Beer Guide 2015: Baerlic Brewing

By Martin Cizmar

Baerlic Brewing

2235 SE 11th Ave., 477-9418, baerlicbrewing.com. 4-10 pm Tuesday-Thursday, 2-11 pm Friday, noon-11 pm Saturday, noon-9 pm Sunday.

[BAER NECESSITIES] Most breweries entering the crowded Portland market have diversified their portfolio to include a focus on food—see BTU and Ecliptic. Not the studiously sparse Baerlic. This new brewery, which shares a wall with the Blitz Ladd sports bar, doesn't do any food and bottles only its super-limited barrel-aged beers. The small tasting room itself is simple: concrete floor, bare ceiling, industrial metal chairs, lots of blond wood and no TVs. The crowds tend to be small, too, even as the brewery's small early lineup has expanded into a full lineup of 10 beers, including more ambitious offerings like an oatmeal Pilsner, a beechwood-aged version of the Arctos Winter Ale and a dry-hopped barleywine. The best regular offering is the hoppy Primeval Brown, but the limited releases are showing some serious promise.

DRINK THIS: If you see a bottle of the bouncy Old Blood & Guts, a bourbon barrel-aged barleywine, get it. And drink it fast, before the gloriously pungent dry-hop flavor drops out. Otherwise, get Primeval on their asses.

WWeek 2015

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