Digest: Silver Falls Brewery opened a taproom and restaurant in the former Tap & Growler space on Pearl near 5th Street. Eugene’s oldest brewery, Steelhead/McKenzie was sold after nearly four decades; the brewery will continue operation at the pub while the menu is revamped to steakhouse fare. Falling Sky, ColdFire, and Alesong raked in multiple medals at the Oregon Beer Awards and World Beer Cup (woo!).

Gratitude Brewing, still producing tasty beers, and a brewery on Franklin Boulevard are still for sale. Sixteen Tons on 13th is now New Tons Taphouse, under new ownership. Eugene Beer Week is coming up fast in the first week of June; breweries and beer bars are developing events, though there is no central information resource.

Covered Bridge Brewing in Cottage Grove is closed, as is Yachats Brewing & Farm Store. Alesong released its first lambic-style beer, Willambic (a big deal!). Ninkasi re-opened its original Tasting Room on Van Buren, as promised…

And another Eugene brewery is under new ownership: Claim 52. And I happen to work there now. Jeremiah Marsden, a friend of mine and longtime homebrewer, purchased the company, including the Kitchen on Willamette St., and asked if I would be a brewer there. Yes! The deal went down on April 29, and I’m in the “Thicc” of learning a new brewhouse and its various processes.

“So you’re making smoothie beers now?” Yes, and also lagers, IPAs, and the original Eugene Kolsch-style beer, of course. Claim ascended in the ranks of hype breweries before and during Covid with the Thicc, Stuffed, and Schticky brands, a trio of souped-up flavor bombs designed to scratch your itchy sweet tooth. So if that’s how you recognize Claim, that makes sense; they’re loud. Fact is, the brewery does more than that, just like the majority of other smoothie beer brewers. Food’s good, too.

I’ve been brewing on a commercial scale since 2021, when I joined the team at Plank Town Brewing. I learned the ropes from head brewer Bre Goulette and absorbed all I could of Steve van Rossem’s brewer’s intuition. I’ll always be grateful for my time there, but I couldn’t ignore the call to embark on a new-ish project.

Two of you may be wondering, aloud, “I thought he didn’t want to be a brewer when he grew up!” While that may be true, I say sheepishly rubbing my toe in the dirt, there comes a time in a person – this person’s – life when the thing that wasn’t a dream suddenly becomes a rather pleasant, fairly humid, clamp-ridden reality with, like, pay and benefits.

Jeff Alworth, now an internationally respected member of the beer cognoscenti, once told me “don’t quit your day job” when I told him I wanted to be a beer writer. Well, I sure did, and he was certainly right. My efforts to make Beerstone a bigger, broader publication that might have made me a few bucks were, let’s face it, mostly mental. And, as humans do, I got distracted by responsibilities, other interests, and a need for more than just beer money.

I’m proud of the years when I reported all that I possibly could, posting multiple times a month about local beer news, events, travel, and a few rants for fun. Being a member of the beer community is hugely important to me, and Beerstone has been my way of participating and returning the many favors.

My article on brewers making wine was supposed to be a stepping stone to covering more of the Willamette Valley and the Coast, where there is a gaping hole in beer news reporting. I used to cover the Valley for Northwest Brewing News, and get paid for it. Those were the days. The non-Portland metro area of Oregon has very few dedicated beer writers. Maybe just two. I hope that changes, somehow.

While I’m going through this transition into fuller-time work, I don’t expect to produce a lot here. Nor do I plan on abandoning Beerstone. Beerstone is a piece of me, and has gone through phases of my life as I navigate the delicious industry I live in. On to the next chapter!