The Portland Beer Market in One Picture

This is the sign at Eastmoreland Golf Course, a public course owned and operated by the City of Portland:

Wasn't long ago your choices were Bud, Bud Light and PBR.

Okay So Maybe You Can Get Rich in Beer

Although it will take a lot of hard work, good publicity and marketing skills, considerable luck, and well, maybe it would help if you started nearer to the start of the craft beer renaissance.  You can tick all of those boxes for Jim Koch founder of Sam Adams, whose recent stock gains have made Jim a billionaire at least on paper.

Closer to home, one can only wonder how well Gary Fish is doing.  He built Deschutes from scratch and it remains a privately held concern, but one that appears to maintain healthy growth.

But as Jim Koch mentions in the article, getting rich is not (or shouldn't be) the point. Having fun and enjoying what you do is.

Most craft beer businesses are built around creating a sustainable local business but there are some, like Ninkasi to name the fist brewery that pops into my head, that are build on raid growth and expansion.  As beer is a large economy of scale business, that is the one way to make it to the 1%.  Or in Jim's case the .1%.

Cheers!

Widmer Octoberfest

There are so many beery events in Portland I don't get too uptight about missing them, but the Widmer Octoberfest is one that I have been wanting to attend.  Fortunately, this year the good folks at Widmer have invited me to come along and I plan on accepting. 

The brewery site is a pretty cool place (and especially easy to access now that MAX goes right by) the Widmer's make consistently excellent beer and the pub focuses on Germanic-y food so they got the sausage and pretzels nailed presumably.

The fest runs Friday and Saturday and after this freak storm, hopefully the weather will be good. 

Recommended.