BREW NEWS: Hopworks Brewery certified as a B Corporation; 10 Barrel moves into the Pearl; craft beer accounts for 11 percent of sales in market in 2014.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Hopworks Urban Brewery recently announced it was the first beermaker in the region to be named a B Corporation, a distinction for businesses that value the “triple bottom line.”
From OregonLive.com:
B Lab, the organization certifying B Corporations, seeks to build a community of Certified B Corporations that meet higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.There are over 1,000 Certified B Corporations from more than 60 industries in 34 countries. “It is an true honor to become a certified B Corporation and join the companies we’ve admired for so long,” said brewmaster and founder Christian Ettinger. “We’ve always believed in the direct relationship between business and environmental health and it is great to have a framework to study our progress. We are proud of what we have been able to achieve in eight short years and look forward to tackling the more challenging points in the months to come.”
Ettinger and the Hopworks crew want to revolutionize and inspire the brewing industry with practices that drive quality, protect the environment and build community. HUB’s conscientious practices include the use of USDA Certified Organic and Salmon-Safe Certified ingredients in beer, donating 1 percent of Powell brewpub pint sales to local nonprofits, providing organic and locally-sourced pub fare, maintaining 100 percent “cradle to gate” carbon neutral operations and the company’s zero waste initiative.
Hopworks is the 47th Oregon firm and seventh brewery worldwide to earn the distinction, the Portland Business Journal reports.
It recently installed a system to curb the amount of water it needs to clean its fermentation tanks. The brewery uses 3.39 gallons of water to produce a gallon of beer, less than half the industry average of seven gallons. It maintains water neutral operations by purchasing credits through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
“It’s an incredible honor to become a certified B Corporation and to sit amongst the companies that we have admired for so long,” said Christian Ettinger, founder and brewmaster. “B Lab’s application process provided an incredibly eye-opening and dynamic analysis of our efforts to date.”
Hopworks has an output of 12,500 barrels a year.
10 Barrel opens in Portland’s Pearl District
A Bend staple has opened in Portland.
10 Barrel Brewing launched a pub Monday in the Pearl District, OregonLive.com reports.
The long-awaited pub features a 20-barrel (600-gallon) brewhouse with brewer Whitney Burnside – late of Pelican Brewing and the latest addition to 10 Barrel’s dream team of great brewers – presiding. Her first beer out of the gate is Pearl IPA, a bright, 7.6 percent, 80 IBU brew brimming with piney, grapefruit-y aromas and a ton of hop flavor…it’s sure to be a pub favorite.
The pub is similar — though lighter and brighter — to 10 Barrel’s Boise pub and has lots of bare wood contrasting with the bright steel of the front-and-center brewhouse immediately behind the front desk.; There’s a full menu and the 6,200-square-foot pub can seat up to 175 currently — plans call for a rooftop deck seating another 100 people to be open by this summer.
The founders of the Oregon brewery expressed their excitement in a Portland Business Journal story.
“We are thrilled to finally open our Portland pub after much anticipation,” said Garrett Wales, co-founding partner of 10 Barrel. “We’re stoked to have Whitney on board, unleash her talents, give her the freedom to take every creative liberty imaginable in the brewhouse, and watch what happens.”
The pub will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturdays. It will be staffed by 94 employees and will carry on 10 Barrel’s Charity Tuesdays tradition where all proceeds from sales on the last Tuesday of the month will benefit a designated charity.
Craft beer sales break record in 2014
For the first time, craft beer accounted for more than 10 percent of industry sales, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Craft brewers last year produced 22.2 million barrels and saw an 18 percent increase in sales volume and a 22 percent increase in retail dollar sales, according to the Brewers Association, a trade group representing small and independent craft brewers. Craft brewers hope to account for a 20 percent market share by 2020, said Bart Watson, the association’s chief economist.
The number of operating breweries grew 19 percent, totaling 3,464 breweries, with 3,418 considered craft breweries, including 1,871 microbreweries, 1,412 brew pubs and 135 regional craft breweries. There were 615 new brewery openings in 2014, and 46 closings.
