New Loyal Legion Beer Hall Serves 99 Oregon-Made Brews

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Ilene Style, GoLocalPDX Guest Contributor

If you are a fan of Oregon craft beers, then I have some fabulous news for you: the Loyal Legion Beer Hall is open. A massive drinking establishment the LLBH will serve only Oregon-made beers — 99 of them! Yes, Loyal Legion will have 99 taps dedicated to Oregon suds, along with some ciders and meads as well, and a grand total of TWO wines - a red and a white - also on tap. This 120-seat bar will have the largest selection of Oregon beers in the world. Since Oregon is the Capital of American Craft Beer, this place is a local beer lover's dream come true!

Me and my husband, Milt, were lucky enough to get invited to the grand opening preview party last night, where we learned more about this no doubt soon-to-be-outrageously-popular hangout. The bar is named after the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen Employment Services, an old logger's union employment agency. In additional to the 99 (mostly) beers on draft, food will be provided by Olympic Provisions, one of the top meat purveyors and butcher shops in Portland. The menu will be on the sausage-heavy side, with 9 different varieties offered, all cooked in beer, of course. There will be a few other beer-friendly items on the menu, like burgers, German pretzels, potato salad, fries, and oddly, a kale salad. (Clearly one can't open a restaurant these days without including kale somewhere on the menu.)

The menu pricing at Loyal Legion is super easy. Everything is 6 bucks. Yup, all the beer and all the food. Well, most of the food. The kale salad is $9. Who would order that here, anyway? You got tolove this kind of pricing simplicity on a menu. The other thing you will love is the "no tipping" policy. Yes, you heard me correctly. There is no tipping allowed here on food or drink. That's because the bartenders make $18/hour, well above the going rate. And these well-paid "beer-tenders" are also very well educated. All bartenders at Loyal Legion must be Cicerone-certified. Cicerone is a professional certification in the beer world, similar to a sommelier's certification in the world of wine. And believe me, you might very well need some professional assistance to guide you through the maze of 99 beers on draft to help you find the perfect one to satisfy your thirst and your mood.

If you come to visit Portland, and want to try some local brewskies, the is the place you should go. And even if you DON'T like beer (I myself was never a big fan of the stuff until I moved to Oregon), chances are you might just find one you like here. Loyal Legion will feature suds from Oregon's largest breweries as well as its tiniest ones. At the preview party, I drank a pint of Pfriem Wit, and Milt had a Royale Visitor Red Ale.

In case you are curious about the other 97 beers on the menu, here is a list of their opening night taps:

Boneyard BoneLight, Breakside Lunchbreak, Fort George 3-Way, Boneyard RPM, Hop Valley Citrus Mistress, Barley Brown’s Pallet Jack, Pfriem Down Under IPA, Fat Head Stout, Breakside Wanderlust, Silver Moon Mango Daze, Barley Brown’s WFO, Block 15 Kolsh, Crux 1/2 Hitch, Boneyard Hop Venom, Gigantic Ginormous, Boneyard Bone A Fide, Yachats CDA, Pfriem CDA, Gigantic Pipewrench, Ecliptic Blackberry Sour, Ninkasi Lux, Breakside Pilsner, Heater Allen Pilsner, Arch Rock Lager, Burnside Sunsplash, Oakshire Lardo Lager, Hop Valley Light Me Up, Old Town Kolsch, Claim 52 Kolsch, Yachats Pale, Hop Valley Sir Orange A Lot, Pelican Kiwanda Cream, Goodlife Sweet As, Oakshire Stone Free, Royale Fat Unicorn, Barley Brown’s Hand Truck, Crux Nitro Off The Fence, Occidental Hefe, Barley Brown’s Coyote Peak Wheat, Upright 4, Hopworks Non-Stop Hefe, Oakshire Amber, Hopworks Nitro ESB, Rogue Nut Brown, Baerlic Brown, Lompoc Nitro Red, Ecliptic Hyper Nova, Royale The Visitor Red, Breakside Oui Chef, Two Kilts Scottish, MacPelican Scottish, Gigantic Saboteur, 3 Creeks Chocolate Porter, Caldera Pilot Rock Porter, Ecliptic Capella Porter, Oakshire Glens Hop Vice, Crux Nitro Stout, Double Mt. Nitro Black Irish Stout, Agrarian Belgian, Barley Brown’s Breakfast Stout, Ninkasi Vanilla Oatis, Ninkasi Critical Hit, Gigantic Massive, Breakside Tropicalia, Logsdon Saizoen Bretta, Commons Myrtle, Flat Tail Little Green Dry Hopped, Fort George Quick Wit, Pfriem Strong Blonde, Crux Double Cross, Occidental Dunkel, Occidental Alt, Peche N Brett 2013, Pints/Hot Lips Grapefruit Radler, Breakside Fortunella, Commons Cerise Noir, Breakside Peach Sour, Logsdon Cerasus, Agrarian The Story Of Gose, 10 Barrel Cucumber crush, Cascade Blueberry, Laurelwood Gose, 2 Towns Ginga Ninja, Hub Cider, Rev Nat’s Hallelujah Hopricot, Portland Perfect Perry, Atlas Blackberry, Blue Dog Green Collar, Nectar Creek Peach, Alter Ego Blueberry Pome, Hi Wheel Lime Habanero, Hi Wheel Ginger Lemon, Ground Breaker IPA #5, 2 Towns Made Marion, Coopers Hall Cascadia White, Coopers Hall Applegate Red Blend, Hop Valley Light me up, Hop valley Sir orange a lot, Boneyard Bone lite, Boneyard RPM, Oakshire Lards lager, Burnside Sunsplash Kolsch, Ninkasi Lux, Pints/Hot lips Radler, Hi Wheel Lime Habanero, Hi Wheel Lemon Ginger, Atlas Blackberry Cider, Nectar Creek Peach...Thirsty yet? Cheers!

Related Slideshow: The 7 Strangest Beers Around

Prev Next

#7

Upright Brewing Oyster Stout

Oyster Stout sounds strange, right? Just imagine your stout with a salty kick and a mineral taste at the end. It turns out to be very flavorful, time tested concoction. Locally, Upright Brewing makes a tasty one in their seasonal portfolio and looks like it will be released shortly after the first of the year.

Prev Next

#6

Rogue Ales Beard Beer

While most beer is brewed with carefully cultivated yeast strains, there are any number of wild yeasts that can be used, though this one is decidedly the strangest. Somehow Rogue Brewer John Maier “discovered” a natural yeast ideal for brewing in his beard. Yuck. Stylistically, an “American Wild Ale, if you are really interested in trying it yourself, you can buy a bottle here.

Prev Next

#5

Wynkoop Brewery Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout

What started – and should have ended – as an April Fools’ Day prank led to the release of Wynkoop Brewery’s Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. They only sell it in two packs. Get it? I won’t suggest where you might buy this one, dear reader, because I like you and would not do that to you.

Prev Next

#4

Rogue Ales Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale

Rogue Ales Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale has been on the market for a while and is ubiquitous in Portland, as are the other mistakes they brewed to taste like Portland’s biggest tourist trap’s products. Good for Rogue for hopping on the tourist bandwagon by partnering with Voodoo Doughnuts on this uniquely Portland beer. This beer drinker has to admit that drinking this beer forced me to admit that not everything is actually better with bacon.

Prev Next

#3

Evil Twin Turkish Delight

Me: What does Turkish Delight taste like?

Beer store clerk: Um, it tastes like Turkish Delight.

Me: Um, okay. What is Turkish Delight?

Clerk: Just try it.

Tastes like put coffee and cardamom in my darker ale. Nuff said? I’m not chomping at the bit to try either Turkish Delight or the Evil Twin’s Turkish Delight beer again. It is available locally at Belmont Station if you are interested.

Prev Next

#2

Bison Brewing Organic Gingerbread Ale

Ginger. Nutmeg. Cinnamon. No I’m not talking about a dessert or even a hot beverage but Bison Brewing’s Organic Gingerbread Ale. Somehow, it works to create a great flavored porter. Yum. Rumor has it that John’s Market still has a few sixers of this one left.

Prev Next

#1

Rogue Ales Sriracha Stout

Apparently 2014 was the Year of the Rooster, with millions more discovering Sriracha, a simple staple in Vietnamese restaurants (and a product that has stayed stocked in my fridge since at least 2005). Never one to miss hopping on a bandwagon, Rogue Ales brewed a stout with it. Shocking, right? It tastes exactly like you’d expect: like someone pranked you by sneaking some hot sauce into your otherwise tasty stout when you went to the loo. The only place to find this gem is at Rogue Hall until more is released after the first of the year.