Beer Guide 2015: FlyBoy

By Parker Hall

FlyBoy

15630 SW Boones Ferry Road, Suite 1A, Lake Oswego, 908-1281, flyboybeer.com. Noon-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 11 am-10 pm Friday, 11 am-9 pm Saturday, 2-8 pm Sunday. 

[STRIP-MALL HANG] FlyBoy is situated next door to a Papa Murphy's in a Lake Oswego strip mall, and embraces it. Owner/brewer Mark Becker even installed an oven to bake the Papa's pies when his patrons get hungry—or when a son of Papa wants lunch, since the shop can't actually provide a shift meal. With 22 taps for pints and growlers, and even basic brewing ingredients for sale, FlyBoy's single barrel nanobrew only gets rotated in on a batch-to-batch basis. Don't let the strip mall, take 'n' bake, mediocre name, and downright awful labels and logos fool you—the beer is excellent, bordering on exquisite. Becker has been homebrewing for 24 years, and that experience pays off. A barrel-aged imperial porter flew in the face of typical bourbon-forward beers, offering subtle vanillin and oak perfectly balanced with chocolate and caramel malts. Also on tap was a fresh apple and cinnamon American hefeweizen that's well spiced and fruit-forward. Plans to expand to a 10-barrel offsite brewery with restaurant distribution are in the works, but for now a trip to Audi-land might actually be worth it.

DRINK THIS: Anything you can find, but be on the lookout for Whiskey Porter.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.