Beer Books

By Robert Daly
Our Newest Honorary Beer Scribe


While much has been written in this space about beer tasting, brewing, special events, little has been written about an important area:

The beauty of books.


Home brewers have their own beer-soaked manuals and classic brewing technique books but for the more esoteric, out of print and highly specialized texts they rely on libraries. Multnomah County library meets the challenge and not just for brewers; it has a fine collection of books on famous brewers, breweries and beer lore.

A quick computer check using “beer” produces 452 hits and “beer books” lists 41. (There are duplications and not all hits deal specifically with beer or are in book form.) The library also has beer and brewing magazines and other serials.

Beer books are not shelved together as a collection, but even more disappointing to bibliomaniacs is that most are not available for browsing.

One of the main reasons the Portland system has such a vast collection is because Fred Eckhardt, the dean of American beer writers, lives here. (His classic “The Essentials of Beer Style” is one of his six titles available, but as with most beer books his are in heavy demand and have a waiting list).

Eight years ago the Oregon Brew Crew, a conspiracy of home brewers, microbrewers and beer lovers, donated funds for the library’s beer book collection in recognition of Fred.

Recently the OBC voted to donate $400 to expand the library’s collection of beer books, again in Fred’s honor, this time for his 80th birthday. He was a founder in the early 1980s of the OBC, one of the first American brewing clubs.


Pauline Baughman, a reference librarian, said the library’s brewing books are heavily used and budget cuts have limited their purchases of new or reissued titles.

Purchases could include new titles and additional copies of popular titles but again most would be stored in the basement because of lack of shelf space---which is true for most of Central Library’s books.

The best way to check titles and availability is to use the online catalog (http://www.multcolib.org/). Getting books is easy. Central Library, downtown, holds the vast majority of beer books but they can be sent to any of the other 16 libraries in its system.

All that is needed is a current library card to check out more books than you can read in a lifetime. If you live outside of Multnomah County you still can get a library card. Call or visit any of the citywide libraries for information.

BREWER SUMMER GAMES

BY Ben Love
Honorary Beer Scribe for Guest on Tap



If you’re trying to decide what to do the first weekend of summer, consider the third annual Brewers Summer Games, billed as “the most fun ever had on the beach.” The event takes place Saturday, June 24, on the beach at the Pelican Pub & Brewery in Pacific City, and features beer and root beer gardens, food, family events, live music and the title event.

The games open the event at noon as brewer teams from around the state meet on the beach to battle it out for the ultimate prize in Brewing Athletics: the Grand Champion Altitude Cup. Teams compete in a series of nine events involving skill, cunning and brute force. The competition includes the Keg Toss, the Mash Relay, the Cheap Beer Toss and the grueling, heart-pounding Dune-to-Surf Race.

Teams will be scored on time, points and, most importantly, style! Because so much weight is placed on the style category, the events are hilarious as well as awe inspiring. Oregon Brewers Guild Director Brian Butenschoen will preside over the event with a team of three “celebrity” judges who assign style points and provide color commentary.

While cheering for your favorite brewery’s team you can enjoy their beers in the beer garden. Participating breweries include Laurelwood, Oregon Trail, Deschutes, Lucky Lab, BridgePort, McMenamins High Street and the new Eugene brewery Ninkasi, just to name a few.

Families also are invited to join in on the fun and compete in the Kids Root Beer Games. Events include the Three-Legged Race, Water Balloon Toss and Mini Root Beer Keg Toss. Afterward, kids can enjoy one of the handmade sodas in the root beer garden.

In the evening, the live music opens with the brewing industry’s own Rolling Boil Blues Band. Next, headliners and local jam-band favorites Big Island Shindig will get the crowd moving and keep the party going until 10 p.m.

Admission to the Brewers Summer Games is free, but the event is a fundraiser for the Nestucca Valley Boosters and the Caring Cabin. The Nestucca Valley Boosters supports athletics and other extracurricular activities in Nestucca schools and the Caring Cabin is a retreat for children undergoing cancer treatment.

Proceeds from food, drink and T-shirt sales go directly to the two charities. Visit www.pelicanbrewery.com or call 503-965-7007 for directions and information.



Beer News:

A ingredient in Hops may help prevent Prostate Cancer and Enlargement - Xanthohumol Inhibits NF-kappaB Protein in Gland of hops. Researchers at Oregon State University have found that xanthohumol, a compound found in hops, inhibits NF-kappaB protein in cells along the surface of the prostate gland.

New Brewery is up and going at 5 th Quadrant! Their crack brewers fired up their new brewery three weeks ago. The new brewery is a 7-barrel operation with 14-barrel fermenters and bright tanks. They should be able to brew about 3,000 barrels each year, compared to about 1,100 last year. So the days when they're out of, say, C-Note should be over! The first beers should be available this week. The folks at 5 th Quadrant (New Old Lompoc) have a new regular beer called Proletariat Red, their salute to working people everywhere. Proletariat Red is a big, malty red ale, with a caramel character but enough hops to cut through the maltiness and give it a nice clean favor. It comes in at around seven percent alcohol, so it's not a beer to be taken lightly. Also, from New Old Lompoc/ 5 th Quadrant a new summer seasonal, Lompeizer American Ale. Lompeizer uses rice as an adjunct ingredient, just like the big boys. But of course it's much better tasting: light, crisp and a bit sweet. It has a beautiful gold color and, at only 5.3 percent alcohol, it's easy to drink on a sunny day on the deck. In addition to operating the new brewery, they' are now open for lunch at the Fifth Quadrant Five-Q will open at 11 a.m. seven days a week. Under the sun: Three of the four Lompoc pubs have their outdoor areas open! Work on the patio at Oaks Bottom has started with plans to have outdoor tables available in about a month. There will be both a deck and a patio, with plans to cover the deck come winter. Again, we'll let you know when it's open.
This Saturday June 24 th from 11 a.m. ‘til late (minors welcome until 10 p.m.; the more, the merrier!) , 23 rd Anniversary Party at the Barley Mill Celebrating McMenamins’ First Pub, theBarley Mill Pub! Head to the venerable Barley Mill Pub for its beloved anniversary celebration, attended by neighborhood regulars, Grateful Dead fans, McMenamins employees and the young and old alike! Come out for food and drink specials including the special Anniversary Ale, door prizes and twisted balloon craziness from “The Balloon Guy” Joe Mishkin, along with revelry, merriment and free birthday cake for all. While you’re there, check out the walls and ceilings adorned with homespun Dead-themed artwork, donated every year by fellow McMenamins pubs. Barley Mill Pub (1629 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, (503) 231-1492

Money on Tap from Forbes.com

by
Christopher Steiner 06.05.06


If you have capital burning a hole in your pocket, buy a boiler, a fermentation vat and a bottling machine.
Bent on living a dream, Linus Hall quit his engineering job at Bridgestone Firestone in 2001. He then groveled for an unpaid summer internship at Brooklyn Brewery: long days of mashing, fermenting and brewing. "You can't buy that kind of education," says Hall, who has a Vanderbilt M.B.A.

With honed brewing prowess (and a good chunk of his savings) Hall fired up the kettles at his own operation--Nashville's Yazoo Brewing--in 2003. Yazoo now makes six beers, including its signature Dos Perros Ale and Amarillo Pale Ale. Its Hefeweizen won a gold medal at the 2004 Great American Beer Festival.

Hall is among the merry crew restoring vigorous health to America's 300-year-old brewing tradition. A century ago the U.S. boasted 2,000 breweries. Prohibition, wars, consolidation and a narrowing of the American palate had by 1985 whittled that number to 100. Today, however, variety rules anew: 1,450 U.S. brewers make choosing a mug an adventure.

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The current revolution began in the basements of thousands of discontented beer drinkers. "All of us come from home brewing," asserts Hall, 35. They have come a long way from boiling grains on a stove and fermenting the result in a closet. Last year craft brewers, who span microbrewers, regional specialty brewers and brewpubs, sold 7 million barrels (31 gallons each), a 9% increase on 2004. That was worth $4.3 billion in retail sales, giving craft brewers a 3.4% share of a flat 205 million-barrel-a-year U.S. market. Only capacity holds them back. "We're in the enviable position of selling everything we can make," says Hall, who expects to sell 5,500 barrels this year, an 83% increase.

Hall spent $240,000 outfitting his leased building and buying equipment. A failed microbrewery in Iowa sold him much of his brewing gear. For $60,000 he got a ten-barrel system that included a mash tun (the vessel in which the water and grains are combined), a boiling kettle and four fermenters. That system, new, would run to $150,000.

"The craft beer business is very capital-intensive," Hall says, "but you can break even fairly quickly because the margins are good." Craft brewers can expect a gross margin near 50% on an average $200 of revenue per barrel of draft beer. Most small breweries do their own bottling, which raises the revenue but tends to reduce the gross profit. Bottling, moreover, eats up more capital. A machine that fills four bottles at a time (the caps go on manually) costs $3,000 secondhand; a big in-line bottling system that can cap the bottles starts at $100,000 secondhand and $250,000 new. Overall, costs of bottled beer break down evenly among labor, ingredients and packaging.

Of course, the pesky taxman can't be ignored. The federal Alcohol & Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau takes $7 a barrel from a brewer's first 60,000 barrels, $18 per barrel thereafter, though that is not a concern to most craft brewers. State excise taxes run from 62 cents in Wyoming to $33 in Alaska. Several states also sneak in a "wholesale tax" on brewers; Tennessee's is the highest at 17% of sales.

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A brewery operates much like a huge lab. It needs to be clinically clean, have sealed concrete floors with several large drains (it takes 8 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of beer), a spacious refrigerated room and copious utility connections. Homes have 3/4-inch water lines; microbreweries need a tap with three times that diameter (and ten times the flow). For electricity you need at least 1,300 amps over a 240-volt, three-phase line.


Aspiring brewers can get vocational education. The Siebel Institute in Chicago, the oldest brewmaster school in America, runs a 2-week course for beginners, at $2,950. Siebel President Lyn Kruger, in only half-jest, refers to the short course as "Career Change 101." It is offered once in the fall in Chicago and once in the spring at Siebel's Munich, Germany branch. If you pass that course or can show that you have been home-brewing or working in a brewery for two years, you are eligible to shell out $13,500 for a 12-week course. That sum includes return airfare for three weeks spent in Germany and for a two-week European brewing study tour, which often goes to Belgium and the Czech Republic. Siebel's alumni include Peter Stroh and August Busch II.

The brewing is the fun part of the business. The drudgery: getting the beer out the door. Beverage distribution networks are hard to crack. Wholesalers can't be bothered to carry the beer of an unknown. Many new brewers are forced to cart the stuff around themselves at the beginning.

Timothy Herzog, who runs Buffalo's Flying Bison, did just that for four years. Tales of meddling Teamsters, skeptical store owners and late-paying customers failed to deter Herzog, 48, a former art teacher. Nor did a Buffalo distributor's efforts to convince bar owners to ditch Herzog's taps for those of the distributor's clients. The practice, called "head-hunting," is prevalent and "not very nice," says Herzog. Nice or not, Buffalo's bar owners wouldn't part with Flying Bison's brews. That (and his four years of legwork) finally got Herzog on board with the region's largest distributor; his beer now travels on trucks alongside kegs and 24-packs of Budweiser and Labatt.

It won't do, of course, to produce bland, Bud-like brews. You have to concoct something with an unusual color, flavor or alcohol content. "Everyone has a pale ale," says Adam Avery, 40, who owns Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colo. with his father, Larry P., 65. Most small brewers prefer crafting ales rather than lagers because ale can be fermented in around two weeks, rather than up to 10 weeks for a lager, which ties up brewery capacity.

Avery started up in 1993 and was cranking out 3,500 barrels by 1998 when business tanked. So the Averys introduced Hog Heaven, a potent 9.2%-alcohol ale made from barley. It was a hit. Avery followed that up with the Dictators: three powerful beers dubbed the Maharaja (a hoppy, dark amber ale), the Kaiser (a deep copper, traditional Oktoberfest brew) and the Czar (a robust stout with hints of toffee and mocha). Avery, which now sells in 26 states, will make 10,000 barrels this year.

Robert Baile, 52, spent 20 years as a research chemist for Syntex Pharmaceuticals (now Roche) and five home-brewing in his basement before buying into the business in 1996. His Twisted Pine Brewery also in Boulder, brews a $5 (per pint) whiskey stout that drinkers can find in only one place: Twisted Pine's tasting room. (No, there are no distilled spirits in it; the name alludes to the brew's aging in used whiskey barrels.) "What did that pint cost me--25 cents? The best margins are right here," he says. The tasting room fills up regularly around 6 p.m. Baile is considering adding a kitchen with a pizza oven. Colorado laws would let him deliver pizza--and a six-pack. "Are you kidding me?" Baile blasts. "I'd need a Brink's truck!"


Sidebar:
Brew Kit


Slideshow:
How To Start Your Own Brewery

Microbreweries in the Land of Guinness: NYTimes Story

June 18, 2006
Journeys
Microbreweries in the Land of Guinness
By JESSICA MERRILL
RECENTLY, a couple of tourists walked into a postcard-worthy pub in the West of Ireland, complete with a fieldstone fireplace, and asked for two pints of Guinness. Nothing unusual there: Guinness is practically the national drink of Ireland and a Guinness or two is an expected way to cap off the day, or, in some cases, start it.
But the woman behind the bar — Fionnuala Garvey, who runs the pub with her son, Niall — patiently explained to the two visitors that maybe they wanted to rethink their order. The Biddy Early, the pub they had just entered, is in fact a microbrewery.
From the blank looks she got in return, she might have said that the Biddy Early was out of beer.
Mrs. Garvey thought for a minute, then she picked up a menu and pointed to the back. "See, we brew our own beer," she said. "If you like stout, we have the Black Biddy, or we have the Red Biddy or Blonde Biddy, a lager. ... Or, we have Guinness?"
"N-o-o-o! Two Black Biddy please," they said, finally comprehending. And just like that, two more people were initiated into the world of the Irish microbrewery.
None of Ireland's big stouts, Guinness, Murphy's or Beamish, are Irish-owned today. Guinness (along with Smithwick's Ale and Harp lager) is owned by the British beverage conglomerate Diageo, Murphy's by Amsterdam-based Heineken and Beamish by the British brewer Scottish & Newcastle. Budweiser and the Danish beer Carlsberg typically round out taps in Irish pubs from Dublin to Doolin.
But craft beer does still exist in Ireland — helped in part by a tax break for small brewers that the Irish government put into effect in 2005 — and the best way to find it is to go straight to the source. On a recent trip to Ireland, my husband and I sipped our way across the country, sampling smooth stouts, crisp ales and bold lagers, all made by small, independent brewers.
Our tour kicked off in Dublin at one of the country's largest microbreweries, the Porterhouse, then ended at the Biddy Early in Inagh in County Clare, conveniently located on the way to the Cliffs of Moher. In between, we indulged our palates with hops and malts in the city of Cork and a few small-town destinations, like Carlow and the pretty seaside village of Kinsale. We discovered plenty of good beer, but we also stumbled into quirky settings and ancient buildings that have been restored and converted for a new use. Most were quiet pubs or tasting rooms, off the tourist map though not exactly on the local circuit either.
The Porterhouse is one of Ireland's brewing pioneers. Two cousins, Liam LaHart and Oliver Hughes, started brewing in 1996, and today the Porterhouse encompasses several brewpubs around Dublin, the original in Bray and one in London. When we walked into the Porterhouse in Dublin's trendy Temple Bar neighborhood and saw 10 beers on tap, it felt as heartwarming as the sound of an Irish band striking up "Danny Boy. "
"You don't serve Guinness, do you?" I asked the bartender behind the sleek copper bar. "No, but we still get plenty of people in here who ask for it," she laughed. Then, she handed us a sampler tray of seven of the Porterhouse's stouts and ales. There was Wrasslers 4X, a hearty stout made to the recipe for an Irish beer brewed in the early 1900's; a biting oyster stout brewed with fresh oysters; a lighter plain porter and a rich chocolate stout that tasted more like dessert than beer.
A 10-minute walk along the River Liffey from the Temple Bar is another brewery, Messrs. Maguire, in what was once an 1808 tavern and a rope purveyor run by one William Maguire. It's less ambitious than the Porterhouse, but with its original rose ceiling and dark nooks and crannies, Messrs. Maguire is still a nice spot to enjoy a dose of character along with a fresh pint: plain (stout), rusty (ale), haus (lager) and weiss (wheat).
From Dublin, we headed southwest to County Carlow, once a local malt-growing region, where the O'Hara family, the owners of the Carlow Brewing Company, is continuing the brewing tradition. Housed next to the town's old stone train station in the former goods store for the railway, Carlow looks like a whistle-stop cafe.
Instead, it's where the O'Haras (the brothers Seamus, Eamon and Michael; their sister, Siobhan, and Seamus' wife, Kay) produce a creamy, full-bodied O'Hara's Stout, Curim Gold Wheat beer and Moling's Red ale. The day we popped in, Michael O'Hara, the head brewer, was brewing a fresh batch of stout, and the smell of malt swirled in the air.
"We wanted to have a building with character because we were trying to revive an old tradition," Kay O'Hara said as she walked us through the rustic stone brewery, pointing out where the old train tracks used to be, before leading us into a polished tasting room. Seamus and Eamon started the brewery in 1996 and found a niche by exporting beer to places like the United States. Now, Seamus O'Hara said they were starting to see more awareness from the Irish.
"People have traveled a lot more, people have opened up their minds a lot more in terms of what they eat and drink," Mr. O'Hara said.
The Franciscan Well in Cork is located on the site of a 12th century monastery and well. You can spot the brewery by its pleasing sign (a cheery friar holding a pint). The brewer is a former New Yorker, Russell Garet, who produces complex beers like Rebel Red amber ale, a creamy Shandon Stout and a fruity Blarney Blonde. Franciscan Well's beers are poured at some pubs in Cork, but it's worth the walk across the River Lee to the brewery for its outdoor courtyard scattered with picnic tables and a view into the brewery.
Further south is the Kinsale Brewing Company, located in the heart of the port town of Kinsale. The brewery hosts tours in the afternoons and has a pleasant tasting room and a outdoor courtyard for sampling their stout, lager and ale. The town hadn't yet geared up for the high tourist season when we visited in early April. The brewery, too, was quiet, so Barry Kiely, the owner, poured three beers and took a seat with us.
"What we tried to do was reconnect to three centuries of brewing tradition," Mr. Kiely said, growing animated when the topic of Ireland's brewing heritage arose. He jumped up, saying, "I should show you ...." before disappearing out the door.
He came back holding a floor plan dated 1854. It was for a brewery called the Williams Brewery in the area of the Kinsale brewery. He pulled out another document, this one a historical account of a stop Sir Walter Raleigh made in Kinsale in 1617 before voyaging across the Atlantic. According to this paper, Raleigh stocked up on Kinsale-brewed beer before hitting the high seas.
"This town used to produce tons of beer," Mr. Kiely said with a wistful smile.
It's nice to see history starting to repeat itself.
If You Go
Biddy Early Brewery, Inagh, County Clare, 353-65-683-6742; www.beb.ie. Red Biddy ale is made with a locally grown wild herb, bog myrtle, in place of hops. Black Biddy stout is made with carrigeen moss, used to fine the beer, a process that causes solids to drop out.
Porterhouse Brewing Company, 16-18 Parliament Street, Dublin, 353-1-679-8850, www.porterhousebrewco.com. The brewery offers the widest selection of beers among Ireland's microbrews. As many as 10 beers are on tap, including seasonal specialties like a rich chocolate stout.
Messrs Maguire, 1-2 Burgh Quay, Dublin, 353-1-670-5777. On tap are a plain stout, a fruity ale, wheat beer and a Czech-style pilsner, along with a seasonal rotation.
Carlow Brewing Company, the Goods Store, Station Road, Carlow, 353-59-913-4356. Carlow Brewing makes O'Hara's Stout, Curim Gold and Moling's Red. Curim is said to be a traditional Celtic-style beer once made in the region, and the red ale is named after the Book of Moling by sixth-century Celtic monks in South Carlow.
Franciscan Well Brewery, 14 North Mall, Cork, 353-21-421-0130; www.franciscanwellbrewery.com. Franciscan Well serves a range of local favorites (Rebel Red, Shandon Stout, Blarney Blonde, Rebel Lager and Friar Weisse), complemented by seasonal specialties.
Kinsale Brewing Company, the Glen, Kinsale, 353-21-470-2124, www.kinsalebrewing.com. With a new brewer on board, Kinsale is trying to bring new beers to taps, but currently serves lager, stout, ale and wheat.

Buy Your Dad a Beer

By Gary Corbin

What beer will you be sharing with your dad this Father’s Day?
Sadly, having recently lost my dad to cancer, I won’t have that opportunity this year. But while Dad and I never shared the same taste in beer, the words Dad and beer are forever linked in my mind.
When I was a kid watching him play cards with his brothers and cousins, I’d steal sips from the cans of Narragansett and Schaefer I’d fetch for them, and make a bitter beer face. Once the only beer left was warm, so I poured it into a glass and added ice cubes. His outraged reaction marked the beginning of my beer education.
Dad first gave me beer when I was 16, to my mom’s horror.
“He’s old enough,” Dad growled at her.
Considering that I’d gotten good and drunk the year before at Oktoberfest, I’d say so. (Mom, you’re not reading this, are you?)
A few months later, working construction with him, I discovered the secret of his “coffee” breaks — Miller ponies in the afternoon. He’d start humming “When it’s time to relax … ” around 2 p.m. and pop a cold one at the next logical stopping point. I helped him out at first, but stopped when he offered to let me drive home. (It didn’t help. I still flunked my first driving test.)
Once I reached legal age, I began bringing home imports like Beck’s Dark and Guinness.
“How can you drink that stuff?” he asked.
I felt safe in knowing my beer wouldn’t disappear, unless my little brother got his hands on it.
Dad tried my homebrew and some Oregon craft beers. A creature of habit, he quickly settled on his favorite — Deschutes’ Cascade Golden Ale. Everywhere we went — even at competing brewpubs like McMenamins and Full Sail — he asked for that beer. Fortunately, guest taps are common in the Northwest.
I’ll be celebrating my dad’s memory Sunday with a good beer.

SideBar Ideas
Perhaps you and your dad will make new memories with one of these options:
• Try Rogue’s Dad’s Little Helper, a malt liquor made with 40 percent corn and packaged in 22-ounce bottles. At 7.5 percent alcohol by volume, though, maybe you’d better not drive.
• Go organic. Try a pint of Roots Brewing’s Hotsteppa, made with fresh ginger, habanero peppers and scotch bonnet peppers. If spicy’s not your style, try their new Apricot Wheat.
• Take your dad golfing at McMenamins Father’s Day Golf Tournament at the Edgefield complex. Check-in is at 9 a.m., with a 10 a.m. shotgun start; it’s $20 per person, reservations required. For information, visit www.mcmenamins.com.
• Get out of town and get yourself to Deschutes’ third annual Open House & Barrel Tasting on Saturday, June 17. Get a tour, appetizers and tastes of eight barrel-aged beers, including Pinot Noir Jubelale, Jack Daniels Obsidian Stout and Deschutes’ new Inversion IPA, for $35.

Beer News

Attention Beer Nutz! The producers and camera crews of a new cable television program called “Beer Nutz” will be in the Portland area Tuesday June 13th and Wednesday June 14th. The show, Beer Nutz, is about breweries, micro breweries, brew pubs, bars, restaurants, and the people that are associated with them. They want to talk to you! They will be filming in HD (High Definition) for a new HD network that will start broadcasting this new program this summer. Portland is one of eight cities that will be covered. Look for the crew around McMenamins Edgefield; Horse Brass Pub; Hair of the Dog; Higgins (Back Bar); Bridgeport Brewery; etc.. It will have a travel element i.e. “Here we are in Portland, OR on the banks of the Willamette…..” Anyone who wants to sit down and tell them about what they like in a beer are invited to approach them. Along those lines, they are interested in interviewing regular pub goers - not just brewmasters!

Sustainable Brewing

BY Abram Goldman-Armstrong
Honorary Beer Scribe for Guest on Tap

From the barley field to the bottle, people are rethinking the way beer is brewed and striving to make it more sustainable.
The North American Organic Brewers Festival at the World Forestry Center from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 10, celebrates this movement with more than 30 organic beers from across the U.S. and Europe. A unique lineup, from Belgian Wit to Pilsner to Imperial IPA, all brewed with organic ingredients, proves that organic beer has come of age.
The festival itself is reducing its environmental impact by using mugs from past years of the Oregon Brewers Festival, encouraging attendees to take public transit and printing all of its T-shirts on organic cotton.
Organic beers have been growing in popularity, and two major maltsters have recently become certified to produce organic malt to keep up with demand. Roots Organic Brewing, which opened last year, now is pouring beer at more than 100 pubs and restaurants statewide. Laurelwood has seen organic beer climb to nearly half of its production over the past several years. Brew-pub menus are starting to feature more organic produce and free-range meat. But sustainability goes beyond organic ingredients.
Widmer Brothers, Deschutes and Full Sail all purchase wind power to operate their facilities. Several local brewpubs, including Laurelwood and Widmer, participate in the city’s composting program, keeping food scraps out of landfills. Simple steps such as these lead to sustainability.
Christian Ettinger, formerly of Laurelwood, is opening his own certified organic brewery on Southeast 29th Avenue and Powell Boulevard, where he has been incorporating sustainable elements into the project from the start. The remodel began with deconstruction to salvage everything from light fixtures to lumber for reuse in the brewery or donation to nonprofit used-building materials yards. Ettinger is working with a local biodiesel collective on plans for heating the building and firing the brew kettle with biodiesel, made from used fryer oil.
So raise and reuse your mugs to green beers of the future.
Beer News:
Concordia Ale House celebrates their FIRST Anniversary June 10 th through June 12 th on NE Killingsworth and 33 rd Avenue! On June 10 th, Concordia will have LIVE Music from 2 to 5 PM; Sunday 11 th at 3 PM, you can meet Walking Man Bob from Walking Man Brewery (Stevenson, Washington) and try his special Anniversary Ale brewed for Concordia Ale House’s First Anniversary; Monday June 12 th (The actual Anniversary Day) Beer and food specials all day long and at 8 PM, Concordia will be opening special Large format bottles (All Big Large Belgium Beers) and Live music jam will start at 10 PM (Bring your own instrument and join in). Matt and Molly say “Thanks for a great first year!” (Phone# 503.287.3929)
The Oregon Brew Crew has announced at their May meeting that $400 from this year's budget would be allocated to purchase beer books for the Multnomah County Central Library to honor Fred Eckhardt on his 80th birthday by placing book plates in newly purchased books section of the Library. Look for more about this in future Guest on Tap Columns.