In Suds & Sounds we turn the spotlight on breweries, focusing on the role of music in that brewery’s history, packaging, tastes, and in its city or town as a whole. The idea is to get beer and music lovers to connect with a side of the brewery that may often go overlooked, but one that we think is absolutely vital. To accomplish this, we are talking to the brewers themselves about their own love of music and the role it plays in how they approach their beer. And who knows, maybe we’ll even talk to a musicians from time to time to give a perspective from the other side.
The best brewers are often those who refuse to do the same thing over and over. Flagship beers aside, there is something to be said for change and evolution. Upright Brewing’s Alex Ganum approaches the craft like his beloved jazz, always tinkering, experimenting and improvising with technique and style. This open-minded approach has made Upright one of the most quietly respected breweries in the Northwest, netting them numerous awards for styles that range from classic pilsners and English old ales to IPAs, barleywines, and saisons.
Upon visiting Upright, located at the end of a maze of hallways and staircases in the basement of a nondescript brick building a stones throw away from Portland’s Moda Center (home to the Trailblazers), one immediately feels cozy in the subterranean confines. Besides the delicious beer, this is due to the nearly constant sounds coming from a record player located behind the bar. Here, the beertenders enjoy serving up an eclectic array of sounds ranging from jazz to Zappa to obscure African music and throwback rock. The brewery often references jazz musicians on their gorgeous bottle labels, and even serves up a employee-curated playlist from time to time. All of this equates to a brewery that finds symbiosis in music and beer in the form of pure creativity and maximum enjoyment of life. The brewery’s name is even a nod to a certain legendary jazz artist (more on that below). To learn more about Upright’s relationship with music, we recently talked with Upright brewer Alex Ganum.
How long have you been brewing and what do you consider your greatest triumph so far as a craft brewer?
I started brewing is an intern at Brewery Ommegang back in 2003 after a year of homebrewing, it’s pretty much been my only career as an adult. I think getting Upright open is probably my most meaningful accomplishment – at the time I was more of a production guy than a businessperson, so there was a ton to learn to make the brewery something that would last. Looking back eleven years later, I’ve got to admit that it feels good to have made it figured out how to get rolling and then operate the brewery this far.
Talk about the beer culture a bit in your city. What do people look for in a good beer and what do you hope to provide, and also do you see the beer scene as being linked in any way to the music scene?
The Portland beer scene must be legendary at this point; we have several founding father types that paved the way for younger generations like myself and I hope to help contribute in a similar way so other hard working creative folks can thrive too. It’s a pretty amazing place to brew and be a beer enthusiast, we’re just surrounded by solid beer – even dive bars have a great selection!
I think a good beer just needs to be satisfying, so that can be something simple, hugely complex, and anything in between, you just need to take each one on its own and drop any excessive expectations or made up contexts. Perhaps music is similar, where people often prefer to compartmentalize it rather than truly get into what the artist is trying to express. That being said, there’s plenty of people out there who “get it” and aren’t going to miss out on a wonderful experience.
A lot of breweries seem to incorporate their own musical tastes into their packaging and presentation, whether it be a collaboration with a band, a tribute label, or a beer name that references something they like. Has you brewery ever done something like this, and if so can you tell us about it?
We have a lot of musical elements in our beers, between the names and label art. We’ve worked with Lloyd Winter for years now on the designs, he’s a musician and is able to keep the general theme while changing up the style, something I personally appreciate. As brewers we’ve always gravitated toward artists that are constantly moving and confident in their work, so people like Frank Zappa, Charles Mingus, and Sun Ra (to name just a few popular ones) are very inspirational. We even named the brewery after Mingus – Upright is simply a reference to his primary instrument.
In your opinion, is there a particular band or genre that is ideal to listen to while brewing beer?
We’ve found that music with horns tends to cut through the sound of our pumps, so don’t be surprised to hear some afro/latin or afrobeat if you poke your head in while we’re doing production work. Like nearly everyone, we’ve got eclectic tastes here so the music covers a big range – might be anything from Canada’s Hanson Brothers to Mandré to XTC.
Some breweries have gotten more into music through sponsoring tours, festivals, or even throwing their own versions of those. How do you think live music fits into the fabric of craft beer, and is this something your brewery has done?
Upright is pretty small so we don’t do a ton of sponsorships or festivals, but we do have a great 20s/30s style blues musician named Steve Cheeseborough every Sunday – he’s been playing here since we started! Music and beers or bars go hand in hand, and even though we don’t do any live stuff apart from Steve, the brewery taproom has become a bit of a destination for music nerds. We have a nice turntable and stereo setup down here thanks to Gary at True Audiophile and our bartenders and brewers bring in new LPs everyday, so it’s typical for music to become as big a part of our conversations with visitors as beer.
Do you have any musicians or noteworthy people that you can say are fans of any of your beers?
We’ve worked with a local musician named Parker Hall on a couple special projects. He’s not famous but he’s really talented. Him and his brother Jon are avid homebrewers and fans of what we do down here, and it’s a blast to chat with them about both beer and music.
Breweries often collaborate with other breweries for beers and Upright is no stranger to this. They also have been known to collaborate with musicians. Is there a musician or band (dead or alive) that you would love to collaborate with, and if so, what kind of beer do you envision you would brew?
Wow, what a question! Off the top of my head, I think it would be super fun to collaborate with Mike Patton. I think his take on pop music would be hilarious to translate into the world of beer, and he once said in response to a question about the meaning of his lyrics that he just liked the way the words sounded together, a line that’s stuck with me for years.
Upright Brewing is located at 240 N Broadway in Portland, OR. For tap room hours, beer lineup and more visit uprightbrewing.com. Note that hours may be different due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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