Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
Five Eugene breweries are participating in the Oregon Agricultural Trust’s Cheers to the Land program. The public can try the beverages at a launch party Friday at Claim 52.
A coalition of craft brewers is helping preserve Oregon’s farmland. Through the Oregon Agricultural Trust’s Cheers to the Land program, 18 beverage makers across the state are crafting special beers and ciders using Oregon-grown ingredients to raise awareness and funds for farmland protection. Five Eugene breweries are participating.
“Oregon grows over 220 different kinds of crops, including the barley and the hops and the apples and a lot of the fruit that go into the beverages that we enjoy,” said Nellie McAdams, Oregon Agricultural Trust’s executive director. “Cheers to the Land is our way of celebrating those producers, celebrating the land that they grow this food on, and raising awareness for our work.”
Farm to glass philosophy
For Toby Schock, founding brewer at The Wheel Apizza Pub in Eugene, the Cheers to the Land project aligns with his philosophy. Coming from a farming family, he’s built his brewing program around supporting local farms and sustainable agriculture.
“I want there to be a marketplace for farmers that want to grow a creative ingredient or crop on their farm,” Schock said. “If breweries like mine don’t buy their products, that marketplace isn’t there.”
The Wheel’s contribution this year is Farm to Table Beer, which represents a modern take on a European-style table beer using ingredients from six different Oregon farms.
A table beer is traditionally low alcohol. Schock’s recipe is only 4% alcohol but with a robust flavor that is more in line with a higher alcohol beer. He’s using oats and wheat from Camas Country Mill just outside Eugene, along with Oregon-grown barley, rye and hops.
For hops, Schock sourced Audacia from Goschie Farms near Silverton and an experimental variety called 102 from Oregon Hop House, developed specifically to grow well in drought conditions and high temperatures.
“The land doesn’t need to suffer because we want to drink beer,” Schock said. “The land can be stewarded and tended and still provide the crop that I need to make beer.”
At Claim 52, head brewer Aaron Brussat is using Camas Country Mill oats and the same experimental 102 hop variety, but he’s creating a distinctly different beer in the form of a hazy pale ale.
“It’s easy just to order the pint that you’re used to, and this is a really good opportunity to get a little bit outside of the comfort zone,” Brussat said. “The fact that you can come in and taste these beers and talk to some of the brewers about them is pretty valuable. It brings us closer together, and that’s what beer is all about.”
Celebrating Oregon agriculture
This year’s beers showcase the diversity of Oregon agriculture in creative ways. Falling Sky Brewing is making a dark Cascadian ale with spruce tips. Xicha Brewing, with locations in Salem and Eugene, is making a Brazilian strong ale brewed with pilsner malt, cara cara orange, cane sugar, piloncillo sugar, and local El Dorado hops. Eugene-based Alesong Brewing & Blending is crafting Wild Ale entirely from a single source using barley and hops from Silverton’s Goschie Farm along with Goschie’s riesling grapes.
The program kicks off with a launch party on Friday, Oct. 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Claim 52 in Eugene, featuring beers and ciders from participating beverage makers, a passport program with prizes, and live music. Participating breweries will donate a portion of proceeds to Oregon Agricultural Trust. If you can’t go to Claim 52 on Friday, you can visit the participating breweries.
McAdams is hoping that programs like Cheers to the Land remind consumers that beer and cider are agricultural products deeply connected to the land. By choosing beverages made with Oregon-grown ingredients, drinkers can support both local farms and efforts to preserve agricultural land for future generations.
Preserving farmland
Oregon lost 4% of its agricultural land between 2017 and 2022 alone, according to McAdams. Since the state’s land use program began in 1973, more than 60,000 acres have been lost — not necessarily paved over, notes McAdams, but no longer in production — and some of it is among the best soil for farming — not only in Oregon, but in the world.
Oregon Agricultural Trust works to permanently protect farmland through conservation easements, paying landowners to give up development rights and keep land in agricultural production. The organization formed in 2019, and has protected more than 30,000 acres since, with the first project completed in February 2023.
Cheers to the Land launch party
Claim 52 Brewing
232 Lincoln St.
5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 10
