Upright's Ingenious, Creative Approach

In a market flooded with breweries that can't wait to get bigger so they can brew and sell more and more beer, Alex Ganum's little brewery in the basement of the Leftbank Project Building represents an alternative approach to beer and marketing.

The brewery graciously provided members of the media with one of those intimate excursions in tasting the other night. We worked our way through a couple of upcoming bottle releases while a relaxed Ganum talked about what they were doing with each beer. 

In case you don't know, Upright specializes in Farmhouse-style beers with a Northwest twist. Ganum and his staff are experts at creating barrel-aged brews that incorporate assorted regional fruit and other delights. The results are often mesmerizing. 

Of course, Farmhouse beers are not the only thing they do. Ganum also likes to embark on some fairly quirky projects. Several years ago, he brewed an interpretation of Bud Light. No joke. Unlike the original, Upright's version was rather tasty. Their Engelberg Pilsner was named Beer of the Year in the 2015 Willamette Week Beer Guide. They get pilsner.

Despite the fact that they make great beer, Upright is largely an undiscovered destination. I don't believe the place is underrated, as a recent blog poll suggested. Underrated and unknown are different issues. People just don't know much about Upright, the direct result Ganum's chosen path: limited production, limited distribution and limited taproom hours. You get what you play for.

If you look at OLCC stats, which are strictly a rough guide to what's selling (we've been through this before), Upright sold 924 barrels in Oregon during 2013. They then sold 874 barrels in 2014. Final numbers for 2015 aren't yet published, but when they are Upright will be about where it has been for the last two years. Production is more or less static.

That's a nice strategy if you can pull it off. Upright has done so by creating a premium product that is reasonably priced and sought after. Like boutique wineries, they sell a lot of bottles out of their tasting room. In the case of the upcoming releases, Ganum said he expects to sell more than 50 percent of the production direct to patrons. 

When you pursue this business model and you're comfortable with the work and satisfied with the money you're making, you don't need to mess around with expansion and debt. It also means you don't need to sell out to private equity or Anheuser-Bush. You're only concern is to continue making great beer that people want to buy and drink. Pretty sweet. 

Oh, I should mention the upcoming releases, Heart's Beat and Shades. Descriptions (with minor edits) from the press release: 

Hearts' Beat was brewed first using Chelan cherries from the Baird Family Orchards. These are dark and intense, so the plan was to showcase the fruit. To achieve that, we started with our usual process of using a very basic grist with aged hops for minimal bitterness, then ran the wort directly into eight casks that contained over 100 pounds of fruit in each. A blend of two different brettanomyces strains with some lactobacillus was added and the barrels sat for a year before blending and bottle conditioning, which began in July 2015. The high tannin level lends the beer a distinct edge that holds up well against the acidity, and the amount of fruit makes the beer drink much like a cherry wine, a character that is enhanced at cellar temp over typical beer serving temperature. The Hearts' Beat is not intended to mimic Belgian Kriek or any defined style, but rather to follow in the path of Fantasia as a beer combining elements of Belgian lambics, saisons and our own whims.

Shades also uses cherries from Baird, although in this case we're talking Rainiers, which don't alter the color of the beer. This is deceiving because it's loaded with fruit flavor, again employing more than 100 pounds per cask, although this blend only comprised six barrels. We used two different lots of cherries, one notably sweet and the other tart, and inoculated the casks with three different brettanomyces strains. The beer was aged and conditioned just like the Hearts' Beat, but we pushed the brett to produce a funkier aromatic profile with a bit more acidity. 

Both beers are named after a Charles Mingus composition from the album "The Black Saint and Sinner Lady." They are set to be released together as soon as we finish the labels, with most allocated to the brewery tasting room.

Upright also expects to release annual renditions of Fantasia, Fatali Four and Billy Mountain in the near future. Each will feature a new label for the first time since their initial release.

Things are good at Upright.

Collaboration Brewer's Dinner Serves Up Hits and Misses

There are a lot of breweries and brewers in Portland. Not such a big secret, eh? What some people may not know is that the brewing community is relatively tight knit. Most of these folks know each other, which presents the opportunity for friendships and rivalries at the same time.

Last week's Collaboration Brewers Dinner at Laurelwood on NE Sandy was an opportunity for several brewers who know each other well to show off what they can do. The collaborators, Vasili Gletsos (Laurelwood), Van Havig (Gigantic) Alex Ganum (Upright) and Tom Bleigh (Hopworks), know each other from past brewing gigs.

The basic specs flyer

For the record, this isn't the first Brewer's Dinner they've held at Laurelwood. It is, however, the first one I've been to. The idea behind these events is to pair beers with appropriate foods, similar what you see at a vintner dinner with different wines served with different courses. Beer can work very well this way, contrary to what some people think.Yeah, I've heard the snickers.

Before I get to the menu, I should mention that this event was well-attended. I didn't ask how many tickets were sold. My understanding is there were still some tickets left on game day, but there couldn't have been that many because the place was pretty packed. (The pub was closed to the public during the dinner.)

I want to note that Laurelwood's physical space does not set up perfectly for an event like this. If you've been there, you know why. Instead of a large room where there's a shared ambiance, diners sat in three separate areas: bar section, main section, west section. This isn't ideal, though it also isn't a deal killer.

The menu specs

The menu for the five-course dinner was put together by Laurelwood Chef, Aaron Nichols. There was certainly significant coordination between Nichols and the brewers to see that the planned beers and planned foods matched up. Great line-up.

Firsts
The first course was chicken coronets served with preserved lemon. Very tasty, slightly spicy. The beer pairing, a bold Cascadian Pilsner brewed by Gletsos and Havig, was excellent. This beer, born from German base malts and neutral lager yeast, leaned heavily on several hops to create a firm, but not overly aggressive Northwest hop character. I'd like to see this beer on tap somewhere...anywhere.

Round 1

Seconds
The second item was a shrimp and mussel soup with lemon grass, kafir lime leaf, fish stock, chilies, garlic, shallot and Thai spices. It was tough to get a bead on the soup because it was lukewarm when it arrived. Everyone at my table agreed. The mussels were terrific. The shrimp were okay. Otherwise, nothing stellar.

The beer pairing was a Thai Wit brewed by Bleigh and Gletsos. This is a delicate beer and it went well with the soup. However, it seemed out of place behind the very bold Pilsner served in round one. Food for thought.

Round 2

Thirds
This was the best pairing of the evening, I thought. A salad combining blood orange and arugula with red onions, Castelvetrano olives and parsley was delightful. The beer, a Sour Red ale, was terrific. It was based on a Flemish style red and was several years in the making as the four brewers mixed and matched their barrel aging projects. The result was a pleasantly tart beer that matched the salad perfectly. Well done!

Fourths
This was the main course, a smoked pork belly and pomegranate barbecued brisket with potato-chard gratin and pomegranate glaze. The paired beer was a Scottish Ale brewed by Gletsos and Ganum. The plate could have been warmer, but the pork and other items were quite tasty. The beer was overtly smokey, possibly related to the sour served in round 3. Still, quite good.

Fifths
The initial menu for this event listed grapefruit tart and pecan brittle as the dessert. Several people at my table noted the change, for which there was no explanation. Anyway, the replacement was a chocolate chiffon cake paired with a Milk Stout. The cake went well with what I would call a mild stout. It was a decent pairing, but it lost some mojo compared to what came before it.

Scorecard
For my money, they served up three solid hits on the food menu: the chicken coronets, the arugula salad and the smoked pork belly. The soup was a near miss. The cake, not so much. On the beer side, the Cascadian Pilsner and the Sour Red were direct hits. I put the Thai Wit and the Scottish Ale in the near miss category. Opinions will certainly differ...these are mine.

One area where they can do better is the interaction between the brewers and the paying customers. Vasili stopped by our table and talked for a minute. None of the other brewers did. This was possibly related to the way Laurelwood's space is split up, I admit. Still, people who pay good money to attend these dinners like to mingle with the guys who made the beer. Pretty simple, eh?

I know what all you kids at home want to know: Was the dinner worth the $50 cost? It definitely depends on your perspective. If you like unique beers paired with inventive, tasty food items, then you're going to see the value. If that isn't your thing, this isn't your gig. Take your $50 and spend it somewhere else.