Portal Brewing Company

We stopped in for a couple samples of their beer on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We were both pleasantly surprised that this quaint, tiny place had such great beer.
The owners were great and very friendly. We couldn’t decide on just six samples so got all 11, and they poured us a twelfth of our choosing.
They prepared some food for other guests which smelled AMAZING, but today was just about beer. Next time we visit which will be soon, we will be sure to try some food as well. We rated our beer selections today. 1 being meh and 5 being AMAZEBALLS.
Portal Brewing ¹⁄₂₃
Nitro oat stout 5
Pecan 3.5
Lemon 4
Tangerine Sour G-​4 M-​1
Red 4
Porter 3.5
Blonde 4
CDA G-4.5 M-​1
Imp IPA G-​4 M-​1
Cream G-​2 M-​4
Cherry Choc Whiskey Sour G-4.5 M-​0
The artwork on the growlers is done by one of the owners and is very creative. We may have to get one next time we are in.

Located downtown around an area with other good breweries and restaurants.
Cozy place and we sat on the couches. Since first time there decided on a sampler. We also ordered some lunch. I had the grilled cheese which was great. The Schnitzel Master was over the top but great. Small menu but great pub food.
Owner was very nice. My favorite beers were their Lovely Lucille’s Lucky Lemon Ale and Riptide Ale. Decided to buy a growler of the Lovely Lucilles.
Will be back again.

Went in looking for a burger and beer but found gyros, schnitzel, puppet master and beer with fresh fried potato chips. Everything was very good.

This place is a cozy little beer joint with their own craft beers. The bar is small and quaint. They have an extensive food menu. The food smelled good, but we did not have any today. The beer was not our favorite. My husband is the beer lover and was not impressed. Plus a glass of beer not even a pint was $ 6.00 bucks.

All beers are good. And nice, unique, home made style eclectic food. Small batch well hand crafted microbrews are very smooth, not acidic or too bitter. Very nice owners. Mellow, nice vibe. Best beer in southern oregon!

A small tasting room with very basic food compared to other tasting rooms I’ve been to. Still a great atmosphere with some interesting brews.

Everything exceeds expectations when you step into the Portal!!! Food, brews, company, love it! Oh yeah not to mention the Art. ;)

I have no idea why anybody would give this dump five stars. I went in with a large group and the owners were awkward and stiff. The beer was nothing special. The food was nothing special. I was glad when everyone moved on to other bars.

Cozy brewery tucked into a historic building in downtown Medford. Had a great time at trivia night, and people were so friendly. Beer was great. If I lived in Medford, this would be my go-​to spot.

A wonderful little cozy spot in downtown Medford with great beer, food, and service. We had a taster of beer, but then had trouble deciding what we wanted because it was all really good! We went with the Regean Red and brown ale, both of which were our favorites. We also ordered some food — the schnitzelmaster (a pretzel stuffed with sausage and covered in bacon and cheese) and the lamb gyro. Both were amazingly good. My only regret is that this isn’t in the Bay Area where we live, but I guess we have a great excuse to visit the area again!

We came during the beer fest going on downtown… It was busy but not over crowded. The guy serving us was running around but attentive and nice. I had two tastes. We decided a pint of the coconut buckwheat blond and the pear blossom ale. Both were great! We ended up getting a growler (wishing they had 64oz ones) with the coconut. That beer is seriously amazing. So smooth, tastes like a beer finishes like coconut water. We would have tried more beers but we didn’t have time. Overall this seems like a great creative micro brewery and is worth the visit

Service=6 and beer is obviously made with care and ingredients worth learning more about. Bring someone who you want to impress!

It’s like Willy Wonka made these beers because the coconut buckwheat blonde tasted like coconut and the chocolate vanilla porter tasted like chocolate vanilla.
And I’m sure the snozzberries would taste like snozzberries if they had them. The food was plentiful, the staff was super friendly and I can’t wait for my next visit.

Great people and great beer! This is the spot to come to when you’d like to relax and truly enjoy a beer.
The owners are very attentive, engaging and have a quick wit.

When I visited this business, during its normal business hours, it was not open. There was no sign on the door to indicate whether it would open at all that day. So my group went to another place and had a nice time.
This was frustrating as I visited the location earlier in the day (before it was scheduled to open) to see if there would be enough room for my group. Had their been a sign saying «we won’t be open today, Saturday Sept whatever» I would have suggested my visitors meet someplace else. Emergencies happen, I get that. But the lack of a sign made the business look flakey and irresponsible.
After posting my experience on Unilocal the owner contacted me (twice actually) requesting that I remove my review, which I have amended to include his comments. He said there was an health emergency and they decided ahead of time to close that day. He said he put a closure notice on Facebook and on the telephone answering machine. I cannot confirm that. There was no sign on the business itself.
We did not check social media or call the business to find out what was going on. Why would we do that? It’s not hard to go to your own business and post a sign, or have someone do that on your behalf.
I am leaving one star because my experience was lousy. I’ve upgraded reviews in the past when a subsequent experience changes my opinion. But I don’t delete my reviews when an owner tries to make me feel that I’m wrong for sharing my experience.
Yea, the lack of a sign was an inconvenience. The owner trying to get me to delete my review was sad.
Contact from a business owner also calls into question other reviews about their establishment. It’s well-​known that businesses reward and encourage favorable reviews.
In my time on Unilocal I’ve had two owners/​managers asking me to come back and give them another chance. I have NEVER had an owner ask me to remove a review that they didn’t like.
I would post the entire chain of communication but there is some information he shared that I would prefer not to make public.

Stopped in here on a road trip up the coast from San Francisco.
Really enjoyed the beer… we did a flight of all the beers that they had on tap… as well as a cider! Very impressed by their variation of beers and styles.
I would definitely recommend getting a sampler… the beers are definitely worth trying!
Small place, very relaxed atmosphere.
Loved that this is a small family run business… keep it up guys!

Tiny corner bar, good selection of self-​brewed beer and even more surprisingly good food selection.
After a late check-​in in downtown Medford, an open nearby bar was a welcome sight. Inside, a surfer-​styled setting is a cheery departure from the grey streets — bright, warm and quirky.
We took a couch and took a look an interesting beer selection. The sampler was the way to go — all the beers were solid, but the coconut brown was the clear favorite.
What we didn’t expect in the tiny bar was a food selection, and an extensive one at that. The gyros and lamb shwarma were both hits — spicy with fresh veggies.
The crowd we saw that night looked like an eclectic group of locals enjoying good beer and food. Glad to have had a chance to join them for a night.

I’d give it 3.5 stars, if I could. The food and beer bumps it to a very strong four but the odd service puts it at a 3.
The beer is great, flavor-​wise. We tried a sampler and I liked every one of them. I ordered a pint of the vanilla porter. Super tasty but not quite cold enough.
I had the lamb pita. My other half had the lamb shawarma. The lamb is outstanding and locally sourced.
The service was… odd, I guess. Seemed to be the owners and a younger guy at the counter. Kind of slow, almost like no one was sure what was going on.
Menus were from summer 2013 but seemed to be current. Why date a menu if you don’t change it?
Overall, I enjoyed it. Plan to return for sure, even if it’s just for the lamb.
I’ve now gone back 3 times. The lamb pita and shwarma are great. I’ve fallen in love with the vanilla porter. Bought one of their hand painted growlers, filled it with the vanilla porter and took it home. Now I don’t have to wait for my weekly trip to Medford for my favorite winter time beer!
As far as the service goes, it’s still a little quirky but I’ve gotten used to it. The owners are pretty cool people to sit and chat with… once you get to know them!

Some very tasty beers here and I like the casual vibe of the taproom. It’s a hidden little spot in downtown Medford. They have a strange, ambitious menu with lots of pretzels, which is great because who doesn’t love pretzels? Things got a little weird when we asked for classic yellow mustard to dip our soft pretzels into– they don’t have any plain yellow mustard, but the owner brought out a tray of about 20 OTHER kinds of mustards they have, some mixed together there in the kitchen, some store-​bought. It was an unattractive, messy tray of bottles from the kitchen, not ones that you’d put on a table at a restaurant, so that was a bit of a turn-​off. It was TOO casual, if you will?
The owner is a very friendly woman who talked to us quite a bit. For the most part, we enjoyed the conversation, but she is one of those people who presume you know what she is talking about (in our case, surfing, which we do not know anything about) and just launches into stories as though she has known us for years, dropping names of people we don’t know, etc. Kind of uncomfortable and hard to keep up in conversations so one-​sided like that, but she meant well and she has a good heart obviously.
We will definitely be back for more beer and to just enjoy the taproom with the cool couches! Fun spot.

BAM: Bullwinkle reviews first.
What a great little pub. 16 beers on tap, a decent selection of food, seating for about 20 total — maybe 30+ if folks want to stand, and decent prices to boot. Have to say that the Oat Stout was one of the best I’ve ever had and the Porter was very tasty as well. All in all, a great spot to stop in for a pint or a light bite to eat (sausages, naan pizza, soup, check the pics).
And, Bullwinkle reviewed it first. Which is… epic.