Quick Announcement - Get a Brewery Running Series Gift Card!

11/27/17 • 3 min

The Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast

We’re taking a break from the podcast this week. We’ve been hard at work getting all of our 2018 event registrations up, and combined with the Thanksgiving holiday, family gatherings and some travel; it seemed like a wise time to take a break to relax just a bit. We’ll be back next week, but we do have a quick announcement about something new we’re trying; Since it’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday and all of that, we thought we’d offer you the chance to get your holiday shopping done early. Rather than buying your beer and running loved ones one of those beer guzzling helmets, or another pair of running socks, we have a better idea. We now have gift cards to our upcoming season of beer run fun!

Just go here to send your running or drinking buddies some entries to any of our 2018 events!For $25 you can get one entry, and $50 gets two, (so there’s a little discount.) Add a personalized note and schedule to send it at a future date. You can even treat yo self! "It's for real, and it's the biggest one yet!"BUY GIFT CARDS

Kickoff Party

We also want to give a quick plug for our kickoff event on January 13. It’s nearly sold out, but we still have a few spots left. Our good friends at On Running are throwing a big party to help us launch the 2018 brewery running series season. It’s entirely free, and attendees will enjoy a taco bar, beer samples from participating breweries, goodie bags and massively discounted event registrations to all of our 2018 events. It’s a fun way for us to launch the year and reward you with some great deals.

So check back next week for new episodes. Over the next few weeks, we have a recap of the season, including interviews with some of you guys after our final event at Stickmen Brewing back in November. We’ve got an interview with Stephen Wright the president of the Oregon Road Runners Club, and you'll also get to hear my conversation with Jake Stout, a local PT and performance coach. And of course, more brewery owners and local runners.

Cheers to a truly happy holiday season, and don't forget to stay active, have fun, and give back.

Kickoff Party

Cheers to a truly happy holiday season, and don't forget to stay active, have fun, and give back.

Previous Episode

A Conversation with an Oregon Beer Legend, John Harris, Ecliptic Brewing

Welcome back to another installment of the Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast. Inspiring Oregonians to Get Active, Have Fun, and Give Back. We host family-friendly, 5K fun runs that start and end at some of Oregon’s best breweries.

Today’s show is a rerun of an interview I did back in April of 2017. You may not know this, but before we started the podcast, I was interviewing people live on Facebook, and then posting that video to our YouTube channel. It was a little clunky, and not super easy to listen to. And from a production and interviewer perspective, well, let’s just say we’ve learned a lot.

Anyway, I’m resharing my interview with the legendary brewery, John Harris. You may not know who that is, but you probably know his beer. John is a hero in the beer world, and after spending almost 30 years working for some of the most prolific breweries in Oregon, he decided to start his own brewery, one of our favorites, Ecliptic Brewing.

A quick summary of his background, John began as a brewer at McMenamins’, then moved to Deschutes in Bend, where he created the recipes for Mirror Pond, Black Butte Porter, and Obsidian Stout to name a few. In 1992, he was the brewmaster at Full Sail where he was in charge of creating the Brewmaster Reserve line of beers.

After three decades of brewing for other people, he decided to take on the ambitious challenge of opening his own brewery and restaurant. Ecliptic Brewing began in October of 2013, just off Cook and Mississippi Ave in a booming area of North Portland. They have quickly become one of the hottest breweries, winning a lot of awards for their beer, including being named the fifth top brewery in the country for 2017.

Talking to a Legend

When I sat down to talk with John, I have to admit I was a little intimidated. Here’s a guy who created some of the most iconic beers in Oregon, and influential in the success of multiple breweries. I rarely get starstruck, but I guess I sorta was, as you’ll see, from my rambling question asking. We get to sample three of John's Ecliptic beers, and hear some of the backstory about what went into making them.

John was nothing but kind, and incredibly gracious with a few of my oddball, newbie beer questions and attempts at humor. A big thank you to John Harris for taking time away from his crazy schedule to chat with me. When we talked, Ecliptic had just installed a canning machine, and it wasn’t going well Not sure if you noticed John’s comment, but I know it was causing him headaches, yet he still found time to chat. That’s a solid guy.

And thank you for listening to the Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast! Part of the reason I’m sharing this again now is that we just found out Ecliptic is on board for one of our runs in 2018 and we're incredibly excited! If you want early access to that event, register here and get $5 off for a limited time.

Next Episode

Reflecting on the People and Beer from the 2017 Oregon Brewery Running Series

In today’s show, Nathan reflects on our 2017 season, thank a bunch of people who made it happen and hear from a few of our participants. We'll also give you a sneak peek into the 2018 season!

2017, By The Numbers

In 2017, we hosted 18, 5k fun runs, at 16 different breweries. We were at Portland Brewing twice (once for the Hoppy Earth Day Brewfest), and at two of the Hopworks locations (Powell and Vancouver).

In 2017, we had 2,061 participants, and based on our best guessitmation, nearly 1,300 different people ran at least one event, meaning, a whole bunch of you ran more than one. People like Kim C, Kim W, Mark (there are three of them, you know who you are), Robert, Chris, Bill, and Laura (to name a few), ran in 5 or more events, which is pretty impressive.

We also kept track of the number of pints of beer you all drank, or at least the ones we purchased. Between all participants, volunteers, partners and our musical guests, that number is, approximately, 2,466. You also ran 5,111 miles or 8225.4K. We raised just over $4,000 for the Oregon Brewshed Alliance, The Portland Parks Foundation, and Life Vest Inside.

Thank you for making our second season such a memorable one. The participants, you, are indeed an inspiration. Hearing some of your stories helped Drew and I realized the diverse backgrounds we all have. From those working in the medical profession to creative types, teachers, lawyers, insurance providers, entrepreneurs, active military personnel and so many more. We all share a deep love for running and beer.

But it’s not really about the beer and running for us. It’s about bringing people together as part of a community. Many of our participants ran their very first organized 5K this year, and we feel so honored they did so with us. Whether or not they run in a whole bunch more of our events, we hope that running and being active becomes a lifestyle for all of you. We also know that some of you are hardcore runners, doing other timed races in the area. We appreciate you too and love that you chose one of our events to take it easy for a day. We hope that bringing together these two different types of runners inspires everyone to stay active, have fun, and give back as we all discover and enjoy the intricacies of craft beer in this great state of ours.

After our last event of 2017 at Stickmen Brewing in Tualatin, Oregon on November 11, I walked around and interviewed some of our participants. I wanted to get a sense of why they decided to spend a Saturday morning with us. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

It's laid back, low key, no pressure!Running and beer...what else is there to say?Easy way to get back into running after an injury.Feel like family..like that it's a small group of people.It's just really fun!And a lot more, so listen now!