ColdFire Brewing brings Saison Fest 2026 to Eugene's farmhouse scene
ColdFire turned its Eugene Barrel House into a farmhouse-beer destination, lining up Dupont, Fantôme and top U.S. saison brewers for two days of rare pours.
ColdFire Brewing turned Saison Fest 2026 into a two-day showcase for farmhouse beer at the ColdFire Barrel House in Eugene, lining up Brasserie Dupont, Brasserie Fantôme, Alesong Brewing & Blending, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, Fonta Flora, is/was Brewing, Trillium and Oxbow Brewing Co. for July 2 and 3. The event ran from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. each day, was free to attend, and sold flights and 12-ounce pours, a format that fit the style better than a loud summer beer fair.
That focus made sense for a brewery that has spent years building credibility beyond its hop-forward core. ColdFire was founded in 2015 by brothers Dan and Stephen Hughes, says its original Eugene location served as its tasting room for the first decade, and now brews in Junction City while using the Barrel House for special events in a 2,500-square-foot space. The brewery’s awards list backs up the move: 7 Great American Beer Festival medals, 4 World Beer Cup medals, 14 Oregon Beer Awards and Oregon’s Medium-Sized Brewery of the Year in 2025.
The strongest evidence for ColdFire’s farmhouse lean is on the beer itself. Its awards page includes a 2024 Great American Beer Festival gold for Saison Lily in session beer and Belgian-style table beer, plus a 2026 Oregon Beer Awards gold for Elisabeth in mixed-culture beer. ColdFire’s beer list also points to a deeper barrel program, including Biér de Coupage, a collaboration with de Garde Brewing that blends spontaneously fermented ales aged 3 to 4 years in French oak with Saison Lily aged in sauvignon blanc and sparkling white wine barrels. That is the kind of technical detail saison drinkers travel for.
The guest list sharpened the contrast between old-world benchmark and modern North American interpretation. Brasserie Dupont, which describes itself as a world reference in the saison style, brought the Belgian reference point. Brasserie Fantôme brought a different kind of pedigree, built by Dany Prignon in 1988 and known for small-batch saisons that lean into herbs, spices and fruit. On the American side, Alesong, Sante Adairius, Fonta Flora, Trillium, Oxbow and is/was have all spent years pushing farmhouse beer into barrel-aged, mixed-culture and dry, highly expressive territory.
ColdFire has long made good beer in Eugene, but Saison Fest framed the Barrel House as something bigger than a taproom with a calendar. With Dupont and Fantôme on the same bill as some of the most respected U.S. farmhouse brewers, Eugene got presented as a serious saison stop, not just a city with another beer event.
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