5. Its in Portland!

4. Your Friends are all doing it.

3. You can take the MAX.

2. You can go to the ALT festival across the street if you get bored.

1. Where else can you sample hundreds of beers and potentially a good portion that will never been seen again.

Its absolutely the best beer festival on the planet for Microbrew enthusiasts, hands down no contest.  You need to get to Portland within the next 7 days.  Check Beer festivals section for more tips! 

http://beerfestivals.brewrepublic.com 

I was recently able to sample this excellent IPA while visiting Glacier National Park in Montana.  I was at the infamous Charlie's Place in Babb, home to the Babb Music Festival.  The bar serves an excellent selection of Local Brews as well as about anything else you would want.  It almost makes me want to move to Montana, about as laid back as a bar can possibly get.  Anyway, on to this fantastic Single Malt IPA powerhouse from Blackfoot Brewing in Helena, Montana.  Here is the commercial description:

Just like Single Malt Scotch, our spring seasonal I.P.A. is brewed from 100% crisp Maris Otter floor-malted (made by hand!) barley - no specialty malts, no blending. This traditional India Pale Ale is heavily hopped with both Magnum and Cascade hops grown in the Pacific Northwest. Golden in color, refreshing to drink and full of hops, this beer is available from mid-February through mid-September

It is clean, crisp and a great beer for the summer months.  It does not leave a bad taste in your mouth and goes well with food.  The Aroma was good a clean as well as expected from the non blended ingredients.  You simply can not go wrong with this beer.  More pictures when I get the chance.  Brewrepublic rating: 8/10

A decidely Portland-esque type of beer event, the NAOBF is the place to go to sample a wide variety of organic beers.  Organic is an interesting trend in beer, but undoubtedly it fits right in with the concept of craft brewing.  If you care about how good your beer tastes, then ultimately you should care about the quality of the ingredients.

The festival was fun, with 40+ brewers on display, live music, and a variety of vegetarian and organic food available.  You'll need several hours to sample all, or most of the beers.  The brews range from summer classics like a wit or pale up into the realms of a chocolate stout.  Clearly there was something for everyone.

The Brew Republic team was out enjoying the festival and the warm weather.  We enjoyed the easy going atmosphere and trying the many varieties of organic goodness.  Some highlights included Double Mountain's outstanding Summer Wit, Redstone's 8% ABV apricot and raspberry meads, and Standing Stone Brewery's Double IPA.  On the weird category was a surprisingly good Squash beer.  For wheat lovers the Edel-Weiss was a tasty brew.

All in all a good show and great fun on a lovely warm Portland afternoon.