Being a B Corp Brewery

In mid-October of this year, Portland was host to a gathering of certified B Corporations. The metro area currently boasts more than 40 businesses that have gone through the tough vetting process required for certification, out of a total of 55 in the entire state. To get an idea of how certification impacts businesses in one industry, I attended a panel featuring four craft breweries that have been certified by the organization. The breweries featured on the panel were employee-owned New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, Colorado; Beau's All Natural Brewing Company of Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada; Brewery Vivant of Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Hopworks Brewing Company of Portland (our fair city), Oregon. This post was developed in collaboration with advertiser Hopworks Urban Brewery, one of the B Corp-certified breweries featured on the panel.

First of all, what the heck is a B Corporation?

According to the website, B Corporations are "for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency."

In practice what it means is that each of these breweries chose to look critically at not just their business practices, but their use of resources, the way they treat their employees and their commitment to their communities. Perhaps because the founders of B Corporation were business guys, the focus on merging doing good while growing a business has helped these breweries commit to taking a long-term approach to recouping the costs of becoming more sustainable.

For Katie Wallace, the Assistant Director of Sustainability at New Belgium, that means the values-based ethics of her employee-owned business benefited from "putting into words what we've been doing since the company was founded." Steve Beauchesne of Beau's, a certified organic brewery, echoed Wallace's statement, saying that his family decided to go through the process because it was "better to be at the leading edge rather than trailing behind," baking sustainability into the DNA of the company rather than trying to retrofit. Plus, on a practical if not completely serious note, "the beer tastes better."

The process of certification, based on a scorecard and point scale, is flexible enough to accomodate different approaches depending on the focus of the business. For instance, initially Christian Ettinger of Hopworks said that his brewery focused on the resource side, like water use, electricity, sourcing of ingredients and the built environment of the brewery itself. A further step involved establishing a board of directors for the company, a move that B Corporation encourages as the best way to ensure that the values of the company are maintained over time, one that Ettinger feels has far-reaching benefits for the stability of the business going forward.

Two key areas for all of the breweries involved their employees and the public.

Kris Spaulding, co-owner of Brewery Vivant, said that they've worked to cultivate an ownership mentality in the culture of the brewery, like giving employees permission to put their passions to work through paid time off to do voluteer work in the community. Beauchesne said that even though, in his words, "beer is a big motivator," since getting certified he's seen Beau's employees make more of a personal connection to their work.

Ettinger said that Hopworks has even inserted sustainability into job descriptions, with every applicant being asked how they see sustainability fitting into their work. Panelists echoed the importance of having every worker become a champion of the sustainability goals, making the goals not just words on a piece of paper, but also another way of holding the company accountable to those goals.

As if dispensing terrific beer wasn't enough to make customers happy, B Corporation certification helps the breweries differentiate themselves from others in their respective areas, and the good will it generates "makes it an easy way to engage with their customers," according to Spaulding. Accountability also plays a part with the public, with an informed customer base encouraged to get involved and hold the business to its stated goals.

The bottom line is that certification is not a one-time achievement but an ongoing effort. Beauchesne said that for Beau's, "the most important part was going through the process," having goals for improvement via the evaluation the brewery received, with the scorecard helping them to focus on where to invest their energy and money in the future.

As Ettinger joked, "When we get to 200 points [on the scale], I can retire."

Watch a video of the entire panel discussion.

Top photo, l to r, Kris Spaulding of Brewery Vivant, Steve Beauchesne of Beau's All Natural Brewing Company, Katie Wallace of New Belgium Brewing and Christian Ettinger of Hopworks Brewing Company.

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.

At Ecliptic Brewing, It's Tough To Not Get Starstruck

It's not hard, looking at brewer John Harris, to imagine him as a 10-year-old, laying on his back in the grass gazing up at the stars shimmering in the blackness of the night sky. It's not just his boyish looks that make this leap so easy, especially when he starts explaining each of his beers is named after a different star, moon or astronomical phenomenon. Or that the looping design of the lighting system above the dining room reflects the path of the sun as observed from the dining room, a figure eight shape known as an analemma. Of course, he had to give his brewery an appropriately spacey name, too, and chose Ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun on the celestial sphere.

Fine.

Mussels steamed in Spica Hefepils.

But in the two years he spent looking for a building after quitting the job he'd held for 20 years as Brewmaster at Full Sail Brewing, he also knew he wanted more than just a typical brewpub to serve his—and this is no exaggeration, since we're talking about the guy who created such iconic Oregon craft beers as Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Black Butte Porter, Obsidian Stout and Jubelale—exceptional lineup of beers. Not for him the usual pub menu consisting of half-hearted hummus plates, hamburgers or pizza. He went looking for a chef who could create a menu that would measure up to the exceptional quality of the beer he was making, who would be as committed to the quality of the ingredients in the food as Harris himself was to the ingredients going into his beer.

Confit drumsticks. In a pub. Yowza.

It's interesting, to say the least, especially in food-crazed Portland, that the idea of a chef in a brewpub is practically unheard of. I'm sure Harris ran into his fair share of rolling eyes and shaking heads when he said that was what he wanted to do, but from my visits to the pub since it opened and from a media event to unveil the new fall menu, he's found a complementary vision in the food that Executive Chef Michael Molitor (on the right, top photo) is cranking out of the kitchen. The menu is set to rotate every six weeks on—get this—"the Old World calendar" dates for Samhain, Winter Solstice, Bridgid, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas and the Autumnal Equinox. (It's so nerdy, I love it.)

Pan-roasted chicken with red pepper vinaigrette.

While not hoity-toity in execution—this is food meant to go with Harris's hearty Northwest microbrews, after all—it is exceptional in that it's far more than breaded, fried and (heavily) salted pub grub. Take, for instance, the appetizers presented at the tasting mentioned above. Yes, they do have fries, but these are thin, crispy and served hot with aioli. The mussels are steamed in roasted tomatoes and Spica Hefepils, then topped with shaved bonito. There's a choice of a Caesar-esque romaine and treviso salad overlaid with a slice of pecorino or an endive, asian pear and Camembert salad with a maple-mustard vinaigrette. Instead of the ubiquitous wings or fish and chips, you can have light and heavendly salt cod fritters or a plate of confit drumsticks with sweet chili sauce. Pinch me!

A couple of mains worth mentioning are a succulent pan-roasted chicken with a corn and zucchini salsa with cotija cheese and a red pepper vinaigrette, or a red wine-braised brisket on housemade Savoy cabbage kraut scattered with house-pickled rutabaga (not yet listed on the website menu). Talk about setting the bar; I was knocked out. I hope you will be, too!

Details: Ecliptic Brewing, 825 N Cook St. 503-265-8002.

Travels with Chili: Wenatchee's Winning Ways

The sun was just past the yardarm as we left lovely Lake Chelan and headed for our weekend getaway in Wenatchee. Since we're always ready to check out the local brews of the areas we visit, we stopped at Columbia Valley Brewing hoping for some thirst-quenching action and a nosh or three.

Kicking this leg off right…with a pint!

With a big patio overlooking the Columbia, the thirst-quenching was there in spades with a selection of everything from Belgian-style ale to the requisite NW IPA to a deep dark porter. The noshing was nowhere to be seen, however, with naught but peanuts on offer. If we'd known, though, we could have brought our own 'cue-able items, since they have a BYOM (bring your own meat) policy and the grills were getting fired as we arrived.

Baseball and beer pair well, don't you think?

The helpful bar attendant suggested that we try a local hangout called McGlinn's downtown for lunch. We arrived to find a piece of local history that was as lively as when it was the Orando Recreation Club in the 1920s. Originally housing railroad and dam workers on its top two floors, in the 30s and 40s it was home to the players for the Wenatchee Chiefs baseball team. Much of the team's equipment and memorabilia was left to molder in the building's basement when they moved out, to be found decades later by the owners who were restoring the building. That history is now on prominent display and can be enjoyed with local brews and the offerings on the wide-ranging menu.

Artisan cider is a new crop for the area.

After checking in to our room at the zoomiest Marriott I've ever seen, with its Jetsons-like (and very un-Wenatchee) decor, it was time to head out to Kyle and Marcia Green's Cashmere Cider Mill for a taste of their Lady Blush artisan ciders. Washington apples are pressed in a machine designed by Kyle himself, then combined with other fruits like raspberries, blueberries, huckleberries and even lavender to make their nonalcoholic ciders. The Greens also provide guest suites in the historic farmhouse on the property (top photo shows a view from the back porch), and if you're looking for a quiet country getaway, this would be a good choice.

Orchard country means pears, apples and cherries.

As mentioned in my post on Chelan, this area was home to a booming orchard industry in the last century. Like BC's Okanagan, it's been discovered by winemakers and vineyard developers, with many old orchards being ripped out to plant grapes. Fortunately for some, though, the region is also discovering the benefits of hard ciders made from their apples, so land that may not be conducive to growing grapes is finding a new outlet for its famous crop.

Peter Ringsrud of Snowdrift Cider.

We visited one of these hard cider producers, Peter Ringsrud of Snowdrift Cider, whose family has roots in the Wenatchee Valley going back to the 1940s. With memories of the hard ciders his family had made with a hand-cranked press and glass carboys, in 2003 he and his wife decided to try their hands at making hard cider. Discovering that the family's cider had been made from heirloom French Calville Blanc d'Hiver, and then researching other cider apples, by 2009 they had built a small micro-winery and obtained a license to produce hard ciders that are now beginning to attract serious attention.

Organic is Greg McPherson's thing.

Just down the road from Snowdrift was the farm of Greg McPherson, a jovial raconteur who loves to talk about his large organic farm, Tiny's Organic, which he runs with his daughter, Erin, and two sons Jay and John. Supplying enough for 30 or so farmers' markets in western Washington, the farm also offers a significant number of CSA shares with a dizzying variety of membership options. They were harvesting cherries the day we were there, and it was a pleasure to walk through the grass under the trees and pick the (unsprayed) cherries right off the branches.

Farmer Grant Kallstrom at Wenatchee Farmers' Market.

As luck would have it, the Wenatchee Farmers' Market was in full swing when we returned from Tiny's, so of course I had to do a walk-through to check it out and, yes, sample some more of the delicious cherries. The market's a bustling place and so popular with local shoppers that it runs three days a week during the harvest season, with morning markets on Wednesday and Saturday and an evening market on Thursday. In addition to the cherries there were beans, greens, a few early tomatoes and a trailer-load of fresh corn…unfortunately our room at the Marriott didn't have a kitchen or I would have been tempted to grab some and have dinner in.

Brewer Jason Doten of Saddle Rock.

Another lucky break? Right next door to the market was brand new Saddle Rock Pub and Brewery, named after a Wenatchee landmark known for its crazy biking trails and fabulous views. The pub has a dozen brews on tap at any given time, along with a few hard ciders. It's soon to be offering…licensing was mere days away when I was there…a selection of beers made by owners Chadd Fitzpatrick and Jason Doten. A casual place to sip beer and hang out, it's right downtown with a view of the historic river district. What's also impressive is their dedication to making their pizzas and salads with as many local ingredients as they can, and from the sampling I had the food alone is worth stopping in for.

We didn't have time this trip to visit Bavarian-themed Leavenworth just up the road or the slew of wineries that dot the valley, but theyll certainly be drawing us back for another exploratory road trip.

Read about the first leg of this road trip in Dipping Into Chelan.