Breakside Brewery is a Portland original that helped define the city’s modern craft beer identity through equal parts creativity, technical excellence, and an unwavering commitment to balance. Founded in 2010 in Portland’s Northwest Slabtown neighborhood, Breakside began as a small neighborhood brewpub with a simple goal: make thoughtful, well-executed beer that people genuinely want to drink again and again. What followed was one of the most respected growth stories in American craft beer.

From its earliest days, Breakside stood out for its versatility. Rather than anchoring itself to a single flagship style, the brewery embraced a broad brewing vocabulary, West Coast IPAs, crisp lagers, mixed-culture saisons, barrel-aged stouts, experimental one-offs, and impeccably clean classics, all executed with the same precision and care. This range is not accidental; it reflects a deep technical foundation and a brewing team willing to push boundaries without losing sight of drinkability.

The turning point came as Breakside’s reputation for hop-forward beers exploded nationally. Their IPAs, particularly Breakside IPA and Wanderlust IPA, became benchmarks for the modern Pacific Northwest style, bright, aromatic, expressive, and balanced. These beers helped propel Breakside onto the national stage, earning repeated recognition at the Great American Beer Festival and other major competitions. Breakside has accumulated more than a dozen GABF medals over the years, including multiple golds, and was named Large Brewpub of the Year and later Large Brewing Company of the Year, cementing its place among the elite breweries in the country.

As demand grew, Breakside expanded thoughtfully. In 2013, they opened a larger production brewery in Milwaukie, Oregon, allowing them to scale distribution while maintaining the creativity of their original pub. Additional locations followed, including their Northeast Portland pub and restaurant, each one rooted in its neighborhood and designed to feel inviting, casual, and distinctly Portland. Despite growth, Breakside has remained fiercely independent and locally owned, a point of pride that shows in both their culture and their beer.

Behind the scenes, Breakside’s success is driven by a strong collaborative ethos. Rather than centering the brand around a single personality, the brewery emphasizes team-driven creativity, technical rigor, and constant refinement. Their barrel-aging program, mixed fermentation projects, and lager portfolio have grown steadily alongside their IPAs, demonstrating that Breakside’s curiosity extends well beyond the styles that first brought them fame.

Food has also been central to Breakside’s identity since the beginning. As a brewpub at heart, the brewery has always viewed beer as part of a larger table, something meant to complement great food and shared experiences. Their kitchens are known for elevated pub fare that mirrors the beer philosophy: approachable, well-crafted, and satisfying without pretense.

Today, Breakside beers are widely available across Oregon and beyond, yet the brewery has retained the spirit of its early days, a place where innovation feels natural, quality is non-negotiable, and every beer is brewed with intention. Whether it’s a medal-winning IPA, a quietly perfect pilsner, or an experimental seasonal release, Breakside’s hallmark remains the same: beers that are confident, expressive, and deeply enjoyable.

Breakside Brewery represents the best of Portland beer culture, curious but disciplined, creative without excess, and always grounded in the simple pleasure of a truly well-made pint.