Category: Mcminville

These Boots Were Made for Brewing

10/1/2013

Lisa Allen of Heater Allen Brewery gets help from Pink Boots Society members with her Sticke Altbier recipe, to be sold as a fundraiser for scholarships to help educate women in the brewing industry.

By Gail Oberst

Women in pink boots naturally attract attention, but in September, the video cameras were rolling, and not because of footwear.

The all-woman traveling video crew from Heartfelt Productions’ Empowerment Project showed up last month to interview and film the work of the women brewers and beer industry representatives of the Pink Boots Society. The society’s members staged a collaboration brew day at McMinnville’s Heater Allen brewery.

Sarah Moshman and Ashley Hammen said their small production company is touring the nation in search of inspirational women to feature in their video production. Teri Fahrendorf, one of Oregon’s first women brewers and one of the founders of the Pink Boots Society, invited the company to the Pacific Northwest Chapter’s event hosted by Lisa Allen, assistant brewer at Heater Allen. The group of nearly 20 women used Heater Allen equipment to brew a Sticke Altbier, a dark, strong, malty and roasty beer. Fahrendorf’s employer, Country Malt, donated ingredients.

"Sticke means secret in German, and the first Sticke was a mistake but the beer was so popular it became a traditional style of altbier,” said Lisa Allen. “It is fermented cool and maintains a bit of fruitiness on the nose. It is a special beer that is only released twice a year, including each November. Since we are brewing this for our Nov/Dec fundraiser Party, and Sticke is a rare style among craft beers, I thought it would be a great style for the gals to brew together."

The public will get a chance to taste and purchase the beer during a public holiday fundraiser to generate money for the Pink Boots Society Scholarship Fund. The Pink Boots Society is throwing a public holiday fundraiser party with a goal to raise $3,000 for the society’s education fund. The fundraiser is in December. In addition to selling the Sticke Alt the women brewed in September, there will be food and a raffle with lots of prizes, according to Emily Engdahl, Pacific NW Regional Meeting Co-Coordinator.

The Pink Boots Society is an international nonprofit charity that aims to empower women beer professionals. More than 900 people now belong to the group.

For more information about Pink Boots, visit the website, www.pinkbootssociety.org.

For more information about the Empowerment project, visit the website, http://heartfelt-productions.com.

An all-woman film crew from Heartfelt Productions' Empowerment Project watched Pink Society members make beer at Heater Allen's in McMinville.

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Grain station brews up community concept

10/1/2013

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Mark Vickery, brewer, and Kelly McDonald, owner, have opened the Grain Station Brew Works in McMinville.

McMinnville’s breweries may soon rival its wineries as a destination attraction, thanks to the opening of the Grain Station Brew Works, owned by Kelly McDonald with Mark Vickery as brewer. The Grain Station opened last month during the Oregon Brews & BBQs event on the Granary District grounds that surround the brewery. The brewery at 755 NE Alpine St. is now open every day of the week except Tuesdays.

Vickery, Golden Valley Brewery’s former brewer, and McDonald, a fifth-generation Oregonian whose mission for the past 13 years has been to revitalize the Granary District buildings, offer a unique twist to the brewing business. The pair said they took a page from the Community Supported Agriculture playbook and applied it their brewery. “We're Oregon's first Community Supported Brewery,” said Vickery.

Grain Station has defined the concept thus: Beer lovers are not required to purchase beer in advance of brewing, but they may if they choose, gaining a variety of perks, the most important of which, McDonald said, is the opportunity to be part of the brewery’s community. “Pubscribers” can join for as little as $50 a year. Pubscriptions can include guaranteed growler and pint fills, invitations to events and swag.

The bar is not a private club, however. Visitors are welcome to come, drink and eat without paying for “pubscriptions,” or even without making reservations. The huge barn-like structure has seating for 120 inside, with 60 extra seats on the patio. The building since 2009 had been home to McMinnville’s Public Market, a Saturday event that filled most of the building. Using local barnwood and expert help, McDonald restored and remodeled the 1890s-era grain station building for the brewery and other small businesses. Other buildings surrounding the Grain Station in the Granary District are home a bakery, several wineries, a health club, a garden store, coffee shop, meat and produce markets and other businesses.

McDonald purchased his 7-barrel system from Lucky Lab Brewery and by September had two of its own beers on tap: Bet the Farm IPA, a 8.0 ABV with 85 IBU beer; and the Harvester Golden Ale, which was 4.5 ABV with 18 IBUs. McDonald said that the brewery will always have at least two of its own beers among its 12 taps. Local wines, pizza baked in a wood-fired cob oven and other food fare are available on the brewery’s expanding menu.

The CSB philosophy applies to the brewery’s purchases too, according Vickery: “We’re one hundred percent local, buying only from local farmers and producers,” he said.

Plans for the future include more events like the Brews & BBQ fundraiser, which last month filled the district with live music, beer tasters and the smoke from many barbecues. “We’ve got a great venue here,” said McDonald. “We can have a lot more of these events.”

Grain Station Brew Works
755 NE Alpine, McMinville
(503) 209-9591
http://www.grainstation.com

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Fresh Hops hits oregon taps

9/17/2013

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Above, Workers at Crosby's Hop Farm near Woodburn.

Following -- Emily Engdahl put this great list together for the Oregon Beer Growler's print edition. Those who want to hold this list in their hands can pick it up Oct. 1 here. If you want to see Emily's list on her website, go to http://oregonbeercountry.org. Thanks Emily!

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August travel - Willamette Valley

8/25/2013

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Rogue Hopyard in Independence

Gail Oberst

Newberg, McMinnville, Salem, Independence, Silverton, Corvallis – is there a small town in the Willamette Valley that doesn’t have a brewery? I don’t think so. Don’t feel sorry for me because I live in the mid-Willamette Valley. Despite my 50-mile distance from Brewvana, my opportunities for beer touring are multiple.

Following are a few of my favorite breweries to visit within 30 miles of my home in Independence, but there are certainly more. Check out the Oregon Brewers’ Guild map for more suggestions, oregoncraftbeer.org/breweries/willamettevalley, or visit oregonbeergrowler.com to see where our writers have already been.

Or, visit any of the Albany-Corvallis breweries to pick up the Mid-Valley Sip Trip brochure, which has a great map of 10 breweries, distilleries, cider houses and meaderies in that area.

Golden Valley
980 NE 4th St., McMinnville
McMinnville’s Golden Valley Brewing was the first in a rising tide of west-side breweries including Heater Allen (McMinnville), Long Brewing (Newberg), Fire Mountain Brewhouse (Carlton), Chehalem Valley Brewing (Newberg) and the soon-to-open Grain Station Brew Works (McMinnville). Golden Valley’s Peter Kircher has set the bar high. His classy Craftsman-style pub and his dedication to local foods (from his own farm) and fresh beer ingredients lead the way for the other boutique breweries in the region. My suggestion? I love Golden Valley’s Chehalem Mountain IPA and their Third Street Wheat to wash back their sausage and cheese plate. Sausages are from their own livestock, fed on spent grains from GV’s brews. After touring this region, fall into bed at McMenamin’s Hotel Oregon in McMinnville, one of my favorite haunts in this area.

Seven Brides
990 1st St., Silverton
Seven Brides – Silverton’s hometown brewery – the ‘brides’ refer to the owners’ seven daughters – is a fabulous place to stop after hiking the nearby Silver Falls State Park, touring the Oregon Gardens, visiting the city’s great art galleries and shops, or whooping it up at the Homer Davenport Days Aug. 2-4. Here’s my suggestion: Call the Oregon Garden Resort and make your overnight reservation, then take in one or two of the above activities, stop off at Seven Brides afterward to either fill your growler or have a few pints at the saloon then fall into the fabulously comfortable beds at the resort. After breakfast in the morning, tour the gardens, go back to Seven Brides for beer and lunch and then take in another activity. This really is a sweet town. My favorite brews are Frankenlou’s IPA, Drunkle, and the Black Cat Porter.

Gilgamesh
2065 Madrona Ave. S.E., Salem
The Salem area’s beer culture – has gone from 0 to 60 in just a few short years, jumpstarted by The Ram, which is a chain but brews in Salem, and Pale Horse, with its popular Hillbilly Blonde, and super-fueled by Gilgamesh, a local family-owned brewery. Last year, the Radkes turned their brewing and wood-crafting acumen into a successful brewpub last year, moving from their tiny Turner home into an industrial park “Campus” funhouse. The woody and warm fireside Gilgamesh brewpub has attracted Salem’s hoards – I’ve never been there on slow day. I like their Vader CDA, but their Mamba, with its tangerine and rye flavors, is also nice. I always order the Baja Chipotle fish tacos but I should branch out a bit – they have a wide selection of dinner and lunch entrees and small plates, and an outside patio.

Santiam Brewing
2544 19th St. S.E., Salem
Several homebrewers and self-proclaimed beer geeks pooled their resources last year and set up shop in and industrial park not too far from Gilgamesh. Within months they had expanded to include a tasting room open seven afternoons a week. There are always at least 10 various brews on tap, but this brewery is emerging as a cask ale specialist, thanks in no small part to English brewer, Ian Croxall. You’ll always find at least four “beer engines” connected to a firkin.

Rogue Hopyard
3590 Wigrich Rd., Independence
I’m not only mentioning this because it’s the brewery closest to my house, but also because it’s a just a fun, farmy place to visit for the whole family. This time of year you can sit in the yard and watch the cornhole players, watch the turkeys strut past, have a bite to eat from the food cart, take a class in bee-keeping or soap-making, and drink the latest Rogue brew, all in the shadow of the hopfields. Two years ago, Rogue fired up a nanobrewery in the farm building behind the tasting room and patio, a stone’s throw from the Willamette River, so those beers, and others from Rogue, are on tap, in addition to their bottled beer. This is a great country place for a family outing, especially in the summer and fall, when the tours are each weekend. It’s open seven days a week.

Block 15
300 SW Jefferson Corvallis
There are two sides to Block 15 – the two-level casual food and drink brewpub side, and the Les Caves side, a small fine-dining atmosphere with beer and food pairing as its main attraction. Both sides feature Block 15’s great beers and display an almost fanatic dedication to local products in their cuisine. The Block 15 side has at least a dozen of its own beers on tap, from cask ales to IPAs. Les Caves also offers a variety of other Oregon beers on tap and in bottles or cans. What do I suggest? A local salad for lunch at Block 15, and for dinner, an entrée at Les Caves with Afton Field Farms chicken or pork, all nicely paired with an Oregon beer.

Flat Tail Sports Pub and Brewery
202 SW First St., Corvallis
Where do Oregon State University students (over 21 of course) take their parents when Ma or Pa visits them at school? Flat Tail, of course, for several reasons: By day, this brewpub looks downright mild. There’s a beer here for every taste -- from sours to gruits to ales and kolsches – and the Beaver memorabilia and big screen televisions all provide enough distraction to blur parental squawking. By night, this can be a crowded haven of youngish cruisers looking for a $3 pint and an oyster shooter or a frickle (fried pickle chips) to top off a long day of “studies.”

A few others in Corvallis-Albany

Oregon Trail Brewing, 341 S.W. Second St., is the oldest, and possibly the smallest brewery in Corvallis (not counting homebrewer’s garages). It is connected to the Old World Deli, where I had eaten lunch for years before realizing there was a brewery in back! Brewery is open noon 5 p.m. Monday – Friday.

Sky High Brewing, 160 NW Jackson St., Corvallis, is now completing its top story restaurant, but the brewery and the cozy tasting room (food service available) overlooking the brewery is open, serving great beer. Always good is the Linus Pauling Peace ale and the Big Air XX IPA. Interesting is the Monk’s Mana, a Belgian honey Tripel brewed with local honey and Crosby Hop Farm hops.

Mazama Brewing, 33930 S.E. Eastgate Circle, Corvallis, opened this year with a focus on Belgian-style brews. A great stop for those who also want to try cider and mead, in the same complex.

Calapooia Brewing Co., 140 Hill St. N.E., Albany. On any given Sunday at 4 p.m. you are likely to find me and my posse getting down with the bluesmeisters at Calapooia’s weekly blues jam. I will most likely have a RIPArian IPA in front of me, and at least one of my buddies will be quaffing the chili beer, for which this brewery is famous.

Block 15 in Corvallis

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These Boots Were Made for Brewing

Grain station brews up community concept

Fresh Hops hits oregon taps

August travel - Willamette Valley

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