The Oregon Beers That Defined the Decade
Last week I used the “defining beers” frame to look at the national trends over the past decade. Out of curiosity, I asked for suggestions on the blog’s Facebook page for a similar set for Oregon. It’s not quite the same when you’re looking at a region, though. Trends aren’t as obvious, and they exist within a regional context. More importantly, the effect of culture is more evident at a local level. When a trend is successful nationally, it doesn’t reflect much more than commercial viability; when a trend develops in a region, it reflects that local culture. Regional trends are less likely to develop, but they’re more durable.
So when I look at Oregon, the defining beers were those that led to lasting elements of local culture. (The trends are similar throughout the Pacific NW, but I’ll confine myself to Oregon, which I know better.) The state is in a substantially different place than it was in 2010, and it looks different than other regions do now. Hoppy beers were big a decade ago and they are now, too, but their nature has changed. Lagers have emerged as an important part of local culture, and especially pilsners. Wild ales, cider, and even cannabis have made appearances. And brewers tried to establish one style with great energy—but failed.
Here is the decade in Oregon beer.
The Hoppy Evolution
Bavaria has its helles, Czechia its světlý ležák, and Oregon its IPA. The rest of the country finally came around to this style just a decade ago (it became the best-selling craft style in 2011), but in Oregon the transformation happened close to a decade earlier. That meant the region saw refinement more than radical change. Let’s start with Barley Brown’s Pallet Jack IPA, which is probably the best example of the IPAs being made at the start of the decade. Clean, bracing, and aromatic, but just this side of too bracing. Softness has always defined the IPAs of the region and Pallet Jack describes the distance between Oregon and San Diego IPAs.
From there, key milestones took us to Boneyard RPM, which was all juice and little bitter pop (and was release in 2010, amazingly), Block 15 Sticky Hands, which was an evolving beer that took advantage of all the new techniques and products as they developed, Breakside’s one-two punch of IPA and Wanderlust, which added maximum juice to classic levels of NW bitterness, and finally Great Notion’s Juice Box, which brought the haze to Oregon.
As I mentioned in the national trends article, Fort George’s 3-Way IPA was a watershed collaboration project. Each year’s beer was different, but they all reflected the unique combination of creative juices the individual breweries brought—and over the course of a few years, this all managed to transform Fort George’s own identity as a premier IPA house.
In an important development for the state, Worthy’s Strata IPA, gave Oregon’s home-grown hop commercial salience. Strata is now one of the most commonly-used hops here, which gives Oregon beers a distinctive smack of terroir. This has been important, as Oregon has fallen behind Idaho in hop production, and most of the industry beats a path to Yakima’s door.
Finally, fresh hop beers became a true force of nature at the start of the decade, and credit goes to Double Mountain for perfecting the technique (no fresh hops in the kettle!) and making a consistent tour de force with Killer Green.
The Lager Revolution
When Rick Allen launched his brewery in 2007 with the determination to exclusively make traditional German lagers, it seemed like a wonderful and doomed venture. No one wanted lagers then. (Up North, in Bellingham, Will Kemper also struggled for years with Chuckanut, based on the same model.) Yet somehow, miraculously, Heater Allen didn’t just stay in business, it managed to slowly build a market for lagers. Specifically, pilsners, thanks to the flagship Heater Allen Pils.
Over time, more and more pilsners appeared, and more and more breweries found there was a major demand for them. It even turned out that the German/lager model was viable, and now there are several: Zoiglhaus, Occidental, Wayfinder, and Rosenstadt. Breweries like pFriem and Buoy aren’t devoted exclusively to lagers, but have become magnets for lagerheads. When we look back through the decades, the 2010s will be remembered most for the way lagers became established as an important element of Oregon beer.
Sans Gluten
The word “gluten” was unknown or extremely peripheral to most people before 2010, but it became a very big deal thereafter. Now, whether you’re sensitive to wheat and barley or not, you know exactly what it means. Our heightened sensitivity to gluten led to notable changes in drinking. True, fully gluten-free beer emerged in the 2010s, led by Ground Breaker, an aptly-named brewery originally called Harvester. Made with no gluten-containing grains, the beer nevertheless tastes like beer, a trick breweries of the aughts could not achieve. Although Dark won all the awards, it was Ground Breaker IPA that won all the accounts—and sparked many imitators. It’s also a wonderful IPA on its own merit.
It was also the decade when cider became a major force. Anthem and Two Towns were early best-sellers, but it was Reverend Nat’s Hallelujah Hopricot that built a bridge between beer and the nascent cider movement and helped the Northwest become an anchor for an industry that has lost ground since the mid-teens. Portland in particular has been an especially good market, and Reverend Nat’s has been the defining cidery here.
The Saison Trials
One of the melancholy memories of the teens are the experiments with saison. Two breweries launched with the idea of selling urban farmhouse beers, and The Commons even gave that name to their flagship. But the Commons overestimated that market and became the first high-profile failure in Portland; Upright, a contemporaneous saison-focused brewery, branched out once it became clear saison wasn’t commercially viable, and has flourished with a broad, eclectic lineup.
Mixed-fermentation saisons did survive as a niche, and as I’ve mentioned, they may be the most accomplished beers made by Americans today. Block 15 Ferme De La Ville Provision, Upright Pathways, and Deschutes Cultivateur were high points (and special shout out to Structures and Dwinell in Washington, who are also making exceptional examples).
Wild Things
Brewing with wild yeasts and bacteria started earlier than the past decade, and one brewery (Cascade) even established itself then. But in the 10s, Oregon became home to quite an impressive vein of spontaneous and mixed fermentation brewing. Despite Cascade’s early souring effort, De Garde’s Bu Weisse was more important as the Johnny Appleseed of wild brewing. (Block 15 preceded De Garde by making earlier examples of coolship beer, but on a limited scale.) And wild it was—all of De Garde’s beers are fermented spontaneously. That was such a radical experiment in uncontrolled brewing that it made lab-cultured Brettanomyces seem positively tame. Coolships now dot the countryside, and while no one has followed De Garde into all-spontaneous brewing, lambic-influenced programs are now underway at several breweries.
One other deserves special mention for anticipating the trend in acidic fruit ales. Bend Brewing’s Ching Ching, made with pomegranate and hibiscus, was a revelation when it was released in 2011. It was a new kind of beer, like the low-alcohol, fruity, light summer drinks that rolled out through the decade. There were many subsequent variations on this theme—and Ecliptic now even specializes in them—but Tonya Cornett’s beer was the one that caught everyone’s attention. (It’s no surprise that the next brewery she worked for, 10 Barrel, specialized in these kinds of beers.)
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Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, and it doesn’t capture the myriad beers that were merely wonderful rather than wonderful and influential. And there were a lot of those. If you think I missed anything important, please add it in comments.
Happy new decade!