An Oral history of the iconic Barley Brown’s Brew Pub on their 25th Anniversary

June 2, 2023 Nicole Kasten

When an anniversary comes around, you often hear people say, “I can’t believe it’s been that long,” or, “there is no way it’s been that long.” Barley Brown’s Beer falls into both categories. Imaging beer without them is impossible because of the impact Tyler Brown, the founder and every teammate he has had. The no fear attitude showed that balance in beer is good, but not a requirement because the hop forward beers Barley Brown’s present early on inspired others to do the same.

Most people know Barley Brown’s for GABF gold medal winning Pallet Jack IPA, category defining Turmoil CDA, or criminally underappreciated Shredder’s Wheat. Or maybe it’s the outright refusal to open a taproom outside of Baker City or put any of their beer into cans or bottles. Barley Brown’s is founder Tyler Brown, and Brown is Baker City. The story of how Barley Brown’s got started is all over the internet. Auto breakdown, medals, dark IPAs, small system, expansion, and all that stuff has been documented over and over again. Let’s learn something else this time, instead of rehashing it in a straigh-ahead bio, let's talk to the people who helped them make it to the iconic 25th anniversary milestone and how they have inspired others.

No matter what you take away from this article, the Most Important Message is to Visit Barley Brown’s in Baker City, OR

Tyler Brown is a longtime moto-cycle racing enthusiast, and has been an avid participant. Some time in the late 80’s or early 90’s he went to Yakima, Washington for “The Rimrock Grand Prix” and stumbled upon the legendary Bert Grant’s Brewing and was blown away that they were brewing beer on a little system in their restaurant. The race was held in the fall during hop harvest, which added to the romantic ambiance of the valley and nascent microbrew industry, and the trip sparked Brown’s interest in starting a brewpub.

Years later…

Barley Brown’s Brew Pub was built in the former Gwilliams Bakery built in 1940, who added the garage (now the dining room) after World War II. It was called Gwilliams Bakery untill 1976.

Shawn Kelso, current 10 Barrel Brewing R & D brewer and Barley Brown’s first hired head brewer joined the company in 2000:

I moved back to Baker City where I was born and raised to open a bakery with a high school friend at the end of 1999. Barley Brown’s had been open for about a year and a half at that point. I knew Tyler from grade school and through high school. I had homebrewed a few times when I lived in Colorado years before and got back into it after moving back to Baker. I would bring samples to Tyler to taste. He would always just respond to me that it tastes like beer. After a couple of conversations about beer he asked if I wanted to come in and clean kegs. I came in and cleaned kegs and watched him brew. I did this for about 8 months and after I left the bakery I asked if I could get paid. He said sure and I brewed for Tyler for the next 11 years.

Shawn Kelso, original Barley Brown's head brewer

Shawn Kelso (left) and Tyler Brown (right) at Bailey’s Taproom in Portland, OR

Kelso and Barley Brown’s then went on a massive medal-winning streak at the Great American Beer Festival that established the tiny eastern Oregon brewery as a national force to contend with, and one of the birth places of Cascadian Dark Ale (aka CDA aka Black IPA.) Though their beer was not available outside of the small town of Baker City, people started taking notice.

Carl Singmaster, co-founder of Belmont Station and prominent local brewery benefactor helped introduce Barley Brown’s to the young but ravenous Portland beer nerds in the early days.

In 2006 as my wife Amy and I were driving across country…we naturally stopped at brewpubs along the way, our last stop being Barley Brown's in Baker City. We had a couple beers, most notably a wonderful hoppy pale ale. After buying the majority ownership of Belmont Station (impulsively about a week later) I was surprised that many beer people here had a less than positive take on Barley Brown's beers. Thus when I saw Shawn Kelso at an Oregon Brewer's Guild meeting a year or more later I asked if we could get some Barley Brown's to pour at Belmont Station. On his (or Tyler's) next trip to Portland they called and I ordered the Pale Ale (I think it was Tumble Off) and I believe a Brown ale as they had no other hoppy offerings (PDX craft beer people were very hop obsessed)." “Of course they were well received and from there we ordered beer whenever they came to Portland. Shawn was brewing on a tiny system in the restaurant, long before the new brewery was built so they had very little beer to spare. Again, Shawn may remember better but that's at least close to what happened.

Carl Singmaster, former owner of Belmont Station

Shawn Kelso recalls things slightly differently:

I hate to correct Carl but I believe it was more 04 or 05. I say this because I remember meeting Darren Welch [Pelican Brewing’s founding brewmaster] at that same meeting and he suggested we enter beers at the North American Beer Awards. We hadn’t entered a beer competition yet and 05 was the first year we ever entered NABA which we won a hand full of medals. When I met Carl he told us about Belmont Station and asked if he could buy some of our beer to put on tap the next time we come to Portland. I asked him what beers he would like and I went down the list of what we had available. I would say the beer name and style and he would just say yes. I believe we sold him six or seven kegs. Two being Tumble Off Pale Ale. I thought it was so much because brewing on a 4 bbl system you only get 8 ½ bbl kegs at most. Belmont Station was the first place to pour our beer outside of the Barley Brown’s Pub. I owe a ton of thanks to Carl and the Belmont Crew for introducing our beer to Portland and Tyler and I really.

Shawn Kelso

Barley Brown’s, Boneyard, Grains of Wrath, Melvin Brewing, Breakside Brewing all at Belmont Station

I had Barley Brown’s beer at Belmont Station for the first time like a lot of people. Later, they brought a Horizontal to town. The hoppy beers were amazing and I am one of the biggest Turmoil fans, even more so Chaos. At the time, Disorder was the cleanest stout I had tasted in my life. But a Horizontal, what? The same batch of Sledwreck winter ale was presented on different barrels and with different adjuncts. Nobody in Portland had space to do a Horizontal, so I had to see what was going on in Eastern Oregon. My first visit was 2009 or 2010. I have been there so many times that I don’t remember a count. Barley Brown’s apparel has always been part of my wardrobe. In 2014 I was at a craft beer bar in Atlanta, GA and was wearing a Barley Brown’s long sleeve tshirt. A guy offered me $50 for it. It was a gift from Tyler, so I didn’t want to take his money, so I said, “buy me a beer.” I had a hoodie to cover up, so I gave the guy my shirt. I later told Tyler the story and he said, “you should have taken the money.” This was not the only time I have given away Barley Brown’s apparel off my back.

In 2012 Shawn Kelso departed Barley Brown’s to join the nascent 10 Barrel Brewing Co. before they Bend, Oregon based brewery was sold to Anheuser-Busch. Kelso was to head up their first out of state location in Boise, Idaho, just across the border from Baker City.

Often when a brewery loses someone as talented as Kelso, it can be a challenge to keep things to the same standard. Tyler Brown however, is a keen judge of character with untraditional methods. Knowing they had big shoes to fill, Brown landed on Marks Lanham, then a brewer at Boneyard Beer.

Comrade Brewing and Barley Brown’s celebrate medal wins at the Great American Beer Festival

After a relatively short two year stint as head brewer, Marks Lanham departed to Denver, Colorado where he co-founded Comrade Brewing which has become an equally acclaimed brewery on a national scale. To replace him, Barley Brown’s promoted within elevating Eli Dickison to the role which he has stayed in now for the past 10 years. One of Barley Brown’s 25th anniversary beers is a collaboration between Dickison and Lanham.

Eli Dickison and Tyler Brown

Barley Brown’s has only had 4 head brewers in 25 years:

Shawn Kelso 11/2000 to 3/2012
Marks Lanham 2/2012 to 11/2013
Eli Dickison 6/2012 to current
Addison “Add” Collard 6/2012 to current
Kyle Dickison 4/2019 to current

Tyler Brown and Barley Brown’s now have an outsized reputation around the country, but their focus has always been on the local community first, often hiring from within the town.

Brown’s investment in the community runs deep. When he is not volunteering his time on local community boards, he has also served as the President of the Chamber of Commerce, and as the President of Historic Baker City downtown business association. Currently he sits on the board of the Baker County Economic Development Commission, and is chairman of the County Transient Lodging Tax Committee.

Jeff Dense is a professor at Eastern Oregon University and active member of the craft beer industry, and a longtime champion of craft beer and Barley Brown’s brewpub.

Tyler Brown (left) and Jeff Dense (right)

Tony Lawrence, founder of Boneyard Beer, is also an old friend of Brown’s who has reteamed for a 25th anniversary collaboration. Both Lawrence and Brown share a love of motorcycles and understanding how things work, from the gears and spokes of a vehicle to the pumps and valves of a brewery. At first the two were connected professionally by their mutual wholesaler Point Blank Distribution and it’s owner the late Aaron Gardner.

Boneyard and Barley Brown’s new collaboration is called “38 Special” and commemorates both Boneyard’s recent 13th anniversary and Barley Brown’s 25th. 13 + 25 = 38 Special. The IPA is brewed with 100% Crosby Oregon estate grown hops Strata, Comet and Chinook at 4lbs per barrel with three separate dry hop days.

Kyle Stone-Chilla is the beer buyer for McMenamins 23rd Ave. Bottle Shop, a longtime industry veteran from the retail side of the business, and has a close relationship with Barley Brown’s.

Breakside Brewery brewmaster Ben Edmunds was first introduced to Tyler Brown by the latter’s former head brewer Shawn Kelso.

Left to right: Tyler Brown, Jeff Dense, and Ben Edmunds

After becoming fast friends, Edmunds and Brown collaborated to create what is quickly becoming a modern classic beer in WanderJack IPA. Even though it was meant as a one-off collaboration, it has now become a huge hit and frequent release at Breakside. But WanderJack’s creation is largely misunderstood even by its fans.

Barley Brown’s has remained a draft-only brewery since its inception, not counting a brief flirtation with 12oz cans and 6-packs during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though demand was there, Barley Brown’s quickly quit packaging their beers to-go as soon as bars started opening back up. Perhaps that is because the brewery is all about drawing in the community, often to Baker City. And it has stayed very much a family operation, says Brown.

My wife and Corrina and I raised two awesome daughters. They’re kind, compassionate, and love helping other people. They both have entrepreneurial minds, Tori and her husband Zach just purchased a True Value hardware store in Ontario, Oregon that they’re converting to an Ace Hardware. Tori was Barley Brown’s marketing and office manager until she went on maternity leave at the beginning of Covid. She now has two kids Gracie 3 years old, and little brother Reese is 7 months. Tori’s departure is the reason that our website, social media, etc are all in disrepair… I’m not real savvy in that department. Our other Daughter Sidney lives in LaGrande, and works as a cosmetologist, but also travels to Ontario to help her big sister at the hardware store. Besides raising kids, and being blessed with awesome co-workers.

Tyler Brown

Tyler Brown’s hospitality to all who make the trek to Baker City is legendary.

From the accommodations to the imparted wisdom, everyone seems to have a very personal connection that goes beyond even the most beloved beer brands.

Barley Brown’s is celebrating their 25th Anniversary this June 2nd and 3rd with a full on street party, and even if you can’t make it to the brew pub in Baker City we encourage you to raise a pint and begin making your next vacation plans.