Beer Guide 2015: Breakside Milwaukie

By Parker Hall

Breakside Milwaukie

5821 SE International Way, Milwaukie, 719-6475, breakside.com. 3-8 pm Monday-Friday, noon-8 pm Saturday-Sunday.

[GOLD ON THE CEILING] Breakside was the talk of Beervana this year, taking medals at the Great American Beer Festival in the hypercompetitive IPA and strong pale ale categories. And yet, the brewery remains resolute in its pursuit of new styles to master. La Tormenta, a tangy and pineapple-forward dry-hopped sour, which lands in our top 10 (page 25), shows the sort of infuriating knack for perfection you get from Yalie brewer Ben Edmonds. The Milwaukie industrial park pub, which is where Breakside makes that beer after overgrowing the small system on Dekum Triangle, isn't anything new: It's got wood-paneled walls, medals behind the bar, brewery smells, noise and the occasional rush of cold air from the docking bay. You come here instead of to Dekum for the greater variety. Breakside IPA may be the best in the nation, but virtually everything pouring from the pub's 22 taps would make a top 10 list somewhere. Come next October, we'll see what new territories Breakside has conquered.

DRINK THIS: Wanderlust, an IPA that also took gold in Denver. You'll never find it fresher than 100 feet from where it's made.

WWeek 2015

Parker Hall

Parker Hall

Parker Hall is a writer, musician, and home brewer from Portland. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he studied jazz percussion with drum legend Billy Hart (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock). Now a freelance writer and professional member of the city's jazz and indie rock scenes, he spends most of his days writing, playing music or drinking brews in his spacious North Portland basement.

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