By Tiah Edmunson-Morton
Title: Abram Goldman-Armstrong Papers, 1980-2018
Predominant Dates: 1995-2018
ID: MSS GoldmanArmstrong
Primary Creator: Goldman-Armstrong, Abram (1978-)
Extent: 6.0 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The Abram Goldman-Armstrong Papers is arranged into four series: 1. Subject and Research Files, 1980-2018; 2. Sustainability, 1997-2014; 3. Notebooks, 2000-2013; and 4. Professional Writing, 1999-2012.
Languages of Materials: English [eng], German [ger], Russian [rus], Czech [cze]
The materials in the Abram Goldman-Armstrong Papers reflect his work as a writer, interest in sustainability, research on beer styles and breweries, and participation in the brewing community. Goldman-Armstrong is an author and former owner of Cider Riot!, a hard cider company in Portland.
Digital-folders 1-4 as described in Series 1 are digitized and available upon request.
The materials in the Abram Goldman-Armstrong Papers reflect his work as a writer, interest in sustainability, research on beer styles and breweries, and participation in the brewing community. Of note are the notebooks Goldman-Armstrong kept for documenting events or brewery visits, and notes on ingredients, topics, people, and styles. Also included are draft and final articles Goldman-Armstrong wrote for publications such as the Northwest Brewing News and American Brewer.
Goldman-Armstrong created and assembled materials that document his work as a member of the brewing community; as such, his collection includes materials related to events and festivals (programs, promotional items) including the Craft Brewers Conference and Portland International Beer Festival, homebrew judging (tasting notes, beer fact sheets), and information about travel to U.S. and international breweries.
The collection includes 12 DVDs; the files from BridgePort Brewing Company, the Great Canadian Beer Festival, Hops Direct, and Widmer Brothers Brewing have been extracted and included as digital files in this collection. All the digital files are described as part of Series 1 and the original DVDs are in files as organized by the donor.
Digital-folders 1-4 as described in Series 1 are digitized and available upon request.
Abram Goldman-Armstrong is an author and former owner of Cider Riot!, a hard cider company in Portland.
Goldman-Armstrong was born in 1978 and grew up in rural Yamhill County in Oregon. He attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he made cider in his dorm room closet, and studied abroad for a year in Ireland, where he received a Certificate of Irish Studies in Irish and Celtic Civilization. He graduated in 1999 with a B.A. in English Literature. In 2004, he attended a program in Munich at the Doemens Brewery.
His writing career began in 1993 with a punk fanzine "Hector's Bag of Fish," which he wrote until 2000. As a high school student, he wrote articles for the News-Register in Yamhill County. He has written about beer for Brewsville, Willamette Week, Celebrator, Ale Street News, Oregon Beer Growler, and American Brewer. He began writing for the Northwest Brewing News in 2001 and became the editor in 2013. He has visited and written about breweries across the U.S. and Canada, Ireland, and Germany.
While in high school, Goldman-Armstrong had a job planting traditional cider apple trees for White Oak Cider, a Somerset-inspired cidery in Yamhill County; he learned to make cider using bittersweet English apples at that job. In 2013, he opened Cider Riot! in his garage and distributed his cider throughout the Pacific Northwest, Japan, and The Netherlands. In 2016, he opened a pub and production facility; though his ciders won awards in 2017 and 2019 at the Royal Bath and West show in England, he put the business up for sale in 2019.
Goldman-Armstrong began beer home brewing when he was 17 years old. He was certified by the Beer Judge Certification Program and has judged at competitions such as the American Homebrewers Association Nationals, the British Columbia Beer Awards, the Heart of Cascadia competition, the Great American Beer Festival, and the Mondial de la Biere in Montreal. He has also organized beer festivals, including the North American Organic Brewers Festival and the Oregon Brewers Guild's Cheers to Belgian Beers event, Brewers Dinner, and Fresh Hop Festival.
He won the Timbers Army Home Brew Contest in 2012, which was fitting because he is a big fan of the team. He was on the founding board for the 107 Independent Supporters Trust, member-based non-profit organization that supports soccer in Portland, and published and edited "The Whipshaw," a Timbers Army fanzine.
More Extent Information: 879 digital files, including 406 digital photographs and 12 audio files. 17 photographs. 6 boxes, including 1 oversize box.
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: These materials were donated to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center by Abram Goldman-Armstrong in 2020.
Related Materials:
The Abram Goldman-Armstrong Papers are complemented by several other collections. The Brewing and Fermentation Research Collection (MSS BFRC) contains information pertaining to the history, growth, and culture of the Pacific Northwest brewing industry; included are newsletters for homebrew clubs such as the Oregon Brew Crew and Cascade Brewers Society, as well other noteworthy industry periodicals and publications. The Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives Oral History Collection (OH 35) includes interviews from industry professionals, journalists, and community members.
Further information regarding the values, logistics, and goals of the burgeoning regional brewing community can be found in organizational collections like the Heart of the Valley Homebrewers Records (MSS HOTV), McMenamins Brewery Collection (MSS McMenamins), Ninkasi Brewing Company Collection, 2012-2014 (MSS Ninkasi), and the Oregon Brewers Guild Records. The personal research collections of Fred Eckhardt (MSS Eckhardt), Denny Conn (MSS Conn), Pete Dunlop (MSS Dunlop), Fred Bowman (MSS Bowman), and Robert Daly (MSS Daly) contain additional information regarding the beer writing process and beer culture.
Collections linked to Oregon State University research, as well as other manuscript collections, are described on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives research guide. More information pertaining to the history of hop growing and brewing in Oregon can be found on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives website.
Preferred Citation: Abram Goldman-Armstrong Papers (MSS GoldmanArmstrong), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Goldman-Armstrong, Abram (1978-)
Beer--Periodicals.
Beer--United States.
Brewing--Periodicals.
Brewing.
Brewing industry--Oregon.
Home brewing
Hops and Brewing
Organic farming
Sustainability.
Born digital.
Digital audio formats.
Digital images.
Digital photographs.
DVDs.
Photographic prints.