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Brian Yaeger

Brian Yaeger is a beer author (including "Oregon Breweries"), beer fest producer and beer-tasting instructor at COCC. Because he’s working on doughnut authorship, you’ll find he occasionally reviews our local doughnut scene. Yes, he absolutely floats all summer long with a beer in one hand and a doughnut in the other.

brian@beerodyssey.com
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides

Little Woody Open to Masked, Vaxed and Negative Gnomes

The Festival of barrel-aged beers, ciders and whiskeys is bringing festive back
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Ever since 2009, The Little Woody has celebrated Central Oregon breweries and, more specifically, the beers aged in wooden casks that they produce. Every year except for last year, of course. But, for those who’ve been vaccinated or can show proof of a negative Coronavirus test result from the previous 48 hours—and aware that masks […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Go Globetrotting at Spider City Brewing

The women behind the brewery bring a passion for travel to local beers
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A Belgian grisette, a Polish wheat beer, a Germanic gose and a Baltic porter are all available to slake your thirst without so much as a passport. Of course, if your thirst preferences lie closer to home, there’s also no shortage of tasty American IPAs at Spider City Brewing. The name of the brewery may have […]

Posted inFood & Drink

The Bend Ale Trail Relaunches, with More than Just Breweries

After more than a decade, Visit Bend incentivizes getting your drink on
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It seems difficult to fathom nowadays, what with nearly 30 breweries in Central Oregon today, but when the Bend Ale Trail launched in 2010, it would’ve required the six-fingered man to count all the stops on the nascent hop-hike. That was an era without Sunriver or GoodLife or Crux; an era when almost everyone offered […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Bend Brewing Co.’s Waypoint Quenches The Grove

Craft beer and cocktails to wash down forthcoming noodles and burgers
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From the second established brewery in Bend to establishing the newest craft cocktail and beer watering hole, Bend Brewing Co. is now slaking thirsts at The Grove, the new market hall in Northwest Crossing. What distinguishes the new Waypoint from Old Bend’s BBC is, as brewmaster Zach Beckwith explains, “the distinct branding and the co-equal […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Beer for the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes and Forests

Crux is one of eight Oregon breweries taking part in a collaboration aimed at supporting the state’s land trusts
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Mountains, rivers, lakes and forests have long been tools to promote beer brands. Now beer is being used to promote them. Eight Oregon breweries including Bend’s own Crux Fermentation Project have each created beers called The Oregon I Am in support of the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. A land trust is a nonprofit organization […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Worthy Brewing’s Organic Farm ▶ [with video]

Add communal farming to the brewery’s list of cool side projects
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Visitors to Worthy Brewing can’t help but notice the hopyard is looking a bit barren. It’s not that the land proved infertile. Quite the contrary; it’s being repurposed into a new organic farm, the latest venture for the Worthy Garden Club, the brewery’s nonprofit highlighting sustainable practices. The new farm “came on suddenly,” says Lisa […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Cinco Cervezas for Cinco de Mayo

Instant fiesta: Just add any of these local Mexican-style beers
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Isn’t it loco to think that we have Austrians to thank for Mexican lagers? German immigrants greatly influenced non-indigenous brewing in Mexico, but the quintessential Mexican lager is a style more formally known as Vienna lager because in 1864 Napoleon imposed an Austrian-born emperor. Though he was executed by Mexican forces in 1867, Austrian brewers […]

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