Oxbow Blending & Bottling

The location is terrible, yes
…but once you’re inside you’ll find a splendid and cavernous beer sanctuary
great vibe, overall
nice decorum
and, yes, the beer is awesome
friendly barkeep and very low prices

This place gets 5 stars for location– it’s kind of hidden and I always feel like I’m sneaking off to a speakeasy when I turn towards the warehouse. Te only thing that’s missing is a secret knock or a password or something. But I digress.
The space is awesome. It is spacious with so many unique touches. I LOVE the place. The problem is, I have never found I beer that I can finish. I am no beer expert, but I can usually find something I like. Or at least finish, to avoid beer wastage. But I have been here twice and have sampled pretty much the whole menu. I so wish I could find something palatable so that I could legitimately hang out and drink beer at an extremely awesome place.

Seriously, Oxbow has the best beer I’ve had in longer than I can remember. My boyfriend and I have been brewing beer for years (he’s been for over 20), and we’re both very picky about beer! There’s a server there… I think her name is Marcy. She looks like a movie star and is such a genuinely nice young lady. So very helpful. What a great place. Keep up the great work!!!

Awesome place– great beer and great guest taps. A little hard to find, down between the buildings but worth the trip. If you find the mead place it’s in the same building but behind the coffee shop. Great staff, open and relaxed atmosphere. Definitely worth a stop if you are in Portland.

Great spot to cozy upto the bar or grab some friends and hunker down at a picnic table (inside). Going to have to find it first, as its tucked back away from the street and partially labeled on the outside with a «bar» pink neon sign. Oxbow offers craft beer, with my personal favorite being the Farmhouse. They offer small bites too, but don’t come hungry. Mainly meant to enhance the beer — example: 3 x cheese platter.

Of all the breweries around Portland, Oxbow is my favorite to drink at.
The space is large, open, industrial, airy, and there is even a bar.
Its more convenient than a brewery that just offers tasting and doesn’t have much of a hang out space, but its not as formal as a restaurant.
I’m not sure I have even come across a bar at any of the other breweries.
There are plenty of picnic tables that can accommodate large groups.
The beer itself is also good although nothing to write home about. They definitely specialize in the lighter beers. Wish they did a flight of tasters. They do small pours but they are almost as much as a pint elsewhere! Speaking of which, you can’t order a pint here. 12 oz max. This may come across as a drawback, but it gives you the opportunity to try different beers before getting too full… or drunk.

The Oxbow tap room is a great addition to the Portland beer scene. Oxbow makes amazing quality beer, so that alone is worth 4 stars. The location is cool inside with a humble and low key style. The staff are always pleasant, engaging and knowledgeable about the beer. The only two drawbacks are the lack of food served and lack of parking. A nice addition would be adding fresh organic bread from a local baker, cheese, hummus etc. Simple and fitting food for hanging out drinking great beer. Thanks for joining the Portland scene!

Oxbow specializes in Farmhouse and Saisons, which is a style that I’m not usually a fan of. However, after trying their entire tap list one day they have changed my mind. During our trip over here we were lucky to try their Sasuga 2013 which had just been tapped, awesome funky beer! Spent a long time here with my girlfriend just playing MtG at a table while the staff their played anything that we wanted to hear on their vinyl player along with some surprises. This was a great spot to hang out and enjoy some interesting beers.

Oxbow wins for an amazing space! I love the warehouse vibe with eclectic decorations, Beer DNA art work and fantastic picnic tables. We were there on a holiday and it was almost totally empty. I would love to see the place at it’s peak. I can imagine how much fun it must be!
The beers were good. Nothing totally blew me out of the water, but they were solid. This is one of those places where you keep going back because the space is so great and just crossing your fingers that you will find that magic beer that is the ONE.
I wish they had an option for a flight. If you were coming by yourself it would be almost impossible to try all of the beers on your own. You know, unless you were cabbing everywhere.
I’ll be back and next time I’m bringing a crapton of friends to hang out with me at a picnic table.

I’m giving this review as a non beer drinker. I know, I know. But my husband and father-​in-​law are huge beer fans (specifically locally brewed beer) so I get brought along on some of their tastings and trips. Recently we made our way to Oxbow. It’s in the most nondescript building kind of tucked away from the street, and inside is huge and gorgeous, with graffiti on the walls and beer in wooden barrels and large tanks. It was evening and there was soft mood lighting and a record spinning on the player. Extremely cozy and awesome, with bar seating (duh) as well as picnic tables. Again, didn’t drink any beer, but my companions LOVED what they tried (and I enjoyed my soda ;). The staff are all incredibly friendly and talkative — it’s obvious that they love what they do which is super important. Great place!

Great space, reminds me of Aeronaut or Night Shift: giant casual warehouse-​type space full of picnic tables and good music, would be great for a group. Their farmhouse-​style beer was pretty solid, nothing too inventive here but what I tasted was executed well; I particularly liked their Saison Noël, which was really smooth belying its 9% APV.
Would like to see a flight or taster option here as they only had 8 and 12 oz on offer, and also would be cool for some food to be thrown in the mix (do any trucks park here?). Great to check out in tandem with Maine Mead Works right nextdoor.

Between Oxbow’s tasting room and the 12+ OTHER BREWERIES/​TASTING ROOMS around Portland, how are we not yet BEER CITY USA? No offense to Grand Rapids — I love your town and I’ve certainly made my pilgrimage (three times) to Founders Brewing Co. and Brewery Vivant. But you can’t throw a rock in Portland without hitting a brewery… that ricochets off and hits another brewery. The variety is endless, and it’s a delight to see home town pub and restaurant taps filled with a wondrous selection of locally brewed beers.
Oxbow is the most recent addition to this growing collection. The flagship brewery is located in Newcastle, but Oxbow just opened up their Portland tasting room to (I think?) give themselves a little more notoriety and exposure. And to share their beautiful craft with more people!
Approaching the tasting room feels very much like the beer equivalent of a speakeasy. It’s located in a very nondescript building behind the Coffee By Design on Washington Street. Before you enter, you may doubt that you are even using the correct entrance — or you may hesitate because it just feels like you need a secret knock to enter.
The interior is a vast, recently-​converted warehouse. Half of the space is used to store beer, currently aging in barrels (none of the staff seem to know the contents, but they’ve been assured it’s magical), while the other half of the building is the bar and a massive indoor beer garden. After chatting with the bartender, I learned that Oxbow is still exploring ways to utilize the space, but from their initial approach it seems like they are committed to integrating the local arts scene with their space (as demonstrated by the recent acquisition of local wall art), and they are installing a movie projector soon. The space currently feels too open, but I’m sure Oxbow will find a way to make it cozy once word get out about this place.
I enjoyed interacting with the staff during my tastings. Everyone seems knowledgeable about the beers, the current beer distribution in Portland, and about Oxbow itself, and they seem to enjoy doing what they do.
During my visit, I had two (very minor) concerns with this place:
Beer diversity. It seems like most of the beers they offered were saisons/​farmhouse ales. I know this is pretty much Oxbow’s wheelhouse, but I’d like to see them diversify and offer at least one darker, maltier beer on tap. Their delicious Imperial Stout, for example? I know they offer them ‘cuz I’ve had them before… and they’re gooooood.
Cost. Whoa, I was not ready for a tasting to be that much! It seems like I can get a pint of what they’re offering at a few other places in town for what they’re charging for a tasting glass. I’m not sure about the economics behind this. I do acknowledge that this is a tasting room, and I’d love to know the legal requirements that identify the difference between a ‘bar’ and a ‘tasting room’. If I could order a pint, I would. But I’m happy to support Oxbow, and this location, in any way I can.
To sum up, support local beer and check this place out! Add it to your next pub crawl — it’s a unique, friendly space that deserves a look… and a tasting.

I’ll have another please!!! Try one of everything. If you are in Portland you have got to stop at oxbow and try some beers on tap and then buy as much as you can to go!!! You will not have a sour experience when drinking their amazing sour beers!!! I went on a Sunday and there was a steady flow of customers being taken care of by Mercy and the rest of the knowledgable oxbow staff, I took 4 Oktoberfest blended beers home and then tried to go back to oxbow the next day for more, unfortunately they were closed on Monday! So my only complaint is that they are closed on Mondays!!!

Whoa! Oxbow is out of the woods? Great bar on the hill lots of space. It is like a patio but inside. The many bartenders are nice and helpful with your beer buying.
Downsides are $ 20 dollar growler refills! Did we lose a war? I hope this is due to the fact that they just opened and are trying to meet demand. If not, I’ve got a lot of other growlers collecting dust on my refrigerator. Also, no pints? The beers on the menu are $ 7 dollar for a 12oz pour. I know I’ve spent $ 7 bucks for a pint of Oxbow somewhere in town.
Never the less I love this brewery. I grew up next town over from their flagship hole in the woods and never thought for a minute anyone would make such damned fine beer. The prices up north are reasonable. I don’t know why they wanna gouge their fans in Portland this winter. Hopefully they can ramp up production to meet the demand. Maybe follow Funkybow’s lead and can something. I stopped drinking Marshalls Wharf after they thought a $ 15 dollar four pack was good idea. I mean come on folks, I wanna get a buzz on without dipping into the dog food money. There is a lot of competition down here and I imagine that large space on the hill wasn’t cheap. I will probably edit this when I sober up and check my bank account but until then, Oxbow is too expensive.

A complete treasure to have a piece of midcoast here in the city. An incredible atmosphere and space will meet you upon entering the discreet offset door. No signage or advertising from the street but worth the adventure.
A great selection of beer and nothing but courteous and knowledgeable staff. Did however notice when pouring the heads of the pour were a tad too high. Left plenty of space for more beer. A great addition to Portland! Will certainly come back often. Welcome Oxbow!