The Very Weird Year in Photos (2020)
2020 started well enough. I managed to visit several breweries in the dark of winter before the first of the defining moments of the year arrived: plague, followed by racist state violence and public protests, followed by unprecedented, apocalyptic wildfires, followed by a second wave of Covid. Oh, and somewhere in there was a horribly divisive election that left the country angrier and more divided.
As a consequence, this year’s photos are less beer-centric than usual. Still, they ably mark an era.
Iceland’s KEX Brewing opened a promising Portland outpost we visited in January.
Level lured me with the promise of a delicious dark mild.
Baerlic continued its winning ways, and even after Covid struck remained one of the most varied and interesting breweries in Portland.
I finally made it to the St John’s location of StormBreaker, in a year they would wow me with their fresh hop beers.
For the Beervana Podcast’s 100th episode, we broadcast live on XRAY fm from Ecliptic Brewing, with special guest John Harris.
Alan Taylor had a tasty-looking mash in the tun when I visited in February.
Another new brewery, Away Days, cheered Patrick and me with their classic cask ales.
In March, just before Covid shut down the city, I visited Ferment Brewing, a few doors down from pFriem in Hood River.
Shortly after the pandemic, brewpubs like Deschutes had to switch gears.
Masks, ominous in March, became part of our normal clothing within a few months.
Downtown Portland, completely still at 3:20 on a Tuesday afternoon in April.
Still, shuttered breweries like Culmination had a post-apocalyptic cast to those peeking in windows past the “closed” signs.
Hopworks’ Williams Street pub closed in March and never reopened. The brewery announced they’d let the lease lapse in the fall.
Folks like Nat West at Reverend Nat’s retooled their businesses and began home delivery.
Minneapolis police officers killed George Floyd on May 25, and by June thousands were gathering at marches like this one in East Portland all across the country.
Once summer came, it was safe to sit outside and drink—especially at places like Ecliptic, where you could order on your phone and pick up your orders when they were ready.
Gigantic opened their new Robot Room in Montavilla—where you can get Ethiopian food with your LP Stout.
At the end of summer—during hop and grape harvest—a freak windstorm acted like a bellows, incinerating the state and turning the skies brown.
The rest of the country finally followed Oregon in vote-by-mail (we’ve been doing it since 2000), and here I am not waiting for the postman.
When possible, Patrick and I took the podcast to a socially-distant backyard locale.
What’s more warming than a grzaniec on a December afternoon? Sara and Jarek Szymanski model the version they sell at Threshold.