For the first time Ruse Brewing will have outdoor seating at a pop-up weekend beer garden shared with 503 Distilling and Adega Northwest Wines. The Brooklyn Beer Garden quietly kicked off last weekend in the back parking lot across from the Iron Fireman Collective building and will feature rotating food trucks, live music on Saturday’s and Ruse Brewing draft beer served from the Brews for New Avenues tap truck.

Opening weekend kicked off with Killer Burger’s food truck, and a warm but overcast day that was perfect for a soft opening as things were just beginning to get set up. The Brooklyn Garden is a gravel lot decorated with barrel planters and an awning for shade that will continue to take shape with more features over the coming weeks. 503 Distilling holds the license for the patio and is using the opportunity as a sort of outdoor pop-up taproom with both canned and draft cocktails served from their converted open top trailer van.

503 Distilling specializes in canned spirits based cocktails, they launched in 2017 and have been a fixture at festivals and farmers markets across the state since. Recognizable for their logo featuring a bearded man wearing a beanie and glasses while smoking a pipe, 503 Distilling is now based out of the Iron Fireman Collective building and has ramped production to distribute to Oregon liquor stores, and Washington, Idaho, and California grocery and liquor stores. They are also experimenting with bottled cocktails as R & D for new draft cocktails which could be scaled up to cans in the future.

Adega Northwest Wines is based out of a warehouse in the lot outside of Ruse, directly adjacent to the beer garden and is operating their own booth on-site weekends. Adega has been pouring Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Albarino and Rose but also had rolled out the grill and smoker for it’s own patio BBQ menu. That included a Paella Burrito with peppers, carmelized onions, herbs, rice, garlic aioli, smashed avocado and cheese that you could choose to add smoked pork shoulder or smoked chicken too, or roasted yams and broccolini for the vegetarians/vegans. But that wasn’t all, a loaded baked potato salad, a wood fired and chilled broccolini and carrot salad were also available. And for cold refreshment san pellegrino, topo chico, or strawberry rhubarb or peanut butter cookie dough ice cream.

Ruse Brewing is taking the opportunity to offer their beers on an outdoor patio setting for the first time, starting off with $6.50 pints of four different draft beers served from the Brews for New Avenues tap truck. The van will be set up every Saturday and Sundays as well if the beer garden remains busy. Ruse is donating 10% of every pint sold at the beer garden back to New Avenues for Youth, the organization that runs the rare beer charity auction event Brews for New Avenues.

This Saturday, June 19th the Brooklyn Beer Garden will play host to the Gambler 500 and Sons of Smokey, an organization designed to promote the cleanup up of public lands. The event provides an outlet for drivers to test out their vintage gambler cars and celebrate their work doing trash cleanup which usually happens in the woods, but this year will focus on urban Portland. Lorenz-Bruun construction will be providing a 30 yard dumpsters for Gamblers to bring their trash that they cleanup on Saturday and the group will hang around to enjoy beer and cocktails and show off their vehicles.

503 Distilling makes a Gambler Whiskey of rye and corn for the group with 10% of the sales being donated to Sons of Smokey, which is the non-profit arm of the Gamber 500. The funds are used to pay for dumpsters, trash disposal, and other expenses related to picking up trash on public lands, which is carried out by “Gamblers” all across the country.

The Brooklyn Beer Garden is also an excuse for Ruse Brewing co-founder Shaun Kalis to bring back live music. The garden will have live performances from an 18’ x 12’ stage and Kalis is booking bands to play every Saturday from 5-8pm. The schedule so far:

June 25th The Clam Band

July 3rd Far Out West

July 10th Chicken Sh#! Gamblers

July 17th Peter LeClair Band

July 24th 3 Jazz 3 Furious

July 31st Miguel Hernandez Quartet

August 14-Golden Promise

August 21-Dead Sometimes

Between now and the end of September the Brooklyn Beer Garden will be open every Saturday and Sunday from 2-9pm (Ruse’s Sunday hours could vary) with rotating food trucks on Saturdays and Hogg and Steer on Sundays. Follow the Beer Garden facebook page for the latest updates. On site parking available and the beer garden is located next to a MAX orange line stop at 4855 SE 18th Portland, OR.