Archives West Finding Aid

The Rock Bottom Brewery Records document the brewing operations at the SW Morrison Street, Portland, Oregon facility. Brew and kegging logs record data about ingredients, temperatures, waste, and other measurements of the brewing process and when the beer is in storage.

The earliest brewsheet in the collection is batch 11, Pelican Ale. The beers they made didn't change significantly in later years, but brewers were able to experiement with their own recipes and names. In the earliest years (1994-1995), the brewers made five standard recipes: Pelican, Coyote, Brown, Red, and Stout. The sheets in the "Portland Recipes" folder are undated recipes for the early brews. By 2004, they most frequently brewed IPA, Wheat, Amber, Porter, and Lager, but also made Stouts (Irish, Cream, Imperial, and Oat), Kolsch, and Oktoberfest. In 2014, they still brewed IPA, Wheat, Kolsch, but added Belgian, Honey Blonde, Orange Porter, and Rye Stout to their regular rotation.

In 2014, they released a "Hipster Beer Series," which included beer names such as "Barley & Me," "Bull Run Red," "Yet Another Stunning Indictment of the Establishment" (a Session Belgian Double), and "Fight Hunger with Beer." Also in 2013 and 2014 were beers called "Yippie-Ki-P-A Motherf***ker," "No Ryegrets," "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid" (a Christmas Helles), "54 40 or Fight," and memorial beers dedicated to Maya Angelou and Nelson Mandela.