Oakshire is way on the outskirts of Eugene, so you reallly need to have a car to visit, and they are normally only open Saturday afternoons, but it's well worth the journey, especially since their beer is so good and is currently only available in Oregon.

The building is a warehouse with a garage door opening in the front that leads into the first of two rooms. The outer room serves as the tasting room and has the brew kettle and mash tun. On the left is the tasting room bar with beer on tap as well as 22 oz. bottles (3 of their beers are bottled right now), t-shirts, and hoodies for sale, right next to the grain mill and stored grain. In the middle are picnic tables and a home-brew set-up (eventually they plan to offer homebrewing classes). On the right are the brew kettle and mash tun. The lighting is industrial, as befits a working brewery. You really are right in the middle of the brewery when you visit.

The back room has the fermenters and the brite tanks, as well as a refrigerated area.

We tasted the Amber, the Watershed IPA, another seasonal IPA, the Overcast Espresso Stout, the Cornucopia Frog's Wort Pale Ale (right from the brite tank!), and a Rye Cascadian Dark Ale made for the local KLCC Microbrew Festival. All were good.

They don't serve food but there is regularly a mobile foodcart (Devour) that sets up in the parking lot and serves grilled panini sandwiches and soups (the food looked quite good).

reviewed on: 2010-02-19 14:32:52

This is Eugene’s other up and coming brewery and they have really made a lot of progress in just a couple years. When I arrived, Jeff and Matt were hard at work (well mostly Matt) brewing for the inaugural fill of the new 80 BBL fermenter. It should take about 30 hours. The brewery square footage was doubled last year so they currently have some maneuvering room plus there is a nook with taps for tastings (and in the not too distance future, pint sales). I got to sample the IPA, Imperial IPA, Amber and Espresso Stout. Both the IPA and the Stout will be available in bottles soon so I should be able to take some home with me on my next trip north. There is a limited amount of parking in the lot. Tasting hours are currently Saturdays 12-4. One added note: we can all look forward to Matt’s contribution to the second Collaborative Evil series at GABF this fall.

reviewed on: 2009-07-09 01:47:43