SteepleJack Brewing expands their reach with 6-packs and distribution with Bigfoot Beverages, Fort George Distribution, NW Beverages, and Maletis Beverage

Portland based SteepleJack Brewing has built themselves an established Oregon brand in less than two years, and is parlaying that success into state-wide distribution and a Seattle, Washington debut with new distribution partners. In just their first year in business SteepleJack went from their flagship brewpub in an iconic neighborhood church to two locations in the suburbs specializing in pizza and expanded brewing capacity, and 2023 looks to be just as big.

While prepping for expansion to a Hillsboro taproom and production facility, SteepleJack purchased Wiens defunct brewery’s assets which included a delivery vehicle and canning line to package and self-distribute their beers. By the time that the Hillsboro production became operational earlier this year, SteepleJack had already opened a second Beer & Pizza location in the SW Hillsdale neighborhood and started-up a promising self-distribution business. It became clear that the canning line, tanks, and delivery van wouldn’t be able to accomodate the surging demand for arguably Oregon’s hottest new brand. Co-owner Brody Day then made the decision to scrap previous plans and scale up in order to fulfill a developing accounts roster.

"I think we realized when we were nearly done with the build-out of Hillsboro is that the kind of infrastructure that we need is going to be very hard to build-out in the time that we needed it," says SteepleJack co-owner Brody Day. "We realized the trucks, the leases, the regulatory components, it was more than we were ready to take on and we were stretched too thin.”

Earlier this Fall the brewery announced they would join the Maletis Beverage portfolio of wholesale brands in the greater Portland-metro area and surrounding cities. This was just the beginning of a broader plan to get their beer into more locations throughout the northwest, and partnering with Bigfoot Beverages in Eugene as their first new craft brand since the pandemic was was the next step.

"We finally have the capacity to produce the beers that we want, our mission is that we are really focused on making it accessible to everyone as we can," says Day.

Following that ethos SteepleJack Brewing is ready to announce new partnerships with Seattle, Washington based NW Beverages, and Fort George Distribution’s network covering Oregon’s NW coast and the corner of Washington. With those deals SteepleJack is now available just about everywhere in the state of Oregon with the exception of the Ashland-Medford area. In Washington, NW Beverage will make their beers available in Clallam, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Mason, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, and the southern half of Island county.

In addition to those major developments, the brewery is also getting ready to launch 12oz cans and 6-packs to complement the recently debuted 16oz cans and 4-packs. With that news, the brand has been accepted intoTarget stores in Sherwood, Beaverton, Tanasbourne, and Washington Square, and hopes to soon be at all of the other metro-area locations in January. Look for 6-packs of Sawyer (Table Beer), West Coast Pilsner, and IPA.

With the rapid growth of SteepleJack Brewing some consumers and even industry insiders have wondered aloud how big the brewery wants to get, and at a recent debut event in Bellingham customers even speculated they had larger corporate owners. But according to Day, the goal is simply to fill a niche of quality beers in underappreciated categories. Though he gets the rampant speculation about the company’s future, he says "I understand it from the outside, there is a lot of money and things going on. But, it couldn’t be anything further from the truth. By and large people don't really understand what SteepleJack is trying to do."

"We are a company that wants to brew beers that are first and foremost that are excellent,” says Day, “but also in styles that you don’t see everyday. We want people to enjoy those beers and find them accessible."

That sort of dedication is unusual for beers that do not generate high bottle cap untappd scores or light up beer trading threads on online forums. SteepleJack is here to promote a different way forward by looking backwards in a new program of can-conditioned beers that head brewer Anna Buxton has been developing. Just a decade ago it wasn’t uncommon to find many craft beers bottle conditioned with the natural yeast present in the bottle and primed with a dose of sugar to create a more natural and gentle carbonation that also promoted healthy beers with a better shelf life. The practice has fallen out of favor for clearer and arguably more refined beers with more controllable effervescence from force carbonation. There are pros and cons, and certain styles lend themselves to bottle conditioning, or can conditioning in the case of SteepleJack Brewing.

Can conditioned beers are notoriously difficult, few brewers would even attempt to master getting the perfect level of pop in a can without undercarbing or risking the opposite effect of ballooning cans. But in the age of exploding smoothie sour puree gushers that can’t handle room temperature without blowing their tops, can conditioning is a welcome contrast harkening back to real ales and lagers the way they were meant to be consumed. It’s also a risky business to wholesale beers that are harder to replicate and more difficult for distributors to explain to accounts looking for a sure thing.

16oz can conditioned packaging is rolling out now for year-round beer Alewife (SteepleJack’s gold medal-winning English Mild), and seasonals like Whole Cone Chinook IPA, Biere de Noel (Spiced Belgian Dubbel), Cream Ale, Witness Mark (English-style Ordinary Bitter), Oatmeal Stout, and Waimea Hazy Pale Ale.

"We have been very forthright and focused with the distributors that we brew a very distinct and unique style of beer, and we want to make sure they are not pushing us to brew one style of beers like IPA's or whatever. That is why we have been careful on who we partner with," says Day.

SteepleJack Brewing’s first shipments have rolled out to their distribution partners already, but 12oz cans and 6-packs won’t be available until next year.