Hopping Mad : the Metroscape Has a Tall, Cold, Crafty One

Portland State University PDXScholar Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Summer 2010 Hopping Mad : The Metroscape Has a Tall, Cold, Crafty One Laura Nicole Cesafsky Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/metropolitianstudies Part of the Business Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details Cesafsky, Laura Nicole, "Hopping mad : the metroscape has a tall, cold, crafty one" (2010 Metroscape, Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies, Portland State University) This Article is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Hopping Mad: Photo credit: David O'Conner The metroscape has a tall, cold, crafty one by Laura Cesafsky ortland metropolitan area beer drinkers synergy, linking city and country, production are a blessed lot. An evening at a neigh- and consumption, and educational and cultural Pborhood pub—or, for that matter, an resources into a coherent craft niche with a sig- hour at the Portland International Airport, an nificant economic impact. NBA basketball game at the Rose Garden in Why All the Craft Brewing in Portland? SE Portland, a round of golf at McMenamin’s Millions of American adults came of age in an Edgefield in Troutdale—becomes an oppor- era when a bar’s tap list began and ended with al- tunity to imbibe from a selection of delicious, most indistinguishable pilsners from Budweiser, hand-crafted Oregon beers. According to the Coors and Miller. For them, it perhaps seemed Oregon Brewers Guild, the metroscape has 38 natural that beer should be a product much like craft breweries, more than any metropolitan area another icon of the period, white bread: ubiqui- in the world. Even Munich cannot top that fig- tous, uniform, unchanging, and more than a little ure. Not surprisingly, then, metroscapers swill boring. The rise of craft brewing—a national more craft beer than anyone else. When a lo- trend with Portland at its epicenter—amounts cal bartender reaches for a tap, an Oregon craft to an inversion in how Americans understand brew rains forth over 40% of the time. (Aver- and appreciate beer. Craft brewers create beer age craft beer consumption nationally? Four %.) in relatively small batches (sometimes at home), Little wonder that for the epicurean crowd, the and measure their product against such novel in- metroscape has earned an indulgent sobriquet: dicators (novel in the American beer world, at “Beervana.” least) as taste, uniqueness, creativity and seasonal Craft brewing has been a success story for appropriateness. the region, creating jobs and drawing visitors As quality ingredients have trumped, say, the at a time when urban economies are struggling advantages in transportation that long made for productive niches in a globalizing economy. Midwestern cities America’s top beer suppliers, Although craft brewing emerged in Portland the Pacific Northwest has emerged as an ideal over 25 years ago as part of a larger West Coast hub for brewing. This is because the astonishing movement around quality food and beverages, variety of craft beers now on the market—from its continued growth here reflects unique charac- pale ales to porters—largely derive from four teristics of place. As we move into July, officially key ingredients: a starch source (traditionally, Oregon Craft Beer Month, there is no better malted barley), a brewers' yeast, hops, and qual- time to take a closer look at the development of ity water. And three of those four—hops, barley the metroscape’s distinctive beer culture. What and water—are regional specialties. we find is an industry that exhibits a healthy Metroscape Page 27 a need, but also where the resources are available.” The demand for craft brews really took off on the West Coast in the 1970s. It was part of the same coun- ter-cultural outcry against industrial agriculture and microwavable dinners that wrought the slow food, organic, and “buy local” Photo credit: Warye Photography movements. At heart, all these movements illustrated a desire among a growing Oregon’s mild climate is quite similar to the number of consumers to climate of Europe’s beer-loving regions, and it is understand the ingredient lists of the foods they ideal for producing hops. According to the Or- ate, to understand where their food and beverages egon Hop Commission, Oregon is the second- came from, and then to actually enjoy consuming largest hop-producing state in the nation behind them. “People in general were looking for things neighboring Washington, growing 17 percent of that had a broader variety of flavor or quality or the U.S. market share. Ten different varieties of localness,” says Thomas Shellhammer, an Associ- hops are produced in the Willamette Valley alone. ate Professor in the Department of Food Science As craft brewers experiment with different hop and Technology at Oregon State University who varietals in search of unique bitterness levels and researches beer and brewing. “We saw it with bak- aromatic qualities, they provide an outlet for local ing and coffee roasting and a variety of different hop growers. Indeed, the abundance of hops in food items. The Pacific Northwest was taking its the Pacific Northwest is linked the development food processing more local. There was a neat syn- of the region’s signature beer, a super-hoppy ale ergy there across food and beverages.” with a bitterness more intense than most beer In the Portland metropolitan area, the locally drinkers elsewhere are used to. minded, Do-It-Yourself ethic that supported the Although the majority of America’s barley is development of the city’s first craft breweries in still produced in the Midwest, Oregon’s share is the 1980s has only grown. The calls for “slow,” growing. In fact, one of the West Coast’s largest “small” and “local” that animated earlier food suppliers of malted barley, Great Western Malting, trends have perhaps been subsumed by the new is located right in Vancouver, Washington. Long regional calling card, sustainability, but the spirit a top supplier of malt to industrial-scale brew- endures. As Karen Foley, the publisher of Imbibe, ers both foreign and domestic, Great Western is a Portland-based drinks magazine, notes, “Port- expanding in response to growing demand from land is a serious foodie town, pretty much like no local brewpubs and microbreweries. The compa- other town I have seen, and foodies like to sup- ny’s newest venture, Country Malt, specializes in port things that are well crafted. At the same time, the distribution of brewing materials and smaller we are loyal to independents, so it all works out quantities of malt and hops, all targeted at craft perfectly” for food and beverage artisans. brewers. That loyalty was crucial for Mike Haines and Finally, not to be overlooked, there is the major Mike Kinion when they created Vertigo Brew- ingredient of beer: water. Many local brewers and ing in Hillsboro in 2008. Like most craft brewers beer aficionados see the region’s crisp, soft water who “go pro,” Haines and Kinion started out as as a huge asset. “We get all our water from Bull homebrewers. They had, according to Haines, Run Reservoir on Mount Hood,” explains Chris- “toyed with the idea of opening a brewery for the tian Ettinger, owner and brewmaster at Hopworks last several years,” while they were both working Urban Brewery in SE Portland. “Proximity to at Intel. “We had many people that had tried our wonderful brewing ingredients like great water homebrews over the last few years that wanted to makes Portland kind of a natural fit. Brewing epi- know where they could buy them.” So Haines and centers spring up where there is a population and Kinion launched Vertigo on a tiny, one-barrel sys- tem (31 gallons at a time). In the months since, Page 28 Metroscape they have been successful enough to launch an ex- reach (Portland Brewing was purchased by Pyra- pansion project, an upgrade to seven barrels. “We mid Brewery in 2004), while the McMenamins do not expect to become a regional powerhouse brewpub empire has grown to over fifty locations like Widmer,” Haines says, referring to the local in Oregon and Washington. These breweries have brewery, “but instead focus on keeping our beers often served as training grounds for emerging tal- the high quality they are while slowly growing our ent. When young brewers are ready to leave the customer base.” nest, they will often open a new brewery, perpetu- So what does it take to make a high quality craft ating the expansion of the industry. brew? Access to quality ingredients is a good start. It is an industry that is making a significant But it also takes a healthy dose of creativity and economic contribution. The Beer Institute, an no small amount of science. As Shellhammer, industry research and advocacy group, estimates the beer researcher at OSU, notes, “craft brew- the economic impact of beer brewing in Oregon ers are innovative, experimental—they challenge in 2008 at nearly $300 million (the Institute does the rules.” This can mean toying with flavor-en- not calculate a figure for the Portland Metropoli- hancing additives like basil, coffee or maple syrup. tan area alone). That number jumps to just over At the same time, there are basic rules to brew- $1 billion if the contribution of distribution and ing that must be learned and rehearsed. And as retailing are included. Brewing employed 548 Or- it turns out, Oregon ranks among the few places egonians in 2008, many at family wage jobs; total where one can receive a thorough education in beer-related employment was over 14,000.

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