Eugene weekly., June 05, 2014, Page 39, Image 39

The
State
of Suds
CHECKING IN ON EUGENE-SPRINGFIELD
BREWERIES BY SHANNON FINNELL
T
he craft brew renaissance is in full bloom
here in Eugene and Springfield, and
nothing makes this sudsy success more
clear than looking at local breweries and
what they’ve been up to.
AGRARIAN ALES agales.com
Agrarian Ales is a brewery with a mission: to use
locally sourced ingredients native to North America
whenever possible — and make delicious beer. Recently
Agrarian helped sponsor the Above and Beyond
Monsanto march, bringing its Indigenous lager to prove
what’s possible in the realm of local, non-GMO brews.
“That particular beer is a very good example,” says
co-owner Ben Tilley. “It exemplifies what we’re trying
to do as a whole, to really be a completely locally based
business through and through.”
Agrarian makes the chili-corn lager with certified
organic heirloom Dakota Black corn from Lonesome
Whistle Farm, as well as Guajillo and Royal Black
chiles from Tilley’s parents’ Crossroads Farm.
Agrarian is also embarking on its first small-bottling
project. “It will be really small runs,” Tilley says, “and
we’ll be doing the Belgian-style corked bottles to sell
small batches of some unique stuff that will have a
good shelf life in the bottle.” The brewery is aiming to
release its first run later this year.
Fans of the brewery, located just north of Coburg, can
be a part of making the brews. The annual hops-picking
party in August gives participants the chance to gather
some of the 10 varieties Agrarian grows on its farm, which
has a hops-growing tradition dating back 150 years.
CLAIM 52 BREWING claim52brewing.com
Since 2012, Claim 52 has been serving up its suds
from a warehouse on Tyinn Street, as well as from
numerous bars and taprooms around town, where
favorites Claim 52 Kolsch and Admiral of the Red have
caused quite the buzz.
Co-owner and brewer Trevor Ross says he’s
especially proud of the small-bottling project Claim 52
ran with Belgian dark strong ale Olivia 9, named for
www.eugeneweekly.com
Ross’ daughter. “We took a little bit of it and told
people to come taste the young beer while we were
bottling the beer that we sold later that year, and people
could buy futures of it at that time,” Ross says. “It got
us to see that that would work, and that there was a
need for specialty high-gravity stuff in the community.”
The demand for Claim 52 brews led the company to
hire assistant brewer Joe Buppert, and now the brewery
is open for expanded summer hours, 4 to 7 pm
Thursdays, 4 to 9 pm Fridays and 2 to 7 pm Saturdays.
“We’ve just about grown ourselves to our capacity
of production in terms of how much beer we can
actually make,” Ross says. “We’re possibly entertaining
another tap room offsite, and we’re also eyeing
expansion.”
CO-OWNER MERCY MCDONALD
OF CLAIM 52 BREWING
HEAD BREWER JIM MONTGOMERY
AT SAM BOND’S BREWING
FALLING SKY BREWING fallingskybrewing.com
Welcome to the laboratory: Falling Sky, now with a
brewpub, deli and home brew shop, is planning to
make more than 100 unique styles of beer this year.
Co-owner Rob Cohen says Falling Sky is able to
create such a variety because it’s not a production
brewery. “Our brewers tweak recipes, and we can try a
lot of different things without as much pressure to do
large-scale production,” he says. All of that
experimentation rotates through the brewery’s 20 taps.
Now Falling Sky is readying to host 150 brewers
and beer aficionados during the Sasquatch Brewers
Dinner June 6 at the Pour House Delicatessen. “For us
it’s a huge opportunity to do a pretty amazing brewers
dinner, and I think our space is going to be just perfect
for it,” Cohen says.
The blossoming craft beer culture — and the many
brewery openings that have followed — doesn’t worry
the folks at Falling Sky. “We just think the more
brewers the better,” Cohen says. “Some people are so
nervous about more and more breweries opening up,
but we think it’s just piqued interest more and more.”
HOP VALLEY BREWING hopvalleybrewing.com
It’s been an award-winning year for Hop Valley,
with two bronze medals at the 2014 World Beer Cup.
Double D Blonde won bronze in the American Wheat
category for the third time, and Citrus Mistress IPA
took bronze in the American IPA category.
“The World Beer Cup is considered the ‘Beer
Olympics,’ and to win medals there is a true testament
to our brewing team and their commitment to quality
and innovation,” says Partner and Director of Sales and
Marketing Walter MacBeth.
This comes in the same year that Hop Valley opened
an expansive indoor-outdoor location in the Whit, and
it’s not done growing. “We are looking at expanding
our reach into neighboring Western states,” MacBeth
says. “We will be adding production capacity in August
and September to make this a reality.”
In addition to growing its production, Hop Valley
plans to start a barrel-aging program. “The basement of
EUGENE WEEKLY’S STATE OF SUDS 2014
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