Both the brewery and the beer permanent part of landscape
April, 1998It's nothing new these days for craft breweries to pop up in old or historic buildings - from former train stations like Grant's Brewery & Pub in Yakima to Pyramid's Washington and Oregon Railway and Navigation Company warehouse in Seattle. But there is something different about the BridgePort Brewing Company, located on the site of a former rope factory built over a hundred years ago on Marshall Street in Portland's industrial Pearl District. From the Willamette hop-covered exterior brick walls to its heavy-timbered interior, everything about the brewery suggests that this place is destined, like the beer itself, to be a permanent part of the Northwest landscape.
Founded by winemakers Dick and Nancy Ponzi in 1984, BridgePort is Oregon's oldest operating craft brewery (Portland's Cartwright Brewery, a short-lived venture begun in 1980, was actually the first to brew commercially.) The Ponzis, also leaders in Northwest's wine revolution, lobbied the Oregon legislature to change state law and allow the licensing of brewpubs. Their original intent was to brew only 600 barrels of British-style ales per year. From this humble beginning, the brewery has grown into a major regional brewery, producing an estimated 22,000 barrels in 1997.
Unlike other Northwest breweries like Redhook or Widmer, whose expansion has taken place in giant leaps, BridgePort's growth has been more gradual, accomplished without a public stock offering. When the brewery began bottling in April, 1989, BridgePort had already established a solid reputation for well-crafted brews - not the hoppiest or the most unusual, perhaps, but the epitome of well-balanced Northwest ales. Three bottled ales were on the market by 1995 : Blue Heron Pale Ale, the company's flagship product, Coho Pacific Extra Pale Ale, and Pintail ESB.
But by October of that year, the Ponzis decided to sell the brewery to the giant Gambrinus Company, headquartered in San Antonio , Texas. "BridgePort had three choices in terms of future growth, " Dick Ponzi said. "We could draw the line at expansion to distant markets, we could invest in expansion on our own, or we could sell to a proven sales and marketing organization." The Ponzis chose the latter, noting how Gambrinus, exclusive importer of Corona Extra and other Mexican brands, had made Shiner Bock from the tiny Spoetzl Brewery near Austin, Texas, into a top national brand (6th in sales in the United States among domestic specialty beers in 1996).
Gambrinus began immediately to revamp the BridgePort line, making a $3.5 million investment in new equipment (including a Krones bottling line) and new packaging. The company's original brewer, Karl Ockert, who had left in 1990, re-joined the firm as brewery operations manager. The beers were re-christened "firkin" ales, after the traditional British 9 Imperial gallon (11.2 U.S. gallon) cask used for conditioning ales. While BridgePort was by no means the first Northwest brewery to begin cask-conditioning its beers, the name was something of a marketing coup as it coincided with a revival of interest in naturally carbonated (and dispensed) ales, which actually finish their fermentation in the serving cask or keg. However, it did create some confusion among consumers, (and, it must be said, some controversy with other breweries) since the BridgePort bottled beer was never actually made in a firkin, but similarly conditioned with yeast in the bottle (a practice common to homebrewers and other craft breweries such as Sierra Nevada). However, BridgePort did acquire many authentic firkins for cask-conditioning its draught beer, which is now served by hand-pump and gravity (as well as in regular keg form) at the brewery pub as well as at its Hawthorne Street Ale House, opened in January 1997 on the east side of Portland.
But the biggest change for the off-premise consumer has been BridgePort's packaging. Not content to look like other micros on the crowded Northwest shelf, the company had a new proprietary bottle designed by Anstey Healy Design of Portland. The tall-old-fashioned shape with "BridgePort " and "Oregon's Oldest Craft Brewery" embossed on the shoulder was a big hit in the marketplace, and garnered a special design award at the 1997 GABF in Denver.
The BridgePort labels have also undergone a major change. Gone are the elegant (and award-winning) images of Northwest fish and feathers in favor of a more standardized look. Blue Heron, named after Portland's official city bird and long the consumer's favorite, also ran into difficulty in the distribution department outside the Northwest, since the Mendocino Brewing Company of Hopland. California produces a beer of the same name. It is now known simply as Bridgeport Amber Ale. The ESB is still produced, but has also lost its Pintail feathers. Coho Pacific has unfortunately become extinct (hopefully its namesake Northwest wild salmon will not follow suit.)
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The company has now decided, as a result of consumer protest, to abandon its plan to discontinue its popular Blue Heron Ale. BridgePort Amber, a somewhat maltier beer based on the same recipe, has nevertheless been added to the brewery's product line.
BridgePort now produces five year-round brands: Amber, ESB. India Pale Ale, Porter, and Black Strap Stout. The eminently drinkable Amber (O.G. 1.050, 5.2% a.b.v.) uses four malts and Cascade hops. Dry hopped with Northwest Goldings, the BridgePort ESB has a fine hop aroma (O.G. 1.056. 5.8% a.b.v.). The India Pale Ale is less aggressively hopped and alcoholic than many other Northwest versions of the style ( still with a respectable 50 IBU's of Cascade, Chinook, Golding, Crystal, and Ultra, 5.5% a.b.v.) It won a gold medal for British-style Pale Ale at the 1997 GABF in Denver. The Porter has a nice roasted malt flavor and is excellent on draught (O.G. 1056, 5.5% a.b.v.) BridgePort's Black Strap Stout (O.G. 1.065, 6.0% a.b.v.) is a very rich and strong brew, with some sweetness from the use of black strap molasses as an adjunct. Notable among BridgePort's other seasonal beers is the brewery's Old Knucklehead, a fine barley wine now released each year in November.
The BridgePort Brew Pub at the brewery is a Northwest classic and not to be missed. The family-friendly pub serves pizza with dough made from beer wort, as well as sandwiches and salads to complement the range of ales. Hours are Monday -Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to midnight; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. The brewery's Hawthorne Street pub is more upscale in atmosphere with a rack of firkins and a wood-fired oven for pizza and seafood. It is open at 11:30 a.m. daily , until 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, midnight Friday and Saturday, and 10 p.m. on Sunday.
Buoyed by the recent success of its IPA, the brewery experienced 35% growth in 1997, while most large Northwest breweries had a decline in sales. Once sold in nine states, BridgePort now only distributes to Oregon, Washington, and a limited amount to Colorado in order to assure quality control for its beers. Prior to its expansion by Gambrinus, the brewery had a total capacity of 31,000 barrels per year. With new equipment, it can now make up to about 60,000 barrels.
BridgePort is a prime example of a pioneer Northwest craft brewery that has responded well to the changes in the industry over the last 14 years with steady growth, while still remaining true to its roots. Without following the stylistic whims of the marketplace, or trying to become a nationally-distributed brand, it has retained a focus on the ale styles that began the craft beer renaissance here. As the expansionist phase of the microbrew boom has faded, BridgePort has clearly stood the test of the time: a brewery built to last.
