Oregon’s Latino owned brewery Xicha Brewing is taking their beer and community to the next level
When Xicha Brewing opened in Salem, Oregon in 2017 it immediately made a splash as a Latino-owned brewery with authentic food, beer and culture. But after 7 years and a growing reputation, the first thing most people said when asked about Xicha Brewing was that the food was great, and the beer was solid but just needed something to take it to the next level. Co-founder chef Ricardo Antunez are determined to change that, and showing the commitment with their investment in a new brewhouse and new head brewer Charlie Van Meter. Earlier this year Xicha Brewing opened their third location, and are expanding their distribution footprint across most of the state with Upstanding Distribution, and Crush Wine Distributors based on the Oregon coast.
Xicha Brewing was founded by Ricardo and Margarita Antunez, along with Matt Dakopolos and Ben Mendoza. Xicha was Ricardo Antunez’s third try at his own business. His first was a 2005 restaurant called Ricardo's Cocina Latina in McMinnville, he was young and naive with a lot to learn. He tried again in 2013 with Pura Vida Cocina, and stuck the landing. Pura Vida has now been a staple in the Willamette Valley for over a decade, a beloved Mexican restaurant where the drinks and family-friendly atmosphere match the fresh and authentic Latino cuisine.
Pura Vida is where Xicha Brewing’s new head brewer Charlie Van Meter first met Antunez around 2017 when he had moved to McMinnville to brew at the late Allegory Brewing (now Foreland Beer). Brewing in wine country was largely powered not by beer or wine, but by tacos and great Mexican food from places like Pura Vida.
But opening a brewery was not necessarily the logical next step for Antunez.
“Living in the PNW there are so many great breweries but going out to all of them they are the same or very similar. I didn’t necessarily want to start a brewery but I did want to help create a space that is community driven, family friendly, and lively. Brewing and tasting beers on weekends with Matt and Ben I would be in charge of bringing the snacks, Pork Belly Tacos, Pupusas, Arroz con Pollo always something fun. That’s where a little idea turned into a much larger idea,” says Ricardo Antunez. “Once we opened our West Salem location it was clear to us that there wasn’t anything like us in the PNW and it is needed in the beer industry”
After Allegory Brewing shuttered in early pandemic 2020, Van Meter took a break from brewing and worked a wine harvest that broadened his perspective on process and flavor vocabulary. And later that year he had the opportunity to work consulting for a hop grower dealing with the smoke taint from wildfires in that year’s hop harvest. His first full-time job coming out of the pandemic was to work in sales for Skagit Valley Malting. But when that Washington based company suddenly imploded in 2023 he felt it was time for a comeback.
“Brewing many collaboration brews along the way learning from many talented brewers and distillers around the state. My time at consulting in hops and sales for Skagit valley malting gave me an opportunity to dive deep into the raw materials so important to brewing quality beer,” says Van Meter.
In 2022 Xicha Brewing opened a second restaurant and taproom in Eugene, Oregon, and had considered opening up a larger brewery as well before an opening came up to take over the defunct Vagabond Brewing space at 2195 Hyacinth St. NE STE 162, in a different part of Salem. The new location has roughty 12,000 sq/ft with 5,000 of it dedicated to a new kitchen and restaurant, and 6,000 to the brewery operations. For the guest experience, Xicha built out a new kitchen and full bar with the same food as the west Salem location but they now have happy hour, more seasonal food specials, and can host larger events like Latin rock nights and Xicha Fest featuring drive-in lowriders. They are trying to do more live music events, latin rock, and more community events. The north Salem spot is much larger and with more opportunity for events.
“None of it was planned, especially opening a third right after our second,” says Antunez. “Our new brewer was also by chance but had been internally talking about how to take the next step in our beer program as we now have 3 locations to provide beer for but we were also ready to move to next step with a distributor and get our product to larger markets.”
Brewer Charlie Van Meter has joined Xicha Brewing to head up production on their new JVNW 10BBL 3-vessel steam system with a much larger cellar space with 10 and 20bbl tanks and upgraded the glycol system. “I came aboard as the new brewery was coming on line. I was introduced to Xicha’s lineup of recipes and have done my best to honor their design/intention as we refine them for the new facility,” adds Van Meter.
Armed with past experiences brewing for Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Sasquatch Brewing, and Allegory Brewing, Van Meter now also has the knowledge from diving deep into the raw materials so important to brewing quality beer. One of the first changes he made as Xicha Brewing’s new brewer was changing the malts on their flagship Mexican Lager to Prairie Malt and lowering the ABV to make it a tad more crushable. He also took tasting notes from the Oregon Beer Awards to heart, like adjusting the hopping rate in “Guayaba” Guava Golden Aleand completely reformulating their seasonal “Passiflora” as a year round Hazy IPA offering with passion fruit. You can also bet there will be a lot of brand new recipes in the making, many playing off of Baja or traditional Latino flavors, and making a mark on developing sub-styles. “I'd like to continue to elaborate on “Tropical Cream Ale” as a style. I think it is a fun and very drinkable take on flavored beers that don't beat you over the head but offer crushable beach vibes pint after pint. We also have plans for a couple unique barrel aged projects this fall,” adds Van Meter.
The new brewhouse is actually smaller than the old Xicha Brewhouse, but far more efficient and capable of producing better quality beers. In the past, the output was only 350-400 barrels a year, but with the new setup they expect to get up to 1k in 2024 and could go as high as 2k in the coming few years with the help of new distribution partners Upstanding Distribution, and Crush.
“We need the help, and we will be making enough beer to have a more steady and consistent distribution stream, those guys have been awesome,” says Antunez of their new wholesale partners. “Charlie is super talented and we are better for it, these slight tweaks are making our original ideas better that we couldn’t fully execute to begin with. We turned the corner on our beer and are feeling very confident about it.”
We are looking forward to big things from Xicha Brewing in the near future.
