The Commons Gathers Around Third Anniversary

Times flies when you're having fun. And they've been having fun while making good beer at The Commons since 2011. They're holding a party to celebrate their success this coming Saturday, Dec. 6, at the brewery on SE Stephens.

When Mike Wright decided to start this place three years ago, he had no idea how successful his little business would be. Today, The Commons has earned widespread respect for its line of Belgian-influenced beers, some of which have won medals at the World Beer Cup and GABF. Their beer is widely available at stores, restaurants and finer watering holes in Portland and beyond.

There are those who think opening a brewery is the secret to great wealth and adoration. But building a brand in the hyper-competitive craft beer marketplace is an arduous task, even if you have great beer. Wright and his compatriots, Josh Grgas, Sean Burke, Travis Sandoval and others, have leaned on their expertise and a lot of hard work to make The Commons what it is.

Wright at the 2012 celebration

This year's anniversary celebration will be the last in the brewery on Stephens. As most who read this know, Wright and Co. have been diligently working on a new and significantly larger space on SE 7th and Belmont. They hope to be open there by the spring, though they are realistic enough to know these things don't always happen the way you plan.

There will be no bottleshare this year. That had a been a prominent and well-attended event the past two years, and will return once they are in their new space. It seems the current landlord is uncomfortable with use of the common areas in the building. That's unfortunate, but somehow understandable given the appeal of these events.

Regardless, the beer list for their Third Anniversary is really fantastic.

Opening Taplist

• Urban Farmhouse: The flagship saison has been on tap #1 since the day the brewery opened.
• Buckwheat Grissette: Belgian table beer with Buckwheat and Brettanomyces.
• Trillium: Blended farmhouse ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Brettanomyces Lambicus and house grown cultures.
• 3rd Anniversary Stout: Imperial Stout featuring 10 different malts aged in Bourbon barrels previously used for Bourbon Little Brother and Brotherly Love. 
• 2014 Bourbon Little Brother: Sneak preview of their popular winter bottle seasonal. Belgian Dark Strong Ale partially aged in Bourbon barrels. 
• 2014 Maybelle: Farmhouse ale aged in wine barrels with BSI’s Brettanomyces Bruxellensis variant Drei.
• Putin from the Wood: Baltic Porter aged in Bourbon barrels.
• Pils: Northern German Style with Perle and Spalt hops.  

5:00 PM Taplist

• Gin Enkel: Possibly the last keg of one of their most popular beers. Belgian table beer with spelt and rye aged in fresh Old Tom Gin barrels with apricots. 
• Dark Czar: One off Baltic Porter/Imperial Stout blended with Stumptown Guatemala Finca el Injerto coffee and vanilla beans.
• …plus a special to be announced keg from a friendly Midwest brewery. 

The party gets underway at 2:00 p.m. and will run through 9:00 p.m. or so. Obviously, this isn't the only beer event in the city this weekend, but it will be a good one. You aren't going to have a better opportunity to Gather Around Great Beer, a slight modification of The Commons tagline. Come toast the success of this humble brewery.

Celebrating three years

Gather Around The Commons 2nd Anniversary Events

The Commons, one of Portland's fastest growing and renowned breweries, will celebrate its second anniversary next week with a couple of special events. If you value good beer and good times, you'll want to be there. Trust me.

First there's the bottleshare and potluck on Thursday evening, Dec. 12. If you attended this event last year, you know it was fantastic. There were countless special beers to taste. At one point, I found myself at the bar sampling a flight of Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws. That's just one example. I expect to see an even greater variety this year.

Something to keep in mind is they will expand the party area this year. The brewery space was packed to the gils last year and they have added fermenters and other equipment since. So they expect to use the common hallway, as well as the area they've expanded into behind the brewery. They used this layout for Angelo Brewpublic's benefit event a while ago and it worked well.

The bottleshare will be followed by more formal party on Friday, Dec. 2. This time around they will provide food and they will be pouring special and standard beers. This list includes Maybelle, Ortucky Common (a collaboration with De Garde Brewing), Bourbon Little Brother and more. I missed this party last year and hope to join the fun this time around.

What's there to like about The Commons? Besides the great beer, these are good folks. Owner Mike Wright started the business in his garage and has since assembled a uniquely talented team that includes Sean Burke, Josh Grgas and Travis Sandoval. They are knowledgeable and friendly at the same time.

But don't take my word for any of this. Plan to stop by one or both of the brewery's anniversary events next week. You won't be sorry.

Open Nearly a Year, The Commons Cruises Along

The Commons Brewery in Southeast Portland opened nearly a year ago and will soon celebrate its first anniversary. I first visited early on and I stopped by several times since. My initial post on this brewery is here, if you're interested.

That's Rusticity on the left

The Commons has certainly built its brand presence around town. They conduct tastings all over the place and bottles are available at many finer stores and bottleshops. Their beers can also be found on draft in more and more places.

These are Belgian-influenced beers. As I said the first time around, they don't brew or pour your standard beers here. There's no IPA on tap. No PBR, either. You get the idea.

These guys continue to expand their line of beers. On my visit the other night, the only beer I remembered from earlier visits was the Urban Farmhouse Ale, likely their best-known beer. All of the beers on the board were low-octane. The very tart Berliner weisse came in at just 3.4% and ABV topped out at 6% for the list. It's quite amazing that beers with so much character can come in such a low alcohol form.

The board keeps getting more interesting

The beer that really grabbed me this time was Rusticity. This stuff is a collaboration between The Commons, Breakside Brewing and Upright Brewing, evidently brewed for the recent Killer Beerfest. Rusticity is fairly dark and mildly tart, with hints of cherries. It's a blend of two rye beers...a Belgian rye stout and Breakside's Six, both barrel-aged. This is a brilliant beer worth searching out if you haven't already tasted it. I suspect it's in short supply.

One of the things that's happened at The Commons as they've ratcheted up operations is there is less space available in the tasting room. Why? Because the complement of oak barrels has roughly doubled since they opened to the pubic a year ago. That's a guess. The additional barrels suggest things are going well.

Word is, they will soon be occupying some additional space in their building to store bottles, kegs, and related tools of the trade. Currently, this stuff sits out in the main hall when they're open for business and is schlepped back into the brewery/tasting room when they aren't. The additional space will surely be welcome.

More barrels...a sign of success

Given the success they've had, I was wondering when they would expand tasting room hours. Until recently, they were open Friday evening and Saturday afternoon/evening. That seemed a bit constrained to me, but I realize they were taking it slow. Now, they've expanded the hours to Thursday evening, 5-9 p.m. That ought to make it a little easier for folks to stop in and experience these well-crafted beers.

Finally, there's a possibility they will be putting together some sort of event to celebrate their first anniversary in early December. No word on when or what the event might look like. Watch for social media updates or check their website for information.

Is Craft Beer Leaving the Brewpub Model Behind?

A (seemingly) long time ago in a (beer) galaxy not far from home, the craft beer revolution was born. There are arguments over the specific place. Some would argue Fritz Maytag's Anchor Steam was the first craft brewery...the counter argument being that Maytag merely retooled an existing brewery to produce something better than what it made before. I don't want to get into a controversy about that and, anyway, the question of who was first isn't on my mind today.

In our galaxy, the brewpub started here

What I am thinking about is the brewpub...and how it was crucial to the development of the craft beer business here (and everywhere). Brewpubs are a big reason we have such a healthy beer culture in Portland today. More on why in a second. There isn't even an argument over who opened the first brewpub in Portland. McMenamin's Hillsdale Brewery and Public House was the first. It opened in 1985. Others soon followed.

Why was the brewpub a crucial cog in the spinning wheel of craft beer? I once held the view that the 21-34 demographic made craft beer a success here in the early days. My logic: They drink a lot of beer and they got interested in craft beer. Fine. Unfortunately, wrong. The craft beer movement did not grow into something formidable simply because young adults drink more beer than their parents. Nope.

Not in Portland, but there's no food here

The fact is, craft beer needed the brewpub to spread its wings. It would most certainly not be what it is today if it had been confined to taverns, bars and tasting rooms. No question about it. In that scenario, it never would have gotten the wide exposure it got through the brewpub. Craft became what it is because the brewpub opened its doors to all ages. That includes the young adult drinkers I mentioned, but it also includes adults of all ages, some who have kids.

From a business standpoint, the brewpub helped craft brewers build their business. It provided a place where people could go to eat a reasonable lunch or dinner and have a quality beer. Most owners will tell you their gross revenue leans in favor of food. The owner of my "home" pub recently told me his revenue is 60-40 food to beer. I suspect that's pretty standard. Of course, there's more profit in beer than in food, so you have to be careful about these numbers.

My point is this: A lot of people come to brewpubs because they are essentially restaurants where you can get good beer. The genius of the brewpub is that it dramatically expanded the available demographic of craft beer consumers. The founders of the craft beer industry in Oregon knew what they were doing when they lobbied to make brewpubs legal. People of all ages came in for the food. The beer flowed...making money for the business in the process. A perfect match.

A tasting flight at The Commons

If I sound like Captain Obvious, hang on. The reason I'm bringing up the brewpub concept is that a growing number of breweries are choosing a different path...a path that doesn't include food. Here's a quick list of nearby breweries that have no food: The Commons, Occidental, Gigantic, Mt. Tabor, Natian (no tasting room, to my knowledge), Upright, and Harvester. These are essentially production breweries that intend to make their money through distribution by keg and (especially) bottle (or can).

I can't help but wonder how this is going to work out. There's growing competition for shelf space in stores and tap space in pubs. Remember, these breweries typically have limited tasting room hours. If you want to try their their beers at the brewery, you better check the calendar and plan ahead. It's hard to imagine all of the players in this sandbox succeeding, even with the ongoing growth of craft beer as a sail.

Sprints (right) launched the specialty sales model

In the end, I suspect the ones that succeed will be the ones that are able to sell a unique product, likely barrel-aged or limited release beer, directly to customers. This model is already being used by Upright and The Commons. Alan Sprints (Hair of the Dog) is the godfather of this model in Portland, having perfected it over many years. He effectively sells limited edition beers directly to customers for high dollar.

The brewpub model is the foundation of craft beer revolution in Portland and beyond. Is it possible that we've moved on? Are these production/specialty breweries the next step in the evolution? Only time will tell. My guess is not everyone trying this is going to be able to pull it off. We shall see.

The Power or Zwickelmania

Oregon's 4th annual Zwickelmania is in the books and I think it's safe to say the event's appeal was unsurpassed. Beer fans flocked to breweries around the state to celebrate the good health of the craft beer scene. I made four stops on my Saturday travels and each destination was buzzing.

The growing success of this event brings up a couple of questions. First, who came up with the idea in the first place and what's it all about? Second, and perhaps more importantly, what's a zwickel?

As the above poster indicates, Zwickelmania is the invention of the Oregon Brewers Guild. The mission of the Guild is to promote craft beer throughout the state. Zwickelmania does that by opening breweries statewide for tours and tastings. Did I mention this is a free event? Alrighty then.

Mike Wright manned the bar at The Commons

Moving on the the question of the zwickel. We owe a lot to the Germans when it comes to brewing and bier. The term Zwickelbier once described unfinished beer taken from a barrel via a special siphon called a Zwickelhahn. So there's your zwickel reference. Today, Zwickelbier is commercially available in Germany. There's further explanation here.

And so, Zwickelmania features breweries showing people around and often providing beer samples directly out of fermentation tanks or barrels.Along the way, beer fans have the chance to rub elbows with brewers and other beer industry folks. Win vs win! There's a lengthy list of breweries and what they were doing here.

They were tasting 3-day-old Flemish Kiss from the tank

I want to mention the tour aspect. There was a line out the door at Widmer, so I didn't stop there. It's on my list of places to tour and I'll get to it. But let's face it, the vast majority of Oregon breweries are small enough that a tour basically amounts to entering the brewhouse. A few descriptive words later and you get it.

Such is certainly the case at The Commons Brewery. It was my main stop on Saturday. This place is quite small. The brewery and tasting room are mashed together. An official tour isn't really needed. Anyway, Mike Wright was toiling away at the bar while the other guys poured fresh beer tasters. The space was crowded, but the ambiance was buzzing and pleasant. I suspect that was a common theme.

Hats off to the Oregon Brewers Guild and all the breweries who participate in Zwickelmania. What a great promotional gig! I suppose the biggest downside to this event is there will surely be calls to expand it. I'm not sure that can or will happen, but it's a nice example of what success can do. I suspect all states where craft beer is flowing have or soon will have a version of Zwickelmania.

Beer Geeks Further the Love of Craft Beer

Before I get around to writing (again) about the ADHD aspect of the local craft beer scene, I feel the need to give a shout out to some folks who are doing an increasingly great job of promoting craft brands around Portland and beyond. I'm talking about the pdxbeergeeks.

This logo is all about promoting craft beer

The group is the brainchild of Michael Umphress and Emily Engdahl, a couple of beer fans who concluded that hosting regular gatherings of local beer geeks and promoting the craft beer cause in other ways is a worthy cause. I probably don't need to mention that they were tipping a pint or two at the time. This was July 2011.

The logo started showing up on shirts and stickers last summer. They are slowly building up a presence in the real and digital worlds, hosting events here and there and generally promoting the cause via Twitter, Facebook, their blog and more. Check the site out for interviews of brewers, bloggers and beer geeks.

Several weeks ago they hosted an event at Bridgetown Beer House. I didn't make it to that gig, but I understand the place (admittedly small) was packed. As pdxbeergeeks expand their reach into the nooks and crannies of the Portland beer scene, I expect the number of events will grow. And get better.

Michael shows off a can of Natian's Undun Blonde Ale

Last night they hosted a well-attended event at The Guild Public House on NE Couch. This event highlighted Natian Brewery, a small nano setup just up the street from The Guild Public House. Natian is preparing to release Undun Blonde Ale in 16 oz cans and this was a sort of sneak peek. Of course, the taps were pouring five Natian beers. I am particularly partial to Vertical Horizon Red, but these guys make great beers.

Michael was without his compatriot last night, handing out pdxbeergeeks stickers, mingling with the crowd and handling a couple of raffles. It seems Emily was indisposed, having just returned from a trip to NoLa and apparently a zombie due to a lack of sleep.

Natian tap list from last night

Most bloggers and serious beer fans know about the pdxbeergeeks. Readers of this blog may not. If you want to know more about what's happening in the Portland craft beer scene, I suggest you connect with these guys via one or all of their channels...meaning the blog, Twitter or Facebook.

The next event on the pdxbeergeeks calendar happens at The Commons Brewery on Friday, March 9. Anyone who hasn't been to The Commons and tasted their beers needs to get over there. The upcoming event is a great opportunity to do just that.

Keep up the fantastic work, kids!

Nothing Common About The Commons

We keep seeing new breweries pop up around Portland. I sometimes wonder how all these places are going to fare, but you can't dwell on it. It seems the common dream of most brewers is to at some point open a brewery or pub. And so it is.

The Commons Brewery is conveniently located in what beer geeks refer to as the Beermuda Triangle. The Triangle comprises much of Southeast Portland, and includes Hair of the Dog, Cascade Brewing Barrel House, The Green Dragon, Lucky Labrador, Hopworks, Coalition and several others. If you're keeping track at home, you can safely add The Commons to that list.

Double taster tray treat (artistic element added)

This place is the brainchild of Mike Wright, who initially launched the brewery in the comfort of his Southeast Portland garage. Soon thereafter, he decided to shoot the moon and expand his nano brewing setup to a 7 bbl operation in a space large enough to brew and conduct barrel fermentation.

The new facility has been operational for a few months, and only recently opened its doors for tastings. A tasting room and brewery is what you'll find here. Wright says he has no designs on turning this location into a brewpub. He hopes to see his beers distributed in draft and bottled form. Some Commons beers have already been poured at pubs around town. The bottling effort will take some time.

Mike Wright handles the colorful tasters with ease

In contrast to most breweries and pubs, the Commons does not feature what I would describe as typical Portland beer fare. There's no IPA on the beer menu. No imperial IPA, either. They also don't offer a stout or a porter. What they produce is a line of Belgian-influenced beers that are designed to, as they put it, "enhance social interaction."

The board shows two standard, year-round beers, along with a couple of seasonal offerings. Then there's the Beetje (pronounced bee-cha) Series. Beetje is a Flemish word, meaning little or little bit. The term refers to small batch beers that are produced at the Commons using predominantly organic ingredients. Four Beetje beers graced the board when I stopped by.

The beer board with plywood motif

Tasting Spree
I opted for the double-fisted tasting experience: Eight wildly colorful beers in exquisite glass ware...and every one of them pretty good. I had several favorites, although opinions will certainly differ.

Urban Farmhouse Ale (5.3% | 27 IBU) This is the lightest of the beers on the board, brilliant gold in color. I am not a huge fan of this style, which is often over-carbonated and too yeasty/fruity for my taste. But this is a great beer. I would love to have one of these in the heat of the summer, though it tasted pretty good on a freezin' Friday evening. Light and refreshing with a subtle floral nose. When bottling eventually gets underway, this will be evidently the first beer to go that route.

Little Brother (8.7% | 21 IBU) One of two seasonal offerings, Little Brother is a strong Belgian ale aged in bourbon barrels.  The barrel aging adds some nice character to this beer...not over-the-top like you find with some bourbon barrel-aged beers. Little Brother is reminiscent of a light barley wine, with lots of chocolate and caramel notes. This is the biggest beer made here, although not that big compared to some of the monsters you find around town.

Barrel treatment in progress

Barrel 1 (6.8% | 21 IBU) This is a tart pale ale aged in pinot barrels. I'm a big fan of the sour beers available at the nearby Cascade Barrel House. Those beers only lose me when they get too sour. Barrel 1 is conservatively sour. It's a lovely beer, pleasantly tart and full of flavor. I look forward to seeing this beer available in a bottle.

Some notes
If you're heading over to check out The Commons, please note that tasting days and hours are limited. They are currently open Friday and Saturday evenings. That may change as things ramp up, so check their website, Facebook page or give them a call to verify.

Unlike some of the smaller tasting spots, The Commons DOES take credit and debit cards...in case you're strapped for cash and need a great beer. Indeed, the checkout system is pretty cool.

It probably goes with saying, but these beers are going to respond well to a bit of secondary fermentation in a bottle. It's a style thing. When the bottling part of the operation gets going and Commons beers are available that way, they will be prized purchases. In my opinion.

Finally, there is very limited bar space here, along with a few barrels. You will very likely find yourself walking around exploring the brewery while sipping the beer. No worries. Mike was mingling with the tasters while I was there and he's happy to share what's happening with the beers.