Oregon has plenty of spacious bars and restaurants serving frothy pints of IPAs. If you want to get off the beaten path, however, the following breweries each have something unusual about the way they make beer, the place they serve the beer, or the people who make the beer. If you’re near one, pop in and prepare to be dazzled.
Benedictine Brewery (Mt. Angel, Willamette Valley). Mt. Angel Abbey, a Benedictine monastery and seminary, sits on top of a small hill overlooking lush, green Willamette Valley farmland. The Benedictine order requires its monasteries to be self-sufficient, and in service of that charge, the monks at Mt. Angel founded a small brewery in 2018. Run by Father Martin Grassel, it sits next to one of the hop fields the abbey has owned and leased for decades. The beer references both the order (Black Habit) and its connection to the Benedictine breweries of Germany (St. Michael, a helles). The little taproom is a gracious space with a sunny, breezy patio with a beautiful view.
Brujos (Portland, Portland Metro). One of Portland’s newest breweries, Brujos has been around as the homebrew label and later professional side-project of brewer Sam Zermeño. The name means “sorcerer,” and evokes the bubbling, steaming process of making beer. Sam and his team created a “scorched church” to welcome visitors: black and gold cathedral arches rise above the bar and frame the brewery, and customers sit in pews in a darkened space decorated with grim reapers, dimly-glowing chandeliers, and gothic art. The mood isn’t grim inside, however–everything is shot through with a wink and a smile. The brewery is known for its big, tropical IPAs and has a following not just in Oregon but across the country.
de Garde (Tillamook, Oregon Coast). One thing unites every batch of beer Trevor Rogers has made since he and his wife Linsey opened de Garde in 2013: he has never added a cell of laboratory yeast. Each de Garde beer follows a process similar to the lambic-breweries of Belgium. Once Trevor has made the wort (the sweet barley water that will become beer), he leaves it overnight in a large pan on the second story of the brewhouse. As the coastal air permeates the brewery, wild yeast and bacteria find the wort and dive in to start snacking. The following morning, Trevor and his team fill oaken barrels with the naturally-inoculated wort. In two or three years, it will slowly ferment as nature takes its course. de Garde is one of the most celebrated breweries in the US making these kinds of beers, and they’re available in the cozy little pub in downtown Tillamook.
Dragon’s Gate (Milton Freewater, Eastern Oregon). Just south of the Washington State line in Northeast Oregon is the small farming town of Milton Freewater. Famed primarily for its wine (with its own recognized AVA), it also is home to Dragon’s Gate, a farmhouse brewery literally located in the old barn. Owners Adam and Jennifer Gregory make beer roughly in the Belgian tradition, and grow their own estate hops onsite. You can taste those hops, along with wild yeasts the brewery collects for some of their ales, while sitting in the beautiful beer garden with a view of the Blue Mountains rising nearby.
Leikam (Portland, Portland Metro). Theo and Sonia Marie Leikam founded their namesake five-barrel brewery in 2014, and opened their taproom in 2021. The cozy pup and more spacious patio offer room for community events, but what sets Leikam apart is their kosher certification. It was important to Sonia Marie, who is Jewish, to create a welcoming space for all drinkers. In addition to the kosher certification, the beer is vegan and gluten-reduced, and the brewery is a big supporter of the local LGBTQ community.
McMenamins Edgefield (Troutdale, Portland Metro). In truth, the sprawling McMenamins empire probably deserves an entire list itself. Brothers Mike and Brian have collected a long list of incredible properties, from a theater built for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition to an elementary school to an underground speakeasy. But the crown jewels are one of its early acquisitions, a 1911 poor farm sixteen miles east of Portland. Today it is a grand estate with a hundred hotel rooms, 74 acres of gardens and entertainment venues, a golf course, and tucked here and there ten drinking holes of every size and shape. Everything is decorated in the McMenamins inimitable style, a whimsical illustrated adventure around every corner. It contains the McMenamins flagship brewery, as well as a winery and distillery.
Porter Brewing (Bend, Central Oregon). Porter Brewing’s amazing Cellar Pub is the closest you can get to London without boarding a plane. The brewery is devoted to the British tradition of cask ale, and all the beers poured at the Cellar come through a swan neck, pushed out by natural carbonation. Brewer and co-owner Deven Roberts was inspired by another cask-enthusiast, the late Ted Sobel, whose Brewers Union Local 180 pioneered cask ale in Oregon. But the beer is only half the pleasure at the Cellar, which perfectly captures the feel of a proper English pub.
SakeOne (Forest Grove, Willamette Valley). Most people don’t think of sake as a beer, but that’s exactly what it is. There are differences, however. In sake, the toji (brewmaster) works with rice rather than barley, and uses a special ingredient called koji to break down the starches. The beer does have a wine-like quality as well, with fruity aromatics and a silky texture. SakeOne was founded over thirty years ago and is one of the pioneers of American sake brewing. Their wine-country tasting room is elegant and offers a crash course in the different varieties of sake (sort of like European beer styles) and what the typical flavors and aromas are. Brewery tours are available on the weekends.
TPK Brewing (Portland, Portland Metro). Standing outside the oddly-named TPK, you might think the little two-story cottage in Southeast Portland sheltered a hobbit or two inside. That’s appropriate, because TPK was founded by three young gamers as a kind of clubhouse for table-top games. (The name refers to “total party kill,” the dreaded worst-case outcome of a D&D game.) The downstairs, with wooden beams, live-edge tables, and a cozy fireplace, looks suitably medieval. But upstairs is where the dice roll, in a space purpose-built for getting your nerd on. The founders even launched their brewery with a homegrown roleplaying adventure for future locals to enjoy.
Xicha (Salem, Willamette Valley). Founded in 2017 by Ben Mendoza (business manager), Matt Dakopolos (former head brewer), and local chef Ricardo Antunez, Xicha was a Latino brewery from the jump. Rather than focusing on European styles of beer and food, Xicha embraced the rich Latin heritage of the founders, producing wonderfully food-friendly Mexican-style beers to go along with a menu that includes excellent tacos, pequillos de pollo (stuffed peppers), empanadas and more. The recipe has allowed Xicha to expand to a second site in Salem and one in Eugene.