It’s late afternoon and a wind is blowing away the oppressive heat of a spring day in Eugene, but inside the warehouse that houses the recently opened Sam Bond’s Brewing Company, a fiercer storm is fermenting.
“What even is ‘swag?’” said Mark Jaeger, one of the four owners of the brewery, which opened May 29. “It used to mean bad beer.”
“Or weed,” said bartender Blair Vallie while he stood at the bar pouring a rich, golden colored IPA into a glass.
“I think it has something to do with clothes now,” said another.
These are the kinds of things you can expect at Sam Bond’s Brewing. It’s located a mere block from the University of Oregon campus area, in between the U.S. Courthouse and Franklin Boulevard at 540 E. Eighth Ave. It’s not a stretch to say that Jaeger and Vallie might experience the “swag” phenomenon first hand — in fact, they encourage it.
“We want to be the campus go-to bar,” Jaeger said.
Sam Bonds Brewing has all the ingredients to fulfill that desire: it features a wide variety of unique craft beers, frequent visits from food carts like Hot Mama’s and Twisted Tacos, an outdoor drinking patio with a view and a basketball hoop for beer-related merriment.
“Free-throw shooting contests are in the works,” Jaeger said.
“We’re going to do like ‘free-throw Fridays,’” Vallie said.
Although it shares its name with Sam Bond’s Garage, the semi-legendary bar and music venue in the Whiteaker neighborhood — and also shares three of the same owners — Sam Bond’s Brewing is a purposely separate entity that arose after the plans to turn the Garage into a brewery failed.
“Music took over and we just didn’t make it happen until now,” Jaeger says.
But they didn’t abandon the brewery idea despite this setback. Jaeger and company found an ideal location in a former steel foundry and set about realizing their vision — but that doesn’t mean Sam Bond’s Brewing was born easily.
It took two years after they moved in to build up the infrastructure and open officially — only after they had to deal with renovating a historical building.
“We found old receipts from the foundry from 1935 when they were working on old Chevy wheels and stuff,” Jaeger said
Many of the old relics they’ve found have been incorporated into the brewery.
In the midst of Eugene Beer Week, Sam Bond’s Brewery is no longer just an idea but a tangible presence. The owners and employees feel the brewery will succeed in competitive local brewing industry.
“I think we have a different feel than a lot of the breweries that are going around,” Vallie says. “Everything here is very drinkable.”
For example, one of Sam Bond’s newest creations, the Crankshaft IPA, is a light, crisp ale that doesn’t assault the senses like some overly hoppy beers. Instead embraces the taste buds and makes for a very decent drinking experience.
Despite the large shadow cast by it’s older sibling, Sam Bond’s Brewing has a lot going for it, and is bringing some of that same Whiteaker-like flair closer to the campus area.
Sam Bond’s Brewing is open every day from 3 p.m. to midnight.