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Celebrating Oregon Beer Newsletter
Published 3 days ago • 4 min read
Celebrating Oregon Beer
Your fortnightly round-up of all the beer and hop news from the Beaver State.
Visiting KGW's Hello! Rose City to talk about the Oregon Homegrown collaboration
This is the last call for you to see the Oregon Homegrown beers collected in a single location. They will be pouring tomorrow and next Tuesday in Eugene and Bend. Make sure you don't miss this!
That important announcement made, let's get on to the past news and future events of the week!
- News -
Scaling Sustainably
The Portland Business Journal has a great piece on Fort George's steady and sustainable growth, putting it in the context of the larger craft brewing ecosystem. And this really captures why Oregon is a special place for beer:
"Few industries are as intertwined with the state’s brand image as food and beverage production, particularly craft beer. Oregon helped define American craft brewing culture, building a reputation around independent breweries, regional ingredients, and products deeply connected to place."
The Brewers Association issued a major correction about craft beer's performance in 2025. In the headliner, the industry declined by only 4%, not 5.1%, but they made other adjustments as well.
The New School has a great piece on some of the moves among working brewers in Oregon and Washington. Keep an eye on these folks--one of them may start your next favorite brewery!
Columbia Distributing announced it was acquiring 30% of Idaho-based alcohol distributor Hayden Beverage. Last August, Hayden acquired Idaho's Scout Distribution from Columbia, which now unites the three under its roof.
You might have seen a troubling report from Portland's KGW last week:
“Oregon hop growers are adjusting to an accelerated growing season after an unusually warm start to the year, raising concerns about how summer weather could affect one of the Pacific Northwest's most important agricultural crops. Some growers report that warmer temperatures in May pushed hop plants into a faster growth cycle, compressing the amount of time available to complete essential fieldwork.”
We reached out to some local growers to find out whether this was a serious concern. It turns out it's not--at least, not yet.
The growers agreed it was warm, but not exceptionally so. “I can’t speak to the news clip, but so far from our perspective we’ve had a good Spring growing season,” wrote Blake Crosby of Crosby Hops in an email. “May was a bit warmer than last year but not as warm as May 2023 which did create some early bloom issues in certain varieties.”
At Westwood Farms, Senior Farm Manager Andy Livesay sounded a similar note: “Hop growth was slightly ahead of schedule early season on our farm, but seems to be evening out as we are getting some more normal Oregon spring weather.”
Summarizing the overall thrust of the opinion, Andy added: “I certainly don't have any major concerns with the quality of the hop crop here in Oregon. Hops are looking solid and we should be set for a successful harvest here in the Willamette Valley.”
For more detail on this subject, you can read more here.
- 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.
Portland Beer Week
A 10-day celebration of beer in the greatest beer city on earth. Featuring 100+ events at locations city-wide from beer festivals to beer dinners, pairing parties, seminars, screenings, and challenges. June 12-24.
Away Days, the soccer-obsessed brewery that also makes great session beer,s is welcoming the World Cup to North America with Soccer Fest, June 11-July 19. They will transform the US National Bank Building in downtown Portland into the ultimate World Cup fan fest.
Six weeks, daily matches, one giant screen with hundreds of fans. DJs, games, pop-ups, merch and of course beer flowing from the taps.
Gigantic is debuting a new event on Sat, June 13 at their brewery--a full-day celebration of hip hop culture featuring local MCs, DJs, breakdancing, live graffiti art, food vendors, and beer. The brewery is excited to showcase Portland hip hop's creativity and energy with a stacked lineup of local talent.
On Saturday, June 13, Lupulin Ecstasy returns. Fort George's summer IPA festival features beer from the world's best hop-forward brewers, live music, food, all on the the grounds of the historic Flavel Mansion in Astoria.
MadCow Brewing Company will celebrate five years of its Gresham taproom and nine years of brewing on Sat June 13, with an anniversary party featuring a special beer release, commemorative glassware, food truck, merchandise, giveaways, and more.
On Sat June 13th, Occidental turns 15 and it's throwing a party featuring live music, giveaways and merriment. As a thank you for years of loyal support, Occidental will roll back to the price of a 2011 pint: $4. The brewery will release “Quindici” Italian Pilsner as an anniversary treat.
Great Notion's 10th
Join Great Notion on Saturday, June 27th at their NW 28th location for an anniversary blowout featuring 40+ beers on tap, a Beastie Boys tribute band, food, games, dirty soda bar for the kids and some of the rarest barrel-aged beers they've ever released.
On Saturday, June 27, visit McMenamins Edgefield to celebrate all things hoppy, malty, fruity and delicious. Featuring a selection of over 100 of the Pacific Northwest's finest craft beers, ciders, and more--all in Edgefield's extraordinary setting
International collaboration festival Fuji to Hood is bringing Japanese breweries, cideries, food, arts, music, community, and culture back to Portland on Saturday, July 18th. 25 breweries and cideries will travel from Japan to debut collaborations with Oregon makers, each using a special ingredient from Japan.
Celebrating Oregon Beer Your fortnightly round-up of all the beer and hop news from the Beaver State. Last night the beers of Oregon Homegrown debuted at The BeerMongers. Six of the fifteen beers were on tap: Block 15, de Garde, Evasion, Ferment, Von Ebert, and Wayfinder. It was really fun to try them all side by side and begin to get a sense of the "Deep Cut" Cascades. One of the flavor notes Crosby mentioned was "mandarin orange," and that was coming through loud and clear. You'll have to...
Celebrating Oregon Beer Your fortnightly round-up of all the beer and hop news from the Beaver State. We are excited to announce our second annual Oregon Homegrown collaboration this year, which is about to kick off at taprooms around the state. Oregon Homegrown is a statewide collaboration among 14 breweries statewide, Woodburn's Crosby Hop Farms, and Portland's Imperial Yeast. The purpose of the collaboration is to showcase Oregon's incredible culture and tradition of brewing. We focus on...
Celebrating Oregon Beer Your fortnightly round-up of all the beer and hop news from the Beaver State. We are in the midst of a push to increase subscribers to this newsletter--and you can help! From now through May 12, anyone who subscribes will be entered in a drawing for two tickets to Great Notion's 10th Anniversary Party (more info here). If you are enjoying this newsletter, forward it to someone you think would like it and encourage them to subscribe. Maybe they'll give you the other...
