Recapping The Portland Vegan Beer and Food Festival

It was a beautiful late fall Saturday for the first annual Portland Vegan Food and Beer Festival. The setting is Zidell Shipyard under the shiny new Tilikum Crossing. The check in procedure was quick and effortless; we picked up our tiny glasses and went to investigate the beer.

The first thing that became very obvious was, vegan beer and beer beer is the same thing! Most of the beers poured at the event were common beers found in local bars and restaurants. The event was very well attended, and even though it was a vegan festival there were still many attendees wearing shirts stating that they were in fact vegan.

There were many vegan food stands selling a wide assortment of vegan food.  I had a Tofurky gumbo that was very satisfying in a tasty where’s the meat kind of way.

If you are in the mood for some vegan food and a choice of many vegan beers and the comradery of fellow vegans this event is for you. I would not recommend this event strictly on the merits of the beer being served. This may also be a great event to hook up, with unlimited beer everyone gets in the right frame of mind.

My only complaint about the event is that even though you get a 4 ounce tasting glass they are only filled with 2-3 ounces – this wasn’t barrel aged beer and it went down fast in the sun. This meant that you couldn’t enjoy the band while drinking a beer or enjoy food while drinking a beer because the beer glass was empty by the time you reached any of these locations. Really all you could do is enjoy it while you walked to the back of the line and waited again.

They did offer, for an additional $10.00, a pint glass to alleviate that problem but that extra cost tends to push the boundaries of acceptable pricing for this festival.