Mutantis Brewery & Bottle Shop is now open in NE Portland

Mutantis Brewery & Bottle Shop founder/brewer Jason Yerger

Portland’s newest brewery is now open for business in NE Portland’s woodlawn neighborhood. Mutantis Brewery & Bottle Shop quietly began operating a to-go bottle shop during the holidays, and then brewing their own in-house beers earlier this year that were available by crowlers only until now. Starting last week Mutantis has opened up their taproom patio to enjoy a full lineup of their gluten-free beers on-site for the first time.

Founded by Jason Yerger, who was the original brewmaster of Seattle’s Ghostfish Brewing Company, Mutantis takes up residence in the space that was formerly home to Hi-Wheel Fizzy Wines and shares a building with Tamale Boy and Ranch Pizza. The brewery is especially unique as it may well be the first 100% gluten-free dedicated beer bottle shop that represents brands far outside of their own beers. With the rise of gluten intolerance or simply gluten averse population increases, so too has advancements in the quality of gluten-free beer and Yerger has been an innovation leader in the field since his early days homebrewing to his multi-award winning stint at Ghostfish Brewing.

Yerger came from the bay-area homebrewing community before learning he was gluten-intolerant, starting a blog on his gluten-free homebrewing adventures, and then moving to Seattle, Washington to help build Ghostfish Brewing. There he lead Ghostfish to multiple GABF and World Beer Cup medals as the subsection of the industry blossomed. But with the daily grind of production work canning and bottling year-round flagship beers day in and out, Yerger longed for the freedom to flex his creative gluten-intolerant muscles. (Read about Yerger’s full story in our earlier preview report.)

Moving to the unofficial gluten-free capital of the world, Mutantis will be Oregon’s 5th gluten-free brewery and that doesn’t even count the gluten-reduced beer brands like Omission. But Yerger’s goal is not to make Mutantis so much a competitor in the market, but a hub for people to be able to find the many breweries making these types of beers in one place. As such Mutantis is carrying contemporaries like Ground Breaker Brewing and partners like Bierly Brewing in McMinnville where Yerger brewed his initial beers before his own brewery was operational. The selection will stretch to a few ciders and meads, but Yerger will keep his own beers to be sold mostly just at the taproom (though he is selling cans at Johns Marketplace now.)

The Mutantis beers encompass a spectrum of styles, and Yerger is not just focused on accurately recreating well known beers like Hazy IPA and Stout, he also wants to push gluten-free brewing into Belgian styles and more obscure farmhouse ales and gruits. Some of the initial beers include a Guava IPA, a Witbier with blueberries, a British-style Porter, and the first hints of the farmhouse program with a saison spiced with black lime, cardamom, pomelo, and five different varieties of peppercorn. In the docket there are clean beers like a Mexican-style Lager and an Oaked Imperial Stout, but also more unusual beers like an all raw ingredient farmhouse ale brewed with Evergreen boughs and Nordic Kviek yeast, plus a hopless Gruit style brewed with jasmine, rose, and elderflower.

Mutantis has eased into existence with it’s small to-go store, also launching online ordering and this week plans to begin shipping their gluten-free beers in quirky screw top crowlers. The taproom patio opened as of last Wednesday, and it’s directly adjacent to Tamale Boy’s patio where you can order their Mexican fare and bring it over to Mutantis, as well as their other neighbors Ranch Pizza. The future is looking bright, having weathered the COVID shutdown, the neighborhood and gluten intolerant community is coming out to check out this exciting new addition to the scene and Yerger hopes to do more creative events in the future.

“It's basically impossible to find gluten-free donuts in PDX. I'm looking in to other local gluten-free food trucks, bakeries, and restaurants that might be interested in doing a pop-up as well that would work well in a to-go setting so that I won't build up a large crowd. Ultimately I do plan to have rotating weekly pop-ups to provide food options beyond what Tamale Boy offers,” says Yerger.

Mutantis Brewery & Bottle Shop is now open for eating and drinking on their dog and child friendly patio from Wednesday through Sunday from, 1 PM to 7 PM, they plan to open indoors once vaccinated and expand the hours accordingly. Located near Breakside Brewery woodlawn, you can find the Mutantis shop at 6719 NE 18TH Ave. Portland, OR.