A crew of perhaps a hundred volunteers gathered at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning (mighty early for a blogger!) and spent the day erecting a frame of heavy fir timbers. The wood came from a stand on abbey lands--where else?--near Abiqua Falls that were cut and milled in March. We used wooden mallets ("beetles") to connect the precut timbers, nearly all of which is mortice-and-tenon construction. (There are a few metal ties hidden inside some of the joints for strength.) Those were fastened by uncountable wooden pegs, a few of which the volunteers signed. I was invited (I think) as a member of the media, but I was happy to work all day, and so somewhere there's a peg in that building with my name on it.

If you've seen "Witness" you can imagine what the day looked like. There were lots of people hoisting large "bents" (walls, essentially) and propping them up with poles and ropes. There was scrambling up onto the structure and hammering and sawing. There were teams of volunteers hauling timbers. At lunch, Father Martin lead the prayer, and at the end of the day we hoisted glasses of St. Benedict and offered a toast.

From here, things are going to move quickly. The structure itself is being enclosed, and the brewery tanks have already started arriving. When it opens in a few months, the brewery will have a small five-barrel system on one side, a warm room on the other, and, facing the hop fields, a tasting room for visitors. I was delighted to learn that the monks themselves will do the brewing. One is already working with Seven Brides to learn the ropes, and others are signed up to contribute hours. This is actually quite rare; although a number of monasteries now have breweries, in only one that I know of do the monks actually brew (Westvleteren). As I spoke to Father Martin about it, I got a sense that this was another of those very intentional Benedictine decisions. The monks aren't passive overseers; if this is going to be an activity of the monastery, a component of their mission, then monks will be involved.

When I asked when the brewery would be up and running, Chris and Father Martin gave me smiles. For a project that has unfolded so slowly, they were wary about giving any timelines. I suspect we may see a finished brewery by late spring, but it could be sooner or later. For a 1500-year-old order, what's a few months one way or the other? The Abbey has ambitious goals for the beer, too. They don't plan on making a huge amount of it, but they would like it to become one of Oregon's most respected breweries. Of course, this isn't the central goal though. More important would be for people from around the region to come, see the monastery, learn about what they're doing, and of course enjoy a goblet in the tasting room. As someone who's followed this rather theoretical brewery for about five years, I'm looking forward to finally sitting down with a glass in the physical space. Maybe I'll see if I can find that peg I signed.