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503-329-5107, littlebeastbrewing.com. No public taproom.
Little Beast's Chuck Porter has been around the block a few times. Porter not only brewed at two of the state's largest breweries, Deschutes and Full Sail, but he co-founded one of the buzziest ever, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, which made an epic splash when it opened in its namesake's red barn outside Hood River back in 2011. Porter had a hand in creating our first-ever Beer of the Year, the fresh-hop version of Logsdon's world-beating saison, and in making the much-sought-after Peche 'n' Brett. Porter knows an opportunity when he sees one— which is how his craft brewery ended up in a glorified hallway in the back of a Beaverton strip mall. The system Porter uses originally belonged to Brannon's, an ambitious steampunk concept that had wood-fired pizzas and a TV at every table, and closed after less than a year. The former Brannon's is now a restaurant, but the new owner had no use for the 10-barrel brewery, so he's subleased it to Porter. Porter has been working on the recipes that make up the first year of releases from Little Beast for decades, and it shows. His two everyday farmhouses, Fera and Bes are both round, satisfying and lightly tart. Perhaps the ultimate testament to his craftsmanship is Dream State, the rare strawberry sour to not go sideways with off plasticky off-notes. It's a complicated recipe, which involves barley, wheat and oats, plus a used foeder, then three strains of saccharomyces, a lactobacillus strain and three strains of Brett. Taming all those bugs and sugars is highly skilled labor, and there are few other brewers in the world who could do it in the way Porter does.
Nearby: You can't yet visit Little Beast, which is opening a tasting room in the former Lompoc Hedge House on Southeast Division soon after our press deadline. You can drink great beer in a strip mall elsewhere in Beaverton. Don't let the plazabound setting fool you, Craft Pour House (16055 SW Regatta Lane, No. 700, Beaverton, 503-747-5864, craftpourhouse.com) is a true beer-geek bar.