Call this a resilience story.
The setting is “in the middle of nowhere,” which is how Justin Leigh, co-founder of Dwinell Country Ales, describes his brewery’s location. But, he quickly adds, “we’re also right in the middle of everything.”
Dwinell resides in Goldendale, Washington. Don’t know where that is? Drive east through the Columbia River Gorge for a couple of hours, turn north then head into Washington state’s wind farms and agricultural areas.
That’s where you’ll find Dwinell, which, starting Friday, reopens its tasting room and — quite often — sun-splashed patio. Leigh and wife Jocelyn Leigh, Dwinell’s co-owners, closed the space during the pandemic as they conceived of a plan to make it through.
The re-emergence has begun, and they’re doing so with renewed inspiration, opportunities and offerings. The tasting room has been freshened but maintains a modern rustic feel, with wood barrels lining walls adorned with an award-draped trophy buck, a barn door and elegant murals. On the spacious patio, wooden planter boxes are beginning to sprout all manner of herbs, vegetables and flowers, nestled between plenty of picnic tables, comfortable patio furniture and shade umbrellas.
Opening back up to the public comes as the Leighs continue to expand Dwinell’s scope. The operation is farming a low-density apple orchard about a mile from its production facility, and it is crafting ciders that are wild-fermented and pétillant naturel, or pét-nat — naturally sparkling.
And Dwinell has also been developing a small wine program with a focus on low-intervention fermentation techniques, including skin-contact wines and “spritzy piquettes.” The opening of the tasting room will mark the release of its 2022 vintage ciders and launch the winery brand.
“We’re making an effort to reconceptualize and present our space as more than simply a brewery tasting room,” Justin Leigh says, “and rather as a kind of tasting room writ large that showcases beer, wine, cider, and other fermentations.”
EXQUISITE ALES
The star of the show, for now at least, remains Dwinell’s ales. The brewery produces brilliant lagers and classic ales, but it has built its sizable reputation making complex beers that defy style categorization. Often called wild, spontaneously fermented or mixed-culture ales, Justin Leigh says all of those conventions don’t precisely define what’s coming out of the brewhouse, where blending, refermentation and experimentation dominate for the saison-inspired beers, which boast the dry, acidic, complex flavors produced by cultures such as domesticated and wild saccharomyces and brettanomyces.
“I like to describe process and constitutive parts,” he says. “We make Belgian and French-inspired seasonal ales that support local and regional agricultural economies. … All in all, I like to say, we make seasonal, blended ferments with a distinct sense of place.”
And therein lies “the middle of everything.” When the Leighs moved from Chicago in 2016, where Justin was a practicing attorney, they chose Goldendale for its proximity to some of the globe’s best natural resources for the beers they wanted to produce.
After its August of 2017 opening, Dwinell quickly developed a reputation for quality and a cult following even with relatively low production. But the pandemic reset allowed the Leighs to put effort into expanding.
“We had set up our business such that we relied predominantly on the tasting room to support us from a cash flow standpoint, and that made it nearly impossible to grow our business,” Justin says. “When the pandemic started, we pivoted toward distribution and have been able to experience meaningful growth for the first time.
“Now that we are able to sustain our business operation from our distribution efforts, we feel more comfortable with and excited about reopening our Goldendale tasting room because its performance won’t make or break our business.”
Dwinell’s distribution recently benefited when the Oregon Liquor & Cannabis Commission agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by three Washington breweries, Garden Path Fermentation, Fortside Brewing and Mirage Beer. The trio sued in August for the right to self-distribute their beer in Oregon, arguing that Oregon law discriminated against out-of-state breweries in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause. Justin Leigh organized the suit and served as an expert witness.
“This is a big win for Oregon consumers,” says Portland lawyer Judith A. Parker, who represented the breweries.
For the Leighs, it means they can close a separate — and expensive — Oregon-based company they operated and licensed as a beer, cider, and wine distributor.
“We can now legally ship our beer directly to Oregon consumers,” he says. “This is big for us, especially since more than half of our bottle club members reside in Oregon.”
IMPRINTING A LEGACY
Dwinell incorporates wine grapes in a significant number of its beers, but in a unique way, Leigh says.
In winemaking, the “must” is the crushed fruit, skins and juice of wine grapes, and most breweries add fermented beer to the must, which then referments. But Dwinell is using wort — the unfermented, sugary liquid resulting from the grain mashing, one of the first steps in the brewing process — and adding that to the must, which provides the yeast that drives the co-fermentation.
That process began as an experiment in 2019, when Leigh and Dwinell collaborated with Portland’s Ex Novo Brewing and its head brewer Ryan Buxton and barrel manager/brewer Nick Simmons to make a beer called Old Vine.
“It all started with this beer,” Leigh says. “We wild fermented with Sauvignon blanc, and it’s called Old Vine because they’re 30-plus year-old vines — they were actually the first Sauv blanc vines planted in Washington state.
Simmons, who is now started his own winemaking operation, Vorel Wine, in the Dwinell production facility, said the collaboration was a special and different moment for a brewer.
“We’re out in the vineyards picking the grapes ourselves, enjoying a couple of cans of Mexican lager,” he says. “From a brewer’s standpoint, to be out there harvesting the products, it’s a raw and real experience.”
Dwinell and Ex Novo packaged Old Vine in early 2020 but never did a big release because of the pandemic.
Then Buxton died in spring of 2022.
“I’ve unfortunately known a few people in my life that have killed themselves, and the experience is always inexplicable,” Leigh says. “We rush to try to understand something that generally defies any kind of logic.
“And while I wasn’t close friends with Ryan, we had a growing friendship rooted in a shared professional respect for one another,” he says.
When the Best of Craft Beer Awards approached earlier this year, Leigh discovered he had one case left and entered Old Vine in the Spontaneous Fermentation & Mixed-Culture Beers category. It won gold.
“I think it’s a really special memorial and testament to Ryan,” Leigh says. “It was more than just about us winning. We won it together, I suppose. I was really proud.
“The funny thing is there’s no marketing angle here. I’m not parlaying an award into sales. I’ve got three bottles of it left, ya know?”
Leigh says in many ways he owes to Buxton the innovative process Dwinell now incorporates into many of its beers.
“I looked up to Ryan as an accomplished brewer and mentor and used our collaborations as an opportunity to learn,” he says. “In that sense, entering Old Vine into BOCB — and ultimately winning gold — was a way for me to make sense of my relationship with Ryan, to make sense of his death, and perhaps to imprint some kind of legacy for him.
“We created a beautiful beer together that, thankfully, received some recognition,” he says. “On a certain level, I think that’s what this whole beer brewing thing is all about.”
For Simmons, Old Vine is another way for him to remember his friend.
“It’s one we put our hearts into,” he says. “You root for any collab to medal, but this one obviously is special.”
If You Go
What: Dwinell Country Ales tasting room and patio
Where: 206 W. Broadway St., Goldendale, Washington
Food: Light snacks available, plus occasional food trucks; outside food welcome.
When: The tasting room operates on a seasonal basis and is open now through summer from noon-6 p.m. Friday-Sunday.
Details: countryales.com
— Andre Meunier; sign up for my weekly newsletter Oregon Brews and News, and follow me on Instagram, where I’m @oregonianbeerguy.