Officially, signs posted at Oregon’s borders read, “Welcome to Oregon.”
But they might as well read, “Beervana.”
That’s the nickname the Oregon Brewers Guild is pushing for state recognition and, after looking at the state’s bevy of international-caliber beers, it’s hard to find anything outlandish with the suggestion.
“Oregon is, you know, the place we make good beer. The brewing renaissance is here,” said Willamette Brewery co-founder Jeff Althouse.
Since 1979, when then-President Jimmy Carter legalized the act of home brewing, beer is what Oregon has done best. Last year, 14 Oregon beers from eight breweries won medals at the Great American Beer Festival, which had more than 2,800 beers competing in 75 categories. At the 2006 Brewers Association World Beer Cup, Oregon had 11 wins out of a 2,200 beer field.
Moreover, Portland is recognized as the microbrewing capital of the world, being the home of the most microbreweries and pubs than any other city. A microbrewery is defined as one that produces less than 15,000 barrels of beer per year. The city is also home to more than one-third of all Oregon’s breweries. Hosting North America’s largest beer festival – 60,000 people attended the 2007 Oregon Brewers Festival – seems only appropriate.
Eugene beer lovers will be glad to know that their city isn’t far behind.
The five breweries that do business within the city limits – Ninkasi, Willamette, Steelhead, McMenamins and Eugene City Brewers – only add to the already famous stable of Oregon microbreweries that includes Widmer, Deschutes, Full Sail and Rogue.
“Portland gets credit on the international level as being one of the utmost amazing places ever to go to drink beer,” said Jamie Floyd, one of Eugene’s most well-known beer makers and founder of Ninkasi Brewery.
“What I kind of envision Eugene as is kind of like in Germany where they’ve got these communities that have pretty amazing and important brewing communities. In Munich, within 100 miles are all these crazy breweries … and Eugene is kind of like that extension.”
Lane Fricke, who has been the head brewer at McMenamins High Street Restaurant and Brewery for the past seven years, agrees.
“People in Eugene really like to keep their style local, you know. They don’t really particularly go for things that are shipped in from out of state.”
So why are Northwest beers so good? The answer lies in the hops.
According to the Oregon Hop Commission, Washington, Oregon and Idaho are the nation’s top three hop producers, respectively, keeping one of beer’s four main ingredients conveniently close to home. By using a lot of hops, the brewers give the beers a fuller body and taste. These beers aren’t the mass-advertised light stuff found at most college parties – a difference that is on purpose and by design.
“If somebody thinks of a Northwest beer they’re going to think of a beer that typically has a bigger body, typically has a larger hop content and possibly a larger alcohol content. Just a well-made, full-body beer that generally you might not be able to find in another part of the country,” said Chip Hardy, the co-owner of The Bier Stein on East 11th Avenue and a former gold medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival.
Besides the raw ingredients, creativity and originality set microbrews far apart from the Big Three beer producers: Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors, and SAB Miller. In most cases, restaurant brewers must produce the house favorites to an exact recipe, but are given almost complete control over any other seasonal beers.
“It is a different attitude because what you have going on in a microbrewery situation is there is one or maybe six people involved, but that’s who’s making the beer and they get to kind of determine what they want to make and so there’s that passion there,” said Fricke.
“In a larger corporation-style brewery what you have are a lot of bean counters and number crunchers. What those guys are dealing with is essentially one kind of beer and it’s all run by computers and the people are there to make sure it happens. It doesn’t have a human element.”
The human element is something local breweries have no shortage of. All rely on small staffs, keeping contact with the beer through each stage of the process. It’s a process they all learned first as home brewers, like Floyd and Althouse did while at the University and Fricke and Hardy did living in Memphis and Maryland, respectively.
The process is also by no means an easy one. Ninkasi employee Patrick Kennar estimated that a keg is handled 12 times before it’s sold. Empty kegs weight 40 pounds while full ones weigh around 160 pounds.
In Ninkasi’s case, Floyd’s nine years at the Steelhead brewery have led to a smooth transition into his first business. With his blend of personality, hard work and a long list of connections within Eugene’s restaurant and bar scene, the company has secured more than 120 tap handles in barely a year and a half of operation. The brewery produces anywhere from 10,000-13,000 kegs each year right now, but has a building large enough to support a possible 40,000 kegs per year production facility. They also hope to begin a limited bottling operation within the year. By that time the Oregon Brewers Guild expects Ninkasi to be the eighth-largest brewery in Oregon, an amazing feat for such a young business.
“All of us here that are a part of that really realized that recently and we never really thought of it that way. We’re not nearly as big as Rogue, BridgePort or even McMenamins as a chain,” said Floyd.
Statewide demand certainly proves that expansion is a distinct possibility in the future. Eleven percent of all beer sold in Oregon last year was Oregon-brewed beer, the highest of any state. Such high sales can be partly attributed to the high level of education that Oregonians have about their beer – something The Bier Stein bottle house and restaurant plans to continue. But instead of brewing beer, Bier Stein co-owner Chip Hardy now sells it – 950 varieties to be exact.
“When we moved here [in 1997] you could go to certain grocery stores and find some beers, you could go to another grocery store and find other beers but there was never one location that had everything. Our closest competition right now might be Market of Choice, which has 350 to 400 different types of beer.”
Floyd, who used to brew with Hardy, gave a less-modest account of the shop’s impact.
“I told Chip when he said he was going to do it that it was the piece of the puzzle that really dials in this town. There isn’t a single person that comes into this town on a tourism type situation that I don’t say, ‘You need to go to the Bier Stein.’”
Althouse, a 1999 University graduate who co-founded Willamette Brewery after spending four years as a public school teacher, prefers to call his beer “artisan.” His small brewery, which was also co-founded by his brother, opened in April 2004, brewed its first batch in October 2006 and currently has 30 tap handles around town. Without the funds to hire a professional public relations firm – Willamette employs three people – Althouse sells his beer face-to-face, believing the personal nature of his brewery fits perfectly with Eugene’s friendly beer culture.
“What I think people like about the local brewers is that they get to know the brewers, and they get to meet the people that run the company. When people come here I take them on the 30-second tour of the brewery, they get to meet the brewer and can taste the beer off our taps. It’s a lot more relaxed and more of a hometown feel … and you know your money stays here.”
The only thing the brewers expect in return is for the local consumers to do the right thing, and put down the cheap beer in favor of the local flavor.
“That would be great if everybody stopped buying all those crappy, tasteless, watery beers. If everybody started drinking good beer, everybody’s lives would be better,” said Fricke.
“There’s not too many [beers] I don’t like except I don’t drink Bud, Miller or Coors,” admitted Hardy. “Life’s too short to drink bad beer.”