This St. Patrick’s Day weekend my husband and I participated in what is now becoming our new ritual. No, it’s not drinking green beer. But, there is beer involved, obvi. I mean, we’re proud self-proclaimed beer geeks.
We spent St. Paddy’s weekend at the Pouring at the Coast beer festival in Seaside, Oregon. We attended the festival for the first time last year and it was such a fun experience that as soon as the festival was over last year we knew we’d return.
New for 2019, the festivities were spread out over three days. Friday night there was a brewer’s basketball tournament. Saturday was the main event, as far as I’m concerned; the brew fest was from 12-6 and in the evening there were two bands from Portland hitting the stage, plus a beer garden. Sunday the weekend got capped off with a brewer’s brunch.
We only attended the brew fest on Saturday during the day, although I’m sure the other events were entertaining in their own right.
And speaking of that main event, with 40 craft brewers + hundreds of craft beer enthusiasts descending on the Seaside Convention Center, it was quite the party. The beer was flowing like…well, beer, and there was live music, food and a few drinks for any non-beer geeks that might’ve been drug along for the ride. There were a handful of craft ciders (just like in 2018) and a craft distillery had a booth at this year’s event.
But my husband and I only had eyes for the beer, so we didn’t branch out to try anything else. As far as beer goes, this year’s selection was amazing. It far surpassed the 2018 selection, but, our beer palates have also evolved in the twelve months since the last Pouring event.
In 2018 we were into pilsners and lagers. In 2019 we went to the dark side. Porters and stouts are our current jam. And, as luck would have it, the 2019 festival had dark beers by the truckload.
A few of our runaway favorites were the Fluffernutter (a peanut butter and marshmallow) by Fort George Brewery and the Stand Up & Shout (vanilla and coffee stout) by Wild Ride Brewing.
See, I told you we’d gone dark.
Our hands down favorite of the day was the Maple Quest Porter by Astoria Brewing Company, it was sweet, malty and had a rich, maple finish.
Some notable breweries that ranked high on our list were Seaside Brewing, Buoy Beer Company, Mill City Brew Werks, and the new kid on the block Sisu Beer.
These are some of our favorites from this festival…until next year, Seaside.
Amanda Bretz 