Stormbreaker Brewing is the brainchild of co-founders Rob Lutz and Dan Malech. Its first location in the Boise neighborhood opened almost a decade ago, with a second location in St. Johns open for nearly half as long. Stormbreaker, a name given to Mt. Hood in the book Night Dogs, pumps out the crowd-pleasing westies (West Coast IPAs) and hazies, with quirky and colorful can art featuring endless pop culture references to everything from Star Wars to The Office. Lutz says regardless of their popularity next to the hop-forward offerings, he keeps a kolsch and a stout on tap year-round.

Occidental Brewing Company produces top-tier German-style ales and lagers out of a shop near St. Johns Bridge. When Oktoberfest is in full swing, this is a necessary stop for festbiers and German hefeweizens along with bratwurst and schnitzels aplenty from neighboring Urban German Wursthaus. On brighter days, locals can be seen lounging on the spacious patio, taking in the scenery of Cathedral Park and the Willamette River, or hiding inside the homey space among the backdrop of forestscape murals, replete with fly agaric mushrooms.

Once a functioning farm and bustling produce market, Level's main location first underwent a sizeable transformation and is now cranking out 8-bit video game-themed beers in cans and kegs. While hazy IPAs and pale ales like the Pixelate Pale and Game On! IPA are its flagships, Level offers a diverse beer selection, spanning from stouts to saisons. Multiple food trucks outside Level Beer ensure a tidy selection of culinary options, including the likes of shawarma and burritos. Families visiting the flagship location ("Level 1") have access to a spacious greenhouse structure with a children's play area, making weekend afternoons potentially lively with hyperactive toddlers bouncing around. Its "Level 2" spot in Multnomah Village as well as the "Level 3" location on Sandy Boulevard make for better options for folks not wishing to commute so far east.

Steeplejack first opened its pub-style brewery in an 111-year-old church, and since then, the brewery has expanded vigorously, opening Steeplejack Pizza and Beer in Hillsdale and a third location in Hillsboro. With brewmaster Anna Buxton at the helm, Steeplejack won a gold medal for its Alewife mild-dark English-style beer and Best New Brewery at the 2023 Oregon Beer Awards.

A pioneer in Oregon farmhouse-style ales, Upright brews French and Belgian-style beers with a hint of Northwest influence. Located in the Leftbank Building, this taproom is the sort of hidden hole-in-the-wall that attracts locals and beer nerds. Limited releases often rely on cool, somewhat uncommon brewing techniques, from a barrel-aged gose darkened with squid ink, to a fresh-hopped nectarine saison that spent some time in oak. Both the main taproom and the newer taproom at 72nd and Prescott are open daily.

Culmination had been an unwavering brewery in Portland for years, until a shake-up hinted at its potential closure. But in spite of the challenges, Culmination has taken itself to task to survive, bringing former team member and consultant Steven Shomler back on board as the face of the brand. Culmination also offers a bevy of creative concoctions, from big boozy breakfast stouts to sour cherry lime ales. The Kerns brewery offers indoor seating as well as a covered and heated patio.

Migration opened its doors on Glisan back in 2010 and built a solid following with locals in the area. In 2018 it began an aggressive expansion campaign that has now seen the brewery explode into four locations throughout the city, one of which features a rooftop bar. Its flagship, Straight Outta Portland IPA, is one of the top westies (West Coast IPAs) in the city. Migration doesn’t seem like it’s out to reinvent the wheel, here; producing top-tier West Coast and Hazy IPAs is the main goal, but some kettle sours and its award-winning northwest-style red ale help to round out the portfolio.

Wayfinder opened in the fall of 2016, drawing crowds not just for its beers, but also for the large outdoor patio — one of the most popular gathering spots at any brewery in town, with ample seating and a cozy fire pit for those not-so-warm evenings. Though it’s lager-focused, Wayfinder still offers a few inventive IPAs and other, more obscure styles. Most recently, the brewery made waves in the local scene and online with its Cold IPAs. Locals rave about the simple-yet-focused pub fare, such as the sausage plate with sauerkraut and fries, which also has a vegan friendly option using Beyond sausage.

Living Häus Beer Company has taken over the former Belmont Fermentorium space. Founded by veteran brewers Conrad Andrus and Mat Sandoval, who cut their teeth at Pfriem and Modern Times, Living Häus exemplifies the ability of a brewery to pull off experimental brews while honing in on lagers with clarity, balance, and complexity. While Living Häus has a rotating selection of seasonal and monthly one-off beers, the core beers offered are a Munich-style helles lager (Bethine), a spicy pilsner (Delores), a West Coast IPA (Harris), and a hazy IPA (Herman) — each named after family members of Sandoval and Andrus. When it's not out making deliveries, the Living Häus van (a blue and cream 1988 Chevy G30 called Cousin Shannon) can be spotted parked inside by the entryway.

Owners of the now-closed Toffee Club, Pete Hopkins and Niki Diamond, moved into the former Scout Beer spot to open Away Days, bringing in former Alameda brewer Marshall Kunz to brew a wide range of styles. This pub feels bright and spacious despite its size, thanks to the roll-up doors and bright, minimalist decor. Though the European influence is evident in beers such as Bus Stop Bitter and Milner’s English Mild Ale, Away Days also brews ever-popular IPAs. Two particular new-ish hits: Deadline Day Fresh Hop pale ale, offered in both an American and English style.

Baerlic, meaning “of barley” in Old English, produces a lineup of traditional standards, but also pushes boundaries in both its style and process, as exemplified by the omnipresent Dad Beer Lager and the seasonal Dark Thoughts Black IPA, which is 6.66 percent ABV. It’s an iconoclast in terms of its space, opting for a sleek café aesthetic combined with an open ceiling concept, featuring a faux-hedge obscuring a section of booth seating. Baerlic shares a space, dubbed The Piehall with square pizza fave Ranch PDX, at the Southeast taproom.

For beer tourists making their way to Portland in search of fresh IPAs, Ruse is a must. Its rotating selection of new and inventive dry-hopped pales and IPAs are among the best on the West Coast. Ruse also doesn’t distribute much to major vendors, so making the journey to the brewery to stock up on cans is the only move. Though Ruse’s flagship Portland location hosts food pop-ups from time to time, diners looking for something substantial to accompany those pints should consider checking out Ruse’s new Crust Collective location across the river in Vancouver.

Gigantic Brewing Company is another legend in Portland beer, and the company continues to pump out new and creative brews while keeping folks coming back for flagships. Gigantic is Portland beer done right, in every sense. The brewery makes the same classic West Coast IPAs that put Portland on the map, while not being so inexorable that brewers Van Havig and Ben Love are unwilling to adapt to changing trends or experiment. The Reed-area taproom features eclectic artwork and seating in the bar area, while the Rocket Empire Machine taproom is a small haven for beer among an eclectic set of culinary stalls. The newest location, on Southeast Hawthorne, is the first in Gigantic’s brewery to serve food, with things like patty melts and totchos.