Forest Grove’s new Pelagic Brewing partners with Bull Run Cider on new Public House — New School Beer + Cider

There is a certain division between the beer styles that Pelagic specializes in. At the forefront of their initial established identity are highly attenuated food friendly Saisons. Their brewing goals are to keep these French and Belgian-inspired ales dry and approachable and generally under 6% abv. However, head brewer Ben Weber is keen to focus on hop-driven ales and lagers which he is strong in. Even then, the IPAs and Pales are first and foremost drinkability emphasized in the low end of IBUS and alcohol in the 5.5-6.5% abv range. The Launch Day Lager, a 4.2% abv double-dry-hopped beer, has emerged as a best seller and flagship for the brewery. The taplist is buoyed by a consistent malt-focused beer, currently a dark rye beer, along golden farmhouse ales and variations of IPA. In total they have a core lineup with 3 saisons, a pale, 4 IPAs, and a West Coast lager, and hopefully supplemented by rotating seasonals or one-offs.

“I love experimentation, and I travel for work (I’m the partner who had to keep the day job), so I taste beers all over the country, and bring back ideas, recipes, and formulas that Ben and I pilot in small batches on the weekends, and some, like the Launch Day end up on the regular taps,” says Josh Weber

Pelagic runs on a small nano-sized brewhouse and pieces cobbled together from other closed operations, they often have to turn twice a day to fill a fermenter. Unfortunately the Ridgewalker Brewing space is no better for brewing, so they must keep brewing in their original location while looking to upgrade their brewhouse and continue production off-site from the new taproom which is luckily only about 6 blocks away.

The new restaurant and taproom that Pelagic has taken over came turnkey, with 30 draft faucets to fill, which is a big lift for even much larger breweries. Instead Pelagic is focusing on a filling 8 to 10 of those draft lines with their housemade beers, and has partnered with fellow Forest Grove fermenationists Bull Run Cider to help fill out the selection as well as create a complete experience for crossover drinkers and fans of both brands.