the sweetness, and ample hops provide just a bit of bite.
Saisons
Instinctive Travels
This straw-hued saison from Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery is fermented with an isolated strain of yeast from the Wallonia region of Belgium and dry hopped with both northern and southern hemisphere alpha hops, yielding mild citrus flavors and light, biscuity malt.
Saison Vert
Upright Brewing’s wheat-based brew derives its bright citrus flavor from adding sun-dried black limes to the traditional open fermentation process and saison yeast strains. The result is a nuanced flavor profile reminiscent of mild spices, walnuts and fruit.
Traditional German Beers
Hefeweizen
Any of Occidental’s continental-style brews could make this list, but this St. Johns brewery’s hefeweizen might be the best this side of the Atlantic. One sip takes you right to summer in Bavaria, thanks to notes of banana, clove and citrus peel.
Total ReKolsh
Brewed with noble hops and fermented at cooler temperatures, this crisp brew from Stormbreaker Brewing is lagered for a hint of pilsner on the nose and a subtle sweetness on the palate, creating a refreshing pint that’s perfect for hot summer days.
Kiss the Goat Black Doppelbock
Dark-hued and topped with a creamy head that sends notes of toasted malt and cocoa wafting into the nose, Gigantic Brewing’s German lager toys with dark fruit flavors, mild chocolate and a sweet nuttiness.
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