Jimmy Griffin and Vince Berg, co-owners

Seaside Brewing Co.

851 Broadway, Seaside

In Seasides former jail, firehouse and city hall is the growing Seaside Brewery, the citys official entry into the craft brew scene. Griffin and Berg, who used to brew for Rogue Brewery, took over the building over a year ago, invested significant time and money into fixing the location up and have been brewing for about eight months. Seaside Brewery is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., although the hours extend on the weekends. It can be found at www.seaside brewing.com

What do you do?

Jimmy: Were a craft brewery, part of the Oregon revolution. We kind of consider ourselves the counter-revolution. Really what were doing is providing a public house environment with Oregon craft beer for families and people who come to the coast, locals who want a place thats not a restaurant and not a bar. Public houses are unique little pillars of their communities, so we decided to be Seasides first one. We are kind of like mad scientists. Were not stuck on one thing. We just brew and brew and brew, and see how people like it, and tweak our recipes. Were our biggest critics.

How did you get started doing this?

Jimmy: My partner Vince Berg and I were sitting around a campfire wed gone fishing down on the coast, down by Newport. Wed been working for a long time in the brewing industry, just decided it was time to do our own thing. We had concepts and ideas that didnt necessarily fit with somebody elses idea of what their business looked like. We were originally just going to do a brewery and went out and raised enough money to just do a brewery. And then this building just kind of fell in our laps in a weird way at the last second. This building had so much potential, so much character, that we decided we were going to have to pick it up and put the cart before the horse a little bit.

What is the volume of your business?

Jimmy: Seaside is a different bird. We could have gone and done this somewhere else and just been full all the time. We knew that. We knew that Seaside was going to be a difficult stretch in the wintertime. And it is for everybody in this town. Its extremely seasonal; its hyper-sensitive to temperature, wind, moisture. But theres no rhyme or reason to it. Sometime they just flood in from the valley, and all of a sudden you have a gigantic day that comes out of nowhere. But you can pretty much count on gigantic waves of business in the summer. In the wintertime, clunk; it just hits the ground. The slow times are the times when you get to hone your craft.

How does the economy affect your business?

Jimmy: The economy affects all business, for sure. Theres no getting around that; however, in this particular industry theres a move… towards ‘premium-ization. People would rather spend $8 on two really, really good beers in a really cool environment – a more progressive sort of culture than to be able to buy five beers that taste like soap in a bar somewhere. Theres still growth in the craft beer industry. Im sure it will reach a saturation point at some point; theres a lot of people jumping on. I think there will always be that certain segment of society that loves quality and wants to be in a culture, an environment where theyre enjoying that quality.

Edward Stratton