Jeanette invited me to the new Portland Craft Beer Festival on Saturday. We had just heard about it on the news and put together an impromptu visit on the Fourth of July. It was modeled off of the bigger Oregon Brewer Festival held later this month. This new beer festival only featured Portland Breweries. As you would expect for a summer beer fest it featured many IPAs, Pale Ales, Belgiums and lighter lagers. We did find two stouts and tried over 20 different beers. There were plenty of different beers to sample but after only being open for two hours they were already running out of some of brews. They also had not planned on holding this event during a early summer heat wave but tried adapting with a number of cooling options.

This was the first Portland Craft Beer Festival and was held a Fields Park in the Pearl.

A little line had formed just before the gate opened.

At the entry gate everyone got their ID check to be sure everyone was over 21.

They had 24 serving stations in a large tent at the center of the park.

Jeanette was happy to have gotten a sample to try.

Looking down the serving line.

The standard plastic tasting mug.

This was the only large tent.

There was good amount of open area for the crowd size.

Vendor tent were placed around the perimeter of the park.

There were several areas of table seating.

This area of table seating had larger umbrellas that worked better.

Another seating area.

Long line of outhouses that were like little saunas inside.

They one spot where you could soak your feet to try and cool down.

This was one of the mist coolers they had running.

They finally resorted to a larger sprinkler to get you wet to try and cool down.

This tent with misters was packed the whole day.

Being the Forth of July this group came dress for it.