Bird Creek Distillery sits in Portland’s industrial Southeast district, the brainchild of Joel Birkeland and Mike Swanson who launched their operation in 2011. These guys aren’t your typical spirits entrepreneurs—Birkeland comes from a background in mechanical engineering while Swanson brought business expertise to the table. They started small in a 2,000 square foot space on Oak Street, focusing exclusively on whiskey production with a 350-gallon copper still that they imported from Germany. The distillery produces bourbon, rye whiskey, and wheat whiskey, all aged in new American oak barrels.
Their journey began when Birkeland got obsessed with the craft of distilling after visiting Kentucky distilleries and decided Portland needed its own grain-to-glass whiskey operation. The duo spent two years perfecting their recipes and navigating Oregon’s licensing requirements before opening their doors. They source their grains locally when possible and handle every step from mashing to bottling on-site. Master distiller Birkeland brings an engineer’s precision to the process, carefully monitoring fermentation temperatures and cut points to maintain consistency across batches.
The distillery operates more like a working production facility than a polished tasting room, which gives visitors an authentic look at small-batch whiskey making. You’ll see the mash tuns, fermentation tanks, and aging barrels all crammed into their compact space. The atmosphere is industrial and no-frills, but that’s exactly the point—these guys are focused on making good whiskey, not creating Instagram moments. Their flagship Bourbon uses a high-corn mash bill and develops rich vanilla and caramel notes during its minimum three-year aging process.
