Stone Barn Brandyworks sits in Portland’s industrial Southeast district, where Sebastian Degens and Erika Strum turned a converted warehouse into Oregon’s first dedicated brandy distillery in 2009. The husband-and-wife team started this operation after years of home distilling, driven by Sebastian’s German heritage and both founders’ belief that American brandy could rival European counterparts. Their 2,000-square-foot facility houses copper pot stills imported from Germany, creating an intimate production space where everything happens under one roof.
Sebastian brings engineering precision to distillation while Erika handles business operations, and together they’ve built something genuinely different in Portland’s crowded craft spirits scene. They focus exclusively on brandy production using Pacific Northwest fruit, working directly with local orchards to source pears, apples, and stone fruits. The operation remains intentionally small—they’re not trying to be the next big thing, just making brandy the way they think it should be made.
Visitors find a working distillery where production takes priority over polished presentation. The space feels like stepping into someone’s passionate hobby that got serious—copper stills gleaming under industrial lighting, barrels aging quietly in corners, and the sweet smell of fermenting fruit filling the air. It’s brandy-focused in a whiskey-dominated world, and they’re perfectly fine being Portland’s best-kept secret.
