Bands, Beer (organic), and Brauts (gluten-free, vegan)

I feel like I'm in an episode of 'Portlandia'

As numerous as raindrops or tall trees, small craft breweries pop up everywhere in Portland.  The North American Organic Brewers Festival is a 3-day, more intimate precursor to the huge Oregon Brewfest (pouring over 80 craft beers from across the country) held at the end of July.  The NAOB features around 60 organic beers represents over 30 breweries (mostly in OR, CA, and WA - but a few from Utah, Minn and Montana).  

It is SO Portland - to quote the NAOB website: 

"Festival attendees sample beer from reusable and compostable cornstarch glasses made from domestically grown corn by a zero-waste, solar-powered company. Onsite composting and recycling stations are provided for festival waste, and food vendors are required to use compostable cutlery and plates. Electricity needs are met with a combination of biodiesel and solar generators. Volunteers wear organic cotton, bamboo and hemp t-shirts, and all event signage is reusable."

The bands were loud and pretty good

It was brutally HOT - the second day of weather in the upper 80's - low 90's.  VERY hot for us Pacific Northwesters.

So, of course, the mister was VERY popular!

And, of course . . .  the beer.  This picture shows just one of the 3 long tents serving up delicious little tastes of all sorts of beers and hard ciders.  For the designated drivers, there was a craft root beer garden.

My favorite had to be Bison Breweries "Honey Basil Ale" - "infused caramel malts with basil and honey, creating an herbaceous, floral and virtually hops-free beer".  It was spicy and amazingly good!

Elliott Bay's "No doubt Stout" is a reliable oatmeal stout that I've had before and can never pass up.

Wildwood's "Mystical Stout" was also really good.

Even though I attended with a friend (so we could share our "tastes" for double the variety) we ran out of capacity before we could finish our lists of beers to try!   The "Bacon Brown Ale", "Beet-nik" (yes, it's made with beets and is very red, and a "Peach Hefeweizen" will have to wait for another time.  Or . . . maybe tomorrow!

After a lovely, if hot, couple of hours of music and beverages,  we mounted up on our urban scooters and puttered our way home.  Nothing like a couple of 'women of a certain age' on scooters.