Portland’s Breakside Brewery might take the cake for Oregon’s most overachieving brewing company, evident in the brewery’s just-released 2019 beer calendar (which of course, doesn’t account for the dozens of pub-only beers that will be released).

In addition to the IPAs, strong ales, and sours, I’m excited to see a focus on lagers coming out of the brewery this year—not only the addition of True Gold (“golden pilsner”) to the year-round lineup, but also a whole line of rotating draft lagers. (My only complaint is that I don’t know how many of these draft lagers will make it to Bend…)

Here’s the press release to accompany the 2019 schedule:

Breakside Brewery will be adding to its reputation for innovative, experimental and diverse beers in 2019. The brewery, which just released its 2019 beer release calendar, is using the New Year to demonstrate the breadth and variety of beer that its brewing team creates. Popular favorites are returning to take their place in the lineup, as well as some entirely new and brand-new seasonal beers.

Ben Edmunds, brewmaster for Breakside Brewery, said, “Our 2019 calendar is exciting. The rotating IPA series returns, featuring four favorite hoppy beers that we have refined over the past few years. Our barrel program continues to grow – both in wood-aged strong ales and mixed culture sour beers. The first releases from that wing of our brewery include some exciting new beers like The Oligarch and Fruits That Begin With The Letter Yuzu.”

Some highlights that are on the horizon for 2019 include:

• Year-Round Series Changes: Not only has the popular What Rough Beast made its hazy way into the year-round lineup, but the brewery has added a new beer to the mix: True Gold. A “golden pilsner” this easy drinker, available in six packs, has a bite and crispness that hearkens back to a pilsner or lager, with a distinctive Breakside-style twist. The signature Breakside IPA, Wanderlust IPA, Pilsner and Stay West IPA remain as part of this series in 2019.
• Seasonal Streamline: The brewery’s core seasonal lineup will focus on two main beers, starting out the year with Tall Guy IPA and following with Passionfruit Sour Ale in June. Salted Caramel Stout rounds out the year with a brief appearance during the holiday season. The Seasonal IPA series remains the same for the year.
• The Oligarch: A study in barrel-aged experimentation, this new brew is far more than “just” an Imperial Stout. The Oligarch project encompasses 84 casks, 122 bbls of finished beer and no less than eight resulting variants. Aged in bourbon barrels (including some that previously contained maple syrup) the different beers resulting from this creative undertaking feature ingredients ranging from chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon all the way to mushrooms, almonds and raspberries.
• New All-Draft Lager Series: A smaller volume project, but with big appeal, beers in this series are, as Edmunds says “universally loved by our brewers, and for good reason: they are refreshing, smooth, drinkable, clean, and complex.” More and more Breakside customers are trying and enjoying lagers, so the brewery is releasing a series of all-draft lagers to present these beers to a wider audience for the first time.

More experimental, barrel-aged and sour beers round out the 2019 calendar for Breakside Brewery. Find more information here: http://breakside.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/breakside-2019-onepage.pdf

Keep an eye out for those lagers.