Portland Oregon USA
For those who believe that Beer in the United States is of poor quality and the bar reaches no higher than Coors, or Budweiser when it comes to taste, disappointment may be coming their way.The term Microbrewery originated in the United kingdom in the during the late 1970s to describe a new generation of small breweries which focused on producing traditional Ale. The term quickly came to represent an alternative attitude and approach to brewing flexibility, adaptability, experimentation and customer service. The term and trend spread to the United states in the 1980s where it eventually was used as a designation of breweries that produce fewer than 15,000 barrels of beer annually.
Portland Oregon is well-known for its microbrewed beer. Oregon Public Broadcasting has documented Portland’s role in the microbrew revolution in the United States, in a report called, “Beervana.†“Beervana†noun, To reach a state of being oblivious to pain through copious amounts of beer consumption. This definition has also been used to describe a Portland state of mind. An illustration of Portlanders’ interest in the beverage can be seen in 1888, when local brewer Henry Weinhard volunteered to pump beer from his brewery into the newly dedicated Skidmore Fountain. However, the renown for quality beer dates to the 1980s, when state law was changed to allow consumption of beer on brewery premises. In short order, microbreweries and brewpubs began to pop up all over the city. Their growth was supported by the abundance of local ingredients, including two-row barley, over a dozen varieties of hops, and pure water from the Bull Run Watershed. The Willamette Valley is one of the leading hop growing regions in the United States.
Today, with twenty-eight breweries within the city, Portland is home to more breweries than any other city in the country. The Mcmenamin brothers alone have over thirty brewpubs, distilleries, and wineries scattered throughout the metropolitan area, several in renovated theaters and other old buildings otherwise destined for demolition. Other notable Portland brewers include Widmer Brothers, BridgePort, and Hair of the Dog, as well as numerous smaller quality brewers. In 1999, author Michael “Beerhunter†Jackson called Portland a candidate for the beer capital of the world because the city boasted more breweries than Cologne, Germany. The Portland Oregon Visitors Association is promoting “Beervana” and “Brewtopia” as nicknames for the city. In mid-January 2006, Mayor Tom Potter officially gave the city a new nickname– Beertown.
