BDSM Brewing Company Fosters Community for Beer Lovers With Very Specific Tastes

Nightlife’s best-kept secrets are where you’d least expect them. I continued to reassure myself of this as my GPS led me through a sprawling urban junkyard by train tracks that would be the perfect setting for the acclaimed true-crime doc on my murder. But instead I soon found myself outside BDSM Brewing Company in Hillsboro, a massive building with LGBTQ+ symbology and the brewing company’s branded art spray-painted across the façade. Once I was inside, it was quickly apparent that the only way I was getting thrown hog-tied into a trunk and left for dead was if I asked someone nicely.

Jokes aside, BDSM Brewing Company is a no-frills, immediately welcoming brewery and social space attracting people with some very particular interests, and not just in whips and chains. The brewery hosts karaoke and game nights, regular “pirate nights” at which guests sing sea shanties and dress to nautically impress, and special events like beer festivals and celebrations tied to larger happenings like Oregon Leather Pride Week and the Hillsboro Night Market. BDSM’s mascots—humans Billy Mash and the Bitter Bitch (or B.B.) and Brew, an anthromorphic pup—are even available to chat as artificial intelligence models on Meta’s AI Studio.

Billy and Matt Wing founded BDSM Brewing over a decade ago, in 2014. Defying common logic, BDSM doesn’t stand for bondage, dominance and sadomasochism, but rather Billy’s Damn Straight Mash. BDSM Brewing Company began in the Wings’ garage and, by word of mouth, grew into what it is today. BDSM Brewing Company opened in its expanded headquarters on July 5, and understandably is still getting settled. It’s not an after-hours spot, as it closes at 10 pm, but if you’re the type to wind up in a sling swing before midnight and want something more casual than a round at Steam or Hawks, this might be your thrilling new chill zone.

I joined a half-dozen other patrons, all of whom seemed like regulars, and co-owner Billy Wing at BDSM Brewing on a recent Sunday afternoon. A group of kink-minded friends recently tipped me off to the brewery’s existence, and Matt Wing had previously emailed WW regarding a line written by a former editor years ago calling BDSM Brewing’s tagline “cringeworthy.” He hoped for a closer look at his business, which brews beers with kink-coded names like Bear Bottom Brown Ale, Safeword Stout and Ballgag IPA. The brewery currently finds itself in a lull between rushes. Oregon Leather Pride has attracted scores of guests to the cozy brewpub, while BDSM Brewing Comapny’s newest batch of brews should be ready to get tapped around the weekend of Aug. 22, just in time for the Viking Beer Fest.

While its owners bide their time waiting on their beer, BDSM Brewing Company currently hosts guest taps from other local beermakers. The brewery’s on-site barbecue food cart, the similarly fetish-minded joint The Butt Hutt, is currently out of commission, so guests can bring in outside food or get it delivered from nearby restaurants or food carts. Beer is not a draw for me, so I won’t waste your time pretending I have valuable opinions on it.

Instead, BDSM Brewing Company will whip up a custom seltzer ($2 soft, $7 hard) from its library of syrups for people who aren’t beer nuts. I opted for a mix of peach, passion fruit and blood orange, and did not incur a charge for extra syrups. The brewery’s default is to use two or three pumps of each flavor, but a hummingbird like me would need at least four each to mask a hard seltzer’s bitter aftertaste. A fly drowned in my first drink, so the replacement was immediately improved upon with more pumps.

Overall, it’s not likely you will wander into BDSM Brewing Company by accident and not have some sense of what’s being offered. Still, a man told Wing during my visit that he passes the building on his commute and wanted to know what it was like inside. Wing’s welcoming spirit, paired with his bartender’s amenability, seemed to put the customer at ease and convert a new fan. My visit made it clear that the only thing to be scared of at BDSM Brewing Company is that you might like it.

TRY IT: BDSM Brewing, 516 S 1st Ave., Hillsboro, 503-453-0181, bdsmbrewing.com. 4–10 pm Tuesday and Thursday–Sunday. 21+.