In the mid-1980s, when the city of Portland first became awash in handcrafted beer, jaded outsiders attributed the growing phenomenon to Oregon’s legendary rainfall. Rain is also the reason attributed to the abundance of bookstores and coffee shops in Portland. The idea was that Portlanders, restricted in their choice of activities by the occasional liquid sunshine (it’s really quite refreshing), were forced to (a) read voraciously, (b) drink relentlessly, or (c) do both at once. The fact that about 10 percent of Portland’s beer sales were from draft beer – three times the national average – was held up as proof that Portlanders especially took shelter from the rain in pubs. Truth be told, Portlanders do read, sip coffee and drink beer more than the average in any other city in the world – no matter what the weather. Rain or shine, Portland is the beer capital of the world, with 32 breweries in the city limits – 38 if you consider the entire metro area. That’s more than any other city on earth.
