This week, Metroblogging sites around the globe are offering up gifts their city has given the world. Portland has thus far gifted The Simpsons, the Suicide Girls, Livejournal, Death with Dignity and Bob Packwood.

As the 6th gift to the world, Portland would like to share our little piece of happiness known as Beervana or Beertopia.

Like Seattle with its gift of coffee – Portland did not invent beer, nor did it invent the craft beer concept. But it has arguably the best microbrew and beer culture in the world. And with more than 38 breweries in the metro area and 80 statewide – it has more beer brewing facilities than anywhere else in the world.

Back in 1888 when Skidmore Fountain – a downtown landmark – first opened, Henry Weinhard offered to pump beer from his Blitz-Wienhard Brewery into the fountain through the city’s fire hoses. It didn’t happen – but the fact that it was even on the table says a lot about Portland’s obsession with beer. And good beer. While we still drink our fair share of PBR, in Portland, about one out of every two draft beers poured are microbrew or “craft beers.” Oregon’s overall average drops slightly to 39%. But in the rest of the US, well – the average is only 3.4%.

Waitresses and bartenders city wide share a smile with the locals at the table when an out of town guest asks, “what’s on tap?” before launching into a list of the microbrews available in this city where having 15-20 taps is common even in a little neighborhood dive. At places that pride themselves on being “beer friendly” that number can be 40 or 50+.

And while we don’t grow crops of hops or barely in Portland proper, Oregon is the #2 hop producer and #9 barley producer nationwide – helping out all those other craft brewers out there. But don’t worry – Portland still grows its fair share of hops. When you look into the backyard gardens of Portlanders, for example – you’ll see hops growing in a pretty good percentage of them.

Yup – we not only really love our local microbrews – we love to try it ourselves. Ask any random handful of Portlanders if they have ever brewed beer and you’ll get a few yeses – and a few more who say “no, but my friend does…” We recently attended a wedding where the wedding favor given to all the guests was a couple of bottles of home brew with special personalized wedding labels.

Portlanders take pride in their beer snobbery. We mock commercials for major brewers who promote such ‘features’ as, “our beer is really cold.” Here even the novice beer drinker quickly learns the difference between an IPA, a Lager, a Pilsner, an Ale, a Stout or a Porter. And because we like to drink our beer socially out in the pubs – Portlanders drink nearly 3 times the national average of our beer as draft rather than bottled. We’re more than happy to take a visitor or newcomer around and show them the best of our beer.

We have festivals year ’round celebrating our love of beer – from the Oregon Brewers Festival – the largest craft brewer’s festival in North America – to the chilly Holiday Ale Festival – Portland celebrates beer.

We have innovative brewpubs crafted from historic buildings, we have movie theaters that offer up craft beer and films, we have video game parlors that serve microbrews, we have breweries that welcome your canine friend.

From Bridgeport Brewing – Portland oldest craft brewer – and other early pioneers such as Widmer Brothers and the McMenamin brothers to the new kids on the block like Roots Organic and Mash Tun – you don’t have to go far to get a good beer in Portland and that is something we love sharing with the world.

Cheers!

From November 26th to December 2nd, Metroblogging sites around the globe will be unveiling seven gifts their cities can share with the world – one gift a day for seven days.

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