Hood River Brewing Company opening in former Logsdon Farmhouse Ales Tasting Room
Hood River, Oregon has long been a hotspot for craft beer, ever since Full Sail Brewing opened in 1987 and their veteran former brewers spawned operations such as Double Mountain Brewing, pFriem Family Brewers, and Everybody’s Brewing. Full Sail was the original Hood River Brewing Company when they were first founded, but a best selling beer called Full Sail convinced them to change their name. Now there is a new Hood River Brewing Company with no relationship to the iconic 30+ year old brand, this one hoping to carve out a tiny piece and build their own brand for classic approachable beers.
Building on that Hood River craft beer legacy, Christopher Vincenzo is opening a taproom in downtown Hood River at 101 4th St, the former site of Logsdon Farmhouse Ales tasting room when they were brewing at a rural farm and could not operate a tasting room on those premises.
Vincenzo may be best known in the beer community as the longtime owner/operator of Hood River Draft Services, and the original brewer/cidermaker of Mt. View Brewing and Golden Row Cider at Grateful Orchards in Parkdale/Mt. Hood. He came to that gig as an award-winning homebrewer who learned to brew after moving to Hood River 20 years ago from Chicago and discovering the local homebrew supply shop. Previously Vincenzo worked in the petroleum industry in Portland, before he opened his draft install and line cleaning business, he still does some installs for bars and restaurants today.
His first year professionally brewing at Mt. View Brewing at Grateful Orchards was touch and go, the pandemic shut them down just as they were about to launch their first beers. But the gorge community was great at purchasing their products to-go, and the tasting room there has a wonderful outside experience with a view of Mt. Hood that made for a great COVID-19 friendly patio. Their initial beers were mostly standards like pale ale and red, but they were also working with a lot of fruit not only in their sister cider brand Golden Row, but in longer-term fruited beers. But when the lockdowns began getting lifted in 2022, the impression was that the brewery business would take off, and they needed to situate themselves for growth.
Mt. View brought in an additional and more experienced brewer which Vincenzo thinks was a right move for the company, but that there were conflicts on responsibilities and too many cooks in the kitchen, he had been there for 3 years and had just made some wine with their first grape harvest. “I thought hey it was a great experience, and I was working with cider, and fruit and barrel-aged things, so I thought ‘hey I am just going to go out on my own.’ I knew that people around here like classic things, I knew if I make a good IPA it’s going to sell, if I make a good Pilsner it’s going to sell.”
In the past year Vincenzo helped out at Sedition Brewing in The Dalles, and took on a part-time job as an assistant winemaker at Cathedral Ridge Winery, in his free time he was working on getting Hood River Brewing Company up and running. At first he was surprised that the name Hood River Brewing Company was even available, it felt sort of strange to not have a more fanciful name, but he thought ‘why not?’
After Full Sail Brewing changed their name from Hood River Brewing, there was nearly another Hood River Brewing Co. In 2015, Ferment Brewing owner Robert Gilham applied for the Hood River Brewing trademark for his brewery, but it was abandoned in 2016 when they failed to file paperwork within the 6-month response period.
“At first I thought I would need a clever name for my brewery,” says Vincenzo. “But then I thought ‘why cant I just have Hood River Brewing as my name?’ it sounds like it has been around for 50 years, and a lot of breweries use where they are from for a name.” To his surpise, he found Hood River Brewing was available.
Playing off the iconic recognizable milestones of the gorge, Vincenzo wanted to build the brand imagery around local landmarks but with cave inspired hieroglyphic and petroglyph art that harkens back to the early days of humanity. “The idea is going back to our common origins. The message I am sending is right on the front of my webpage, it’s ‘you know we all have a common origin, so lets celebrate that and understand that we all come from the same place.’ “
Hood River Brewing Co did have a bit of a hiccup when they launched their first beers in June. Vincenzo had set up his brewing operations at the craft beverage contractor Conspirator Beverage in Clackamas, the same place where Via Beer, Kings & Daughters, and Rosenstadt Brewery were making beer. Conspirator suddenly imploded only a month later, leaving many of them scrambling to find a new facility. Vincenzo was able to get setup at Portland’s Zoiglhaus Brewing. Their in-house 10bbl system capable of double batching 20bbls at a time, was actually more convenient for HR Brewing’s small size. And Zoiglhaus is expanding, soon they will install a 40bbl brewhouse in addition to their smaller system for even more flexibility if they ever want to scale up batches.
Hood River Brewing has launched three core year-round beers:
Post Canyon Pilsner
German style pilsner made with premium floor-malted Bohemian Pilsner Malt and Czech Saaz noble hops. 5.1% ABV and 39 IBU.Oak Street IPA
Big bold West Coast IPA with lightly kilned malts that let the hops take center stage. The hop character is citrusy and resiny with tropical notes from Simcoe, Citra, and Amarillo hops. 6.3%ABV and 65 IBU.Waterfront Blonde Ale
Kolsch yeast and a moderate addition of German pale wheat malt add subtle complexity and light frutiness to a light body and mild citrus hop character. Moderate additions of cascade and columbus hops impart citrus and earthy notes that do not overwhelm the palate. 4.4% ABV and 20 IBU.
Vincenzo will supplement with regular rotating beers like fresh hop beer and other seasonally appropriate styles. The idea is to not reinvent the wheel, and appeal to classic palates and tried and true styles.
“I know this is Hood River and not Portland, but those classic styles are pretty popular here,” says Vincenzo. “I dont know how it is in different markets. I am selling to restaurants and bars out here primarily, and they love it when I come in with just a regular west coast IPA and Blonde. Certain things are popular at certain times, where they are really popular for one month and not the next. In and around Hood River there is just demand for classic styles.”
Hood River Brewing has been self-distributing their beers in 12oz cans, 16oz cans, and on-draft primarily in Hood River and the surrounding gorge, Vincenzo has not even attempted to sell anything in Portland as of yet. The business model will shift next Spring of 2024 when they open their own taproom in downtown Hood River.
The Hood River Brewing Co. will be taking over the current Wicked Sushi, Burgers, Bowls location at 101 4th St, Hood River, OR 97031. The owner of that previous business also owns and operates the restaurant called Modern Taco next door (formerly called Crazy Pepper) and he plans to consolidate those food providers into one, which will be a convenient source of nourishment at the new brewery taproom.
If this location seems familiar to craft beer fans, they may have had a drink here when Logsdon Farmhouse Ales used it as their de facto taproom when they still produced everything on a Hood River farm. Similar to that space, Hood River Brewing will keep it simple here too with a casual and comfortable family friendly spot with their beer and Vincenzo’s housemade craft sodas and mocktails. He plans to host regular live music, local artists, and community events, while encouraging people to bring in outside food.
“I assume there is going to be some kind of learning curve,” he says about the future taproom. “I just want everyone to be welcome, you know downtown Hood River is going to be slammed with tourists 6 months out of the year. It’s kind of like the beer, it’s like I want people to be ‘oh yeah now I remember why this was a beer style I loved.’”
Hood River Brewing will be located just 1 block south of Double Mountain Brewery, and 1 block west of Full Sail Brewing. The taproom is expected to open in early 2024 by March or earlier.