Buckman Village Brewery

With less than two months as Portland residents there are still many, many beers to drink and many, many places to drink at that still need to be checked out. That being said, one place made a great impression upon us when we checked it out last week: Green Dragon. This is a newer Portland establishment, at least in terms of it being a Rogue-owned property. With somewhere around 40 tap lines there’s no shortage of great beer to choose from and this week the choices got even better with the debut of their onsite brewery, Buckman Village.

Last night was the grand opening for the brewery and with it being a short drive away, off I went to see how their first beer would stack up. The staff was eager to make sure everyone that came in got to try the beers. Yes, plural. Instead of the one beer, Chamomellow, that at least in terms of name didn’t intrigue me too much, there were three offerings which included an IPA and a ginger beer.

While the set may have been similar in color, their flavors were strikingly different from one another. The Chamomellow, as expected, was heavy on the chamomile aroma with some upfront honey flavor. The Ginger reminded me very much of Lefthand’s JuJu Ginger, which for me was a very good thing. Finally, the IPA fell on the sweeter end of IPAs but neither the hoppy nor sweet characteristics were lingering, making it a very easy drinker.

After my first taste of each I fully expected to end up with a pint of IPA in front of me. But after making my way back for second and third tastes, and the beers warming up, the Chamomellow really grew on me. The honey flavor became more assertive and the beer very smooth and I was powerless to do anything but order a pint of it.

All three beers were very drinkable (although I’d really love to be able to have the Ginger with some sushi) and being in the 6-ish ABV range, easy to enjoy a few of. As far as I’m concerned, Buckman is off to a great start. Such a great start that I might have to return tonight as the carrot being dangled is that they’ll have a firkin. Hmmm…will it be the Chamomellow? Something new? It’s probably important for me to investigate so I can report back.