Not just a pub, a HUB--An Interview with Christian Ettinger

It seems all of Portland’s craft brewing community is enthusiastically awaiting the arrival of a promising new brewpub, HUB. An acronym for Hopworks Urban Brewpub, HUB is the brainchild of former Laurelwood brewmaster Christian Ettinger. A leader in craft innovation, the Oregonian DIY self-starter and champion of sustainability and organic living, Ettinger is a permanent fixture in Portland’s craft brewing community as well as an emphatic defender of our earthly goodliness. Bringing a public-minded approach toward craft brewing, Ettinger seeks to furnish the local and global community with an auspicious alternative to tired, expurgated, and non-renewable approaches.

The amazing potential of HUB is evident in an unlikely area on Portland’s SE Powell Boulevard. Perhaps better known for fast food restaurants and strip joints, Powell will soon be home to HUB’s family friendly atmosphere where healthy food and a bicycle-friendly attitude rules.

Assuming one half of the 19,200 square foot former Sunset Fuels building, the east half of the lavishing space is set to be leased to local businesses while about 5,000 square feet will be HUB. This is atop 4,400 square feet of brewing, bottling, and barreling production space. Ettinger and his assistant brewmaster Ben Love (formerly of Pelican Brewing) will be offering the community more than just locally brewed beer.



According to Ettinger, HUB will be a 20-barrel bio-diesel fired brewery. It will run on single-infusion. This means no heat will be placed on the mash tun. The estimated opening capacity of HUB is 6,500 bbl/year. The brewpub is C-shaped around an elliptical bar made of recycled materials. According to Ettinger, the southern part of the building “will be very much family friendly” and the northern part is going to be the “21 and over bar area so we can rock it back and forth. At ten o’clock we can close one side and rock it late night until like 1:00 AM.” On the acre of land south of the building there will be a “super unique beer garden.” Just off Powell on the northwest side, a quarter-acre parking lot will provide plenty of off-street parking. The capacity will be suitable for 140 people inside and 35 outside, and an upstairs banquet room will put the total capacity at 175. Circular shaped patterns are reoccurring in windows and a ceiling that extends from 11 feet to 22 feet at its peak. Despite being quite roomy, Ettinger assures that it is a “cozy space considering size when divided up.”





Pressured with several tasks and time lines for the Oregon Brewers Festival, Ettinger took a moment to shed some light on his extraordinary undertaking.

Where are you from originally?

CE: I was born in San Francisco in 1973. I pretty much grew up up here in Portland.

How long were you the brewmaster at Laurelwood?

CE: I was brewmaster there for six years. I basically started in the ashes of a failed brewpub called Old World Pub & Brewery. It lasted for about 14 months. I was hired to help develop that brewpub. It went out of business and Laurelwood opened on the same site and took over the lease. And I represented the landlord for that space just to show the tenants what kind of potential that place had. I saw that it was really underutilized by the former management. You can see what happened with a good operator and with good beer.

When did you start brewing beer?

CE: I started in college in 1993. I moved to Germany for a term and studied in Cologne where Kolsch is made and fell in love with it. I dragged all my friends and fellow students to all the different breweries. There were 22 breweries that made the same style of beer. So we went to as many of the brewpubs there as we could and traveled all around. We went to eight different countries checking out the beer while we lived there. I just fell in love with the European beer culture. It changed my life, my trip over there. I was 19 years old, and turned twenty while I was over there. Once you live in a brewing center like Munich or Cologne, it becomes part of your blood. I had homebrewed a little bit before my trip to Germany, but it really started when I got back (to the United States). It really set the stone to my career path. I wanted to bring a piece of Europe back to the States. I saw that I could make a career out of beer and have a really rewarding career. Beer has brought so many cool experiences and cool people into my life. I’ve never regretted it for a single day.

So you must be pretty excited about the HUB undertaking despite it being a lot of hard work. Why did you chose the SE 29th and Powell location?



CE: I chose this location because by the time a neighborhood has been discovered, you can’t afford it. Powell is kind of a distressed corridor. It’s not earmarked for development any time soon. There’s great neighborhoods to the north and south and we’re two miles from downtown. There hasn’t been any new growth to this street in a long long time. It really became obvious once we got into the building and started poking around that this had a huge potential. You’ve got 50,000 cars a day going by the front door—that’s the official traffic count. The exposure…we’re on the outbound side of the road so accessibility with a big parking lot…It’s a quick right turn. You don’t have to search, you’ll see the name, Hopworks Urban Brewery. We found this site could be the HUB for Southeast Portland because within two miles there’s 100,000 people.

When did you take over the former Sunset Fuels building, future home of HUB?

CE: We took it over in June, 2006. So, it looks like the first beers will roll out one year from that date if the federal approval comes through for us.



In general, what has the undertaking been like? Any major obstacles?

CE: The major obstacle, without a doubt, has been the City of Portland. Without a doubt. They are very thorough, but in doing so it stifles the pace at which you would hope to progress. Checking and double checking is fine, but if you have an engineer’s stamp on your print, why do they need to reenginieer it? Isn’t that what we paid for in the first place? It can be quite frustrating. I’ve met a lot of grat people (who work for the City of Portland), but the system needs work. I don’t think it’s their fault. I think it’s the framework they are given.

What has been the most rewarding part of the undertaking?

CE: As challenging as it has been, the best part has been the education. I know so much more than I thought I would ever have to know about commercial construction of breweries. I think…I hope it’s going to make me a better business person. Dealing with so many different trades, you go from being so naïve on day one—and I still feel pretty naïve—but I feel a lot smarter than I did eight, nine months ago. At the end of this, hopefully I’ll never have to work on a project like this again. It’s been the most challenging period in my life, far and away.



Your father Roy Ettinger is an architect. How much influence has he been with the construction and design of HUB?

CE: He’s been a major force in this project as far as giving it very cool direction from the getgo. He and I have gone back and forth. Talk about another challenge (aside from) the City of Portland, if you can undertake a big project with your father and walk away friends and relatives, which we will. As much of a challenge as it has been, it has been equally rewarding. And it’s working right now. The space we’ve got is way more impressive to me than I ever thought it would be. Coming to the last quarter of the project, I think its been really great. (My father) has got really great sense of contemporary style. I’ve learned a lot form him and it has opened me to the possibilities of never underestimating any decision. There’s always a good, better, and best. Growing up with an architect, you’re always forced to consider “shoot for best!” It has also made me a better brewer to have grown up with an architect.

When do you plan to open your doors to the public?

CE: The goal is to open by the Oregon Brewer’s Festival (July 26-29, 2007). Obviously that’s a huge amount of work to do, but if the city grants us our permits, we can make that happen.

It seems a lot of breweries are slated to open on a certain date and often end up pushing that date back. Your thoughts on that?

CE: Yeah, we’ve anticipated that. It could be until August, but as long as you can get some nice weather at the end of the summer, I think we’ll be fine.



Is Ben Love (former brewer of Pelican) going to be you your head brewer at HUB?

CE: Ben will be the assistant brewmaster. That kind of leaked out early here. When we were first discussing what his role here would be, him headbrewer and me as brewmaster…at a lot of breweries that means the same person. I will have creative control and (Ben) will help me manage the brewery.

How did you get to know Ben and when did you decide he was the man for the job?

CE: Ben and I have been friends for a while. He wanted to move off the coast for a while as well. He interviewed with us at Laurelwood when we were looking for a third assistant. He was a little over-qualified for that. That’s when we started talking. It was around December ’05, I think. We’ve been talking about it for a while. He very professional and obviously makes good beer.

In a city with so many breweries, what do you think will set HUB apart from others?

CE: What I really think is going to set us apart is a sustainable approach. Not only through organic ingredients and brewing organic beers, but through the development of the building and the business that is going to contribute to the community. We really want to develop some programs whereby we can help out the school (Cleveland High School) across the street. I basically want to start an art program over there; get some of their artwork in here and sell it. We’d give half of that money to the student and the other half we’ll take and earmark for whatever they need over there. There’s some really cool things. We want to be really community-focused. I think one of our strongest points is going to be our philanthropic arm. What we do for the community is really going to set us apart.



Are you not a big proponent of bikes?

CE: Yeah! We’re gonna sponsor bike teams, I am going to have pressurized air on site. I am going to have jerseys, power bars, and tubes for sale behind the bar. We’ll have a drink called “the Radler” which is European for the cyclist. It’s always half lemonade or lemon-lime soda and (half) lager. We’ll have a couple different versions of that for people on their bikes. They can come by mid-ride instead of at the end of their ride. They’re also welcome at the end of their ride. We’ll have great bicycle parking. We want to see people coming in with their helmets through the door. Bikes are my thing and I love bikes as much as I love beer. Well, you could say I love bikes almost as much as I love beer.



What will your line-up of beers look like?

CE: Everything will be certified organic. There will be five brands to start: organic lager, organic red, organic IPA, an organic multi-grain stout. I am looking at some exotic grains right now like amaranth, spelt, and kamet. Some really cool, off-the-wall stuff. I’m trying to get seven really cool grains for this one. Also, there will be a single-hopped pale ale that will always revolve (hop varieties) called “the Revolver.” The goal is to always have those five standards. With the lager yeast, there will always be a lager seasonal on. There will be an in-house yeast and another yeast, like a Belgian yeast or something. In our barrel room, we’ll do some barrel-aged stuff as well. There’s two beer engines, two casks.

And you mentioned earlier that HUB will be bottling beer as well?

CE: That’s right. We’ll have deposits it. We’ll have a six head 22-ounce filler. So, you’ll see our beers in 22-ounce screenprinted bottles. We are really going to set ourselves apart. There are very few brewpubs that are packaging or have the capacity to really feed the pipeline. You can’t sell your beer if you don’t have a beer to sell. We’ll have it to sell and it is all going to be well-made and connoisseur-driven. It’s not going to be an organic beer for the masses like a Wolavers, it’s going to an organic beer for the people who know better.


Tell us about your plans for a “super unique” beer garden.

CE: Lucky Lab is really the only other strong beer garden around and there’s not much of a view there. Here you’ve got an awesome view of the west hills and sunsets all summer long. It’s a beautiful environment: it’s quiet, it’s elevated with southern exposure, and with full sun all day long, it’s just beautiful back here. We hope eventually to develop another ground and have a beer garden down there, build a hop trellis overhead and make something cool.

Any final thoughts?

CE: Earlier you posed a really good question as to what is going to set Hopworks apart (form other area breweries). This very well thought out and conceived idea of what a brewpub should be. It should be the place where everbody can get together in a cool environment that was build with recycled materials, uses high-efficiency appliances, and produces organic beer, and pizza made with local ingredients, and organic ingredients whenever possible. Bringing all these things together to the H.U.B., is the perfect acronym, Hopworks Urban Brewery. Beer for me has always been about bringing people together, and the beer kind of falls by the wayside when you’re having a good conversation. The beer is like icing on the cake. I think it fosters a great social experience.


To view more pictures from HUB's work in progress CLICK HERE

Article, interview and photos for Belmont Station with permission of Angelo De Ieso II.