Some breweries aim to grow quickly. Others aim to make a living by maintaining an enduring connection with enough drinkers who love their beer.
Heater Allen isn’t one of those rapid-growth stories. But it’s a success story nonetheless, because the Allens have thrived in a niche they love—lager—for 14 years. They’ve done it in McMinnville, a town of fewer than 35,000 people almost an hour’s drive from brewery-saturated Portland, Oregon.
The respect that Heater Allen gets from fellow brewers dwarfs the actual size of the company, which expects to brew fewer than 1,400 barrels of beer this year. “It’s mainly me,” says Lisa Allen, head brewer. “And I have a cellar guy, Matt, who is almost fully trained on the brewhouse. Other than that, it’s our sales guy and my dad. We’re a small team.”