Ground Breaker Brewing is celebrating their tenth anniversary on Wednesday December 29th. The Great American Beer Festival® and World Beer Cup® winning dedicated gluten-free brewery is releasing 12 ounce cans of Imperial Darkness, their imperial stout made with cacao nibs and vanilla, to celebrate the occasion. To further the celebration, Ground Breaker will be holding their annual Double Case Discount Dock Sale at the brewery from 2:00-8:00 PM on December 29th. Founder James Neumeister will be offering cases at a discount and having socially distanced chats with fans of the brewery.

“One of our goals year-over-year is to constantly improve our products,” said Tyler Kueber, Head Brewer at Ground Breaker. “I am confident this is the best batch of Imperial Darkness we’ve ever made, it will really knock your socks off.”

Ground Breaker Brewing opened as Harvester Brewing in late December 2011. Opening as the first dedicated gluten-free brewery in the United States, the brewery began to quickly collect its first accolades starting with a Great American Beer Festival Bronze Medal in the Gluten-Free Category in 2012.

James Neumeister, Founder of Ground Breaker Brewing

“We wouldn’t be here without the love and support of the fans of our beer,” remarked Founder James Neumeister. “Thank you for carrying us on your shoulders all these years. And a special thank you to the friends and family that have endured the wild ride that is starting and operating a brewery.”

Ground Breaker Brewing, the Great American Beer Festival® and World Beer Cup® winning dedicated gluten-free brewery, released their latest seasonal beer this week. At 5.1% alcohol by volume Luella is a Belgian Pale Ale with pleasantly complex notes of bread, toast, biscuit, and caramel. Fruit and spice characters provided by Belgian yeast round out this sessionable ale.

Luella is a namesake for Luella Love of Love Farm. Love Farm is a family-owned community-supported agricultural farm nestled in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. Luella Love founded Love Farm in 1905 with her husband John where for over 100 years the Love family has been dedicated to growing fresh produce and berries. Ground Breaker Brewing’s Gastropub at 2030 SE 7th Avenue in Portland is a drop off location for Love Farm CSA members.

“Most of the beers we produce at Ground Breaker start with ‘what do I want to drink right now?’” said James Neumeister, Founder and Head of Research and Development at Ground Breaker Brewing. “A Belgian pale ale is an any time of the year beer but with a lower ABV and its fruity-spicy yeast character, it is well suited for a late summer to fall transition beer.”

Luella was first released by the brewery in early 2015. “With the many new ingredients available to us, it is very exciting to revisit a style like Belgian pale,” remarked Head Brewer Tyler Kueber. “We’re really happy with how it came out.”

Luella is currently available on draft and in 16 ounce cans at Ground Breaker Brewing and Gastropub. It will begin shipping to distribution partners in the coming weeks.

Front Loader IPA, a 7.4% West Coast style IPA, is the latest release from the 100% gluten-free craft brewery. Brewed with rice, millet, buckwheat, flaked quinoa and over two pounds of hops per barrel. Ground Breaker is billing Front Loader IPA as a spiritual successor to IPA No. 4, a beer whose production ceased when the brewery made line up changes in 2015.

“People ask about IPA No. 4 constantly,” said Founder and Head of R&D James Neumeister. “It was a beer with a small but dedicated following.” Neumeister pointed out that Front Loader is not simply a carbon copy. “We’re always learning new techniques, honing our craft, experimenting with new ingredients. It’s really an improved No. 4 with a new identity.”

“We’ve been overwhelmed with hype beer the last few years, for lack of a better term,” remarked Head Brewer Tyler Kueber. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a classic Northwest style, high IBU IPA. There is a growing nostalgia for this style right now.”

Front Loader IPA will be available in a 16 ounce can package and on draft at the Ground Breaker Gastropub. It will be distributed to Ground Breaker territories in the coming weeks.

The second Ground Breaker Brewing release of the year is a Bavarian inspired affair. Dampfbier, a gluten-free ale brewed with weizen yeast, will soon be hitting the shelves. At 4.5% alcohol by volume and 14 IBU it maintains similar spicy and fruit characteristics of Hefeweizen. To put a definitive Pacific Northwest stamp on their rendition, Dampfbier is dry-hopped with Santiam hops to complement the natural banana esters and clove-like phenols produced by the weizen yeast. 

Ground Breaker’s first Experiment Ale Series release saw the brewery successfully deliver on a long-held goal: crafting an American-style Porter in gluten-free form. No to be slowed by the success of Paddy Porter, the 100% dedicated gluten-free craft brewery out of Portland, Oregon is looking to provide something more Continentally inspired for their second seasonal offering of the year. 

Originating in the rural Bavarian Forest region of what is the modern Czech Republic and Germany, Dampfbier is basic and utilitarian. Brewers of the region made beers with 100% barley malt because wheat was expensive and prioritized as food instead of beverage. 

Being a dedicated gluten-free brewery, Ground Breaker’s rendition obviously doesn’t have wheat or barley but that didn’t stop Head Brewer Tyler Kueber from exploring the style. “We’re very excited to bring this lesser-known Bavarian style to the gluten-free community,” remarked Kueber. “This may be the first time that we’ve replicated a style that many traditional beer drinkers may have never experienced themselves.”

Available now in 22 ounce bottles, Dampfbier is an exploration in the diversity of beer, Kueber explained. “Nearly all of our beers are meant to be poured quietly. With this release folks should feel free to rouse Dampfbier before they pour it for more of that weizen flavor.”

Rouse before pouring for that classic flavor and look. 

Portland, Oregon-based Ground Breaker Brewing, the first 100% dedicated gluten-free brewery in the United States, has captured its first World Beer Cup award at the 2018 awards ceremony. Ground Breaker’s IPA No. 5 won the the Silver award in the Gluten-Free beer category. Awards were given in 101 beer-style categories during the World Beer Cup award ceremony on May 3, 2018 at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn.

Ground Breaker’s IPA No. 5 won the Silver medal in the Gluten-Free beer category. IPA No. 5 previously won the Silver medal in the Gluten-Free beer category at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival®. “We were very happy to win this medal alongside some other amazing Oregon breweries at this year’s World Beer Cup awards,” said James Neumeister, founder and head of R&D at the gluten-free craft brewery. “We were a little disappointed to see the beer not show at the 2016 World Beer Cup. We know it’s a great beer and we were determined to prove that this year.”

IPA No. 5 is available in a 12 ounce can package

Having studied many of the medal-winning IPAs on the market, the brewers at Ground Breaker knew they needed to give some creative love to their award-winning flagship beer. “IPA No. 5 has such a well-established identity,” remarked Tyler Kueber, head brewer. “We didn’t want to disrupt or change that, but we did want to take another look at the hops and give them a bit of a makeover.” Kueber and the Ground Breaker crew most recently took home a Gold medal in the Gluten-Free category at the 2017 GABF for the brewery’s Dark Ale. “We had the opportunity, thanks to another brewery here in Portland, to bring in some special hops we wouldn’t normally be able to get our hands on. We are fortunate to have such a supportive brewing community, and I think that’s part of the reason why you see Oregon breweries hauling in so many medals every year.”

With the addition of another 15 barrel unitank by the end of May, Ground Breaker will be producing more IPA No. 5 than ever. “With the establishment of our Colorado market, the demand for IPA No. 5, especially in cans, is higher than ever,” said Neumeister. With a World Beer Cup medal to its name, the consumer’s desire for IPA No. 5 will continue to climb.

World Beer Cup winners were selected by an international panel of 295 beer judges from 33 countries, 72 percent of whom were from outside the United States. Widely regarded as the “Olympics of Beer,” the World Beer Cup saw an impressive field of 8,234 entries from 2,515 breweries in 66 countries—the largest competition to date. Presented by the Brewers Association, the World Beer Cup has been held biennially since 1996, to celebrate the art and science of brewing by recognizing outstanding achievement.