Sasquatch Brewing expands with new brewery, cidery and tasting room in northwest Portland

Oregon’s ‘sqautch population is on the rise. After five years in its tiny, hand-made brewery and pub, Sasquatch Brewing Co. is now undertaking a major expansion, adding a new brewing facility in a 4,000-sq-ft warehouse in industrial northwest Portland. The new brewery will include a 15-barrel system, two 90-barrel cider fermenters and a tasting room open to the public seven days a week.

Damn.

Three brand new beers — a kolsch, amber and grapefruit IPA — and a new hopped cider will be released at Sasquatch’s Grand Opening event. The event is set for April 21 from 3 to 10 p.m. at 2531 NW 30th Avenue, Portland. The festivities are free and open to the public and will include complimentary BBQ and live music from Portland bluegrass band Out West.

Damn.

“The brewery has been a labor of love from day one,” said Sasquatch Brewery Founder Tom Sims. “We have appreciated and thrived on the support of the local community, and are excited that we’ve come to a point where we’ve simply outgrown our space. We are looking forward to having room to spread our wings and begin some new programs out of the new location.”

The new brewery will feature 22 taps with a wide variety of beers and ciders, local kegged wine, a barrel program for aging beers and large, private event space. The original location in Hillsdale will remain open, focusing on developing small experimental batches.

Sasquatch started as a classic Northwest, hop-driven brewery, and over the years has broadened its offerings to include sours, Belgians and ciders. Its top year-round beers include Woodboy IPA, Oregon Session Ale, Vanilla Bourbon Cream Ale, Hairy Knuckle Stout and Red Electric IRA.

Sasquatch, a true bootstrapped brewery that prides itself on making an authentic agricultural product by hand — from hauling grain to welding its own bar and tables — feels at home in its gritty location in the heart of one of the last true industrial areas of Portland. Just inches from the back of the building a train runs by, and out front across the street, steel galvanizers are dipping metal into steaming vats of molten zinc.

And yet despite its industrial location in this city of contrasts, Sasquatch is nestled at the foot of Portland’s beloved Forest Park, one of the country’s largest urban forests. This makes it ideal for hosting hikes and runs in the park, because as Sims puts it: “Exercise is best when it ends with a beer.” On the brewery’s north wall is a large, colorful mural painted by renowned Portland artist, Chris Bigalke. It features a nod to the things the brewery team loves most: the outdoors, Portland and of course, good beer.

Mike Paladino, head brewer, said, “The brewery’s new location will give us the room to make lagers, start a barrel-aging program and start packaging beer and cider in a 500-ml bottle format.”