Today is Larry Sidor’s 75th birthday. Larry brewed for a long time at the Olympia Brewery in Washington before moving on to Deschutes Brewing Co. in Bend, Oregon. He left Deschutes at the end of 2011 to strike out on his own, and opened the Crux Fermentation Project, which is also in Bend. Larry’s a great brewer, of course, and an even nicer person. Join me in wishing Larry a very happy birthday.
Today is the birthday of Henry Weinhard (February 18, 1830-September 20, 1904). He was born in Württemberg, which today is in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, but moved to nearby Stuttgart where he was an apprentice brewer. According to Wikipedia, he was a German-American brewer in the state of Oregon. After emigrating to the United States in 1851, he lived in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and California before settling in the Portland, Oregon, area. He worked for others in the beer business before buying his own brewery and founded Henry Weinhard’s and built the Weinhard Brewery Complex in downtown Portland.”
Henry Weinhard, the pioneer brewer of the Pacific Coast, whose name has become a household word in Oregon, died at 11:10 o’clock last night at the age of 74 years. He was suffering from an attack of uremic coma, the third with which he has been seized in recent years, and for several days his life has been despaired of. The disease stopped the action of his kidneys three days ago and he had been unconscious during that period, except for a slight glimmer yesterday afternoon. The end came without struggle and apparently without pain.
Mr. Weinhard was a typical Western man, with all the social qualities of the Western man and German. He succeeded by close application to a business which he made one of the largest industries of the city with a fame extending beyond the bounds of the United States. He was ready to lend to the city and state for the promotion of the success of the community the energy and ability which had made his own success, and he readily contributed to every charitable and public enterprise. As disease has crept upon him with age, he has gradually entrusted his business more and more to his sons in law, who have associated with him from their early manhood, so that thee will be no break in the management of his great interests. The arrangements for his funeral will probably made today. As he was a Mason, the Masonic body will doubtless take a leading part in the ceremonies.
The story of Henry Weinhard’s life is the story of success achieved by a young German who came to the United States equipped with youth, energy and thorough knowledge of his business. Born at Lindenbrohn, Wurtemburg in 1830, he was educated there and was apprenticed to the brewing business. Then he determined to seek a broader field for his activity and in 1852 came to the United States. After being employed for four years at a brewery at Cincinatti, O., he came to the Pacific Coast by way of the isthmus in 1856. He first worked at his trade in Vancouver, Wash., for six months and then in 1857 moved to Portland and, in partnership with George Bottler, erected a brewery at Couch and Front streets.
The growth of the business did not satisfy him, and not long after sold his interest and returned to Vancouver. He finally settled in Portland in 1862, when he bought Henry Saxon’s business on First, near Davis street, but in the following year bought the site of his present plant at Twelfth and Burnside streets, together with the small buildings occupied by George Bottler’s small plant.
Since then his business has steadily grown until his beer has a market throughout the Pacific states and he has built up a large trade export. The capacity of the plant has been steadily enlarged until it now covers two and three quarters blocks and produces 100,000 barrels of beer a year, the refrigerating machines alone making 42 tons of ice a day. How rapidly the business has grown is indicated by the fact that the storage capacity has also been greatly enlarged. Mr. Weinhard was always progressive and never hesitated to adopt the latest improvements in his business, he was very conservative in his investments. He erected ice plants at Eugene and Roseburg in place of local breweries which he bought out, and storage buildings at Oregon City, Baker City and Aberdeen, all of which with the sites were his own property.
He had of late years made large investments in real estate, but they were all in Portland and the immediate vicinity, and he has covered his city property with valuable buildings, but he never began any of them until he had the money on hand to complete them, for he never went into debt. His largest buildings, in addition to the breweries and its various buildings are the large seven story building bounded by Oak and Pine, Fourth and Fifth streets, the second half of which is nearing completion; the Grand Central Hotel, five stories high, at Third and Flanders, streets; the five story Hohenstaufen building, 50 by 100 feet, at Fourth and Alder streets, a two story building, 50 by 100 feet, at Fourth and Madison streets, and a farm of 620 acres in Yamhill County, known as the Armstrong farm.
Mr. Weinhard married in 1859 Louise Wagenblast, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, who survives him, and by whom he had three children, one of them a boy died at the age of 2 1/2 years, on September 13,1862. His other children were Annie C. who married Paul Wessinger, the superintendent of the brewery, and Louise H., who is the wife of Henry Wagner, his accountant. Mrs. Wessinger is the mother of two children, a girl of nearly eighteen and a boy of sixteen and a half years, and Mrs. Wagner is the mother of a boy of ten years. His only other relatives in this country is Jacob Weinhard, a well to do maltster at Dayton, Wash., who is his nephew.
Mr. Weinhard was a member of the Willamette Lodge, A. F. & A. M. of Portland, and the Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade and Manufacturers Association. He always took an active interest in all measures aimed at promoting the development of the state and was a liberal contributor to all public enterprises.
The Oregon Historical Society also has a biography of Weinhard and Brewery Gems also has a thorough history of the brewery.
A view of the brewery in 1908.
And here’s part one of a three-part documentary about the brewery. This part tells the story from the brewery’s founding up through prohibition. Part two covers the Blitz merger through the 1970s, and part three is about what they call “The Premium Reserve Years,” presumably from the 1970s to the present of when the film was made, which looks like late eighties or nineties.
Today is brewer Teri Fahrendorf‘s 29th birthday again. That number is pure conjecture, but it sure seems right for a woman who spent a year or so on the road, criss-crossing the United States twice visiting friends and colleagues in the brewing world. Sadly, I was out-of-town when she passed through the Bay Area that year. Teri was the brewmaster for the Steelhead Brewing chain for nearly two decades before leaving on her odyssey. You can relive that journey her Road Brewer adventures. She also founded the Pink Boots Society, an organization celebrating women in the brewing industry. More recently, she’s retired from brewing and creating wonderful pottery at her Rain Dragon Studio in Portland. Join me in wishing Teri a very happy birthday.
Today is the 40th birthday — the Big 4-O — of Jessica Jones, who’s the former COO of Ninkasi Brewing. Several years ago, she left Ninkasi and became the Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Strategy for Enjoy Beer, the startup founded by Rich Doyle after he left Harpoon, but as far as I know it never really caught on as they’d hoped, and the site is no longer active. Anyway, I haven’t talked to her in quite a few years, and last I heard she and her husband had moved to Eugene, Oregon and they’ve started a honey business, Queen’s Bounty Honey. But since she’s one of the few people I know born on leap day, I wanted to still post about her birthday this year.
When I first met Jessica, she was blogging at beer as the Thirsty Hopster and helped do some of the behind-the-scenes setup when I founded the Bay Area Beer Bloggers. She then put her education to good use by getting a job with Firestone Walker, and found that she liked working for a brewery. So she went back to school and got her MBA, before moving to Portland. Since 2011, she’s been keeping Ninkasi Brewing humming, and keeping Jamie in line. It’s been fun to watch Jessica’s evolution in the beer world, and how amazing she’d made Ninkasi. Join me in wishing Jessica a very happy birthday.
Today is the 42nd birthday of Abram Goldman-Armstrong, a Portland-based beer writer who is the managing editor of the Northwest Brewing News and also writes online at Brewsville. Abe also is the organizer of the North American Organic Brewers Festival and by day works in construction. When Abe was writing for the Celebrator Beer News several years back, during GABF we spent an evening drinking out and about the city eventually ending up at the Denver Diner, during which time I discovered I’d spent the entire evening calling him by the wrong name — d’oh. Anyway, these days I can get his name right. Join me in wishing Abe a very happy birthday.
As “Beer Patrol Man” at the 2009 OBF Parade.
With Ed Bennett at the OBF Parade, also in 2009.
Abe’s also a big fan of the local soccer team, the Portland Timbers, and recently appeared on a billboard for the team as they joined the MLS several years ago.
In the rumor mill for several months, today Deschutes Brewing of Bend, Oregon announced that they’ll be building a second brewery in Roanoke, Virginia. They’ve set up a separate page for information about the new facility in Roanoke. Here’s the press release:
Deschutes Brewery announced its much anticipated decision on an east coast location today at an event in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. The growing brewery, which was founded in Oregon in 1988 by Gary Fish, has explored hundreds of potential locations in the region over the last two years. The company selected Roanoke based on several criteria including a culture and community that fit well with Deschutes’ decades-deep roots.
“We started Deschutes Brewery when craft beer wasn’t burgeoning and led with a beer style that wasn’t popular at the time – Black Butte Porter,” said Gary Fish, CEO and founder of the brewery. “This pioneering approach was a key driver behind our decision to go with Roanoke, as that same spirit exists in this community and its fast-growing beer culture.”
The future Roanoke facility has been lovingly dubbed “Brew 4” as it takes its place in line after the original Bend, Oregon public house (Brew 1), the brewery’s production facility in Bend (Brew 2) and the Portland, Oregon public house (Brew 3). Brew 4 will be located at the eastern edge of Roanoke with construction on the site beginning in 2019. Eventually, a little over 100 new jobs will be created for the region, and the new brewery will produce approximately 150,000 barrels to start, with a design to increase capacity as needed. Deschutes expects to start shipping beer from the Roanoke location in about five years.
“Roanoke is honored to be chosen as Deschutes Brewery’s East Coast location after a very thorough review of several communities in the Southeast,” said Roanoke City Manager Chris Morrill. “It is a company with a strong culture of community engagement, recognized for its craftsmanship and will be a perfect fit for Roanoke’s vibrant outdoor lifestyle. We are thrilled to welcome Deschutes as we continue to build a diverse, resilient economy.”
Deschutes Brewery chose to add an east coast location after the company’s distribution footprint (which currently includes 28 states and the District of Columbia) reached the east coast. By having a production facility on the eastern seaboard, the brewery will be able to deliver beers – such as its flagship Black Butte Porter – to states east of the Mississippi quickly and more sustainably.
Michael LaLonde, president of Deschutes Brewery, who was an integral part of the east coast location selection team, said, “Although it was a tough decision – we loved so many of the communities that we visited over the past two years – we are very excited to be heading to Roanoke. We love the region and everyone we’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with during this process has been incredible. We have absolutely been blown away with how the community rallied around bringing us here and has given us such a warm welcome. #Deschutes2Rke we’re on our way and proud to be able to now call Roanoke our second home.”
You probably saw the news that the papers of the late, great Fred Eckhardt were donated to the Oregon Hops & Brewing Archives, which describes itself as “a community archiving project housed in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center at the OSU Libraries & Press. We’re actively collecting materials that tell the story of hops production and the craft beer industry.” The Brew Historian, who may or may not be Tiah Edmundon-Morton, has been teasing out Fred’s papers since acquiring the collection, and has a Tumblr so you can follow along. Today, the OHBA posted a particularly fun one.
In his early Seventies book, A Treatise on Lager Beer, Fred apparently did all of the layout himself. And they found the originals among his personal papers. These, below, are “the original construction paper paste-ups for his Treatise on Lager Beer,” and believed to have been created around 1970. Pretty cool.
In a particularly strange twist, 23 consumers — 19 from Oregon, 3 from California and 1 from Washington — have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court, for the District of Oregon, Medford Division. The Plaintiffs are represented by two law firms, the Alioto Law Firm of San Francisco, California, and Cauble & Cauble, LLP of Grant’s Pass, Oregon. The lawsuit names both Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller as Defendants and the initial filing requests “Injunctive Relief to Prohibit the Acquisition of SABMiller PLC by Anheuser-Busch InBev, SA/NV as a Violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 18.” The 33-page complaint is available to read online as a pdf. The Oregonian is reporting on at least a few of the Plaintiff’s rationales for the lawsuit. “I don’t think it’s good for consumers, I don’t think it’s good for industry, I don’t think it’s good for the tax base, I don’t think it’s good for any of that,” states Plaintiff James DeHoog, who owns an air quality and environmental consulting business in Central Point, which is near where the case was filed in Medford, Oregon. Courthouse News Service also has an account of the filing.
It will certainly be interesting to see how far they get with this.
Kurt Widmer, the older brother in Widmer Brothers Brewing, announced today he will be retiring at the end of 2015 from the day-to-day work with the business he founded with his brother Rob in 1984, 31 years ago.
Here’s the press release from the Craft Brew Alliance:
Kurt R. Widmer, 63, co-founder of Widmer Brothers Brewing, announced today that he will retire from Craft Brew Alliance, Inc. (“CBA”) and will be leaving CBA’s Board of Directors at the end of the year. At that time, he will assume the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus. Mr. Widmer has served as Chairman of the Board since Craft Brew Alliance was formed in 2008 through the merger of pioneering Pacific Northwest craft brewing companies Redhook Brewery and Widmer Brothers Brewing. Previously, Mr. Widmer served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Widmer Brothers Brewing Company from 1984 until 2008.
Mr. Widmer will remain in his role through December 31, 2015 to support the transition as CBA’s Board of Directors engages in the process of selecting a new Chairperson.
“Since my brother Rob and I founded Widmer Brothers Brewing over 31 years ago, this extraordinary industry that we helped create has grown and evolved in ways I couldn’t even imagine,” said Mr. Widmer. “Many of us who set the foundation for today’s booming craft beer market are thinking about the next chapter in our lives, and my wife Ann and I have been discussing the fact that there’s still a lot we want to do. So while I’ll miss walking into my office at the brewery every day, I’m admittedly looking forward to more time with my family and doing more of what I love to do – whether it’s traveling around the world or home brewing in the basement.”
He continued, “In terms of timing, I feel really good about where CBA is today. Looking back on how CBA has grown from two craft beer companies to a powerful alliance of great beers, brands, breweries and partners, I couldn’t be more confident in the future. The focus, expertise, and vision of the leadership team, under the helm of Andy Thomas, are further proof that CBA, its people, and its shareholders are in great hands. People who know me will probably not believe that I’m stepping away from Widmer Brothers and CBA. As a Widmer Brother, I will always look forward to that next innovative collaboration or a chance to connect with Widmer fans over a pint of Hefe at a local account.”
Kurt and Rob Widmer co-founded Widmer Brothers Brewing in Portland, Oregon in 1984 with help from their father Ray. They are among a handful of brewers in the United States credited with creating a universally recognized new style in 1986 with Hefe, the original American-style Hefeweizen and the #1 selling craft beer in Oregon.
“I’ve been fortunate to meet a number of truly remarkable people in this industry, and Kurt Widmer is definitely at the top of the list,” said Andy Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, CBA. “From his role in creating the craft beer category, to his foresight and vision in bringing together CBA to secure his brands’ route to market — and the adversity he faced as a direct result — to the role he continues to play as an impassioned advocate of our industry, Kurt has made a profound impact on many of us. CBA wouldn’t be CBA without Kurt Widmer, and I am grateful for his support and confidence as we continue forward.”
Kurt (center) with Gary Fish and Fred Eckhardt at the Horse Brass for Don Younger’s memorial in 2011.
I just learned from my friend, and Belmont Station owner, Lisa Morrison that legendary beer writer Fred Eckhardt has passed away. Apparently he died peacefully in his sleep this morning, with a few caregivers by his side.
Portland native Eckhardt was 89, and was a pioneer in writing about and defining beer styles with his early book on the subject, The Essentials of Beer Style, published in 1989. Annually in Portland, the FredFest beer festival has been held since his 80th birthday to honor Fred and his contributions to the modern beer and homebrewing scene. As Lisa observed. “He was one of the giants on whose shoulders we stand. What a life he lived, what he gave to us all.” He will be greatly missed. Join beer lovers everywhere as we raise a toast to Fred’s memory and to his enduring legacy tonight.
Fred in 1969, from the back cover of his book, A Treatise on Lager Beers.
Fred with Lisa Morrison.
Alan Sprints, of Hair of the Dog Brewery, with Fred Eckhardt, at Hair of the Dog’s open house in 2008 during OBF.
Fred with Lisa and John Foyston at OBF in 2009.
Fred and me at the OBF parade in 2011.