Heater Allen Brewing

If you like beer– come here. It’s just a tiny tap room. But the beers are outstanding.

We stopped in here yesterday as part of our Friday after Thanksgiving tasting in the wine country. We have one person who is primarily a beer drinker, so stopped by at his request. Glad we did. The first time we stopped, a couple of years ago, i discovered my favorite Pilsner and we have had it around for several years now. This time we tasted six beers. I really enjoyed the Dunkel and Coastal. in fact, we bought some, since it is hard to find is other than a store that is really serious about beer. in fact, for the first time since an «adventure» with Guiness Stout in college, i enjoyed the darker beer, Shady Paws. We had eight of us tasting and everyone was happy. This was a wonderful addition to our wine tasting.

Top shelf beers. You can tell they use the best ingredients and every beer on the flight was exceptional. Really impressive and worth a visit.

A fabulous small brewery that deserves to be on the «A» list of Portland-​area beer places. The reasons it’s not, I guess, are 1) it is an hour’s drive from Portland; 2) it’s a production brewery, not a brewpub and not even regular tasting hours; 3) the beer is selling as fast as they make it, so they don’t promote it much because they don’t need to!
But I advise any beer fans visiting or living in the Portland area to try these beers. You can buy them in 22-​oz bottles at New Seasons and other high-​end supermarkets in Portland. And you’ll occasionally find them on tap at pubs (I saw one recently at Hawthorne Hophouse).
As for visiting the brewery — call ahead and the owner will arrange a tour and tasting. You can buy bottles there and they are about to start offering growler fills. T-​shirts and beer glasses also are available.
The best time to go, though, is for one of their special events, which happen seasonally. Their Bobtoberfest (in honor of the brewer-owner’s late brother), in mid-​September, was a terrific event this year, with great live blues, terrific artisan sausages (made with Heater Allen beer) and other food and of course great beer.
Heater Allen makes German-​style lagers, which are tricky to make and rare to find on the West Coast brewing scene. It also is difficult to obtain good beer from Germany as these delicate beers don’t travel as well as the heavier stouts and ales from Great Britain. Expand your palate and try these beers! I give the beers 5 stars — the reason I give the place only 4 is because it’s not really open regularly for visitors. (Maybe that will change.) Prost!

McMinnville is an interesting place in the beer world. Located in the heart of Oregon’s «wine country» it is surrounded by a couple dozen vintners. But there is also a surprising number of breweries (three) for a town of this size (30K). Among them is Heater Allen, which is a real gem.
Where do I begin? The previous review says ‘this place is not much bigger than a good sized living room” but it fills a good chunk of a small warehouse and has two refrigeration units for lagering that are each about the size of a good-​sized living room. It goes on to say that «the beers that come out of here are marvelous Belgian style Ales,» but Heater Allen makes exactly one ale once each year and Belgian yeast and spices are not part of the equation. Most of their output and their claim to fame is in lagers.
Heater Allen is a small operation, so there is no tasting room or official brewery tour, but I did get an impromptu tour and a nice opportunity to talk with the brewer when I arrived. The operation is sort of tucked-​away and hard to find, so they don’t get may visitors… and as a result they don’t keep an of their beer on tap anymore. The brewer was gracious enough to open a couple of 22oz bottles to provide samples, and there were six different brews for sale at the time I visited. Be sure to call or email ahead. The Heater Allen website has contact info.

«Oh good brew, how do I love thee, let me count the ways»
«First there is Pils, light and refreshing, you quench my thirsty thrills,
Then there is coastal, so smooth and delicious, you almost send me postal,
and the schwarz, with a rack of ribs, you warm our hearts,
Who can forget dunkel, share one with your uncle,
and all of your seasonal brews, I await your release date news.»
OK, so my poetry sucks, but the beer made by Heater Allen doesn’t. I found this place by accident while visiting wineries in McMinnville. Talk about a micro brewery, this place is not much bigger than a good sized living room, but the beers that come out of here are marvelous Belgian style Ales.
I’ve found his beers around town at specialty stores and of course you can pick them up at the brewery in McMinnville-​call ahead to make sure there will be somebody there, this is really a small operation. I do know you can get them at New Seasons.
I could go on (I’m sure most of you would wish I didn’t) but you can check out the website for more info.