Meet the New Brewery: Gigantic

One of the most-anticipated new breweries opened in Portland a couple weeks ago--Gigantic Brewing, the new project by Ben Love (Pelican, Hopworks) and Van Havig (Rock Bottom).  How anticipated?  So much that when I was visiting there yesterday, a constant stream of people were trying to get into the tasting room including--I kid you not--a woman who fell to her knees in supplication when she realized it was closed.  Gigantic isn't a brewpub, has no food, and the tasting room's window is limited to six hours, five days a week.  Ben and Van didn't figure a production brewery in the industrial Southeast would get a lot of visitors. 

The Project

Not that Ben and Van didn't do a lot of figuring.  Gigantic is built on a totally novel business plan that starts with just a single regular beer--an IPA.  This they will bottle, along with a constantly rotating series of new releases, two a quarter plus the odd specialty releases.  Each beer will be different, and they'll come in numbered bottles that will stay on shelves until the next series displaces them.  This follows a trend in the market toward seasonals, but takes it to a whole new level of evanescence.

Ben looking at the label for IPA.

Counterintuitively, Ben and Van are focusing on the bottle market--which makes producing new packaging for every beer a seeming nightmare.  That was actually part of the plan, it turns out.  They are working with a third member of the team, Rob Reger, who is acting as an art director.  The Emily the Strange artist made the label for IPA, but he is soliciting art from other artists for new labels.  Each label has a central panel that looks like a comic book, fully illustrated by the guest artist.  The only consistent element is the "Gigantic" banner and the Gigantic "G" in the right corner.  Even the "Brewing Company" under the name is different each time. J. otto Seibold, Olive author, did City Never Sleeps and Jay Howell did Axes of Evil.  (You can see the art here.)  Gigantic gives the artists an additional boost by putting up original pieces in the tasting room.

Ben told me he hoped to take the concept even further and work with bands and artists to make original music connected with each release, and maybe even put a QR code on the bottle that takes you to a video of the band performing the piece--which might have additional animation from the artist.  "We don't really have an ad budget--we'd rather give it to [label] artists."

The Brewery and Beer

Ben Love and Van Havig appear to be an unlikely pair.  Van fizzes with energy, and his mind generates 9.2 deadpan jokes a minute.  Ben, by contrast, is an eye of still peacefulness in the Havig storm.  They seem to have a mind meld when it comes to beer, though.  During our tour, they would regularly finish each other's sentences.  The IPA, which will probably constitute over half their total production, could have been a fraught beer.  They each went off and drew up their ideal recipe and came back together to see how far off they were.  Not far, it turned out: the only difference was bittering hops--they had all four of the same late-addition hops.

Built with room to grow.

Between them, they have 24 years of brewing experience.  That was a big advantage in setting up the brewery, which Metalcraft built to their specs. It's a 15 barrel system, but tweaked so it has a decidedly English flair.  (I think it's coincidental, but Van spent a year at the London School of Economics.)  It starts with a homebrewed version of a Steel's masher, which wets the grist as its coming into the mash tun--more fully, according to Havig.  The mash tun is built to produce a floating mash for greater efficiency.  A direct-fired kettle produces noticeable caramelization, and the wort goes through a proper, English-style hop back, a flourish that adds up to an hour to each brew but saturates the beer in hoppiness. Gigantic is currently using a yeast from Sunderland's famous, now-defunct Vaux Brewery.  To coax esters from the yeast, they built fermenters at a 1:1 ratio of height and width (the pressure in tall fermenters represses ester-production). 

Gigantic isn't trying to become an English-style brewery, but because it's a small system, Ben and Van relied whenever they could on tried-and-true methods.  That it borrows from English systems is more a matter of function than tradition.  (Indeed, with a rauchweizen, imperial saison, and no beers under 5.5%, you can find little evidence of Englishness in the final products.)  The point is underscored when you go into the cask room and discover a 660-gallon (21-barrel) foeder (or foudre, in French).  It's a fifty-year-old wine vessel that now holds a batch of beer that will begin to encourage a wild ecosystem.  (We have to wait 12-18 months to try that beer.)

The beer is very good.  The IPA has already developed a loyal following.  The first batch was cloudier than intended but has a green, spritzy liveliness that belies its heft (7.3%).  Ben and Van focused on the nose and hop flavors to produce a beer that's not hugely bitter but vivid with fresh hoppiness.  The City Never Sleeps is an imperial black saison that has a bit of rustic yeast character but scans more as an imperial stout, and a wild experiment called Rauchweizen and the Bandit (they were screening Smoky and the Bandit on the new DVD player when I arrived), a 40% rauchmalt weizenbier.  It's as if a Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock collided with a Bavarian weizen.  Finally, my fave is a rich pale ale called St. Tennenholz, named for the OLCC agent who helped smooth the process for Gigantic.  Amazing creaminess and bright aromatics.

There's a lot more texture I could add--like why there's a gun, boar, and axe mounted on the walls, for example.  But best you go down and check it out yourself.  Mind you go at the proper times, though--hump day through the Lord's day, 3-9pm.  Even genuflection won't get you in outside those hours.

As always, more photos below the fold.

The New Brewery Tsunami

When I was compiling my pre-emptive football-attention-deflecting post yesterday, I had to try to figure out how many breweries are located in Alabama. The Brewers Association compiles a very handy list of each state's breweries, which made my task a snap. Even more handily, they list breweries in the planning stages, and I was struck by what appears to be a tsunami of new breweries ready to open. Alabama, for example has just six breweries, but seven more in the planning stages. I selected a few states at random as further examples:

• Connecticut, six in the planning stages
• Iowa, nine
  
• Tennessee, eleven
  
• New York, twenty-six
• Colorado, twenty-nine

Of course, I had to check out Oregon, and consistent with the trend, twelve breweries are in the planning stages. The list:

• Charlatan Brewing, Portland
• Dexter Brewing, Portland | website
• Dragon's Gate, Milton-Freewater | website
• Noble Brewing, Bend
• Occidental Brewing, Portland
• Sasquatch Brewery, Portland
• Workshop Brewpub, Portland
• Unnamed brewery, Hillsboro
• Four unnamed breweries, Portland

Holy doppelbock, that's a lot of new places! The Brewers Association currently lists about 1600 active breweries in the US. If this rate of new openings is typical, then the number of breweries could jump by a third in the 12-18 months. I will have to put my head to the question of whether this represents the natural evolution of a growing market or a brewery bubble (or both), but for the moment, I'll leave it at the observation stage.

Surveying the New Breweries

[Note: I updated the post with a new, recently-opened brewery. Thanks, DA.]

In yesterday's post, I concluded by listing all the breweries scheduled to open in Portland in the next few months ... and missed at least three. Goes to show how many there are. So, let's review and see if we can capture a the full scope.

• Alchemy Brewing. This is Jason McAdam's new brewery. Jason was formerly with Roots, and brewed one king-hell of a fine imperial stout there. Alchemy will join the legions in Southeast Portland. Placeholder website here.
  
• Breakside. A brewpub scheduled to open in Woodlawn, an under-served part of Beervana. Scott Lawrence, a homebrewer, will man the mash tun. More info here.
  
• Coalition. A brewpub at 28th and Ankeny, and maybe the furthest along of this bunch. Owners Elan Walsky and Kiley Hoyt hope to work with homebrewing customers to create recipes (thus the "coalition"). More info here.
  
• Harvester. A gluten-free brewery from James Neumeister and Katrina “Kat” Jensen. Neumeister roasts the sorghum used in the beers. (See Brewpublic for more.)
  
• Migration. This brewery is just North of Coalition at 28th and Glisan. The owners say it will be open in "early 2010." (See Bill's write-up and also their Facebook page.)
  
• Mount Tabor. Bill sussed this one out on the OLCC website (.pdf). All we have is an address: 824 SE 73rd.
• [New!] Natian Brewing. A recently-opened 1.3-barrel nano brewery located at NE Sandy and Couch. They appear to specialize in cosmically-hoppy beers. (The 75 IBU IPA is described as "An IPA for non-hop heads.") Info: webpage, Facebook, Myspace.
  
• Occidental Brewing. Another phantom, this one has a logo, but we know no more.
  
• Rivergate Brewing. A North Portland pub on Lombard and Peninsular that plans to add a brewery. Early reviews are a bit mixed.

Holler if I missed anything.

Update: It occurs to me to mention that while there are eight breweries listed here, I can imagine at least a few reasons why some won't ever come to be. It's a lot easier to plan to open a brewery than it is to actually open one. That said, a couple of these are well on the way.

Upright Brewing - Early Impressions

Upright Brewing
240 N Broadway St.
Portland, Oregon, 97227
Tasting Room Hours: Sat-Sun, Noon-5pm

We learned almost a year ago that a new brewery was coming to the Left Bank Project, in the fork where Weidler and Broadway split in two. Founder/brewer Alex Ganum described his vision for Upright Brewing then:

Imagine combining the spirit and methods of rustic French and Belgian style farmhouse brewing with the positive energy and downright beautiful ingredients the Pacific Northwest offers us. These are beers inspired by historical records and the dedicated few who have kept traditions alive, drawing from our city and region for resources and raw materials. In addition to the year-round brands expect to see several unusual special releases including barrel-aged beers, sour beers, fruit beers, smoked beers, and many other distinct brews.

I have been saying that Upright's beers speak with a Flemish accent, but maybe French is more accurate. Having interned at Ommegang and assisted Dan Pederson at BJ's (who was one of the earliest Portland brewers to experiment with Belgian styles), this isn't entirely surprising. Yet he takes great pains to emphasize that his beers aren't brewed to style. He would pour a beer, then describe how it behaved, not what it was. His vision does not include telling beer writers what styles inspired him. This is disorienting--you're always trying to get a bead on the beer and the style the brewer was shooting for. Ganum doesn't want to be pigeonholed, so he gives you very little to work with.

Guess what? This makes him all the more Belgian. What other country cares so little for the dictates of style?


The Brewery
The brewery is a ten barrel system, already outfitted with pinot casks for barrel-aging--with quite a bit of room to grow. Following Ommegang's example, Ganum uses open fermenters in a small, sequestered room, accessible by beautiful fir doors. (The restoration of the Left Bank means lots of beautiful fir.) The day I visited, a batch was near the end of primary fermentation, and seem dangerously exposed. Not to worry, Ganum said cheerfully, "as long as you keep your brewery clean, you shouldn't have any problems. And you should keep your brewery clean anyway."

He uses a French saison yeast (perhaps this one)--not Dupont's. His doesn't require the exotic conditions of Dupont's, although it apparently needs a little heat. The day I visited, he had a heater going in the fermentation room. It's a very nice yeast, finishing out to bone dry gravities but somehow leaving the beer tasting smooth and sweet. It is versatile and distinctive, but not aggressive or overly "Belgiany." Funky flavors are mostly absent, but subtle, earthy ones reward the observant.


The Beer
Let's start with the naming convention. Upright's can be said to be in the Rochefort system, following the specific gravity of the wort. (Not, as you might have surmised--as I did--the batch numbers.) So "Four" comes from a wort of roughly 1.040, "Five" of 1.050, and so on. Ganum prefers this to the baroque names many beers have. (The brewery name comes from the Upright bass--he's a jazz fan.)

Four (4.5%).
We had a discussion just before I left about which of Ganum's beer would emerge as favorites. He thinks it will be Four, which is his most distinctive. (I agree, but assessing mass tastes has never been a great forte of mine. In any case, it's my favorite.) A cloudy wheat beer (50% of the grist) Four is made with a sour mash, which gives it a lip-smacking tartness. I was recording Alex so I didn't have to take copious notes, and he gave a great description of the process:



Ganum may not like to refer to established styles when he describes his beer, but I have no such compunction. I'd put this halfway between a weissebier and a Berliner weisse. It lacks the banana/clove quality of a weisse, but isn't as sharp as a Berliner. Rather, it's cleanly tart and acidic and very quaffable. The wheat is evident, as are the Hallertauers. It's a very classic-tasting, accomplished beer. We didn't have any cheese or a salad to pair with Four, but I bet they would have gone wonderfully together.

In addition to the regular Four, there's a batch on wood to which he will add cherry puree, lactic, and brettanomyces claussenii (a purportedly gentle brett). Thereafter, the inoculated barrel will continue to add funk to future batches.

Five, (5.5%).
Upright's yeast isn't in-your-face, but I had the opportunity to see just how much it contributes when I tried two batches of Five--one on Upright's usual yeast, one on an English ale yeast. Five is an golden, slightly cloudy ale with a creamy, frothy head. The English version was a fairly pedestrian beer. Slightly nutty but underhopped, it was sweetish and bland. But on the saison yeast it was a totally different bird. It had a rather pungent nose (absent the other Upright beers--odd) and was marked by a strange bitterness--"herbaceous," in Alex's words. The hops come forward, and the malt plays a more supportive role.

Six, (6.7%).
If people don't resonate with the names of Upright's beer, my guess is that they'll refer to six--the only non-golden Ganum brews--as "the brown." But more than brown, it's a rye (15-18% of grist), and also has a touch of black barley. It is also highly attenuated, but has a round, fruity/raisiny character. Malt-forward and creamy, it is the most familiar of Upright's beers.

In addition to the base beer, there are three variants on wood: one with Turkish chiles, one with standard brettanomyces (not the claussenii), and one with chocolate. The plan is to release them simultaneously.

Seven, (8%).
If BeerAdvocate is any guide, all Upright beers are going to be classified as "saisons." Seven seems closest to the mark. It would be considered a strong saison, but the character is right. An orangey, lively beer with a super dense, creamy head, it sports pronounced hopping. (Magnums to bitter--as is the case with all the beers but Four--as well as Mount Rainier, Liberty, and Hallertauer.) It was still a bit green--Alex poured it from the tank--but already finishing out to be a dry, refined beer. I'll have to try it again on tap, but after Four, it was my favorite.

Others.
Upright's submission to the Organic Beer Fest is an unhopped Gruit ale made with a bit of spelt, lemongrass, two types of orange peel, hyssop, and sichuan peppercorn. Upright's yeast is especially suited to a gruit because it finishes so cleanly. We sampled a bit from a batch still in the fermenter, and it was already past the cloying stage. A nice combo of herbs, with the peppercorn adding a delicate spicy-herbal note. A Rauchbier may or may not also be on the way. The brewery hand-smoked the malt themselves over redwood. Unfortunately they had some yeast issues. If it's not up to snuff, they'll have to dump it.

Final Notes
You can now find pubs around town pouring Four (EastBurn) and Five (Belmont Station, Bailey's, Concordia Ale House). Tonight Six makes its debut at Seraveza, when Sarah will tap a fresh firkin at 6pm.

Upright will ultimately be bottling their beer. They are currently trapped in that terrible Kafkaesqe process of trying to get their labels approved by the Feds. Samurai Artist is the man behind the label art--variants of the image seen at the webpage and on my little audio clip.

Review: Heater | Allen

Heater | Allen Brewing
907 NE 10th Ave
McMinnville, OR 97128
(503) 435-9119

Hours: No regular visiting hours now, but you might catch brewer Rick Allen brewing or bottling if you drop by. It's safer to call ahead.

Beers: Pale lager (a pils), schwarzbier, Coastal Common (a hybrid steam beer with Cascade hopping), bock, dunkel, Vienna, seasonals (currently pouring a doppel for winter).

Available: Call the brewery to arrange for pickup or delivery. Belmont Station should be carrying them soon.

Last night, Oregon's smallest brewery was featured on tap at the Green Dragon. I wasn't able to make it for the official event, but (Dragon-meister) Jim Parker invited me to drop by a couple hours earlier to sample the three beers he was pouring. By chance, I happened to catch owner/brewer Rick Allen, who gave me the history of his brewery and walked me through a tasting.

Background
The roads to good beer are many. These days, it's more common for brewers to get an early jump on their career. In a previous age (twenty years ago), brewers came to the trade later in life. Rick Allen is a throw-back. After years as an investment banker, he took a job as a CFO in a California winery for a year. He wanted to come back to Oregon and, with his experience of the industry, considered opening a winery here. But given the odds--hundreds of wineries and only dozens of breweries--as well as his 18 years as a homebrewer, he decided to go for beer instead.

The brewery he set up is truly micro--20 gallons a batch. That's 20 gallons, as in .65 barrels. He brews twice a week and the portion that doesn't go in kegs he bottles by hand. That's a mere 320 pints a week, in what amounts to large-scale homebrewing. This is the test phase, though--he wanted to see what kind of market there was for lagers. It has been good enough that he plans to upgrade to a 4-7 barrel brewery by next spring--though even that is tiny by commercial standards. Still, it will be enough that we might actually get to see it on tap in Portland on more than a lightning basis.

Lagers
Every beer brewed by Heater Allen is a lager, just the second such experiment in Oregon's craft-brewing history. You'll recall that the two previous incarnations of Northwest micro lager brewing, Saxer and Thomas Kemper, didn't fare so well. So why lagers?

"I like lagers, number one," he said, "and number two, I view it as a market niche. A lot of people do fabulous pale ales--I just didn't think we needed another one." He also likes the way the exceptionally soft water that washes down the Nestucca and Yamhill Rivers gives his beer a softer palate (noticeable indeed--see my review, below).

Given the small batches he's brewing, lagers seem like a decent bet. Saxer and Thomas Kemper both tried to support substantial volume--but, even at seven barrels, Heater Allen would be a fraction the size. I suspect people will also be willing to give lagers a second look--in the early 90s, when Saxer got started, lagers still had a strong association with the stuff you got in cans. I think a nice pilsner (see below) will have a receptive audience, and the schwarzbier style is one of the nicest--and tailor made for NW audiences.

The Beers
The three beers Allen brought to Portland were all excellent. He uses a Bohemian pilsner yeast, and it leaves the beers soft and sweet. He spoke at length about malts, which are more evident in a clean lager than in ales--a further reason to welcome these beers. Malts are so often an afterthought in Oregon brewing, where the layered flavors come from complex infusions of hops. In Allen's beers, the malt character is complex, and the hops have to vie for attention (don't worry, they're ample enough for Beervana). Notice also the strength--these beers are true sessions, weighing in at less than 5% abv.

• Pale Lager (pilsner) - Pilsners are, Allen told me as I started sipping his version, "really, really hard to make." He experimented with 14 versions of this recipe before he got it down. It was worth the effort. It is a classic Bohemian pils, more like Budvar than Urquell, with a soft palate and sneaky hopping. The Saaz are clear and crisp, but they aren't intense until you've had a sip or four, and then the bitterness starts gathering at the back of your tongue. It's really hard to find a fresh pils in Oregon--this would be a most welcome addition. (4.8%, 40 IBU) Rating: B+
• Coastal Common - This beer recalls steam beer without actually being one. Steam beers are lagers fermented at warmer ale temperatures, but in Allen's version, only marginally so ("a degree or two"). He designed it to appeal to fans of traditional Oregon ales, and hopped it with lots of Cascade. The result is slightly disorienting. With a citrus bouquet and palate, the tongue settles in for a long, sweet finish. Instead, it dries and ends abruptly. I would need a couple pints to see if I could shake my habitual expectation. (4.9%, 39 IBU) Rating: B.
• Dunkel - A beer that occupies the place a brown ale does in the English lineup, and just as obscure in American brewing. This is really the finest example of malt complexity of the three he brought--I found roast notes, chocolate, and nuts. He adds just a touch of crystal malt to draw out a poundcake-like note. Keep sipping and you keep finding more. As with his other beers, it finished a little sweeter than some lagers, giving it a fullness in the finish I enjoyed. I think of browns as the cold-weather session, and this one was perfect on the freezing evening I tried it. Rating: B+

At the moment, you may not have many opportunities to try Heater Allen beers. Even after this tasting, I am left longing for the schwarz and doppel he didn't bring to town. But keep this info in your mind--it looks like Allen has been persuaded to continue this experiment. With luck, we'll see more of his beers on tap in 2008.

Beervana Creeps to Ontario

Where states abut one another, border towns take on the character of one state or the other, not always with deference to state lines. In Eastern Oregon, there is a cluster of towns just west of Boise on I-84 that look to the Gem State. They share Idaho's cultural orientation toward self-reliance, with gun racks in the back of their pick-up cabs and everything they imply. It is even a little pocket carved out for the Mountain time zone. And of course, it's the kind of place where beer comes in cans--the easier for transporting to the hunting or fishing site.

And yet, shocker of shocker, it turns out that Ontario, behemoth of the Eastern-Oregon towns (Vale, Nyssa, Fruitland, ID) at 11,250 people, now has its first brewery. It's called Beer Valley Brewing, and Chris at Belmont Station has a bottle of their amber ale (and hat tip to him for the news).

Even more shocking is that their apparent flagship--or anyway the beer that's featured most prominently on the website--isn't the Mountain-time-zone amber (5.5%, 20 IBUs), but Black Flag Imperial Stout. It is a huge beer (11%, 100+ IBUs) that the brewery describes thus:

Black Flag Imperial Stout, the first beer released by Beer Valley Brewing, is a monstrously huge beer brewed for beer enthusiasts who want to test the edge of sensory perception. Brewed with 8 different malts and 4 different hop varieties to give it depth and complexity, Black Flag Imperial Stout delivers an extreme beer drinking experience like no other beer on the planet.

Whoa--extreme beer from Ontario?! I can't believe it: Beervana now extends to the Idaho border. With luck, that stout will follow the amber over here to the Pacific time zone.

Arghh, mateys!

Heater Allen Brewing in McMinnville--Who Knew?

I guess if John Foyston didn't know Heater Allen Brewing existed, I shouldn't feel too bad that I didn't know, either. It does exist, and in a welcome change, Brewer Rick Allen has decided to feature a lineup of lagers. The lineup includes a pilsner, schwarz (one of my favorite styles), Oktoberfest, bock, Vienna amber, and dunkel--plus a holiday doppel.

[Historical interlude. The Northwest, with its drizzly, Dublin-like weather, is ale country. You can trace the history of the pint back to a time that predated the mid-19th Century influx of German immigrants--Henry Weinhard, et. al.--back to the New England of Lovejoy and Pettygrove. When craft brewing revived beer culture in Oregon, we fell naturally into the pub-going of these deeper roots, eschewing the bright bier halls of Munich for the murky light of a London-esque pub. Lagers, ascendent in America for 65 years, didn't excite beer drinkers. Saxer, an early all-lager brewery, and one of the most celebrated in America, ultimately died from disinterest. But in the past few years, as Portlanders constantly look for the next cool style, lagers have made a bit of a comeback. The time may be ripe for an all-lager brewery to find a niche.]

The brewery describes itself as "artisnal," which is often code for "wee." But listen to how Allen describes it:

We use a step-mashing process that allows us to reduce the protein content of our beer, resulting in a naturally clearer beer without filtering. We lager our beers as long as it takes to achieve the clarity and flavor we desire - usually around eight to ten weeks, although sometimes longer. Our beers are bottle or cask conditioned. This creates a finer 'bead' (smaller bubbles) and a smoother texture. If you don't think this makes a difference, compare real champagne to cheap sparkling wine. Finally we work hard at controlling the distribution of our beer to avoid exposing it to excess heat, light, or aging (unless, of course, the beer was meant to age). Where possible, we try to sell directly to the consumer, because this insures that our customers receive the beer in the best possible condition.

I'm particularly impressed with the length of time he ages the beer--this is one of the keys to a really nice lager (the word lager means "to store"). It's expensive for big breweries to age their beers, and so they often take shortcuts. If the winter seasonal is any evidence, he's taking it very seriously--his first batch has been aging since April.

Here's how you track down a bottle. But don't do anything until I arrange to get some of that doppelbock first--he only made 60 gallons!

New Medford Brewery

Somehow I missed this. A seriously well-funded new brewery in Medford is scheduled to release their first beers next month:

Testing the theory that it's not what you know but who you know, Hammond, 43, set out to find the right person to handle his brew. That happened to be Anders Johansen, 48, whose resume includes both stints with Pyramid and Deschutes breweries as well as a couple of start-ups.

"I surround myself with people smarter than me," Hammond says. "I hired someone with experience and ability who knew exactly what equipment we needed...."

Rather than piece together a new brewery from discarded and used parts, Hammond bit the bullet and invested $1 million into equipment.

"We could've started with a lot less and basically pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps," he says. "But we wanted mostly new stuff that's reliable and we wouldn't have to fix. We're starting small, but I bought enough equipment to where we can grow without more capital expense in the early years."

Southern Oregon Brewing Co., located at 1922 United Way in Medford, will debut with a 20-barrel brewhouse, capable of producing 620 gallons in an eight-hour period. Hammond anticipates brewing once per week in the beginning.

And it will have a tasting room:

Tasting room hours will initially run from 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Occupants at the 24-foot bar and tables can view brewery activity through two large plate-glass windows.

"We'll see how business is going and then probably expand," Hammond says. "Our primary focus is going to be on manufacturing and wholesale distribution."

Looks like it might be time for a road trip.

___________________
PHOTO: Mail Tribune

Oregon's Smallest Brewery?

I was in Corvallis on Friday and for the first time visited the Oregon Trail brewery. Or anyway took a gander at it from the Old World Deli. It occupies the space of a large closet (admittedly a tall one--rising two [three?] stories above its tiny footprint) in the corner of the sprawling restaurant.

The beer, though, was tasty. I had a pint of brown ale, which was a little stronger and a little hoppier than most styles you find--it was hearty and creamy and most satisfying. My friend had an IPA which I deemed delightful and in balance, but which he, after two-thrids of a pint, described as overly hoppy. I'll have to go back for another pint and do my own research.

They have several taps (five or six Oregon Trail beers were pouring) and the price is right. I was shocked to see that they have two-dollar happy hours, and I think my shaker pint was about $3.75. It's in downtown Corvallis, so stop in the next time you're passing through:

341 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis (inside the Old World Deli)

Try the brown!

Oregon Breweries

The following companies produce distributed, bottled beer (many brewpubs sell growlers and 22-ounce bottles on-site). These breweries may also have an attached brewpub/restaurant; see Brewpubs section for information.


BridgePort Brewing Company
Founded: 1984
Ownership: Acquired by the Gambrinus Company in 1995
Brewer: Karl Ockert
Regular beers: IPA, Blue Heron (pale), ESB, Blackstrap Stout, Ropewalk (session), Ebenezer (winter warmer), Supris (Belgian golden), Old Knucklehead (barleywine)
Contact: 1313 N.W. Marshall, Portland, OR 97209. (503) 241-7179
Web: www.bridgeportbrew.com


Cascade Lakes Brewing Company
Founded: 1994
Brewer: Mark Henion
Regular beers: Rooster Tail Ale (golden), Monkey Face Porter, Angus MacDougals (amber), I.P.A., Pine Marten Pale Ale, 20" Brown, Blonde Bombshell.
Contact: 2141 SW First St., Redmond, OR 97756. 541.923.3110
Web: www.cascadelakes.com


Deschutes Brewery
Founded: 1988
Ownership: Founded and independently owned by Gary Fish.
Brewer: Larry Sidor
Regular beers: Black Butte Porter, Mirror Pond Pale, Obsidian Stout, Inversion IPA, Bachelor ESB, Cascade Ale, Buzzsaw Brown, Twilight Ale (session) and Jubelale (winter warmer)
Contact: 901 SW Simpson Ave., Bend, OR 97702. (541) 385-8606 Tours: Saturdays noon to 4 pm.
Web: www.deschutesbrewery.com


Full Sail Brewing
Founded: 1987
Ownership: Became a worker-owned brewery in 1999.
Brewers: Jamie Emmerson, John Harris
Regular beers: Amber, Pale, IPA, Rip Curl (English pale), Session Lager, Wassail (winter warmer), Old Boardhead (barleywine)
Contact: 506 Columbia St., Hood River, OR 97031. (541) 386-2247. Tours: daily on the hour 1-4 pm.
Web: www.fullsailbrewing.com/


Golden Valley Brewery
Founded: 1993
Brewer: Mark Vickery
Regular beers: Red Thistle Ale, Geist Bock, Tannen Bomb
Contact: 980 NE 4th St., McMinnville, OR 97128. (503) 472-2739
Web: www.goldenvalleybrewery.com


Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Founded: 1993
Brewer: Alan Sprints
Regular beers: Adam, Rose, Fred, Ruth, Doggie Claws
Contact: 4509 SE 23rd, Portland, OR 97202. (503) 232-6585. Call for tour info.
Web: www.hairofthedog.com


MacTarnahan's (Portland Brewing Company/Pyramid)
Founded: 1986
Ownership: Acquired by Pyramid Brewing in January 2004
Brewer: Unknown (Lost in the corporate halls of Pyramid)
Regular beers: MacTarnahan's (amber), Oregon Honey Beer, Blackwatch Cream Porter
Contact: 2730 NW 31st Ave., Portland, OR 97210. (503) 226.7623
Web: www.macsbeer.com


Rogue Ales
Founded: 1988
Ownership: Independently founded and owned by Jack Joyce, Rob Strasser, and Bob Woodell
Brewer: John Maier
Regular beers: The most prolific brewer of beers styles. Regulars include Dead Guy Ale (amber), Younger's Special Bitter, Shakespeare Stout, Old Crustacean (barleywine), Mocha Porter.
Contact: 2320 OSU Drive, Newport, OR 97365. (541) 867-3660. Tours every day at 4.
Web: www.rogue.com


Siletz Brewing Company
Founded: 1995
Owner/brewer: Steve Lovin
Regular beers: (All beers available in 22 oz bottles only.) Paddle Me IPA, Oatmeal Stout, Spruce Ale, Red Ale,
Contact: 243 N. Gaither St., Siletz, OR 97380. (541) 574-6323
Web: www.siletzbrewing.com


Terminal Gravity Brewing Company
Founded: 1995
Owner/brewers: Steve Carper, Dean Duquette
Regular beers: IPA (other products available draft-only)
Contact: 803 SE School St., Enterprise, OR 97828. (503) 426-0158
Web: www.terminalgravitybrewing.com/


Widmer Brothers Brewing Company
Founded: 1984
Ownership: In 1997, the brothers created a "strategic partnership" by selling a minority share of the company to Anheuser-Busch in exchange for access to AB's vast distribution network.
Brewers: Kurt Widmer, Sebastian Pastore
Regular beers: Hefeweizen, Drop Top Amber, Broken Halo IPA, Widberry, Snow Plow (milk stout), Oktoberfest
Contact: 929 N. Russell, Portland, OR 97227. (503) 331-7241 Brewery tours available.
Web: http://www.widmer.com/