In 1995, Jeff Schons and Mary Jones purchased an old brick building on the oceanfront in Pacific City. Over Sunday morning coffee, Jeff and Mary came up with the idea of opening an oceanfront micro-brewery. As they knew almost nothing about the brewing process, they decided to attend a Craft Brewers conference in Portland.

While at the conference it occurred to Mary that there might be a brewer there that might be interested in joining the Pelican Pub & Brewery. On a hand-written 3 x 5 notecard tacked to a bulletin board, Mary scribbled the details of what they were looking for.

It was this notecard that caught Darron Welch's attention. After several eager phone calls to Jeff and Mary, Darron and his fiance moved to Pacific City and Darron began brewing test batches of beer down the street in mini-storage units while the Pelican was under construction. On May 4, 1996, the Pelican opened its doors and the rest is history.