Beer & Drink

This episode welcomes the Midtown Yacht Club‘s general manager and beer buyer, Alesha Goodman. This beer bar—which is increasingly a “beyond beer” bar for its non-beer inventory from cider to hard and soft seltzers and other non-alcoholic drinks—is centrally located on 4th Street. How convenient for a spot that aims to be the center of […]

This episode welcomes Mark and Dana Henion who make up two thirds of the owners—and one half of the name—of Van Henion Brewing. The Henions, along with John Van Duzer, launched Van Henion in early 2022 and have been making Bend’s most celebrated lagers ever since. They brew on a large, 50-barrel system that could […]

In this episode of Grand Craft Beer, cicerone Brian Yaeger welcomes Vance Wirtz, brewer at McMenamins Old St. Francis. While almost everyone knows about hidden rooms and bars, not everyone knows OSF has a brewery on-site, but hidden from view. It’s where Vance turns his lager-centric mash paddle to making everything from Bamberg-style smoked lagers […]

In this episode of Grand Craft Beer, cicerone Brian Yaeger kicks off 2024 with Alesong Brewing and Blending’s Matt Van Wyk, whose many hats include owner, brewer, and runner-arounder to get Alesong’s award-winning barrel-aged beers all across Oregon including Bend. While Van Wyk is accustomed to fitting bungs in bungholes, his real specialty is fitting […]

In this episode, Christmas doesn’t come early, it comes year-round via Deschutes Brewery’s Cellar Reserve beers thanks to guest and barrel program manager, Dustin Jamison. Jamison lords over “Oakland,” the portion of Deschutes’ warehouse devoted to oak barrels from which its barrel-aged beers—such as The Abyss, The Dissident, and Black Butte3—emanate from. From bourbon-aged stouts […]

In this episode of the Grand Craft Beer Podcast, we focus on…a different beer podcast. Our guest is Shannon McMenamin—whose father, Mike McMenamin, along with Shannon’s uncle, Brian—founded the McMenamins empire of breweries, pubs, and hotels 40 years ago. Her new podcast, The Red Shed Tapes,  focuses on the wealth of stories from all those renowned […]

In this episode, Brian Yaeger opens things up with a surprise award for guest Melanie Betti, brewmaster and co-owner of Spider City Brewing, Bend’s all-women owned craft brewery. Betti, along with her twin sister Michele and their friend Tammy Treat, launched Spider City five years ago and is both a Certified Sommelier and Cicerone-Certified Beer Server. […]