Skip to main content13 Virtues
6410 SE Milwaukie Ave., 239-8544, 13virtuesbrewing.com. 9 am-10 pm Monday-Thursday, 9 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday, 9 am-9 pm Sunday.
[STEAK WIT] Cheesesteaks and beer go together like...well, no metaphor is needed to complete the thought. It's such a natural combination you'd think a brewery in the basement of a hoagie shop would be a local cause célèbre. Alas, for two decades, Philadelphia's in Westmoreland was roundly ignored by Portland's craft-beer community. Ingenuity was never the problem—it was consistency. That changed when owner Steve Moore hired brewer David Vohden, expanded the brewing operation and rebranded it as 13 Virtues, taking its name (and, one assumes, new business model) from Benjamin Franklin's personal code of conduct. Up front, the restaurant still slangs hefty steak sandwiches with 11 taps pouring Sellwood Lager, Ray Brown Porter and the citrusy Orange Peel Pale, whose initials are indeed inspired by Naughty by Nature. The back tasting room, which is open only on weekends, has the deep cuts, including one-off experiments and limited releases. How far has the brewery come? Last year, the Woozy Weizenbock, a dark German hefe with notes of banana and caramel, took home the silver at the Great American Beer Festival. Have it with a Tastykake.
DRINK THIS: Get the weizenbock if you can, but otherwise try the Cold Spice Habanero Rye, which deftly balances spice with sweetness.
WWeek 2015