One Day In Bend: Everything’s Coming Up Deschutes

 

, One Day In Bend: Everything’s Coming Up Deschutes

The first time we came to Oregon, determined to plant our flag in the fair City of Roses, we decided to eat lunch at the Deschutes Pub in the Pearl District. A gorgeous space furnished with the intent of fusing the comfort and hominess of Bend with the modernity of the big city, we fell in love with the food, the beer and the vibe. 4 years later, on a whim, I ventured to the mecca of Oregon brewing for the first time to revel in Bend’s biggest success story, the Deschutes Brewery.

, One Day In Bend: Everything’s Coming Up DeschutesDuring the early morning hours, a drive from Portland to Bend is a beautiful and exhilarating drive: crossing a mountain pass, the turning leaves of fall, deer on the side of road, a partly cloudy sunrise, the descent into the desert valley and canyons below. Greeted by the Cascade Range (mostly unseen on the Western slope from up North) and the meandering Deschutes River, the latter leads right into the heart of Oregon’s cradle of brewing.

The Deschutes Brewery and Public House

Tucked in-between boutique shops and straddled between streets called Wall and Bond, getting into this brewpub upon opening at 11am will make you feel like you’ve struck it rich. The first one at the bar for lunch hour, I was quickly indulged by their friendly barkeep Andrew with a snifter glass of their big El Macho Choco, an imperial porter on tap. I’m a sucker for Imperial anything, but especially something that sounded like a Mexican Chocolate delight. I’d soon be informed of just how wrong I was…

Unbeknownst to me, Andrew had summoned one of their two in-house brewers, Veronica Vega, to chat me up. She too indulged me with a half-hour of her time, primarily explaining the unique experience of this brewpub and what makes her job so awesome. Turns out, she was working on a version of that big porter as we spoke, actually the research and development version of their Birthday Reserve Black Butte (number XXVII for 2015). It was clear it had the cocoa nibs they commonly use, yet this version she explained sports cherry pit semilla (seeds inside the pit) and they were experimenting with a few other spices I don’t feel at liberty to divulge. Guess we’ll all find out in June.

By the conclusion of our conversation, Andrew had served up free tastes of The Big Heavy (a huge 2 yr old barrel-aged strong Scotch Ale), their new Saison featuring pink peppercorn called Zarabanda and their two cask offerings: the fresh hopped Hop Trip and a fresh hopped Kolsch highly recommended by Veronica. It if weren’t for the half-eaten Lemongrass Pork Bahn Mi sandwich and the ever building mound of tasters in front of me, I would have demanded a tour of their original 12 barrel system, visible just beyond the bar. Plus I had a pending date with the offspring of this little operation, a free tour at their brewery on the SW side of town.

, One Day In Bend: Everything’s Coming Up DeschutesThe Deschutes Brewery

After nearly two hours, slowly finishing my food and watering down all those samples with some of Bend’s excellent tap water, I made a quick stop at the actual bend in the Deschutes River that is the center of town. Other than the name of the town, the placid waters created by the down- stream dam are known as Mirror Pond, something I had to see being that it also adorns Deschutes’ oft quaffed pale ale.

The modern facility that is the Deschutes Brewery stands in distinct contrast to any other Deschutes location, due to its size and industrial feel. When they first moved their primary production out of the pub in 1993, they jumped up to what they now call the “JV” system capable of 50 barrel batches. In 2004 they jumped even higher into a 150 barrel, custom-made and state-of-the-art Huppmann brewing system from Germany. Most recently they added ten 1,300 barrel fermenters enabling the brewery to produce up to 450,000 barrels annually.

The tour delved into all these details. They had all the sights, smells and tastes any brewery offers, plus their own flavors: the employee “restroom” that’s been converted into a small tap from for post-shift pints, the whole-leaf hop room (no pellets here), tastes of each ingredient they use, the gift store/tap room. Sure I had the four free tasters any tour-goer gets, but I lingered with Tour Supervisor Nate Brocious and Brand Ambassador Jeff Wilson who treated me to some tasters of their bottled delights such as the Not The Stoic barrel-aged Quadrupel; the lacto, brett and pedio laden, 4 barrel-blended Cultivateur Saison; the Dopple Dinkle Bock Imperial Weizenbock with Spelt malt (a collaboration with German brewers Distelhauser). Not to mention Jubelale on nitro and another fresh hop release, Chasin’ Freshies, made with fresh heirloom Cascade.

Yes, I got spoiled by Deschutes, yet it was only 2:30 and my day was only halfway done. More to come…

 

About Warren Wills

Warren is the former Assistant Editor & Portland Correspondent for American Craft Beer. Creator of "The State of American Craft Beer" series, he now maintains his own site at craftbeerscribe.com.
Scroll To Top