Introducing VIA BEER: from the co-founder of Wayfinder and Double Mountain
VIA BEER founder Charlie Devereux pours a pint off the tank at Barrett Beverage
Wayfinder Beer and Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery co-founder Charlie Devereux is sneakily launching VIA BEER at a series of surprise Portland launch parties next week with Day One Distribution. The new West Coast IPA and Lager heavy beer brand is a collaborative effort with Kings & Daughters Brewing founder Kyle Larsen, and reunites Devereux with Wayfinder Beer designer Orion Landau for a slick look that is a little less Metal and a whole lot more Grateful Dead-head.
VIA BEER was partially born out of the pandemic, with Devereux working himself out of a full time job as Wayfinder Beer’s sales manager after hiring former pFriem Family Brewers events manager Lindsay Allen to take over the role. Pretty soon there wasn’t a whole lot to do, but the idea for a new project had been noodling in his head like a Jerry Garcia jam.
“I quickly realized that Lindsay could basically do our sales job better than I could” says Devereux. “Wayfinder is trucking along under its own momentum, which has left me free to explore some new avenues, at least new to me.”
Kyle Larsen was a bit of a brewing protege when he worked for Double Mountain Brewery in the early days when Charlie Devereux was still hands on deck with co-founder brewmaster Matt Swihart. Larsen’s career path took he and his wife to the UK where he became an innovative brewer for Siren Craft Brew, explored his love of farmhouse ales and cask beer, and discovered the joys of a New England-style IPA. In 2019, Larsen came back home to Hood River with the dream of starting his own farmhouse brewery in the gorge, and after a stint at Trap Door Brewing he launched Kings & Daughters with his wife Kacie. But that is another story.
While working to get his own brand off the ground, Larsen met Brice Barrett, who was an engineer planning to start a contract brewing and distilling operation in Clackamas. Back Forty Beverage (now renamed Barrett Beverage) was one of our most anticipated new breweries of 2021, as was Kings & Daughters. Barrett needed help, and Devereux and Larsen proved to be just the right fit to help launch the brewing program as their side gigs while working on their own projects. In that sense, Barrett Beverage is proving to be a vital incubator for small breweries to launch or expand their production and Via Beer will be one of the first examples.
Kyle Larsen
Larsen has been working as the brewmaster at Barrett Beverage while getting Kings & Daughters Brewing up and running, and now he is also serving as the consulting brewmaster for VIA. Devereux himself has put back on his brewing boots and helped Larsen and Barrett make 1,200 barrels in the soft first 6 months of the operation. Devereux was a brewer at Full Sail Brewing in the 90’s before he started Double Mountain Brewing in 2007 with fellow Full Sail brewer Matt Swihart. Since starting his own business ventures he has stayed on more of the sales, marketing and management side of the industry.
“I've been accused of being a serial startup guy, I love the creation possess, and I'd say there is nothing more immersive in that regard than starting a brand from scratch,” he says.
Devereux was interested in the brewpub model, and in bringing back German-style lagers when he opened Wayfinder Beer with Matt Jacobsen and Rodney Muirhead in 2016. Always looking for something new, he is now fascinated by the new American-style IPA’s and hoppy lagers that blur the line between West Coast, German, and Northeastern IPA movements. Larsen has become an advocate for what he calls “soft IPA,” which are Hazy’s that achieve the soft pillowy mouthfeel without the high alcohol or hop burn that can punch you in the face with harsh bitterness and hop/yeast particles. With VIA Beer they look to achieve something inbetween So-Cal style beers and the techniques brought back from time abroad, with almost over-the-top dry-hopped lagers and whatever else that catches their interest.
“I've been very lucky to work with many talented and awesome people, and I've always loved collaborating. The big difference with Via is that while I am working very closely with others, at the end of the day I'm the director and I get director's cut,” explains Devereux on how the Via Beers will be different then anything he has done before.
Orion Landau
Orion Landau is the man behind the illustration and design synonymous with Wayfinder Beer, Sizzle Pie, and Relapse Records. Landau was instrumental in building the look and feel of Wayfinder Beer from the logo to all the current labels and graphics. With those brands Landau leans heavily on an illustration background and metal, horror, and pulp influences. For the VIA Beer brand, Devereux wanted the labels and logo to stand apart, and instead of heavy line work and characters they are focusing on bold colors and altered photography that fuses landscapes with psychedelic imagery and post-modern art influences.
“I was looking for something simple and open-ended and found myself using the word "via" a lot when describing how we were going to accomplish our goals... "build community via collaboration", stuff like that. One day it just stuck. The more I thought about it the more I liked the connection to travel, pathways... going somewhere.”
Rather than fight it out in the self-distribution game for tap handles and shelf space, or alternatively relying on a pre-pandemic taproom/hospitality business model, Devereux has partnered right away with Day One Distribution. Wayfinder Beer self-distributes, but there are benefits to both models, which Devereux learned first hand with Double Mountain Brewing and their terrific and long standing partnership with Point Blank Distributing. “I think I learned a lot about how to be a good brewery partner in that relationship,” he says of Point Blank. “I'm proud of what our team at Wayfinder has been able to build. But for this gig, which is basically just me with some help from my friends, going with Day One right out of the gate is the right move. Watching them grow over the past few years has been exciting to watch, and…as I've gotten older I've also learned (or am trying to learn) to watch my bandwidth... I can focus on the things where I feel I add value, not to mention the stuff that I truly love doing, namely brewing and brand creation.”
And Via Beer is not writing off opening their own taproom in the future. “I'm personally very invested in the pub game -- I love building spaces for people to have great times, and I do hope to revisit that down the road with Via hopefully sooner than later.”
The first releases for Via are Spiral Light West Coast IPA, a light-colored and supremely hoppy 6.2% ABV version of the style with Simcoe, Mosaic and Strata hops, and Special Pils Hoppy Pilsner, a 5% ABV straw-colored lager that daringly pairs German malts and Spalt Select hops with a generous dose of Simcoe and Mosaic in the dry-hop. Near-term release plans include another Westie with a different hop bill, a triple-hopped Hazy IPA, and collabs with other new players like Sean Burke at Foreland. “The current plan is to release two beers every three weeks and do our best to keep it always fresh,” says Devereux. “And always have fun with it.”
To celebrate the launch, Via has planned a Release Tour starting Monday Feb 28 at craft beer mainstay The Beermongers and ending at local hero Lombard House in St. John’s. It’ll feature the two Via beers along with some friendly company: selections from Kings & Daughters, a few rare gems from other Day One brewers, and kegs of Wayfinder’s epic YOB Doppelbock. There also may be a special playlist or two. Here are the launch event details:
Monday, February 28th at The Beermongers, 1125 SE Division, Portland, 4-8pm Tuesday, March 1 at Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark, Portland, 4-8pm Wednesday, March 2 at Arch Bridge Taphouse, 205 7th Street, Oregon City, 4-8pm Saturday, March 5 at Lombard House, 7337 N. Lombard St, Portland, 12-4pm featuring grinds from Hapa Howie’s Hawaiian Cuisine food truck.
VIA BEER cans and draft will be hitting the streets with Day One Distribution beginning March 1st 2022. For more information, visit www.viabeer.com or check Instagram at @drinkviabeer.