USA, OR: Obelisk Beer Co. launches in Astoria, Oregon

One of the last in the most anticipated upcoming new breweries of 2022 has now opened with Obelisk Beer Co.’s recent launch in Astoria, Oregon. The new brewery announced back in July 2021 is from former Fort George Brewery team members David Coyne and Nathan Lampson will focus on beers that split between quaffable lagers, farmhouse ales and pales against the burly barrel-aged beers and mixed culture oak fermented sours that Coyne became known for at Fort George, the New Schoold Beer + Cider reported on December 7.

“I hope to add to the tasty beer that’s already being made in Astoria, and continue to push the innovation, community, creativity, and quality,” says David Coyne about his mission with Obelisk Beer Co.. “I’m eager to bring in some non-stainless vessels and to start aging our slow beer that we’re so passionate about. I also want to spread the good word of natural carbonation and sessionable beers.”

Finding a good space for yet another brewery in the already dense small coastal town of Astoria, Oregon was always going to be a challenge, but Lampson and Coyne lucked upon the perfect spot at 598 Bond St. The building shares a lot with Bank of America and is just 3 blocks from Buoy Beer Co. and a 10 minute walk from Fort George, Bridge & Tunnel Bottle Shop, and Reach Break Brewing. The location seems meant to be, what was most recently the home of Columbia Fruit and Produce was a Blitz-Weinhard beer distributor before that in the 1940’s. The opaque, black and white building, has the same contrasts as Coyne’s own intricate pen & ink illustrations that appear in Obelisk’s branding, labels, and shirts. Lampson and Coyne found the non-descript, obelisk of a building on their own and connected with the property owners independently.

“We got incredibly lucky with this space,” says Dave Coyne. “The building has been owned by the same family for three generations, so they were able to fill us in about the history of the building, its origin, and how things have changed over the years. The Lower Columbia Preservation Society also sent us some photos of the construction and the finished building with the Blitz-Weinhard logo on the side.”

Lampson worked in the marketing department at Fort George and Coyne was the top R & D brewer who headed up the barrel program that produced ‘Matryoshka’ Russian Imperial Stouts and off-the-wall stuff like the barrel-aged mixed culture fruited ‘Serious Seltzer’ and pickled barrel ferment ‘Hold the Pickle’. The two of them interacted with each other on numerous projects at Fort George, even as they worked in two very different departments and roles.

“I always enjoyed working with Dave while at Fort George. We seemed to agree on the basics of what we liked and didn’t like within the beer landscape - and we were able to quickly resolve our differences when we disagreed. It was exciting to draw on our experiences to generate a new brewery concept together,” says Lampson.

The Obelisk Beer building has the feel of an old beer hall meets industrial production space with a street level entrance that opens into an entryway and loading right into the brewery with a step up to a slightly elevated loft level where the public taproom is. The 3k sq. ft. building has the wide-open quality of an event space with a 7 seat bar part of 49 total seats from scattered tables across a restored old growth doug fir floor. Coyne and Lampson patched up the timber flooring themselves by reclaiming pieces of doug fir from other parts of the building to cut new tongue and groove to repair damaged areas. It was no easy task, as they had to teach themselves to sand through 4 grits, and fill in cracks with rope and 4 coats of marine polyurethane.

The counter service bar easily seats 7, and was also built by the ownership duo by using ceiling joists from the building’s old walk-in cooler. It required a lot of gluing of wood and epoxy, dressing up the front with vertical wood slats that make it aesthetically appealing from a distance, and using locally sourced railroad track from the Astoria trolley for the foot rest. The back bar is a highlight with elegant blue hued greens that shade darker than turquoise, with a center pearl tile draft wall, and vintage touches and decor like natural lighting from antique lamps, tasteful desert plants, and a restored fridge for beer to-go.

“We liked how the cool dark green looked with all the wood in our space, as well as the brass finished stainless faucets, and especially the pale blue of our vintage fridge for our to-go beer, which we also restored and repainted ourselves,” adds Coyne.

The taproom has an elevated view down upon the eye height oversized stacked 10bbl brewhouse from Agile Stainless in Portland. The system has 5 x 20bbl unitanks with a big enough glycol system and plenty of valves and capacity to add more in the future. That capacity will allow Obelisk to brew more than enough of the more sessionable styles they want to highlight and bring more attention to like the simple pleasures of Belgian/French table bier and saisons, the drinkability of English-style bitters (from a cask engine behind the bar), and refined crisp Czech-style lagers. Half of the opening tap list is under 5% abv, but they know it will be the stronger hoppier beers that pay the bills. In his time at Fort George, Dave Coyne was able to help brew and design those too with examples he loves like Crysknife, Fields of Green, and the infamous 3-Way IPA annual rotating collaboration.

“I think the goal is largely to diversify the tap list, including a focus on flavorful yet easy drinking, low abv classic styles. Knowing the market, we understand hoppy beers will likely be a large part of our production, but we don’t want it to dominate the tap list at the expense of variety,” says Coyne.

Of course beer nerds will want to know more about the bold big beers that he developed a reputation for up the street, and he has every intention of making those dreams come true. The mash tun at Obelisk can max out at about 20 barrels which will be great for brewing high gravity words destined for spirit barrels.

“We’re lucky that Oregon and Washington produce excellent whiskey and wine, so we’ll surely snag some of those. That being said, I plan to eventually bring in a lot of different types of barrels including cognac, mezcal, bourbon, gin, port, etc. You name it. These will initially be lining the windows to our 6th street entryway, and spilling over into any extra space we can find. I also want to get some amphorae and a foeder, but that might take a little time.”

Coyne and Lampson had the foresight to brew a dozen or more collaboration beers around Oregon and Washington in anticipation of finishing their taproom ahead of getting their own brewery operational. This has resulted in a pretty full lineup of 6+ beers on tap in their tasting room, plus more rotating in, some even packaged in cans to-go like their recent Black Magic Dreams Hazy IPA with Great Notion Brewing, and Watery Graves Pilsner made with Ex Novo Brewing. You can also find their collab with fellow new breweries Living Haus and Grand Fir Brewing at all three of their locations. Actual brewing at Obelisk’s own 10bbl system is imminent, and hopefully they will be filling barrels by the end of the year or early January.

In the meantime they have been working overtime to staff the taproom themselves, and expand seating and outdoor options like the barrel beer garden down a ramp to their parking entrance. One of the longer-term projects is building out their own small kitchen, for now it’s a bring-your-own-food in situation, though they do have the capacity to have a food cart out front as the weather improves. They also want to host live music, movie nights, food pop ups and beer pairings, artist/maker events, fundraiser nights, or even a beer fest.

Though it’s still a work-in-progress, Coyne and Lampson are excited about how it’s all taking shape.

“Through visiting hundreds of breweries, it’s easy to start taking notes and imagine what you’d do if you had a blank canvas,” says Lampson. “Budgets definitely impact how clearly you can translate your vision into reality, but creative value engineering due to budget constraints seems to add to authenticity to the outcome.”

“I had a blast at Fort George,” adds Coyne. “It was a lot of hard work that paid off with a lot of creative freedom, great memories, and great friendships. Before Fort George I was one of the many home brewers that dreamed of starting a brewery. Working in the industry never swayed that pursuit. I wanted to be able to expand my creative vision into something of my own, and be able to offer the opportunities I was experienced at Fort George to other people as well.”

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