Barley wine beers are an interesting lot. Though not wine at all, these intense brews do pack a boozy punch—often registering between 10 and 15 percent alcohol by volume—and are often quite sweet and filled with a swirl of flavors, from dried fruits to acidic hops to caramel. The worst ones are syrupy sweet and […]
James Williams
Posted inOutside
Cool Callister
Bend snowboarder reflects on his Olympic debut
Most of the $50 billion Russian President Vladimir Putin poured into the recent Olympic preparations was not noticed by 18-year-old Bend snowboarder Kent Callister, who was in Sochi representing Australia. The halfpipe—Callister’s home for the three weeks he spent at the subtropical Russian resort—was bad. The food was worse. And his sparse Mountain Village accommodations […]
Posted inOutside
Wildlands Warrior
Conservationist Tim Lillebo was the voice of eastern Oregon
Spread an eastern Oregon map over the hood of a decades-old pickup truck and point to any spot at random. Tim Lillebo could not only tell you five intimate details about the chosen location, he could recall everything that happened during his last visit there—the bull elk he spotted over the ridge, the Indian paintbrush […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Free Range Backpacks
Bend athlete bails on school, starts a function-first pack company
Nearly two years ago, Bend’s Tosch Roy was prepping for a ski mountaineering race in Bozeman, Mont. when inspiration hit. Using a bulky backpack littered with straps and buckles and other bits unnecessary for an uphill/downhill ski race seemed absurd, Roy said. He knew that at the top of the course he would have to […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Juniper Takes Hold
Central Oregon says aloha to another new brewery
On Thursday Central Oregon will toast Redmond’s Juniper Brewing Co. as it enters the ever expanding fold of brew pubs that have opened up shop in the high desert. As of press time, owner Curtis Endicott was putting the finishing touches on his 575-square-foot tasting room. Stressed to still be doing construction at this late […]
Posted inNews
Bend’s New Water Wonk
Water conservation manager to help residents waste less, conserve more
Yes, Bend’s water table greatly benefits from the feet of snow that each season fall and melt in the Cascades, but that doesn’t mean Central Oregon has water to waste. In the city’s ongoing quest to protect and preserve one of the area’s most tremendous resources, it has created and hired for a new position—Water […]
Posted inNews
99 Problems
If you’re trying to buy the dam, I feel bad for you, son
Last Tuesday, Pacific Power announced that it intended to patch its leaking Newport Avenue dam and thus avert low flows and limited recreation on the Deschutes River this summer. The Mirror Pond Ad Hoc work group lauded the move a day later during a public meeting. “I think we really made some headway yesterday,” said […]
Posted inOutside
Vertical Integration
Ski mountaineering is crossing the pond and taking hold in Bend
So many of life’s best things originated in Europe: espresso, beer, Nutella. Add ski mountaineering to the list. Long popular in Europe, both casually and competitively, ski mountaineering has been slowly gaining traction in the U.S. The winter cousin to mountain biking—you go up, you go down—is an efficient way to cover snowy terrain. Using […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Zwickels and Platypus
Beer events abound
According to the German Beer Institute, the word Zwickel “stems from the sampling cock mounted at the outside of a cask or tank to take tastes for assessing the brew’s progress during fermentation.” Though not all of the Central Oregon beer poured during Saturday’s Zwickelmania event will come from a “sampling cock,” if past events […]
Posted inOutside
Who Do You Think You’re Messing With?
After early season drought, Hoodoo is back in the game
So far, this winter has proven to be a schizophrenic personality of weather patterns. In early December, Central Oregonians were treated to snow and temperatures plunging into negative double-digits. It was so cold that a few of the competitors in the seasonal finale cyclocross races at the Old Mill suffered frostbite. Less than a month […]