Eugene weekly., July 14, 2011, Page 36, Image 36

M att Van Wyk
Oakshire Brewery
Eugene
W O RD S BY D A N TE Z U Ñ IGA - W EST • PHOT O S BY T R ASK B EDO R T HA
OAKSHIRE BREWING
Touring Oakshire Brewing Company with
Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk is like stumbling after a
mad scientist in the lab. This isn’t too much of a
stretch, as Van Wyk used to be a high school science
teacher in the Chicago area. He cracks his favorite
canned joke, how teaching teenagers drove him to
brew beer. Then he states frankly, “You know, people
laugh when I say this, but biology is beer, and
fermentation is chemistry.”
Founded in 2006 by Jeff and Chris Althouse, Oak-
shire is a Eugene brewery you probably are somewhat
familiar with. Year-round brews such as Watershed IPA,
Amber Ale and Overcast Espresso Stout can be found
pouring from the taps of most bars in town. Oakshire
has grown 60 percent in the last two years, and just to
give you an idea of how serious Van Wyk and company
are, they have brewed 23 unique beers in the last 24
weeks. This is due in part to the Brewmaster’s precise
experimentation and in part to the hard work of the
Oakshire staff — which manages not only the brewery,
but a well-proportioned organic garden and chicken
coop as well. This addendum is a unique feature that
makes Oakshire seem more like a family than a brewery.
The staff takes shifts doing chores, as well as working
their asses off brewing damn good beer.
“These are our values, and it’s little things like this
that make Eugene’s beer industry unique,” Van Wyk
says before leading the way into a separate facility
across the street.
“This is my little playground,” the scientist says,
clambering up a heap of neatly stacked barrels, beer
glasses in hand.
Tucked away in this warehouse, adjacent to the main
brewery, is the Oakshire beer bunker. Buffalo Trace bour-
bon barrels and Pinot wine barrels filled with Van Wyk’s
concoctions are packed away here and left to age. He
examines his projects and pours tiny samples, attempt-
ing to remember which one of the beer-filled barrels in
front of him is soaking about 2 pounds of apricots. He
is proud of his work, and rightfully so.
Van Wyk is elusive when asked about the release
dates of his barrel-aged brews, which can take from six
months to three years to mature. “Not ‘till they’re
good,” he says, peering into his half-full glass as if it
were a beaker.
HOP VALLEY
Hop Valley Brewmaster Trevor Howard earned his
spurs in Corvallis at OSU in the school’s fermentation
program — but we won’t hold that against him. After
all, Howard was born and raised in Eugene, as was his
father and his father’s father.
4 THE STATE OF SUDS 2011
Though Howard’s demeanor is lax, you can tell he
is a hard-working man by his large, rough hands,
fingers with Band-Aids wrapped around them; he’s got
that I-will-outwork-you vibe about him, in a humble
sort of way.
Hop Valley is a newer brewery in town. It is
officially located in Springfield, but hey, that’s more
Eugene than Corvallis. Founded two years ago by Ron
Howard, Trevor Howard, Chuck Hare and Jonas
Kungry, Hop Valley runs 10 standard beers and two
seasonals at all times, and the brewery is a rising force
to be reckoned with. Inhabiting what used to be
Ninkasi’s brew house (which Ninkasi rented from the
restaurant known as Sophia’s), Hop Valley also boasts
a full kitchen and nice-looking eatery.
Heavy on the history, Hop Valley pays homage to
the hop farmers of Oregon’s past with stoic black-and-
white photographs hung throughout their tap house
depicting the laborers in the fields. Howard pays tribute
to Oregon with his professional opinion of the state’s
beer industry. “I haven’t seen any beers out there that
beat Oregon,” he says. Keep in mind that Howard is a
brewmaster with more than 40 national and international
beer-tasting competition medals to his credit.
Trevor Howard
Hop Valley
Having been embedded in the Willamette Valley
his entire life, Howard provides what is perhaps the
most genuine insider perspective on Oregon’s beer
scene. The beer industry “has completely exploded
here over the last couple of years. And we (Oregonians)
enjoy our bigger hoppy beers; IPAs from the Midwest
are like pale ales to us.”
Hop Valley’s Alphadelic IPA, a finished product
born of Howard’s recipe, is a sour 7-percent ass kicker
that may be the best IPA this side of the Mississippi,
maybe in the country. The Natty Red Imperial Red ale
is a malty, hopped-out, 8-percent slugger that is not be
passed up either.
STEELHEAD BREWERY
Brewmaster Ted Fagan of Steelhead Brewery is a
natural. He has been brewing beer since the age of 12.
“My mom explained alcohol fermentation and I just
went with it,” he says.
Fagan in his preteens hid his home brewing
operation in the closet, so as not to alert his parents to
what would one day become his livelihood. He has
been described by coworkers as the “Rain Man of beer
brewing” for his shoot-from-the-hip expert recipes he is
known to whip up on the fly in, like, 10 minutes.
“I rarely ever try to formulate a recipe using math,”
he says. “I could make it (brewing) rocket science, but
then it’d be no fun.” That he is good enough to say this,
and still bust out beer that is better than most you will
ever taste, is nothing short of phenomenal; then again,
Fagan has been doing it since before he knew how to
drive a car or went out on a date.
Steelhead Brewery is one of the older breweries in
town. Founded in 1991 by a quintet of businessmen
from diverse trades, the brew house is a two-man show
when it comes to the actual brewing part. Though
Ted Fagan
Steelhead Brewery
Steelhead has a tap house and a restaurant, the two
worlds remain somewhat separate, with brewers
working behind a glass panel in plain view of the
patrons while restaurant staff runs the floor out front.
Co-brewer Jake Foose is a bear of a man whose work
ethic and enthusiasm help the operation flourish. “I’ll
take a hard work day here any day,” Foose says with
satisfaction on his breath.
These two brewers are chummy in their rapport.
Transparent in regard to their process, they joke about
minor mishaps that can occur throughout the brewing
procedures. They laugh about taking accidental beer
showers or getting chemically scalded by the sodium
hydroxide in their cleaning products.
Fagan and Foose keep their workspace immaculate;
cleanliness is a huge part of their process. Foose
estimates that they spend 80 percent of their time
cleaning the facilities. They are very serious about their
beer despite the fun they are having. Sitting down with
them to sample beers is like a personal tour through a
museum with the curator.
Both the brewmaster and his peer are fond of
Steelhead’s Hopasaurus Rex, an all-business,
10-percent slammer that can take someone away from
their day if generously applied. “That’s a dangerous
beer,” Fagan says. The brewmaster happens to be in
love with one of his newer creations, the Twisted
Meniscus IPA, a Red Ale that is arguably the best thing
on tap at Steelhead right now.
The mixture of chill but damn-good-at-what-they-
do vibe makes Steelhead a unique and well-rounded
brewery. When asked what their favorite part of the job
is, both brewers concede that watching through the
glass panel as customers show their friends new beers
(and love them) makes the hard work worth every drop
of sweat and beer.
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