Beer Guide 2015: Red Ox Brewing

By Parker Hall

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Red Ox Brewing

9795 SW Murdock St., Tigard, 310-8033, redoxbrewing.com. By appointment only.

[NEW NANO] As co-brewmaster Matt Shelby looks for a party tap to sample his pale ale, I gaze in wonder at the size of his weekend-only operation. Inside his Tigard garage, Shelby has slapped together a functional brewhouse that's no place for visitors, but serves his needs just fine. Red Ox, which Shelby owns with his college fraternity brother Adam Amato, sticks to the basics: pale ale, blonde, CDA and porter, on my visit. The pale beers are classic prickly-bitter and pleasantly malty. The darker beers are a nice surprise, with a clear profile and a silky-smooth finish. Sales thus far are limited to the Growlerie and a few other westside growler spots, but we're hoping 2015 brings this Ox to town.

Drink this: Imperial Pioneer Porter. Dark, but with absolutely no dark malt bitterness, this beer doesn't reveal that it is 8 percent ABV until you drink half a pint in 10 minutes in Tigard's coolest—like freezing cold—garage.

WWeek 2015

Parker Hall

Parker Hall

Parker Hall is a writer, musician, and home brewer from Portland. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he studied jazz percussion with drum legend Billy Hart (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock). Now a freelance writer and professional member of the city's jazz and indie rock scenes, he spends most of his days writing, playing music or drinking brews in his spacious North Portland basement.

Willamette Week reports the stories worth knowing, from City Hall to the people and places shaping Portland.

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