Bretzels and Brewfests

Summer in Portland means many things, but one thing that always catches my eye are brewfests. Portland International Beerfest and Oregon Brewers Festival are two of my favorites.


Held right in the heart of the Pearl district, the Portland International Beerfest offers 150 world class beers from 60 different countries. These beers are strong, but luckily Fressen pretzels were available on-site to remedy me from getting too out of hand.

The Oregon Brewers Festival, located alongside the waterfront, offers beer selections that are more my style. In addition to 21st Amendment's Hell or High Watermelon, this year I also took a liking to Oakshire OBF 26 an Imperial Oregon Ale.

In terms of pretzels, however, I would say the Oregon Brewers Festival has a doughy leg up on the International beerfest. While Fressen is delicious and if you can't tell by now, abundant in Portland restaurants, it's pretty hard to compete with Gustav's pretzel. Along with a sumptuous texture and abundant flavor the cheese fondue that accompanies this salty treat pushes this tasting experience into realms normally reserved for the original pretzel masters in Bavaria. In fact, Gustav's pretzel was what kicked off this blog and I must say it still stacks up pretty high in my book.