Rentsch Tasked with Lifting Portland Brewing/Pyramid

One of the big challenges in craft beer today is staying relevant in a hyper-competitive marketplace. That reality has driven some breweries into the arms of big beer, hoping to tap the benefits of economies of scale. Of course, that's not an option open to all.

As I've suggested in prior posts, the need to appear relevant falls heaviest on established breweries that don't have the sex appeal of new kids on the block. It's an ironic twist of fate, I think, and also a fine example of the ADD beer culture that values and pursues anything new.

Two established Oregon breweries that have done a decent job of staying relevant with the beer crowd are Widmer and Deschutes. Even though they sell an enormous amount of beer in mainstream stores, both produce specialty and experimental beers that keep them relevant in the beer geek community. It's smart business.

The flip-side of that story is Portland Brewing, a nice example of an established brewery that has not migrated with the times. It sells a decent line of beers in grocery stores and, in fact, I would argue these beers represent some of the best values in the marketplace. But Portland Brewing and its parent/partner Pyramid have almost no standing when it comes to experimental and specialty brews. They are effectively irrelevant within the beer geek community.

Some brief history. Portland Brewing was founded in 1986 by Art Larrance, Fred Bowman and Jim Goodwin. It was the last of Portland's four founding breweries to open. The pub on Northwest Flanders was too small virtually from the outset and the brewery eventually moved to its current location in industrial Northwest in 1993.

Portland Brewing experienced financial distress early on. The founders sold common stock to finance expansion. Around the time they moved to new digs, local legend and investor Mac MacTarnahan gained control of the company. Yes, their most popular beer, McTarnahan's (the original spelling) Amber Ale, was named for him.

By the early 2000s, Mac was in failing health and so was the company. The MacTarnahan family, tired of financing a losing proposition, sold to Pyramid in 2004. Portland Brewing was soon rebranded as MacTarnahan's Brewing. In 2008, Pyramid was acquired by Magic Hat, which was itself acquired by North American Breweries in 2010. Then Costa Rica-based Florida Ice and Farm bought North American Breweries in 2012. Sensing the error of the MacTarnahan's branding, the parent company changed the name back to Portland Brewing in 2013.

Needless to say, heads have been spinning at Portland Brewing for years. The lack of ownership continuity may help explain the failure to follow industry trends and develop a portfolio beyond the standard beers. OLCC stats suggest they've been doing just fine with their beers and the pubs certainly make money. It appears no one was paying serious attention to the big picture.

Hoping to enhance recognition of the two brands, North American Breweries recently hired Robert Rentsch as general manager of Portland Brewing/Pyramid, a newly created role. Rentsch has a solid brand building background, most recently at the Craft Brew Alliance, where he drove the national expansion of Kona and helped launch Omission.

We talked over a beer the other day at the Portland pub. Rentsch has been on the job only a few weeks and isn't quite sure how he'll attack the challenge he took on because, "It seemed like the right opportunity at the right time." It's not that he was unhappy at the CBA. He just wanted to take full ownership in something, which is what this gig offers.

The press release announcing Rentsch's hiring is pretty vague. It talks about creating a localized, community-based approach and building on the heritage of Portland Brewing and Pyramid. That's all real nice, but I had to ask, "Where's the beef?"

"At this point, there isn't much to tell," Rentsch said. "I'm still evaluating things and developing a plan. I can say North American Breweries is committed to supporting the program we put together. Nothing will happen overnight, but I'm confident in the team here and our ability to build on what we have with the two brands."

It will definitely take time. They will have to create an aggressive specialty program, among other things. Portland Brewing doesn't have the means or dexterity to do that quickly. A fresh hop rendition of MacTarnahan's Ale at the pub was pretty lame. Pyramid does have a small batch series, and I've tasted a least one terrific beer from it. But that program is small and they will have to do a whole lot more in this area. To say nothing of the guerrilla marketing campaigns they will have to launch in support of the beers.

Rentsch knows he faces a big challenge. He apparently liked that about this role. In a community where new breweries open regularly and instantly attract the interest of the beer crowd, long-established brands are, he realizes, up against significant obstacles.

Whatever happens with Portland Brewing will be a work in progress. It ought to be interesting. Good luck to Rentsch and the crew there. I'll be circling back at some point.

Zoiglhaus Hopes to Reboot Lents Neighborhood

Portland brewery and pub openings have become so commonplace that they're hardly worth reporting. These things tend to run together after a while. But all brewery openings aren't created equal. Now and then, a new one stands out.

Zoiglhaus Brewing, which opened this week in the Lents neighborhood, is an interesting case. The folks who run Pints Brewing in Old Town put this place together. In actual fact, the brewery isn't even installed yet. It'll be along in a month or so and in-house beers are likely two months away. At least.

Everything Zoiglhaus has on tap will be brewed at Pints until the brewery is ready. That's not such a bad thing. Brewer Alan Taylor has classic European training and his beers are solid. It's worth wondering how they were able to brew enough beer on the small Pints system to supply the beers for both joints. Taylor told me they brewed around the clock for weeks.

The pub itself is spacious, with abundant seating, a kids play area and some comfy sofas away from the buzz. The bar lives beneath a large skylight that bathes the area in light during daylight hours, giving the place a roomy feel you won't find in many brewpubs. There are several TVs hanging out, but this isn't a sports bar by any means.

The beers are Pints beers renamed for the Lents neighborhood. They could have possibly had some fun with those names, given the connection to the Felony Flats crime motif. Probably just as well they kept it subtle. Oh, the menu is a mix of traditional pub fare and authentic German cuisine. You won't confuse Zoiglhaus with Stammtisch, but it's a decent effort.

What this place is in terms of beer, food and ambiance isn't the most interesting thing about it. Nope. What's particularly interesting is where it is and why. This isn't exactly a posh area. The New Copper Penny and a number of other dives dot the landscape. It's a downtrodden land of shootings, stabbings and related crime. Maybe not the best place to open a new business.

In fact, the bombed out nature of the neighborhood is precisely why Zoiglhaus is here. The project, on the drawing board for several years now, is a partnership between the Portland Development Commission, Taylor and real estate developer Chad Rennaker. Taylor and Rennaker operate Pints and a brewpub in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There's more on that here.

The PDC believes a brewpub will help lift the fortunes of the Lents area. They're betting a pile of money on the project. Yep. The PDC invested more than half a million bucks to renovate the building and prepare the space for Zoiglhaus. Zoiglhaus partners have made a large investment, as well. Rennaker will reportedly invest in affordable housing nearby.

If things go as planned, the brewpub will help attract additional investment to the area. Why would the partners think that? Well, it's happened before. Brewpubs often act as community hubs that make areas or neighborhoods more attractive to businesses and families. In the end, that's what they've hoping for with Zoiglhaus.

So beyond the beer and the food and the ambiance, it will interesting to see what happens with Zoiglhaus. Will it help Lents climb out of the abyss?  We can only hope.

Foyston's Follies and the Imploding Oregonian

John Foyston has left the Oregonian. Rather, he was shown the door over what the paper describes as a breach of journalistic ethics. Hmmm. I'm actually surprised to learn the Big O knows anything about journalistic ethics, but I'll get to that issue in due time.

Foyston foto

In a story published on the Oregon Live website the other day, editor Mark Katches explains why the paper cut ties with Foyston. It's a simple business, really. Foyston lifted passages from press releases and brewery websites and included them in posts without attribution. Very shoddy.

Not to get too far afield, but let me just say that what John did is fairly common among beer bloggers. We get a lot of press releases. Many who blog simply regurgitate these releases on their sites verbatim or with minimal change and without attribution. That's not to say it's okay. It isn't. But it's common.

I've actually talked about the fact that many bloggers are nothing more than shills for the industry. You write friendly stuff and you get free beer. Viola! It gets better. Some hacks write about breweries and events in which they have a financial interest as if they're objective observes. That's the virtual black hole of beer writing. But never mind.

I make no excuses for Foyston, And neither does he. In a Facebook post, he took responsibility for errors in judgement. There was a mitigating circumstance in the case of the piece that got him axed, but nothing excuses the pattern of lapses described by Katches.

In case you're wondering, and you should be wondering, I've known John for five or so years and consider him a friend. He's your prototypical nice guy and also a renaissance man,..a painter, writer, musician, motorcycle mechanic and more.

More to the point, Foyston is easily the most read beer writer in Portland. He built a following over the years by updating readers on the local scene and storytelling. John knows everyone in the industry and is much beloved, partly because he doesn't write critical pieces.

The riff between John and the Oregonian is bizarre. Sure he violated the rules of journalism, apparently more than once. But why sever ties with the area's most renowned beer writer? Why not issue a firm reprimand and move on?

The answer is simple enough. The Big O has been in deep decline for many years. As Jeff Alworth suggests in his take on this mess, out-of-state owners mostly botched efforts to join the digital revolution. With print in free fall, they have been hemorrhaging cash hand over fist.

As a result, they've been dumping senior level talent as a way to stay afloat. If you wonder why the paper's content is wafer thin, look no further than the fact that they no longer have the people to investigate and report. Talk about a lapse in journalistic integrity.

Foyston spent 28 years with the paper. He suffered the indignity of being demoted from staffer to free lancer as the Oregonian began to circle the drain a while ago. He bit the bullet and carried on. That's the kind of guy he is.

It wasn't a match made in heaven, that's for sure. For that last few years, Foyston has been writing blog posts and occasionally for print, essentially loaning his name and following to the Oregonian in exchange for next to nothing.

You might say dumping Foyston says a lot more about the paper than it says about him. The big shots probably think they have or can easily find someone who will write flashier copy and better click bait for the website and social media. That's the way of the digital world these days.

But you really can't replace a guy like Foyston. No one has his connections or his depth of knowledge. As one of my media friends quipped, "John's replacement won't even know which press releases to copy and paste." Pretty funny, but sadly true.

Foyston was one of the few bright spots at the Big O. His columns drew traffic to the clunky Oregon Live website and kept some reading the decrepit print version. Getting rid of him was a dumb move. He can write for anyone now and his readers will follow.

It won't take long for the paper to realize it needed John more than he needed them. But fading media outlets are prone to dumb moves like this. Oh well. Time moves on.

Sellouts and the Transformation of Craft Beer

Last week's news that a couple more craft breweries have been acquired by big beer caused shock waves throughout the industry. You'd think folks would be getting used to this kind of thing, but no such luck, apparently.

Some of the sharpest attacks were reserved for Lagunitas founder Tony Magee, who sold a 50 percent share in his company to Heineken. Many were offended by Magee's long-winded remarks justifying the deal and what it means for Lagunitas. By comparison, MillerCoors purchase of San Diego-based Saint Archer produced a fairly subdued response.

My view of these arrangements is simple. The Lagunitas deal looks mostly like an opportunity for the company to expand internationally. It may well be a prequel to a full sale to Heineken, but that remains to be seen. MillerCoors hadn't bought a craft brewer since 1988 and they want a piece of the action. No surprise.

Admittedly, I would have hated these agreements had they involved Anheuser-Busch. As noted countless times, I dislike them because they leverage their position via ruthless cost-cutting and through vertical integration of markets where they own breweries, distributors and retailers. None of that is okay with me, so I beat them up whenever possible. Heineken and MillerCoors aren't in the same league.

In my mind, the people bashing Tony Magee are doing so because they don't like his verbosity or how he does business. Many referenced the case he brought against Sierra Nevada involving Lagunitas IPA. Some incorrectly said he was trying to patent "IPA." Not so, He merely wanted to patent the typeface used on Lagunitas IPA. As most know, he subsequently dropped the case when people beat him up on social media. But never mind.

With respect to buyouts and partnerships, there will be more of them. Many more. Mass market lager is imploding and there's a lot of money out there looking for a place to go. And the most logical place for it to go is craft beer, which continues to see dramatic growth. This is not rocket science.

There's more, of course, Craft beer has gone faddy on us. Once upon a time, music fans hankered to be the first to see a new artist live or purchase a new release by this or that artist. Exclusivity was a badge of cool. In today's world, beer fans hanker to be the first to taste or own bottles of specialty beer. That exclusivity has been a boon for brewers, distributors and retailers.

It gets more complicated. We've reached the point where new breweries easily attract press and clientele, while established breweries are often relegated to secondary status. "New and cool," is the theme. Staying relevant in a scenario where you have new breweries opening all around you is tough. So I have been told by owners of established breweries who struggle with this reality.

In this warped environment, no one should be surprised when a craft brewery sells full or partial ownership to big beer. As Jason Notte said in a column last week, it's time to discard any pretense of idealism or integrity in craft beer. It doesn't exist. The fact is, each and every brewery is for sale to whomever has the cash to buy it.

Craft beer is big business. Nothing more, nothing less. Sooner or later, money changes everything.

Berryessa Brewing, Winters on Growth Trajectory

Getting out of Portland for a few days can be a worthwhile endeavor. The endless number of things going on constantly in the city creates a sort of numbness. A week in the rural, ag-heavy California gives you an entirely different perspective.

I've been to Winters several times and written about it here. My take on the town and the area changes slightly with each visit. That includes the brewery here, Berryessa Brewing, which has changed considerably since my first visit in 2013.

Let's start with the area. There's a ton of agriculture here. They grow nuts, fruit, rice, olives, and there's a fair amount of ranching, too. Like much of California, the area has suffered though severe drought conditions in recent years.

It's far from a desert, but that's where the area is headed if the rains don't return.  There were large wildfires this summer and last. It's dry and water is an issue. With surface water in short supply, many farmers are using well water to stay afloat. A 2014 study found that groundwater levels have declined dramatically throughout the state since 2008. The area around Winters is no exception.

Everyone seems to realize the wells aren't forever. Once you pump the wells dry and other water sources mostly vanish, then what? It's a question that hasn't been seriously addressed anywhere in the arid west, perhaps because the only answers are tough ones. I digress.

In fact, Winters has worked hard to become a destination community. The city wants to stay small while reaping the economic benefits provided by visitors. It's a viable strategy. The historic downtown area is charming, with artisan shops. That's in stark contrast to the rat race in nearby Vacaville, which is saturated with big box businesses. Including an In-N-Out Burger.

Berryessa Brewing fits nicely into Winters' plan. Craft breweries have a way of attracting people. The place opened in 2011 and has seen steady growth. When I first visited two years ago, I found a quaint tasting room with a few outside tables. Since then, they've expanded the seating area considerably and added food cart fare to address the need for on-site food.

It's a little hard to fathom, but Berryessa's tasting room is only open Friday-Sunday. That likely ties in with the theme of Winters as a destination. There are far more people cruising around looking for things to do or drink on weekends than during the week. The folks at Berryessa are maximizing their take per open hour based on traffic.

Their success wouldn't be possible if not for the beers, which are solid. Co-founder and brewmaster Chris Miller has built a nice following for his beers. He's known for hoppy beers, but he isn't strictly a hophead. He actually brews a wide variety of stuff. A lot of patrons wonder why Berryessa doesn't expand production and reach for a wider audience. It's a fair question given the extent to which this area is underserved.

But overly rapid growth can bring problems. Miller and his wife, Lori, have taken a gradualist approach, preferring moderate and controlled growth to something that might spin out of control and damage what they've built.

Chris recently discussed the pitfalls of fast growth with the Sacramento Bee. He apparently obsesses over the quality of his beer, probably the most common concern among brewers. Miller worries that distributing it too widely in retail packaging is a risky proposition because you don't know how the beer will be handled. A valid concern.

Nonetheless, Berryessa is moving forward with an effort to distribute a few of its beers in 16 oz cans and 22 oz bottles. I found no evidence of that in any of the stores here, but they were selling pre-filled 32 oz crowlers of several styles in the taproom. These things were being gobbled up by patrons and the idea makes good sense to me.

I'll be interested to see what's changed on my next trip to Winters. They just demolished part of a city block to make way for a new hotel. That's going to help make the area more attractive as a destination because the lack of lodging has been an issue. As for Berryessa, I have a feeling the brewery will be a big part of transition that's happening here.

OLCC Evolves with Plan to Add Portland Outlets

The OLCC announced last week that it intends to expand the number of liquor outlets in the Portland area. Demand for spirits is growing and Portland is woefully underserved in terms of store numbers. There's also the train wreck in Washington to consider.

Green front liquor store, circa early 1950s. (OLCC photo)

If you didn't see the news release, you can read it here. To summarize, the OLCC is looking to add up to 17 liquor outlets in the Portland area. It currently operates 248 liquor stores across the state, but has only 68 in the metro area. The exploding population here means one store per 26,000 people, the OLCC says. Not nearly enough.

They're calling this a "recruitment" and use of the term "outlet" is not accidental. The OLCC is desperate enough to get these places up and running that it is willing to consider "innovative" approaches that would improve convenience for customers. It will be interesting to see what form these outlets take.

For those interested in applying for a license, the news release contains a handy cheat sheet of zip codes that are significantly underserved...places with large populations and no liquor outlets. Citizens in Gaston, Fairview, Hillsboro, North Plains, for example, do not have easy access to liquor.

In case you're wondering, the OLCC hasn't always been quite as motivated to make liquor readily available. In fact, the agency was once a whole lot more concerned with restricting access to booze. It was a mindset that came straight out of the 1920s.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, states were given the power to regulate alcohol sales within their borders. In Oregon, the legislature passed the Liquor Control Act, which created the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and gave the state the exclusive right to sell hard liquor. Beer and wine were to be handled differently.

Under the arrangement, liquor was sold via state-run, "green front" grocery stores that were open limited hours, (typically noon to 8:00 p.m.) and days. Taverns, restaurants, bars and clubs were also licensed by the OLCC, but they were not authorized to sell booze. Huh?

It's a forgotten detail, but you could not walk into a restaurant or bar and order hard liquor of any kind for many years. Instead, you bought a bottle at a state store, brought it to the establishment and had it checked in. The bartender would label the bottle and pour your drinks from it for a fee. Bar hoppers often drove from bar to bar with open liquor containers. Seriously.

Needless to say, the law helped foster vibrant bootlegging. Given the limits of the state stores, it was much easier to buy booze from bootleggers when you needed it. And they were everywhere...cab drivers, bartenders, club owners, waiters, pimps, bell hops, etc. When there's money to be made, entrepreneurs will jump at the chance.

State investigators worked undercover to chase down and arrest bootleggers. Almost like Prohibition. The efforts of several agents are nicely documented in: "Enforcing Oregon's State Alcohol Monopoly," in the Spring 2014 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly. The exploits of these agents, who functioned with limited resources, are fairly entertaining.

After 20 years of inane policy, things changed in 1953, when Oregon voters passed the "liquor-by-the-drink" law. Oregonians could finally walk into a bar or restaurant and order hard liquor. The state maintained it's booze-selling monopoly, but now sold to licensed establishments which then sold drinks to patrons. This put a damper on the bootleg trade and the need to investigate it.

It's instructive to consider the evolutionary curve of the OLCC. In the immediate aftermath of Prohibition, it was focused on restricting access to liquor by making the stuff difficult to get. Voters reigned in that effort with the "liquor-by-the-drink law" and the agency has become increasingly interested in making access to booze more convenient in recent times.

One can easily argue the OLCC's current efforts are driven by fear and self-preservation. The state does not want to lose its monopoly on liquor sales. It does not want a repeat of the privatization law that passed in Washington state. So the OLCC is working to make consumers happy.

And that isn't a bad thing, unless you think Prohibition was a good idea that worked.

Yellow Beer's Passing Presents Challenges

When it was released in late 1970, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass served notice that he was moving on from The Beatles. The album was a coming out party for Harrison, and it made a solid statement along those lines. He had arrived, a mystic with a future.

Fast forward 45 years and we find ourselves witnessing the All Things Must Pass mantra applied to beer, fizzie yellow beer, that is. Much of the beer world is moving on. And the consequences of that transition are a sight to behold.

The collapse of yellow beer is creating challenges for everyone in the business. This isn't exactly breaking news. The situation is well-documented in industry news and newsletters. There's a lot of consternation out there.

Control is a big issue. Not so long ago, big beer and distributors controlled what stores, bars and restaurants sold. Choices were limited to mass lagers and related sludge. Take it or leave it. That arrangement was fine with the suits running things, forget the retailer and consumer.

But the transformation of craft beer into an economic force has turned the tables. Today's market is increasingly driven by what retailers and consumers want. Don't get me wrong. There are still parts of the country, particularly rural areas, where yellow beer is hanging on. Even there, its days are numbered. Make no mistake.

The effects of the altered landscape are plain to see. Consumers, especially young ones, are looking for something, anything new and cool. They've turned almost completely away from mass market beers and are even abandoning established craft brands. It's a 31 flavors mentality.

Retailers respond to what consumers want, not what the big daddy brewers and distributors want them to sell. So we've seen a shift toward new and novelty brands as a means of maintaining the interest of consumers who have shrinking attention spans. Peach Apricot Saison, anyone?

It's fair to wonder where the preference for trendy leads. When new breweries are popular specifically because they're new and older breweries are shunned specifically because they aren't, some might say consumers have lost their way. But that's a topic for another day.

Distributors are caught in the middle. They can't rely on the crap they used to sell because it has limited traction with retailers and consumers, regardless of how hard they push. They've been co-opted into the craft revolution. Some have been more proactive and done a better job with that than others. It's a work in progress, clearly.

Big beer's response has been predictable. We've watched them market fake craft brands like Blue Moon and Shock Top to confuse and confound consumers. They've launched bizarre hybrid products in an effort to stop the bleeding and bring young consumers back into the fold. These forays have achieved limited success, at best.

In the case of Anheuser-Busch, which traditionally leveraged its position via supply chain efficiencies and cutthroat marketing tactics, we've seen them acquire craft brands 10 Barrel, Goose Island and Elysian as part of an effort to "partner" with craft beer.

The more shocking AB ploy is its effort to vertically integrate in some states (like Oregon) by owning brewers, distributors and retailers. The three-tier system is supposed to block such tactics, but the laws aren't airtight everywhere. Wherever it can, AB is bullying branch and non-branch distributors into focusing on AB products, stuff that doesn't have much appeal.

It's hard to see where this leads. The trend toward the trendy in craft beer is problematic in my mind. Fads usually don't have a lot of staying power and this has the look of a fad. Still, the era of yellow beer is passing. That reality is going to challenge traditional assumptions and sensibilities going forward. Wild times in beer.

Summer of '75 at the Rathskeller Inn

They say summer memories are the best. I know some of mine are. Maybe that's because summer is when we experience the bulk of our great adventures as we're growing up. Then again, maybe it's a whole lot more complicated than that. I digress.

Forty years ago this month, I was finishing up a summer-long stint as a bartender at the Rathskeller Inn in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. This was my first and only bar job. I was only 19 and had just completed my freshmen year at Eastern Washington University. The job was strictly a summer gig. I planned to return to school at Washington State University in the fall.

How could I work as a bartender at that age? Because the legal drinking age in Idaho at the time was 19. That was a handy law during high school, when it was easy enough to pass for legal. Not that I ever abused the law. Perish the thought. But some of my friends did. The legal age was raised to 21 in 1987, under pressure from the Feds.

For its part, the Rathskeller Inn was a North Idaho institution by 1975. It opened in 1962 and became a wildly popular destination for young adults of that era. "Rats," as it was affectionately known, was a beer and dance hall that featured live music on weekends. The place attracted quite a few big name Northwest bands, including Paul Revere and the Raiders and The Cascades.

The luster was fading a bit by 1975. We had big, boisterous crowds some weekends, but it was sometimes pretty dead. Thanks largely to the drinking age, carloads of kids rumbled over from Spokane, about 25 miles west. We also got a fair number of Canadians, who were sometimes confused by American money that lacked colors to help distinguish the value of bills.

Of course, there were locals, too. In those days, Coeur d'Alene's economy was based on mining and timber. It was a quaint town, not a tourist trap like it is now. There was a lumber mill in the area now occupied by The Resort Golf Course. If you got lucky, you might snag an escaped log to use for burling practice at Sanders Beach. I did on many occasions.

The Rathskeller clientele was not too particular about its beer...standard operating procedure at the time. We mostly served pitchers of Lucky Lager and Budweiser. My bartending partner and I got to where we could pour four pitchers at a time when it got busy and thirsts were heavy. I really have no specific recollection of how we did it, only that we did.

There was no craft beer. Coeur d'Alene eventually had T.W. Fischer's (founded 1987), which became Coeur d'Alene Brewing around 2000 and operated until it lost its lease in 2010. If you wanted to get fancy in 1975, you would order long-neck bottles of Coors or Bud. Big shots did that. Visiting "connoisseurs" from Canada often complained about the "shitty" American swill and ordered red beer, aka beer mixed with tomato juice. In retrospect, that wasn't such a bad idea.

One of my vivid memories is of our bouncer, a borderline psychopath who would get on the PA at closing time and bark: "Time to pick it up and pack it out. On your feet and into the street!" He wasn't above brandishing a small pistol to get the desired results. Typically, he announced his arrival at after hours parties by firing a shot or two into the air. Memorable stuff.

But there were positive vibes, too. The Rathskeller, in 1975, was run by Jackie George. Her mother Anna founded the business and later opened a second Rathskeller in Moscow, Idaho. Anna passed away in 1990. The thing is, Anna and her daughters, Jackie and Lolita, ran these businesses for many years. In a male-dominated industry, they were light years ahead of their time.

The soundtrack of that summer remains indelibly etched in my sonic memory. When live music wasn't playing in the hall, the jukebox was. And we all had our own records for late night listening. Some of the albums: Steely Dan's Katy Lied; Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks; Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic; the Eagles' One of These Nights.

When I left the Rathskeller at the end of the summer, it was tough saying goodbye to the folks I had worked with. I was invited to work at the Rathskeller in Moscow, about 10 miles from WSU. Somehow I never followed up on that. I guess I figured the late nights wouldn't mix very well with school work. As if school work was a huge priority. Oh well.

Looking through what I can find online, it appears Coeur d'Alene's Rathskeller closed in 1982. Times had changed. State Line, Idaho, much closer to Spokane, had cleaned up and improved its night life. But for much of the 20 years between 1962 and 1982, the Rathskeller Inn had been the destination of choice. Not to mention my first exposure to the beer industry.

It seems like a lifetime ago...because it was.

Memories of Mr. Eckhardt

The tributes to Fred Eckhardt are pouring in today, a day after we lost one of the more iconic figures of the craft beer era. I don't really have a lot to add. I knew him only vaguely. You'll be best off reading things written by John Foyston, Lisa Morrison or Jeff Alworth.

My first encounter with Mr. Eckhardt occurred on a warm Friday afternoon at the Oregon Brewers Festival. The year is uncertain. Late 1990s, I think. Fred was walking the grounds, tasting beers and taking notes. I knew who he was and asked him how he was doing. I don't remember his exact words, but it was along the lines of,  "Isn't this is a great place to be today?" Sure was.

Except for occasional sightings, I did not speak to him again until I started writing about beer in 2011. I have a very pleasant memory of a town hall-type presentation Mr. Eckhardt and John Foyston gave at the Beer Bloggers Conference here in Portland. They were at the top of their games and the talk was funny, interesting, informative. Bill Night has posted some memorable quotes here.

A year or so later, I was fortunate to spend a half hour or so talking to Fred about his experiences in the Marine Corps. This was prior to an event at the Mission Theater. I can't even remember the particulars of the conversation, but I do remember that he knew how to tell a story with depth and humor.

I attempted to interview Fred as part of the research for Portland Beer in early 2013. Art Larrance had let him know what I was working on and told him it was okay to talk to me. When I finally did connect with him, he begged off. He said his memory of the old days wasn't very good and suggested I speak to someone who might have more accurate recollections.

Most of the Eckhardt quotes I eventually did use in my book were lifted from a 2010 History Pub program sponsored by McMenamin's at the Bagdad Theater. Mr. Eckhardt was in fine form that evening, offering his thoughts on prohibition homebrew and much more. There are only a few private copies of that low budget video out there. But it's worth seeing.

One of the most dependable resources for me, as I looked back on the early craft period here, were the columns written by Mr. Eckhardt for The Oregonian starting in 1984. Those columns are rich in detail and insight. For many years, they provided a sort of guide to what was happening for beer fans and brewers. They can be searched online via the Multnomah County Library.

When you consider everything this man did to help push the development of the craft beer industry in Oregon and beyond, you can't help wondering where we go from here. Fortunately, Mr. Eckhardt's efforts helped launch a generation of beer writers and authors. It goes without saying that none of us possess the style, the wit and the depth of character he did. How could we?

Prior to this year's FredFest, someone suggested to me that this might be the last one due to Fred's declining health. Of course, that will not be the case. FredFest will carry on as a way to honor this great man and what he meant to so many. A 2016 date has already been set.

To those who were closest to this man, especially to Lisa Morrison, John Foyston and Alan Sprints, I offer my heartfelt condolences. What you have lost cannot be replaced. It will now be your job to make sure Mr. Eckhardt's contributions aren't forgotten on your watch.

Good night, sweet prince.

NAOBF Carries on with Shift to August

When Craig Nichols launched the North American Organic Brewers Festival in 2003, the beer calendar was pretty barren. There weren't daily beer events in those days and there were only a few large events. Things have changed dramatically as the NAOBF returns for 2015. Festival dates are August 13-16.

The first thing you ought to note is the move from June, when the event was held for quite a few years, to August. Nichols suffered through some truly lousy weather in recent years, prompting the move from unpredictable June into typically dry August.

We'll see how the move works out. Bizarre weather struck the Oregon Brewers Festival last year and again this year. Meanwhile, the Fruit Beer Festival, held in June, enjoyed perfect weather both years. The weather is fickle.

It isn't mentioned in the press materials, but organizers considered moving the event from centrally located Overlook Park to a location outside the city core. Why would they do that? Because Overlook, though it is easily accessible by MAX, bus or bike, has almost no parking for folks who have to come by car.

I suspect they stayed at Overlook because a move outside the city core would have cheapened the event's mission of promoting sustainable values. A move may still happen down the road, depending on how they perceive the parking problem. There may be venues out there that would work better than Overlook.

This year's event will feature 63 organic beers, ciders, meads and braggots from 36 breweries located in the US, Canada, Germany and England. Styles are all over the place, with a smattering of everything. I have not yet built a target list, though I will be posting some favorites after I attend next Thursday. You can find the complete list of beers here.

An addition this year is the Merchant du Vin Organic Bottle Garden, which will feature bottled beers and ciders. Pinkus Müller, the world’s first certified organic brewery, will be tapping kegs of Ur-Pils and Münster Alt in the Merchant du Vin Garden at 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Only tasters will be available and they'll cost two tokens. Hey, this stuff is rare.

For those not in the know, admission to the NAOBF is free. You'll have to buy a compostable cornstarch cup for $7 to taste beer. And you'll need some tokens at $1 apiece. One token will get you a taste of most beers; full glasses of most beers will set you back four tokens. This is pretty much the pricing structure you see at most area festivals. Nothing bizarre here.

  

One the reasons to support this event is garbage. Yep. Large events like this one generate a shitload of garbage. The NAOBF generated more than 2,000 lbs of trash in 2014. But they kept 95 percent of that out of landfills via aggressive composting and recycling efforts. They expect about 12,000 attendees this year and will probably wind up with about 100 pounds of actual garbage. Organizers would like that number to be zero. Maybe someday.

Check out the event website for more information. Looking forward to a fun event.

At Last, Jeff Alworth's Beer Bible Hits Shelves

Around the time I was finishing up Portland Beer in 2013, Jeff Alworth was in the process of completing and submitting the manuscript for The Beer Bible, a substantially more intricate project. My book hit shelves several months later, providing nearly instant gratification. Jeff's book languished in production. Next week it arrives. At last.

There's a pretty good story behind how this project materialized and how Jeff became it's author. I'll get to some of that. For now, the important thing to know is there will be a release party for The Beer Bible on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at Belmont Station. Jeff will be there 5-7 p.m. signing copies of the book and talking about its innards.

I looked at proofs of the book a while ago, when it was still in production. The content is rich and engaging. It's just what I expected from Jeff, an accomplished researcher and writer. But I'm not here to review the book. I only want to talk about its evolution and likely impact.

Back in 2010 or so, Jeff pitched the idea of a book covering breweries around the Northwest. His publisher didn't bite. The book he hoped to write became Lisa Morrison's Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest, published (by another publisher) in 2011. Some things just aren't meant to be.

In response to Jeff's pitch, Workman Publishing suggested a different approach. It turns out they had published The Wine Bible, by Karen MacNeil, in 2000. That book was well-received when published and a best seller. Workman looked around and noticed what was happening in craft beer. They thought a beer-centric companion to MacNeil's book might be in order.

"Wine and beer audiences are very different," Jeff says. "Wine people aren't quite sure they understand wine, so they buy books to learn more. Beer people are different. They typically think they know about beer and are less likely to buy books about it. But Workman thinks there's a good audience for The Beer Bible and I think and hope they're right."

Getting the contract to write the book apparently involved an odd competition between rival writers/authors who submitted versions of what chapters might look like. Eventually, Jeff earned the privilege of writing the book. He signed the contract in 2011. That's when the real fun began.

Over the course of the next two years, Jeff traveled by plane, train and automobile to more than 50 breweries in six countries. He knew his book could not be organized by growing regions, as had been the case with MacNeil's wine book. Instead, The Beer Bible is based around styles and history. There are 31 chapters dedicated to exploring and defining the world's beer styles.

"The idea was to create something that is comprehensive, yet interesting and in some sense entertaining," Jeff said."That's what MacNeil did with The Wine Bible and that's probably why it's been so successful. I took that approach and applied it to beer, to the extent possible."

In addition to the Belmont Station release, there are some other notable events listed on Jeff's blog here. There's also a 24-city tour in the works, which makes sense. The book has been trending as the top new release in the wine pairing category on Amazon. If you order the book through Powell's, you'll receive a copy signed by Jeff. He hopes to sign many in support of the promotion.

What will The Beer Bible mean for Jeff Alworth? This is a guy who has been writing about beer and other things for a long time. Is this a game-changer?

"I have no idea what the book will do for me" he said. "If it sells a third of the 500,000 copies The Wine Bible has sold, it will be immensely successful for a beer book and I'll be delighted. I can't see the future, but I do hope this book helps me get similar projects down the road."

Having seen the content, I expect the book will become an essential reference for craft beer fans, in the same way books by Fred Eckhardt and Charlie Papazian are references. The Beer Bible may also help Jeff attain a level of notoriety that few who write about beer ever do. We shall see.

Regardless of all that, the Belmont Station release party is the place to be next Tuesday. Grab a pint, meet Jeff and talk beer, get a signed copy of his book. Good times. If you can't make it on Tuesday, check out one of the other local events.