Don Younger Honored by Beer Industry
by Tom Dalldorf
PORTLAND, Ore. Twenty-five years of beers and cheers were celebrated at the fabled Horse Brass Pub in Portland, Ore., October 26 through November 6, 2001. Beer industry notables were in attendance honoring the pub and its beer-loving proprietor, Don Younger, during the two weeks of beery merriment.
The celebration featured a mind-boggling lineup of Horse Brass Pub 25th anniversary beers brewed specially for the pub by the some of the most legendary brewers in the industry (the styles were not announced until the kegs were tapped). Each night for 10 nights, a special beer was tapped at 5:00 p.m. Brewers honored and honoring the pub included John Maier, Rogue Ales; Fal Allen, Anderson Valley Brewing; Dr. Bill Pengelly, Deschutes; Dick Cantwell, Elysian Brewing Company; John Harris, Full Sail; Glen Falconer, Wild Duck Brewery; Alan Sprints, Hair of the Dog; Mike Hale, Hales Ales; and Jerry Fechter, The New Old Lompoc Brewery. There was also a special creation by the Oregon Brew Crew made by Widmer Bros. Brewing.
Music during the orgy of appreciation featured Captain Black and Company from London and Hard Days Knights, a Beatles tribute band. An all-day music marathon took place November 4 featuring some of the great bands that have played the Brass over the years.
The event was ostensibly to honor the Horse Brass Pub. But in reality, the pub is its proprietor Don Younger. It evokes his passion for traditional drinking establishments and is a time capsule of things beer in the past quarter century.
Don Younger loves beer. But he loves classic pubs even more. His incongruous figure part urban hippie, part genuine frontier geezer can be seen daily in the early morning hours in his office, next door to his beloved Brass. The ever-present cigarette in one hand, an equally ubiquitous cup of coffee in the other, Don is serious about the pub business and is on the job and into the books early every day, even though he was probably one of the last to leave at closing time the night before.
Don is unmistakable in any crowd. His long gray hair and beard are accented by cowboy-classic attire, complete with turquoise and silver rings and a runner-up-at-the-rodeo-type belt buckle. Don has been in the beer business longer than a lot of his customers have been alive. Early on, he left a corporate job at Lever Brothers after getting a taste of professional pub life behind the plank. The only good beer available at that time was the locally brewed Henrys from the Blitz-Weinhard Brewery, and Dons enthusiasm for the local brew earned him the moniker Captain Blitz.
Legend has it that one night in 1976, Don befriended an English couple who were trying to buy a pub in Portland. Don spent all evening trying to talk them out of the uncertain pub business. After a long and liquid discussion, the couple withdrew their offer and Don woke up the next morning to discover that he had two headaches: his own and a signed bill of sale for the pub! Don and his brother Bill were in the business.
Don loved the classic English pub and made sure that his Horse Brass featured as many good English beers as it could sell. Dons pub would always cater to the comfort and convenience of the neighborhood locals while also offering the unusual and exotic. Soon the Horse Brass was drawing beer lovers from all over Portland and beyond for the wonderful combination of exceptional beer and good food that is the hallmark of a great pub.
After Bill passed away, Don had his friends at Rogue Ales brew his own Youngers ESB to honor Bill, and the beer is featured on English handpump. Bills spirit is still felt at the Horse Brass both figuratively and literally.
Don is also an encyclopedic cornucopia of beer history and lore. He is fond of taking a visitor on a whirlwind tour of Portland pubs at the drop of a beer coaster. His tour usually in his trusty early 70s-era T-bird with a hood and fenders longer than the finish on Deschutes Jubelale includes a healthy dose of beer trivia complete with the names of owners and types of beers found in the first pubs to offer great brewing in the Portland area.
The 25th anniversary gathering was a magic moment in beer history filled with beery reminiscences (and no doubt a few embellishments) of a great pub and a greater publican. No visit to Portland is complete without a pilgrimage to the Horse Brass Pub and its eccentric owner, Don Younger. As the great poet Neil Young once observed, Long may you run.
Tom Dalldorf is publisher and editor of the widely recognized Celebrator Beer News, the most exciting beer magazine on the face of the earth.