On March 9, I joined a small group of regulars and beer industry folks gathered to pay their respects on the final night for one of Bend’s original beer bars, The Platypus Pub. Open in the basement of the old Nazarene church-turned-fine-dining-restaurant-turned-homebrew shop since 2011, the Platypus Pub was a lived-in, homey basement bar focused […]
Zach Beckwith, Head Brewer, Bend Brewing Company
Posted inFood & Drink
The Spirit of Oregon Beer
A statewide collaboration that catches the Oregon vibe
This Saturday marks the 12th annual iteration of the statewide brewery open house, Zwickelmania. Organized by the Oregon Brewers Guild, Zwickelmania gives beer lovers an intimate peek behind the curtain and into the cellars of breweries around the state. This year, the Oregon Brewers Guild once again organized a state-wide collaboration beer for the occasion. […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Defining Beer
What’s beer, and what’s just beer-flavored beer?
Before early microbreweries extolled the virtues of Cascade hops and two-row barley malt, there was a time when most people hadn’t the haziest idea what beer actually is. People knew beer came in a bottle or a can, their dads reached for one after a hard day at work and that beer is what you […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Do Not Buy!
A guide for what not to buy for beer lovers this season, and what to consider instead
Holiday gift guides are so ubiquitous this time of year the last thing you need is another listicle screaming at you to spend your hard-earned cash on the latest, greatest beer gadget. With only a few shopping days left in the holiday season, I thought it would be better to provide a DO NOT BUY […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
“Dark beer” doesn’t always mean strong and sweet
“I don’t like dark beer.” Anyone who’s ever spent enough time in a brewpub or taproom has heard those words. Of course, “dark beer” runs the gamut from hoppy Cascadian dark ales and crisp, malty dunkel lagers all the way to robust, roasty imperial stouts. Dark beer is not some monolithic beer style; dark describes appearance, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Malt of the Earth
“Malty” isn’t a dirty word
With hop harvest season in the rearview mirror for another year and the outside temperature dropping, local taplists have begun to turn from lupulin-saturated fresh hop IPAs and pale ales to malt-driven red ales, brown ales and winter warmers. Though hops may be the most talked about ingredient in beer, malt is the most important. Without […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Bounty of the Hop Harvest
Fresh-hop beers arrive for a fleeting few weeks
September means many different things to many different people. For parents, it means back to school. For local businesses it marks the end of the summer tourist season. But for Northwest brewers, it means only one thing: hop harvest and fresh-hop beers. Oregon’s Willamette Valley—along with Washington’s Yakima Valley and Northern Idaho—grow over 95% of […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Unofficial, Definitive Bend Brewfest Preview
Beer lovers, get ready to sip suds from some 70 breweries and cideries
Brewfest veterans know the drill, but for those attending Bend Brewfest this weekend for the first time, I’ve created the definitive, unofficial preview of the 2019 Bend Brewfest. Every August, 70 breweries and cideries from all over the West Coast bring two different beers to pour on the banks of the Deschutes River over […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Behind the Stainless Curtain
Asking local brewers the unasked questions
Being a brewer is often glamorized. People envision brewers sitting around, drinking beer all day long—but the reality is, being a brewer involves very little sitting, and the only beer drinking occurs when the work is done. It’s a physically demanding manual labor job in hot, wet conditions, working with dangerous cleaning chemicals for long hours. It demands […]
Posted inFood & Drink
What’s in a (beer) name?
The complicated business of naming beers
In the early days of craft beer, when the number of breweries in the country numbered in the hundreds, not thousands, naming beers was easy. With over 7,000 breweries in the country today and each one producing dozens of new beers a year, finding the right name has become increasingly harder. The old idiom, don’t judge […]