BEER
BEAT
The latest news in
brews and brewing
BY AMY SCHNEIDER
AND ALEX V. CIPOLLE
et’s face it, we all have a little Homer Simpson
in us, and sometimes leaving the house to
replenish the beer supply is just too much. Enter
ManCäve Brewing Company: “Give us a call
and we’ll deliver your beer,” co-owner Brandon
Woodruff says. As of early June, ManCäve
officially has its license to do same-day home
deliveries through OLCC’s Malt Beverage
Delivery Privilege program. ManCäve will
now deliver six packs, 12 packs and growlers within a
2-mile radius of the brewery (540 Fillmore St. in Eugene).
“No one else is doing it,” Woodruff says of the local brew
scene. See mancavebrewingcompany.com for details.
Elk Horn Brewery has expanded from a 7-barrel to a
20-barrel brewing system “because we couldn’t
keep up,” co-owner Colleen Sheehan says.
Sheehan adds that the brewery will have its
liquor license July 1. “We’re buying all the rare
whiskeys we can find in Oregon,” Sheehan says.
Elk Horn is gearing up to get their brews in cans
as well. “We’ll be canning by football season,”
Sheehan says.
Happy Birthday to The Bier Stein! The
formidable beer hall turns 10 years old on July
6. The Bier Stein has come a long way from its
old pad on 11th Ave., where it only had 10 taps.
Now it hosts up to 25-plus rotating taps (at the
current location, 1591 Willamette St.) plus what
must be thousands of bottled options. The Bier
Stein writes: “Since we were the first place to
serve Ninkasi’s Total Domination, Oakshire’s
(then Willamette Brewing Company) Watershed
IPA and Hop Valley’s Alphadelic (then
Alphaholic) IPA, we will be tapping kegs of
those (note: not from those first batches) and
charging our old school price of $3.50/pint
(those pints are now half-liters, 16.9 oz).” Other
unusual goodies will be tapped for tasting as
well, including an Agrarian-Bier Stein
collaboration — “Decadence,” a Belgian-style
golden strong ale.
Nature lovers and beer drinkers unite! This April,
Oregon Wild announced the creation of the Oregon
Brewshed® Alliance. It’s a partnership between brewers
and conservationists intent on preserving clean water and
habitat. According to Oregon Wild, “brewshed®” refers to
“the watersheds that brewers and breweries source for
their water” to make craft beer — good for Oregon and
good for beer. Local breweries participating include
Claim 52 Brewing, Elk Horn Brewery, Ninkasi Brewing
and Falling Sky Brewing.
In other beer and nature news, Falling Sky Brewing
partnered with Friends of Trees in April and donated $1
towards planting a tree for every sale of its Tree Line Pale
L
www.eugeneweekly.com
true estate brewery.” Agrarian joins nine other small
Oregon businesses under the Hatch Oregon umbrella,
including Red Wagon Creamery. Visit agales.com.
Colby Phillips, co-owner of the new taphouse
beergarden. on 6th Avenue, says to keep an eye out for
its official grand opening — follow beergarden.’s
Facebook page for updates. Phillips adds that a full-out
Oktoberfest at beergarden. is in the works. “We’ll be
doing that for the entire duration of the actual Oktoberfest,”
he says, which runs Sept. 19 through Oct. 4.
Think of it as a beer scavenger hunt: The Eugene Ale
Trail, launched last year by visitor center Eugene Cascades
& Coast, is an ongoing program offering prizes to beer
lovers who visit eight of 11 participating breweries in the
Eugene-Springfield area. The program has a printable
“passport” online, and once you collect eight stamps in
your passport, turn it in for a free amber growler. Bonus
points for visiting Brewers Union Local 180 in Oakridge.
Check out the Ale Trail at eugenecascadescoast.org.
Up the river: McKenzie River Inn in Vida plans to
open a brewery onsite. Owner Bert de Klerk has applied
for a brewpub license, but planning for the brewery is in
its very early stages.
From Salem to Rachel Maddow and back again:
Earlier this year, Salem’s Gilgamesh Brewing released
HOPS AT AGRARIAN ALES
Hoot Attack, an India session ale, or as the brewery puts
P H O T O BY T O D D C O O P E R
it — “a drinkable reminder of the owl attacks that occur
Ale. Tree Line is sold out, says Falling Sky co-owner Rob
in Salem’s Bush Park. The light body and bright hop
Cohen, and sales raised more than $1,000 for the nonprofit.
flavors pair nicely with a mangled scalp and tired legs.”
Now, Cohen says, Falling Sky is launching its Springer’s
Back in February, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
Summer Ale, named after spring Chinook salmon — for
picked up on the spate of owl attacks, and Maddow
each pint sold, Falling Sky will donate $1 in support of the
jokingly presented yellow warning signs with symbols of
Western Environmental Law Center’s work toward
an owl swooping down on a pedestrian and suggested
protecting salmon.
Oregon’s capital city should hang them up. Salem did just
Don’t forget to vote: The Hammered Lamb, which
that, and now you can see that same image on the Hoot
opens downtown in August, is hosting I’d Tap That:
Attack label. The First National Tap House will start
Back Alley Brewfest — a sort of crowd-sourced tap
serving the brew in August.
event to help the pub choose what to put on tap. Expect to
New Kid on the Block: A new brewery, ColdFire
see local brews from Hop Valley, Oakshire and Plank
Brewing, will be operating at 263 Mill St. by the end of
Town and wild cards from Columbia, Bigfoot and Point
October. The brainchild of brothers Stephen and Dan
Break distributors. The Brewfest is free entry and runs 1
Hughes, ColdFire’s press release says its “initial beers
will seek to build upon and refine European
brewing tradition while adding a touch of
Northwest personality.” Expect IPAs, stouts and
“German and Belgian favorites like bock, kolsch,
dunkleweisse and saison.” Bryan Taylor, brand
director for ColdFire, tells EW that it was
important for the brewery to be in a neighborhood.
“It’s currently a warehouse,” Taylor says of the
space. “We’ll start at 263 Mill and then hopefully
expand into a larger tasting room.” Dan Hughes
is the manager of SacredHeart Medical Center at
RiverBend Hospital’s sterile processing
department. Stephen Hughes, currently a medical
lab scientist for PeaceHealth Labs, will be head
brewer. Stephen Hughes has done some guest
brew spots at Agrarian, Sam Bond’s Brewing
and 10 Barrel Brewing in Bend. “He’s been
honing his own craft to the point that he’s sort of
a perfectionist,” Taylor says.
In early July, The Barn Light opens a second
bar and cafe in the Northwest Community Credit
Union building at 545 E. 8th Ave., across the
THE BIER STEIN OWNERS
street from Sam Bond’s Brewing Co. in the
KRISTINA MEASELLS AND
Foundry building. Owners Thomas Pettus-Czar
CHIP HARDY
and Mark Sheppard say they want to help
P H O T O BY T O D D C O O P E R
strengthen the connection between campus and
to 5 pm Saturday, July 18, at 150 W. Broadway Alley.
downtown in the new location. They were drawn to “the
Invest locally. As of January 2015, Coburg farmhouse
future of that area,” pointing out new developments such
brewery Agrarian Ales started selling shares thanks to
as Whole Foods. While it will keep the same name,
the state’s new Community Public Offerings tool pushed
Pettus-Czar says, the new space will be smaller and
through by Hatch Oregon, “a brand new economic
cozier and have a different ambiance. “It’s not going to be
engine for growing community capital.” Oregon residents
this sort of rustic, industrial aesthetic, but more of a
can buy shares of Agrarian Ales for a minimum of $100
brighter, cleaner, more modern sort of space,” he says.
and a maximum of $2,500. “We’ve raised about $65,000
Sheppard adds, “With huge south-facing windows. So
so far,” Agrarian manager Todd Perlmeter says. “I think
there’s tons and tons of light streaming in.”
we’re going to cut it off at $90,000.” Perlmeter says the
The free 2nd annual Westside Warehouse District
money is going towards new bathrooms and hop field
Summer Block Party runs 2 to 10 pm Saturday, July 19,
expansions. “We’re just about to finish up our first-ever
at 560 Commercial St., featuring Viking Braggot
bathrooms out here, which is very exciting for us,”
Company and Claim 52, joined by local wineries, food
Perlmeter says, laughing. “We’re moving to become a
carts and live music.
EUGENE WEEKLY’S STATE OF SUDS 2015
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