Heater Allen Brewing in western Oregon is a unique brewery with a unique home. Tucked away smack dab in the middle of wine country, Heater Allen’s own next-door neighbor is a winery.
“If they (Remy Wines) are having an event we’ll usually open up,” says owner/head brewer Rick Allen, “because what we find is, the cars drive up and the women head for the winery and the men head to the brewery first to try the beer and then they go down to the winery.”
Allen, a former investment banker, opened family-run Heater Allen on a side street in downtown McMinnville, part of the so-called “pinot noir triangle” in Oregon’s Willamette Valley in March 2007. In 2013, Allen and his daughter, assistant brewer Lisa, decided to close their small taproom, but that hasn’t stopped beer lovers from seeking out Heater Allen’s award-winning, European-style lagers.
“We just weren’t getting the traffic to justify staying open on the weekends,” Allen says. “It’s funny, but since we’ve been closed we’re probably selling more beer at the brewery than we were before. We tell people that we’ll sell beer when we’re there—Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm—instead of selling pints, we’re selling cases.”
With Heater Allen situated in one of America’s premier hop-growing regions, Allen admits his beers are a little more hop-forward than those you would find in the traditional styles’ home countries, and he sources most of his hops from the Pacific Northwest. Allen says he finds the hops come “pretty darn close” to replicating the qualities of their German counterparts, so he prefers to keep it local.
The exception is Heater Allen’s year-round flagship Pils (4.9 percent ABV, 36.6 IBU, 3.6 SRM), a Bohemian-style pilsener that at last check was the number one pale lager in the world on Ratebeer.com.
“I can’t imagine making a Czech-style pilsener without Saaz hops,” Allen says. “My goal is, as much as I can, to replicate an unfiltered, unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell that you would get at the brewery.”
Pils, with its rounded maltiness and crisp, hoppy finish, is a favorite among the local winery folks, with whom Allen has developed strong friendships and community partnerships. Allen himself is an avid fan of wine, as a matter of fact.
“I think it’s fun,” Allen says of running a brewery in the middle of wine country. “We have a really good relationship with a lot of the wineries, and actually during (grape) harvest and other times of the year we sell a lot of beer to wineries because after they’ve been basically processing grapes all day long, one of the last things in the world they want is a glass of wine. They’d much rather have a beer.”
So, too, do the beer geeks, who enjoy Allen’s talent for replicating classic European-style lagers with just a little extra zip to quench the thirst of the many Oregonian hop-heads—particularly because one of the great beer cities of the world just an hour northeast of the brewery.
“We sell a lot of beer in Portland,” Allen says.
Heater Allen’s beers are distributed throughout the state and in limited quantity in parts of neighboring California. To keep up with demand, last fall the Allens expanded from their 6-barrel system and installed a new 15-barrel brewhouse that will result in a doubling of production in 2014 to about 1,000 barrels. The three-member team—Rick, Lisa and Lisa’s boyfriend, Patrick Harkins—expects to crank out about 1,400 to 1,500 barrels in 2015.
In addition to the Pils, Heater Allen also produces Coastal, a “Northwest amber lager” as Allen likes to call it, as well as a schwarzbier, dunkel , dark bock, Maibock, dopplebock and—closest to Allen’s heart—a Märzen called Bobtoberfest.
The beer is named for Allen’s late brother, Bob, who died of cancer in 2003, the year Rick Allen decided to leave the banking industry an open a brewery. Bob Allen is the person who inspired Rick to begin homebrewing a quarter-century ago, and developed Rick’s passion for lagers, and Oktoberfest beers in particular.
The 5.4 percent ABV brew is described as having a “bright amber color…rich, malty and smooth” with a touch more hop bitterness found in most traditional German Oktoberfest beers.
To celebrate the birthday of Bob Allen and the release of the fall seasonal, Heatern Allen is throwing its annual Bobtoberfest party on Sept. 13, from 1-6pm, at the brewery (907 NE 10th Ave., McMinnville).
“Bob was a huge inspiration,” Rick Allen says. “I don’t know if I ever would have gotten into brewing if it wasn’t for Bob, so I think about him all the time when I’m brewing my beer. And that beer is definitely a tribute to Bob.”
To schedule a private tasting at the brewery, call 503-472-4898.
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