US Ale Adventures 2015 - Part 2 - Oregon/Nevada/California

The second part of our holiday involved a week or so in Southern Oregon, then a long road trip south to Southern California for a week, with a 2 night layover at South Lake Tahoe, Nevada on the way down and another 2 night layover in Incline Village, North Lake Tahoe on the return leg, with the rest of our 6 week stay being spent in Southern Oregon again.

I had half promised myself that I would take a trip up to Oakridge, Oregon this year to make a pilgrimage to http://brewersunion.com/ - a much-lauded real ale oasis, highly recommended by fellow CAMRA member Jim Strachan. The opportunity nearly came up this past weekend, when we could have combined it with a trip to Portland for http://www.oregonbrewfest.com/. In the end, it didn't quite work out - maybe next year?

Lots and lots of breweries in Oregon of course, but I haven't come across one this holiday either here or in Nevada or Southern California that supplied cask ale - it was all keg. I'm sure if I'd tried harder, I could have found some, but I tended to fit my beer drinking in with other family activities. The nearest I came was in the local Wild River brewpub in Grants Pass, which at least had a handpump on the bar, albeit it looked like it had been some time since it was put to any good use.

One encouraging feature in Grants Pass is the number of outlets where I can now fill up my growlers. As well as the previously established brewpubs (Wild River and JD's), another 3 brewpubs - Climate City (http://www.climatecitybrewing.com/), Griess Family Brews (http://www.gfbrews.com/) and The Haul (http://www.thehaulgp.com/) have now opened up. The latter is the taproom/diner for the former Conner Fields micro brewery.

There is even a specialised growler re-fill outlet - Frank N Stene's Monster Growlers - plus Cartwright's (http://cartwrightsmarket.com/), a quality deli with a huge range of beers, updated electronically daily, complete with descriptions, abv's, ibu's etc:

The two random samples above were taken a couple of weeks apart. You can have as many tasters as you want before you re-fill your growler.

In fact, every pub you go into is more than happy to re-fill growlers - unlike in Oz, where the old Health & Safety boys don't allow it at all.

Went back to the pretty town of Ashland and re-visited http://www.standingstonebrewing.com/ as well, plus a few other favourite non-brewpub outlets like http://www.kaleidoscopepizza.com/

In Nevada, we paid a return visit to the South Lake Tahoe http://statelinebrewery.com/ plus McP's, formerly an Irish bar (shudder!) but now modernised and with a great selection of brews. One place to skip was the heavily advertised craft beer bar at the Montbleu Casino - http://tahoesouth.com/events/lake-tahoe-craft-beer-fest-at-montbleu-resort-casino-spa/ - not worth detouring to.

Bottled beer only in Southern California - too busy to go to any brewpubs.

All in all, on our 6 week holiday stateside, I reckon, between Colorado, Nevada and Oregon, we visited 12 or 13 brewpubs, one beer festival, one distillery and just one winery - http://crowandbear.com/

My favourite beer of the holiday? This one: