At Last, Deschutes Opens a Pub at PDX

Thirty years after opening its doors in Bend, Deschutes Brewing marked the grand opening of a pub at Portland International Airport with snacks, toasts and a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday.

The opening coincides with the 30th anniversary of the airport's Clocktower (located in the pre-security area). On Friday, there was a free beer tasting featuring some of the brews available at the airport. The tasting was part of a series of events planned this summer to honor the Clocktower.

Deschutes founder Gary Fish was on hand for the ribbon cutting. He spoke briefly to a small crowd of accidental tourists, media folks and officials connected to the brewery, the airport or the concessionaire company that operates essentially all of the businesses at PDX.

This is the second Deschutes location in Portland, following the opening of the brewpub in the Pearl District by 10 years. Fish highlighted the reasons why he and others at Deschutes Brewing have always regarded Portland as its most important market.

"Portland is the most important beer city in America," he said. "It has the largest craft beer market share of any city in the country, and it's our single largest, most important market. We focused on Portland almost from the beginning and the pubs here are a continuation of that effort."

The pub is a nice addition to the offerings at PDX. It's located in Concourse D in the space previously occupied by Rogue. In reimagining the look, they created a visually open and bright space. This is the kind of place travelers will appreciate. Success is likely to come pretty easy.

That was less the case back to 2008, when the Pearl District brewpub opened. It was a sketchy time. The Great Recession was in full force and the pub struggled initially. But it did well enough to survive and has flourished in a community that embraces the Deschutes brand.

To me, Deschutes is one of Oregon's most iconic brands, maybe the most iconic in beer terms. Most of the state's early craft breweries are no longer locally owned or they've jumped the track in other ways. Yet Deschutes stayed the course, always featuring quality beer, food and service. While remaining independent.

The story is nicely told in Jon Abernathy's fine book, Bend Beer: A History of Brewing in Central Oregon. In fact, Fish wound up in Bend more or less by accident. He wanted to open a brewery in Northern California. Competition and cost caused him to look elsewhere. His parents, fresh from a trip to Central Oregon, suggested he give the area a look. He liked what he saw.

You might think the rest is history, but there you'd be wrong. Despite the current size and reach of Deschutes Brewing, the operation in Bend was not a slam dunk success. There were growing pains early on and business was not always good.

"You could shoot a gun off in [the pub] a lot of nights and nobody would notice," Fish is quoted as saying in Abernathy's book. Some nights he sent employees home and ran the pub alone things were so slow. Fish chuckled and verified the accuracy of those comments on Friday.

Why did Deschutes finally open a pub at PDX? That's an interesting question. Fish described it as a long term project. Okay. As one of the most prominent craft beer brands in the state, I suspect Deschutes could and maybe should have established a presence at the airport long ago. Why now?

The answer is likely related to the overall state of craft beer. Large craft breweries like Deschutes are losing market share, particularly in distant markets. They helped create a demand that is today being increasingly filled by small, local breweries. Ironic turn of events, for sure.

As a result, larger breweries are turning inward and intensifying marketing efforts closer to home. We're seeing this in Portland with Widmer, Bridgeport and Portland Brewing, each of which is putting significant effort into reconnecting with local fans via specialty beers and events.

Deschutes situation is a bit different because they never really abandoned the specialty beers so many fans are chasing these days. For them, the airport pub will serve as a great marketing piece, a way to connect with and make an impression on travelers who are coming and going.

It seems like a smart move to me. I look forward to visiting the next time I'm in Concourse D.

Risk in the "Post-Craft Era"

My recent trip to central Oregon and then Jeff Alworth's post on the dangerous number of breweries there got me thinking about state of craft beer. When you add up what's been happening in Bend and around the state and country, I think you have to conclude the very nature of craft beer has fundamentally changed. The question is, what does that mean?

Already targeting markets outside Bend

If you think back to the beginnings of the craft era, virtually all of the breweries started off small and catered to a local clientele. This was in keeping with what beer had been about for most of the pre-Prohibition period in the United States. Cities and towns had breweries that served locals. There were national brands that shipped beer to remote markets as early as the 1870s, but beer was mostly a local affair. Craft beer followed that model early on.

In fact, one of the reasons craft beer caught on is that it was locally brewed in small batches. This was true of craft breweries everywhere. The thing is, the early craft brewers couldn't afford to advertise to get customers. Their marketing plan was going out to taverns and bars where locals were cheerfully sipping industrial lager and getting them to try craft beer.

One of the reasons people were willing to give craft beer a shot is it was local. There were underlying reasons for this, which I won't get into here. The point is, people were willing to try beers that were more expensive, new and completely different largely because they were local.

Good Life has lots of room to expand

Obviously, the local approach was not the only angle. It was not the approach Full Sail (initially Hood River Brewing) took. Full Sail was the first Oregon craft brewery to bottle and was highly focused on sales outside its local market from the beginning. But most Oregon breweries didn't start that way; most focused on local customers.

Things have shifted today. More and more breweries are producing a lot of beer and working to sell it in markets outside their local area. This is possible in large part because of what has happened to craft beer in recent years. It is has become a respected commodity. Today's beer fans are more interested in beer that is unique and good than beer that is local. And they know what good beer is. Thus, you can have a brewery like San Diego's Ballast Point or Tillamook's De Garde enter the Portland market and do very well because the beer is good.

Aggressive plans outside Bend

We are clearly living in a changed world. Someone used the phrase "post-craft era" on Facebook. I think that's exactly right. The rules that applied in 1985 and 1995 don't readily apply today because craft beer is an established entity held in reasonably high esteem. This has enabled breweries to focus more on getting a quality product out to a wide range of markets and less on building a local following.

It seems to me Bend exemplifies the "post-craft era." With something like 20 breweries and counting, Bend has more breweries than the local population can realistically support..and don't bother assuming transient tourists are a big factor in overall consumption. Places like Deschutes, 10 Barrel, Good Life, Crux and Boneyard sell a lot of beer outside Bend. Which is great. And the reality is, they have to.

The problem with Bend in the "post-craft era" is this: There are a growing number of breweries from all over competing for customers outside their local markets. We can agree the craft beer market is growing and that Bend makes a good product. But at some point we are going to reach the point where regional markets become saturated and there won't be room for everyone who wants to be there.

What then?

It seems to me breweries concentrated in areas with relatively small local populations are at risk in that scenario. For them, there may be little to fall back on. Bend may be the ultimate example of a place where significant risk exists, though it is likely not alone.