The warm weather has come to Oregon, which means festivals, events, and lots of patio and garden beer drinking. We're especially excited to have a new brewery opening to report--which is our spotlight feature below. All that, plus lots of news and events.

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News

First OSU Item OSU is one of the reasons Oregon's beer culture is so deep, and a recent story explores one reason: the intersection of brewing and chemical engineering. It all comes together at the school's brewery, "the textbook example of a control loop." Read it here

Big-Time Barbecue The Oregonian had a great story about the barbecue truck outside Von Ebert's newish brewery: "Har-BQ is rapidly climbing the Portland barbecue rankings," The O writes--and we already know how good the beer is. Read all about Har-BQ

Project Zero Project Zero, a West Coast IPA born from Yakima Chief Hops’ sustainable farms, brewed by ColdFire Brewing, and completed by Rexius’ compost loop—a zero waste beer. Read more here

Rosenstadt's New Digs After a decade-long journey of brewing their beer all over town, Rosenstadt is finally going to settle down permanently in the old Culmination site on NE Oregon in Portland. More on the news

A Billion Gallons ​Deschutes Brewery has committed to return one billion gallons of water to the Deschutes River as a part of the Deschutes River Conservancy's water leasing program. One billion! Read about the program here

Meet Chris Curtin (OSU 2) Chris is an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology. His focus is fermentation microbiology, and he knows a lot about yeast! The full interview

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Upcoming Events

Please send us all your upcoming event information at the following email so we can include them in our weekly roundups: events@celebrateoregonbeer.com

Edgefield Brewfest The 7th Annual Edgefield Brewfest is back for a full day of sunshine, sips, and sounds on the iconic Edgefield lawn on Saturday, June 21st. Enjoy over 100 craft brews and ciders from the PNW! All the details here

Sour Solstice Imperial Bottle Shop is the place for sourheads to gather on June 21. From noon to 10p they are pouring some amazing wild, spontaneous, and outrageous tart and sour ales. Breweries and details

Portland Beer Week Portland's ten-day "week" continues on through this weekend until June 22nd. This flavor and experience odyssey comprises dozens and dozens of events at locations city-wide. Full schedule here

MXPDX One of the most interesting beer events of the summer is just a month away: MXPDX (July 19). A collaboration by the folks who brought you Hood to Fuji, this cross-cultural collaboration explores the connections between Oregon and Mexico.

"MXPDX is a festival built around the belief that sharing beer, food, and drink can be catalysts for lifelong friendships and better understanding. We believe in person-to-person social interactions as a way to break down barriers and share cultures."

Spotlight:
Tiny Giants

This past Saturday, Steve Beaudoin launched Tiny Giants out of the space formerly occupied by Gorges on 27th and SE Ankeny in Portland. (In the reincarnative manner of brewing facilities, prior to its life as Gorges, the space housed Coalition Brewing.) The beer industry has seen its share of closures over the past five years, but that span has also been dotted with notable openings as well. Steve has brewed around Portland for the best part of the past decade, and opens Tiny Giants with a wealth of diverse experience. For today’s spotlight feature, let’s hear some more about this new brewery.

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​From New England to Oregon​
Steve caught the beer bug in his New England home (CT) during those heady days of the hazy IPA explosion in the mid-teens. His first foray into beer came working at a mobile bottler in New England, which gave him great exposure to the beers that were quickly changing the industry. His father, a pilot for Delta, was a major catalyst. “My dad used to homebrew back in the 90's when we were kids. He always did the West Coast routes, and he'd bring back Plinys and all the best stuff from the West Coast at that time. I remember Tricerhops bombers, and Racer 5 bottles.”

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What’s a young man with an interest in brewing to do? Come to the brewing mecca of Portland! By 2016, he was living in Portland and working at now-defunct Cascade Brewing, the famous “House of Sour.” There he got an unusual education in preparing barrel-aged wild ales: “I went from barrel 'librarian' to cellarman and learned all things barrels, sour beer, fruit processing, and blending,” he said.

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From there he moved to a more typical setting at Old Town Brewing, where Andrew Lamont taught him the basics of the brewhouse. “That's where I really learned all the ‘hot side’ of things and clean beer brewing.” His last stop before Tiny Giants was Fracture Brewing, where he became the head brewer before the owners shut down the brewhouse to have Fracture beers contract-brewed. It was at Fracture where most people started taking note of Steve, particularly his affinity for classic and modern lagers and pilsners. While Tiny Giants germinated in his mind, he spent several months brewing at Great Notion, which helped him brew “the best hazy I’ve done” for the grand opening.

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​Tiny Giants​
At the well-attended, sun-dappled grand opening, Steve was excited to see his brewery get its spotlight--but he was also very thankful for all the help he got getting it set up. That started with Gorges co-founder Travis Preece. For the moment, Tiny Giants is sub-leasing the space from Gorges, and that has been a huge help for a brewer looking to get started without sacks of money. "Travis has been super kind, helping me get started and giving me a space to launch this project without having to do a huge buildout or seek out major investors." He didn't stop there, either. "I truly couldn't have gotten this going or any of this done without the innumerable help from so many people in this industry."

The brewery's name comes from a Modest Mouse lyric ("Even needs have needs, tiny giants made of tinier giants" / "Dashboard"), Beaudoin's favorite band. He first used the phrase for a series of West Coast pilsners at Fracture, but thought it captured the sense of the brewery well. "A lot of their lyrics are this kind of nonsensical, poetic, contradictory stuff. You can always take it as complete nonsense, or build a really deep meaning, and I love the sheer contradiction of that, and all things in life and art like that."

A Hop Bine Runs Through It​
As to the beers we can expect from Tiny Giants, hops are at least one theme. "Being so new, everything is pretty tentative and adjustable, but ideally; the rice lager (Laser Eyes) will run all year as will the red (Bunk Beds) in draft. The WC IPA (Nexus of the Universe) and the Hazy (Elevator Rocketship) will be a rotating core. My personal preferences lean more toward the West Coast pils or pales."

But not only hops. "I definitely want to eventually get back to my barrel aged sour beer roots! Ron [Gansberg, the brewer/blender behind Cascade's beers] was a legend in the industry, and he'll always have his fingerprints on all of us ex-Cascade employees still out in the scene."

The brewery is working with Day One Distributing. Look for Tiny Giants in distribution in the Portland area and beyond--but don't return to Rainbow Road for a pint, though. Except for occasional, possibly monthly pop-ups, Steve isn't going to staff the old Gorges space, which has a nice beer deck beyond the loading dock. It's not even certain that Tiny Giants will stay at this location, but that is Steve's hope. "I'd love to officially take it over and give it a makeover and spruce it up." In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled and grab a pint when you see it on tap.

Keeping Up

For everything Oregon, please visit the Celebrate Oregon website.If you think someone you know might like this newsletter, have them sign up here.

Celebrate Oregon Beer is supported by the Oregon Brewers Guild and Oregon Hop Commission.

Excellent journalism is of the many ways Oregon is so special. In between newsletters, be sure to check out these sites for the latest happenings:

• ​The New School​
• ​The Oregonian​
• ​Astoria Beer Zone​
• ​Brewpublic​
• ​Beervana Blog​

See you again in two weeks!