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At Culmination Brewing: 2117 NE Oregon St., 503-662-8325, rusebrewing.com. Noon-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, noon-10 pm Friday-Saturday.
Turns out, Ruse was never a ruse. Brewer Shaun Kalis has been brewing for Culmination since it opened, while also kicking out his own personal jams there under the name Ruse Brewing—with either his fruity Translator IPA or full-bodied Architect Saison always on tap. Sometimes it's led to funny echoes: Ruse's kriek shared time with Culmination's on the brewhouse taplist, and when Ruse kicked out an Aussie-hop, pineapple-tasting Vernacular hazy IPA, Culmination did its own rice-adjunct Obscured by Clouds less than a week later. (For the record, I prefer Ruse's tart-and-tannic kriek, but Culmination's hazy.) But things are turning serious this year: By fall 2017, Kalis and fellow Culmination brewer Devin Benware will leave to start up Ruse as an independent 6,000-square-foot brewery near the Holgate Orange Line MAX stop, with live music and "boutique beer"—i.e., a lot of barrel-aged beers and saisons. Eastside rivals? Sharks and Jets? Not so far. "I feel like a proud father," Culmination brewmaster Tomas Sluiter told
Drink this: There are a lot of barrels aging at Culmination with Ruse's name on them. From the pinot-aged kriek to a Burgundy-aged MultiBeast brett that took a little time to condition in the bottle, they've been winners so far.
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