Community, tradition, family and beer. These are the four aspects that were important to Alan Taylor ’93 when he and two other Linfield College alumni started a brewing company.
Taylor and Linfield classmates Rich May ’93 and Paul Keir ’93 recently co-founded Southeast Portland’s newest brewery, Zoiglhaus Brewing Company.
While at Linfield, Taylor studied German and math, and found time for home brewing on the side. He had the opportunity to study abroad in Germany several times and enjoyed the idea of community brewing. This concept, along with his Linfield education, inspired Taylor to pursue German beer making and ultimately helped him to earn a brewing internship in Berlin at the Luisen-Bräu Brewpub in 1997.
Zoigl is a type of beer made in eastern Bavaria, Germany, where locals share a community brewery and take home their own wort (pre-fermented beer) to ferment.
“We all came together behind the idea of the Zoigl and the name Zoiglhaus just followed,” said Taylor, co-owner and brewmaster. “We liked the idea of a community brewery, of supporting the neighborhood, of sharing our brewhouse with other breweries, and of the traditional German heritage style of brewing.”
Taylor is also brewmaster at PINTS Brewing Company in Old Town Portland and Ponderosa Brewing Company in Albuquerque, N.M.
Taylor was featured in “German Traditions Featured at Zoiglhaus,” an article on page 17 in the March 2016 edition of Oregon Beer Growler.
