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Even in such a beer-dense and culturally rich Portland, Rosenstadt Brewery is unique. At 10 years old, Rosenstadt still manages to keep things fresh despite being based on Old World Bavarian beer styles that date back to the early 1800s. Rosenstadt (which means “Rose City”) was founded by German expat Tobias Hahn, and Nick Greiner, an American who married a German expat. Rosenstadt is a beer brand steeped in German tradition and innovation, both classic and unique. It makes only German-style beers at other people’s breweries, canning or kegging them up and then distributing them themselves without the shackles and added expense of real estate, brewing equipment, and all of its associated permits, licensing and utilities.
Over the past decade Rosenstadt has made its beers at more than a half-dozen places big and small, from bottling at the historic Portland Brewing, to kegging at the old-school Fearless Brewing in Estacada (both now defunct). Contract brewing is not exactly unheard of in Germany; one could argue it’s as traditional as the Reinheitsgebot for breweries to share facilities. But when homebrewers Hahn and Greiner started selling their beers door to door in 2015 without a location or a wholesale distributor, it seemed an original concept in Oregon. Surprisingly, their beer lineup was mostly lager, Kölsch and altbier, without an IPA to be found.
Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In September, Rosenstadt opened its first brick-and-mortar location next to fellow Old World European bar and alcohol maker Kachka Fabrika. Even at this location, Rosenstadt still does not brew its own beer, but does have its first space where customers can sidle up to the bar and order a liter of their favorite lager ($4 quarter, $7 half and $14 full) like the Swiss-inspired Hüttli Pilsner collab with local restaurant Alpenrausch. They can pair it with a pretzel-wrapped Frankfurter ($12), a seasonal Eintopf stew ($15) or a Brotzeit board of meats and cheeses ($18). The new outlet also affords Rosenstadt room to try new things, like making its first IPA.
Purists and hop haters may scoff at it, but Rosenstadt’s Fünf Null Drei IPA (which translates to 503 IPA) is arguably just as German as its other beers. Believe it or not, German beer can be quite hoppy—just try a Pilsner from Schönramer or Bitburger if you don’t believe me. Although the country isn’t known for its hops, Germany’s hop production rivals or eclipses the United States’. German hops tend to be less bitter, citrusy and dank, with more minty, herbal or zesty spice notes from the German noble hop family.
After watching U.S. hop breeding and innovation take off, the Hop Research Center in Hüll, Bavaria, developed the Mandarina Bavaria hop variety in 2012. Along with a very stone fruit flavor-forward German-grown version of U.S. Amarillo hops, the Mandarina Bavaria hop forms the floral core of Fünf Null Drei IPA. Mandarina Bavaria is a hybrid, a daughter of Oregon-developed Cascade hops crossbred with German noble hops. Back in the early aughts, Cascade hops’ distinct grapefruit notes gave the microbrew renaissance its flavor and American hops an identity. Mandarina Bavaria has Cascade’s citrus flavor but different with tangerine and mandarin orange notes, and a spicy herbaceous flavor and aroma with less harsh bitterness.
Fünf Null Drei IPA pours the rusty color of the decomposing steel hull of the Peter Iredale shipwreck slowly being washed away by the salty waves and sand of the Oregon Coast. There is a bittersweet scent of a water-logged vegetable garden after the first chill of fall does its damage. I smell winter citrus, holiday wreaths, and minty pine needles, and if I close my eyes, I get wild raspberries in a damp foggy forest. It’s a full-bodied beer more reminiscent of old-school ’90s IPA, with a light, chewy caramel sweetness like Grape-Nuts cereal. Instead of like the tropical or dank contemporary American IPAs, this one gives off catnip, pithy fruit rinds and winter berries. It tastes like an IPA out of time, a friendly handshake between two influential beer cultures preserved in amber with ancient DNA like the mosquito in Jurassic Park.
DRINK: Rosenstadt Brewery, 2117 NE Oregon St., 503-206-4245, rosenstadtbrewery.com. 4–9 pm Thursday and Friday, 1–9 pm Saturday and Sunday.
