More Ways to Grab a Cold One

There are always plenty of ways — and places — to get a good local beer ‘round these parts. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth noting when new beers, and new beer sellers, appear in our neck of the woods. A few weeks ago, George Wierichs opened Beer Nuts Bottle Shop (98 E. 13th Ave., Suite B; 344-BEER) with “not really too much fanfare.” The shop specializes in what Wierichs describes as “West Coast beers and the best of the rest.” He says, “We hope to have all 60-some of the Oregon breweries represented, but right now we’re just getting started, so we have a lower inventory than we’d like. But it’s getting bigger every week.” 

Bottles are priced individually at Beer Nuts, with the idea that customers can make their own six-packs from the shop’s 100 varieties. “You’re not upcharged for trying a variety of beers,” Wierichs says of Beer Nuts’ pricing. You can, of course, pick up local brews like Ninkasi and Rogue’s Track Town Ales — and eventually Oakshire, as soon as they start bottling their brews. Despite the quiet opening and lack of advertising, Wierichs says he’s been getting a decent amount of walk-in traffic since the store opened its doors on April 4, noting, “Everybody keeps saying they’re telling their friends.”

Speaking of Oakshire Brewing, they’ve got plenty of new things afoot, including a new head brewer and brewmaster. Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk comes to Oakshire from Flossmoor Station in Illinois. He’s been blogging on the brewery’s website (oakbrew.com) since early March, discussing topics both beer related (the arrival of new equipment) and not (an eventful road trip to Eugene). Head brewer Joe Jasper (who joined the operation in January) and Van Wyk have been popping up at events over the last month; from 5 to 7 pm Wednesday, April 29, you can find them at the Bier Stein, where Oakshire’s Watershed IPA and Hindsight ESB will be on tap. “It is a true to style extra special bitter,” Oakshire cofounder Chris Althouse says of the new ESB. “We start with pure McKenzie River water, of course, [and] add organic 2-row base malt, American and English specialty malts and the perfect amount of bittering hops,” he says. 

You can also catch the Oakshire team — as well as the folks from Ninkasi, Corvallis’ Block 15 and Albany’s Calapooia, among plenty of others — in Silverton this weekend, April 24-25, for the Oregon Garden Brewfest. See www.oregeongarden.org for details.