Battle of the Breweries - Corvallis

Photos by Jackson Voelkel


Oregon Trail Brewing Company
Oregon Trail, founded in 1987, is the oldest brewery in the Willamette Valley and the fourth oldest in Oregon. The copper kettle that houses pounds upon pounds of ingredients each year attests to this fact — it used to belong to Pyramid Breweries, which is now a corporately run giant out of Seattle. Beyond being long established, though, Oregon Trail has an antiquity to it that serves more to intrigue than to impress. With a limited number of beers on tap at the brewery itself, the true excitement in a tour here starts with the gravity-based system they use.

Each story has a hole in the floor and a hole in the ceiling (with the exception of the third and highest story) through which the ingredients for every beer must pass before reaching their final destination in the miniscule, packed-like-sardines fermentation room.

“Brewing is, not even on purpose, a very green industry,” says Sean Martin, self-proclaimed “everything man” and brewmaster of Oregon Trail. His explanation of the green gravity system makes it appear exceptionally fertile, and it’s clear that he enjoys it. Martin gets a workout each day from climbing the steps, and for a low-personnel project such as this, the small amount of beer they have ready to go is really quite awesome.

“My favorite beer depends on my mood and the weather,” Martin says, giving a nod to the Oregon heat of late. “I’ve been drinking a ton of Wit, but in the winter nothing beats our Ginseng Porter.” With summer in the air, the temperature has been rising in Oregon, and the Oregon Trail Wit is perfect for shaking off the swelter — light in texture and taste but surprisingly dark in color, it could have you back on your feet (or sitting on your ass) in no time.

At this point, I feel it’s only right to mention the Bourbon Barrel Porter. When you crack the wax-sealed cap on a bottle of this beer, you better be ready to smell whiskey and taste barbeque — in short, it’s fucking dank. At 10-percent ABV (alcohol by volume) it’ll play with your head pretty hard. I’d recommend eating before trying this.

Speaking of ABV, the Corvallis beer scene must be full of wasted people. Seriously, the beers up there average 8 to 10-percent a lot of the time, and most of them are deceptively light. This is a fact easily discovered at Corvallis’ youngest brewery, Flat Tail.



Flat Tail Brewing Company
The vibe at Flat Tail Brewing is chilled out. With five-year brewer Dave Marliave manning their seven-barrel system at all times, there’s rarely a complaint to be heard — that is, unless you don’t like beer. Marliave got his degree at OSU’s School of Fermentation Sciences — a trend that would appear to grip the entire Corvallis beer scene by the balls — and since graduating at the beginning of last summer, he’s set to work finely tuning his art.

“Brewing is like any art form,” says Marliave. “It has layers.” And sure, most of his beers have a bunch of separate layers — each of them as delicious as the last — but what happens when they’re mixed together? This, it would seem, is a process of trial and error, because it’s all too easy to end up with solid separate layers that don’t mesh well, “It’s like a peanut butter, jelly and bacon smoothie,” Marliave explains. “The ingredients are great on their own, but not always together.”

Overall, the beer at Flat Tail is incredible. Dare I say it? They’ve stumbled upon a double IPA recipe that blows Ninkasi’s “Tricerahops” out of the water — at 10-percent ABV, “Some Like it Hop” is one of the strongest and most enjoyable beers around, and when placed hand-in-hand with the wine-like delicacy of Flat Tail’s English ESB, it creates a beautiful contrast that you can’t help but enjoy.



Block 15 Brew Pub


Unfortunately, Block 15’s owner and founding brewmaster, Nick Arzner, was unavailable for comment due to a case of Widespread Panic, but that meant Matt Williams was given a chance to spit some game. Though still young, Matt has been on the scene for a good six years, and he’s gained barrels of experience along the way.

“Every day I end up learning something new,” says Williams, remarking that Arzner has shown him techniques he never could have learned in school.

The Block 15 Brew Pub is small and lively; they have an insane assortment of beers — including a house brew designed as a stand in for the domestic bullshit they got tired of serving — and the food is awesome. They plan to expand next door with a “European-style beer café,” and that’s probably for the best, considering that they need the space.

Literally every single barrel, bag of grain and piece of equipment in Block 15’s labyrinthine cellar was carried down by hand. This includes, of course, the custom-designed fermentation tanks that weigh in at something to the tune of 800 pounds each.

“(Some of) our fermenters were designed specially so that they would fit down the stairs,” Williams says. Honestly, it’s miraculous how much stuff they’ve got down there — and it’s probably a safe bet that none of it’s ever coming back up.

Of the 14 beers on tap at Block 15, the flight you’re looking at should probably include the following: Aboriginale, King Caspian, Wandelpad and Alpha IPA. The rest is up to you, but those four are freakin’ magical. Unfortunately, the “Millennium Falcon” IPA that Williams deems his personal favorite currently is not in production. As he says, though: “The Millennium Falcon will be back, I’m sure.”


EW "State of Suds" 7/14

Kickin’ Out the Jams

Warpaint, Marv Ellis bring it all back home

Come ye! Come all ye hippies, craftsmen, musicians, artists, faeries, potheads, salesmen and other such Eugeneans; this year’s Oregon Country Fair has a fabulous music lineup and you definitely want to be in the know before you find your buzz being harshed by something you’d sooner not hear. Of course, the chances of this happening are incredibly low — that is, unless you’ve managed to procure some of Hunter S. Thompson’s mythic, recreationally accessible Adrenochrome — but it might put your mind at ease to have advance warning of what you’re in for.

So here we go: Chill out, make a dandelion chain and let this be a guide of six to your awesome musical Country Fair experience.

As always, the Country Fair lineup packs a punch delivered mostly by blue-grass, jam and reggae groups — but what of Warpaint? This locally rooted, four-part female powerhouse out of L.A. is about as describable through language as a volatile and heart-pounding LSD trip in the middle of a ticking clock, yet there’s something hauntingly familiar about the band’s droning, pop-rock sound that makes you want to drop what you’re doing and follow them into the perfectly tuned dreamworld they create. Theorists around here speculate that only alien technology could be responsible for bringing such a foursome together back in ‘04, but chances are it was just a perfectly harmonized, well-executed conspiracy designed to throw the world into shock and awe.

Warpaint. Photo by Todd Cooper

All levity aside, though, the women in Warpaint have a chemistry that’s hard to top, their chops are intense, and the best part is they’ve found a sound that works. It’s their first year playing the Country Fair, but that shouldn’t stop them from feeling right at home, and it also shouldn’t stop you from feeling like you’ve found a place to call home when they step on stage. They’re sanitary, post-hippie masterminds, and every second of their dense compositional power warrants attention.

Speaking of dense, this year’s Country Fair welcomes a group that could be a contender for the most dreadlocks per capita award: Hailing originally from Jamaica, the members of Rootz Underground are staunch purveyors of synergistic, revolutionary reggae. They’ve combined the chilled-out vibe of a modernized Wailers, the soul and consistency of blues and the wild musical chops of modern funk to form the basis for their overlordic reggaelution, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg-devil’s-lettuce. When Stephen Newland starts pouring out his soul into the microphone, an air of passionate genius seems to float down from the sky like some kind of veiled, rebellious precipitation. Seriously, if these guys were louder they’d sound like Rage Against the Machine any day: “You are the ones who can hold your ground, / the more you listen the more you learn, / romp with fire and your skin gonna burn, / What you gonna do when the tables turn?” So yeah, by the time they’re done you’re pretty much gonna be on their side, like it or not.

If you’re at the Country Fair, scrupulously performed mathematics tell us that you have a 59 percent chance of being a dirty, stinking hippie. With this in mind, a cool majority of you are gonna love 7 Walkers. Ex-Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann has, in recent years, taken his chops down a path of isolation from the other Dead members, and while his new music stays in touch with the bluesy country jams of his hayday, the tunes still stand apart with wicked, beautiful intensity. Lovers of that dusty, tie-dyed, dancing bear, psychedelic-fueled jam band music will find solace in 7 Walkers, but don’t be surprised when the ratio of originals-to-Dead songs is weighted more toward the former. That said, you’ll probably be trippin’ balls, so it doesn’t much matter what you’re hearing as long as the Steal Your Face vibe stands strong.

Before you hit the peak of this long, three-day adventure, by the way, you might want a little pick-me-up to get things started. Enter Marv Ellis and The Platform, a locally founded, fully fledged hip hop jazz group with influence that can be credited to acts such as the Roots and Digable Planets. Not only does lead MC Marv Ellis have reasonable flow and cooled-off vocals to offer, he’s also been known to throw down a freestyle or two. By the time his first year on the scene had drawn to a close, he’d already gotten more than 100 shows buckled under his belt and been named the Northwest’s number one unsigned hip hop and fusion artist. Are we intrigued yet?

At this point, you might be freaking out, thinking there are no string bands to groove on. Have no fear, Elephant Revival is here. The members of this neo-acoustic quintet — which hails from Nederland, Colo. — have far more tricks up their flannel sleeves than you might first think. From the moment they began cutting their teeth, they’ve been pioneers of an emerging genre known as “transcendental folk,” and it seems the only way to sum this sound up is by listening to it. Take the eerie, folky string band sound of last year’s Country Fair bigwig Black Prairie, add some electrified energy and throw it into a beautiful, wide-echoing well of reverb. The skinny is this: Not only are they beautiful compositionally, they’re all fantastic at what they do — fun, poppy-come-mellow folk music. Oh yeah, and they have voices like poppy sirens, so that’s a bonus.

If you’re still in the mood to get your sweaty, sunny dance on after two full days of Country Fair, then Cabinessence is definitely worth checking out. They’re opening up for Warpaint and they should set the stage nicely. With a real funky rock ‘n’ roll feel going on, Cabinessence has a penchant for taking the rock genre and fucking with everything beneath the umbrella. You’ll hear funky ass wah-wah guitars side by side with rock ‘n’ roll twang piano, happy lyrics sidling their way mischievously into minor chord progressions, indie-folk pop vibes dancing for joy behind walls of ‘50s boogie woogie and whinging dobro falling neatly into place between modernized country emotives. This is where your Sunday night starts to get psychedelic, so don’t fret; just chill out and enjoy.

The Oregon Country Fair music scene is something to revel in, and if you don’t you’re gonna have a bad time. At first glance it’ll probably look like a bunch of dirty, stinking hippies jamming out, but trust me, they’re so much more than that.

More information on dates, times, and stages at oregoncountryfair.org

EW 7/7