Dan and Ben Engler are charting new waters under the St. John’s Bridge. The only local brewery rooted in North Portland concocted their first batches of German style beers around Memorial Day, and they opened the tap room-slash-brewery to the public in June. I trekked up to NoPo specifically to do some sampling. What are the locals in St. John’s chugging that I am missing? A complex Hefe, a malty Alt, a Dunkel (my favorite), and a seasonal Cloudy Summer ale (now if that doesn’t sound like a Portland brew….)
But first, a brief history: Dan comes from the Missoula area but has lived in Portland with his family for years. His nephew Ben, also from Missoula, migrated to the Pacific NW for college and settled in Seattle. When Ben parted ways with Weyerhaeuser, the pair reunited in Portland to form Occidental Brewing Co. Ben brings the business savvy, while Dan presides over brewing, and all that science-y stuff.
I chatted with Ben about the why’s and how’s of Occidental’s inception.
Why “Occidental”?
We chose Occidental, meaning western. The name is regional, not necessarily tied to just Portland or Oregon. And it’s also an old fashioned word, which fit with the pre-prohibition style of our brand. Note, the period picture of the two from the website. Classic.
So why start another Portland brewery?
It was something we’ve both always wanted to do separately. When the time was right, we met up – probably over a couple of beers - and decided to go for it together. Portland was an obvious choice. We wanted to be a part of the biggest brew town in the nation.
A question my Portlander’s IPA-loving mind: No IPA, eh? German-style only?
That’s right. It helps us stand out amongst a sea of IPAs …. It’s a standard line-up of English ales in most of the northwest. We wanted to do German style – make what you like to drink, right?
(Besides, he sarcastically says, IPAs are almost like a contest now. How hoppy can it get? How crazy-strong does it have to be to get attention?)
OK, fair enough. I see a vast collection of beer memorabilia in the tasting room. What’s the history on that?
Yeah, there are a lot of beer cans. Some of them were ours, and from family members. But as we started thinking about décor, we started looking at collections….. Husbands being forced to clean out their garages, etc. We wanted classic cans from the ‘60s and ‘70s. We’ve even had customers come in and add to the collection. The bottle caps – that was us drinking a lot of beer, asking friends to drink a lot of beer, even asking bar tenders to save the caps. We even drank beer we really didn’t want to drink, just because we needed the caps.
That’s quite a procurement strategy. Tough job. So, any expansion plans?
The world! (Laughs) Right now, we’re just trying to get out of North Portland. We are going at the pace we can handle. We intend to stay in the St. John’s location – there aren’t a lot of breweries out here, and the local St. John’s community has been tremendous in their support efforts. But we want to cover more ground.
Plans to expand the tasting room?
Yes, it looks like a construction zone right now; we’re still building tables for the tasting room. We had to build a wall (between the tasting room and the brewing facility) to satisfy the government and separate the brewing are from the public area, but we wanted people to be able to see the brewery. We’ll use the outside space for events. We’ll be posting event information on the website and on Facebook.
Perfect, more reasons for me to make my way back up here. Now, on to my tasting …..
Dan kept himself busy on this Wednesday night in his tasting room. Every bar stool was taken, so I bellied up to the lower, bottle cap covered bar to put in my first order: a taster of the Alt, a pint of the Dunkel.
Altbier: Malty and spicy with Saphir hops - it’s what a good German Alt is all about. And lucky me, it offers up a little extra hops, just like Portland likes it.
Dunkel: My winner for the evening. You can smell the yeast as you go in for a drink. Smooth yet complex, this one’s not too dark, and not too heavy on this warm August night. But it would still be soul warming for those not-so sunny eves. I’ll have this beer any season.
Round two, a taste of the summer ale, and a pint of that fabulous hefe.
Cloudy Summer: It’s a thirst quencher, I think, as I gulp down the taster. Dan calls it “sessionable” and they do know best. Crisp and clean, yet still offering just a smidge of hops.
Hefeweizen: Move over Kurt and Rob, there’s a new hefe in town. It has the floral notes beer lovers look for, citrus, spice … wheaty deliciousness. Dan makes it in the classic Bavarian style, using German Hallertau hops and true weizen yeast.
Well, it looks like my work here is done. I’m shutting the place down! I thank the gentlemen Engler as I polish off the last of my hefe. I’ll be keeping an eye out for events to come.
6635 N. Baltimore Ave
Portland, OR 97203
Tap room hours:
Wed.-Thurs. 4-7 pm
Friday 3-8 pm
Saturday 12-8 pm
Sunday 12-6 pm
6635 N. Baltimore Ave
Portland, OR 97203
Tap room hours:
Wed.-Thurs. 4-7 pm
Friday 3-8 pm
Saturday 12-8 pm
Sunday 12-6 pm
See more about Occidental Brewing Co. at bePortland.com
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