Hopworks has been open for month or so now, and yesterday we took our first trip over to check it out, and we weren’t disappointed with the wait either.
Sunday evening, 6pm, and the place was pretty packed already. We didn’t explore the whole building but it looks like there is a dining area, a bar side and also another upstairs dining area. There was a 15 min wait for a table at 6pm, but we opted to sit at the bar.
The bar staff were pretty slammed when we sat down and it took a few minutes for them to get to us. Our bartender for the night was Miami a really nice guy who looked after us well for the night, he had a good sense of humor and was never far away when we needed another beer.
HUB currently has about 10 beers on draft and two on cask beer engines. There wasn’t a single beer I tried that I didn’t like. The Velvet ESB was a great beer, but the Deluxe Old Ale was even better, definitely one of my favorites of the night. The cask IPA was good, great flavor, but served a little colder than I personally like and with just a tad more carbonation that I would prefer. That said it worked well, and I would definitely drink a few more of those. The star of the night, beer wise, was El Diablo a Belgian Strong Golden served by the glass!
I also got to meet Christian Ettinger, the owner and master brewer at HUB. When things got busy behind the bar he just stepped in and poured a few beers. One of the best things I saw was when he grabbed a beer he had just poured and topped it up before it went out! It didn’t even look short to me. Thats what we need to see more of!
Christian was kind enough to give me the tour of their impressive 20bbl brewery, the walk in cold room is just massive with all the bright tanks serving the taps upstairs. Everything in the pub and brewery is designed with being Green in mind and the kettle is even oil (reclaimed from the fryer) fired.
We decided we had to try one of their pizzas for dinner, and we opted for the “Going Green” with artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, feta and pesto olive oil base. It was excellent! I’m excited to try some of the other pizzas as well as their other entrees.
Pub wise, the place is pretty big and pretty loud. Not sure if the dining room area is quieter but the place definitely has a vibrant feel to it. There’s also a pool table in the bar side of the pub. The bar is no minors, but it looked like the rest of the pub was kid friendly. There was a big mix of folks from baby boomers to SE Portland hipsters.
Anyway, we really enjoyed our visit and are looking forward to heading back over more this summer, especially when the patio opens!
Hopworks Urban Brewery
2944 SE Powell Blvd
Portland, OR 97202
Tel: 503 / 232-HOPS (4677)
