Skiing or snowboarding on Mount Hood is one of Oregon’s great winter pleasures. Unfortunately, you can only skid around on cold, slippery stuff for a few hours each day. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite spots for après-ski of Mount Hood brews, when you’re tired, shivery and in desperate need of a winter warmer.
Ram’s Head Bar at Timberline Lodge
If Mount Hood isn’t a weekly destination for you, then screw up your courage to brave the crowds and get a table at Timberline Lodge’s Ram’s Head Bar. The circular, second-floor balcony in a historic building offers stunning 360-degree views of Mount Hood and a tap list exclusively from local Mt. Hood Brewing Co.
Alpenstube Restaurant at Mt. Hood Meadows
Coincidentally, Mount Hood’s busiest ski resort also has one of the best bang-for-your-buck après-ski offerings. Why sit in your car for 45 minutes to get out of the Sunrise Lot, when you could be munching on turbo tots and sipping an Everybody’s Brewing lager from the well-curated and proudly local beer list?
Crooked Tree Tavern at Cooper Spur Mountain Resort
This quiet, family-friendly resort offers one of the best dining experiences on the mountain. Almost everything you eat or drink at the Crooked Tree was sourced within 30 miles, from the meat and produce to the wine and beer. While the tap list rotates constantly, you can usually count on a selection from Ninkasi or Ground Breaker.
pFriem Family Brewers
This waterfront restaurant and brewery is one of the most popular places to stop and get dinner on the way back to Portland from Mount Hood. pFriem’s barrel-aged, Belgian-style beers are spiced, sweet and strong, just enough to power you through a plate of poutine or mussel and fries before making the drive home.
Double Mountain Brewery and Taproom
On blustery, whiteout days when ice crusts on your goggles, cheer yourself with another type of crust: the perfect char on Double Mountain’s wood-fired pizzas. Red sauce deserves a red beer, and the brewery’s complex, hoppy IRA (India red ale) is the perfect pick. If the Hood River taproom is too crowded, there is also a new Portland location.
Full Sail Brewing Co.
This spacious and bustling taproom is one of the few places in Hood River where you can catch views of the Columbia River and Mount Hood itself while you drink your beer. Look for seasonal offerings, like the Bourbon Cherry Rye aged in a rye bourbon barrels with Hood River cherries. Your pick might even be offered as a creamy nitro pour.
Solera Brewery
Located in tiny, sleepy Parkdale, Oregon, Solera boasts one of the most stunning brewery views in all of the Northwest. On a clear day, the close-ups of Mount Hood are breathtaking, as are the small-batch sours, tarts and Belgian-inspired beers. Look for fruit beers made with regional produce, such as the kriek made with local cherries.
This article originally ran in the print fall/winter 2018/19 edition of Sip Northwest. For the full story and more like it, click here.
