Brian Yaeger’s “The Rural Brewer”

June 10, 2015 By Jon Abernathy | Filed in Breweries, Events

Beer writer Brian Yaeger looks to be getting into the beer event scene a bit, with a cool event coming up this Sunday the 14th at Portland’s Hawthorne Hophouse whereupon he gets to draw directly on his experience in driving all over the state visiting breweries for his book, Oregon Breweries: The Rural Brewer, a “rural brewfest” if you will.

Brian Yaeger's The Rural Brewer

Here’s the press release that Brian sent out:

Hawthorne Hophouse will be hosting Brian Yaeger’s Rural Brewer on Sunday, June 14th from 2:00-7:00 p.m. This beerfest will celebrate 13 of the smallest and most remote breweries in Oregon by featuring one brew from each brewery. Tickets are $13 advance/$15 entry includes 13 tokens to ensure sampling from each of these remote, often obscure brewhouses.

The all-ages festival also boasts festivities such as an acoustic jug band, country-fashioned bbq eats, a kids zone, and a benefit for the Oregon Environmental Council.

“Beyond Portland, Bend, and Oregon’s celebrated beer Meccas, great breweries exist all over the state”, says Yaeger. The following far-flung yet truly great breweries are participating: Boring Brewing (Boring), Twisted Snout (Toledo), Wolf Tree (Seal Rock), Solera (Parkdale), Beer Valley (Ontario), Prodigal Son (Pendleton), Hermiston Brewing (Hermiston), Plough Monday (Veneta), Ochoco (Prineville), Fire Mountain (Carlton), Yachats Farm & Brewery (Yachats), Conner Fields (Grants Pass), and Dragons Gate (Milton-Freewater). A variety of styles will be pouring, from fruit beers and other summer delights, to Belgian styles and naturally there is no shortage of IPAs and other hoppy creations.

Brian Yaeger has gone to extensive lengths to visit and cover these remote breweries, and has the goal of “introducing beer lovers to these off-the-beaten-path destinations—places like Yachats, Veneta, and Prineville—each worthy of its own beer-trip!” Having said that, no road-tripping is necessary to experience a little slice of these rural breweries by attending the fest.

Yaeger’s book, Oregon Breweries, will be on sale during the event, and he will be available for book signing, as well. Oregon Breweries is the only comprehensive guidebook to Oregon’s breweries. Each entry delves into the beers, people, and places that distinguish each brewery. Yaeger personally visited each brewery and brewpub and met with the owner and/or brewer (and yes, sampled the beers).

This looks like a great event and I’d love to see a “traveling road show” version come to Bend (hint, hint Brian). The current beer list from the Facebook event page looks like this: