ColdFire Brewing releases St. James IRA and Cumulus Tropicalis in Cans

Eugene’s two-year-old ColdFire Brewing released its GABF medal-winning St. James IRA and Cumulus Tropicalis, a New England-style IPA, in 16 oz. cans on Monday. “Stephen and I always wanted to do bottles and cans,” said Dan Hughes, who co-founded the brewery with his brother. ColdFire was the second largest draught-only brewery in the state, next to Boneyard.The move to cans is indicative of ColdFire’s success; it produced just under 1,200 barrels in 2017, up from roughly 600 in its first year. Having beer in cans will increase production, but Dan is not shooting for constant growth. “A lot of our sales are local, our consumers are local, the beer stays fresh. Growing as a result of the cans is probably necessary to some degree, but I don’t want to be doing 100% growth year after year because I don’t want to get stuck in that wheel. “We’ll likely add in several one-offs, or the occasional seasonal. We’re driving hard to do a pilsner in cans, because I think there’s a strong demand for it locally.” The cans are pre-labeled, and are branded with bold, earthy tones and ColdFire’s insignia. Cumulus Tropicalis was first released later in 2017, and quickly became ColdFire’s most popular beer. It has a hazy, orange color with pineapple, papaya, and orange hop character. With a soft heft in the body and a moderately bitter finish at 60 IBU, it is a fine example of the popular style. Stephen, head brewer, uses a less flocculant yeast to achieve the haze, rather than a hefty dose of high-protein grains.St. James IRA is named after ColdFire’s “patron saint,” co-owner Jim Weston, who can often be found helping out around the tasting room. It won a silver medal in the Double Red Ale category at GABF in 2017. “We wanted to make a really awesome, hop forward red ale,” said Stephen, ColdFire’s head brewer. Winning the medal was confirmation that they’d done just that.ColdFire recently added a new foudre on the other side of the wall from the brewery and main fermentation space. The result of the first fill will soon kickstart occasional releases of bottle-conditioned beer. The cans are available at the brewery, and elsewhere in Oregon where ColdFire delivers its beer.