We don’t have as many events in through the end of May, but the ones we do are not to be missed.  As always, if you know of any events or festivals that we should be involved in please let us know so!  Without further a due, here your Oakshire events….

• Oakshire Bingo Night @ the Downward Dog
  • Thursday, May 7th / 8-10PM
  • The Downward Dog / 130 SW 1st St. / Corvallis, OR 97333
  • On Tap: Oakshire Amber, Oakshire Espresso Stout, & Watershed IPA!
  • Chris Churilla really threw down for this night!  Practicing the art of the cocktail, Chris will be serving up three cocktails, one each made using each brew we’ll have on tap!
    • Siberian Expresso – made with Overcast Espresso Stout
    • Agent Orange Manhattan – made with Watershed IPA
    • Yet to Be Named Cocktail – made with Oakshire Amber
  • Brew & Cocktail Specials from 8-11PM
  • Bingo runs from 8-10PM with the Turntable Enabler taking over at 10PM until close
  • ONE BINGO CARD PER OAKSHIRE BREW OR OAKSHIRE COCKTAIL
    • We brought this one back because people wanted to play more than one card and this is the only equitable way I can think to do it.
• Oakshire Brews @ Greeters Showcase
  • Wednesday, May 13th / 4:30-7:30PM
  • Eugene Hilton / 66 East 6th Ave. / Eugene, OR 97401
  • On Tap: Watershed IPA & Overcast Espresso Stout & maybe two more!
  • Come down and network with your Chamber friends, try some brews, and check out other local businesses doing their thing!
• Oakshire Brews @ Brewers Memorial Ale Fest
  • Friday – Sunday, May 15th-17th / 4-10PM, 12-10PM & 12-4PM
  • Rogue Ales / 2320 OSU Drive / Newport, OR 97365
  • A celebration of brews, dogs, and good times!
  • On Tap: Watershed IPA & Overcast Espresso Stout

  Oakshire Brew @ Stark Fest

  • Saturday, May 2nd / 12-11PM
  • Eugene City Brewery / 844 Olive St. / Eugene, OR 97401
  • A celebration of Dave Stark taking over as President of Eugene City Brewery & his love of of Strong Ales
  • On Tap: Oakshire Sasquatch 9.3% Strong Ale

If you can’t make any of these, stop by the brewery for tours and tastings every Saturday from 12-4PM!

Cheers!

Chris Althouse & the Oakshire Brewing team

Please join us on Wednesday April 29th at the Bier Stein in Eugene, 345 E 11th Ave, from 5-7PM.  The whole crew will be sampling out spring seasonal, Hindsight ESB.  Our Watershed IPA will be pouring as well.

Everybody’s doing it.

Ahhh…Beantown, the site of this year’s Craft Brewers Conference.  Jeff and Matt(and beerwife Eriel) got a chance to travel across the country to learn, network, and of course sample great beers from the East Coast and around the country.  Yes, believe it or not our industry does have a professional conference to teach, to promote and to bring together a small but growing group of like minded people.  We attended sessions on Sustainability, technical brewing, expanding our business, and so much more.  We attended hospitality events like cask night put on by the MBAA distric New England, the opening reception sponsored by Harpoon (a very nice IPA as the flagship)-btw thanks for the tour Rich Doyle, we snuck in with the distributors and enjoyed every minute-, and a food and beer pairing reception at the closing of the conference.  There were also some great beer bars there too. Sunset Grill comes to mind, along with Jacob Wirth. And no trip to Boston is complete without traveling to Cambridge Brewing Company. Great beers and a lot of them.

The water taxi ruled. Here’s top Oakshire couple Jeff and Eriel waiting to depart  and on the boat.

We had to take this back and forth from our hotel each day.  Nice when the sun was shining, but not so much during the rain.

Of course the food was great. We had lots of chowder and I even snuck a lobster at No Name Seafood Restaurant.

Finally, we were fortunate to get taken to a Red Sox baseball game by the Country Malt Group. Thanks guys!! My first time to historic Fenway was great.

It was great to see all my old buddies from the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild (see you in Chicago for CBC 2010) and make some  new ones along the way. Thanks to all the suppliers we hung out with. Oh and thanks to Joe for working like a dog while I was out “learning, researching, and networking”.

‘Twas a long week, but a great one. Now back to the whirlwind known as Oakshire Brewing expansion.

Peace out!

Matt

….. if you have your guys weld a “trojan horse” to give a little lift tothe fork, you can.

the invention as it tows a tank across the street

Jeff had this steel doo hicky welded together so that we could do the setting of the tanks with our own equipment and not hire a rigging crew.  It fits over the forks and with a little forethought, worked like a charm.

into the brewery

The tanks had to be slid in sideways due to the existing door height. With the fork lift pulling the front and the pallet jack supporting the back end, it wasn’t bad…until we hit the lip of the garage floor. Ugh!  4X4 beam to the rescue.

up..up...up....

With the high ceilings in the expansion and the steel fork extensions, we went straight up and lifted the tank into its upright position.  A few gouges in the floor, but…

success!

Now just to dangle it into it’s spot, level it off and get glycol and electricity to the tank.

The finsihed product.

As of today, we have one of the thirty’s filled and the othr two are waiting to be cleaned.  All told, this will give us 90 more barrels of fermentation space.  Much needed!

Next up, Jeff and Matt are off to Boston for the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference.

Catch up time.

Rewind.

Last Thursday we motored north to Corvallis and the Crowbar.  It was Oakshire night and a great time was had by all.  Great music(sorry I could not play that harp Chris), killer pizza and great people.  If you find yourself over there, stop by for a slice and a pint. We’ve got several lines there. Some pics from the event:

Chris Althouse the crazy emcee!

mmmmm pizza

The next day, I headed to Portland for the Spring Beer and Wine festival.  This was a great event with beer, wine, food, chocolate and cheese.  Jeff took care of Saturday and we introduced a lot of Portland area folks to all that is Oakshire.  AND we took second place in the porter and stout beers category. Huzzah!!

Our booth

Shameless plug-my family

This was a family friendly event.  Kids free til 7PM-a little vacation for the Van Wyk’s

Jeff Althouse(owner-OB) and Teri Fahrendorf (of Pink Boots Society and Road Brewer fame)

Thank you volunteers!

We took Silver in Porters and Stouts. Yahoo.

So the family and I were in Portland Friday and Saturday and since we always came straight to Eugene when visiting, we have not even begun to explore the great Potland metro area.  We had plans to hit the zoo or the Childrens museum.  Perhaps even the Science and Industry Museum.  We opted however for a hike at Multinomah Falls. Check it out:

A horizontal waterfall? I'll fix it soon.

I'm usually behind the camera. Here ya go.

THE TOP!!!

From there, we hit Voodoo Donuts.  Please go there if you haven’t been to Portland.  Let me just say, donut with maple frosting and bacon on top.  Whoa baby!!!!  Not to mention the Cap’n Crunch topped, M& Ms and the voodoo donut with pretzel pin and jelly Blood.  soooo cool.

What beer to pair with that???

From there we hit the Tillamook Cheese factory.  I loves me some cheese.  And then the long drive down the 101 and back to Eugene.  Living and vacation.  Isn’t life grand.

Enough springtime on the Oregon Coast daddy. Let's go home!

Finally, we had a tax night Bingo event here in Eugene last night. I forgot the camera for this, but know we had a great time, and if Chris Althouse comes to your neighborhood a callin’ numbers-lookout it’s fun AND there are some great prizes.  Next time you see me, ask about the 8-track of George Carlin. It’s pink. You can have it.

Next up-The tanks get installed.  Yes!!

The new 30's are upright and watching over the bourbon barrels.

Where did the time go?  We got to this point via a meet and greet in Corvallis, the Spring Beer and Wine festival in Portland, a little time with the family in Portland and a long afternoon on Monday with two idiots (one being me) trying not to break stuff as we rigged these tanks with far too few hands.  Pictures and posts on that later this week when I get a chance.

Cheers

Matt

This weekend is the Spring Beer and Wine festival in Portland and it marks the first fest that I get to attend as a member of Oakshire’s team. This looks like a fantastic fest with beer, wine, cheese, food, seminars, and music.  It runs both Fri and Sat from noon to 11PM. We’ll be pouring Watershed IPA and Overcast Espresso Stout.  I’ll be around the booth Friday and Jeff will be in attendance Saturday.  Stop by and say hi and try two of the first beers that we will be bottling as soon as this summer.

Cheers

Matt

Hop Talk blogger Al pointed out today that some new data put out by the Brewers Association places my new home state of Oregon as the third highest number of breweries per capita. Vermont and Montana lead the way.  Check his comments and the BA link here:

http://hop-talk.com/2009/04/06/vermont-number-one-in-breweries-per-capita/

While this is great news for the diversity of craft beer in my new home state (Illinois ranks 37th-boo! Thanks overpopulated Chicago and all you Old Style lovers!), I might argue that quality is much more important than quantity. I’d take less GREAT breweries, than an overpopulation of average and worse.  Luckily for me, and I gather many of you reading this, we have both quantity AND quality in the state of Oregon.  I just can’t wait to start my exploration.  Heads up, my fellow brewers, I’m comin’ by.

Tell me what you think about the number of breweries per capita in your state and what it means to you as a craft beer drinker.

Cheers

Matt

Wow! What a day at work.  Joe and I made the first of two batches of IPA.  Just as we were knocking out to the fermenter, Willy pulled up with his rig and three shiny gifts for us.  After a little fiddlin’ whe dragged them off and into storage for a few days.  When the cellar expansion is complete, we’ll roll them in.  And just for good measure, we got the first two (of many I hope) bourbon barrels for our collection. Hopefully we will have a nice collection soon.  I have the floor space right now.  Thank you everyone who made this day rock. You know who you are!

brew on,

Matt

Joe and I are doing two days of IPA. Back in the saddle!! (FV arrival pix tomorrow!)

Peace!

Matt