Ninkasi's craft brews generate a Northwest buzz
by KAREN NAGY
photos by NATHAN CORDOVA
Climbing up a narrow metal ladder, Jamie Floyd peers into the SUV-sized vat of steaming barley and points to the temperature gauge. “Almost done!” he yells. Thirty-five-year-old Floyd, co-owner and brewmaster of Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon, is brewing a batch of one of his award-winning amber ales. He dashes through the brewery, dodging bulky machinery and piles of empty kegs. Floyd checks temperatures, pitches yeast, and adds oxygen to the beer, all while trying to stay awake despite the strong smell of hops in the building.
For as many as ten hours a day he continues this routine, brewing up to 1,900 gallons a week — maximum capacity for the small brewery. The intensive process is often undertaken by Floyd alone or with help from co-owner Nikos Ridge and brewer Ian Fuller, who recently joined the tiny staff. In May 2007, Ninkasi relocated to a larger facility in order to keep up with the growing demand for its signature brews, which can be found on tap at more than eighty bars and restaurants throughout Oregon.
Though mankind created beer thousands of years ago on a different continent, the Pacific Northwest is known today for its innovative brewmasters like Floyd who continue to perfect the art of craft brewing. Taking advantage of local hops and barley, Floyd reinvents the delicate flavors and aromas of ales and lagers for long-time connoisseurs and novice drinkers alike. As a past president of the Oregon Brewers Guild and a certified beer judge, Floyd has trained his palette to distinguish the distinct tastes that make each type of beer unique.
But for Floyd, his job is more than creating tasty beverages. “Beer education will be a major factor of what we do long term,” he says. Floyd helps organize Eugene’s Sasquatch Brew Festival, as well as the annual local homebrew competition at a local radio station’s Northwest Microbrew Festival. In addition, he shares his knowledge and love of quality brews through beer appreciation classes at Lane Community College’s Culinary Arts program. “In Oregon,” Floyd says, “people appreciate the finer things in life.”
Above: The iconic Ninkasi taps can be seen at bars and restaurants throughout the Willamette Valley.
Below: Jamie Floyd, co-owner of Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon, takes a break from the hustle of his daily brewing routine.
Floyd began homebrewing as a student at the University of Oregon, where he and friends would make five- to ten-gallon batches of their favorite dark stouts. “We drank about as much as we’d make in the day that we did it,” Floyd says with a laugh.
To put himself through school, Floyd worked as a cook and later as an assistant brewer at the renowned Steelhead Brewery, where he learned the ins and outs of large-scale beer production. Floyd soon became head brewer, and after nine years there, seven of his fermented concoctions won medals at the Great American Beer Festival — the largest beer competition in the United States. “I always knew I wanted to own my own business though,” Floyd says.
In 2001, Floyd and Ridge developed Ninkasi Brewing Company, named for the Sumerian goddess of brewing and fermentation from the ancient agrarian civilization in Mesopotamia. “Brewing has been a part of civilization since the beginning,” Floyd says. “I’m just the village brewer.”
