As we close out a brutal year we find a rare occasion to celebrate by shining a spotlight on the best and brightest of Oregon beer in 2020. Like everything else over the past 10+ months, our annual best of the year awards are going to be a little bit different this year. We usually poll the industry’s many beer experts to vote for their favorites in traditional categories of recognition, but this year so many of these businesses are not able to operate as usual, nor are our voters able to experience as many people places or beers. So instead we have taken a page out of the food and drink industry’s playbook and gotten creative with a new set of awards that highlight and recognize some of the best moves of the pandemic.

These are the New School contributors picks for the best beer and food memories of 2020, and as usual our choices are subjective with a great many other worthy winners doing exceptional work this year.

BEST BEER FOR A CAUSE

Black is Beautiful (Oregon’s nearly 40 contributions to the cause)

Despite 2020 spawning a new “Final Boss“ against independent breweries seemingly each and every month, the giving heart of the industry remains alive and well. Last year saw a tremendous rise in brewing beer for a cause and presented many worthy beers for consideration. Those considered included:

-State of Excitement IPA, brewed twice in 2020 at Wild Ride & Baerlic in support of the Oregon Brewers Guild.

- Look For The Helpers, brewed at Backwoods Brewing for the Northbank Brewers Alliance benefiting 4 SW Washington food banks.

- Great Notion’s trifecta of causality with Laid Off Lager (with funds going to laid off staff), All Together (brewed with Other Half Brewing benefiting various hospitality workers funds), and Afterglow (benefiting local causes supporting frontline health professionals).

But it was Black Is Beautiful that arguably had the greatest impact in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest despite not originating here. Weathered Souls Brewing, a black-owned brewery in San Antonio, TX, developed the concept to challenge breweries around the globe to brew a deep, dark imperial stout with proceeds going to local causes of their choosing that promote justice, equity and prosperity for people of color.

The New School covered this collab as it swept over Oregon with over 30 breweries participating in the collab. Part of the genius in this effort was that, unlike Sierra Nevada’s wildly successful Resilience IPA response to the 2018 fires in California, this widespread collaboration allowed for a broad spectrum of creativity. There was no recipe prescribed.

The result was beer nerds across the region and across the world clamoring for every variation that could be found. The question was asked ad nauseam this summer: “What’s your favorite Black Is Beautiful you’ve had so far?” We were drinking eight, nine, ten, twelve-percent ABV stouts in July and August while supporting righteous causes like Black PDX, The Okra Project, Black United Fund of Oregon, Don’t Shoot Portland, Black Resilience Fund, many local city chapters of the NAACP and many more causes that you can read about in full detail here.

Black Is Beautiful did more than raise thousands of dollars. It sparked needed conversation. It changed the game. The effects of this collab will be felt for decades to come as people of color find more opportunities for professional and personal growth within a beer community full of equity, equality and love. And that is beautiful. - MICHAEL PEROZZO

BEST MOST CRUSHING LOSS

Bailey’s Taproom / The Upper Lip

Running a pub or restaurant is never easy, and 2020 added back-breaking burdens to the task. In a business sector that already has a high failure rate, it's not surprising that some of them have close, and even now, there are several more that are in severe trouble. Some of them are still surviving; if braving the elements is a sign of support, then The BeerMongers, Horse Brass Pub, Belmont Station, Saraveza, N.W.I.P.A, and Roscoe's (to name but a few) have all faced the headwinds and committed to the task. But yes, there have been closures too.

It's not been announced as permanent, but the downtown corner of SW Broadway and Ankeny has never looked so forlorn as when Bailey's and sister pub the Upper Lip decided to shut down. It's supposed to be temporary, but for the time being, two of Portland's best beer-drinking venues are out of commission. There is some compensation in that there is common ownership with Level Brewing in far Northeast Portland, but Bailey's was legendary for its series of annual events, and its dedication to getting one-offs and specialties that were just about impossible to find anywhere else. The Upper Lip was also a great venue for tasting super-rare specialty beers, and featured not just a superb draft lineup, but a great chilled bottle selection for on-premises consumption. It was a place for bottle shares on a quiet evening, and for good beers with friends just about any time. In an era when it's tougher than ever to just go out for a beer, Bailey's and the Upper Lip stand out as two venues that are strongly missed, even if only for the time being - however long that might be. - DON SCHEIDT

BEST PANDEMIC PIVOT

Old Town Brewing / Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider

Even with stiff competition from Alesong Brewing & Blending’s pivot into organic farming with Kalesong, Old Town Brewing and Reverend Nat’s one-two punch of first to market home delivery service and the grassroots community supported Drive-Thru Brewers Market takes the cake.

When Oregon governor Kate Brown ordered all on-premise service at bars and restaurants shut down in March, Reverend Nat’s and Old Town Brewing were the first to pivot into home delivery and the first to combine more than one brand into one service. By teaming up they offer a more diverse lineup of offerings that was quickly adopted by others. Taking that collaborative model even further, Old Town Brewing debut the Drive-Thru Brewers Market in May with 8 breweries and cideries that rotated in more pacific northwest brands as the event evolved each weekend. During a time where many felt unsafe even going into a small retail store, the Drive Thru Brewers Market offered the options of a beer fest and some of the community as well. All achieved without leaving your car, or the inside of your own home. - EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

WORST BEER CASUALTY OF 2020

Fresh Hop Volatile Substance

Possibly the beer I was most looking forward to in 2020 was a victim of the Oregon wildfires that claimed so much. Losing a beer may be a minor thing compared to those that lost lives and homes, but it’s also a reminder of just how much climate change has affected every aspect of our lives. 

Fresh Hop Volatile Substance was a surprise smash hit in 2019 when it crushed the competition at the Oregon Beer Awards in the fresh hop category. It was the first time that Von Ebert Brewing had made a fresh hop version of their regular Volatile Substance, a beer that is always great and had just previously won a gold medal at the North American Beer Awards. The fresh hop version accomplished everything most brewers hope to gain from using undried hops, taking the aromatic and flavor up to 11 with just the right amount of lush “green” flavors while amplifying the dank and tropical notes of the Mosaic hops used. 

This year Fresh Hop Volatile Substance was set to be released in 16oz cans because of the pandemic, the hops were brought in the same day as harvest from Coleman Farms in Woodburn, OR. Driving through the wildfire, it was more of a race than usual to use the fresh hops before they began to degrade. Unfortunately, that couldn’t save the hops from the smoke. 

Brewer Sam Pecoraro recalled the fresh Mosaics smelled better than even last years batch, but after the beer had begun finishing it’s fermentation they noticed something was off. An ashy, peaty cigar-like flavor began to develop in the beer and even after conditioning it remained, testing at hop science labs confirmed it and the beer had to be dumped. A true casualty of the situation, Fresh Hop Volatile Substance was a beer we waited for with baited hop breath throughout the hop harvest this year but was sadly not to be. - EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

MOST UNDERRATED OREGON BREWERY OF THE YEAR

Yachats Brewing (Yachats, OR)

Located along the quaint tiny stretch of highway 101 right along the coast is the town of Yachats, and there you will find a gorgeously rustic taproom that houses the town's namesake brewery. During normal times, Yachats Brewing is a perfect place to stop while traveling up or down the Oregon coast. Their food - which often uses local ingredients - is artfully crafted and is definitely among the more unique and quality culinary offerings between Newport and Florence. But the real star of the show is their beer. Though they brew in fairly small batches and are not among the more buzzy breweries in the state, Yachats has been quietly turning out a range of impressive beers in their five-year existence. Most people think of de Garde when they think of sour beers on the Oregon coast, but Yachats makes sours that are worth seeking out, from their Stonefield Flanders style red ale to Salal Sour mixed-culture saison brewed with berries of the same name. They also brew truly solid takes on stouts, IPAs, and lagers using premium ingredients from around the Northwest. Some of these beers have even been getting packaged into cans in the last year or so, meaning that you don't have to go to Yachats to get their beer, although it is certainly worth the trip. Focusing on quality, placing equal attention on unique offers and on classic styles, and a humble, unfussy approach to their business makes Yachats Brewing the underrated brewery of the year. - NEIL FERGUSON.

MOST UNDERRATED WASHINGTON BREWERY OF THE YEAR

Stemma Brewing (Bellingham, WA)

In 2020, many Washington breweries emerged from the shadows or took great strides in capturing the imagination and palates of the Pacific Northwest beer scene. Before we reveal our pick for Most Underrated Washington Brewery of 2020, we'll tip our hat to Sig Brewing as the impressive new kids on the block, Fortside Brewing for their ever-expanding funky boi program, Headless Mumby for outstanding lagers, Spada Farmhouse Brewery for a top-notch wild fermentation program, and Varietal Beer Co. for being impressively well-rounded and ground-breaking.

All of the above up-and-coming breweries were considered, but one seemed to slip under the radar despite producing consistently high-quality exciting IPAs, clean lagers, and traditional styles in remarkably memorable packaging. That's Bellingham, Washington's own Stemma Brewing Co.

This writer's first initiation to Stemma's beers was via a collaboration called The Cat's Out Of The Bag with Brothers Cascadia Brewing in the summer of 2019. Turns out the family-run brewery has roots in SW Washington as brewer and owner, Jason Harper, grew up in the region just north of Portland. The Cat's Out Of The Bag was a delightfully subtle hazy IPA with guava. It wasn't until a year later that a new beer slingin' company called Packmule would begin to drop Stemma beers around the State of Washington regularly. That's when beers like Blood Orang D'Haze, Citra Single Hop IPA, CD9 Hazy IPA, It's A Double, and other canned offerings were enjoyed at a more frequent clip. Each more impressive and eye-opening than the last.

Did you feel that? That's the foreboding sensation we're getting that we'll hear a lot more about Stemma Brewing Co. in 2021. - MICHAEL PEROZZO.

FRESH HOP BREWER OF THE YEAR

Stormbreaker Brewing

In a typical year, fresh hop season finds breweries around the Northwest offering the majority of their fresh hop beers exclusively on tap with a handful being packaged, but this year has been anything but typical and many breweries were determined to make fresh hop season - maybe the most exciting time of year for the Northwest craft beer scene - happen as normally as possible. Much to the delight of beer drinkers, breweries adapted by packaging more fresh hop beers than ever, mostly in cans. Here at the New School, we tasted our way through a slew of fresh hop beers and were ultimately blown away by how many packaged offerings there were, despite the circumstances. Out of all of the breweries that rolled with the punches and stepped it up for this year's fresh hop season, the standout was Portland's Stormbreaker. Dropping a whopping seven fresh hop beers - most of which were packaged - Stormbreaker takes the cake for quantity AND quality. From their Citra Fresh Hop Mississippi Red and hazy, Mosaic-hopped House Martell to their Handfuls of Fresh Hops West Coast IPA and their Fresh Hop Cloud Ripper, Stormbreaker delivered an impressive range of fresh hop beers that showed a mastery of translating that "greenness" into several different styles of beer with each one tasting better than the next. Other breweries had some real fresh hop beauties, but Stormbreaker deserves the accolade for knocking every offering out of the park. - NEIL FERGUSON

BEST OF CENTRAL OREGON

Crux Fermentation Project

Selecting the safest brewery in Central Oregon is difficult because all our Central Oregon breweries are doing a phenomenal job with adhering to COVID mandates. One brewery does stand out. Crux Fermentation Project has been able to be very fluid with their constantly changing services. They are continually modifying their COVID safety strategies to adhere to ever changing mandates. When Crux reopened after the first official shutdown during this pandemic, they had some flaws in their setup and processes, like bottlenecks upon exiting the property and people unable to keep social distancing at the beer ordering stations. They quickly switched gears and rectified those issues within days. Each mandate change has no doubt been challenging, but Crux has been able to take their punches like a champ. They have plenty of space outdoors, and several firepits to keep you warm while maintaining social distancing. It feels safe, and they have fantastic beer. - HEIDI HOWARD

BEST OF THE VALLEY

Coldfire Brewing

Oregon’s Willamette Valley and Lane County is some of the most fertile ground for craft brewers. Perhaps it’s the water, or perhaps it’s the school of fermentation at Oregon State University or the thirsty students at University of Oregon, or the steady hand of guidance from 20+ year old pioneers like McKenzie River Brewing, Oregon Trail Brewing and late legends like Wild Duck Brewing and Siletz Brewing.

Choosing one best brewery of the valley is a fools errand with world-class choices like Alesong Brewing & Blending and Block 15, both of which produced as good of beers as anyone this year. Settling on Coldfire Brewing as our best of the valley is an acknowledgement of a new power on the block that has emerged from the looming shadow of some of their more well known peers like Oakshire Brewing and Ninkasi.

Slowly, studiously, with their heads to the grindstone, the Eugene based brewery went down the list of favorite beer genres and styles and crossed each off the list as they mastered them. For some, it might appear as if Coldfire Brewing emerged onto the scene in the past year fully formed like Brad Pitt or Stewie. For those that have been paying attention, it’s been a steady upwards trojectory that started with the basics and made it’s way up through European styles, through foeder mixed culture wild ales, dived down into modern American and Southern Hemisphere hops, and checked the last box over an Italian-style Pilsner. - EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH

BEST OREGON TAPROOM

Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom - SE Division

Imperial Bottleshop & Taproom started delivery within days of public gathering spots shutting down in March. Offering draft and package, owners Shawn Stackpoole took orders by telephone, while Alex Kurnellas delivered beer, cider and anything else in the room that could be sold. While many taprooms added delivery service, Imperial started hustling immediately and hasn't let up. They made "Road Soda," packages, that allowed customers to get a set amount of beers from Astoria, Mcminnville and beyond. 

Always committed to fundraising for local non profits, Imperial continued raising money and awareness through vintage beer sales and targeted campaigns.

Upon the first reopening of seated services, Shawn and Alex put out tables and eventually had some tents up, but went even further with specific retail collaborations. Partnering with peanut dealers, cheese makers, and tattoo artists, customers have a unique experience while enjoying craft beer and cider. Eventually the full bottle and can inventory went online, making ordering even easier.

After celebrating their 7th Anniversary on SE Division and the temperature declining, reservation only Chalets were erected. Continuing the Imperial creativity, imbibers get a semi private experience that isn't like any other outdoor drinking experience around. The second location on NE Alberta added Gluh Bar during the holiday season. A pop up taking reservations and slinging hot mulled beverages was the first of its kind in the area.

The large draft list, backed up with bottles stocked by knowledgeable owners and unique taproom experiences keeps Imperial going.

-NICOLE KASTEN

BEST OREGON BOTTLE SHOP

John’s Marketplace SE Powell

John's Marketplace opened a second location in inner southeast Portland on Powell blvd. just in time for a summer calm before the COVID storm kicked up again. It quickly cemented itself as a new metro area staple. At first, it may have seemed like a risky move, but with a good location, parking lot, and buying power, the shopping experience feels made for the pandemic.

The first location on SW Multnomah has been moving craft beer since before it was even called, "craft beer." The recognizable name puts people at ease and the accessibility of SE Powell has even more people running to shop in a comfortable environment. John's Marketplace has stocked the SE Powell location with expected year around staples, but gets almost every seasonal beer from as many breweries, cideries and distributors as possible. Because of the large store and layout, sellers are able to do grocery store style merchandising on end caps. Features like changing displays move more beer, which increases John's Marketplace buying power, then turns into a large, fresh selection for customers. There have been a few bottles from out of state that were exclusively sent to the SE Powell bottle shop.

Sharing the block with some of the best food carts around, like Jojo and Holy Trinity BBQ, makes it even more fun to choose John's Marketplace on SE Powell. Shopping for a bottle or two while your food is being prepared is pretty damn convenient.

The store decor and overall theme is contemporary, but the convenience of parking, running in and grabbing a beer for any occasion feels traditional. - NICOLE KASTEN.

WORST NEW TREND

Complaining

Well, this was a tough one. From the "keep your brewery out of politics" Karens to the myriad side effects of Covid-19 on beer-related businesses (including this one), there's a lot we could have done without this year. And while this particular idiosyncrasy has existed for at least two decades, it's time to give it some air and let it blow away. It's time to stop shouting "that's not real beer!" This is the 21st Century, and we should know by now that, so far, it's not a "real" century. It is a distillation of humankind's misdeeds and fears displayed on small, reflective screens. Let smoothie beers glorp into their globular vases; let haze bros trade lactose futures; let stout become an actual candy bar. We need this. That pink, mucoid, lactic sludge sold to former Pog collectors might just be what keeps the brewery solvent and able to produce beer you like as well. But if you're so myopic that a neon can label has you seeing red, get your head checked. Relax, don't worry, have a crispy boi. - AARON BRUSSAT.

BEST NEW TREND

More Patios!

Of the many subtle differences between drinking in Europe versus the U.S., the patio is perhaps the most visible. Rather than an ersatz appendage and source of city-coded red tape, outdoor seating at European pubs is de rigueur, to the point where heavy blankets may be provided on chilly days. Of the many not-so-subtle ways the pandemic rearranged our drinking habits, the adaptation of parking lots, street parking, and sidewalk space to airy, socially distant, occasionally stylish drinking spaces was a welcome change that we hope lasts long after we can clink glasses again. - AARON BRUSSAT

BEST COVID SAFE PATIO

TIE: Migration Rooftop @ Canvas and the Gorges Beer Co. “Rainbow Road”

One of these patios gave us lowly beer nerds a chance to hover above the rest of the unwashed masses with pint in hand, and the other gave us the opportunity to wade into the streets with the people. 

Choosing between the two was like apples and oranges, or to put it into beer geek terms it was like choosing between hazy clouds of IPA or clear vistas of classic west coast IPA. Both capitalized on the weather as well as the hops, Migration’s downtown Portland rooftop at the Canvas building project offered a slick polished and glassy setting with views of downtown and the southwest hills. Gorges Beer Co. was peak weird Portland, street seating along the closed NE Ankeny Ave. with tons of neighborhood people watching off of the busy 28th street and in the middle of a busy biking corridor. 

At Migration’s Rooftop at the Canvas you could sip a GABF medal winning Mo-Haze-Ic while watching the sunset and pretend like the world wasn’t burning around you. At Gorges you can order food from next door and beer and cocktails brought to your table without ever interacting with another human thanks to the locally developed Porter app. While the Migration rooftop is now closed, it may return again next year. Gorges Beer and the so-called ankeny promenade on “rainbow road” is still open, but not quite as vibrant and with fewer hours and options then it had during better weather. Hopefully both patios will be in full on glory as we emerge from the pandemic.  - EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH

HONORABLE MENTIONS: TopWire Hop Project, Bent Shovel Beer Garden, and Baerlic Super Secret Beer Garden

BEST NEW PANDEMIC PACKAGING

Rosenstadt Brewery and Montavilla Brew Works

This past year is notable in the brewing world for far too many unpleasant things. A big one is the collapse of the draft beer segment. Bars and taprooms have had to endure lockdown-induced closures, restrictions on capacity, and other strict limits on business. Volumes of beer served fresh on tap in glasses served across the bar have dropped steeply, and for the time being, there's no clear end in sight.

Easy-peasy to solve, right? Yes, packaged beer, in bottles and cans, is where beer retail is doing the majority of its business during our plague-ridden era. That's fine if your brewery was already shipping significant volumes of packaged product. Otherwise, it's time to re-think the whole business model and get ready to pivot in a big way. And this year, at least two breweries have moved from almost all product packaged in kegs to cans and bottles. Give it up, please, for Portland's Montavilla Brew Works and Rosenstadt Brewing.

At this time, a year ago, you went to Montavilla Brew Works' taproom in its eponymous neighborhood for a draft, and, often enough, friendly chats with owner Michael Kora or the rest of his friendly and hard-working crew. Packaging was something you took away from the pub, mainly growler fills and the like. Plans for packaged beer were in the works, but business was good, and on sunny days, there was also the bonus of a beer garden; packaging was limited to a few seasonal bottled specialty beers. Then came the lockdown in March 2020, followed up by re-opening but with strict limitations on seating capacity. Kora decided to keep seating capacity to zero, ramping up packaging instead, mostly in cans. You can still step into the taproom's front entrance, where a stand is set up for to-go sales only, fresh cans in the cooler awaiting purchase by fans of the brewery's wide range of beers.

Rosenstadt Brewing also was a draft-only brewery a year ago, and also ran into a near-total collapse of its keg business in March 2020. Olympia Provisions operated as a de-facto taproom for Rosenstadt's beers, featuring a full range on tap at its pub-restaurant on SE Division Street, until the taps went quiet in March, not just at Olympia Provisions, but everywhere. Overnight, Rosenstadt's very existence was imperiled, but owners Tobias Hahn and Nick Greiner rose up to the challenge, and Rosenstadt introduced beers, one at a time, in bottles. It started simply enough, with Rosenstadt Helles lager introduced into the retail chain, especially at the beer specialist shops. The ramp-up has continued, even after capacity-limited re-opening was allowed again; all of the Olympia Provisions parking lot is now taken up by outdoor drinking spaces, with cover from tents, but the pivot to bottling has kept the brewery going.

Lest we forget, there were plenty of other breweries with substantial draft business and taprooms who were already packaging in cans and bottles (and sometimes, crowlers), and make no mistake about it, just about all of them are keeping their heads above the waterline like this. The names are legion: Occidental, Little Beast, Zoiglhaus, Baerlic, Heater Allen, Pfriem, Ferment, Block 15, Wolves and People, Ex Novo, Hair of the Dog, Wayfinder, Upright, and so many more are competing for space on shelves in specialty retailers and grocers like Market of Choice and Whole Foods, as well as at their own taprooms - or more accurately, their own taprooms re-purposed as retail storefronts.

This hasn't worked out for every brewer in the state. Portland's Grixsen closed its doors, and there are still significant struggles. The McMenamins brewpub chain offers canned beers, too, but McMenamins operates in its own self-contained business model; their beers are brewed exclusively for sale at their own pubs and restaurants, and canned McMenamins beers are not in the general retail outlets. The McMenamins pubs relied heavily on their on-premises draft beer trade, and that's a fraction of its former volume. The pub and brewery chain has issued a plea for easing of dining restrictions. Not everyone has the same options for repositioning their business models, but for Montavilla and Rosenstadt, things are working out ... so far. - DON SCHEIDT.

BEST TOUCHLESS OR ONLINE PURCHASING SYSTEM

Great Notion App

2020 has been somewhat revolutionary for the craft beer industry, with breweries stepping up in a big way to give their customers beer in a safe and efficient, not to mention convenient, manner. We have seen local delivery and even delivery to other states in some cases, as well as quick pick-up and curbside options. Making this all possible has been the functionality of each brewery's online ordering system. Most breweries never offered this service pre-pandemic - relying instead on foot traffic inside their taprooms - but being able to have a smooth and often contactless ordering process has proven essential to small brewers being able to keep their beer releases moving along at a steady clip. By now, you have probably tried online ordering through a handful of breweries with varying degrees of ease, and while most of them have done a perfectly good job creating user-friendly ordering, it's hard to compete with an app. To be fair, most breweries don't have the demand to warrant the investment in developing and maintaining a decent app, but Great Notion does. Coinciding with their rapid expansion that has seen taprooms opening in Beaverton as well as Georgetown and Ballard in Seattle, Great Notion stepped up to the plate in a big way with their new app. Gone are the days of standing in line - now you can get notifications the second a new release drops, which is usually multiple times a week. You can also order beer for delivery and even pick up merch, all while earning points that take you to new character levels and get you some sweet perks. If Great Notion's app was poorly designed then all of this would be moot, but they actually took the time to do it well and give their legions of hazy IPA, tart ale and monstrously sweet stout-loving fanboys the best possible user experience. The only downside? Trying to resist the urge to waste a ton of money and snatch up every single release. - NEIL FERGUSON.

BEST BEER AND FOOD TAKEOUT

Ecliptic Brewing and pFriem Family Brewers

2020 will go down in history as a terrible year for the hospitality industry, and brewpubs that are as much about grabbing a bit to eat as downing a pint, have been hit hard. Some of the better food-and-beer venues in town have pretty much given up on the food side for the time being. Wayfinder has pretty much pivoted to selling beer, mostly in cans, but those tasty sandwiches and dinner platters are not part of the deal now. Hair of the Dog's kitchen is dark, as is its taproom; it's strictly a bottles-to-go operation now, maybe with the possibility of getting a keg filled.

First came the shutdown, then limited re-opening, with widely spread tables indoors and more spaced-out tables outside. It worked during the warmer months, but then came another lockdown and increasing case counts of covid-19, and indoor dining is on hold again for the time being. Patio dining is challenging in colder weather, even with some cover and heaters; your burger and fries, fresh from the kitchen, will not stay pleasantly warm for long. So of course, the other alternative is for kitchens to offer to-go menus, and maybe those dinners will get home in time to still be warm, or at worst, spend a few minutes in a warming oven, microwave optional.

So the good news here is that the food takeout options are abundant. You can go to standbys like Roscoe's, Saraveza, or the the Tiny Bubble Room; the Horse Brass is offering food to go. Tabor Tavern, Swift and Union, Arrowood, all have good pub eats to take away to the comfort of one's home bubble. Ecliptic Brewing? Check. Breakside? Get in mah belly! Pfriem and Ferment in Hood River, too. Block 15 in Corvallis. The list goes on. McMenamins pubs too, but they're not doing well and want the rules changed to allow for use of indoor spaces in a safe manner.

And for those venues that feature cart pods, even better: Baerlic's Beer Hall and Barley Pod, Level Brewing with food trucks parked right outside, and John's Market Powell all rock it. In a tough time for any business in the hospitality industry, food carts have found themselves on a more equal footing with their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Nobody can go inside for a bite to eat. Makeshift outdoor dining spaces and curbside beer gardens are the norm. It's either that, or take everything home and, probably, reheat it at least a little to get it back to serving temperature.

So who to give credit to for recommendations of food and beer to take out? For breweries with their own food and beer operations, I'm going to go with Ecliptic in Portland, and Pfriem in Hood River. They weathered a season of outdoor dining as well as possible, then pivoted and offered good to-go options. For taprooms and bars that also have food to offer, Roscoe's still has its classic Cajun-inspired food and a good selection of beer on tap, plus some bottles and cans to take home and a Japanese restaurant right next door. For a taproom with a cart pod, it's hard to beat John's Market on SE Powell, not least because Holy Trinity offers good Texas-style barbecue five days a week. - DON SCHEIDT.