Labyrinth Forge ahead at new southeast Portland brewpub
The new Labyrinth Forge Brewing from homebrewer Dylan VanDetta and partner Stephanie Morad recently opened in the former Hair of the Dog Brewing space at 61 SE Yamhill. VanDetta actually first launched Labyrinth Forge as a garage based home brewery in 2012, and then grew to partner with larger commercial breweries like Ordnance Brewing out of Boardman, Oregon and Gateway Brewing in NE Portland to make larger brewers that they could can and self-distribute locally.
Hair of the Dog Brewing owner/brewer Alan Sprints owns the building, and although they have ceased production he has carved out a space in the brewery separated by a faux wall of barrel racks to continue his projects. This leaves more than enough production space for Labyrinth Forge and Van Detta to work his way through taking the brewery equipment apart piece-by-piece, cleaning and replacing parts as he awaits permits and new in-house brews. How the business partnership came about is an interesting side story in and of itself.
The new Labyrinth Forge taproom still has the recognizable structure and the oak slab bar that was so familiar at Hair of the Dog. But Labyrinth Forge is slowly making the space their own with their signature gray and pale green and black color scheme, with the slightly askew labyrinth around the head of their minotaur logo on the east wall and Cretan labyrinth tapestry mats hanging from the west wall. Roll-up doors open to outside street seating on Yamhill, and the wrap around bar is still the central feature for conversations and tastings with the crew.
VanDetta specializes in American/German/English-styles of beers like porter, stout, IPA, schwarzbier, and kölsch, with the occasional Belgian-style beer or modern american category of hazy/NE-style IPA and he hopes to explore more lagers. Labyrinth Forge is also set to be the new home of the Green Dragon Brew Crew, an elite homebrewers club that met to brew licensed but small-scale commercial batches of beer at Rogue Eastside Pub, formerly known as the Green Dragon. The once weekly beer releases were a regular tradition at Rogue, where beer fans and homebrewers would gather to try the latest experimental Green Dragon beer usually the special project from one specific member of the crew. The former members of the GD Crew count a number of homebrewers turned pro, including: Michael Kora who went on to found Montavilla Brew Works, Rick Strauss who opened Bent Shovel Brewing, and Warren Johnson who started nano brewery War & Leisure.
For reasons that remain unclear, Rogue ended the decade long collaboration with the Green Dragon Brew Crew last November. At the time, members said the project would live on and find a new home, that home is the new Labyrinth Forge Brewing and their first new release is this Wednesday, July 12th.
“We were in operation at the Green Dragon (we still call it that) for 4,734 days, brewed 490 beers, produced 87,708 pints of beer, hosted 142 guest brewers and released a beer 540 consecutive Wednesday nights,” said Green Dragon brew crew member Alex Graham.
The first new Green Dragon Brew Crew release at Labyrinth Forge Brewing is a Hoppy kölsch brewed in collaboration with Montavilla Brew Works. The release also marks the kickoff of Labyrinth Forge kölsch service in the tradition of the bars of Cologne, Germany where the style comes from. If you are a customer sitting at the bar who orders the service, you will get a taster flight of each of the 3 kölschs Labyrinth Forge has on draft, each served in traditional stange glassware. The glasses will be $3 each, and come out one after another, automatically refilled until you put a coaster over the glass to indicate you are finished just how they do it in Germany.
Labyrinth Forge is also the home of pop-ups and will host numerous events. In the mornings from 8am – 11:30am they have a new coffee bar featuring Trailhead Coffee Roasters. So far it is pour overs, iced coffee and drip coffee, with tea options as well, they plan to add full espresso service soon.
The brewpub has not yet found a full-time kitchen partner, but it’s increasingly likely the current pop-ups will become permanent atleast for now. Right now Labyrinth Forge is one of the few breweries to offer brunch, Sweet Lorraines is cooking up Jewish fare for breakfast and brunch from 8am – 2pm. In the afternoon/evenings La Tia Juana takes over the kitchen for amazing tacos, quesadillas and nachos.
61 SE Yamhill St, Portland, OR 97214
TASTING ROOM HOURS:
Mon: CLOSED
Tue - Thu: 8am - 9pm
Fri - Sat: 8am - 10pm
Sun: 8am - 8pm