Oregon Trail Brewery: Paul Miller Brews IPA

Head Brewer Paul Miller, 22, says his favorite Oregon Trail Brewery beer is their Red. Miller grew up in Portland but moved to Corvallis at the age of 18 to attend Oregon State University. A home-brewer by hobby, he decided to make it a career and studied Fermentation Science. "It's fun!" says Miller. He's been with Oregon Trail since October 2013.

Oregon Trail Brewery, located in the same building as Old World Deli in downtown Corvallis, was established in 1987 by Dave Wills. Two of their best selling brews are their Red and IPA. Wills' favorites include their Porter and Wit. Oregon Trail brews seven main beers in rotation year-round in addition to seasonal specials.

Miller prepares for the brew of the day, an IPA. He collects the grain needed from the base malt hopper. This hopper holds 10,000 pounds of grain and will last him about five months. Mixed with hot water, this barley will steep for one hour. The steeping will extract the sugar from the grain.

He prepares the yeast and cools it down so it doesn't go dormant. Yeast will turn the sugar into Co2 and alcohol.  Each brew uses 30 to 35 pounds of yeast.  The yeast will multiply as it ferments, and Miller will pull off 9 to 10 pounds for a future batch. "This is generation six yeast," said Miller. "I don't like to go past nine or 10. By that generation you have your original yeast plus all this other yeast, so you don't know what's good or bad at that point."

Hops will be added in a few hours.  The hops used comes from the flower of the plant which only the female produces. Wills planted a hops in the back of the brewery decades ago that produces multiple pounds of hops when it blooms. Oregon Trail makes a special home-brew from it each year. The pellet form (pictured) is reserved for special recipes.

This "mash tun" is where the barley heats and steeps at 152 degrees.  This process is called "mashing in."  It will last an hour and a half before the "mash out" begins.  If the process is done too fast or too slow it will change the flavor of the grain. "Vorlauf" is the process of circulating the fine and medium sized particle grains in the water. 

The grain is ready for "mash out." The tun has a false bottom that the grain has drained into. At this point the "mash up" is basically sugar water. "It's sweet," said Miller. A local farmer will come and collect the boiled barley and feed it to his livestock.

The "mash out" drains just over seven barrels of brew from the "mash tun" into this boil kettle.  The draining process, called sparge, takes an hour and a half. This solid copper, handmade boil kettle was acquired by Oregon Trail in 1987 from Pyramid Brewing.

Miller lights the bottom of the boil kettle. Direct fire underneath the kettle will caramelize the sugars and boil for an hour and a half, then sit for another 20 minutes. After evaporation there is seven barrels of brew left.

The brew drains from the boil kettle into a fermenter. Oregon Trail has a seven barrel system. Each is 31 gallons. These barrels were made in the '60s and are each named after someone Wills knows. This barrel is "Betty" and is their primary fermenter.  The brew will actively ferment for four to seven days and stay in the barrel for two weeks to allow the yeast to seep out and sink down.

Miller uses a hydrometer to estimate the alcohol content. This shows where the brew is in the fermentation process.  It has been in "Betty" for six days and has one more day to go to reach the preferred content on the hydrometer. 

"That's about as good as it gets," says Miller. After 21-28 days the brew is ready to drink. Oregon Trail sells their brews directly from the brewery. New growlers are $6 and refills are $8. There's a self-serve station linked directly from fresh kegs in the cooler to the tap outside the cooler. They also sell their brews to local bars, grocery stores, and co-ops in Corvallis.