01/27/2009
Oregon Brewers Guild Announces New Board of Directors

At their annual meeting held in December, members of the Oregon Brewers Guild (OBG) gathered to select new board members and look ahead to an exciting future. Chad Kennedy, Brewmaster at Portland’s Laurelwood Brewing Company, is the newest member elected to the Board, while Ninkasi Brewing Company’s Jamie Floyd was elected as the Guild President.

In addition to the newly elected Board of Directors, the Guild announced plans for the first annual Oregon Brewers Guild Brewery Open House to be held on Oregon’s Sesquicentennial, or 150th Birthday, Saturday February14th from 1-4p.m. The Guild will also focus energy on the upcoming legislative session. “This is an important year for the Oregon brewing industry – despite the tough economic climate, we are still increasing production and adding manufacturing jobs to the state’s economy,” says Oregon Brewers Guild Executive Director Brian Butenschoen.

New craft breweries and brewpubs continue to open across the state, and Oregon beers keep garnering top honors at international brewing festivals, including two of the five Grand Champion Brewery awards at the World Beer Cup. Eleven breweries joined the Guild in the past year and for the first time ever, Oregon breweries employed more than 5,000 people state-wide. Portland, home to more breweries than any other city in the world, also leads the country in the sales of craft beer, despite being the 27th largest market in the U.S. The amount of Oregon craft beer produced and consumed in state reached 12% for the first time in 2008, and Oregon leads the nation in the amount of craft beer produced in state that is consumed in state.

The newly elected Board of Directors met in January to select officers for the 2009 term. Officers and Board Members are:

Oregon Brewers Guild Officers

* President – Jamie Floyd, Ninkasi Brewing Company
* Vice President – David Logsdon, Wyeast Laboratories
* Treasurer – Jack Joyce, Rogue Ales
* Secretary – Charlie Devereux, Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom

New and re-elected Board Members

* John Harris – Full Sail Brewing Company
* Van Havig – Rock Bottom Brewery
* Chad Kennedy – Laurelwood Brewing Company
* Ben Love – Hopworks Urban Brewery
* Kurt Widmer – Widmer Brothers Brewing Company

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under General, Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.