Like many other Portlander’s, I was excited and highly anticipated the opening of Hopworks. There was a lot of look forward to… Pool hall, Pizza, 10 beers on tap, etc. Unfortunately, my first review finds the general quality was run-of-the-mill at best.
With a group of six, we arrived for lunch and some beers. The bar was empty and tables ½ full.
The building is clean with a modern industrial/garage built furnishings. The “Green” factor is a great idea, but seems to make some of the décor look kind of cheap and tree house-ish.
There’s a very sterile and cold, bar and pool area in the front of the building. The back and upstairs are eating and gaming areas with a cement porch off the back over looking…. Uhhh, houses?
Beer! My group manages to try all the beers on tap. Below is our general review of each and overall.
HUB Lager – Clean, crisp. Slight astringency. Little malt. Medium hop.
Cross Town Pale – Mild singular base malt character basically hidden by sharp hops notes. Aroma was hoppy but not pleasant, more vegetal. It too is clean and crisp. We found it uninspired and average at best.
Velvet ESB on Cask – Watery and flat. Thin on the palate with little malt or hop character.
IPA – Singular Malt base with no malt complexity. Hops were spicy and very pronounced. Clean and crisp. Just an average NW IPA, nothing more, nothing less.
DOA – Probably the best and most concise beer of the bunch. Moderate mouth feel and creamy texture with a nice complex malt character of caramel with a slight nuttiness and just a balance of hops. Very well balanced. A true English style ale.
Survival Stout – Perfect name for this beer! Try and survive this! While this beer has some interesting grains in the tun, they don’t really come through in the taste. Maybe a little texture and some acrid notes. It’s not very viscose, nor resembles a Stout. More of a Porter in Color and flavor, but even for a Porter it would be Brown Porter. Very little roast, chocolate or toast that can be perceived. While drinkable, it's not interesting enough to be called good or within style.
Seasonals
Bourbon Barrel IPA – Why? Maybe an oak barrel aged IPA, but a Bourbon Barrel IPA?! Oh well…. Not enough Bourbon Barrel character comes through and the barrel condition leaves the IPA a little rounder in flavors than the standard IPA. Not much else…..
Dobblebock – We were all waiting to try this brew! The color was quite on the light side for a Dobblebock as was the flavor and depth of malt flavor. At first we were trying to decide if it made the cut at a Bock which it could by strength, but the flavor was more in the Dunkle profile with the strength of a Bock. It’s drinkable and tasty, just not a Dobblebock.
Belgian Blonde (?) – Interesting. Blonde in color and quite sweet with fruity and bubblegum notes. Grassy wheat flavors with little to no hop character. The yeast profile is Belgian, but not very pronounced. Could be a good beer with more aging… It tastes kind of rushed…
Winter Warmer – Well…. There’s a trend in flavors on the standards beers, the flavor seem to all build off a base malt and almost a base beer is style. This would be the end of the line as a stronger standard. Possible going for a caramaly malt base with complex hopping, but kind ends up rather insipid.
Overall: We really wanted to like these beers, but in the end we were highly disappointed with the beers. Most tasted uninspired and corporate. Just standard ales at best. All clean, crisp and safe average brews. Even when the beers are trying to be interesting don’t deliver or dumb down the drinking audience with a Strong Dunkle(?) and calling it a Dobblebock or a grainy and acrid Porter and calling it a Stout. This is a town were beer can’t be just average or run of the mill, the public expects more than the corporate line….
Food and Service
Both were horrible and I didn’t even want to review, but I have to callem' as I see them!
Service was very slow and made 3 major errors.
1. Took 20 minutes to bring drinks and beer and never took our food order in between.
2. Brought the wrong order for two people.
3. When someone asked for a extra condiment, it never showed.
It was not busy, so there was no chance of being over worked or stressed.
The food was just BAD. Around our table was a menagerie of different choices. Pizza, Chicken sandwich, burger, pretzels, Sausage, Sub, etc.
Food review: The Pizza was OK. Somewhat resembles a NY pizza according to my New Jersey buddy in attendance, but the dough wasn’t quite crisp for a NY pizza and the sauce was a little muddy. Would have been even better if it was served above room temperature!
The Chicken Burger and Regular Burger suffered a similar fate. Both had totally burnt black buns and both meats were cooked beyond recognition. Dry and tasteless. Both served on plain WHITE pub buns. We expected a little extra effort for a nice home made Wheat or Multi grain or Spent Grain Buns for the burgers and sandwiches. Maybe as a option??
The Sub sounded great on the menu, but was so uninspired it was an embarrassment. The sandwich came on a plate with 2 pieces of Canadian Bacon and 2 pieces of Salami with lettuce, tomato, feta and rubbery provolone… It was flavorless and cheap looking. According the menu, it’s served on a Hoagie roll…. In all my travels, I’ve never known a Hoagie Roll to be the same as a basic Hot Dog bun, but there it was, a cheap count of lunch meat and rubbery cheese on a Hot Dog bun…. I had to laugh, it looked like someone’s mother had run out bread for her kid’s lunch and was scraping together a basic sandwich. For $9.50, I expect more than a couple pieces of lunchmeat on a Hot Dog bun!
The Sausage was reportedly good and served on the same Hot Dog bun as the sub…. ;-}
Overall review: Maybe another 6 months of planning might have helped?? The beers are uninspired, the service shoddy and the food below par…. For a town that knows it’s beers and likes to eat some decent food along the way; This place needs lots of help…. Maybe putting in a miniature golf course would help….. anything! :-O
2008 Keynote Speaker is Jim Koch!
