Under the Radar & Start-up Oregon Breweries

It is no surprise that the burgeoning craft beer culture around the world continues to effloresce, especially here in beer mecca. Recently we discovered more breweries that have either just sprouted or look to soon emerge in this felicitous domain where craft rules.

Weather Haven Brewing

We found these guys through the folks at Prodigal Son Brewing in Pendleton, OR. Also from Pendleton, Weather Haven appears to be a nano brewery. Their site claims that they are members of both the Oregon Brewers Guild and the American Brewers Association, though neither site has this brewery listed under their member breweries. Still, we think it’s great that WHB has been producing and promoting craft beer in a part of the state that greatly needs more of it. Their mantra states “Brewing and GIVING AWAY great craft beers in Pendleton since 2005.” After talking to brewer Tim Smith, he informed us that despite being registered as an LLC and having ambitions of becoming a commercial brewery at one time, he really just wants to brew for himself and his family and friends. You might have check out Smith’s beers at the Slurp & Burp competition (he is a part of the Portland Strangebrew club), at Oregon Gardens (he won first place in the strong ale category in 2010), or at Blues and Brews. It’s apparent that Smith is an accomplished brewer. We hope he changes his mind and goes pro sometime. Cheers!

Dragon’s Gate Brewing

Opening soon in the Walla Walla Valley, a region known more for wine than craft beer, is Dragon’s Gate Brewing. Playing to the Dungeons and Dragons demographic, Dragon’s Gate of Milton-Freewater plans to feature “handcrafted, Belgian style ales and beers” well as a healthy dose of medieval chivalry. They encourage you to “Join the quest and become the legend!” ‘Old Arthurian Medæval Ale’ will be one of the beers featured in their lineup. Not without some great roleplaying humor, DGB’s website states “Established MCXI, Resurrected MMXI.” We look to join the legend soon.

Humble Brewing

In the world of nano-breweries, one Portland, Oregon brewery looks to be the city’s smallest. Close to Columbia Park near North Lombard, Humble Brewing at 7419 N. Hurst Avenue. Founder Scott Davis looks to follow in the footsteps of Beetje Brewing, as a production brewery situated in a partitioned and converted garage space. The one-barrel brewhouse will be championed by Davis’ partner, head brewer Chad Freitag. When asked when we could expect to see Humble’s beers hit the market, Davis chuckled and says “Well, we’re progressing through the process with OLCC and all that. I’m optimistic that it could be sometime in September,” adding, “Everything has gone well so far with the city. We’ve got to take care of the TTB stuff finished. It could be sooner, but we’re just trying to be cautious.” So what kind of beer can we look forward to trying from Humble Brewing?  “We’ve been experimenting with a lot of different things” says Davis. “We’re definitely fans of session beer. Chad has been homebrewing for a long time. He comes from German heritage, so we’ll probably do a number of German-inspired Northwest beers. So far, the homebrews that we’ve been happy with so far have been our Baltic Porter and our Kölsch. Plus, we have an IPA and an Imperial IPA that people seem to really like. We’ll start from there and play with some seasonals a little bit.” It appears that from speaking with Davis that Humble Brewing will truly live up to its name. “We’re interested in the hyper-local sort of idea” he says. “We’ll do the best we can at serving North Portland where we’re based. Intentionally small is our mantra. We’re both employed in other things. We want to take this passion seriously but also keep it small so that we can enjoy it.” Good luck!

Two Kilts Brewing

We’ve been hearing a lot about this Sherwood, OR brewery opening for some time, and it looks like it will happen any day now. Founded by two good friends Chris Dillon and Alex McGaw. Situated in the space that formerly housed Best Marble and Granite, Two Kilts has already cleared the hurdles of the TTB and is now awaiting the go ahead from city and state licensing. An eleven foot 720 pound concrete bar was poured in February. Beer will be served on premise, but the establishment currently has no plans to serve food items. So how did they come up with the name Two Kilts? “We decided to try to come up with a name that would represent both owners well and to do this we would need to find something in common with each other” reads a statement on their MySpace page. “Chris is more than proud of his Irish ties, and Alex is beyond proud to be Scottish and the one thing most obvious thing in common was the kilt.”  Starting small but with big dreams, Dillon and McGaw say “our primary focus is to make the best craft beers in the Pacific Northwest.” Slainte!

Chehalem Valley Brewery and Taproom

Another brewpub will soon welcome patrons from around the Portland metro area. Chehalem Valley Brewery and Taproom of Newberg, Oregon will be the second brewery to open in less than a year (the other was Long Brewing). Located at 2515B Portland Road, the former home of Newberg Glass & Mirror, the brewing company is registered under Two Guys Brewing LLC. Located next to Ye Olde Pizza Shoppe, the building is a free standing, approximately 2,600 square foot space with handicap accessibility. It includes 700 square foot office/display area and 1900 square foot shop/installation area. We are not sure how much this will change as CVB makes needed upgrades. Not much else is available on the web at this time. The application for OLCC permitting was submitted not even one week ago, and the only online presence the brewhouse has is Facebook page that lacks much detail.