An upcoming brewpub wants to deliver a religious experience to craft beer fans in northeast Portland’s Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood. Steeplejack Brewing was teased as one of our most anticipated upcoming Oregon breweries of 2021 for the ambitious plan and beautiful renderings of a church turned into a different kind of public house. As the project comes closer to reality the doors to this 112 year old temple are opening up to reveal the good work of founders and longtime friends Brody Day and Dustin Harder and the team they are assembling to help lead it. When your brewery is in a church that was christened by a U.S. president, you’d almost expect the house of the lord to overshadow the front and back of the house staff. But with an all too rare female led brewing team and an experienced publican at the helm, the public will again be crowding into this community gathering space for some holy water.

Formerly The Metropolitan Community Church, members of the congregation sold the building at 2400 NE Broadway to Day and Harder in Spring of 2019 and the pair quickly began the large renovation project that will involve installing a brewhouse, cellar, television/game room, full liquor bar, live performance stage, and a daytime coffee lounge. Demolition and rebuilding is underway as crews are digging up a section of the main hall of worship for a sunken brewery, but SteepleJack plans to keep many of the most iconic and timeless elements of the building intact. William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States, actually laid the cornerstone of the church at a ceremony in front of thousands of onlookers back in the day. But the primary feature is the 65’ ft. high steeple and bell tower from which the brewery gets it’s name, and the location where eastbound traffic on Weidler merges onto NE 24th next to Broadway will likely restore the building to being just as much of a cant miss landmark as it was in the early 1900’s.

the former Metropolitan Community Church is undergoing renovations to become Steeplejack Brewing

Brody Day comes to the endeavour with with over 20 years of experience in homebrewing, and nearly that long as a BJCP judge. His career before this one has given him an extensive knowledge in food sourcing, supply chain management and business acumen. Meanwhile Harder brings a background in mechanical services and construction, his family business Harder Mechanical Contractors specializes in everything from aerospace to chemical manufacturing and food & beverage and has worked with breweries like Widmer Brothers.

“I've learned what it takes to make ok beer vs. truly outstanding beer with replicable results. The margin for error is very small, and every ingredient, temperature and process is critical. We are not setting out to make mediocre beer and it's my vision to help set the standard,” says Day.

Still with their wealth of knowledge, Day and Harder knew they had to bring in an outstanding team of brewing and restaurant/pub professionals. They landed on three familiar faces in the Oregon craft beer industry: Enter head brewer Anna Buxton formerly of Modern Times, lead brewer Anne Aviles formerly of Breakside Brewery, and general manager Billy Cook formerly of McMenamins Breweries.

Steeplejack Brewing crew (left to right) Anne Aviles, Anna Buxton, and Brody Day.

“I interviewed more than two dozen brewers from all over the US,” says Day. “Anna was the most prepared, most professional, and most experienced pub/startup brewer I met. All other interviews I conducted measured against her first impression. The same was true of Anne: I was immediately impressed with her recipe development, production facility and barrel experience. Steeplejack beer will be world-class through their collaboration and complementary skills.”

Anna Buxton will leave her current brewing position at Modern Times Beer’s Belmont Fermentorium to lead the Steeplejack Brewing team and Anne Aviles comes from an assistant production brewing role at Breakside Brewery.

ANNA BUXTON - Head Brewer

Anna Buxton has had an eclectic career in and out of the brewing industry. She studied and worked at the Chimpanzee Human Communications Institute in Ellensburg, WA while getting bachelor's degrees in both Chinese Language and Religious Studies/Philosophy from XiNan MinZu DaXue. She worked as a professional river guide and skier, before deciding to try something new and ended up a bartender at Badger Mountain Brewing in Wenatchee, WA. Through that work Buxton became enamored with craft beer and started homebrewing, she moved to Bozeman, MT and searched for a professional brewing gig but had no luck.

That’s when Buxton began eyeing Portland. After moving to town she was quickly hired by Todd Britt at Rock Bottom Brewery who became her first brewing industry mentor.

“It's from him that I gained my love of traditional english and scottish style pub beers as well as belgian and trappist style beers,” says Buxton of Britt (who is now at Victor 23 Brewing in Vancouver, WA.) At the same time Buxton picked up a job brewing at Uptown Market’s brewery (now called Binary Brewing) with Rob Howard who now brews at Stormbreaker Brewing. Together they learned the ins and outs of brewery management and recipe development. Her career took another detour when she accepted the head brewer job at Rock Bottom’s Long Beach, CA location before coming back to Portland and starting off as a cellarman at Modern Times.

“I was brand new to production brewing, but quickly worked my way into a Brewer II position. At Modern Times I learned not only how to make hype beer well, but also some of the finer nuances of traditional German Beer from Mat Sandoval. From Mat I also learned first hand what it takes to keep a brewery of that output running with such a small team. Conrad Andrus joined us later, and for that I will forever be grateful because its from Conrad that I refocused my time learning brewing science but also rediscovered some joy in the brewing process. They have both been incredibly helpful and supportive as I start on this new venture.”

ANNE AVILES - Lead Brewer

Anne Aviles is an east coast native who graduated from a tiny liberal arts college in Maine but moved to Oregon not knowing what she really wanted to do with her degree. When she got to Portland the goal was to find a career revolving around teaching and science, but she quickly fell into the craft beer scene. It wasn’t long before Aviles found herself working at Belmont Station bottle shop and biercafe and that’s where she had her “a-ha!” moment realizing that craft beer and brewing could become her career.

“I always had an interest in beer and fermentation and did some homebrewing here and there but was always frustrated that my attempts didn't match my ambitious hopes of brewing the perfect beer. Really all it took for me to make better beer was to drink more of it,” says Aviles, who then moved into more fermentation based work at a vineyard and then at De Garde Brewing in Tillamook before landing at Breakside Brewery.

“While I was at De Garde a lot of what I learned was a lot closer to wine making than a brewing job. I joke that instead of putting in my time keg washing, I put in my time cleaning oak puncheons." Then when she transferred over to Breakside, Aviles began work as a production brewer in another very different type of brewing environment. Working under brewmaster Ben Edmunds and the prestigious award-winning production team brought an attention details that make a good beer great.

“While I had the opportunity to build a couple of recipes there (Breakside), I was always itching for that 100% creative freedom. I'm looking forward to putting myself out there where the product of my creativity is a means for gathering and taking time to slow down for a moment,” says Aviles. “the transition over to Steeplejack is what I've been building up to since I've acquired the tools I needed to be the skilled creative brewer I've always wanted to be. I'm seeing this as an opportunity to take what I've learned from my unique brewing experiences to make the beer that I've always wanted to make….Fast forward to today, after drinking countless pints for "research" and working two brewing jobs I'd like to say I'm a little bit closer to that goal of brewing the perfect beer.”

the main hall at Steeplejack, the brewhouse and production will sit against the back wall beneath the stained glass

a conceptual rendering of the space when completed.

The Ann’s will mash-in from a 10bbl 2-vessel system strategically placed by the west facing stained glass windows that throw some soft and colorful shards of light as the sun sets each evening. The brewery will focus on beers to be served in-house with 6 x 10bbl fermenters and 8 x 10bbl brite serving vessels in the basement that will flow directly to the taps. The brewhouse sits on a lower level than the floor so that the tanks reach just below the stained glass as to not obstruct the light, but the brewdeck will be on an even level to the main floor so that patrons get a ground floor view of what goes on behind-the-scenes.

“The space itself is unlike any other I've brewed in, let alone worked in. I've never been a pub brewer where all my actions are being watched so that’s going to be a notable adjustment. Although it's going to be a huge change, I'm excited to be able to connect with the community when it comes to the beers we're going to be making,” says Aviles of the unique setup at Steeplejack.

“It truly is full of magic. I think the years and years of fellowship and community have been imprinted on the space and will continue to inspire the work Anne and I do in that brewery,” adds Buxton.

Starting the SteepleJack brand from scratch will allow the brewers to set the tone for the beer styles, and allow them to feed their inspirations of adventurous beers while also reflecting the flavor profiles that the community tells them they want to see on tap. The challenge begins with establishing vendor relationships, organizing budget, building SOP and developing what the initial beer lineup will look like. Buxton will be focused on the larger production environment and systems while Aviles runs day-to-day brewing operations.

”Anna and I come from backgrounds that will enable us to not only learn from each other but be able to bring something new (and long overdue) to Portland that I haven't really seen yet: two women in charge of it all.” - Ann Aviles.

Like most startup breweries, SteepleJack will kick things off with collaborations made with some of their colleagues and friends in the industry before settling on their own homegrown recipes. For both Day, Buxton and Aviles the keyword is drinkability, beers that can be enjoyed by the pint with friends and family without having to take an uber ride home. That will start the brewers off playing to each of their strong suits, Buxton with her love and experience in English-style Pub Ales, and Aviles with her experience in hops and IPA’s. They plan to then move into even more challenging styles of lager beer, and continue to move forward into food friendly, farmhouse, wild ales, experimental beers, and the decidedly less sessionable barrel-aged beer styles.

“We will start off with a classic low abv table beer, a NW style pale ale, a hazy IPA, an English Mild (hopefully on cask), and Pilsner. On our dream list we have all kinds of smoked beers, Belgians, traditional sours and lagers as well,” added Buxton.

“My hope is that Anna and Anne together will develop Steeplejack and their best capacities as brewers. I know we will produce the highest quality beers from two amazing brewers in collaboration.” - Brody Day.

From the hospitality side of Steeplejack, Day and Harder have been busy building out separate alcoves that surround the main pub hall. Probably the most prominent section will have it’s own Broadway street entrance and feature a hardcore coffee bar. Harder is especially passionate about coffee, and is working to develop a top level program and a special bean blend from a local roaster. This area will operate independently and open earlier with drinks and light snacks.

A 25-seat bar with direct draw draft lines will have a secondary focus on craft whiskey’s and a back bar area with seats for another 20, with a total capacity for about 170. Group and family sit-down tables will be spaced down the middle of the main pub hall between the brewery and bar on adjacent walls on either side. These operations will be ran by friend of the New School — Billy Cook.

Steeplejack Brewing general manager Billy Cook

BILLY COOK - General Manager

“Since I first spoke with Brody about his new project, somewhere around 2 years ago at this point, I have been excited to see the project come to fruition. We have kept in touch, met on occasion at the brewing space, and maybe a had a pint or two along the way. All that said, I was blown away by being offered the, once in a lifetime, opportunity to help to create a brewery and brand from the ground up,” says Cook.

A traveling aficionado who has made it to nearly every U.S. state, Cook hails from the suburbs of Flint, Michigan. Cook began working in the service industry when he was only 14, along his travels he picked up work wherever he could. That gives him a breadth of experience ranging from dive bars in Detroit, to corporate chains, small mom and pops and a PGA gold club. Over the last 12 years Cook had settled in to a career at McMenamins Breweries developing the drinks program and staff at locations like the Zeus Cafe at the Crystal Hotel, Tavern & Pool and most recently the Broadway Pub.

Beyond the service industry, Cook is an avid homebrewer and photographer who has worked with various breweries and brands. His passion for craft cocktails, beer and good service is evident to anyone whose ever shared a drink with him.

“There are dozens of beer guys, front of the house managers, or kitchen experts out there in the industry. There are people that have expertise in the back end and the numbers, or staffing and operations. For me, I live for the process of it all. How it all comes together to facilitate an experience that is fun for the customer as well as the staff. At the end of the day, being a part of beer culture in Portland has always been an honor. This opportunity will let me finally put all the tools together to help create something special for our community.”

SteepleJack Brewing is on track to open later this year, but like all projects of this size is still working through some of the permitting. The brewery has just launched their social media presence for those interested in following along at Steeplejack Beer on facebook and instagram.