Little Beast Sets Up Shop in Beaverton

One of the most anticipated brewery openings in recent times became official Saturday evening. Little Beast Brewing, the creative child of Charles Porter and his wife and partner, Brenda Crow, held a launch party at OP Wurst in Southeast Portland. A fine time was had by all.

I'll get to the Little Beast details shortly. This was a significant event because Porter has a rich brewing background. He co-founded Logsdon Farmhouse Ales with David Logsdon in 2009, then abruptly departed a couple of years back. It took some time to get Little Beast off the ground. Porter lives in my neighborhood and I got vague updates on the project from time to time.

Breweries open every day. You know this. Little Beast is special because Porter doesn't make typical beers and his beers have won awards in significant competitions. His particular talent is producing mixed culture brews that lean on local produce and micro-flora. Barrel-aging and bottle conditioning are part of that, obviously.

In fact, the Little Beast name itself is nicely conceptualized. How so? Because it's the "little beasts" in micro-flora that ferment the farmhouse and wild ales Porter is known for. A degree in biology provides him with an understanding of yeast and bacteria, handy stuff to know if you're going to monkey around with wild and sour beers.

There's a significant and growing interest in these beers. Cascade Brewing has built an empire on its sour beers. DeGarde in Tillamonk has done well with its wild ales, as has Wolves and People out in Newberg. There's also Yachats Brewing, where Charlie Van Meter, who worked with Porter at Logsdon, is producing some uniquely unconventional beers.

Little Beast will for now operate out of the former Brannon's Pub & Brewery in Beaverton. They're occupying the brewing space there while Westgate Bourbon Bar and Taphouse operates the pub portion of the space. This is a relatively inexpensive way to get the brewery up and running and to build a following. A taproom somewhere in Portland is in the future.

Samples of Bes, a tart wheat ale, and Fera, a brett-fermented Saison, were poured at OP Wurst. Porter also shared a few bottled beers around. Everything was pretty tasty. I preferred the Bes to the Fera, but that was a tough call. Many liked the Fera.

Little Beast will offer year-around flagship and seasonal beers in draft and bottled form. Limited, exclusive stuff will evidently be sold direct via some sort of membership. I'm guessing the standards will show up intermittently in area beer bars and bottleshops. There's a tentative list of shops and bars coming and I'll update this post when/if I receive it.

I expect Little Beast to do well. They have a premium product that's somewhat unconventional and Porter is no stranger to brand building. But these are strange times in craft beer. It's getting crowded out there. Nothing comes easy. Porter and Crow know this.

Craft Beer's Frenetic, Trendy New Culture

Last week's Craft Beer Conference spewed a lot of data relating to the state of the industry. Craft segment growth slowed last year. You knew that. And the part of the segment that accounted for the bulk of the growth that occurred is the one that connects most directly with its patrons.

The facts are these: Breweries that produce less than 15,000 bbls accounted for 75 percent of the segment's growth, about 1.4 million bbls. Taprooms did nicely. Brewpubs experienced a great year, up nearly 15 percent to 1.35 million total bbls.

On the other side of the ledger, regional brewers were up just 150,000 bbls or 10 percent of segment growth. Keep in mind that regional brewers account for roughly 75 of total craft volume. In effect, these guys are having their lunch eaten largely by smaller, local breweries.

This theme has been gathering momentum for a while, related to the fact that craft breweries have been opening all over the place. Given a choice, consumers are often choosing local beer over beer produced elsewhere, at least when it comes to craft beer. Remember, craft is still only a small share of overall beer.

This isn't strictly about the quality of the beer. Nope. There's a game being played that involves brand connection. The folks who chase craft beer are driven to connect with brands. Smaller, local brands are much better-positioned to make those connections than stodgy, older breweries.

Who are the beer chasers? Mostly, though not entirely, millennials. Yep. Somewhere along the line, a swath of the millennial generation got hooked on craft beer. Their (21-35) age group is historically the largest beer consumer. But millennials have migrated to craft in droves. Don't ask me why. Maybe because it's one of the few things they can get excited about. We know their trophy cases are full. (I kid.)

The effort to reach this crowd has strategic layers. Breweries strive to project an identity that resonates with the youthful fan crowd. Identities are conceptualized accordingly. The outdoor motif seems in vogue currently. The need to stand out in an increasingly crowded market has led to packaging that carries wild graphics, bright colors and clever names. All that glitters might not be gold, but shiny things can and do attract attention.

Of course, the beer itself is also caught up in what's happening. New interpretations of existing styles, as well as newly imagined styles, are the order of the day. That's more or less how we arrived at the point where hazy IPAs and eclectic fruit and barrel beers have become the rage. Something else will come along soon enough. Trust me.

Don't forget the role of social media in pushing the envelope forward. Smartphone-addicted millennials depend on social media for news and information. That's where brand identities are amplified by some exponential factor, creating chatter that fuels the fan crowd and ignites feeding frenzies for new beers, events, brewery schwag, etc.

What this arrangement has produced is a frenetic, stifling trendiness. Brand churn is accelerating. Beers come and go relentlessly in bottleshops, taprooms and pubs. Brands we saw regularly in past years are nowhere to be found these days, replaced by brands that will themselves be gone in a proverbial flash. Change is a speeding bullet.

Some years ago, a few of us talked about event fatigue. The events calendar was exploding and it was becoming impossible to keep up. That's ancient history now. Today we have widespread industry fatigue. Even people inside the industry have a hard time keeping pace. The gimmicks and gambits used to attract interest in beers are crazy and getting crazier.

Where does this end? Good question. I'm old enough to have seen frenetic trends come and go more than a few times. I suspect the current craft craze will collapse or significantly moderate at some point. That may involve a generational shift in tastes. Or not. But it will happen.

Brothers Cascadia Brewing Puts Bloom on Hazel Dell

As referenced in past posts here, these are wild times for craft beer. The crazy growth of recent years is slowing. Part of that is reality. You can't easily grow 15 or 20 percent a year once you reach a certain size. Brewery count is another reason. Access to local beer has dimmed retail sales.

We're going to hear a lot about the state of the industry from this week's Craft Brewers Conference in Washington, D.C. The Brewers Association brass are going to talk about the good and the bad. It'll be a giant drunk fest in between press conferences and presentations. This much I know.

But not everyone connected to the industry is spending a drunken week in Trumpland. Some folks are at home working in their breweries or busy opening up new ones.

Monday afternoon I stopped in on the private soft opening of Brothers Cascadia Brewing in Hazel Dell. This place has been in planning for a while and they opened the doors to a nice crowd of friends and family. Pretty cool.

How did I get invited? Fair question. Because I rarely get invited to anything. Never mind why. It turns out the general manager there is Micah Loiselle. For years, Micah worked behind the bar at Laurelwood's Sandy pub, a place I frequented almost nightly. If you've visited Laurelwood on any kind of regular basis in recent years, you know Micah. He's the guilty party who invited me.

When I walked in just after the 3 p.m. start time, the place was already busy. You hate to take too much stock in a situation where it's almost all friends and family, but I suspect the crowd is a good omen. This place has the potential to do nicely. 

As I've said once or twice in past columns, there's still plenty of room for smaller, neighborhood breweries that intend to serve a mostly local clientele. That's particularly true in places where that clientele is underserved from a craft beer standpoint. Hazel Dell is that kind of place. 

Once upon a time, Hazel Dell was a thriving area. Today, the area around Brothers Cascadia Brewing on 99th St and Highway 99 could use some investment and help. In some ways, it reminds me of the Lents area in Southeast Portland, where a revitalization project is underway. 

Three partners, Sherman Gore, Jason Bos and Richard Tiffany, installed a 10 bbl brewery in an old, bombed out auto body shop building. They intend to focus on mainstream styles like IPA, Kolsch and Pilsner. But they are also developing an interesting barrel program. They aren't selling food in the pub, but there's a food cart-ish scenario out front.

The pub itself is just quaint and charming enough to meet the needs of thirsty beer fans. High ceilings and a clean grubbiness are a reminder of what most craft breweries looked like back in the day, before gobs of money flowed into the industry and places got spiffy and flashy. None of that here, thank the Dog. 

I sampled two beers: Hellcat Imperial Stout is a barrel-aged monster (9.5 percent) brewed with raspberries, then aged in red wine barrels. Interesting beer. I think a bourbon barrel treatment would have added more character, but Hellcat is pretty tasty as is; Saison de La Mancha is fermented with French Saison yeast and lacto, aged in red wine barrels and dry-hopped with Mandarina Bavaria hops. Mildly tart, nicely refreshing. My guess is the beers will be fine here. If you can make boutique styles like these well, your standards should be fine. 

I'm not exactly sure about regular hours. They will evidently have a soft opening for the public on Wednesday, the 12th, from 3:00-10:00 p.m. After that, they're off and running. There's no functioning website at the moment, which leaves the Facebook page if you need information. Hopefully, it will be updated in coming days.  

Brothers Cascadia is a nice example of the breweries that continue to pop up around the country. They identified an underserved area and opened there. As long as they run the business well and don't have visions of grandeur fueled by dreams of regional distribution, they'll be fine. Staying true to local fans will pave their way to success.

Things are looking up in Hazel Dell. Trust me.

Update: As of today, Brothers Cascadia will be open 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. They will be closed Tuesdays. 

California's Great Train Robbery

My friend (I use the term loosely) Jeff Alworth yesterday posted an article exploring the success of Michelob Ultra. It's a zany story, frankly. Ultra has been knocking it out of the park, showing huge growth over the last few years, though it tastes like carbonated water with a twist of light beer.

Go read Jeff's article if you haven't. He's basically saying the success of Ultra, alongside the continued growth of craft, suggests the old paradigm of craft beer vs light lager has collapsed and that consumers now think only of beer. Some chase flavor, some don't.

In fact, the success of Michelob Ultra reminds me of the success of Kona, which is a big winner for the Craft Brew Alliance in the same way Michelob Ultra is a winner for Anheuser-Busch. It's also true that neither can do enough to overcome the losses of their parents.

A case in point is California, the biggest market in the country. Despite the growth of Ultra, AB lost 10 percent of its volume in California over the past two years. Sales were down 446,000 bbls in 2016 and 386,000 bbls in 2015. AB, which once owned nearly half the California beer market, now controls less than a third of it.

MillerCoors is also taking a shellacking in the Golden State. It lost 10 percent of its volume over the past two years...500,000 bbls. Once a formidable player in California, MC now controls less than 20 percent of the market. And indicators don't look good.

Who's stealing market share? Constellation brands is a big winner, gaining more than 700,000 bbls over the last two years to 4.3 million total bbls. Constellation, which includes Ballast Point, Corona, Modelo and Pacifico, reached 18 percent of market share in California at the end of 2016. It will likely pass MillerCoors this year.

The other big winner in California is other (mostly local and regional) craft, basically anything but Constellation-owned Ballast Point. Other craft was up 20 percent (813,000 bbls) over the last two years and now has a 21.5 share of the market, second only to Anheuser-Busch.

Consider the magnitude of the "great train robbery" that has transpired in California in recent years. Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors have lost 1.35 million bbls between them while Constellation and other craft gained 1.5 million bbls. These are shocking stats. And there's more.

AB's best selling beer, Bud Light, declined nearly 9 percent to $140 million in IRI last year. Meanwhile, Constellation-owned Modelo Especial grew 20 percent to nearly $138 million. Sometime this year, Modelo Especial will surpass Bud Light as the top selling brand in California.

What we're seeing in California, which accounts for some 15 percent of nationwide IRI, is Constellation gulping up market share with a mix of light and craft beer while craft brewers grow with their unique product. Michelob Ultra fits into a growth niche somehow.

These parallel universes will continue to exist. Craft beer will never conquer the world. Light lager will always have a place because many consumers don't and never will care about flavor profiles or who makes their beer. Some choose light lager because craft beer makes them fat. Indeed, a large segment of consumers will always be content with light beer, though at the moment a lot of folks are moving away from long-established, mainstream brands.

The ongoing implosion in California and elsewhere has Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors on edge. Huge losses have a way of creating panic. Buying craft brands in hopes of reversing the negative momentum is part of their strategy, and it's working to some extent. But they simply can't replace what they're losing fast enough.

Interesting times. And train robberies.