Spotlight: Oregon Homegrown Partners
The Oregon Homegrown collaboration involved the partnership and generosity of a number of folks--exactly the people who make Oregon such a special place for beer. If you've been following the news, you've probably seen a list of all the participating breweries and their beers and the hop farms where the Stratas were grown. We founded Celebrate Oregon Beer to promote those breweries and growers, and we've been delighted to highlight their efforts. But industries include less visible companies, whose work isn't the final, liquid product. They are critical to the industry, and they helped make Oregon Homegrown possible.
Indie Hops
By the end of this project, everyone will know Strata hops, but they may not be as familiar with Indie Hops, the company behind them. In 2009, two childhood friends from Corvallis had a vision to breed Oregon hops. To date, most hop breeding is conducted either by the USDA at sites in Corvallis and Prosser, Washington, or by large hop companies like Haas and Hopsteiner in Yakima.
When they founded Indie Hops, Jim Solberg and Roger Worthington had a vision to partner with OSU and fun hop breeding there--hoping to revitalize Oregon's proud heritage as one of the world's premier hop breeding regions. Hop breeding is a long process, and it took yeas before they would see the result of their labor, but the results have been impressive. Since those early days, they have developed and released Meridian, Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, and Audacia.
Wyeast Laboratories
Back in 1986, when the craft beer industry was in its infancy, it was hard for small breweries to source high quality ingredients in the quantities they required. Wyeast was the first company to focus on the homebrew and small-brewery market, and, by offering breweries yeast strain diversity with which they could make a range of beer styles, were instrumental in helping build the industry.
Yeast is beer's often-forgotten ingredient, but critical in helping breweries create the different beer styles that breweries wanted to make. With Wyeast, they could make lagers and wheat beers and pale ales that tasted like those from Czechia and Germany and England. As an Oregon-centric bonus, many of the strains used in the Oregon Homegrown project were originally contributed to Wyeast by Oregon breweries. This is the kind of collaborative spirit that helped build Oregon's robust native beer culture.
Roscoe's (Portland)
In 2006, Jeremy Lewis and Quyen Ly bought the old, shuttered dive bar called Clifford's on Southeast Stark in Montavilla. Their vision was to keep the lived-in vibe of a neighborhood bar, but add good beer to the taplist. They launched with nine taps but quickly added three more, and have been a champion of good beer ever since.
Westside Taphouse (Salem)
Donny and Karen Ehrmantraut opened Westside Taphouse in 2014 to bring some good beer goodness to the state's capital back when it had few options. Since then, the taproom reckons it has poured over a half million pints. With nearly four dozen taps, Westside continues to keep West Salem in good beer.
River's Place (Bend)
River's Place opened on Bend's east side in 2018, back when that part of town was underserved in terms of food and drink options. With River's Place, Jessica Swartz and Paul Shorey gave locals a fantastic venue, with an indoor pub, a dog- and kid-friendly outdoor area with fire pits and tables, and a well-selected taplist of Oregon beer.
64 Taphouse (Hood River)
In two weeks, 64 Taphouse celebrates a decade serving beer in the most densely-breweried town in Oregon. The cozy downtown space makes room for 32 taps and their much-beloved free popcorn. Owner Lorraine Lyons offers a beer selection featuring local breweries as well as a diverse offering from around the country and world.
