Brewery dense Hood River, Oregon has been entrenched in the nascent “microbrew” scene since Full Sail Brewing opened in 1987, drawing both tourists and vacationers to the Columbia River Gorge’s most densely populated area. Even during the off-season, visitors from across the country pack pFriem Family Brewers on the waterfront, Full Sail’s name recognition brings in an international audience, and Double Mountain Brewing draws a mix of locals and visitors hitting the downtown shops. Spinning Wheels Brewing Project is very different than the rest, appealing to an almost exclusively locals crowd with a vibey speakeasy atmosphere if you stumble upon their slightly hidden basement pub in downtown Hood River.

Located to the back and below casual family friendly cantina Lake Taco, the Spinning Wheels Brewery taproom is marked with an a-frame sign and the words “cold beer here” with an arrow pointing you down a slight hill to a basement door. The taproom has the intimacy of a tiny Tokyo Izakaya lounge with minimal but stylish decor, dim ambient lighting and music, backlit by the cold blue and red glow of an animated neon dragon. Owner Andrew Rosette believes the relative difficulty level to find the location is part of what makes it special. To draw people in he uses a hidden speaker in a faux rock that emanates low-volume tunes to passerby who may take notice. The “Spinning Wheels” of the name refers to two of his two wheeled passions - bicycles and turntables.

Popular Hood River Mexican restaurant Lake Taco moved from the upper suburban heights of town to a house on the edge of downtown Hood River in Spring of 2023. Rosette had been friends with Lake Taco owners Maria and Enrique for years, cleaning their tap lines at the old location. When Lake Taco made their big move to the new building and Rosette found out they had no plans for the basement bar area already there, he made an offer to rent the space for the Spinning Wheels taproom. The space was already set up as an intimate bar from a previous tenant, and came with a secluded back patio in the middle of the block, and a friendly cat named “Taquito” who lives there and has quickly adapted to his new housemates.

“It works out really well in that we can concentrate on the beer and vibes and customers can go upstairs and order food in a counter service fashion and still enjoy the taproom,” says Rosette. “I feel what makes our taproom special is the sum of tangible and intangible aesthetics that give the place an authentic warm feel. Everything in the place has a story. I have always appreciated the type of bar where one can saddle up to the bar and have a pint and be a part of the experience.”

Rosette comes from a tiny town outside of Cleveland, but moved to Seattle in the mid-90’s for a tech job that provided a stable source of income and a solid career. His love of craft beer and interest in homebrewing came about from a cross -country road trip he made to California with his brother shortly after graduating high school. “When we arrived in Berkely, California he handed me a Mendocino Brewing Red Tale Ale. I came to the realization that there was a world of craft. Over the years I ventured into both drinking and making craft beer.”

Many years later while living in Seattle, Rosette had been introduced to Matt Swihart (Owner/Brewmaster of Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery), who was happy to share all of his insight and experience in the beer industry. “He would let me come down from Seattle every once and a while and let me shadow the crew in the brewery,” says Rosette.

Eventually he realized he was spending more and more time in the outdoors, and Hood River’s proximity to the beauty of the gorge and a blossoming craft beer industry called him to relocate to town in 2012. At first he continued to do his job remotely in the tech industry while also harboring a dream of opening his own brewery some day. He chose to take a methodical approach to get there, by obtaining a formal education at the prestigious Siebel Institute school of brewing in Chicago, and returning to Hood River to take his first professional brewing job at Double Mountain in order to learn everything he could about the industry. After getting his feet wet for awhile, Rosette was offered an opportunity too good to pass up as the head brewer of Killarney Brewing Company in Ireland. “It was an awesome experience but I missed the Gorge. After almost two years I moved back to Hood River and took on the Head Brewer role at Thunder Island where I was involved in the new brew space design and build while getting some street cred in the Gorge. I left Thunder after the new building was commissioned during Covid.”

The Spinning Wheels underground taproom is pretty much the only place you can find their beers. Rosette brews them at Zoiglhaus Brewing’s contract brewing operation in Portland. The beers are fairly focused on tried and true favorites, their flagship is Shredipede Pale Ale, and another regular favorite is Enter the Forest a West Coast IPA. Rosette mainly brews just 5 different beers and repeats to perfection, something that Zoiglhaus and brewmaster Alan Taylor and his team have really dialed in. Rosette’s favorite beers are well-balanced and easy to enjoy a full pint of. His favorite types of beer to make and drink are well-balanced, easy drinking beers that can be enjoyed by the pint.

“My initial time in Ireland was a big challenge making balanced low ABV beers but now I embrace it and feel my style matches my Gorge audience. This shows in that our flagship pale ale is our best seller and that we didn’t make an IPA for the first three months. I can’t imagine we will be chasing too many beer trends in our current iteration,” says Rosette.

At Spinning Wheels, the bartenders are also the DJs, providing the soundtrack with constantly spinning vinyl records on the two 1979-80 Technics SL-Q3 turntables that aren’t necessarily audiophile approved, but do have auto-start/auto-stop reliability that matches the busy environment of a brewery taproom with minimal dead air. Paired with some commercial-grade amps and Rosette’s careful speaker placement and sound treatment, it has a nice immersive sound quality to enjoy over a beer.

Rosette has been collecting CDs, tapes, and vinyl records from a young age. First building his musical knowledge from the local record shops near his home in Cleaveland, and then from college radio stations. These days his taste in music has no bounds. Each bartender expresses their unique tastes in music, and they DO NOT take requests, instead opting to read the room and work out what records to play for the night, occasionally welcoming guest DJs.

Outside of the beers, Spinning Wheels cultivates an Asian drinking bar atmosphere with esoteric touches like a wall sized photo mural of Rosette’s dad fishing with his feet up and a big old Miller High Life in his hand, or the custom wooden tap handles and back bar logo. Notably striking is blue neon dragon with a lapping red tongue as the only indication as to whether the taproom is still serving or not, because Rosette does not really believe in signage.

The bar serves only beer and primarily Asian snacks, a tradition that started when their snack guru employee, Phil, began bringing in Japanese Rice CRACKers. They caught on, and pretty soon the taproom was going through a case a week and thus decided they might as well get a wholesale account with a big Asian food importer. Now its been an ongoing rotating snack fiesta, with recent favorites like corn soup flavored chips that pair well with a pint.

Spinning Wheels Brewing Project is new to us, and probably most of the regulars and visitors to Hood River that are visiting breweries, which makes it even more surprising that they will celebrate their one year anniversary on Saturday, April 27th. In that first year the Spinning Wheels team has constantly been working on projects to continue to make the taproom fun, but Rosette knows that the space is finite, and he’d like to eventually build out his own brewpub where he can host bigger events and experiment even more in his brews.

Spinning Wheels Brewing Project

606 Oak St., Suite B, Hood River, OR 97031
Sunday - Thursday: 4ish PM to 8PM
Friday - Saturday: 4ish PM to 10PM