The Bruery, the Orange County-based craft beer maker founded by Patrick Rue in 2008, has nothing if not a colorful lineup. Known for intense experimentation (and, often, equally intense pricing on its 750-milliliter bottles), The Bruery’s beers run the gamut from light, refreshing saisons to enormous beasts like Black Tuesday, their bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout—2015’s […]
Beer & Drink
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Make Your Beer Humm
Kombucha & beer combine for one hot shandy
Humm Kombucha, the unassuming fermented-tea maker in the little building off NE Second Street is beginning to make its presence better known around town and beyond. Not in terms of new success—it’s already got plenty of that, with flavors like Apple Sass and Blueberry Mint now available in grocery stores across not just Bend, but […]
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Fresh Hop Season Begins Early
Harvests take place across Central Oregon
Hops, if you’ll pardon the easy pun, are hopping around here. It’s been a challenging summer for growing something that requires as much attention as hop vines—harvests across the region are taking place a good week or two earlier than usual this year. But the hopes are still flowing, and local brewers can’t get enough […]
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A Bigger Kid on the Block
Corvallis’s Block 15 completes a sorely-needed expansion
Walk into Block 15’s brand-spanking-new production facility on the far south side of Corvallis, and you’ll think they are a much larger brewery than they actually are. Originally opened in early 2008, Block 15’s brewpub in downtown Corvallis has been pumping out brews of exceptional quality for thirsty OSU students and other mid-Willamette Valley dwellers. […]
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Bend Brewfest: The Cheat Sheet
Grab your tokens and try these beers first
Ladies and gentlemen, get your livers ready. Run a couple extra laps around the block. Invest in a good water bottle. Maybe some pretzel necklaces, too. It’s gonna be a long weekend. Bend Brewfest is back, kicking off at noon sharp on Thursday and running (or staggering, depending on how much you indulge) all the […]
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A Beer-cation in Sunriver
Two taprooms make for one worthy trip
The Mountain Jug is the kind of place any beer lover wishes was their local watering hole. Wood-paneled walls. Comfortable couches. An AC/DC pinball machine in the corner, and a ’70s-era VW Thing parked semi-permanently outside. A few hundred vinyl albums for you to freely choose from. And, of course, lots and lots of local […]
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Kickstart Your Beer
Rat Hole crowdfunds for a new brewery
Rat Hole Brew Pub, the small taproom and Southwestern restaurant tucked into an unassuming corner of the Old Mill District, is expanding. And they’d like your help. Earlier this week, Rat Hole—named after the storage barn on the outskirts of Bend where brewers Al and Susan Toepfer built their 2.5-barrel brewery—put up a page on […]
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Logsdon Brings the Funk
New beer and new taproom for Hood River’s farmhouse brewery
It’s hard to tell the story of beer in Oregon without mentioning Dave Logsdon multiple times. He’s authentically oldschool, co-founding Full Sail Brewing Co. back in 1987, and serving as its first full-time brewer. Before that, he founded Wyeast Laboratories, eminent makers of yeast cultures for the industry, and a name every homebrewer in North […]
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The Great Oregon Summer Beerfest Crawl
Road tripping? Some boozy destinations.
Summer is flying by, but the beer festival season is, if anything, just kicking off. Next month is gonna be hopping locally, of course, with the big annual Bend Brewfest unfolding across the Old Mill August 13-16 and the Little Woody barrel-aged beer-and-whiskey festival pouring closer to downtown just two weeks later. (Pro tip: Volunteers […]
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It’s Hot, Let’s Drink
Summer beers to keep you alive ’til September
July may be Oregon Craft Beer Month, but given the painfully hot weather around the region lately, Bendites can be forgiven for wishing this month passes as quickly as possible. But, like it does for many of life’s other annoyances, beer provides a solution. Summer seasonals are all over the bars and shelves right now, […]