Portland Brewing becomes Pyramid Brewing

Michelle and I were out taking photos of brew pubs on Saturday and visited Portland Brewing for the first time. Portland Brewing was bought by Pyramid Brewing last August, and I’ve not heard much of what was going to happen here at the brewery. Oddly enough, just a week before our visit Pyramid finally changed the facade on the building to read Pyramid Breweries.

Somewhat shocking, but we continued. The gorgeous copper kettles really give the place an air of authenticity. We grabbed a seat and were promptly offered Pyramid Hefeweisen or perhaps an Apricot Ale. *shudder* I guess change is good.

I asked about the kettles and about what the plans for the brewery were and was told that Pyramid would be moving all its brewing to the Portland facility and would be using their Seattle facility for brewing Malternatives (alchipop, etc). While I’m glad that the Portland brewery got the good end of the stick, it seems that there may be an increase in the number of breweries that seek the coveted Brewed in Oregon status. This worries me because it may draw beer marketers who may merely seek to exploit the Oregon Craft designation.

We’ll see what the future holds, but I hope that the quality of “brewed in Oregon” doesn’t deteriorate like Weinhard’s “ales” have since leaving Portland.