For the past nine years, beer has ranked as the number one “in” item on college campuses, according to the annual Student Monitor study, but this year the sudsy treat was dethroned for only the second time in 18 years – by the iPod. Nevertheless, in Eugene, a city known for its local microbrews and drinkers with sophisticated palates, beer may still reign supreme.
The beautiful mountains, lush vegetation and clear, pure lakes and rivers that make the Pacific Northwest visually stunning are
essential to the production of delicious,
refreshing beer.
Springfield resident Mike Bennett has been brewing his own beer both at home and
professionally for more than 20 years.
Oregonians are spoiled because of the region’s unique natural resources, Bennett said.
“The water in the Willamette Valley is pristine when it comes to making beer,” he said. “It’s very low in mineral content and is very soft water, so you can do anything with it. It makes the process easier because you can make any style of beer you want just by adding
different salts. Harder waters change the malt chemistry and give you different
flavor profiles.”
Teri Fahrendorf, Brewmaster at Steelhead Brewery, also praised Eugene’s water.
“In Southern California, they get the water after it goes through the Colorado River and it tastes very chalky,” Fahrendorf said. “We have fabulous water that we get right out of the taps, so our beer – and all the beer in the Pacific Northwest – tastes really good because of that. There are no chalky flavors.”
Local microbreweries also have access to the finest locally-grown ingredients. Several varieties of hops and malt, the two essential ingredients in beer-making grow nearby. In the early days of local craft-brewing, small breweries in the
Pacific Northwest had a difficult time buying ingredients in smaller quantities, Fahrendorf said.
“There was a company in Vancouver, Washington, called Great Western Malting and they were one of the first ones to see the potential – they were either nice or crazy – and they started bagging their malt so microbreweries could just pick it up,” said Fahrendorf. “They would bag it by hand as a favor to small businesses. Now, it’s a bona fide business and a lot of other malt producers have jumped on the bandwagon.”
With newly accessible supplies, Steelhead Brewery opened in 1991 and was only the second brewery in town – McMenamin’s High Street Brewery, which opened in 1987, was the first. Fahrendorf said when the brewery first opened customers did not know anything about microbrewed beer and
were apprehensive, but
willing to learn.
Steelhead employees worked hard to educate their customers. Fahrendorf spent time talking to Lions and Rotary Clubs and distributed a ‘what is a microbrew beer?’ information sheet.
Today, local consumers are better informed.
“Eugene is very beer educated and it has fabulous beer. Now people are very sophisticated. The more localized the clientele, the more cutting-edge the beer,” she said.
Fahrendorf said that as customers keep returning, their taste begins to evolve. Someone who starts out drinking light beer may eventually move up to drinking the darkest beers offered or move along to India Pale Ale (IPA), which is more bitter because of
additional hops.
“When we first opened, it was a big challenge for people coming from drinking Budweiser. Now our best seller is the Bombay Bomber IPA. People get more experienced and they move up,” she said. “We have a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest that we call ‘hop heads’ who really like bitter beers, so they’ll look for the seasonals that have a little more oomph.”
Michelle Basham, assistant manager at McMenamins High Street
Brewery, agreed that
customers move up to more bitter beers.
“I would say younger
people like beer with not quite as much body to it. When I first started working here, I would drink the hefeweizen and as I worked more, I’m now going for the IPAs and the Hammerheads, which is really weird to me. But my appreciation is changing now,” she said.
Basham said that Oregonians’ appreciation of local, natural ingredients helps them appreciate locally brewed beers, which use fresher ingredients and are brewed in small and varied batches. Bennett agreed.
“A lot of what makes craft beer good is its attention to detail and its freshness, he said. “One of the reasons Oregon and Eugene residents are big craft beer drinkers is that we have a pioneering spirit. We don’t like to get stuck in the same routine as the rest of the world. Most of us are up for challenges and we like things that make
us different.”