New Spring Brewing born out of the ashes of Flat Tail Brewing
Flat Tail Brewing is back...kind of. After closing up for good in June 2020, owner/brewer Dave Marliave told us about the painful events that lead up to being forced to close the business, and his hopes to bring it back from the dead. Against all odds he has done it, beginning this Thursday, Jan. 7th the first two beers from his new venture New Spring Brewing will begin rolling out into the market.
New Spring beers are made on Flat Tail’s 15 bbl brewhouse now relocated from 202 SW 1st street in Corvallis to 140 NE Hill St in Albany, Oregon. The major system move will also help ring in a new chapter for 14 year-old Calapooia Brewing in a shared space and partnership that gives both brewing companies a better chance to succeed going forward.
Flat Tail Brewing was founded in 2010 with Calapooia Brewing founder Mark Martin as a partial owner. Marliave was only 23 years old at the time. The original Flat Tail brewhouse was a 7bbl system that had been Calapooia Brewing’s original brewhouse before they then upgraded. Though he was considered a young, brash and cocky presence when he got started, Dave Marliave quickly became a seasoned and award-winning veteran who earned his stripes with a back-strapping approach to the industry. With all the hard work came accolades, both in the press and in the trades with major medals including silver, bronze and gold at the Great American Beer Festival between 2013 and 2016. So it was not surprising that Marliave wouldn’t let his brewing dreams die (though he considered it) when Flat Tail was unceremoniously evicted for non-pandemic reasons in June. Hauling all of 10 years of barrels, equipment and brewhouse out of a space in 30 days is no joke, but with the help of the community they made it happen.
Since that time, Marliave took up residence as the director of brewing operations for the most underrated brewery of 2020 - Yachats Brewing. With head brewer Aaron Gillham temporarily taken out of the game with an injury, Marliave is now the brewer for all of the Yachats beers. But somehow it still only has taken him 6 months to relocate the entire brewery and strike up a deal to resume brewing with New Spring and Calapooia Brewing both sharing the old Flat Tail system.
One-time part owners of Flat Tail, Mark Martin and his wife Laura Bryngelson sold Calapooia Brewing to Vivacity Spirits in late 2019. The new owners Catlin Prueitt and Chris Neumann planned to revitalize the Calapooia brand with better equipment, more packaging and adding their distillery and tasting room into the operation. But here is where things come even more eerily full circle; Flat Tail Brewing’s first brewhouse was actually Calapooia’s original 7bbl system they had received from Martin. A decade later, the 15bbl brewhouse that Flat Tail later upgraded into has been installed at Calapooia to replace the one that they had scaled up to after Flat Tail took theirs. The connection gets even more granular when you realize that both breweries developed cult followings on their spicy beers, with Calapooia’s signature Chile Beer a mainstay of the 2000’s and Flat Tail’s El Guapo habanero cucumber lime sour becoming a surprise hit in PDX the following decade.
The first two beers from New Spring are getting packaged up today on one of the two days of production they will have on the system, while Calapooia takes three days a week. “It’s killer for both of us because I get access to an ultra low overhead operation, and they get a major equipment upgrade with no up front cost.”
Literally with a new lease on his brewery life, Marliave has opted to let Flat Tail die in Corvallis and enter a post pandemic world with New Spring Brewing. In many ways Flat Tail was a sports bar and the beer brand had a life of it’s own with craft beer geeks, but the identity was always tied to college football and the Oregon State Beavers.
“Flat Tail was an amalgamation of place, people, spirit etc. and without 202 SW, or any pub for that matter, it just isnt and wont ever be Flat Tail again,” says Marliave. “On top of that, though the beer was my baby from the get go, it all fit into a certain "theme" . That theme was influenced by our Pub, a sports bar, by our distribution partners, primarily GDI, and by my business partners, regulars etc. The beer was me for the most part, but the whole brand itself never really was. I mean, I didnt know what a fucking safety was until I'd co-owned a sports bar for three years, yet my logo was inspired by a college mascot and our flagship was "Tailgater" Kolsch. I loved interacting with student athletes and i've made good friends out of die hard football fans I never would have met otherwise, but it was those personal interactions, not the sports behind them that were really part of me.”
Things have changed, Marliave isn’t planning to be tied to a taproom. Calapooia Brewing will remain just that, and not a tasting room for New Spring Brewing. Instead it will focus on 16oz cans and draft beer in the Willamette Valley and PDX, and has brought back former Flat Tail staffer and friend Jim Zinn who is now accepting orders. Marliave’s approach to brewing and business has also changed, though you can see some bitterness about the biz evident in our June interview, you can also see a lot of optimism that he is now channeling into this new venture.
“As you can imagine its a totally different ethos starting a brewery as a brash, passionate, hungry AF twenty one year old vs. a scarred up old dog with a cabinet full of hardwear and a closet full of worn out elastic,” says Marliave on the differences between his past business to the new one.
“There will certainly be a more cerebral, more methodical approach to what I release with New Spring. For example, hazy IPA’s, Milk Shake IPA’s etc. are something I haven’t exactly spoken fondly of over the last few years, but I get it....People want that kind of beer; and frankly I’m fucking excited to brew it. Not because I’m excited to drink those styles, but because I think I can bring my approach to them and improve the process while making it my own.”
The first New Spring bees out of the gate are a classic San Diego-style Double IPA and a modern dessert-y Imperial Porter.
2X Double IPA is brewed with Golden promise malt, and Amarillo, Citra, and Mosaic hops in the mash, kettle, and fermenter. Cherry Almond Porter is a hefty 9%abv with whole almonds ground up with the grist in the mill, with cherry puree and house made almond flour caramel added. Both beers will be available in 16oz cans and on draft starting this Thursday.
Following up their initial two beer releases, a heavily fruited and turbid Smoothie IPA is coming in February or March. Flat Tail’s most acclaimed beers were wild brettanomyces and mixed culture beers, as well as an extremely authentic German-style Kolsch called Tailgater. That type of beer will not go by the wayside, with many of New Spring’s follow-up releases being mixed culture wild ales, and German-styles like Pilsner and Hefeweissen coming in the summer. The modern IPA’s and trendy styles will pay the bills and make money to fund the passion projects.
“It may be that Flat Tail has a come back or two (I really want to stop getting emails about El Guapo, so that may have to make an appearance) but that’s ultimately something that would be significantly down the road,” says Marliave for his fans hoping to see Flat Tail favorites return.
Follow New Spring Brewing on instagram @NewSpringBeer and look for cans and draft in the coming days, weeks, months and order it from Dave@NewSpringBeer.com.