Proper Pint Crusher; How Portland Beer Industry Vets Created a RallyCross Beer Truck — New School Beer + Cider

Nov 03, 2023

You may have heard about the Proper Pint Crusher in Willamette Week's Best of Portland 2022 issue, this is the full story with images courtesy of Ryan Born.

The Gambler 500 is a custom car enthusiast off-roads event that started in Oregon in 2014 and has now evolved into an international effort to clean up public lands. Car and conservation enthusiasts put a little elbow grease and a whole lot of enthusiasm to put together their own junkyard Mad Max style vehicles to then drive on back roads in the world's undeveloped landscapes and pick up trash from abandoned camper trailers to refrigerators. What does this have to do with beer? Well at this years culminating event a 2-day Burning Man inspired party in central Oregon, a group of Portland beer bar owners, craft beer enthusiasts, friends, and dudes who know how to turn a wrench (or atleast crush a few beers), got together to build their own custom craft beer tap van turned 4-wheeler and take it on an epic journey of fun and adventure.

Proper Pint Taproom owner Sean "El-Capy-Tan" Hiatt is good with his hands, whether it's pouring you a pint of beer or doing the custom woodworking, welding and carpentry that make his two taprooms so bespoke and beautiful. When Hiatt heard about the Gambler 500 he was determined to find a way to participate and after getting permission from his wife he began assembling an A-Team of crew members: Ryan "Rymbo" Born (owner of Mayfly Taproom & Bottle Shop), Cameron "Cambler" Peterson (Perfect Pour Services), Andrew "The Electrician" Kreps, Stephen "Allen" Dennis, Mat "Carpe-di-Mat" Bywater, and Jake "DJ Bourdain" Crouse. Their experience was chronicled via instagram account @pp_crusher.

A post shared by Proper Pint Crusher (@pp_crusher)

In the early days of the Gambler 500 vehicles were primarily stock cars used year after year, the goal was to spend no more than $500 on a vehicle and apply some paint, tape, and rudimentary welding skills. Over time, customization and spending a few more dollars became more common, but Hiatt was determined to stay true to the original spirit of the race. "The whole thing is to repurpose a car that was going to get crushed anyway, so give it a second life, or a third life, or a sixth life, just trying to use them again before they sit in a graveyard somewhere" says Hiatt.

But finding a vehicle that could make the trip for only $500 was going to be a challenge, not wanting to deal with craigslist or facebook marketplace, he had consigned himself to attending an auto auction in Gresham before Washougal, Washington's 5440-Brewing sales rep Charles stopped into Proper Pint Taproom.

"I asked what they were doing with the cruiser, and if they would sell it for $500 bucks," recalls Hiatt. It turned out they did, and soon they acquired a well worn 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser that the brewery had used prior for sales and deliveries. Though Hiatt is not a fan of PT Cruiser's, he still recognized that the cars were known for having a solid engine that they would need to complete the trip.

"The whole motto of Gambler 500 is ‘pavement is lava’ so you try to drive on as many off-roads, and forest roads as possible on the way to the meetup, while picking up as much trash as you can in the forest," says Hiatt.

To fund the project they came up with the idea to sell logos placements on the sides of the car for $50. The sponsors quickly lined up in support: 54-40 Brewing, Ft. George, Breakside, Bull Run Cider, Unicorn Brewing, Bent Shovel Brewing, Laurelwood Brewing, 2 Towns Cider, Pono Brewing, Findlay Hats, Boss Rambler Beer Club, StormBreaker Brewing, and of course Proper Pint, Mayfly, and Perfect Pour.

They the hard work began by tearing the cruiser down to the bones, adding a roll cage, 2" spacers on the wheels, and a kart rack to carry a Formula G go-kart on the roof of the PP Crusher so that they could compete in stock "Formula" GoKart race portion of "Gamblertown."

Most importantly they had to figure out a way to turn the entire vehicle into a kegerator on wheels without weighing the car down too much. They started by welding a Coleman Camp Stove to the side of the PP Crusher and drilling 4 holes for tap handles into the side of it. Inside they secured a rubber bin used as a keg bucket that pefectly fit 4 x 1/6bbl kegs, they filled that with ice and a little water so that a pump could recirculate the liquid keeping the kegs icy cold in a similar fashion to a glycol line. Underneath the vehicle they put LED lighting that backlit the beers from below and illuminated the underside of the crusher giving the whole thing a bit of style.

The journey began after Proper Pint Oakroom's 1-year anniversary party on June 8th, the crew started at 54-40 Brewing then drove along the Washington side of the gorge to Hood River before hitting the back roads until it got dark. "Along the way we were just pulling over all the time and picking up random trash like tents and other garbage that people just throw out their windows," says Hiatt. This year Gambler 500 developed an app that allows users to mark large deposits of trash, as well as dumpsters that the organizers have worked with the forest service to have placed along the routes.

On the first night they set up a camp in the woods and rallied the go-kart around for kicks while hitting the in-vehicle kegerator. They were so thirsty that they killed all of the kegs that first night keeping people "hydrated" and had to come up with a Plan B.

"There were multiple events where people didn't think the crusher was going to make it back," recalls Hiatt. "We got insurance and AAA for it, so if and when it does break down we don't have to just leave it somewhere."

With a pit crew in one backup vehicle, and a drive team manning the PP Crusher and Go Kart, they eventually made it to the Deschutes Expo Center in Redmond for Gamblertown. The 2-night party features food and drink, bands, and a rally race behind the events venue called Hooptie X, as well as the formula GoKart race that takes on a LeMans style format with rotating drivers. "It's like redneck burning man, if they were into beer and conservation" says Hiatt with a smile.

Though many beers were crushed along the way, by the time they got to Gamblertown they were out of beer for the kegerator, but just as they did from the start the industry rallied around to save them from an evening without drink.

"We reached out to Boss Rambler and they hooked us up with another keg which was gone in an hour and a half. Stormbreaker came in like a hero and had a cooler full of their cans. Which were gone in about 3 hours. Are whole team wanted to make sure everyone was happy and cool with drinking free beer from the Proper Pint Crusher!"

All said and done the PP Crusher removed around 500 lbs of trash, and the entire 2022 Gamblertown event disposed of 427,000 of trash, 26 vehicles, and 6 boats. The PP Crusher even made it home in one piece to pour beer at 54-40 Brewing's Outlaw Fest. Since the team cut the roof off the Crusher it can't really be stored outdoors, so 54-40 Brewing has graciously offered to leave it parked in their warehouse until it rides again, hopefully with more suspension and a turbo charge, maybe even a few more tap lines for backup beer as well.

Proper Pint Crusher images courtesy of Ryan Born, video extracted from @PP_Crusher on instagram.