Pacific City, Ore. — Consistent with their independent spirit and award-winning creativity rooted at Oregon’s rugged coast, Pelican Brewing Company has re-imagined an alternative method to dry hop beer. Driven by a desire to create a more efficient and safer method to dry hop, Pelican’s brewmaster Darron Welch looked to the collaborative talent of Portland’s Metalcraft Fabrication to help manufacture a better vessel. The result: the Pelican Hopinator, a safer, more productive and sanitary system for dry hopping beer—and a creation closely resembling Star Wars’ R2D2. (Image embedded at end of this release.)
“With the help of the experts at Metalcraft, we’ve rethought the process of how the agitator introduces hops to the fermenter and redesigned our method to move hops in and out of our brews more efficiently and effectively,” says Welch. “Metalcraft was willing to listen to us, work with us until we perfected a design that was exactly what we wanted. Not every fabricator would have been that patient.”
The biggest difference for the beer drinker is enhanced taste and aroma. The new process introduces much less oxygen—the hop pellets go directly into the clean vessel, then the brewer seals the vessel and purges with CO2. As a result there is extremely low oxygen pickup compared to the traditional dry-hopping process which increases flavor stability and quality.
According to Welch, because the hops are incorporated into the liquid with an agitator and emulsified in the beer, then shot back into the main fermenter, the brewers are able to extract much more flavor and aroma from the hops than the traditional method of dry hopping. The benefit is Pelican is now able to use 25-30% fewer hops and achieve better results.
“Darron Welch is one of the only people who thinks about beer to that level of detail—almost to the point of obsession,” says Waylon McAllister, Metalcraft brewer on-staff who trained for several years under Welch at Pelican. “He not only cares about being true to beer recipes, but he’s concerned about the integrity of the beer and how it’s going to fare—he’s a savant in that regard. And he’s definitely one of the most respected and award-winning brewers in the world.”
And the employee safety benefit of the new Hopinator is huge. It eliminates the need for Pelican brewers to climb extension ladders to the top of 180-barrel tanks to drop in 50 pound buckets of dry hops. As Pelican continues to expand its facilities, this becomes even more important in terms of risk management. Hop infusions are done easily on the ground level with the mixing element and agitation built in.
“We like to think of ourselves as the artists behind these unique tanks and vessels so brewers like Darron can craft award-winning beer—the better the equipment the better the beer,” says Liz Shearer, director of sales and marketing, Metalcraft. “Pelican came to us with a brewing system challenge and together we processed and customized a design for Pelican’s needs and Darron’s unique processes.”
“I’d say Pelican’s Imperial IPA is the gold standard of IPA—and dry hopping; and now we have a new solution to dry hopping that raises the bar on IPAs everywhere,” says McAllister.
Born at the Beach
Pelican was born at the beach 20 years ago as a small, stand alone brewpub in a small town on the Oregon coast—Pacific City. Pacific City is still a small town, but with consistent growth and demand for its products, Pelican sales are up more than 500% from 3,500 barrels in 2013 to 18,000 barrels this year. The company recently doubled its brewing and bottling capacity at its Tillamook facility and opened a new brewpub in Cannon Beach. Pelican also recently won a bronze medal at the World Brew Cup℠ and eight medals including Champion Medium International Brewery at the Australian International Beer Awards.
According to founding brewmaster Darron Welch, Pelican has always been focused on creating as wide a range of beers as possible:
- Designed and brewed with innovation and craftsmanship
- Showing our guests and fans the many possibilities of flavor in the world of beer
- Dedicated attention to detail in the pursuit of quality and consistency
About Metalcraft Fabrication
Metalcraft Fabrication designs and fabricates brewing systems in the heart of Portland Oregon. Metalcraft builds the highest quality brewhouses, and fermenters, cellar tanks, and grain handling equipment for the craft brewing industry. Metalcraft Fabrication serves over 130 breweries worldwide. Our brewhouses range from 10 BBL to 40 BBL, and our fermenters and brite beer tanks range from 10 BBL to 400 BBL. In addition, Metalcraft designs innovative solutions and equipment for every aspect of brewing operations, including dry-hopping, open fermention vessels, yeast propagators and CIP tanks. If you’re looking to expand your brewhouse, upgrade brewing equipment, or open a new brewery, we’re here to help. Metalcraft Fabrication offers on-staff brewing expertise, dedicated project managers and engineers, and the most experienced stainless steel metal fabricators in the industry.
About Pelican Brewing Company
Pelican Brewing Company was founded in 1996 by Jeff Schons and Mary Jones in Pacific City with Oregon’s only oceanfront brewpub. Celebrating its 20th year, the brewing company has created masterpieces like Kiwanda Cream Ale, India Pelican Ale, MacPelican’s Scottish Ale, Tsunami Stout and Doryman’s Dark. With the vision, creativity and brewing expertise of founding brewmaster Darron Welch, Pelican Brewing has won over 300 awards including the 2014 World Beer Cup© Champion Small Brewing Company and Brewmaster of the Year. Pelican Brewing currently distributes 22oz bottles, 12oz bottles in 6-packs, a new mixed 12-pack, and 50 liter and 20 liter kegs via a network of distributors in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii and Vermont. The company operates brewing and brewpub facilities in Pacific City, Tillamook and Cannon Beach.