#fred eckhardt

I’ve been spending a lot of time over the past couple of months processing collections -- putting them in order, creating guides, having my colleagues review the guides, and then (hopefully) getting those guides out there into the wider world for researchers to discover. 

I was finishing up a guide for the Fred Bowman Papers, one that we have only in digitized form (the originals still live with Bowman). 

Fred Bowman co-founded Portland Brewing Company in 1986 with Art Larrance and Jim Goodwin. 

Read about Portland Brewing Company on Wikipedia.

I’ll be posting information about that when the guide is up, but for now know that it is a delightful collection with digitized photographs showing the renovation of the original Portland Brewing location and early events at the brewery – including all the demolition, construction, and brewing equipment delivery! All the photographs from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital. The digitized documents, which aren’t online, include newspaper articles, Portland Brewing business documents, and a personal pocketbook with Bowman’s handwritten notes.

I know, this is a long lead up to the main subject of this post... Hang with me a bit longer...

In tying up the loose ends for this guide I was reminded of a set of photographs we digitized and returned to Art Larrance. Those have also been accessible through Oregon Digital, but we didn’t have a collection called out for Larrance. That will change. Soon. Ish. 

Archivists are great at saving stuff and helping people find stuff. Sometimes archivists need help finding their own stuff. That was the case this afternoon when I went on a search through the archives shared drives for the original scans of the Larrance materials. A student who worked for me in 2014 scanned these items. He graduated. 

Before you PANIC and think I can’t find stuff, my escape hatch for getting the e-versions of these records would have been to download them individually from Oregon Digital. It would have been tedious, but doable.

In my search I happened upon this set of slides/negatives we digitized from the Fred Eckhardt collection. I figured the internets would appreciate this. 

Pics of Cartwright Brewing Co. 

There are also a few lovelies from BridgePort. Karl Ockert on the left, Matt Sage on the right. 

And of the Widmer Bros (and their dad). 

Lots more where these come from! Learn about all the OHBA collections and see a list of the oral histories online at:

Fred Eckhardt saved a lot of things. 

When I heard about BridgePort yesterday my first impulse was to go to his collection and see what he saved from the years he observed and wrote about the brewery. If you are reading this blog you know that I think it is really important that we save and share these details of history. Looking through the items written by a man who is no longer with us about a brewery that will soon be closed is an emotional things. 

Save your stuff people -- please!

Also, you’ll see some big names in these documents, and I wanted to remind you that we have oral history interviews for Fred Eckhardt, John Foyston (see email below), Karl and Carole Ockert, and Matt Sage. 

http://bit.ly/ohbaoh

It’s a fat folder, so I decided to only scan his notes, drafts, and articles he saved from the first 2 years. 

But first this...

These are notes from his first/early visit. 100% not in the original order. 

There is also a BridgePort FAQ from November 1984. 

That all went into this draft article. 

I thought this article became this, but clearly it isn’t the same. 

Full confession: I didn’t do a deep dig into the boxes to see where he published this. His collection is divided in terms of subject/research files and article/publishing files, so there are a handful of spots where the completed article might be hiding. 

There are a couple of other articles written about the brewery in 1984/1985. 

And finally we get a media release from the company in April 1985. 

And then in 1986, they had a grand opening party so people could “visit the source” of “Portland’s Own Real Ale.”

This is the final installment of the “brewing-in-oregon-series,” which has taken all the words I wrote for the first draft of my Brewing Industry in Oregon article and put them out into the world!

A maturing industry needed skilled brewers. Food science and studies on fermentation have long been a part of research at Oregon State University, but since the establishment of the Fermentation Science program in the Food Science and Technology department in 1995, OSU has been a leader in its education and training of the new brewers who opened small and independent breweries in local neighborhood communities and those at large-scale corporate breweries. 

There are other avenues for brewers and consumers in Oregon to learn and build communities. Headquartered in Portland and founded in 1979, the Oregon Brew Crew is one of the oldest and largest home brewing clubs in the United States. The Oregon Brewers Guild was founded in 1992 as a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for and promoting the state's brewing industry; it is one of the nation's oldest craft brewer associations. Two other important organizations were founded in Oregon and now have members worldwide: The Pink Boots Society was founded in 2007 by Teri Fahrendorf as a professional organization to support women in the brewing industries. In 2011, Pink Boots Society members created Barley’s Angels, a branch of the organization that served as an educational and social community for female beer enthusiasts; Barley’s Angels split off in 2012.

In addition to more breweries to choose from, consumers had other ways to engage with beer. The Oregon Brewers Festival has been held annually since July 1988 at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland. Art Larrance, co-founder of Portland Brewing, approached Widmer Brothers, McMenamins, and BridgePort Brewing about starting a "Portland Brewers Festival Association of Oregon." McMenamins agreed to participate, but declined being an organizer, and the remaining three organized the first festival. Today, the Oregon Brewers Festival is one of the nation’s longest running and largest craft beer festivals. Other festivals Portland Craft Beer Festival, Festival of Dark Arts, Holiday Ale Festival, Bend Brewfest, various fresh hop festivals, and Mt. Angel's Oktoberfest.

The increasing popularity of homebrewing and accessibility of imported beers certainly had an impact on the preferences and palates of consumers, as did writing about beer in the public press. Fred Eckhardt was a well-known advocate, critic, educator, mentor, and historian, and his written work on beer and brewing encouraged generations of people to think about beer in new ways. Inspired by a 1972 visit to Anchor Steam Brewery, Eckhardt became an avid proponent of tasteful, complex craft brews. He urged people to focus on flavor, style, and experience in the Oregonian, and also wrote regular articles in national industry publications like Celebrator Beer News and All About Beer. He rose to prominence with his 1970 A Treatise on Lager Beers, a guide to homebrewing and the evolution of lager beer, and 1989 The Essentials of Beer Style. In more recent years, blogs, podcasts, and news aggregate sites have dominated Oregon beer news and information.

According to Echhardt’s calculations, when A Treatise on Lager Beers came out in 1970, “there were only 73 U.S. brewing companies operating 133 brewing plants in 31 states. Industry predictions told us there’d only be 10 by 1990. One could speculate that they’d all be brewing Budweiser clones by then.” Then the first modern American microbrewery opened up in Sonoma, California, in 1976. In that same bicentennial year, a Boulder-based tinkerer named Charlie Papazian self-published a forty-page pamphlet called The Joy of Brewing (the title was a nod to 1972’s “gourmet guide to love making,” The Joy of Sex) and soon thereafter launched the American Homebrewers Association. Sierra Nevada opened its doors in 1980, the Great American Beer Festival inaugurated in 1982, and Portland, Oregon, soon became the microbrew capital of the world. There are now around 1,500 breweries and 1,000 brewpubs, terms like India pale ale have become commonplace in run-of-the-mill bars, and the corporate giants of the brewing industry are frantically snapping up craft-beer makers in order to cash in on the only sector of the industry showing consistent growth. From being the laughingstock of the beer-making world in 1970, the United States has become, in Eckhardt’s and many others’ estimation, its “salvation.”

Before much of that could unfold, however, there was still the little matter of what Echhardt described on page seven of his foundational text (A Treatise on Lager Beers): “We should all work to have the law changed so that there is no doubt about the home brewer’s rights alongside his wine-making brother.” Though law enforcement usually went after do-it-yourself brewers only when they tried to sell their concoctions, the maximum penalty was still five years in prison, and you didn’t always have to be a big bootlegger to get rung up. As Greg Beato reported for Reason in 2009, a couple in Middlesboro, Kentucky, was arrested for making just three gallons of beer in 1962 and charged with “illegal possession of an alcoholic beverage” and “living in adultery.” To allow for the unbridled experimentation that would eventually trigger the entire craft-beer revolution, the democratizers needed a government enabler.

And what an unlikely one they found. The marvelously named Barber Conable, a long-forgotten Republican congressman from Rochester, New York, who didn’t drink beer, had a constituent who sold beer-making supplies. It sure would be good for business, the constituent pointed out, if his customer didn’t face five years in the federal slammer. Conable introduced a bill in 1978 allowing households to brew up to two hundred gallons of beer per year, making the patriotic argument that shouldn’t have to “rely on the beer barons” if they didn’t want to. The amendment sailed through the House; Democratic senator Alan Cranston from California introduced it as an amendment to another bill, and then, ten days before he deregulated the airline industry, President Jimmy Carter took the federal shackles off basement beer makers.

“I’d say over 90 percent of small brewers I talk to today have roots in home brewing,” Papazian told Beato. “The creativity and innovation they’ve brought to the business has been amazing. The American wheat beers. The fruit beers, the honey beers, the chocolate beers. They were all homebrews first.”

The Declaration of Independents by Nick Gillespie & Matt Welch

After writing down the wrong date for the first launch event for Jeff Alworth’s The Widmer Way: How Two Brothers Led Portland's Craft Beer Revolution (a Tuesday is not a Wednesday unless you have jet lag), so I am excited to be headed to Portland for the launch at Powell’s books. 

In advance of that I just had to dip into the Fred Eckhardt collection to see what he had for the early years. Of course there was a nice fat folder and here are some of the favorites I had to scan/share. 

Before I do, I want to put in my plug for people who have filing cabinets, closets with shelves, or boxes of things stashed under tables. I love the Fred Eckhardt collection because it is eclectic, personal, reflective of regional history, and super fun to explore. 

It is nicely organized and easy to use now, but that’s because a student and I worked very hard to work archival magic. Here’s what you need to know. 

There is an archive in Oregon that would LOVE to be the permanent home for your beer history collection whether you run a brewery or just enjoy collecting coasters and menus. 

We can take digital files from your computer or Google Drive.

You don’t have to organize things before donating them to an archive. 

If you are donating things to an archive make sure there will be someone to organize and provide access to the materials you donate. We don’t want beer history languishing on the shelves.

There are other documentary projects throughout the country and I can put you in touch with people if you have things from the “not Northwest” region. 

Pleading pitch over. 

Here’s a sampling what was happening in 1985 c/o the Eckhardt collection. 

Fred takes some notes. 

Fred types some notes. 

Fred writes an article. 

Fred saves a paper with places people can find Widmer beer. 

Fred saves/makes (?) some recipes for Widmer beer. 

Fred also kept notes through the years on specific beers, like these on Festbeer (1985-1988).

From 1987 comes this comparison with Michelob and Widmer Weizenbier. 

And in 1989 we get this article about the move to the other side of the river -- punny headline included free of charge. 

In between the article above the the opening announcement, Fred had a couple of nice gems that show how the beers are described and give a glimpse into company culture (newsletters, I love newsletters). 

In 1995 there is this announcement. 

And the next year this article. 

A 2004 article about the Widmer / Red Hook merger. 

And a 2006 article about Widmer Alt. 

There are also two emails (printed, of course) between Fred and John Foyston. The first is from 1998 and is about Alt.  

And the next is about wheat beers. Beyond interesting content, this gem starts with a line I might need to steal: “Friends, I keep telling this story and no one ever listens.” And then he tells the story again. 

There were many I couldn’t date, so I’ll share them here in no particular order. Here are some related to beer profiles. 

And then the brewery layout. 

Some more article notes. 

Not to do with Widmer directly, but a fabulous example of the “other side of the page” Fred archives. Seriously, we should have described the front AND the back side because he reused so much paper that you get his writings or other repurposed fliers many times over. Love it. 

Last night I was lucky enough to share the story of the Fred Eckhardt Papers at a History Pub at the McMenamins Kennedy School. Since I heard from lots of people (from all over the country) that they were sad to miss it (you know, because they were all over the country), I thought I’d post my slides and talk notes here.

Enjoy!

The usual disclaimer slides started the talk -- mainly to head off questions I have no business answering. Like whether putting candy in the soil would make a sweet hop. 

And then I burst a few bubbles. Still the coolest job ever, but you know I really do drink WAY more coffee than beer. 

The 3rd anniversary of the establishment of OHBA lands on August 1st, and I’m sure you are already excited for three months of “Did you know we have?” photo releases and an expansion in our collecting areas. Yep - we’d like your materials and stories about barley, cider, mead, homebrewing, pre-Prohibition era from all over the NW region!

Community and industry-based collecting initiatives like this take time and we are really proud of the partnerships and relationships we’ve established over the past three years. 

Cheers to the next three and beyond!

Speaking of the beyond...

All collections are precious, but sometimes there are really special ones... 

Otto Fredrick “Fred” Eckhardt (1926 - 2015) was well known as an advocate, critic, educator, and historian. His work on beer and brewing encouraged generations of people to think about beer in new ways. He was a champion of tasteful, complex brews, urging a focus on flavor, style, and experience, mentoring homebrewers, and writing regularly for publications like Celebrator Beer News and All About Beer.

Fortunately for us, he was also a saver.

A beloved member of the brewing community, Fred has been called the icon, pioneer, and founding father of craft beer, “dean of American beer writing,” and (my favorite) the “cosmic giggle of craft beer.” His immense influence on the American beer community is clear from the number of brews and festivals named in his honor.

Born in Everett, Washington in 1926, he traveled widely with the US Marine Corps before moving to Portland. As a veteran of both World War II and the Korean war, Fred’s experiences with international beers abroad inspired him to brew both wine and beer at home during the 1960s. After leaving careers as a swim instructor and studio photographer, he focused on photographing new breweries and writing about beer full time, a decision that coincided with a visit to Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco in 1972.

He rose to prominence in the brewing community with his 1970 A Treatise on Lager Beers, which was a guide to homebrewing and the evolution of lager beer – notably something that was illegal at the time of publication. His 1989 The Essentials of Beer Style is still considered a required read for brewers and beer lovers alike. Both were instrumental in the development of home and craft brewing, leaving behind a legacy of impassioned brewers and beer aficionados.

In the summer of 2014 John Foyston, Tim Hills, and I did an oral history with Fred in a back room at Saravesa. And I picked him up – in my car. Can you imagine being the one responsible for driving Fred Eckhardt? You can find that oral history online at bit.ly/ohbaguide, then click the oral histories tab.

As part of my interview preparation I spent some time at the Multnomah County Library looking through their collection of Fred’s self-published periodicals – more on those later – and as a result we collaborated with the library to digitize and put those issues online. This was a BIG deal, because Fred was recording the birth of west coast craft brewing.

Fast-forward a year to the summer of 2015. I was on vacation, totally unplugged from work, and my aunt emailed me about Fred’s passing. It really felt like an earthquake. When I came back I went through some newly accessioned Zymurgy and other brewing periodicals looking for stories and pictures. And, as many can imagine, that was quite a journey through home brewing, commercial brewing, and the general brewing community. The staff at McMenamins organized a really lovely slideshow and memorial event at the Crystal Ballroom.

Late in the fall of 2015 I got the call about the collection – they were clearing out the house and it was time for things to go. I’ll also talk more about this later, but think about what it must have been like to drive Fred to an oral history? Driving with the records of his career was even more nerve-racking. I didn’t want to stop for anything (except coffee). I will also add that one of these pickups was on Christmas Eve – which made for a distracted holiday break.

So what’s in the collection? These materials offer an amazingly deep record of the birth, growth, and evolution of the craft brew industry, as well as sake and wine making, primarily between 1970 and 2010. You’ll find information on historical and contemporary brewing practices; research files and personal notes about northwest, regional, national, and international breweries; published and unpublished material about international beer styles; and photographs of brewing operations, brewers, national and international travels, and industry events.

The collection also features a series of his self-published works, including the original research, correspondence, design templates, drafts, and final versions behind periodicals such as “Listen to your beer,” “Talk to your beer,” and “Amateur Brewer.” Also included are early editions of Fred’s books, which detail the process and history of homebrewing, lager beer, and sake. Many of feature photographs taken by Fred, and show early Oregon and US breweries, homebrew production, Japanese brewing operations, and his professional landscape and studio portraiture.

The collection also has pieces written but not published by Fred. As a beer critic and writer, he collected and wrote for many major industry periodicals, providing a dense record of the nascent craft industry. But in addition to his own work, Fred also collected the work of other prominent beer writers, historians, and researchers. His book collection is extensive, covering a wide range of topics and authors, from well-known and popular examples like those of Charlie Papazian and Michael Jackson to smaller self-published pamphlets.

He travelled extensively across the country from 1980 to 2000, a period marked by an explosive growth of microbreweries and brewpubs. During his trips, Fred kept extensive notes and records. You’ll find details on beer tastings, brewery operations, judge's notes, personal reflections, and travel observations, as well as news clippings, promotional materials, maps, event programs, press releases, and letters. For events where he was a speaker, you’ll also find presentation notes.

So as I mentioned earlier, I took two trips to pick up the collection. For trip 1 there were 20 boxes waiting for me – which was AWESOME. I did an initial survey, reorganized some stuff, labeled boxes, and basically took it all. On trip 2 I went through the periodicals; fortunately I already had a list of issues we were missing for certain titles. I organized things chronologically and by title to make it easier on myself later. Some stayed with his collection and some went into a catch-all collection I’m currently processing, which is a periodical-heavy collection called the Oregon Hops and Brewing Collection.  

There were also lots of books – and this was probably the hardest part of the two trips for me because I wanted to take EVERYTHING – swimming, style guides for writing, pretty table books on cooking. But I focused and only took books related to brewing and that would be useful for brewing in the NW.

I did what an archivist does – made lots of notes, put things in lots of folders, and organized the materials into lots of series. Thanks to my AMAZING student Tori Hittner, with whom none of this would have happened. Not only was she a wiz at organizing and being focused, she has a wonderful attitude and could read Fred’s writing.

I want to pause and tell you that I’m not going to talk about the small number of personal materials or the larger quantity of materials related to sake. But you can read all about those in the collection guide.

This series includes papers and materials related to articles and books written by Fred, who contributed to numerous industry periodicals. In addition to drafts and final copies of his written works, this series also includes office and administrative files, graphic templates, promotional materials, and correspondence with people in the publishing industry.  

There are articles written by Fred, and published in periodicals like All about beer, Zymurgy, and Celebrator, and the Oregonian. 

You’ll also find rough and final drafts of articles, periodicals, and books, as well as information on the self-publishing process. Publications range from his informational books, A treatise on lager beer and The essentials of beer style, to newsletters like “Listen to your beer” and “Amateur brewer.” Also of note are these handmade visuals, which he used in templates for publications and presentations.

The publications series contains industry publications, newsletters from regional organizations and homebrew clubs, and a bit on the wine industry.

One of my favorites is The Moderate Drinker … It’s an interesting read. 

The materials related to homebrew clubs include newsletters, correspondence, and some press releases about the brewing process and regional homebrew clubs. 

Finally, Fred amassed an impressively large collection of books, ranging in topic from pre-prohibition brewing practices to the philosophy of beer. Much of the book collection focuses on the history of the brewing industry in the Pacific Northwest and the characteristics of specific beer styles, and of course many books contain marginalia and research notes from Fred.

The “subject and research files” series is a really interesting one that covers a broad range of topics such as food pairings, history, beer styles, Pacific Northwest breweries, beer ingredients, and alcohol distribution. You’ll find a full range of types from article clippings to government documents, personal and research notes to correspondence, promotional materials to scholarly publications.  

We were really excited about the files on local and regional brewing. The sub-series on Oregon breweries offers rare insight into the most influential breweries and time periods of Oregon’s craft industry, notable are files on the pioneer brewers at Cartwright brewing, Portland Brewing, Widmer, BridgePort, McMenamins, and Rogue.

The broader sub-series on US breweries is organized by state and region, and in addition to articles and research about influential west coast breweries like Red Hook and Grant’s, it features promotional artwork and beer lists from brewers located in the American west, Midwest, south and east coast.

Finally, are the homebrewing and beer evaluations, which include Fred’s personal notes on beers and the homebrewing process. The evaluation files contain Fred’s judging materials and tasting sheets from homebrew festivals.

The clippings files provide an extensive record of the industry development, growth, and perception at the time. Those who have ever seen what a newspaper can do to the papers around it, or have just come across a crumbling paper on your own, know that saving newsprint is a big challenge. 

Can you spot Don Younger in the slide above? It was when he was younger. 

There are super materials related to food and beer. Of note on this slide are the corrected menus and wonderful beer/food pairing cards!

We loved the teaching materials and lecture notes, which include scripts, notes, and handouts from Fred’s speaking engagements and brewing courses. Some of my favorites are an instructional slideshow, lesson plans, and tastings fliers.

The events and travel series is eclectic and extensive, documenting Fred’s research and travel all over! In addition to travel-related files, this series contains brewery information, beer notes, conference files, event and festival information, and letters he sent/received from organizers and people he met.

You’ll find wonderful information and materials from brew festivals in Oregon, including tasting notes, news clippings, and event programs from earliest years of the Oregon Brewers Festival. You’ll also find events associated with the craft brew industry, particularly speech notes, conference packets, and beer lists.

Fred went to MANY homebrew festivals and competitions, which are well represented through promotional materials, event programs, Fred’s tasting notes, and his popular food and beer pairings or homebrewing lecture series. Of special note are the Dixie Cup homebrew festival, American Homebrewers Association conference files.

Speaking of homebrewing...

In addition to these lovely materials, we also have recipes Fred created. 

And no collection is complete without notes!

Of special note are the drawings, warnings about not brewing at home (it wasn’t legal until 1978) or serving chocolate too early, a commentary in the lite beer folder, and a schedule that allows for BS time. 

As an avid professional photographer, Fred compiled a vast portfolio of studio and landscape photos, and the series for photographs contains this professional work as well as pictures from conferences, festivals, travels abroad, and trips to breweries around the globe.

He travelled a lot in the 1970s and 1980s to visit breweries, learn, write articles, meet people, and try beer on-site. His collection includes some of the earliest photos of many breweries and notable brewers such as California’s Anchor Steam and Oregon’s Cartwright, to others like McMenamins and Lucky Lab. You’ll also find pictures of homebrew festivals and meetings, travel to japan and Hawaii for sake research and tasting, homebrew equipment and processes, and many headshots of Fred.

There are lots of personal and local connections in the files. Here’s a great example of things I pulled together related to Corvallis. 

And of course materials related to Cartwright and Charles Coury. 

Read more about the Coury Report in another post. 

We spent months processing, arranging, and describing this collection. And not all things Fred saved made the final cut. As I’ve said (and you’ve seen), he saved a lot, and that included duplicate periodicals, letterhead, and lots of other treasures that we either returned to the estate executor or I kept in my “Fred Box” for display. 

One of those things is the “Fred’s Beer” binder, and another was the files with the vet records for hist cat Mondo Gato (which is not an international brewery, as I first thought). Why did I keep these things, which are really just bits or remnants of a life? I suppose it’s because, as an archivist, these physical materials matter. 

As an outreach archivist who works for a lang grant university, I am committed to community outreach and sharing science. That’s no surprise to many.

It may also not be a surprise to many that I love how accessible and enjoyable this brewing history topic can be. It’s hard work, but it’s enjoyable work, and in the last three years I have met more interesting and engaged people than I could have hoped to meet in any career.

And part of what I think is so special about this brewing archives that I run and the brewing communities that I document is that so many of us are passionately committed to celebrating and saving this history of our local and regional communities. For me this means a commitment to keeping the history locally accessible. I want people to be able to touch materials, talk to people, watch history as it happens in neighborhoods and on farms throughout the northwest. We are special here. Whether that’s the ingredients we grow or (for better or worse) our fiercely independent nature, Oregon is just a special place. 

Fred Eckhardt’s collection is one of many collections we have at the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center that documents brewing history in the northwest. It is also one of many collections in a department that collects materials on the history of science, rare books, natural resources, ethnic communities in Oregon, and OSU history. 

All this history is important. 

So I encourage you all to engage in the history that is meaningful to you and represents the places you live. Engage in preserving, collecting, and sharing the history of your communities -- and find a place for those materials to live, safely, so that we can keep them accessible for future generations. 

Fred From the Page

Fred Eckhardt was an influential beer writer in his time. He published books on lager brewing and sake and had a regular column in the Oregonian. He even reported on the opening of New Albion Brewing, arguably the first microbrewery in the United States. But that was all before my time, of course. 

It wasn’t until the The Oregon Hops and Brewing Archive started poring through his papers that I realized how important Fred was in the early days on Portland’s brewery boom. He saved everything, from a post-mortem report on Portland’s failed Cartwright Brewing in 1980 to tasting notes from beer dinners and scraps of thought on pairing food and beer. His papers will undoubtedly help historians in the future.

Fred Eckhardt would have turned eighty last week. He died last August, but his birthday was celebrated by Portland beer lovers at the eleventh annual FredFest at Hair of the Dog Brewing. I didn’t make it to the festivities this year, but I tried to celebrate Fred’s life the best I could with a bottle of Fred From the Wood brewed by his friend Alan Sprints. 

“It’s no great secret that Fred Eckhardt loved to match foods with beers. And if you wrap chocolate or cheese into the meal, it seems he’d love it even more. 

There’s a nice bit about Fred and food in this article by Lisa Morrison and this one about FredFest in PDX. 

It’s also no great secret that I’m pretty interested in the history of food and ingredients. And yes I do love chocolate and cheese too. 

So imagine my delight when I came across this fat folder in the Eckhardt Collection on food and beer pairings. It’s aptly titled “Food & Beer.” 

Before I jump into the Eckhardt stuff, I want to pause to think about this idea of beer and food pairings, especially how it relates to seeing beer as something with qualities that can both compliment and improve the food we’re eating. And remember that Eckhardt’s novel (was it actually novel? we can probably find some people who would say no...) message in the 1970s and 1980s was that we can enjoy and appreciate taste. 

Now the internets were either nonexistent or not as robust in days of yore, so a one-to-one comparison c/o of a Google search isn’t actually a fair comparison. But I just did a quick search for “food and beer pairings” and got nearly 500,000 results, with food/beer pairings classes, recipes on epicurious, charts and guides, criticisms, etc. In other words, this is a thing. A big thing.  

Riffing on that a bit, I ask you all to think about beer as a beverage that lends itself to creative interpretation (and creative creation) rather than a means towards intoxication. But we can also to think of this post on beer and food pairings as an opportunity for us to think grander thoughts about how Eckhardt’s appreciation and celebration of beer relates to “artisanal” foods and drinks, the slow and local foods movements, and the communal aspects of brew pubs and beer gardens. 

I’d like to think deeper thoughts on this (and tie it into ingredients), but I’ll just say that we can celebrate the food/drink makers and the food/drink matchers. And we can reflect on how easy it is to “Portlandia-ize” a focus local foods and specialty beers, though it’s just as easy to remember that what we eat and drink, and how we share those things, defines us socially, culturally, economically, historically, etc. 

Okay, on to Eckhardt and that fat folder. 

Initially I was excited to find index cards that show his choices for foods to match with beers, and vice versa. 

But then I went a little bonkers last week with the scanning... and then I put up a Flickr album that shows a sampling of examples of his research records related to the topic.

You'll find those cards, but also succinct notes on 4″ notepaper.

You’ll also find much larger papers with lengthier thoughts on cuisine, and of course on how beer goes with every type. 

There are also menus from events he attended with other VIPs. Here’s one for a 1995 dinner at McMenamins Edgefield with Michael Jackson. 

And the same event menus that come with his notes.

And other events with notes on dishes and beers. This 2001 Day of the Dead Deschutes Brewery Dinner has me ready for this 2016 work day to end so I can head home to cook. 

There are also notes for what he would have paired or did taste with those menus, like this British Ale Dinner from 1987.

And you’ll also find examples for the changes he would have made. I think the one below might be towards the top of the “favorites” list for me. 

Yes, it is a winemakers dinner where he’s recommending beers. 

There are also articles either authored by Eckhardt or sent or him by people who knew he'd love to collect more ideas, like this fun one for cake and ale. 

You can find the whole set of scanned cards and documents on Flickr at http://bit.ly/1nip4ld. And of course you can find the originals here in Corvallis!

And if you want a chart, here’s a good one http://bit.ly/1OZXbER.