These flavors are in-tents
When it comes to craft beer, Beachcrest has you covered
Story & photos by Patrick Alexander
Oregon Coast TODAY
In building their business, Beachcrest Brewing Company owners Matt and Amy White have combined discipline with a talent for improvisation honed by years of practice.
Both studied jazz in music school at the University of Denver; Matt earning a degree in saxophone, and Amy in vocal performance. After graduation, they worked as freelance musicians, playing and teaching in and around Denver while enjoying the city’s thriving craft beer scene.
Matt’s family has ties to both Bend and Neskowin, so the couple became frequent visitors to the Oregon Coast.
“Our love of the coast superseded our love of music teaching,” Amy said, “and we just felt really drawn to the beer industry and beer culture, homebrew and making delicious beer.”
As the couple got to know the coast, they began to daydream about bringing a different type of brewery to the area — one that steered away from the trappings of a restaurant in order to focus exclusively on beer and providing a place for people to gather. “Like the American coffee shop meets the British pub,” Amy said.
“We thought ‘this type of thing that we were used to in Denver doesn’t exist on the coast,’” Matt said. “Maybe it’s a thing that people would really like.”
In 2018, after looking everywhere from Pacific City in the north to Newport in the south, the couple settled on the Salishan Marketplace, just south of Lincoln City and began turning their dream into a reality.
Construction was well underway with an eye toward a summer opening when a wrinkle that few would have expected threatened to derail the project. It turned out that Lincoln County ordinances prohibited fermentation-based businesses in unincorporated territory — an apparent hangover from the days of prohibition.
Updating county zoning doesn’t happen quickly, even when everyone is on the same page, but finally, on Halloween 2018, the couple received the go-ahead to serve their first Beachcrest pint.
Since then, growth has been steady as the brewery has become known as a place to meet, hang out, play games and enjoy great beer and live music.
Matt and Amy hold music to be one of the cornerstones of the Beachcrest brand.
“Anywhere you go, musicians form communities,” Matt said. “Out here, it’s a really small, tight-knit community of musicians, and that’s been really cool to learn about. It’s fun for us to be both the hosts of these really great bands and to participate on our own, too.”
When COVID-19 came on the scene in early 2020, Beachcrest was quick to adapt, installing canning equipment that allowed Matt and Amy to provide their loyal, locked-down customers with beer to go.
“It was something that eventually we wanted to get going,” Matt said, “and COVID ended up kind of being the kick in the pants that made us do it.”
As COVID restrictions began to ease, music returned to Beachcrest with an outdoor concert series.
“That’s so fun,” Amy said, “and we wouldn’t have done that otherwise. And I feel like that will be what we do going forward — in the summer, music will be outside.”
And outdoor activities at Beachcrest just received a huge boost in the form of a massive, custom-made seating tent, designed to withstand the coastal elements and make the spacious deck comfortable at all times of year.
As weather starts to brighten and restrictions continue to loosen, Matt and Amy are gearing up for a busy spring and summer, with the next project being expansion of the brewing system to ensure they can meet demand.
The expansion will allow the couple to create double batches of their most popular brews, with the aim of having a constant supply of Beachcrest’s six core beers: Siletz Bay Hazy IPA; Blonde the Beachcomber; Bonfire Red; Herbie’s Hazy Pale Ale; Jam Sessions IPA; and Lincoln City Logger, a Helles-style lager.
Beyond these mainstays, the couple produce an ever-rotating range of seasonal offerings, from the traditional, a Marzen-style lager to mark Oktoberfest; to more out-of-the-box brews like the Key Lime Pie Sour.
Beachcrest recently celebrated its first topical seasonal — the Bernie’s Mittens India Pale Lager, inspired by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ infamous inauguration attire.
Matt said the idea started as a joke, with suggested flavors including Vermont maple syrup and geezer candy of choice, Werther’s Originals. In the end, he decided, such a distinguished brew called for a marriage of classic styles.
“What are your two most popular American styles?” he said. “You’ve got your IPA and you’ve got your classic American lager. And if you smash them together, there you go, that’s Bernie’s Mittens — America.”
Beachcrest Brewing Company is located in the Salishan Marketplace at 7755 N. Hwy. 101, Gleneden Beach. Opening hours are 2-6 pm, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; noon-8 pm Saturday and Sunday. For details, call 541-234-4013. Food from neighboring Squatchsami Mobile Cuisine & Outpost is avaliable Friday through Sunday.