My week in pictures: Here for the Beer: American Home Brewing Conference in Portland

It was with some sadness that we left Our Gracious Host and Hostess and headed off to Portland. As we drove north through Oregon we recognised names such as the Willamette Valley, the Cascade Ranges and the Deschutes River. Yes, as well as the stunning scenery, we were in the midst of hop-growing land. So, naturally we stopped for lunch at a brewery: Hop Valley Brewing Company in Springfield, to be precise.

We sampled half a dozen beers, of which the Doubledelic Imperial IPA and the Paint the Town Brown were my favourites. The burger menu was significant - I couldn't face that much food, so I just took a picture of the menu instead. We shared a plate of nachos between us. One thing is for sure; we will not starve on this trip.

In the accustomed manner, as soon as we arrived in Portland (we still need to adjust to driving through rush-hour traffic in a city on the wrong side of the road), we dumped our bags in our hotel and caught a cab to the nearest craft beer venue. A quick word on that; the craft beer venues are plentiful. It is not unusual to find at least one on every corner of the block.

We chose wisely (and often), beginning at Breakside Brewery in Slabtown. The sours were sour and the IPAs were hoppy. My comment on the Breakside IPA was 'citrus and pine - it's what you'd expect from an IPA from these parts, but it's a very good one.' Over the next few days I was to notice how what we call West Coast IPAs are generally just called 'IPAs', and what we know as New England IPAs are called 'Hazy IPAs': there appears to be some coastal rivalry going down.

Fourth Wave by Breakside Brewery is a superb dessert beer, tasting of rich creamy coffee aged in bourbon barrels

The American Homebrewing Conference began the next day, so we were up bright and early to catch a light-rail train to the Conference Centre. (This is the sort of system that is being installed in Canberra, and if it runs this efficiently, there should be no complaints.) The Conference Centre itself is rather a large building with some impressive artwork.

The Dream by Michael Florin on MLK Jr Blvd

Chinese dragon boat, given to Portland in 1989 in recognition of its status as dragon boat centre of the country

Portal by Bill Hope

River Song by Lucinda Parker

Principa by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest Foucault pendulum.

While Him Outdoors judged literally hundreds of beers, I did a Cicerone workshop. The Cicerone Certification Program 'certifies and educates beer professionals in order to elevate the beer experience for consumers'. A certified cicerone is pretty much the beer equivalent of a sommelier; she has knowledge of beer styles, storage and serving, and food matching.

It's a highly-respected qualification in the beer world, and one I was keen to learn more about. The introductory workshop had us learning lots of information and trying out our new-found skills in practical sessions of beer-tasting and note-taking. I would recommend it to anyone who works in the industry and would like to add professional knowledge to a passionate hobby.

The rest of the day featured a Home Brewing Conference Expo and a Kick-Off Party, at which all the local commercial breweries had stalls serving free beer to discerning drinkers. There are a lot of said breweries in these parts, as I may have mentioned (at last count there were 58 in Portland and 84 in the Portland Metro area), so here are some photos of the home-brewers and the professionals side by side.