I visited Portland, Oregon earlier this month. I was there attending yet another academic conference – this time the 62nd North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International. And yes, I talked about beer at the conference – about the large regional craft breweries and their need to build second production locations in order to minimize their transportation costs as they extend their geographic market reach.

Portland is known as the City of Roses. While no one is quite sure as to how the city acquired this nickname it seems to have originated in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. The Portland  climate appears to be particularly conducive to growing the flower and the city has been hosting an annual rose festival every summer since 1907. It is even an event at which the famous Budweiser Clydesdale’s have been known to make an appearance. It was not until 2003, however, that the Portland City Council passed a resolution making the name official.  Portland is also home to the International Rose Test Garden where new rose varieties are tested.

In more recent times Portland has become nationally famous for its vibrant craft beer scene. For many,  Portland is to craft beer what Mecca is to Muslims or Paradise is to Glasgow Celtic fans – a holy place where the faithful come to pay homage. One recent study found that twelve percent of overnight visitors to Portland came there to visit a craft brewery. Whenever a list of the country’s best beer cities is published it is not unusual for Portland to occupy pole position. The city is home to over sixty craft breweries and is the first city in the country where craft beer outsold Anheuser Busch and MillerCoors. Such is the prevalence of craft beer that even the city’s strip clubs (so often a bastion of macro brews) have a fine selection of craft brews.  Yes craft beer is ubiquitous in Portland.

One of the signs of a vibrant craft beer scene is the existence of an annual beer festival – an opportunity for locals and visitors alike to sample beers from both local and regional breweries.  In Portland there is no shortage of beer festivals. For the last twenty-eight years the city has hosted the Oregon Brewers Festival (OBF) which now attracts over 85,000 beer lovers.  In case you can’t make it to the OBF there are plenty of others that take place in the city throughout the year. These include the North American Organic Beer Festival, a Nano Beer Festival, a Fresh Hops Festival, a Holiday Ale Festival, and Peche Fest (a beer festival dedicated to peach beers and ciders).  One gets the sense that if you lived in Portland you could spend a good portion of the year’s 365 days attending beer festivals.

With so many breweries it should come as no surprise that a few stand out as unique and different. BTU Brasserie is a Chinese restaurant and brewery which has an in-house seven-barrel brewing system. Their flagship brew is a Chinese rice beer. Then there is Groundbreaker Brewery where all the beers are gluten free. Ex Novo Brewery is a non-profit brewery with one hundred percent of the net profits going to charitable causes such as Friends of the Children and International Justice Mission. Then there’s the haunted downtown taproom of Old Time Pizza and Brewing where Nina (pronounced Nigh-na) the ghost may join you for a slice of your favorite pie.

As to why Portland has such a strong craft beer culture Joe Cortright, in a 2002 article in Economic Development Quarterly suggests a number of key catalysts and drivers. These include a high concentration of home brew enthusiasts, above average consumption of imported beer, an entrepreneurial community who were interested in “something different” and were inspired by a vibrant local boutique wine industry, and finally a local consumer base who wanted to consume local products. All of these things came together to create an environment where Portland’s craft beer industry not only took off but subsequently thrived. And so, according to Cortright, “as the industry grew it changed the local knowledge base: local consumers becomes educated to the differences between pale ales, lagers, and stouts, and competition among brewers triggered experimentation and innovation”.

After spending five days in the Rose City what struck me the extent to which craft beer is embedded in the city’s everyday culture. Indeed, Pete Holmstrom,  writing in the Portland Monthly calls beer ‘a pillar of modern Oregon life‘. In addition to visiting a number of brewpubs while in Portland I also paid a visit to Powell’s in the city’s Pearl District. Powell’s is an increasingly unique phenomenon in modern-day America – an independent book store. It is not just a book store – it is, according to CNN, one of the world’s “coolest bookstores” . It is not only cool, it also huge – over 68,000 square feet of books. When I got there I asked one of the store’s assistants as to where the books on beer and brewing were in the store. She directed me to the appropriate part of the store and there I was faced with the largest selection of books on beer that I had seen in one location. Of course pick almost any topic and I suspect that Powell’s has more books on it than most other book stores. I spent a very pleasant hour or so browsing and choosing.

Not only does craft beer contribute to Portland’s unique cultural mosaic but it is also an important contributor to the local economy. Indeed the industry is taken seriously by Oregon’s business leaders statewide. The Oregon Business Plan is a private sector-led initiative that identifies and supports economic development initiatives that are designed to increase the number of high paying jobs in the state. As part of their strategy to grow the Oregon economy the leadership of The Oregon Business Plan have identified twenty-three industry sectors (or clusters) that they believe hold the key to Oregon’s future economic success. Among these is breweries. Oregon’s craft breweries have an economic impact in excess of $1.8 billion and support over 17,000 jobs which pay an average wage of over $38,000.

While it is the breweries that are at the front and center of Portland’s craft beer scene there is also an extensive set of businesses that support the brewer’s efforts. These include Portland Kettle Works who manufacture hand crafted brewing equipment such as kettles and tanks, Irvine & Company who are Certified Public Accountants specializing in the craft brewing industry, and Brewery Branding Company who design and manufacture promotional merchandise for the industry. Of course these support companies have clients all across the country and by exporting their goods and services they bring viral dollars into the Portland economy.

This was my fourth visit to Portland. I sincerely hope that it will not be my last. Anyone who loves beer cannot but enjoy themselves there. It is a true beer lovers paradise; a place where great beer, knowledgable beer drinkers, and a fantastic urban fabric come together and comingle.