New Oregon Breweries & Cidery Showcase back for Portland Beer Week
New School Beer’s long-running annual Portland Beer Week event the New Oregon Breweries & Cidery Showcase is back for it’s 9th (?) year on Thursday, June 22nd from 3-9pm at Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom. For 13 (!) years the New School has been dedicated to reporting on the new breweries, taprooms, brewers, and cidermakers of the northwest, and that focus crystalizes at the New Brewery & Cidery Showcase where we bring together nearly every new brand to enter the Oregon market in the previous 12 months.
One of the things that makes this event a favorite, is the way it brings together new brands from across the state into one place where they are all in attendance. Many of these new breweries (and one cidery) have not been seen on tap in Portland before, and some others have already made a splash. The format for the event is a casual tap takeover-style party, with choose-your-own adventure purchases of every draft in multiple size pours, or as a taster tray flight. No tickets or prior commitment is necessary to participate!
2022 New Oregon Breweries Showcase at Imperial
Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom has been the host of the New Breweries & Cideries Showcase since 2020 after previous venue Bailey’s Taproom closed. Imperial has proven to be an ideal space, as they have closed their side street along 31st off of SE Division for an expansive patio/beer garden area to spill out of the indoor taproom into.
The 2023 New Oregon Breweries & Cidery Showcase brings together 11 new breweries and beer brands and one new cidery, each featuring 2 beers or ciders on draft for a total of 24 special tappings at the event. Every single brewer/cidermaker is expected to attend the party for the 4-7pm meet-the-brewer hours, though the tap takeover lasts the entire day at Imperial. This year’s featured brands are:
Eugene, Oregon’s newest brewery only last week sold their first ever beer on draft to a local taproom. After a successful fundraising campaign and years of false starts at different locations, Arable Brewing found a permanent home in Eugene and is now brewing their first beers ahead of an eventual taproom still in the works. Arable comes from two Ninkasi Brewing industry veterans Chris Archer and Cam Wells and his wife Amy Wells forming a full-team package that has the Lane County beer nerds thirsty and making it on to our most anticipated new breweries of 2023 list. The New Brewery Showcase will be one of the first places anywhere - and only place in PDX - to have their beers on tap.
The first new Oregon Brewery of 2023 was Oak Union Brewing. With an easily identifiable and fully realized brand merging medieval gothic with mysterious wiccan imagery, Oak Union has established a fully realized West Coast IPA and lager beer brand in a very short period of time. With their first beers out of the gate being a West Coast-style Pilsner and IPA, and a Helles and recently a Hazy IPA in the early lineup, Oak Union has populated their hometown area of Milwaukie, Oak Grove, and Clackamas County with their top notch beer on draft and in cans. Now it’s time for the rest of PDX to experience it, with brewer/founders Trevor Lauman and Jules Domingo bringing their latest releases to Imperial Bottleshop for the showcase on June 22nd.
The name Gold Dot Beer may be unfamiliar, but the names behind the new beer brand should be well known by this point. Lisa Allen is the brewer behind the family owned lager-centric Heater Allen Brewing, and her partner Kevin Davey was the founding brewer of Wayfinder Beer. Together they are teaming up to launch Gold Dot Beer, a premium beer brand that will make only clear and refined styles like their first beer out of the gates a Helles using a special imported malt. Meet Davey and Allen in-person at the showcase and try their first and second ever Gold Dot Beer releases ahead of their future launch in Mcminnville.
One of the most anticipated new breweries of 2023, Obelisk Beer Co. has already become a memorable addition to Astoria, Oregon’s already impressive craft beer scene. Founders Nathan Lampson and Dave Coyne are both veterans of Fort George Brewery, and know the scene well. Obelisk Beer’s have already staked a claim to popular and obscure styles from hazy IPA to lager and Belgian-style table biers. Coyne draws the label art himself, and as the former Fort George barrelmaster is leaning more into long-term experimental and barrel-aged projects while low abv is the day-to-day focus. Meet Dave Coyne in person at the New Breweries Showcase from 4-7pm.
There must be something in the waters of Estacada, because when Fearless Brewing closed in 2022 as the only brewery in town, a new brewery quickly came in to fill the void. Even though they are in the same space, and Fearless’s head brewer Derrick Allgood has stayed on with the new ownership group, Time Travelers feels quite a bit different. One thing that has stuck around in the transition, is a Strong Scotch Ale that is similar to the one made by Fearless but with local Prairie malt, fresher yeast and hops. At the New Brewery Showcase they will bring a little Scottish as well as something completely different.
Occidental Brewing was one of the first upcoming brewery projects that we ever reported on for the New School way back in 2010, a full year before they launched. The German-focused brewery has been an award-winning staple of the N. Portland St. Johns neighborhood ever since. That brings us to Further Beer, in an effort to break out of their self-imposed restrictions on German-style beer, they have launched an independent beer brand called Further Beer. Right out of the gates is their first IPA, and hopefully ready in time for the New Brewery showcase will be their second release of a very pacific-northwest classic pub style. Meet Occidental and Further beer founder Ben Engler at the showcase.
Our only cidery at this year’s showcase is an artisanal side project from Portland Cider Co. head cidermaker Deron Davenport. With the facility and valuable assets of Portland Cider’s equipment and production space in Clackamas, Deron is exploring his more esoteric interests in historical cider styles and contemporary co-ferments that combine apples with wild yeasts and hybrid fermentations with wine grapes and more. Stray Cider recently soft launched a handful of small-batch premium ciders that are meant to be sipped and savored on draft and in handsomely packaged 750m bottles. Meet Deron and try two of his first Stray Cider’s as the Cidery part of the New Breweries & Cidery Showcase.
Australian-inspired Drop Bear Brewery opened in Eugene, Oregon in January and under a partnership/collaboration with Culmination Brewing launched their own beers ahead of a brewhouse install. Recently they began brewing in-house with a pilot system that is giving them a lot of room to diversify their popular lineup of contemporary and pub friendly beer styles. The New Brewery Showcase will be the first time their beers are available in Portland.
The newest Oregon beer brand on the market, Cerveceria Norte, is only weeks old with Mexican-style Lager and IPA hitting the market. The project comes from Nick Velasquez, the assistant brewmaster of Zoiglhaus Brewing who recently brewed at Great Notion, and had his own brand called Ouroboros Ales in California. With his Cerveceria Norte brand, Velasquez is looking to become known for traditional Pacific Northwest styles brewed contemporaily. Velasquez will be at the New Breweries Showcase in-person and with a brand new beer to talk about.
Can you believe Living Haus has been around for less than a year? The new brewery from Modern Times Beer veterans Mat Sandoval and Conrad Andrus, with former pFriem brewmaster Gavin Lord, opened just a little while after our last new brewery showcase in 2022. This lager-haus centric operation opened in the former The Commons Brewery space which went on to become Modern Times before that imploded in February 2022. Living Haus has already built a fan following for their clean and quaffable beers, and bright and botanical taproom.
When Living Haus Beer launched last year it came with a sub-brand brewery line from co-founder Gavin Lord called Hetty Alice. Named after his grandma, the former pFriem brewmaster is making beers in the same vein and level of refinement as before, primarily in the crisp lager and super bright and focused West Coast IPA styles. Hetty Alice remains a small side project, but has established a solid fanbase and devoted industry following in their short lifespan. Meet Gavin Lord in person and try some of his latest Hetty Alice beers at the event.
Perhaps the splashiest new brewery in Oregon is Grand Fir Brewing, and the 6 month old brewpub already has multiple Oregon Beer Awards including Best New Brewery to back up their early buzz. Though they are still very new, Grand Fir has earned the hype based on co-founders husband/wife team of acclaimed chef Doug Adams and multi-award winning brewer Whitney Burnside. Together they have formed a food and pairing focused brewery that specializes in delivering world-class but approachable beer and food in mainstream and underappreciated styles that call back to both of their backgrounds. On the beer front, Whitney knows how to make a contemporary IPA or Pilsner with the best there is, but taps her own personal interests in Belgian-styles and old school classics like India Red Ale. Meet Doug and Whitney in person and try their latest beers at the New Oregon Breweries and Cidery Showcase from 4-7pm.
New School presents….
New Oregon Breweries & Cidery Showcase
Thursday, June 22nd 3-9pm (Meet-the-brewers 4-7pm) FREE
Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom, 3090 SE Division St, Portland, OR 97202