Rhapsody In Brew

A seagull is watching me. The bird eyes me from two feet away, his shiny black eyes full of thirst and longing. Maybe it’s the beer-battered red snapper in my hand—or is it the onion rings on my plate? Surely he’s not ogling the tray in front of me, laden as it is with not three or four, but seven different samples of expertly crafted beers?

“That bird’s got a dream,” jokes Darron Welch, head brewer for Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City, Ore. and maker of the beers before me.

It’s an impossibly gorgeous autumn day on the beach and Welch and I are sitting on a pub patio that segues directly into the sand, talking beer. Research, I remind myself. Every few minutes, a surfer arrives and heads into the gilded waves. Dutifully, I take another sip of MacPelican’s Scottish Ale, a coppery brew both malty and crisp.

It’s 4 p.m. and Welch—dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and rubber boots, the ubiquitous footwear of brewers—has been in the brewhouse all day, nurturing a 950-gallon batch of his signature India Pelican Ale. Still, the day’s labor doesn’t seem to have dampened his enthusiasm. While I sample, the biermeister cheerfully tutors me on the finer points of hop varieties, malt roasts and cold conditioning.

“It’s a good life,” Welch says.

Good life, indeed. For lovers of quality beer, Pelican is just the head on Oregon’s pint. Characterized by watery lagers just 20 years ago, the state has blossomed into a mecca of craft breweries renowned for “big beers”—e.g., hop-driven India Pale Ales and rich, winter-worthy porters. Craft breweries and brewpubs are now scattered across the state from Portland to Enterprise, and their heady products further still, to draft taps and bottled beer aisles in supermarkets throughout the West.

But the best place to taste them is here, on draft in pubs where pints are pulled for quality not quantity, good food is a given and the beer’s made onsite, before your eyes.

BIRTH OF THE BREWS
“You’ve got to come to the source,” says Karl Ockert, the first and current brewmaster of Bridgeport Brewing Company, Oregon’s oldest craft brewery. It’s a golden September day, and we’re lunching outside at the original Bridgeport Brew Pub, a vine-covered, brick warehouse in Northwest Portland. “

I remember what it was like before we had all these choices,” says Ockert, gesturing at a sampler tray of Bridgeport drafts. Among other honors, Ockert has won gold and silver medals for his India Pale Ale at the Brewing Industry International Awards in London. When Bridgeport opened in 1984, craft brewing was as foreign as sushi. The fledgling brewery was gambling on faith and Portland’s history of strong draft beer sales to cultivate a following. It worked. By the late ’80s, breweries were multiplying in Portland, notably the Widmer Brothers Brewing Company—Oregon’s biggest craft beer producer—and the McMenamin brothers’ first brewpub, precursor to an eponymous family of brewpubs, theaters and resorts that now dot the state, including the Old St. Francis in Bend.

Today Portland boasts more microbreweries and brewpubs than any other city in the world, from the Lucky Labrador where canines are welcome to the Pearl District’s Rogue Ales Public House. New ones keep appearing too, each with its own claim to fame, including coveted international awards. The Laurelwood Public House and Brewery opened its doors in 2001. By 2004, the pub and its brewmaster, Christian Ettinger, had won both Champion Brewery and Champion Brewmaster awards in the small brewpub category at the World Beer Cup.

“I want to elevate people’s expectations,” says Ettinger, summarizing the Oregon craft beer modus operandi. Young and improbably hip in a white cotton jumpsuit, Ettinger is unpretentious and glad to talk beer. Asked for the secret behind Oregon’s craft beers, Ettinger credits regional ingredients including Willamette and Yakima Valley hops and the soft local water.

“It’s the perfect backdrop for any beer,” says Ettinger.

Aside from making high-quality, characteristically big beers, if one thing’s consistent about the brewpubs and brewmasters around here it’s their approachability. Novices fear not. Wandering through Bridgeport’s brewhouse maze of tanks, pipes, hoses and spigots, I’m not embarrassed to ask Ockert what wort is. (Answer: sweet, unfermented liquid derived from malt and water.)

“It’s not scary; you don’t have to worry about how to pronounce anything,” says Irene Firmat, CEO and founder of the Full Sail Brewing Company in Hood River. “It’s not expensive, either,” adds Firmat’s husband and Full Sail brewmaster Jamie Emmerson. “A pint is only a few bucks.”

THE NEW OREGON TRAIL
It’s also likely to come with a view. Oregon brewpubs tend to boast naturally spectacular surroundings, and for good reason: Craft beer lovers are adventurous sorts who like to play outdoors. Ergo Full Sail in Hood River, a picturesque burg in the Columbia River Gorge that doubles as the “windsurfing capital of the world” and a bedroom community to the ski slopes of Mt. Hood, Oregon’s iconic peak. Emmerson’s brews have earned Full Sail seven gold medals for amber ales at the World Beer Championships.

Then there’s the high and dry Bend area in central Oregon, where craft brewing is as much a part of the landscape as clear skies, hiking trails and Mt. Bachelor. Deschutes Brewery, Oregon’s second-largest brewer, is here, and their labels say it all: Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Black Butte Porter, Obsidian Stout—each one a tribute to the region’s natural wonders. You can get bottles at the markets, but it’s best on draft at the Deschutes Public House, where you can also try beers made and served nowhere else. I’m partial to Jubelale, a seasonal winter ale brewed for just a few months each year during the holiday season.

The same pioneering spirit thrives at the tiny Bend Brewing Company nearby. “Oregon is brewing some of the world’s best beer,” says brewmaster Tonya Cornett, who found Oregon’s craft beer culture so compelling, she moved from Indiana to be a part of it. Today, Cornett works with a seven-barrel, 210-gallon system to produce a wide variety of ales and some lagers for onsite consumption. My favorite: Big Eddy Bitter—a pale coppery brew that matches Cornett’s hair and enlivens my palate with pungent hops. Cornett’s beers are piped directly to taps in a cozy riverside pub below the brewery. Like Deschutes in its early days, Cornett and owner Wendi Day have no immediate plans to expand or begin bottling.

“If you want it, you have to come get it,” says Cornett.

MEET THE MAKER
She’s onto something. There’s allure in going local and tasting the goods where they’re freshest, on tap and served with food that shows them off. It’s also a great excuse to visit intriguing places like Terminal Gravity in Enterprise, Oregon’s most remote brewpub, or Mia and Pia’s Pizzeria and Brewhouse in Klamath Falls, brainchild of a retired rodeo bull rider. At Steelhead Brewery in Eugene, brewmaster Jamie Floyd makes Hoppasaurus Rex within miles of the hop fields. In historic Baker City, Barley Brown’s Brew Pub draws a crowd, while tiny Parkdale—a hamlet nestled en route between Hood River and Mt. Hood’s ski runs—boasts the convivial Elliot Glacier Public House. Dozens of brewpubs are worth the trip.

Wherever you decide to pursue a pint, take your time. Half the fun of getting to know Oregon’s craft beer is savoring the experience.

“Don’t be shy about asking to talk with the brewer, ’cause they love to talk about beer,” says Larry Sidor, the brewmaster for Deschutes Brewery and a man who describes himself as “born to ferment.” You can also take a tour. Experiencing the steamy, sweet fragrance of boiling malt or the crisp nose of fresh hops brings the romance of brewing to life like nothing else—except for a taste.

“Live dangerously; try some of the specials,” says Ockert. Every brewpub worth its hops has a couple drafts—a seasonal beer, perhaps, and maybe a porter aged in bourbon barrels—made and served only on the premises. A great way to scope out the spectrum of styles and flavors is with the ubiquitous brewpub tasting tray.

Newcomers to Oregon craft beers brewpubs can expect much more intense flavors than mainstream national beers offer. Hoppy, bitter beers prevail. For a taste of the trend, order an India Pale Ale or an Imperial I.P.A.—the thrillseeker’s ultimate hopfest. And don’t overlook pilsners—one of the next big things.

“Come with an open mind,” says Floyd, “and get ready to experience a lot of different tastes.”