VIDEO: Oregon Beer Awards 2023 Hall of Fame inductees Karl Ockert & Gayle Goschie discuss legacy

The Oregon Beer Awards inducted Karl Ockert and Gayle Goschie into the hall of fame at a ceremony held on Thursday, April 6th, 2023 at Revolution Hall. In a feature video interview played during the awards, Ockert and Goschie discuss each others careers and milestones. This is the first chance to watch that video outside of the event.

KARL OCKERT

Karl Ockert is most well known as the original founding brewmaster of Bridgeport Brewing. The Portland, Oregon born brewery opened in 1984 and was the oldest brewery in the state until it closed in 2019. With Bridgeport Brewing, Karl helped create one of the early signature IPA’s before they were anywhere near mainstream. As Karl recounts in our hall of fame video, “Nobody really had an assertively, hoppy, aromatic, and bitter, IPA out there.” Bridgeport IPA won two GABF gold medals (1996 and 1997) as well as the internationally prestigious Brewing International Awards gold medal and Champion Cup (2000) and helped create the Northwest-style IPA category.

Perhaps even more notable for Oregonians, Karl was part of the original group of brewers, brewery owners, and publicans who planned, executed, and pushed through the Oregon Brewpub Bill in 1085 that made it legal for breweries to sell a beer with a meal. It seems so obvious, but this was an early step that helped Oregon to become beervana and set a brewpub culture that continues today.

Karl came to the industry as a Chemistry, Microbiology and Engineering student when he decided to take up Fermentation Science at the University of California, Davis. He was turned on to homebrewing by his mother when he was just a kid, she was Czech and when they moved to Portland and found F.H. Steinbart Homebrewing Supply they immediately stocked up on supplies and Karl began falling in love with the art meets science approach.

In 2015 Karl was brought on board as the Director of Brewery Operations for the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon guiding the talented teams who run the brewing, packaging, maintenance and laboratory operations for a 375,000 bbl/year craft brewery legend, and served there for three years before his return to consulting.

From 2010 to 2014, Karl served as MBAA Technical Director and authored Practical Handbook for the Specialty Brewer (volumes 1-3), The Beer Steward Handbook and the MBAA Packaging Beer, 2nd edition. He also organized, directed and helped teach three MBAA short courses: Malting and Brewing Science, Packaging Technology in Madison, Wisconsin and in 2014 developed and launched the Brewery Engineering and Utilities course.

His new book, The Craft Brewer’s Guide to Best Practices, will be available in print in 2023.

GAYLE GOSCHIE

When the Goschie family arrived in America, they sought to combine old world traditions and commitment to quality with the bounty of Oregon and technological and ecological improvements. The Goschie Farm was founded in 1885 by Herman and Vernice Goschie, nestled against the hills of Silverton in Oregon’s beautiful Willamette Valley. Goschie Farms current location is only a few miles away from the original homestead where they planted and harvested first hops in 1904.

Nearly 130 years later, the farm is still in the family with siblings Gordon, Glenn and Gayle Goschie sharing management and ownership. Gayle Goschie grew up on the farm and was driving tractors before she could see over the steering wheel. As soon as she was old enough she was out in the field doing farm work, at first it seemed like a chore and responsibility, but learning from the much more experienced crew and going to hop commission meetings with her father helped her fall in love with the industry. Today, Gayle is the president of hops and wine grapes at Goschie Farms, Inc.

“It was a really good education,” Gayle told the Capital Press in a 2022 feature. “There were very few people my age doing that at the time. I stayed involved in the hop commission, became a commissioner and ended up representing Oregon on the international Hop Research Council.”

In the 80’s Gayle was one of the first hop farmers to welcome brewers from the nascent movement of so-called “microbreweries” which at first were thought inconsequential to hop farmers who made their bones supplying national and international breweries. But as soon as Gayle tried the beers these small brewers were producing, she could sense the quality and passion put into each beer and felt there was something to it.

In 2009, Gayle made history as the first female hop grower to be awarded the most prestigious award for their industry, the International Order of the Hop. She actually made history twice that day, as the first ever (and maybe still only) father and daughter to receive the award.

Over her many decades of service in the industry, Gayle pioneered organic hop farming, and then pivoted into salmon-safe hops. The Goschie Farm has received many accolades, most importantly the respect and admiration of both craft brewers and hop farmers from across the world.