Beer Bars with the Best Happy Hours

Bazi Bierbrasserie

1522 SE 32nd Ave., 503-234-8888, bazipdx.com. 3-7 pm and 10 pm-close Monday-Saturday, all day Sunday.

[BATTLE OF THE BELGIANS] Hilda Stevens' comfy spot isn't exclusively Belgian, but it is exceedingly well-curated—especially among the Belgian side of Oregon beer offerings, such as those from Pfriem, Upright and the Commons. If it's on tap here, it's good. Chances are, if it's on the food menu here, it's good, too—especially when the excellent, loaded-up burger drops to $6 alongside $6 Belgian mashed-potato stoemp. If you're afflicted with vegetarianism, Bazi is one of the few spots whose excellent lentil veg-burger is cheaper than the meat version: $5 cheap! MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Best deal: Just get the burger, whether veggie ($5) or beef ($6), and God bless.

Burnside Brewing

701 E Burnside St., 503-946-8151, burnsidebrewco.com. 3-5 pm food specials, 3-6 pm "fermentation hour" beer specials daily.

[PORK-RIND NACHO] Between its extensive, off-the-wall lineup of galangal or pumpkin seasonals and antlered, outdoorsy decor guaranteed to appease the expectations of tourists visiting a Real Portland Brewpub™, Burnside has maintained its status as a must-visit for nearly six years. But it's also one of very few breweries in the city to maintain a truly legit happy hour: a mere $5 for nachos made of pork cracklins (!), and $7 for a burger that usually clocks in at a hefty $12, plus a buck off pints. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Best deal: Stop in on Wednesdays and Imperial 20-ounce pints are $3.75 —plus those $5 cracklin' nachos. It's so wrong it's right.

Deschutes Brewery

210 NW 11th Ave., 503-296-4906, deschutesbrewery.com. 4-6 pm daily.

[HOMETOWN TOURISTING] With all the great new breweries in Oregon, it's easy to forget how good Deschutes' beers remain. Even at the chichi Pearl location, Deschutes is brewing a wide variety of great beers a couple of blocks from Powell's. But it costs a lot for non-tourists—burgers and $6 pints are expensive. Enter happy hour, when rotating pints cost $3.50. Drink those. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Best deal: $3.50 pints.

EastBurn

1800 E Burnside St., 503-236-2876, theeastburn.com. 3-6 pm daily.

[HAPPY HOUR ROULETTE] EastBurn is like a bar with hidden levels—especially because it literally has a hidden level downstairs filled with skee ball and Pac-Man. But there's always a rare beer you didn't know about on tap or a goofball deal you'd have no reason to expect, like $2 off whiskey on Wednesday and $2.50 craft pints on Tuesday—and $3.50 craft pints during happy hour, for that matter, not to mention $3 off specialty cocktails. And during the NBA playoffs, the bar tosses out free beers when the Blazers eclipse 100 points. Every hour is happy, perhaps—but only at random. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Best deal: Those $2.50 pints on Tuesdays.

Fat Head's Brewery

131 NW 13th Ave., 503-820-7721, fatheadsportland.com. 3-6 pm and 9 pm-close Sunday-Thursday. (Damn you, pointlessly expensive Friday!)

[WING THING] Fat Head's massive Pearl District brewhouse may look like an outlet-mall version of T.G.I. Friday's, but the beer is some of the best in Portland, and there are everything-must-go, Trader Joe's-style happy-hour deals: seven $5 wines, $6.50 margs and bloodies that will twist your sister, $7 pizzas, $6 wings and a $5 giant pretzel or plate of chicken fingers. All the better to down that dollar-off pint of Semper FiPA, voted best IPA in Portland in a blind tasting. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Best deal: $6 wings and a cheap, very good beer will do.

Higgins

1239 SW Broadway, 503-222-9070, higginsportland.com. 4-6:30 pm Sunday-Friday, 10-11 pm Monday-Saturday, 9-10 pm Sunday.

[DUCK, YOU SUCKER] Higgins is on one side a tableclothed formality, and on the bar side a casual tavern old enough that the restroom seems to be made for elves—but on both sides, the service is some of the most impeccable in town without being fussy. But the bar side is the best side, and the generous-portioned happy hour is one reason: Eight dollars will get you a giant portion of drenched jalapeño-hot duck wings so rich they make chicken seem a game for fools, while a coffee mug-sized duck-liver mousse will sate a singleton all by itself. Meanwhile, the beer selection—from hundreds in bottles to a well-tended rotation of taps—is almost certainly the best fine-dining beer list in Portland, a distinction it's maintained for 30 years straight. and at happy hour, it's 20 percent off. Dig in. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Best deal: Seriously, those $8 plates are full meals. If you see duck, order duck.

Victory Bar

3652 SE Division St., 503-236-8755, thevictorybar.com. 5-6 pm daily, 10-11 pm Sunday-Thursday

[BIG BROTHER POUTINE] Victory Bar remains steadfastly unchanged in Division Street Disneyland, its Orwellian Big Brother decor all the more poignant and ironic among the new crop of multiuse towers. Because why fuck with a good thing? The beer selection rivals any local beer bar in curation, a buck cheaper from 5 to 6 pm. Meanwhile, the food happy hour makes no sense and doesn't have to. You've got three choices. All American backcountry is served by a big, juicy venison burger. A West Coast take on Canadian poutine is offered by a bacon-cheddar-slathered mess of fries. And Germans will be sated by the housemade spaetzle. But the food's cheap at funny times: from 5 to 6 pm and 10 to 11 pm only. At midnight it costs more, because who wants to encourage you to dirty up the kitchen that late?

Best deal: $3.75 wells, $4 select craft pints and $6.75 for an unholy wealth of cheese-and-bacon-covered fries dirtier than any bomb.

Willamette Week