Winter 2010

left: McMenamins, where fun, history and beer play
nicely. above: The Fulton Pub in Portland circa 1989—one
of the early microbrew pubs. right: Brewers from Silver
Moon Brewery Travis West and Evan Taylor sport medals
from the American Beer Awards.
The McMenamin brothers, together with a group of Portlandarea
brewers including: Richard and Nancy Ponzi of Columbia
River Brewing (now BridgePort Brewing); Art Larrance and Fred
Bowman of Portland Brewing; Kurt and Rob Widmer, of Widmer
Brothers Brewing, all decided to write a bill that would change
the law in Oregon.
“Our bill kept getting killed and killed and killed,” Mike Mc-
Menamin recalls. “Finally it was attached to a bill to allow Coors
to sell their beer in Oregon. We thought this was the death knell
for us, but, to our amazement, the bill cruised through.”
The law had the effect of manifest destiny across Oregon
with innovation and collaboration at its heart. New brewpubs
sprang up and the brewing craft was once again in high
demand in Oregon. In the ensuing years, stouts sprouted in
Newport, porters surfaced in Portland and, soon, pale ales
took on prominence in Bend.
Rob Widmer recalls the genesis for one of Oregon’s food groups,
Widmer Hefeweisen, with this story: “We started with an Altbier,
which is still a beer-geek’s favorite, but was a bit too much
for most beer drinkers at the time. We needed something more
approachable and wanted to do it in a German style, which was
the niche we were carving out. We knew the Germans brewed
a blond wheat beer, and we set out to make our own using our
Altbier yeast.”
The result was a cloudy unfiltered Widmer Hefeweizen that
was puzzling to the average consumer. Fear of the unknown lay
between that murkiness and the beer’s commercial success.
“But one night, when the Hefeweizen was new at the Dublin
Pub, the owner, Carl Simpson, said to me, ‘Watch this,’” Widmer
recalls. Simpson then poured pints of the Hefeweizen and put
them on a tray garnished with cut lemon slices. He handed the
tray to a waitress, who paraded around the pub with the tray and
its intriguing residents. “By 11 that night, everyone in the pub
was drinking the Hefeweizen, and the word of how good it was
b y t h e n u m b e r s
Total economic impact from the beer industry on Oregon’s
economy: $2.25 billion.
Over the last five years, Oregon breweries created 2,300 jobs.
Over the last five years, Oregon-brewed beer consumed in
Oregon rose to 12% from 9.9%.
Oregon is the second largest producer of craft beer in the U.S.
About 12% of the total beer consumed in Oregon in 2008 was
Oregon craft beer- the highest percentage of local craft beer
consumption in the country. The national average for total
craft beer consumption by volume is 4%.
Oregon is the second largest hop-growing state in the country.
There are currently 73 brewing companies, operating 96
brewing facilities in Oregon.
There are 30 breweries operating in Portland, more than any
other city in the world.
The Portland metro area is the largest craft brewing market
in the US.
Source: Oregon Brewers Guild
38 1859 oregon's magazine winter 2010