There’s a special cohesion within the community of Eugene. Sometimes that cohesion is pasted together by certain ideologies and lifestyles, but more often than not, it’s much more simple than that. Sometimes it’s a beverage.
The Sasquatch Brewfest, now in its fifth year, brings Eugene residents, Oregonians, and outsiders alike together to drink good beer and commemorate the life and legacy of Glen Hay Falconer.
“The beer community knows who Glen was and there are a lot of people connected to him, but then there are people that just come to the brew festival to be close to a Northwest Legend,” said John Burgess, also known as Chewy. “We’re called Northwest Legends because of Glen Falconer and Sasquatch. It’s because he was a Northwest Legend.”
Falconer was a homebrewer-turned-commercial brewer. He moved to Eugene after college from Atlanta, and after he was invited by local brewer and real estate agent Scott Weech to a Cascade Brewer’s Society meeting, he went headlong into the scene.
With stints at Steelhead, Rogue and finally at Wild Duck, a now-defunct brewpub, Falconer spread his love of good hops, good beer and good times. This year the festival features a homebrewer’s competition in addition to the festival itself, with a section devoted to a style that Falconer developed: The Imperial Sasquatch Ale.
“Glenn was a hophead,” Chewy said. “The beer that he was known for was the Sasquatch, which was pretty infamous. It was the flagship beer at the Wild Duck. He brewed Glenn’s Best Bitter, the Glenn Ale, which Rogue puts out is a memorial tribute to him. You’ll see a lot of the beers at the festival are really hoppy, dry-hopped beers. They’ll do all this stuff for this festival. They try and make big, burly beers. We get the biggest beer out there.”
Falconer was a particularly good friend of John “More Hops” Maier, the brewmaster at Rogue Ales.
“Once John Maier took him under his wing, that’s when he became a better brewer,” Weech said. “Glenn was like his younger brother.”
Like many people in the beer community, Falconer was a character. He was known for his outlandish performances at his annual Halloween and Oktoberfest parties, where he would switch his costume multiple times in one night.
“He would change costumes at least two to three times, sometimes four or five, always dealing with less clothing during the night and more feathers,” said Chris Studach, long-time Cascade Brewer’s Society member and creator of Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Nectar. “It was like he was Josephine Baker or something.”
When Falconer died in 2002, it was paralyzing to the beer community. However, a crowd of more than 150 people gathered at the Wild Duck the next afternoon to pay respects.
“Everybody knew Glenn,” Studach said. “It wasn’t just that he gave lip service to people; he was a true friend to a lot of people, a lot of people, and you could not believe the turnout at the Wild Duck the next afternoon. It was somber, but it was unbelievable.”
What Falconer left in his wake was a far-reaching legacy that persists in the minds of friends and strangers. Friends remember a brewer and companion never short of a laugh and a good time. Strangers are awarded scholarships from his memorial foundation, the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation, to go and receive brewing educations. Furthermore, Falconer is immortalized by more than just a brew festival. He is immortalized as part of Eugene, Oregon: a pillar of the beer community and a true friend to many.
“The brewfest is just a time for a bunch of people to get together to remember Glenn and drink some good beer,” Chewy said. “And as informal and unpretentious as that may sound, that’s the way Falconer would have wanted it.”
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Brew fest offers trifecta of good hops, good beer, good times
Daily Emerald
May 12, 2010
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