Gigantic Brewing

Craft Brewery, Tap Room & Champagne Lounge owned and operated by Master Brewer Van Havig & Brewmaster Ben Love. Gigantic Brewing Company is an independent, artisanal brewery located in the Southeast quadrant of the Peoples Republic of Portland.  Ben Love is the Gigantic Brewing Company Brewmaster. A native Oregonian, Ben’s passion for beer (legally) began with a pint at the Horse Brass and a stint at Belmont Station in 1999. His brewing career began in 2003 in Appleton, WI at the Adler Brau Brewpub. He returned to Oregon in 2004 to brew at Pelican in Pacific City. In 2007, Ben became the first employee and Headbrewer at Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) in Portland. Ben always wanted to own his own business, and put years of dreaming and scheming into action to start Gigantic. Van Havig is the Gigantic Brewing Company Master Brewer. His early influences include any movie with giant monsters and robots, and every car he’s ever seen. This led to his childhood collection of toy cars and Japanese robot action figures (back when they were good and their hands could shoot off and choke small children). None of these toys survive because Van tore them all apart to see how they work – an action that set him on a lifelong passion for things mechanical. As he entered his teen years, punk rock grabbed him by the throat and forced its way into his soul, connecting strongly with his lifelong problem with authority. Attending Reed College didn’t exactly mitigate this ongoing problem, as is evidenced by his dropping out of a Ph.D. program in economics at the University of Minnesota because he began to question the very underpinnings of economics as a social science. At least the year he spent at the London School of Economics wasn’t a waste, since it introduced him the glory of the British pub and cask conditioned beer.