For the holidays my wife and I went down to Eugene, Oregon to visit our friends. Of course for me this is an opportunity to visit a new brewery. With a location 2 hours south of Portland and home to the University of Oregon, short of seeing a Ducks game this is a rare opportunity for me to visit Eugene.
Ninkasi is the largest brewery in Eugene and the 4th largest in Oregon. Named after the ancient Sumerian Goddess of fermentation the companies motto is “Perpetuate Better Living”, which is a tribute to the companies promise to the environment as well as the fun of enjoying a beer. One of the two founders Jamie Floyd attended the University of Oregon when he discover his passion for beer. Although not studding fermentation science like a traditional brewer he got into home brewing. This lead him to getting a job with another local brewery in Eugene as a brewer since he did have the self taught technical knowledge. This is where he was able to fine tune his skills as a brewer. In 2005 he met Nikos Ridge at a beer tasting where Nikos had stopped to taste Jamie’s beer. Nikos who had a degree in finance, also from the University of Oregon, wanted to partner with Jamie on a brewery. With both of their backgrounds it was a perfect match. So in 2006 they leased a spot in a German restaurant in Springfield and created their flag ship Total Domination IPA. This beer led the way of most modern IPA’s by utilizing a large amount of hops that creates that citrusy, floral, crisp and bitter flavor profile we are all use to. All of their beer is unfiltered but does run thorough a machine that kicks out any impurities such as dead yeast cells.
In 2007 they purchased some land in Eugene and created their own brewery. They have gone through four expansions over the years as they have grown. Currently the original building houses their bottling line and a small 15 barrel system that they use for their R & D (rare and delicious) beer production. They have expanded it to include a tasting room and an outdoor patio. Across the street is their main brewing facility. All of the beer is pumped through tubes in a sky bridge to the bottling facility across the street. The brewery also has a barrel aging facility for some of their R & D projects. Then just down the road a bit is their administration offices which houses a rock climbing wall and a recording studio. They let up and coming artists preform on their patio of the tasting room as well as record in their studio to help get them discovered. In addition James Book who is well experienced in the music industry is on hand to give free advice to the artists. This is one of the ways they give back and perpetuate better living.
As any good financial advisor will tell you, diversification is key. So across the street from the brewery is Ninkasi Metal. They have a full metal shop where you can custom order anything from tables, trays, counter tops, and gates (which all happen to be featured in the tasting room). All of their tap handles are custom made in their metal shop and you can take home a bottle opener that was also made there. Most recently they were chosen by Sierra Nevada to make the 36 foot custom gates for their east coast facility.
Ninkasi is a great blend of large production as they are distributed in 14 states, 2 Canadian Providences, and D.C., but keeping the small time values. Their flagship Total Domination IPA is a classic Northwest IPA with an ABV of 6.7% and 65 IBU’s. Also in their flagship series is their Dawn of the Red IRA which as an AVB of 7% with 75 IBU’s, Tracerhops Double IPA that has an ABV of 8% and 100 IBU’s, Lux which is a traditional German style lager with 5.3% ABV and 20 IBU’s, Oatis oatmeal stout with 7% ABV and 50 IBU, Vanilla Otis vanilla oatmeal stout also with 7% ABV and 50 IBU, and Quantum Pale Ale that has a 5.6% ABV and 35 IBU but is only available in Oregon. And be on the lookout for their R & D series as well as their Seasonal Release series, their Special Release series and their Archived series.
