Central Oregon Beer
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides

How ‘Bout them Apples?

A look at sourcing in cider—the beverage cutting into beer’s bottom line
Dana Bartus

When it comes to locally-sourced beverages, cider makers have no trouble finding their main ingredient pretty close to home. With the plethora of apple varieties available, one might think a blend would go into making a hard cider. Alas, that’s not the case. At Bend’s Atlas Cider Company, it’s the Granny Smith that contains just […]

Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides

Hop to It

Everyone’s favorite flower is now growing in Central Oregon
Avatar photo Jared Rasic

Living in Beertown, USA like we do, we don’t forget that brewing is an art form and that each batch has its own special little notes that makes it original. Let’s get scientific for a second. Hops are the flowers (also known as seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant Humulus lupulus. They stabilize […]

Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides

Malt: The Meat in Your Beer

Want to source your malt locally? Get in line.
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

“If hops were salt and pepper, malt would be the steak.” In case you were curious about the relative importance of each ingredient in your beer, that quote from Madras resident Seth Klann should set some things straight. Here’s another way of putting it: Barley–and its resultant product, malt–is the bulk that makes up most […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Get Fresh With Oregon Again

Fresh hop season is here, and the whole state celebrates
Kevin Gifford

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 […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Beer Along the Columbia

Washington State Route 14 delivers craft and beauty
Kevin Gifford

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 […]

Posted inFood & Drink

The Elusive Oktoberfest Beer

Put down the IPA for a sec and enjoy the season
Kevin Gifford

Oktoberfest, the weeks-long Bavarian beer festival and fun fair that is to Germany what apple pie is to the USA, kicks off in Munich Sept. 17. Bend’s own downtown Oktoberfest, somewhat smaller-sized but no less ribald and fun, takes place on the 16th and 17th. The main difference between the two: Germans will drink Märzen […]

Posted inFood & Drink

The Best Beerfest on Earth

Brews for New Avenues redefines what an event should be
Kevin Gifford

Summer might be ending, but beer events continue to downpour across all of Oregon. The Bend Brewfest has ended, yes, but it won’t be long before both Sisters and Hood River hold their respective fresh-hop beer festivals, for example. (And speaking of Hood River, Crow's Feet Commons is holding an event this Thursday, Sept. 1, […]

Posted inCulture

Ain’t No Party Like a Small Batch Party

Little Woody has aged to perfection
Avatar photo Jared Rasic

Way back when, The Little Woody started with a small group of local brewers getting together to share the barrel-aged beers they were producing. The small batches of brew were made as a way to celebrate craft brewing as an art form, back when every element of beer culture wasn’t soaked up by the general […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Bend’s Chinese Beer Connection

Jing-A Brewing brings the craft to Beijing
Kevin Gifford

It’s probably not a great surprise that Beijing, the third-largest city in the world, has a couple of breweries. It is a surprise, however, that one of them has a connection right here in Central Oregon. Jing-A Brewing Co., which opened its own facility and taproom in China’s capital a couple years ago after a […]

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