Once
again, I happened to be in Portland for this great event.
Every
year, on a single day in mid-February, breweries across the state of Oregon
host free tours in an open house format. Participants take short tours and
receive samples given directly from the conditioning tanks. The tap near the
bottom of the tank is called a "zwickel," and hence the event name.
This event takes in the Portland metro area on one weekend, and then in all
other parts of Oregon state on the following weekend. This year, in Portland
alone, 65 breweries participated.
Five
of us went off across the city in search of some of the newer breweries, or
some in cases newer outposts of established breweries: Vagabond Brewing
Portland, West Coast Grocery, Ruse Brewing, Von Ebert East, Migration Brewing -
Gresham, and Threshold Brewing & Blending.
Our
second stop was West Coast Grocery. This was a highly touted new brewery that
opened in 2018. Yes, the name is unusual. Apparently the owner’s family was in
the grocery business for many years, and he decided to go with a grocery store
theme for his brewpub. Check the many shopping carts dangling from high up on
the second-floor ceiling. And the owner was lucky enough to snag a former head
brewer from the Deschutes Portland brewery.
…
and at the beginning of the year, a female employee complained of sexual harassment
from said brewer, the owner did not take it seriously enough (brewer was suspended
for one week and told to take a class), and once it all reached social media, a
sort of boycott had broken out. Eventually the owner fired said brewer, but
many speculate that happened only because of the social media backlash. You really have to admire the employee who refused to let it all slip away; it surely took a lot of courage.
Things
seem to have settled down at this point. But we were still a bit wary about
what we would find there, or even if we should enter, once we got there.
Had
four beers, which ranged from good to very good:
Peck
Chillzner
Stark
Street Blood Orange Saison
Cheeriest
Hour Cherry Sour
Flavor
Merchants Imperial IPA
(...looks like he needs a beer)
1403 SE Stark Street
Portland, Oregon, 97214
503-477-6011
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