Agrarian Agales: Bringing Specialty Beer to the Pacific Northwest

Eugene, OR-based Agrarian Agales started out as an organic farm and is now one of the few breweries in the country that grows its organic hops to produce beer. Because of its unique background, general manager Todd Perlmeter believes Agales has a lot to offer to the craft beer world. And it all started with a passion for keeping things green.

QUESTION: Can you tell us how you went from growing hops to brewing beers and where things stand now?

TODD PERLMETER: The Tilley brothers started their hop farm dream eight years ago, with the intention to cultivate organic hops for their personal home-brewing use. After a few years, they realized what a unique thing they had and decided to start a hop-farm exclusive brewery. Being that most other breweries are purchasing all of their hops from the Yakima Valley in pelletized form, Agrarian has the distinct ethos of using our hops in full cone form. Because we follow organic practices, it is a constant challenge and learning curve, as is all farming. We currently grow 15 varieties on just over two acres of farmland leased from our parent farm Crossroads Farm.

QUESTION: You use some unique ingredients, including roasted dandelion root and chile corn, to produce your drinks. How do you select what ingredients to use and why do you choose such unique ones?

TP: We grow a variety of herbs, vegetables, and fruits that we use for our beers. Our mentality of conscious living permeates everything we do. Agrarian Ales is known for its chili beers, being that Crossroads Farms grows a vast variety of peppers. Whether we use fresh Anaheim’s in a Belgian amber ale or smoked Guajillos’s in our chili corn lager, experimenting with different styles and flavor profiles is always fun and keeps us inspired.

We also use pumpkins, squash, clary sage, dandelion roots, pineapple weed, apples, pears, and assorted other fruits and vegetables in our brews. All of these ingredients are not just thrown in to make a “pumpkin” beer or a “bite your head off” pepper brew. Instead, the ingredients are used as subtle flavor additions to add depth to our beers and in some cases provide natural sugars and bittering.

QUESTION: Can you tell us about your blend of 10-month ale aged with Brettanomyces and a fresh young hoppy Belgian ale? What makes a blend different and how is it produced?

TP: We do a lot of barrel aging and blending to create some of our more complex beers. One good example of this is our newly released Akane Saison. This beer started almost two years ago at our neighbors’ apple orchard. After picking bushels of Akane apples, we brought them across the road to the brewery where they were ground down, pressed, and thrown into a used Pinot Noir barrel, where we let this unpasteurized wild cider age for a year and a half.

Fermenting with the wild bacteria and flora on these apples, this cider became a crazy tart, funky, oak tannin bomb. We decided on brewing a batch of Belgian Blonde to blend with this cider and had a blending panel to decide on the perfect ratio of wild cider to the bubble-gummy base saison. After blending these two, we have been letting it condition in bottles and kegs for two months. This Belgian Blonde is one of the wildest crazy beers we have made, always changing from glass to glass.

QUESTION: You offer the opportunity for members of the public to purchase shares of the company. Can you tell us how that works and how people benefit from this arrangement?

TP: This year, on January 22nd, a new law came into play in the state of Oregon, allowing Oregonians to invest in small local businesses. We felt this would be a great way to raise some money and keep our local roots intact. Being a farm it has always been hard to get traditional loans, so we saw this as a great opportunity. So we have essentially offered up equity stock in Agrarian Ales. After proving Oregon residency, each individual can invest a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $2500. By doing this, these investors are now part owners of Agrarian. The law allows some flexibility in how each company chooses to go about this process, which was nice because we were able to cater to our needs and the needs of our investors. As of now we have raised $59,200.