Updated 4/30/2021: Breakside Brewery has opened on SE 82nd Ave.

Since their founding in 2010, Breakside Brewery has become one of the most dependably great and consistently award-winning breweries in the country. But like everyone else, the brewery was hit hard by the pandemic but is responding to those challenges with their first satellite taprooms not connected to a brewery on 82nd Ave. in Portland, and in downtown Lake Oswego and Beaverton, Oregon.

2020 saw Breakside introduce some of their core classics like the flagship IPA, Wanderlust IPA and What Rough Beast in 12oz bottles for the first time. That changing form of beer delivery mechanism shifted even further with the loss of draft sales in Oregon bars and restaurants, as nearly all production pivoted to 16oz cans to meet consumer demand. That’s meant more world-class beers that are easily accessible at home, but less opportunities to showcase them in their preferred form out of a tap. 

“I think when people get the opportunity to try our beers over a bar that they are more likely to then buy them in the store to enjoy at home,” says Breakside co-founder Scott Lawrence who believes the pub experience is vital in more ways than one. “Well...for one it's just way less fun” to drink beer at home. “For me in particular the social interaction when ordering a beer is a crucial part of the process. Same with coffee. I love interacting with my barista or bartender, and it's such a bummer to have those interactions muted by a mask.”

Roughly 70% of Breakside’s total production was dedicated to draft beer prior to March of 2020. As the early shutdown took it’s toll in April and May, the output into kegs actually went into negative numbers as hundreds of shells were returned by distributors and their contents had to be dumped down the drain.

“2020 was crushing on our draft sales, so we're revamping out plans with more retail outlets in hope of spreading our eggs out so to speak,” says Lawrence.

With a packed lineup of collaborations for their 10th anniversary in 2020, the pandemic may have slowed the business down but didn’t cut short the brewing side of innovation or their output of specialty and limited releases. The near total devastation on draft beer sales expedited the brewery to fast track their progression from bottles into cans. All of the twenty-four different anniversary collaboration beers have been kept in play, albeit not in the forms initially intended and wrapping up in April of 2021 instead of the end of last year.

“We are still churning through dozens of new beers at our own spots, but it's been slow going selling the seasonal draft offerings through distributors,” says Lawrence. That returning fast flowing draft market is one of many reasons that Breakside is pushing into three new taprooms in 2021.

Breakside Lake Oswego

Breakside Brewery Lake Oswego will be a small taproom in The Windward development that houses 200 residential units above 43,000 square feet of commercial space. Facing “A” Avenue, Breakside Lake O taproom is in the same building as a Bamboo Sushi, and sandwiched between Salt & Straw Ice Cream’s mega scoop shop and the Windward leasing office at 120 A Avenue, Retail A6, Lake Oswego, OR 97034.

With the simple working title of “Breakside” the location southwest of Portland will focus on draft beer and grab and go bottles and cans, with a paired down food and snacks menu. It caters to an untapped area that would have to travel across town to make it into one of Breakside’s brewpubs, but will now be able to easily access a greater selection of their beer from a convenient intersection off of State Street only a block from the lake. If permitting goes as planned, Breakside Lake Oswego will open by June 2021.

Beaverton Beer Garden

Breakside Beaverton will be an outdoor Munich Oktoberfest style beer garden built out into an open lot on the opposite side of the block as Ex Novo Brewing’s Pizza pub. The plan calls for outdoor beer hall style wood benches, string lights hanging overhead, fire pits, a polka stage, a bar build out of a shipping container and more green plants to warm up the 8,000 sq. ft. space.

“As long as the city will let us do it we'll be converting the property into a full outdoor party for the neighborhood,” adds Lawrence.

The beer garden will run adjacent to a new restaurant from Lawrence’s friends at Please Louise Pizza under a new concept redeveloping the “L” shaped building on 1st and Angel Avenue. The Breakside outdoor space is sandwiched between Farmington and 1st on Angel and will have seating for a couple hundred people in the quickly developing food and drink corridor of Beaverton.

 Breaksider at the CORE

Breakside’s Winebeergo (aka The Breaksider) will become a central feature of the impressive new Collective Oregon Eateries (CORE) development 3612 SE 82nd Ave just south of Powell Blvd in Portland. The tricked out vintage 1972 winnebago was turned into a mobile Breakside taproom in the summer of 2019 where it took a road trip around the state and even sat in to pour beers for customers outside the Milwaukie taproom as the permanent bar was being remodeled. Rebuilt from the ground up, The Breaksider takes 8 draft lines of award-winning beers on the road for a drive-in experience.

The Breaksider should have been a hot ticket at festivals and private parties but since we aren’t able to have those for the forseeable future, it will instead be pouring for CORE’s 15 different food carts when they begin to open in February or March. The 36,000 sq. ft.  CORE complex has been built from the ground up to be an indoor micro restaurant food hall and an outdoor food truck pod. When the marketplace opens, it will have it’s own indoor full liquor bar called “Shapes” and will operate an outdoor farmers market and Saturday market.

Lawrence envisions a difficult road ahead in 2021, but a return to community experiences that craft beer drinkers thrive on in the latter half of the year.

“People are definitely itching to go out for beers and have fun with their friends. I think unfortunately that it may take until the weather starts to improve in May or June (or even July) until we see any noteworthy return in draft sales,” he predicts. “Before the pandemic we sold about 90% of all our beer in Oregon and Washington. I don't really see that changing, and we are fortunate to have amazing relationships with our distributors. It has though made us want to sell a few more of our beers directly. We are going to do a couple new taprooms this year for that reason. A little safety net of sorts that happens to be a lot of fun. Cheers to 2021 adventures.”