Emily and I on Saturday got to do something that we hardly ever get to do any more and that is to get to enjoy Portland for an afternoon sans children. We decided to head down to Hopworks to check out the Cheers to Belgian Beers. This was a very fun event, all sorts of local brewers getting to be very creative and yet each taste was only a dollar. Yummy. We were in line to get a taste when a fairly sloshed man came up to the woman who was serving the McMennamins tasters (and some other beers as well and she was not an employee of McMennamins) and started going off on her about how their beers suck, service sucks etc. Pretty much being a big A-hole. I can understand some criticism of McBeers because they are definitely not known for service and they have 7 or 8 beers they have had forever which don't stand up to the quality of many other local brews but their beer is not swill. Go visit about 90% of this country where all you can find is Bud , Bud Light, Coors Light and maybe Heineken or Corona on tap and come back to me about swill. You can find some great beers at McMennamins if you avoid your local strip mall version and head to one of the many places that brews on site. Chances are your local brewer has put together an interesting special or two and many of these I have really enjoyed. I hear this same complaint about Deschutes, Widmer and Full Sail a lot. Yes these beers can be disappointing if all you are judging them on is Widmer Hef, the newest incarnation of Mirror Pond or Full Sail Amber. All of these places make some excellent seasonals that shouldn't be missed and if you go to the actual pubs and have the small batch versions of specials or even their regular faves you'll be surprised that they taste different and better. The only reason that events like Cheers to Belgian Beers exist today is the pioneering spirit of places like McMenaminns and Widmer that created an industry that has flourished in this state and allows for the creativity of the many great brewers in Oregon to experiment and raise the bar on what is great and daring beers. The man who was chastising McMennamins should instead be thanking them. Without McMennamins and their early pioneering brethren coming along he'd probably be drinking a bud light instead of enjoying an event that would only happening in a few places in the world.
