Gorge breweries craft an alliance

Eleven breweries on both sides of the river have developed a map and website, are planning their first joint events, and members say that collaborative beers are a likely result. Breweries In The Gorge has also formed an executive committee, with Christie Ellenberger of Everybody’s Brewing serving as its first president.

“It’s very exciting. We were already naturally promoting each other,” Ellenberger said, “So it’s fun to have everyone get together and promote each other.”

Ellenberger said she sees Breweries In The Gorge as “an opportunity to do some cooperative things together, and give support for new people, or the less established breweries, and do marketing as one voice, because we have a unique area.”

Web site address (coming soon): breweriesinthegor...

Members: Acadian Farms, Carson; Backwoods, Carson; Big Horse Brewery, Hood River; Double Mountain, Hood River; Everybody’s, White Salmon; Full Sail, Hood River; Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Hood River; pFriem, Hood River; Solera, Parkdale; Thunder Island, Cascade Locks; Walking Man, Stevenson.

Leadership: president Christine Ellenberger, Everybody’s; vice president David Murrell, Double Mountain; secretary Tabitha Wiggins, Walking Man; treasurer John Hitt, Solera.

This April, BITG will host a visit by national Craft Beer Conference, meeting in Portland.

“Given the density and diversity of beer in the Gorge, we see the opportunity to really draw people in and see what the Gorge is all about,” said Ken Whiteman, Breweries In The Gorge (BITG) marketing committee chair and co-owner of pFriem Family Brewing. “We decided to collaborate on it, and create this soon-to-be non-profit,” Whiteman said.

The alliance got its start in casual conversations over beers, naturally, and representatives of several Gorge breweries held monthly meetings since July 2014 – the first one at a Waterfront Park picnic, and got the rest of the breweries on board.

“I was having a beer at Everybody’s, and Christie said ‘we want to get this thing going, like the winegrower’s alliance, is that something you guys would be into?’ She sent out e-mails and made it happen,” said Jon Warszynski, tap room manager at Double Mountain.

The coming-out party for Breweries of the Gorge will be the annual Zwickelmania event, Feb. 14, held at breweries around the state, including several in Hood River. Whiteman said BITG will give incentive to Zwickelmania visitors to also check out the Washington side breweries while they’re in town, or at a later date.

“That will be our first opportunity to showcase what we’re doing as Breweries in the Gorge,” Whiteman said. “As we become more formal organization, we’ll do more things, including a beer festival, possibly this fall.”

The map will include a passport for brewery patrons to get stamped and, in time, receive a BITG mug.

“The idea as well as holding events, is to provide a conduit for communications relative to the beer community in the Gorge, opportunities for pooled advertising, and drive people to visit more than one brewery can do,” Whiteman said.

Several members are three years old or younger: Thunder Island, pFriem, Arcadia, and Backwoods; two of the alliance members – Big Horse and Full Sail – have been in existence 25 years or more; Walking Man, Everybody’s and Double Mountain started 10 or so years ago, Solera is in its fourth year but it existed as a brewery (Eliot Glacier) for 15 years before that; Logsdon Ales is five years old but its owner, Dave Logsdon, is a craft beer industry charter member

Warszynski said organizing will give an off-season boost to all the breweries, most of which double as restaurants.

‘The idea is to promote the off-season, getting people stoked about our beer and our town,” Warszynski said. “People definitely do that in the summer time, but we were trying to get more people to come through, and also to promote each other.

Warszynski said the relationship between breweries “is not competition, it’s the totally opposite.

“It’s just nice to get to know each other in the industry. We get together once a month, we talk an hour, we do it at different locations, drinking each others’ beers,” Warszynski said. “I have made some amazing connections with people I didn’t know who were in the industry, which I thought was pretty cool.”