How does Portland do it?

The geographical grouping of pubs/breweries makes for destination zones in the city. This creates the opportunity for a Mississippi area or Hawthorne/Belmont or Pearl District or E. Burnside/Buckman pub crawl...each capable of hitting 3,4 or more spots. Traditional business models suggest that these groupings might cannibalize sales, but it seems to have the opposite effect here. Make a beer zone and they will come.

As noted above, the neighborhood folks seem to prefer their local establishments, but will also support surrounding pubs for special events.

There are a lot of incestuous relations between the brewers, with joint projects commonplace. New Old Lompoc, in particular, seems to do a lot of collaborative ventures with other brewers. Overall, this makes sense, since lots of the new brewery owners have roots at prior, older brew facilities. They seem to complement each other, rather than aggressively compete with each other. This is especially evident during festivals and other shared events. A win win. From an outsider's viewpoint, I sense that the brewers are constantly talking with each other in order to determine what works and how to succeed.

Successful brewers have a specific identity. They focus upon being great at certain styles. Witness Cascade, HOTD, the Commons and Upright. They are niche oriented and don't stray too far from the things that they are known for. They are not out to please everyone.

Just my two cents worth.

 

I guess I don't have much to add that hasn't been said already. I do feel like consumption is largely based on location, as most people I know will go to the brewery they can walk/bike to. Plus having a unique twist is always nice, whether it be the atmosphere of the brewery or the beers themselves. And again, this is just a beer heavy city. One of the most "divy" bars I ever walked into even had a great price for hop stoopid on tap. I really hope you make it to this great city and I wish you the best of luck. Come visit this month, it is craft beer month afterall over here!

 

+1 to incest!

I never thought I would write that, but it is a big part of the beer scene here. I can't even count the number of beers I've had that have been the result of collaborations between at least 2 Oregon breweries. It works well, as each brewery has their own fans and this really brings them all together.

 

This was one of the biggest things I took away from the city during my visit a couple months ago. We were blown away with the absolute avalanche of PNW beers in literally every establishment we visited in the area. From the hotel bar and French bistro to local markets and bars, I've never seen so many high quality local beers that I've not only never tried, but haven't even heard of before.

Coming from a place where we're clamoring for more beer from Chicago, St Louis, Tampa, Boston, VT, CA, etc, and sometimes forgetting about many of the locals, it was really exciting and refreshing to see this type of focus and devotion in what I now consider to be the best beer city in the country.

 

Just like to add..that poor old Salem once considered an absolute micro-brew desert is starting to show signs of life.
This town was probably the last big hold out for "BMC" in the state and things are now moving fast.
The Santiam Brewing Company is in the fore with their concept of mainlly cask beers.
More places to come.
Newest :
http://www.b2taphouse.com/

 

I think the vibe of beer on Oregon has been accurately depicted, so I'd like to offer some insight on the business model you're discussing. Opening a production brewery focused on distributing draft is financially very tough on a smaller scale, due to the margin on trade draft sales. Small production breweries make money on bottling and having a tasting room, trade draft is definitely a volume game. Having a tasting room is also great for brand development and QC when you really can't spend a lot on marketing. It's great to develop direct relationships with your consumers and community.

I know this will seem scary but if you go the route of production brewery I would really recommend considering a 15bbl system. We currently have a 7bbl system, with a few 7bbl and 15bbl fermenters. All are being pushed to their limit. We could add more 15bbl tanks, and some 30s, but multiple fills creates a lot of operational strain, especially in terms of scheduling, yeast harvesting and brewing staff. It's not fun and definitely not sustainable in the long term. If you're not located in an urban(ish) area I would reconsider your brewpub model. Everyone and their mother is going to ask about food, so the food cart suggestion is a great one if you don't want to commit to a kitchen. However, in my experience food carts have a minimum expectation that your foot traffic might not meet.

Other tidbits:

-Think about your brand and story. This is very important when opening something that is small, craft, artisan, whatever. Having a concise, passionate story and spending a little bit of money on your branding will only help bring in uninitiated folks and spread your passion. This is easily the most overlooked, but important aspect of the industry, in my opinion.
-If you open a brewpub spend the money to hire a really great chef. Cutting corners on food will not work out in the longterm.
-This rule generally applies everywhere. You're going to pay for it all eventually, somehow. We purchased a system that is too small and under 2 years later we're starting the process of buying an entirely new system. We have many other examples, so consider a 5 year plan, especially in space selection. Do some simple spreadsheet work that will illustrate how big you want the business to grow during that period and then apply it downstream. How many tanks will you need? Kegs? etc. and figure out how much space you need.
-Get more cold storage than you think you need. Undersized coolers are one of the more common mistakes.
-Ask lots and lots of questions. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the brewing community in Portland is not competitive at all. There's a mentality that we're all in this together and everyone is quick to offer assistance.
-Most importantly, brew great beer.

I apologize if this comes across as soapboxy at all. If you'd like to chat further my email is [email protected]

 

Listen to Josh.

 

Your avatar worked phenomenally well there.

 

A couple thoughts and questions - apologies in advance if any of this is mentioned earlier and I missed it in skimming.

-The OP mentioned New York. I think New York is an interesting case for beer in many senses. First, "Drink Local" means something potentially different than it does in Oregon (or Washington ... or California ... or Austin) because the east coast is so much more dense. Someone in New York could easily consider NJ, CT, VT, MA, or PA "local." In Portland, people won't consider Seattle local and probably wouldn't even count Deschutes if they still only had the Bend location! If you're in Spokane, WA Portland and Seattle seem very far away. Combine that with the fact that beer consumption is high and a lot of stuff truly is local only in that it doesn't make it out of the city (or brewery) it's brewed in. You want Black Raven, you gotta come to Seattle. There are numerous examples like this. Breweries end up expanding not to expand distribution out of town, but just to service local demand. Granted, that's not unique to OR / WA - holds true of a lot of radically successful small brewers such as Alchemist, Pegs, Toppling Goliath, Alpine, etc - but the flavor is different because it's not driven by rabid beer tourism or trading.

-New York is also interesting in that there's a whole lot of New York beyond New York City and though the two are often thought of together (by people who live far from New York, at least) they're very different beasts. I don't know that I thought of Southern Tier as local. I definitely thought of Brooklyn and Sixpoint as local. I also, counter intuitively and factually incorrectly, thought of anything served at a place like Beer Table as "local" in some strange way ... probably because it "fit" the vibe of the place. Everything about the place felt "of Brooklyn" though the beer was all Belgian, German, French, etc. New York City is a place that appropriates things and makes them its own, so this feels in keeping with the spirit of the city. Which makes me think that "local" is about a feeling, an appropriateness, as much as it is about being actually made somewhere. Logsdon, HUB, Commons, Upright, Deschutes all feel very PNW in different ways. Southern Tier, in my mind, feels like it could be made anywhere. Not too say it's bad ... it's just ... generic?

-Economics may not have been mentioned yet (I don't think). Property is cheap in Oregon. Zoning is favorable in Portland. Take NYC as a contrast; it seems impossible for NYC to develop a truly local beer culture due to cost and zoning. Seems shocking to me that Sixpoints and Brooklyn can even afford to be in the city (and I'm not sure they do all their brewing there; I'm sure others do know).

-How much did the hop growing in Yakima impact brewing in Portland? Which came first? Is this a chicken / egg question?

-Finally, I don't know the history that well, but growing up near Portland in the 80s I remember downtown smelling like Weinhard's and the big deal made of Widmer, McMenamins, Full Sail, Pyramid, and Bridgport later on (I was too young to drink, so most of this is vague cultural memory ... which in a way tells just how pervasive the beer culture was even then). This makes me think of the Brian Eno comments on genius versus "scenius"; the scene creates a lot of knowledgeable people, attracts passionate outsiders, collaboration and ambition increase, network effects go into play, etc. You see that as breweries are started by alumni of older breweries: from Laurelwood to Worthy, from Deschutes to Ale Apothecary and Crux, from working at Pelican (though not brewing) to opening De Garde, and so on. I think you see this with alums from Goose Island and other "big" craft breweries. I guess I'm thinking the success of previous generations potentially incubates future generations. Isn't this why people are so surprised at the runaway success of Hill Farmstead and Toppling Goliath (on which there's a current thread) - they are these astounding exceptions that seem to arise from nowhere?

 

You could always do what many of us did, and just move here.*

* Disclaimer to fellow PNWers: This post does not recommend, advise, suggest, or in any other way imply that someone from out of state should relocate to Oregon, Washington, or Alaska. Such a suggestion would be patently ridiculous, given the amount of rain, depression, suicide, and bear/elk attacks we all grimly face year after bitter year. It sucks here, and anyone who would even consider abandoning the beautiful mid-Hudson Valley for this forlorn region should be sent directly to that mental hospital depicted in One Flew Over The ****oo's Nest.

 

Back when I lived in Seattle, I'll never forget a comic that ran in a local paper. It showed the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River, with a sign saying "Californians Exit Here" and that exit went straight into the river.

 

You forgot the earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, red tide, forest fires, and Bellevue.

 

Someone already mentioned that (except Bellevue), but a bunch of responses appear to have been deleted.
So unlike us to go off-topic like this.

Trying to get this back on topic before we see more deletions, I just want to say this thread summarizes so much about what I like most about living here and the beer culture in the NW. Kudos to everyone for all the thoughtful, insightful posts. Great thread.

 

Sorry, my comment on Alchemist and such wasn't all that articulate. I meant to distinguish between breweries with product only available in limited distribution: a small number of those have a significant percentage of growth fueled by beer tourism / trading and while others simply serve the local market and rely little on trade or tourism. I put Alchemist in the former camp. Look at the "hauls" board and every other post seems to have someone running off with 64 cans of Heady Topper, many of which I'm guessing immediately go into trades. Looking around the Seattle area, I see a number of breweries that are doing quite well - Black Raven, Sound, Anacortes, Silver City, Naked City, Kulshan, Chuckanut, Boundary Bay, Georgetown, Odin, Airways, American, Bainbridge, Diamond Knot, Snoqualmie, Skookum, (and you could go on) - without that kind of "black market" distribution.

There are many reasons for this - hype, quality of product, and so on - but I was alluding, in a roundabout manner, to market size as one factor.

 

Another example of the prevalence of beer culture; Worthy Brewing reclaimed a bunch of wood from that hospital for use in the bar, table tops and benches.

 

Dave,
I think that one big difference is that the Northwest is, in general, highly urbanized - medium to big cities surrounded by lots of very sparsely populated land. The population in NY state is pretty spread out by comparison. A completely different animal. Asking 'How does VT or ME do it?' might be more appropriate, but you will really have to deal with your specific situation. I assume you have a well-researched business plan?

 

That explains all of the Jack Nicholson pics on the tables and in the bathrooms.