Weekend Beer Company opens 2.5 acre Southern Oregon Taproom and Production Facility

If you are driving to or from northern California through Oregon you would likely cross Grants Pass along the Rogue River 30 miles north of Medford. Incorporated in 1887, the city of 35,000 is best known as the whitewater rafting capital of the state and their “It’s the Climate” slogan. It’s probably not as well known for the towns breweries, of which they have 5, as it should be.

Weekend Beer Co. is a veteran and brewer owned operation that opened in 2018 and has served primarily Jackson County, though they did make an appearance at the New School’s annual New Oregon Breweries Showcase at Bailey’s Taproom the same year. Founded by two local couples; Three of the four founders have been friends since middle school and all reconnected after moving back to Grants Pass and sharing beers. With a small 3-barrel brewhouse and taproom, Weekend Beer Co. is one of the Oregon beer success stories we rarely hear about. While others have closed up for good over the past few years, Weekend Beer Co. has built a brand new location on 2.5 acres on the north side of town and will open Wednesday, March 2nd 2021 to the public.

“We started this process about a year ago before COVID hit and thankfully, while we’ve made some adjustments, we haven't been derailed by the many difficulties of this year,” says co-owner and Weekend brewer Brandon Crews. “This new location will allow us to grow and to turn Weekend Beer Co. into a true attraction for Grants Pass, as well as creating something for the locals that really doesn’t exist here yet.”

The new location and expansion of their taproom in a way comes at a perfect time when social distancing and open space is at a premium. The new industrial building will leave about 1.5 acres of undeveloped land around it that can be used for larger events, meanwhile their current outdoor seating will jump from 480 sq. ft. to about 8K of patio space and be open year-round with smokeless fire pits. Also four landing pads for food trucks will be placed on the outside of the beer garden with longtime partners Valentino’s (known for their burgers and whole food sandwiches) and Tacomania moving over to the new location. Coming soon in the weeks and months after opening is Wheelhouse Coffee, and Catalyst Pizza with their NY-style pies.

Planned and developed with design and construction company Ausland Group, the Weekend Beer Co. began thoughtfully began planning the indoor / outdoor spaces to work together to promote fresh air flow by removing barriers and limiting touch points. Three 12’ garage doors will open to the indoor main bar and courtyard providing service to outdoor spaces and for an outdoor keg filling station. Capacity is estimated at around 100 people indoors and another 150 outside, COVID restrictions withstanding.

The interior taproom will share an open space with the brewery just like their previous building had, but with a wider separation between production and customers. The limited amount of space at the original location was detrimental to Weekend Beer Co.’s production since brewing, kegging and cleaning could not be done when customers were inside. That meant that they were only reaching about half of their production potential, but not for lack of demand.

“We have always focused on the taproom, and will continue to do so. However, a freer brew schedule may very well allow us to increase our distribution from the few bbls per month we've been doing, depending on how busy the taproom is,” says Crews.

The second phase of Weekend Beer Co. buildout will be to develop a separate building on the land with a larger brewhouse and dedicated to production.

“In the just over 2 years we have been open, we have already added three 10 bbl FVs and one 10 bbl BT to our initial three 6 bbl Fvs and one 6 bbl BT. With that expansion we are bursting at the seams of our current space and this move is initially focused on the taproom side and adding flexibility to operating a brewery and taproom together,” says Crews.

Co-founding couple Brandon and Ashley Crews both grew up in Grants Pass, graduated from Grants Pass High School and even went on to college together. Brandon went on to study brewing in Sunderland, England, received a certificate in practical brewing from Brewlab, and another from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling. In 2013 Crews began his professional brewing career as the assistant brewer at Rock Bottom Brewery in Portland while Ashley earned a degree at Portland State University and racked up years of experience in marketing and events. Thirteen years later they returned to their hometown and Brandon worked as a brewer at Climate City Brewing before they went on to open Weekend Beer Co. with local friends Kelsey and Troy.

Kelsey and Troy Yoho met at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. Both served together for 10 years in the Army as officers, both deployed to Afghanistan on two different occasions. Both are homebrewers and left the military to pursue their dreams of starting a family and a brewery in Kelsey’s hometown of Grants Pass where she attended the same High School as the Crews.

Weekend Beer Co. owners from left to right: Brandon and Ashley Crews, Kelsey and Troy Yoho. (Photo Taken by Debra Morgan)

The inspiration for the name "Weekend" came from a quote by James A. Murphy that they felt captured the essence of what they want Weekend Beer Co. to be:

“It’s not that we spend five days looking forward to just two. It’s that most people do what they enjoy most on those two days. Imagine living a life where everyday are your Saturdays and Sundays. Make every day your weekend. Make everyday a play-day…”

Weekend Beer Company will focus on 5 core beers and 5-8 rotating taps available year round. Their new location opens 3/3/2021 at 1863 NW Washington Blvd, Grants Pass, Oregon and the taproom is open 7 days a week from 11:30am-7pm for outside seating and to-go sales.