In the case of Art Larrance, “influencer” might be a less accurate term than “creator.” Along with the McMenamins, the Widmer brothers, the Ponzis and several other iconic beverage families, Larrance is responsible for passing the Brewpub Bill in 1985, the historic legislation that allowed breweries to serve beer on their premises.
As memorialized in Portland legend, Larrance introduced the idea of the brewpub to state Rep. Tom Mason in the shower at the Multnomah Athletic Club. “That’s accurate,” Larrance admits. “We started talking in the shower and kept talking after we got out of the shower.”
Mason introduced it in the Oregon House in January 1985 and it passed later that year. Without Larrance, there might not be an Oregon craft beer scene at all.
If that were his only contribution, it would be hugely significant. But Larrance had barely started. In 1986, he co-founded Portland Brewing, one of the four original Portland breweries, with Fred Bowman and Jim Goodwin. He was also the driving force behind the creation of the Oregon Brewers Festival and was its main organizer for many years.
When Portland Brewing sold shares to stockholders and the owners lost control of the company, Larrance was shown the door. But after a few years of trial and error, that decision resulted in one of Larrance’s most successful enterprises yet.
In 1998, Larrance and Ron Gansberg — a former co-worker at Portland Brewing — opened Raccoon Lodge in west Portland. As they began to develop their beers, they grappled with how to define themselves and move away from quickly ubiquitous India pale ales, and presciently hit upon the idea of using Lactobacillus to produce sour beers using local Northwestern ingredients.
The duo’s Cascade Brewing Barrel House opened in 2010 with a variety of sour and barrel-aged beers, including their flagship Cascade Kriek, a sour red ale, aged in oak barrels with Bing and sour pie cherries. Again, Larrance and Gansberg helped usher in a new era of Oregon brewing — this time, the current mania for sour beers and wild fermentation.
“It was luck and timing and a number of factors,” says Larrance of his long and illustrious career. “I feel honored and privileged to have been involved with it all.”
And is there anything else to come from the man who has been at the forefront of Oregon beer for so long? “We have three generations of family in the business now,” Larrance says. “I’ll probably withdraw after a period of time. But I want to stay around. I just want to play with the toys that I’ve got. I don’t need anything else.”
This story originally ran in the fall 2016 print issue of Sip Northwest magazine. For the full story and more like this, click here.
