Ram

By Pete Cottell

9073 SE Sunnyside Road, Happy Valley, 659-1282, theram.com. 11am-close Monday-Sunday.

Good things sometimes come in odd packages. Take the Ram. It's a chain operation, and the local iteration resides next to Clackamas Town Center. Not exactly a setting where you'd expect to find good beer. Yet it does a nice job. The Ram is best described as a large restaurant with a brewery. Most brewpubs are the other way around. The food menu is massive, designed to please many tastes. The ambiance is another matter. Large flat-screen TVs encircle the restaurant and dominate the bar. If ESPN isn't your thing, the Ram probably isn't going to be your kind of place. But don't sleep on this joint because you assume the beer is substandard. The selection of standards is solid, and comparable to what you'll find in most places in Portland.

Pete Dunlop Pete Dunlop

Drink This: There's only one seasonal at a time, but the Imperial Winter Rye IPA was full of tropical aroma and bursting with flavor, thanks to the rye malt and an interesting mix of Galaxy, El Dorado and Jarrylo hops.

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