In 2010 — with his Siebel Institute education, training in Germany and Belgium, and degree from Yale tucked under his arm — Ben Edmunds opened Breakside Brewery in the quiet Woodlawn neighborhood of Northeast Portland as a restaurant and nano-sized brewery. Breakside expanded to a 3.5-barrel brewhouse while winning their first medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2011 where they have earned medals each year since. In late 2013 the brewery expanded operations to Milwaukie, Oregon with a 30-barrel production brewery. In 2014 Breakside was awarded with the highly coveted Gold Medal for American-style IPA at the Great American Beer Festival for their flagship IPA that was also named to Men’s Journals 100 Best Beers In The World and Sip Northwest’s Best IPA in the Northwest. Peaks and Pints salutes Breakside Brewery today with the five-beer sample flight Craft Beer Crosscut 9.11.18: A Flight of Breakside Brewery.

Breakside Herbivore

5.4% ABV

Conventional wisdom dictates that lagers are clean and crisp, nearly devoid of yeast-derived flavors. Beers fermented with Brettanomyces, on the other hand, are all about what the yeast can do: fruit and funk and farmhouse flavors. So how could the two ever coexist? They do. Breakside Brewery collaborated with Against The Grain Brewery and Smokehouse in Louisville, Kentucky to brew this farmhouse lager with sorrel, sumac and fennel. Nose brings out light farmhouse notes, saison yeast and some herbal notes. Flavor is quite herbal, with farmhouse notes, vegetal character and biscuity malt.

Breakside Qualia

6.7% ABV, 3 IBU

Qualia is the second in Breakside’s new wood-aged sour beer series, simply dubbed “Breakside Sour.” This is the first year that the Portland brewery is releasing its award-winning, barrel-aged sour and wild beers to wide distribution. A result of a complex blending process and months of aging, Qualia is blended from 15 casks of mixed culture beers. Aged on mangoes after blending, it shows balanced acidity and a kiss of Brettanomyces. Dip your nose for fresh tart mangoes upfront, with some Brett and light oak barrels. The flavor is intensely sour, with lots of fresh, juicy mangos, fairly assertive Brett and oak barrels. It’s complex and with a great balance between Brett and mangos.

Breakside Cultivating Mass

10.5% ABV, 30 IBU

Breakside’s Cultivating Mass Imperial Baltic Porter is smooth as silk. Breakside layered on one dark malt after another, performed two mashes to get the rich body where they wanted it, coaxed it through a long and cool fermentation, and aged it for nearly 18 months in bourbon barrels from Kentucky’s storied Heaven Hill distillery. The aroma is loaded with bourbon character, with lots of vanilla and caramel. Flavor is very sweet, with lots of bourbon character upfront, followed by vanilla, caramel and molasses. It’s quite sweet, but not cloying.

Breakside Wanderlust IPA

6.7% ABV, 50 IBU

Why brew a second year-round IPA? Breakside’s original, awarding-winning IPA (see below) sold so well in Oregon the Portland brewery couldn’t expand its brewery’s sales to remote places like, oh, Seattle. So, it decided to make another IPA intended for export to lands near and far, Wanderlust. Made with Mosaic, Summit, Simcoe, Cascade, and Amarillo hops, it is bright golden in color and has intense tropical, dank, and grapefruit notes. By keeping the malt profile as light as possible, the interplay of hop flavors shine.

Breakside Amateur Hour Red IPA

6.3% ABV, 63 IBU

A red IPA is basically an American red ale brewed at a higher strength and hopped like an IPA. Typically, redder in color than an IPA, with deep ruby hues. Breakside brewed one, Amateur Hour Red IPA, with a fruity, toffee-laden malt cushion that softens the IPA’s hop edge; think hoppy Irish red ale. We also pick up some burnt caramel and pine.