What's Up With Southern Oregon Brewing?

Southern Oregon Brewing mystifies me. The brewery fits no template I understand, and drinking two of their beers over the weekend didn't resolve anything. Let's review.

1. Unlike most new Oregon breweries, SOB didn't begin life as a brewpub. Instead, founder Tom Hammond built a massive 11,000-square-foot facility with brand-new equipment capable of an annual capacity of 40,000 barrels a year. Yet their goals for the early years are less than 2000 barrels. This is not usual.
2. The brewery has but three regular beers--a pale, porter, and golden. There's nothing inherently wrong with these styles of beer, but the world wasn't exactly demanding that a brewery race in and fill these much-neglected beers.
3. The beers are brewed with lager yeast, apparently at warmer temperatures, though they taste like lagers. Yet they're brewed as ale styles, with ingredients typical of these standard-issue beers. I will get into the results of this choice below.
4. The brewery proudly embraces its acronym. "Are you ready for a real SOB?"
   

Apparently SOB thinks Southern Oregon is being neglected by craft breweries: "SOB has the largest brewing capacity in Southern Oregon. That means we have the ability to meet increasing demand without compromising our dedication to using time-tested brewing methods."

I am reminded of a similar brewery from the mid-90s in Milwaukie--the name of which now eludes me. It was similar in all ways, but I think it went with a Boston Lager-style beer. Times change, so I draw no conclusions about SOB.

The Beer
I picked up the porter and pale. When I went searching the intertubes for info, I discovered a post I myself had written about the porter. I gave the beer a positive appraisal, but the fact that I forgot both drinking the beer and writing a post isn't a great sign. Part of the problem is that while pale ales and porters are totally respectable beers, barring some miracle, even good versions are unlike to stand out among the very dense crowd. They also brew a golden, a serious throwaway style--a dreaded crossover beer--I didn't even bother to sample.

The porter was good. I'll quote myself from the earlier post before adding a bit:

Call it a steam porter. The strongest note is tangy and not quite identifiable--at first I think it's headed in a sour direction, but then it finishes out with a currant tartness. It's a creamy beer, with notes typical of porter--dark grains, roast, and coffee/bitter chocolate. I suggest it's fermented warm because, while the beer is a bit drier than a typical porter, it's sweeter and fruitier than a German schwarzbier.

In the bottle I tried, that funky note was absent and it did in fact taste more like a schwarzbier. It was not fruity like the earlier draft version. I said it would score in the B to B+ range, which is about right.

Porter Stats
Malt: Pale, Carafa (dehusked chocolate), Carapils, roast barley, caramel
Hops: German Magnum, Mt. Hood, Northern Brewer, Perle, Styrian Goldings
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 30

The pale, on the other hand, is not a good beer. Sometimes it's a good idea to brew a standard style and use a different yeast, and sometimes it's not. In the case of the pale, it's not. The schizophrenia of the beer announces itself in the aroma, simultaneously citrusy (though faintly) but with a clear lager signature. The lager yeast creates discordant flavors. The beautiful thing about a pale is the way the rich hop flavor, usually citrusy or floral, pulls out the fruity ale notes. The two do this wonderful tango, cheek to cheek. (There is a reason this beer is so popular.)

But here, the yeast is trying its best to bring a pure, clean malt note. The hops intrude in their tangy, flavorful way and mess things up. This may partly be a function of hop confusion--SOB uses seven (!) different strains here. It's soapy and harsh. You don't want to take a deep, gluttonous pull on the beer like you should with a pale. Rather, you take a nip and shake your head to help it descend down your throat. I couldn't finish the bottle. Actually, I couldnt finish my glass. Not a good beer.

Pale Stats
Malts: Pale, Maris Otter (an English malt), crystal
Hops: Amarillo, Cascade, Challenger, Newport, Sterling, Styrian Goldings, Glacier
ABV: 5%
IBU: 35
Rating: C-

So the final analysis is no clearer than the initial one: SOB remains an enigma.

Porter from Southern Oregon Brewing

I stopped in at Belmont Station last night and had a pint of Southern Oregon Brewing's Porter. If you recall, this is the Medford brewery that opened late last year (nice article here). For those of us at points North, it is an obscure place. No presence on the web, and until I spied this beer, no distribution in Portland. And yet by all accounts, it's a fairly big brewery, so I've been hoping to see it eventually.

The porter is an interesting beer (and singular--it's currently the only SOB beer on tap). It's brewed with a lager yeast but apparently at ale temperatures, if the flavor was any clue. Call it a steam porter. The strongest note is tangy and not quite identifiable--at first I think it's headed in a sour direction, but then it finishes out with a currant tartness. It's a creamy beer, with notes typical of porter--dark grains, roast, and coffee/bitter chocolate. I suggest it's fermented warm because, while the beer is a bit drier than a typical porter, it's sweeter and fruitier than a
German schwarzbier. Quite a nice beer, comforting and quaffable. I could probably use another pint to get a stronger bead on the beer, but it's in the B to B+ range. Nice.

Incidentally, Sally had a Swibrau Oktoberfest (presumably named for Matt Swihart, co-owner/brewer). I stole a swig or two and found it to be wonderfully spicy and rich, and I regretted I didn't have a pint of that, too. Something to put on the list.

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.

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PHOTO: Mail Tribune