The Best Portland Beer Week Events of 2016: The First Six Days

The biggest eleven days of beer in Portland runs June 9-19, 2016.

Portland Beer Week—which is actually ten days, from June 9-19—is a vertiginous array of drinking occasions, with as ten or eleven alcoholic events often packed into a single day. Here are our picks from just the first half of Portland Beer Week—stay tuned for more even more picks in our weekly Beer Hall column showcasing the best beer events of the week.

THURSDAY, JUNE 9

Beer Week Kickoff

Snacks and beer on a Pearl District rooftop bar with a garden. Hell, yeah. The beer-brat, cheddar and mustard pizza they're serving is probably our favorite Hotlips pizza we've had, and there will be beers aplenty from Breakside, Hop Valley, Hopworks, Deschutes, Portland Brewing, Double Mountain and others. EcoTrust Building rooftop, 721 9th Ave., pdxbeerweek.com. 6-10 pm. Free admission.

Ecliptic Beer Belly Dinner

EastBurn returns with yet another of its remarkably low-cost, $40, five-course beer pairing dinners—this time with five Ecliptic brews including a pinot apricot sour and Belgian dubbel, and five meal courses including quail confit and duck breast. EastBurn, 1800 E Burnside St,, 503-236-2876. 6 pm.

FRIDAY, JUNE 10

Rye Beer Fest

The Rye Beer Fest will feature 20 rye beers from Breakside, Culmination and others, plus rye whiskeys and a rye whiskey-beer cocktail by bartender Jacob Grier. Ten dollars nets a glass and four tickets. At 10 pm, a Cure cover band plays for an event benefiting the Children's Cancer Association (get it?). Eastburn, 1800 E Burnside St,, 503-236-2876. All day. $10.

Portland Fruit Beer Festival

The first and almost certainly best fruit beer fest in the country returns for its sixth year—Japanese tourists come, at this point—and now it's bigger, on the North Park Blocks. Expect apricot ginger beer from Dogfish Head, a seriously good cactus beer from Ex Novo, an excellent tea radler from Culmination, Apricot IBUsive from Fat Head's, a strawberry basil sour from Ruse and lots of cider, including a new round of ghost pepper Mango tepache from Nat's that pretty much kills it. $25 nets 12 to 15 drink tickets. North Park Blocks, Northwest Park Avenue and Davis Street, fruitbeerfest.com. 11:30 am-9 pm. Through June 12. $25.

SATURDAY, JUNE 11

Randallized Beer Fest

No, it's not a beer fest for some dude named Randall. A randall is a special chambered filter that lets you infuse a keg with different flavors—beans, rhubarb, whatever. And so Imperial Bottle Shop will be using randalls to make special versions of beers, whether a Fort George three-way infused with Galaxy hops and guava, or a Culmination Sour Flower Power randallized with chamomile, ginger, rose hips and some dried fruit. Imperial Bottle Shop, 3090 SE Division St., 971-302-6899. All day.

MONDAY, JUNE 13

New Oregon Brewers Showcase

This is one of the can't-miss events for anyone who gives a shit—especially this year. Ruse Brewing, Alesong, Freebridge, the just-barely minted Ancestry, Public Coast and Wolves & People will be on hand, with the brewers available for chats and the beers available for drinking. Bailey's Taproom, 213 SW Broadway, 503-295-1004. 5 pm.

Roscoe's and Miyamoto Beer and Sushi Pairing

Roscoe's and partner sushi joint Miyamoto will pair four courses of sushi with limited release beers from Pfriem Family Brewers (Oude Kriek), Crux (Apricot Wild Farmhouse Ale), the Commons and Breakside. At a mere $25, this is pretty much amazing. Roscoe's, 8105 SE Stark St., 255-0049. 4:30-8:30 pm. $25.

TUESDAY, JUNE 14

The Pfriem Dream

At Bailey's Taproom's upstairs Upper Lip in the Ankeny alley, a fucking dream team of barrel-aged Pfriem: Flanders Red, Flanders Blonde, Pêche, Oude Kriek, Frambozen and Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout. Drink it. Bailey's Taproom Upper Lip, 720 SW Ankeny, 503-295-1004. 4-10 pm.

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