by A.J. Coltrane
Images from the Oregon Brewer’s Festival (Saturday edition).
As with most beer festivals, get there early unless you want to stand all afternoon. We got there at about 11:00, doors opened at 11:30, and tokens went on sale at noon. Nothing kills a perfectly good beer festival more than having to stand for many hours.
We grabbed a location at one end of the south tent, away from the Honey Buckets, away from the lines, and in a good shady spot. We didn’t get jostled much. You can see the Honey Buckets off in the distance.
It was a beautiful weekend, and the tent filled rapidly. So did the beer lines. Note that it wasn’t a total Johnsonfest, which the beer events can tend to be.
Many perfectly passable food options, we went with gyros. The lighter one is chicken.
There was a guy with a Darth Vader helmet and cape, riding a unicycle, playing the bagpipes. (No pic unfortunately.) However, I did get a picture of this.
Welcome to Portland.
FlatbreadGarden 
I read 2 separate reviews of the festival and there were 2 beers that were rated as “best in show” by both of the reviews – Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA (which I think was the best beer we had) and 10 Barrell Raspberry (which I can’t remember if we had or not). Strangely, neither mentioned the Dogfish Head, which I think we all loved also.
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10 Barrell was the longest line I stood in by far, it was very tart and tasted like raspberry (I thought you could freeze it and make a sorbet)
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That’s right. I do remember it now. I wasn’t impressed by it.
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I seem to remember the the raspberry thing being one of those: “Here Coltrane, you finish it.”
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