Craft Beer, on a Roll

Sometimes, the best new ideas are ones that have been recycled from a previous era. And that’s exactly what Hopworks Urban Brewery has done—with an emphasis on “cycle”—in its rolling party on wheels.

HUB’s owner and brewmaster, Christian Ettinger, is a bike enthusiast, so it’s easy to see how the concept of a cargo bike designed to not only haul but dispense kegs was born. Or in this case, reborn, as cargo bikes—typically long-framed bikes with space to carry large items up front—have been used throughout history to haul everything from kids to kegs.

Appropriately, over beers with the owners of Portland, Ore.-based cargo bike company Metrofiets (“fiets” is Dutch for “bicycle”), the design for the unique pub bike, named “Hopworksfiets,” was first laid out: a cargo bike that holds two full kegs below a gorgeous, inlaid wood bar with two taps up top, all in front of the handlebars. A rear cargo rack is designed to hold a stack of pizza boxes with a wood-paneled pannier below that is really a compact sound system. The result? Beer, pizza and tunes to go—on two wheels.

The concept got rolling, literally, when Ettinger and Metrofiets owners Phillip Ross and Jamie Nichols teamed up to make the “pub bike” dream a reality. The first step was to assemble a team of friends who were also experts in certain areas. Ross and Nichols, with their knowledge of constructing cargo bikes, designed and built the bike. Another Portland-based cycle shop, Metropolis Cycles, built the wheels, while a friend, Damon Eckhoff, wired the sound system. Draft expert Mike Moscarelli, of the local brewing supply company F.H. Steinbarts, ran the draft lines, and homebrewer and woodworker Gregg Heppner created the inlaid wood bar top and sound system shell. The bike’s components, including the tap handles, were donated by Chris King Components and Shimano.

The bike’s cargo container, which closely resembles Metrofiets’ basic design, is a metal bucket that is large enough to carry two half-barrels of beer and 25 pounds of ice to keep it all cool. Beer from the kegs runs through insulated lines, courtesy of Moscarelli, up through the bar top to the taps. Get to your destination, park the pub bike, open the taps and fresh, chilled craft beer runs into your glass. Behind the seat, the rear rack holds several pizzas and the stereo system pannier cranks the tunes.

Fully loaded with pizza, ice, tap handles and two full kegs, the rolling pub meets Metrofiets’ weight constraints of 400 pounds, the amount determined to be manageable on the road. Metrofiets equipped the pub bike with only nine gears, because any more would make the system too easy to go too fast—and too difficult to quickly stop 400 pounds of pub on two wheels. Sturdy disc brakes and chunky tires complete the retro look with state-of-the-art mechanics.

Not surprisingly, the Hopworksfiets is a big hit wherever it rolls, but Ettinger plans to trick it out even more with a second pannier for stereo surround sound, a solar panel cover for the pizza rack to power the sound system without batteries and a string of LED lights around the base of the bar. This reporter suggests that a disco ball would tie the whole thing together. ■