Pickin' Pubs

 The Big Apple: Portland's Cider Boom | Top 5 New Oregon Ciders | Portland Cider Pubs 

 English, French, and Spanish Cider Primer | New World Old World Ciders | Cider Calendar

Reverend Nat's Hard Cider

1813 NE 2nd Ave., 567-2221, reverendnatshardcider.com.

The hardwooded taproom at Nat's runs eight taps with only his own product, which is wide-ranging enough you'd never know it all came from the same place, from hopped apricot to ginger tonic to apples-only Revival cider to a crazily multihopped collaboration with Barley Brown's, Envy, that is our Cider of the Year. Of all the ciders in town or maybe even the country, Reverend Nat's are by far the most experimental, with a beefheart cider in his past and rumors he's fiddling with…sardines.  

Pix Patisserie

2225 E Burnside St., 971-271-7166, pixpatisserie.myshopify.com.   

When Portland macaron doyenne Cheryl Wakerhauser installed Bar Vivant on a dry stretch of lowish East Burnside, it was an odd case of border war between Spanish tapas and French pastries. It's been a felicitous marriage, so far. While her bar is best known for that many-page Champagne list that's gotten national recognition, Pix also hosts Xtotx! Spanish cider parties in which the Old World cider flows from the cask, while a well-curated list of both French and Spanish cider flows year-round from bottles.

St. Honoré Boulangerie

3333 SE Division St., 971-279-4433, sainthonorebakery.com.

When the excellent Normandy-style bakery moved onto food-happy Division, it did so with 10 cider taps. That number has dwindled to six, alongside four beers. But for now, that still places it among the most extensive draft cider selections in town. They're mostly local at the moment, but have extended to Asturian and French ciders.

Civic Taproom & Bottle Shop

621 SW 19th Ave., 477-4621, thecivictaproom.com.

While a lot of bottle shops from Apex to Bailey's will make a point of scooting a cider or two somewhere among their tap lists, the spartan Civic Taproom places cider front and center as its first six taps. They're not always the most adventurous selections—hopped ciders, pear ciders, semi-sweet—but they know their audience. For Timbers fans, Cider Riot's Everybody Pogo, made by team booster Abe Goldman-Armstrong, takes up tap residence during soccer season.

Belmont Station

4500 SE Stark St., 232-8538, belmont-station.com.

Co-owned by renowned beer writer Lisa Morrison, Belmont Station is home to 1,200 bottles, an always interesting tap list, and a great back patio. For ciders, the tap list usually just pulls one or two interesting seasonal ciders out for a quaff—recently Nat's sour cherry—but the real wealth is in the bottles. The shop boasts more than 100, with a heavy focus on local apple quaffs.

Bushwhacker Cider

1212-D SE Powell Blvd., 445-0577, bushwhackercider.com. 

America's first cider-only pub is still Portland's most voluminously stocked, a boxy building in Brooklyn made cheerily domestic within, with eight taps that run from Spanish to a pile of Northwesterns, including Bushwhacker's own somewhat inconsistent house product. Try five ciders on a $7 taster tray. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for a much-delayed second Bushwhacker spot in northeasterly Woodlawn in 2015, which is slated for 15 taps, dart games and a lot of space to sit—more than 2,000 square feet. 

Hi-Wheel Wine & Mead

6719 NE 18th Ave., 928-5723, hiwheelwines.com.

It is not wine. It is not mead. It is not quite cider, either. Hi-Wheel makes "fizzy wines"—a fermented, carbonated fruit juice that is closest to an artisanal take on wine cooler, in flavors like lavender-lemon and pomegranate-habanero. What are they like? They are like spiked, bittersweet, highly effervescent sodas. Get the Death Wish Bunny, which mixes carrot, chai, ginger and lemon for a surprisingly balanced drink.

Prospect Bottleshop & Bar

1611 NE Killingsworth St., 971-229-0422.

This tiny, spartan bottle shop and bar on Killingsworth has a better Basque, French and Asturian cider selection than anywhere short of Bushwhacker. So uncork your sedimented bottle of yeasty Petritegi for $11 to split, and drink it with killer brisket tacos from La Taq next door. 

Portland Cider Co.

275 S Beavercreek Road, Suite 149, Oregon City, 908-7654, portlandcider.com.

Decked out in wall-to-wall cedar, Portland Cider Co.'s Oregon City taproom is possibly the most mothproof bar on the planet, with seven house ciders on tap, from a hopped cider to a cinnamony holiday cider laced with a little cayenne. Eventually, this'll mostly just be a stopover en route to Willamette Falls: This spring, the cidery is opening a huge 28-tap cider house (up from its original plans for 24) at 3638 SE Hawthorne Blvd., with eight taps of its own and room for up to 20 more mostly local ciders. This taproom will also be a mostly cedar production, with most of the furniture made in the basement of Portland Cider co-owner Jeff Parrish.

 The Big Apple: Portland's Cider Boom | Top 5 New Oregon Ciders | Portland Cider Pubs 

  English, French, and Spanish Cider Primer | New World Old World Ciders |Cider Calendar

WWeek 2015