Duality Brewing keeps it Nano with DIY Approach to Culinary-inspired Beers
Duality Brewing is now open to the public in NE Portland! Updated 5/15/2023
Nano breweries have always been around in some shape or another, but the pandemic has led to people having more time on their hands and digging into more solitary, localized endeavors. Though the term is loose, for our purposes nano brewing can be defined as small, semi-professional brewing operations (in some cases just a larger and more elaborate homebrew setup) that produce and self-distribute small batches of beer. It usually doesn’t require a large space and can be done solo or with just a little bit of help, making it a feasible option for someone who wants to dip a toe into the world of professional brewing without fully diving in. Throughout 2020 and into 2021, we have seen people getting creative as they find new ways to market services or products outside traditional gathering spaces, whether that be brewing beer in small batches, hosting pop-up restaurants, or selling meals direct to customers via Instagram.
For Michael Lockwood, it was a combination of all of those factors that lead to his founding Duality Brewing Co. Lockwood is a professional chef who has worked at high-profile Portland restaurants like Kachka and Eem, and he also has experience in beer and distilling after brewing at Craftsman in Pasadena, California and at putting in time at King’s County Distillery in New York. Early in 2020, he hosting a cooking event where he also shared some of his homebrew, which received enthusiastic feedback. When he found himself professionally sidelined by the pandemic, Lockwood decided to combine his skills and start his own nano brewing operation.
“The way this all started was that Eem opened back up with a skeleton crew. I brought in some beer for [co-owner] Eric [Nelson] to try, and he asked me if he could buy it. I was like no, but maybe I can figure that out,” says Lockwood. “It was a toasted wild rice lager [done in] a steam beer style. So, I was like, if the best new restaurant in Portland is going to buy some of my beer that would be sweet. So I went into securing space and figuring out how to build a nano setup.”
Drawing from his experience in the world of food and alcohol, Lockwood is taking a unique approach that is more inspired by cooking than brewing science. This idea came from his years at Craftsman, a lowkey yet highly respected California brewery that would do things like steep herbs in a lager to give it a whole new flavor.
“Mark [Jilg] at Craftsman gave me some amazing advice and said, ‘you’re amazing with food, just follow your cooking mind and you’ll be fine.’ Making beer is cooking, and I’ve been cooking for years in Portland and developing those relationships with the restaurants,” says Lockwood.
You can see culinary flourishes in Lockwood’s beers, which often riff on traditional styles with the kind of adjuncts that read like gourmet ingredients. Besides that toasted rice lager he made for Eem, he also collaborated with Kachka for a kvas-inspired beer using their rye bread and cracked fenugreek. His packaged offerings have included, among others, Coco Clouds, a classic brown ale amped up with toasted coconut and Ecuadorian vanilla from artisan purveyors Cloudforest, a strong kviek pale ale fermented on macerated citrus peel, rhubarb, lilac flowers, vanilla beans and grapefruit juice, and a light Belgian pale brewed with toasted wild rice, rwheat and spring rye that carries refreshing notes of tea and fruit. These are all canned beers, but Lockwood has also been fermenting into barrels he had shipped from Kings County Distillery, which have included a creamy oak aged golden ale with vanilla and a smoky, barrel-aged bock. Besides his more adjunct-forward beers, Lockwood has brewed up standards like IPAs, hefeweizens, and a California steam beer. Each time he brews, Lockwood tweaks and refines his recipes, and anyone following along can see how he is dialing in the flavor profile of each beer he brews. As a result, all of his beers are worth seeking out.
“I’m trying to be thoughtful about the whole process and not just kick the can. I’m trying to let it be part of me,” says Lockwood.
All of this takes place in a converted shipping container located in a non-descript lot off highway 30. Lockwood’s setup, which he built himself with the help of his electrician brother and equipment purchased secondhand from homebrewers, is a tight squeeze but it gets the job done and allows him to stay creative.
“Everything has been super DIY,” says Lockwood, pointing out that every beer is canned or bottled and labeled by hand. Even the sparse yet attention-grabbing labels are designed by Lockwood and his wife.
Beers are stored in a custom-built walk-in cooler and almost all of the marketing is done through Instagram, where people can place orders directly to be delivered to their house. Through his connections in the culinary and beer scenes, Lockwood has also been self-distributing small kegs to restaurants like Kachka, Eem and Han Oak, and making his cans available at bottle shops like Beer Mongers. During a typical canning run, he packages around 100 cans or around a quarter barrel keg.
“The thing you don’t think about is that you’re not going to make a living brewing 15 gallons at a time - it’s just not possible. If I brewed twice a day every day and had twice as many fermenters, maybe, but I would never be home,” says Lockwood.
Professionally speaking, nano brewing can be a tough road that often isn’t profitable. But in this era of self-promotion and social media hype, it can give you a foothold in the industry and help build a reputation as well as an audience for your beer without a massive investment.
Duality Brewing Co. is actually one of a handful of nano operations popping up throughout the Portland area these days. Even though Lockwood is still learning the ropes, he is passionate about Duality and is most certainly onto something with the culinary angle. He’s also hopeful about the future and excited to see where his little operation will go next. In this day and age, one small idea with a quality product and good marketing has the potential to take off, so perhaps we will see Duality go from nano to micro one of these days.
“The making beer part is easy and stress-free. All of the business stuff I am just learning as I go along. But it’s fun - no disasters,” exclaims Lockwood.
Follow Duality Brewing on instagram.
