What makes for a good dive bar? A pool table helps, as well as a lack of light. The more graffiti in the bathroom stall the better. And the floor also has to be sticky and grimy, but not too sticky or grimy, or else it’ll ruin the buzz generated by the “Tuesday night shot […]
Kevin Gifford
Posted inFood & Drink
From the Coast
Tiny Yachats looms big in beer-oriented minds
Bend may slow down a considerable amount once fall kicks into gear, but that doesn’t mean the scene for one of the city’s most well-loved exports is growing desolate. The Bend Ale Festival, happening this Saturday at Northwest Crossing, will offer 40 beers from 20 brewers that encompass quite nearly everyone active in Central Oregon. […]
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A Whole New Ale Trail
Portland ups its beer tourism game
The Bend Ale Trail is arguably one of the best ideas that Visit Bend has ever come up with. Thousands of visitors to Central Oregon have picked up a free map and embarked on a tour of the 15 breweries listed inside, and the number of people who’ve completed the entire run is in the […]
Posted inFood & Drink
A New Barrel-Aged Collage
Deschutes and Hair of the Dog team up for more complex booziness
Four years ago—longer than many people reading this have even lived in Bend—Deschutes Brewery launched a beer called Collage, a collaboration between the Bend-based giant and Portland’s Hair of the Dog Brewing. The beer actually had its genesis earlier than that, in 2010, when HotD owner/brewmaster Alan Sprints stopped by Deschutes’ production facility to brew […]
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From Boneyard to Bellevue
Two new developments hitting Bend’s brew scene
As the last of the fresh hop releases come dripping out and the beer fans of Central Oregon prepare for a genteel end-of-year segue into stout season, a couple exciting things are hitting the scene at the same time: the commemorative IPA from Boneyard, and a new name visiting from the suburbs of Seattle. By […]
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A Goblin in Your Goblet
Kobold Brewing prepares for year two
When Steve Anderson retired from his career with the Federal Aviation Administration, he knew what he was looking to do next. “I worked for 26 years in air traffic,” he said, “looking at a radar scope. When I left, I figured I’d run my own business of some sort. I wanted to follow a passion, […]
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Bourbon County Gets Flashed
How would pasteurization affect a barrel-aged stout?
It seems fair to say that Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co., owners of the largest barrel-aged beer program in the United States, would like to have a do-over on last year’s Bourbon County Brand Stout release. Four out of the six BCBS variants released in 2015, including both the original and variations like the Coffee […]
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Port Barrel-Aged Beer and Black Butte Whiskey!? OK!
Winter, to borrow a heavily-used catchphrase, is coming, and breweries across Bend are busily preparing their seasonal offerings for what will hopefully be a season heavy on the snow and light on the black ice. In the case of a couple old standbys though, the preparations have been taking place three or four years in […]
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Get Fresh With Oregon Again
Fresh hop season is here, and the whole state celebrates
Seasonal brews come and go throughout the year—heavy stouts in winter, lighter ales in summer, the occasionally dreaded pumpkin beer right now. But there’s one genre of beer that we, as Oregonians, can claim as truly our own: The fresh-hop beer, the dank and bitter friend of any true craft fan. Thanks to increasing demand […]
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Beer Along the Columbia
Washington State Route 14 delivers craft and beauty
People from across the continent visit Bend to take in both the inspiring beauty and the inspiring-in-other-ways craft beer at the same time. Those who live here all year, though, might have a jaded sense of that—like the proverbial New Yorker who’s never been to the Statue of Liberty. To bring back that sense of […]
