Pelican Brewmaster Darron Welch

Brewpublic ventures out to Pacific City to visit Pelican Brewery, where brewmaster Darron Welch talks about life in coastal Beervana, the award winning beers of Pelican, his love for craft beer, and an exciting new bill legalizing self-distribution of beer in Oregon.

One of the finer plots of coastal land in Oregon is that of Pacific City. With magnificent sand dunes rolling amidst a forested backdrop and majestic views of the imposing Haystack Rock, the winding roads leading in to the town are “a double-edged sword” explains Jeremy Strober of an area development group called Kiwanda Hospitality Group. Strober explains, “While is keeps this area a hidden gem, a secluded piece of paradise, it also makes it hard for businesses to survive in the winter time.” Just a few miles off Highway 101 between Lincoln City and Tillamook, Pacific City offers touring attractions of great surf, turf, and phenomenal beer brewed at Pelican Brewing Company. High prices are justified by a dramatic swing in seasonal business. A large majority of tourism dollars derrived in Pacific City comes during the height of the summer and judging by our last trip there in late June, the hefty cost of hospitality was hardly relating to any slowdown during the country worst economic hardship in years.

Deschutes brewmaster, Larry Sidor, has a background that may surprise some. For someone who has come up with such boldly innovated recipes at Deschutes such as The Dissident and The Abyss, many may not guess that Larry got his start at the Olympia Brewing Company.

“I spent 23 years at Olympia. You name it I did. It started as a journeyman situation after I graduated from OSU with a degree in the food sciences. From there I did a six-month brewing apprenticeship and performed every aspect in brewing possible. After that I was sent to Siebels, and back at that time it was a four-month course. When I returned I was named project assistant brewmaster at Olympia.”

From there Larry was promoted to Operations Manager for the entire brewery and during that time Pabst bought out Olympia. Larry remained with the company and became the R&D Manager, QA Manager, wrote and developed contract brewing situations and even brewed in Japan and China. Larry brewed such brands as Stroh’s, Lone Star, Lucky Lager, Brew 102 and even the Beer Beer (the can just said “Beer” on the side) and of course all the Pabst’s Brands.

Last time we left off in our interview with Rob Widmer, we were talking about Widmer’s relationship to Craft Brewers Alliance and Anheuser-Busch (now owned by In-Bev). Here we continue and touch on the history behind Widmer’s relationship with the Oregon Brew Crew and their Collaborator series. We also get some insight to the latest trends in craft brewing.

Perhaps the problem many craft beer folks have with large breweries like A-B is the marketing of their products. Obviously, business is the bottom line, but on one hand they slight craft brewers for producing foofy, hoppy, fruity, fancy beers, crazy brews. On the other hand offering alternative brands like Belgian wits, fruit beers, and a “craft” line-up under alternative labels like Michelob amber etc…

Last time, we left off with Rob talking about Widmer’s revolutionary American Hefeweizen.  Here, we continue with more Q & A with the Bros’ co-founder and learn about more of what has made Widmer tick over the past 25 years.  Where we pick up in this installment, we are still asking him about the history of the flagship Hefeweizen.

When you created the recipe for the Hefe, did you take a look at what Hart Brewing (now Pyramid) was doing with their Wheaten Ale, one that claims to be the first full-time wheat ale on tap in the Northwest?

The California beer road trip was almost complete.  But you can only be on the highway so long before you need to sink your palate into some craft beer.  Luckily, Ashland, Oregon is a little hub for Southern Oregon craft brews.  Caldera is a fabulous production brewery from Ashland that produces some of the best beers in the state of Oregon.  We were not fortunate enought to hit them up, but we were quite fortunate to experience and old favorite, Standing Stone.

Open seven days a week for great beer and artisan food, Standing Stone Brewing Company in Ashland is located in a historic brick building that is part of the National Register of Historic Places.  Formerly the Whittle Garage founded in 1925, the now chic environment in the heart of the affluent Southern Oregon community. 

The service was stellar, the place was immaculate, and the beer was top notch.  Standing Stone is worth your time on any travel along I-5 through Southern Oregon.  Our bartender Robin served us a wonderful sample tray of seven house beers prepared by brewmaster Adam Benson with the utmost precision.

Solid Gold

Henry Weinhard’s Brewing Company, currently owned by MillerCoors of Wisconsin won four medals at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado.  This includes a gold medals for their Hefeweizen Ale and three bronze medals for their Private Reserve (American-style lager or premium lager), Classic Dark (American-style dark lager), and Blue Boar (American-styled cream ale or lager)

The Henry Weinhard’s Hefeweizen earned top honors in the top honors in the American-Style Wheat Beer category, edging out Widmer Brother’s Brewing Company’s Hefeweizen and the White Tail Wheat from Montana Brewing Company,for the gold.