McMenamins 30th Anniversary Of The First Beer Brewed At Hillsdale Brewery

Hillsdale Brewery Copper Kettle - Courtesy of McMenamins

On October 25, 1985, McMenamins' first beer was brewed in a small copper kettle at Hillsdale Brewery. It was a liquid malt extract brew, highly hopped for the era, brewed by the Hillsdale's first brewer Ron Wolf and dubbed "Hillsdale Ale." Falling loosely in the ‘Special Bitter' classification of beer styles, Hillsdale Ale became McMenamins first bona-fide company standard beer, pre-dating Terminator, Hammerhead and Ruby.

The significance of that first attempt can’t be overstated. - See more at: http://brewdad.com/#sthash.D8s4u8zC.dpuf

The significance of that first attempt can’t be overstated. - See more at: http://brewdad.com/#sthash.D8s4u8zC.dpuf

The significance of that first attempt can't be overstated. Today McMenamins has created, brewed and kegged more than one million kegs.

In celebration of three decades of small batch brewing for one day only across the land a 30th Anniversary commemorative batch of Hillsdale Ale will be poured at every McMenamins location. This re-boot is based on careful studies of the original brewing records from Hillsdale and Cornelius Pass Roadhouse as it evolved during its short 13 month run. It has been parsed and adjusted with enough poetic license to translate what was historically a malt extract brew to a modern all-grain interpretation. We believe that what the original concept of that first company standard was hoped to be can now be poured into your pint on this special release date. 



On October 25th stop by, raise a pint to our pioneer beer! $4 all day, $8 growler fills and a special stamp for your passport. And keeping the cosmos in proper alignment and bringing the narrative full circle, the Hillsdale Brewery will even be brewing Hillsdale Ale in its magnificent new copper kettle that day.

Vintage label for Hillsdale Ale - Courtsey of McMenamins

Some Fun Factoids:
– Hillsdale Ale was brewed 29 times at the Hillsdale and 14 times at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse between 10/25/1985 and 11/28/1986.
– Both locations brewed their final batches of Hillsdale Ale on November 28th, 1986. The last batch at CPR was brewed by John Harris and the last batch at Hillsdale was brewed by McMenamins 1st female brewer, Alex Farnham.
– The brewers of the Hillsdale Ale were: Ron Wolf, Conrad Santos, Mike McMenamin, Brian McMenamin, John Harris, Scott Barrow and Alex Farnham. 30th Anniversary

Version Specifications: Malts: Great Western Malting NW Pale Ale Malt, Great Western Malting Munich Malt, Great Western Malting Dextrapils
Hops: Centennial (Bittering), Brewer’s Gold (Flavor & Aroma), Tettnanger (Flavor & Aroma)
OG: 1.045 TG: 1.010 ABV: 4.51 IBU: 38 SRM: 4