Jeff W.
Yelp
One of my favorite small breweries in Portland, Montavilla is always a good choice for either a place to stop or a beer to drink. Small and cozy, the taproom is also the brew room is also the merchandise room is also the office. It's a good thing they've got on tap in some of the better taprooms around Portland, because they couldn't possibly sell enough beer from this location to make it work. It'd be shoulder to shoulder six days a week.
Several barrel-aged variations are on hand, on rotation along with a regular and seasonal assortment of small-batch beer. On any given day you can talk to the very man responsible for making the beer you're drinking, or more likely bend the ear of a local character. Other brewers are known to stop in with samples, but don't expect to get a taste...unless you beg loudly. And point out that you've got their stickers on your bike. It works. Sometimes.
Just down the street from another one of Portland's 'top' beer bars, in a small tan building on the corner of an odd cross-street, Montavilla brewing is all stuffed into the front half of the building, with large rolling garage doors offering access to the street and the fenced-in patio. I expect the patio to be popular in the summer months, since it's shaded by the brewery building itself, and private enough to have a conversation with friends without spilling your secrets to the underbelly of Portland. Not that you'd expect any of the other customers to spill those secrets, as it's an older crowd (middle aged? Ehhh?). This reflects the quality of the beer, I believe, anbd the owner's commitment to solid, proven technique.
If you can't make the brewery, at least try some of the beers, found on tap locally at a number of populat beer bars...