Cory Forster, brewmaster at The Bakers’ Brewery in Silverthorne, Colorado, is high every day of his life. It’s not an unusual state in this ski-resort town of 3,800, an hour west of Denver. But it’s not because of some debilitating drug habit. It’s because Silverthorne is 9,035 feet above sea level. Forster, who worked for […]
beer
Posted inFood & Drink
Beer Festival of the Gods
The Great American Beer Fest is like nothing else
It’s seven on a Friday night and the scene around the Deschutes Brewery pub is one of controlled chaos. People from Bend and beyond line up to try some of the new brews off the pilot system, including a smoked gose, a sour Belgian-style quadruple ale, and a variant of Black Butte Porter aged in […]
Posted inFood & Drink
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 […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Mamma Mia, Another Pizza Place
Pacific Pizza is a great addition to the west side
Can there ever be enough pizza in the world? Or, even enough pizza joints in one town? With the opening of the very fine, very friendly, and absolutely creative Pacific Pizza in Bend, the answer is most certainly: no. And, yes, there certainly is room for another pizza place in Bend—and, it is likely that […]
Posted inFood & Drink
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 […]
Posted inFood & Drink
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 […]
Posted inOpinion
Letters 7/14-7/21
LIGHTS OUT, SAVE BIRDS Every spring and fall an extraordinary migration passes through our city, mostly unseen. Millions of birds fly overhead navigating, with great precision, using the starlight, landmarks, and the earth’s magnetic field. Many are songbirds such as warblers, thrushes, tanangers, and sparrows. Their journey is long and hard, but they continue on, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
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 […]
Posted inFood & Drink
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, […]
Posted inNews
Drink Guide—Summer 2015
Yes, it is good to have routines, like James Bond always ordering the same drink, shaken, not stirred. But, we also think that it is a wide world of beverage choices out there and not worth limiting the horizons completely. For this edition of the Drink Guide, we have shuffled the order a bit—and beefed up the content. […]