Believe in Portland IPA, new series raises funds and pride for city causes
The Believe in Portland IPA series asks the community to take pride in the city, and help raise a few funds for related causes while drinking the latest cutting edge northwest india pale ale.
This week Old Town Brewing launches the Believe in Portland rotating IPA series in cans, an extension of a campaign they launched one year ago to uplift and enact change. The more things change the more they stay the same, one year later the city of Portland is still under attack in the media and politics, sometimes justified but often not so much, and the campaign which started with t-shirts is now extending to beer.
After a very public fight with the city of Portland in 2018, Old Town Brewing won the right to prominently feature the iconic white stag, a fixture of Portland based on the giant billboard sign that lights up every year on the west side of the Burnside Bridge. As many breweries did coming out of the pandemic, Old Town Brewing relaunched their brand featuring Portland and the white stag more prominently then ever before in early 2023. The choice was to embrace the city rather than push it away, and the decision was never in doubt as owner Adam Milne has continued to keep the brand alive through consistently pushing their identity while always being tied to that original 50-year-old Old Town Pizza location in the aforementioned old town neighborhood of NW PDX which has been gritty for a long time.
“I was tired of hearing people, mostly outsiders, create a negative narrative, painting Portland as hopeless,” says Old Town Brewing & Pizza owner Adam Milne. “We all realize that there are challenges, but there are also so many wonderful groups and individuals that are trying to make things better, to fix the issues we have. I hit a point where I needed to do something to help, so I decided to start a campaign that I hoped would turn into a small movement.”
The initial launch of the Believe in Portland t-shirts was a quick way to start raising money for nonprofits, and giving a platform for people to share their love of the city. On one hand the act of buying a beer or some merchandise may seem like a purely symbolic and trite gesture that benefits a business, but Milne concedes that it is just a small step that shows people how easy it is to offer some support and a gateway to doing much more. “I don’t want people to stop at making the change by just drinking a beer, but it is my wish that it will inspire people to do more,” adds Milne.
Following the t-shirt campaign, the Believe in Portland IPA series will give $5 a case and $5 a keg to various Portland non-profits starting with Word is Bond - a Portland-born, Black-led nonprofit leadership incubator for young Black men sprouted in 2017. Word is Bond empowers young Black men ages 15-19 years as they transition from boys into young men and find themselves navigating a world that provides very few answers to unlocking their highest selves.
The Believe in Portland IPA series will be as ever changing as the city, but always stay true to the NW-style IPA roots centered around 6.5% and 70 IBUs. The beer will use different hops, malts, and yeast, and explore new hop varieties, hop oils, and techniques. Each updated release will coincide with the season and the tastes of beer-drinkers, and cans will have a QR code to send people to their website to read more about the specific details of each batch, and a list of all the establishments who have purchased it.
The initial release of Believe in Portland IPA cans on August 23rd is of a 70 IBU contemporary West Coast IPA with a surprisingly complex array of hops and hop products. Featuring Chinook, Lotus, & Alora hops, and Strata hop oil & El Dorado hop oil. The elaborate flavor and aroma profile shows top notes of pineapple, white peach, orange, and grapefruit; with accents of yuzu fruit, berry, and vanilla; and undertones of floral and pine.
“I wanted an IPA that featured all the bright, intricate, and complex characteristics of newer hops, while staying grounded with the more familiar hop quality IPAs are known for,” explains Old Town Brewing’s brewmaster Todd Britt. “Alora hops provides the top notes of peach, yuzu, and melon, while the Chinook hops and Strata oil support with a base of orange, resinous-pine, and dank. The Lotus hops and El Dorado oil bridge the gap with supporting flavors of floral, berries, and pineapple. The result is a beer with intertwined layers that slowly unfolds and changes from the first sip to the last.”
Old Town Brewing owner Adam Milne (left) and brewmaster Todd Britt (right)
It has now been over a year since Old Town Brewing pulled back on their wholesale distribution partnership with Maletis Beverage and others to regain their own distribution rights. The change was brought about by the pandemic, and a downturn in the market that made getting their beers to major accounts more competitive and with an unsustainable level of profit after distributors take their margins.
“Like most breweries, had to assess where we were and what we were doing. It became more and more evident that as a small brewery, we didn’t have the buying power that the larger breweries do,” says Milne. “As a result, our ingredient costs started skyrocketing. We eventually hit a point with inflation where distribution stopped making financial sense because it wasn’t to a level to keep us profitable. Thankfully, we were able to acquire our distribution rights back so that we could find a new path to profitability.”
It hasn’t been easy, without the assets of warehousing, delivery drivers, and a large support team, Old Town Brewing had to nearly start from scratch to get their beer our to accounts. Luckily they had their original pizza pub in Old Town, the newer brewpub on MLK blvd., and the more recently acquired Baby Doll Pizza location, all of which could move their beer on-premise and at a higher margin.
Being self-distributed has its advantages, for Old Town Brewing the biggest benefit was being able to stay true to their brand vision and sharing their story via beers and branding without a filter telling you what beers will and wont be sold by a middleman. The benefits of being able to directly respond to their customers in an even more timely manner has also been a huge asset.
“Being self-distributed, we are in control of every decision we make, giving us the freedom to do whatever we want. This means that we all get together often to taste the new beers Todd and Celia are making, to give our feedback and make sure that they are also getting feedback from customers, both our accounts and the people sitting in the seats at those accounts, to make sure that we are making great beer that people want to drink,” says Milne.
Having rebuilt their distribution through trial and error, Old Town Brewing now has a team of 3 in sales and self-distro with placements from Vancouver to Camas and Oregon City to Hillsboro. The brewery has more than doubled their volume and the number of bars and restaurants since launching the program a year ago and hope to double our volume again by sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.
The Believe in Portland IPA can series launches on August 23rd and will be available at Old Town and Baby Doll Pizza locations, as well as retailers around town through self-distro. Old Town Brewing is now available in many Albertsons, Safeway, and New Seasons Markets, and many locally owned restaurants, bars, bottleshops, and taprooms around town. For each rotating seasonal IPA release in the series, the brewery hopes to partner with the designated charities to develop additional events and fundraisers with retail establishments to help raise even more.