"The trick is getting to a spot at the bar,” he says, opting to reiterate, just in case. That's the trick."
A fellow in a green Henley is waiting his turn at Migration Brewing's side-room Annex, a floor full of beards, beers, and elbows as Portland brewers mingle on ordinarily competitive turf. Tonight, though, Migration has turned over the Annex taps to nine of its colleagues to raise money for the National Brain Tumor Society—and they've packed the house.
I'm pondering the cause, and Breakside Brewing's sour, frisky Carte Blanche, when I remember I'm taking up a spot myself. I pick up my two tasters and squeeze carefully out of the way.
—David Greenwald