Breweries of Eugene - McMenamins High Street

McMenamins is a venerable chain of brewpubs dating back to the mid-80s. Elsewhere in Oregon they're well-known for their interesting properties and attractions, such as the Old St. Francis School in Bend (with meeting space, hotel rooms, and a small movie theater) and the Crystal Ballroom (a popular concert venue in Portland). Here in Eugene they're the proprietors of three pubs - the East 19th St Cafe near the UO campus, the North Bank restaurant right by the river, and the High Street pub, which brews a lot of local beer.

My focus being on the beer, I decided to visit the High Street location this afternoon after running some errands in the area.

The pub is a cozy, inviting, warm space. Memorabilia from concerts and newspapers from years past dot the walls, indie/folk/country plays on the radio, and the large dual patios are a comfortable place to take a load off when the weather's fine.

As always, though, the atmosphere's a secondary consideration. I want to find excellent beer. So how does McMenamins stack up with its local pub brews?

The sampler flight.

From my tasting notes:

Purple Haze: A fruit beer made with boysenberries. Light, clean, bready, with an almost-sour finish.

Ruby: A celebrated gateway beer, saturated with raspberry flavor. But it's watery and thin.

Hammerhead Pale: Bugspray hops abound!

Copper Moon: An English-style pale ale. Much richer and more varied hop presence. Good.

Halcyon Dreams IPA: Earthy, almost minty hops dominate, well-balanced by malt. Very nice.

Terminator Stout: Sweet and buttery, with a distinctive roasted note.


Terminator, Ruby, and Hammerhead are the chain-wide beers, and they were all markedly less interesting than the other three, all locally-made. I could see myself definitely enjoying a pint of the IPA and the Copper Moon. I understand that pretty much every McMenamins brewpub operates under this same principle - they all serve the pub standards, but have some freedom to experiment on beers of their own design.

Overall, High Street makes pretty decent beer. They have a great happy hour menu and friendly, homey service. While they're not usually a high priority for me, I'm pleased with the local pub beer I had today. I'll try to keep up with them more regularly in the future.