Central Oregon: What's Brewing in Beertown USA

BENDING ELBOWS IN BEERTOWN, USA

Three hours southeast of Portland, nestled against the Eastern edge of Oregon’s Cascade Mountain ski playground, lies the tourist town of Bend. Popularly dubbed “Beertown, USA”, the city and surrounding area boast more than 25 breweries, making it a sort of hotspot for Cascadian beer travellers. But all the same, it’s off the beaten path. After years of Oregon visits, the BeerSeekers finally got to Bend in 2009, when there wasn’t yet an overwhelming number of breweries; we may have visited four or five that time.

Nine years later, we returned for a four-day "fact-finding" tour, dropping in at a dozen breweries as well as some top-class beer bars and an amazing urban cidery.

Any discussion of Bend's beer scene starts with its biggest success story. Founded here in 1988, Deschutes Brewing is Oregon’s single largest brewer, so they dominate the local scene. Many of the smaller breweries that have cropped up here were founded by Deschutes alumni. Instead of covering the giant in town, let’s start our report with one of its progency.

THE ALE APOTHECARY

Kirsten Schopen at the Ale Apothecary taproom

If you’re going to Bend, do yourself a favour and make sure you’re in town between Thursday and Saturday. It's the only way you'll get into the limited-hours tasting room for what is probably the local brewery with the most cult-like national following: The Ale Apothecary.

Beer aging at Ale Apothecary's warehouse & taproom.

Here you will find no run-of-the-mill lagers and IPAs. This truly artisanal boutique operation, with only eight team members, has a cult following for a reason. They burst onto North American beer geek radar when it got out that they were brewing beer in the woods using a lauter tun carved out of a spruce tree. The resulting signature ale, Sahati, is rated a perfect 100 by style at RateBeer.

Ale Apothecary founder Paul Arney

Ale Apothecary founder Paul Arney was a longtime Deschutes team member, responsible for co-authoring numerous high-profile recipes such as Red Chair NWPA. He went solo in 2011.

To really see what all the fuss is about, we embarked on a bold voyage of discovery. On an extremely snowy March morning we departed Bend and headed half an hour into the forest to Paul’s rural home.

It was a seriously snowy March day

After walking in from the road and snooping around a seemingly empty house for a quarter hour, we finally found the giant garage door leading to their forest laboratory. Co-brewer Jared Smith welcomed us into Apothecary’s garage brewhouse to demonstrate their rather unique production process.

Co-Brewer Jared Smith allows us into his (well, Paul’s) domain

Paul and Jared concoct tiny-batch beers aged in oak. The ales are strong on flavour, and not shy on ABV (typically 9-10%). Each batch takes about 40 hours to make and contains as many local ingredients as possible, down to the spruce tips used in their Ralph series, harvested straight from the trees on the property. Beers are then aged for one to two years in a warehouse space dominated by imposing racks with row upon row of barrels.

Other breweries only put their beer in wood AFTER it's brewed

These guys are serious about what they do, and they clearly don’t plan on changing their approach just to cash in on the craft wave. Not that their beer is cheap; most bottles on offer were north of $30– 40. We tucked tail and ran home with the most parsimonious choice on offer, a 500 ml bottle of Be Still dark sour, still $20.

BONEYARD BEER

Brewer Mark Henion in the barrel house

Boneyard definitely has attitude, which is apparent in their marketing and merchandise. There are four pinball machines in house. They may be the only brewery that has its own converted-bus camper that gets driven to beer festivals and is regularly repaired by the multi-talented brewery staff. As Liz says, “we’re a little bit off the wall, but we like it that way.”

Inside the classic tasting room

Their main production facility, not open to the public, is in industrial northeast Bend, an area quickly filling up with new breweries. We dropped in for a behind-the- scenes peek courtesy of Boneyard’s events and communications rep Liz Mario.

Liz Mario, our host at the brewery

Turns out that Boneyard packages very little product. Their spacious warehouse brewery is populated by the countless kegs that feed their draught accounts. In addition to the two aforementioned facilities, Boneyard’s new pub in midtown Bend should be open by the time you read this. Pro tip: you can sometimes find them on tap at Vancouver/Victoria outlets.

MORE IN BEND

There are over two dozen breweries in Bend, including Bend Brewing, Immersion, Goodlife, Crux Fermentation Project, and hot new kid on the block, Monkless Belgian Ales. All of these and more make excellent beer and are well worth a visit. The most stunning beer of the trip (a Mexican Chocolate stout) was found at unassuming Silver Moon Brewing.

Robin & Todd Clement at Monkless Belgian Ales

Of course, there is one local brewery that can claim to have grown faster than any of its neighbours. 10 Barrel Brewing is not your typical Cinderella story; their 2015 sale to AB InBev makes them an awkward member of the local craft clan. However a relationship still exists between the brothers that started 10 Barrel and a number of the other brewery owners, and they've been known to help out their independent craft cousins since striking it rich. There's nothing that can be done about 10 Barrel's chosen path, so the other locals just try not to spend time worrying about it.

The impressive Atlas Cider tasting room. So many taps, so many cider flavours.

Bend is also home to Atlas Cider, possibly the fastest-growing cidery in the Pacific Northwest. Their stunning taproom features an amazing variety of fruity beverages, and so will their upcoming Portland location.

WHERE TO STAY

There are many places to stay in tourist-friendly Bend, but we recommend sleeping in a brewery, right downtown at McMenamins’ Old Saint Francis School. Like many of the McMenamins group’s locations, Old Saint Francis is a historical property; this one functioned as a Catholic school from the early twentieth century, and later converted to a boutique brewery and hotel.

Browse historical photographs, take in a movie, lounge in the soaking pool, or walk across the parking lot, beer in hand, looking for the hidden Broom Closet bar tucked away in the top corner of one of the buildings (seriously, if you didn’t know it was there, you would not find it). Not only is the location perfect for walking to many of Bend’s breweries, but you get a little piece of history with your night’s stay.

HITTING THE TRAIL

The City of Bend is very supportive of its beer industry and has, like some other beer destinations, created an official ale trail. You can pick up your free Bend Ale Trail passport at the downtown tourism office and start collecting stamps just a couple of blocks away at Deschutes’ downtown pub. Stamps from 10 of the 16 participating breweries will get you an official Bend Ale Trail silicone beer glass like these.

Our Ale Trail prizes being tested out with some Boneyard stout

The local media get into the act, too. When we were there, two of the mainstream press were featuring cover stories on the Bend beer scene, complete with maps and tourist info.

If you’ve heard about Bend but haven’t made the trip: you’re all set now. Make those plans and enjoy your stay!

SAVOURING ALES IN SALEM

For many people, Salem, Oregon is just a place along the I-5 you drive through. We stayed a night on our way to Bend, so we can confirm that Salem, home to a dozen breweries, is a worthwhile beer destination on its own. Like Bend, they have their own tourism-sponsored Salem Ale & Cider Trail. Here are a few standouts from our visit to the capital of Oregon.

GILGAMESH BREWING

Nicole Anderson admires the barrel rack at Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh has been brewing beer for 10 years and has been at their current location, called The Campus, for five. Originally intended to be just a tasting room, the location has morphed into a large brewpub with a full food menu. Their tap list is extensive; when we visited there were 10 seasonals in addition to the five mainstays. Like most breweries in Oregon, they had more than one IPA, but a variety of other styles were also available.

SALEM ALE WORKS

Brewing ingredient samples on the counter at Salem Ale Works

An easy walk from Santiam, Salem Ale Works (SAW) has a large new tasting room on one of the main roads in Salem. Continuing the huge tap-list experience, their 12 taps include four mainstays, six seasonals and two guest ciders. This list included no less than five IPAs, three of which were part of their rotating series: Sgnarly (Hop series), Mauler (more malty), and the Brewer’s Choice, a delicious thick, chewy, opaque rye IPA. There was also a collaboration with the new Bine Valley Brewing, another tiny brewery worth checking out, which opened up down the street in SAW’s old space.

Nicole, a bartender and server who is also taking craft brewery management courses at Portland State University, took us through the brewhouse. Nicole is Cicerone Beer Server certified, like all the servers at Gilgamesh, who have 90 days after being hired to get their certification. Nicole believes this gives Gilgamesh the means to fulfill their motto, “a beer for everyone,” because it means the staff have the knowledge to ask the right questions to match all of their customers with a beer they will enjoy.

SANTIAM BREWING

Impressive cask and bottle conditioning programs at Santiam

Santiam is a relatively small brewery located in an industrial park. Nondescript outside, it has a warm, lively tasting room inside, with a surprisingly interesting beer list. With a Welsh brewer, the styles tend to lean towards English and Belgian. The fifteen taps are grouped into tiers (1–4) and a category called “vintage,” which divide the beer by ABV and therefore price.

For some beer geeks, the best feature will be the cask bar, which always has four casks on tap. When we visited, the casks were an IPA, an Imperial IPA, an ESB, and a Porter; they were all excellent. Overall, Santiam had the most interesting beers we encountered during our time in Salem.

MORE IN SALEM

Salem is one of those towns you have to do once. Now you know you can take care of it on your way to Bend. Besides the above, there is craft at Rogue McMenamin's, Vagabond, Seven Brides Brewing and others. Sparky's Taphouse was a nice surprise too.

Travel tip: on your way, you'll be passing through a mountain resort town called Sisters, home to a brewery and beer sauna. Check in for a different kind of bubble bath.

By the BeerSeekers. Join Ivana and Dave Smith in search of the next perfect pint in BC and around Cascadia, at beerseekers.com