Migration Brewing: Six Months In
This month, Migration Brewing, one of Portland's newest breweries celebrates its sixth month in business. Last week, I was part of a group of writers and media who met with friends and co-founders of Migration, Colin Rath, McKean Banzer-Lausberg, and Mike Branes, to try the current beer lineup, and hear about Migration's progress thus far and plans for the future.
With September quickly approaching, it's hard to believe that it's already been six months since Migration opened its doors. In some ways, February seems like yesterday. At the same time, a lot has happened in the last six months. Migration has introduced us to three beers that will be part of the regular lineup (the much-talked about Little Bitter is not a beer that will be part of that lineup). The brewery also doubled its capacity, adding two new seven-barrel fermentors. With the increase in available capacity, Migration is hoping to start distributing its beers to local taprooms and bars around town beginning in mid-September.
The current lineup of beers includes:
A Migration Towards a Niche Market
McKean Banzer-Lausgerg from Migration Brewing talks about Portland's competitive landscape
In a recent post published at The New School, Ben Edmunds, a columnist for the site, prompted us to think about the point at which Portland would be considered a saturated beer market. Framed in the article as the Portland Beer Apocalypse, Ben offers his take on this very real possibility, saying:
"I fear for the Portland brewpubs. Already forced to compete with a tough restaurant scene, brewpubs are strained by large outlays of cash and credit for brewing systems, as well as the challenge of running both a brewery and restaurant." He goes on to say, "I fear that good beer and the best intentions may simply not be enough to make a brewery succeed. I hope I am wrong, but I’ll be surprised if the city can handle forty-plus breweries and brewpubs sustainably."
