One of our most anticipated beer projects of the last 4 years is finally coming to fruition: The Canby Beer Library is officially open in Canby, Oregon just 15 minutes south of Oregon City and 25 miles from Portland. After more than 3 years of delays, Oregon City Brewing owners Bryce Morrow and Adam Sivits are finally realizing their vision of a barrel house, food truck pod and bar boasting 51 taps.

Oregon City Brewing struck a deal to by the former Canby Municipal Library building in 2019, when the pandemic struck in 2020 they were on much more sure footing and the cost of construction skyrocketed. After pausing the deal and reappraising the price, the deal got back on track with the city agreeing to a deal that would make the building a community hub rather than counter offers that would see it becoming a call center or a retirement home.

The next major delay in construction was in regard to food trucks. Originally the city of Canby only allowed food trucks on a temporary permitted basis, but after numerous requests and complaints the ordnance was re-evaluated to allow them in 2022. Oregon City Brewing’s building plans at the time called for a rooftop patio and no food, but they quickly threw those designs out in favor of a food truck pod model that would have a ground level beer garden for families.

The 11,000 sq. ft. lot of the former Canby Library has now been carved up with 6,000 square feet designated for the heated outdoor food cart pod and a permanent roof with skylights covering ample seating options. The food cart pod area has seven food trucks: Adelina’s Mexican Food; Alani Mediterranean; Zula’s Tea & Coffee; Blessing Bites Fish & Chips; Church of Smoke BBQ; Poundtown Smashburgers; and Esan Thai. 

The indoor taproom area features 51 drafts, 45 of which will pour Oregon City Brewing’s own beers and house-made sodas. The German beer hall style layout features a concrete bar and over a dozen tables on one side. Although the building and design does not resemble a library, their are homages to it’s previous life with book-themed beer display boards and taster trays, and displays of found items like library cards and signs from some of the students who once were there. OC Brewing has also dedicated a section of their merchandise wall to be the ‘Canby Library Book Garden’ Featuring shelves of used books for purchase at discount prices, with all proceeds to benefit Friends of the Canby Library.

Oregon City Brewing brew master David Vohden makes just about every style of beer you can imagine from the mainstream IPAs to Belgian Abbey Ales, brown Ales, German bocks, and English Barleywines, to one of the best fruited barrel-aged sour beer programs in the Pacific Northwest. Fruited Lambic-style sour ales are Vohden’s passion and perhaps his greatest strong suit, as OC Brewing’s Coming to Fruition series is one of the most award-winning contemporary Oregon beers of recent years. So you can imagine how they felt when a driver crashed into their downtown Oregon City brewery breaking into their barrel room and exposing precious aging sour beer to elements, falling drywall, and making that corner of the building structurally unsound. Vohden and OC Brewing ended up having to dump around 40 barrels of beer. The remaining barrels, and a replenished supply of young beers aging in oak, will now have their own home at the new Canby Beer Library.

Half of the 5,000 sq. ft. Canby Library taproom is dedicated to the Oregon City barrel-aging program and makes for a natural division of barrels splitting the space. The funky and sour program will now have its own dedicated space, and there are plans to add stainless steel blending tanks and possibly oak foudres in the future.

Coming off a stellar Great American Beer Festival showing, Oregon City Brewing will feature over a dozen award-winning beers on tap for the Grand Opening. They include: 2024 GABF Gold Medal winners Doc McLoughlin and My Cerise Amour; Beast of Burton; The Barrel of the Beast; Coming To Fruition: Cherry; Dark ‘Vator; It’s A Trapp!; Lilikoi No Ka `oi; OC Light; Ol’ Beauty; Pipe Dream; Stout Lager; and Temporary Stairs.

Crucially, this project has been funded in part by the Oregon Business Development Department and the State Historic Preservation Office’s Oregon Main Street Revitalization Grant, and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

The Canby Beer Library

292 N. Holly St., Canby, OR 97013

Sun-Thurs 11am to 9pm
Fri-Sat 11am to 10pm

Grand Opening Friday, October 18th with a party featuring DJ Lex Lurker from 5-9 pm.