Covalent Brewing: Woman Owned, Woman Brewed

Women and beer. It's a fraught subject even in the 21st Century, isn't it?

While most of the advertising for beer still features mostly young guys with a smattering of smashing-looking female model types (just so you'll know the guys are manly men), there's not a lot of acknowlegement of women—and I count myself among them—who really love beer.

That same absence of women is reflected in brewing. As Megan Flynn, editor of Beer West magazine (now closed) said in an article I wrote in 2011 on Oregon's women brewers, "I don’t think it’s that different from any other male-dominated industry," noting that the dearth of women in the field isn’t because women aren’t interested in beer or brewing.

"The at-work brewing scene, the guys are very used to being dudes," she said. "It’s heavy lifting, manual labor, moving hoses, lifting up kegs and listening to loud music." It can make it hard for women to feel welcome, even if there's not outright harassment.

Covalent Brewing's Meagan Hatfield.

Teri Fahrendorf, founder of the Pink Boots Society for women brewers and for 17 years the head brewer at Steelhead Brewing in Eugene, said it was evident to her early on that women could do the job by doing it smarter, not harder. Instead of trying to match the guys muscle-for-muscle, she said, she always asked "how can I do this so that I’m not going to get worn out" after a few years as she'd seen so many of her male colleagues do.

So far there's only one woman, Kari Gjerdingen of Mutiny Brewing in Joseph, Oregon, who has opened her own brewery. But we who live in the Willamette Valley may be about to get our own "woman-owned, woman-brewed" brewery in the person of Meagan Hatfield. A home-brewer for 13 years, a six-month stint at Wyeast Laboratories confirmed her decision to go into brewing as a profession. A degree in biology also helped.

"The science of brewing is so fascinating, " she said. "I'm kind of a nerd for that."

It's no wonder, then, that she's named her new venture Covalent Brewing after chemical bonds formed during the brewing process. Not that it's all science, mind you. Hatfield said that she's found that creating different flavor combinations is also exciting, and foresees a wide range of year-round standards on her list with a couple of rotating taps for experiments.

Lately she's been particularly taken with chile pepper infusions and is curious about incorporating other seasonal ingredients like squash in her brewing. Hatfield has been slowly collecting equipment and is looking for a building that would accomodate a small brewery and tasting room somewhere in Southeast Portland or possibly Milwaukie. Let's hope she finds one soon.

Travels with Chili: On the Wild Imnaha

Yes, we tent camp. But with a car. And a queen-sized blow-up mattress. And a fully stocked bar. It's just the way we roll.

The Indian Crossing campground, 50 miles outside the town of Joseph and on the banks of the Imnaha River, was just what we wanted. Arriving mid-week, we found one other couple camped there, and they left early the next morning, leaving us as the sole occupants if you don't count the herd of deer that apparently called the area home.

After setting up the tent and the stove, the first order of business was a batch of martinis to wash away the dust from a day of driving. Because we'd arrived late, we made a quick fire from scavenged wood scraps and sat down to a sophisticated dinner of deli sandwiches while we sipped our cocktails and watched the thousands of stars come out.

A note about the campground while I'm at it: As you can hear in the video above, the river was a noisy and constant presence. I thought of it as white noise and got used to it roaring in the background, but if you want a quieter experience there are several sites away from the river bank. The best campsite is lucky number 13, a double site that's plenty big enough for two good-sized tents and is situated next to the river with a small pebbled beach.

As for the river itself, it's not terribly deep but flows swiftly as it drops from its source at 7000 feet up on Eagle Cap. So those with dogs and children need to keep a wary eye on them if they wander near the river, since the current flows swiftly even near the banks. We had Walker with us, and though he's not one to go jumping into bodies of water, I watched him carefully whenever we were near it.

Sponsored planters in downtown Joseph.

The second day we drove into Joseph to explore the town and have lunch at Mutiny Brewing. The small Western town finds itself in the happy position of catering to skiers and hunters in the winter and outdoor enthusiasts and tourists in the summer, and has a fair number of artists and sculptors as year-round residents. It's also recently started a campaign, funded by state and federal grants, to spruce up its downtown with planter boxes sponsored and maintained by local residents and businesses, many featuring bronze statues of wildlife crafted by local artisans.

The view from Mutiny Brewing's front yard.

Mutiny Brewing itself has a large front garden that spills out onto the street, its front-row view of the Wallowas putting it in a dead heat with Pelican Pub as the prettiest view from a pub in Oregon. Brewer and owner Kari Gjerdingen's beers were spectacular, as might be expected from the brewer who put Terminal Gravity's beers on the list of must-have Oregon brews.

Kari Gjerdingen in her element.

Her small but much-loved four-barrel system allows her to put two or three beers on tap at any given time, and fortunately Kari is as dedicated to the quality of the food she serves as the beer she brews. She was somewhat embarrassed that she had only two beers on tap, but they were a fantastic hefeweizen and a truly impressive ESB. The hef was appropriately  cloudy and light, with a slight hint of a saison that Kari said came from the Belgian yeast she used to brew it. The ESB had a very assertive maltiness that was somehow not overly sweet, with great body and flavor. We both gave this beer a huge thumbs-up.

Negronis on a stump.

After a stroll around town, it was back to the wilderness where Dave built a fire in the firepit as the sun was going down, the better to have coals to cook steak and potatoes. When the coals were ready he sliced the potatoes and doused them in olive oil and garlic, then wrapped each one in tin foil and set them in the fire. As they cooked we had some of the premixed Negronis he’d brought, then with the coals at their peak he cooked the steak and I made a salad from homegrown greens. With a nice bottle of inexpensive French red (an ’08 Domaine Chapoton Cotes du Rhone), it was a perfect meal.

With the resident deer haunting the edges of the light thrown by the fire, we again watched the stars come out and, once in our sleeping bags, slept without waking until morning.