1001 SE Division St., 827-0249, grixsen.com. 3-10 pm Wednesday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Sunday.
Like many young brewers, 25-year-old DJ Moxley got his start in college. Unlike many young brewers, his first customers were Jesuit priests: At Gonzaga University in Spokane, Moxley sold six-packs of stout and chocolate brown, brewed and bottled in his dorm, to the clerics. Now he's taken those recipes to the 10-barrel system at Grixsen, which just opened a small taproom in a very beery corner of Southeast not far from Apex, the Beermongers and Baerlic. Moxley and partner Scott Petersen, head of the Fiction ad agency, say the goal is to strike a balance between anything-goes American experimentalism and age-old brewing traditions—they'd rather finely tinker with malt quantity than toss in buckets of grapefruit juice or cacao nibs. Count on collaborations, too: Grixsen has buddies at Portland's Heathen and Avery Brewing in Colorado, and even at a century-old brewery in Nuremberg, Germany.
Drink This: The saison has nice banana and clove notes, and the priest-approved stout is also solid.
Willamette Week