Growlers Hawthorne
3343 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 628-8000, growlers.net.
Growlers Hawthorne gets it done. This little box of a shop carries so much glass on one side of the store you could be forgiven if you mistake the place for a head shop. The 48 taps these days skew heavily local, and often venture into lesser-known breweries like 54°40' and Drinking Horse. Staffers may or may not know the more obscure beers well enough to offer recommendations, but they're quick with the tasters.
Chill N Fill
5215 N Lombard Ave., chillnfill.com.
This upscale New St. Johns bar has Monday trivia nights to draw the burgeoning young parent crowd of craft-brew dads who no longer have to migrate to Saraveza for a weekly meet-the-brewer or bottle release. The gang's all here—Elysian, Ecliptic, Pfriem and Deschutes—with a few more rare pours, like the Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour from Van Steenberge this January.
The Growler Guys
816 SE 8th Ave., Suite 109, 971-255-0715; 3739 SW Bond Ave., 208-2523;
The Growler Guys plays favorites. Among the 48+ taps at the statewide growler chain's Morrison Street location, you might find multiples of Barley Brown's and Boneyard and Breakside. Otherwise, the spot looks a bit like a cross between an annex of Taqueria Portland and beer merch store with T-shirts on sale.
The Big Legrowlski
812 NW Couch St., 206-6481, biglegrowlski.com.
The name implies gentle dishevelment, but this Pearl pub is super slick. The tap list is certainly impressive and is backed with a selection of affordable Lebowski-themed cocktails.
Clinton Market
3400 SE Clinton St., 234-0372.
You're rolling the Prius down Clinton and you come upon this artifact of pre-bougie inner Southeast. Slowly but surely, Clinton Market is replacing beef jerky and Doritos with iPhone accessories and craft beer, becoming a miniature John's Market (page 29). On our last visit, a gentleman wearing a green tactical vest and sidearm was chatting up the clerk. The thoroughly randomized bottle selection veers from Belgian Trappist obscurity (Vicaris Tripel-Gueuze) to every Widmer Brothers Gentlemen's Club release and a 28-proof peach malt liquor packaged in Mason jars. Taps in the back fill growlers.
39th Mini Mart
935 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., 234-1411.
It looks a little like a hospital waiting room, but this bodega is your one-stop shop for bargain growler fills, alcoholic ice-cream bars and smokes.
Bigfoot Growlers
15252 SE Highway 224, Damascus, Ore., 658-3800, bigfootgrowlers.net.
People out in Damascus and Estacada are weirdly obsessed with Sasquatch. Here, though, a lot of the bigfooting's in the 42 craft-beer taps pouring at this growler bar inside the Nature's Country Store that otherwise sells feed, firewood and local produce. Now, there's a couple flat screens playing sports, and a few scattered tables in the corner of the grocery store, split between baseball-cap cowboys and the semirural disaffected. In the summer, Bigfoot opens out into an entire beer garden, with live music on weekends.
Willamette Week