It took me about 15 minutes into the Hood River Orchard and Ale Festival to realize I wanted to pay the extra $12 for an actual glass. It wasn’t because I wanted a souvenir to commemorate the inaugural event in Oregon; and it was only partially due to my beer-snobbish tendency to want to sip my brew from proper glassware. Mostly, I wanted a hefty tulip that wouldn’t blow away.
The festival was held on the waterfront of the Columbia River, ancient carver of the Columbia River Gorge, a canyon decorated with roaring waterfalls, babbling streams, lush rainforest, and breathtakingly scenic overlooks of the mountains and valleys—not to mention some of the best breweries in North America. The gorge is also something of a wind tunnel, and on that day, a crisp and steady early-October gust was pulling wetsuit-clad windsurfers and kiteboarders on the water, as well as blowing over trash cans and carrying off plastic tasting cups on the nearby event grounds.
The setting is more than just a backdrop for the legendary beer that springs forth from this place—it’s the source. Brewers here draw their water not from the river, but from the Hood River watershed, which comes from snowmelt in the 14,000-foot Cascade Mountains, filtered through volcanic basalt rock to create a soft, clean base rich with minerals. Throw in some of the freshest hops in the world from the nearby Willamette Valley and you have a formula for something truly special.
It’s no surprise, then, that the relatively tiny town, just over 8,000 strong, might have the most quality beer per capita of any place on Earth. Every day in Hood River is a veritable beer fest. Start just feet from this blustery riverfront at pFriem Family Brewers, a regional powerhouse that emerged from this Gorge in 2012. At their riverside tasting room, you can get fresh-hopped versions of classic styles such as their refreshingly floral and crisp Pilsner or a magnificently bready Czech Dark Lager. Just a few doors down, grab some gorgeous gorge views from the broad open-air deck at Ferment Brewing Company, a more modern brewery that uses a farmhouse technique to capture the local terroir, as they do to fruity perfection in their Lost in Fragaria sour ale made with Oregon strawberries.
A little farther up the bluff, visit downtown’s legendary Full Sail Brewing Co., an OG craft brewer that unfurled its mast in 1987. While you can still enjoy a Willi Becher pint glass of classic, malty-spicy Full Sail Amber Ale, the establishment has evolved with the times and produces on-par West Coast and hazy IPAs. Just around the corner sits Double Mountain Brewery, a Hood River institution since 2007, where I enjoyed a tuna melt washed down with a citrusy Fresh Hop (Strata) Iowa Bar Fight IPA.
Also downtown are two new additions to the scene. Opened in 2023, Hood River Brewing Company is a pleasant stop with an eclectic selection of brews. I opted for a rich Fiesta Mexican Amber Lager, with a smooth caramel finish. And in 2025, Kings & Daughters Brewery launched an elegant public house dubbed The Walled Garden, which offers a nice selection of hazy IPAs and lighter lagers.
But for (in my opinion) some of the best lagers in town, head to the top of the hill to Working Hands Fermentation. In addition to a renowned smash burger, this operation specializes in the bottom fermenters, and I could not say no to the Night Shift Schwarzbier, a light-bodied dark lager with a hint of smokiness.
All of this was packed into less than two full days in town—a brief but unforgettable experience before I followed the river west, through the Gorge, back to Portland.
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