Welcome back to another installment of the Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast. Inspiring Oregonians to Get Active, Have Fun, and Give Back. We host family-friendly, 5K fun runs that start and end at some of Oregon’s best breweries.
Today’s show is a rerun of an interview I did back in April of 2017. You may not know this, but before we started the podcast, I was interviewing people live on Facebook, and then posting that video to our YouTube channel. It was a little clunky, and not super easy to listen to. And from a production and interviewer perspective, well, let’s just say we’ve learned a lot.
Anyway, I’m resharing my interview with the legendary brewery, John Harris. You may not know who that is, but you probably know his beer. John is a hero in the beer world, and after spending almost 30 years working for some of the most prolific breweries in Oregon, he decided to start his own brewery, one of our favorites, Ecliptic Brewing.
A quick summary of his background, John began as a brewer at McMenamins’, then moved to Deschutes in Bend, where he created the recipes for Mirror Pond, Black Butte Porter, and Obsidian Stout to name a few. In 1992, he was the brewmaster at Full Sail where he was in charge of creating the Brewmaster Reserve line of beers.
After three decades of brewing for other people, he decided to take on the ambitious challenge of opening his own brewery and restaurant. Ecliptic Brewing began in October of 2013, just off Cook and Mississippi Ave in a booming area of North Portland. They have quickly become one of the hottest breweries, winning a lot of awards for their beer, including being named the fifth top brewery in the country for 2017.
Talking to a Legend
When I sat down to talk with John, I have to admit I was a little intimidated. Here’s a guy who created some of the most iconic beers in Oregon, and influential in the success of multiple breweries. I rarely get starstruck, but I guess I sorta was, as you’ll see, from my rambling question asking. We get to sample three of John’s Ecliptic beers, and hear some of the backstory about what went into making them.
John was nothing but kind, and incredibly gracious with a few of my oddball, newbie beer questions and attempts at humor. Ok, so let’s just get to the interview. Here’s my conversation with John Harris, owner, founder and brewmaster at Ecliptic Brewing in Portland.
A big thank you to John Harris for taking time away from his crazy schedule to chat with me. When we talked, Ecliptic had just installed a canning machine, and it wasn’t going well Not sure if you noticed John’s comment, but I know it was causing him headaches, yet he still found time to chat. That’s a solid guy.
And thank you for listening to the Oregon Brewery Running Series Podcast! Part of the reason I’m sharing this again now is that we just found out Ecliptic is on board for one of our runs in 2018 and we’re incredibly excited! If you want early access to that event, register here and get $5 off for a limited time.
