Oakshire Brewing - Interview with Matt Van Wyk
You may not have heard of Oakshire Brewing Co. yet, but you will. Oakshire, a small brewery located in Eugene Oregon is poised to do some amazing things and we think the craft beer world is going to take notice sooner rather than later. The Pacific northwest has always been a driving force in craft beer and Oakshire is yet another example of great breweries still starting up. While many businesses have slowed or held off on expansion during a tough economy Oakshire business has been booming. So what makes them different; how come they seem to be able to do what many others haven't been able to? Simply put...it's all in the beer. We were fortunate enough to sample their Watershed IPA, a fantastically hoppy west coast IPA as well as their Overcast Espresso Stout, a beer that somehow feels both refreshing and soul satisfying. What gets us even more excited though are all the small projects brewer Matt Van Wyk is working on. We set up an interview so he can tell you more about those. DCB: What go you into brewing?
Van Wyk: Like most brewers, craft brewers, I started out with a home brewing hobby. In the late 90's more craft breweries started popping up. I was a science teacher I started volunteering at a few breweries which eventually turned into an assistant brewing job. I thought that would last for a couple years and I'd go back to teaching because I had a degree in that. But it's been 8 years and it's sort of worked out ever since. I have a biology background and have taken several chemistry courses. So the background knowledge coupled with a love of brewing and drinking good beer meshed together into a new career.
DCB: What made you decide to go to Oakshire?
Van Wyk: The state of Oregon. My sister in law lives out here and we've visited several times. We visited Oakshire in the first month of their business. It was very small with a 4 barrel system (a barrel is 2 kegs or 31 US gallons). I talked to them and said I'd love to work here, they said they'd love to hire me. That was in fall of 2006 and then we waited until they were big enough and then it was like fate brought us together and here I am.
Since 2006 we've sold 4 barrel system we now have a 15 barrel system. The day I walked in, April 1, 2009, we had three 15 barrel and one 30 barrel fermenters, and 1 brite tank. Now we have the same plus three more 30's and 80 and two more 80's coming. We've grown quite a bit. We did 1100 barrels in 2008 we're on track for 2200 this year and we'll double that again in 2010.
DCB: Where are you distributed?
Van Wyk: We self distribute in Eugene and Corvallis. We have a driver and a truck and a couple sales guys. We've done some draught in Portland but that has a lot of competition. We haven't really started to think about sending out beer farther, we're just trying to keep up with our local market.
DCB: When you came to brewing did you take existing recipes or create new products?
Van Wyk: A little of both. You don't want to come in guns blazing and change everything especially if stuff is successful. There's a local market that already knew Oakshire and so we took what they were doing and tried to make it as best we could and tweaked things to make them better where we can. They hadn't done a whole lot of seasonals in the last 3 years; we're doing regular seasonals now. We had a spring seasonal and a very successful one on this summer. We're gearing up for fresh hop beers and winter seasonals. We started a barrel aging program where I have wine barrels filled and bourbon barrels filled. We're adding on to what they already had going.
DCB: Does Oakshire try to brew to a certain theme or style?
Van Wyk: Personally, and for our brewery, I don't feel like there's a specific focus. We don't just make Belgian styles or just hoppy beers. We have some hoppy beers, some fresh hop beers, some barrel aged stuff. What I try to do is make the highest quality beer we can with a diverse range of styles through the year.
DCB: You recently took a trip to Belgium, has that affected anything you've brewed?
Van Wyk: I took the trip in March; my friend Jeff, the head of San Diego Pizza Port said I should come along. I thought to myself I'm going to take this trip while I can. The trip centered around Cantillon open brew day. I got the backstage tour that brewers get to do and got to learn some secrets because I'm friends with the Pizza Port guys. I got to meet some people and go some places I wouldn't have gotten to. It influenced me more as a brewer from a technique standpoint, especially for things like lambics and barrel aging, some things to make better sour beers. Right now I've got some beer in wine barrels and I'm adding some chester berries, brett and lactobacillus.
DCB: Sour seems to be the new bourbon-aged and a few Oregon breweries seem to be getting in on it.
Van Wyk: It is amazing how the tide shifts on the whole craft beer industry. Oregon was all hop centric but now you've got Cascade, Deschutes and Rock Bottom has done some funky stuff. But now more are coming out of the woodwork, no pun intended. But I'm really glad to be part of it.
DCB: Are any of the barrel aged beers going to be bottled?
Van Wyk: Seasonals have been draught only, as we get our two bottles out we're going to start doing more brands in bottles. The next will be our winter which is a hoppy brown. So we'll see how that does and hopefully we'll have a fourth next year. Big things are happening here and we're doing some fun things that beer geeks will be seeking out soon enough, once I can age them in the barrels. So while most people don't know about us yet I'm hoping real soon they do.
After we talked to Matt all we wanted to do is head out to Oregon to drink more of Oakshire's beer. There's certain beer you taste and you know it's going to be something special. We won't be surprised at all if we hear a lot more about Oakshire in the near future.
