Specials

• Bend Ale Trail special all week long
  Anyone who completes the Bend Ale Trail during the Week will get a special, limited edition Bend Ale Trail koozie!
• Specials at Cascade West
  Cascade West will have 12 of their 32 tap handles dedicated to the local breweries and sell drafts for $3.00 all week open to close (11am to midnight).
• Beer Cocktails & Small Plate Menu at 10 Below
  10 Below Restaurant in the Oxford Hotel boasts 6 taps, always stocked with Central Oregon’s finest brews. They will be serving Beer Cocktails and will also have a Small Plate menu, paired with local beer. The menu and beer cocktails will be available May 21- May 26 after 4 pm, in the lounge in the bottom floor of the Oxford Hotel in downtown Bend.
• Local brewery draft specials at Amalia’s
  Amalia’s will feature all their draft beers for $2 a pint, including Deshutes Brewery Twlight Ale, Ninkasi Spring Reign, and more!

Events

• Cascade Lakes Tasting at Whole Foods
  Join Whole Foods for a tasting featuring beers from one of Central Oregon’s oldest breweries, Redmond’s Cascade Lakes Brewing, from 3 to 5pm.
• Phat Matt’s Tasting at The Wine Shop
  Join Phat Matt’s for a beer tasting at The Wine Shop downtown, from 4:30 to 8, to taste some of the great beers from one of Central Oregon’s newest breweries! They will be pouring their Red Ale, IPA, and the new Kolsch.
• BREWS & BANDS at Broken Top Bottle Shop featuring Deschutes Brewery
  From 5 to 7pm come meet Brewer John “Abe” Abraham from Deschutes Brewery and enjoy some wonderful beer while listening to the live tunes and splendid voice of local favorite Greg Botsford!
• Cascade Lakes Tasting at the Summit Saloon
  Join Cascade Lakes Brewery at The Summit Saloon for special brews and some Cascade Lakes sausages from 6 to 8pm.
• Brew Werks Beer Dinner
  Chef Rudy has worked out an outstanding menu for Old Mill Brew Wërks first ever beer-pairing meal. It’s a five course, hand-crafted menu of items chosen to work in cohort with the excellence of Brew Wërks Brewing’s current lineup of beer. Brewmaster Michael McMahon will be on-hand to field questions and comments about his recent creations and the next steps in the life of this little brewery in Bend. The event is set for Wednesday, May 23 from 6:30-8:30. To reserve a spot at this limited engagement, please call the pub at 541-633-7670. Cost is $50 per person for the full five courses plus the beer (of course!).

And of course if you want to participate (even if it’s a tasting, beer specials, or something else you might otherwise think is minor), feel free to submit an event anytime!

• Cascade Business News: They published a good article about both the Beer Week and the Central Oregon Brewers Guild (including a listing of some of the Week’s events).
• Beer O’Clock radio: I was on Lisa Morrison’s excellent radio show last Saturday, talking about the Beer Week. That was fun!
• Bend Bulletin: They posted a couple ofshort articles highlighting the week and pointing to the site.
• NewsChannel 21: Our local station did a story yesterday in which I spoke briefly (though I’m not finding it online).
• The Source Weekly: They posted a full-page ad for the week as well as highlighting the Week in their weekly picks.
• Good Morning Central Oregon: Garrett Wales of 10 Barrel Brewing appeared on the local morning show to talk about the Central Oregon Brewers Guild and the Beer Week.

I’ll update if there are any more. Some nice local traction for sure!

Specials

• Bend Ale Trail special all week long
  Anyone who completes the Bend Ale Trail during the Week will get a special, limited edition Bend Ale Trail koozie!
• Specials at Cascade West
  Cascade West will have 12 of their 32 tap handles dedicated to the local breweries and sell drafts for $3.00 all week open to close (11am to midnight).
• Beer Cocktails & Small Plate Menu at 10 Below
  10 Below Restaurant in the Oxford Hotel boasts 6 taps, always stocked with Central Oregon’s finest brews. They will be serving Beer Cocktails and will also have a Small Plate menu, paired with local beer. The menu and beer cocktails will be available May 21- May 26 after 4 pm, in the lounge in the bottom floor of the Oxford Hotel in downtown Bend.
• $2 local microbrew pints all day at Common Table
  Common Table in downtown Bend will be offering a selection of local micro brews for only $2 for a great chilled pint mug all day long on Tuesday! There will also happy hour food options for only $5 each 4 to 6 pm.

Events

• Special Limited-release Keg at Old St. Francis School
  Join McMenamins Old St. Francis School for a limited-release keg of double dry hopped Badger IRA, starting at 11, and lasting until the keg is tapped! Get there early to make sure you try some of this special beer!
• Phat Matt’s Tasting at Whole Foods
  Join Whole Foods for a tasting featuring beers from one of Central Oregon’s newest breweries, Redmond’s Phat Matt’s Brewing, from 3 to 5pm.
• BREWS & BANDS at Broken Top Bottle Shop featuring 10 Barrel Brewing
  From 5 to 7pm come meet Jimmy Seifrit, Brewmaster at 10 Barrel Brewing Co., drink and discuss his delicious creations, and enjoy great tunes, live, by local favorite Matt Murphy.
• Three Creeks tasting at The Wine Shop
  Join Three Creeks Brewmaster Patio (Pat O’Shea) for a pouring and “meet and greet” at The Wine Shop and Beer Tasting Bar, Tuesday from 6 to 8pm.
• GoodLife tasting at The Platypus Pub
  From 6 to 8pm The Brew Shop and Platypus Pub is hosting a tasting with GoodLife Brewing, one of Bend’s newest breweries!

And of course if you want to participate (even if it’s a tasting, beer specials, or something else you might otherwise think is minor), feel free to submit an event anytime!

Specials

• Bend Ale Trail special all week long
  Anyone who completes the Bend Ale Trail during the Week will get a special, limited edition Bend Ale Trail koozie!
• Specials at Cascade West
  Cascade West will have 12 of their 32 tap handles dedicated to the local breweries and sell drafts for $3.00 all week open to close (11am to midnight).
• Beer Cocktails & Small Plate Menu at 10 Below
  10 Below Restaurant in the Oxford Hotel boasts 6 taps, always stocked with Central Oregon’s finest brews. They will be serving Beer Cocktails and will also have a Small Plate menu, paired with local beer. The menu and beer cocktails will be available May 21- May 26 after 4 pm, in the lounge in the bottom floor of the Oxford Hotel in downtown Bend.

Events

• GoodLife tasting at Whole Foods
  Join Whole Foods for a tasting of GoodLife Brewing’s beers from 3 to 5pm.
• Meet the Brewer and Tour Bend Brewing
  Join Bend Brewing Company from 4 to 6pm for an open-house to meet Brewer, Ian Larkin. They will offer ½-priced appetizers during this time and live music from Mark Ransom from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
• BREWS & BANDS at Broken Top Bottle Shop featuring Below Grade Brewing
  From 5 to 7pm, come meet Dean Wise, Head Brewer and Managing Member at the new Below Grade Brewing! Chat with him, and taste some of his amazing beers while enjoying live music by Brad Jones (aka Keez), who you probably know as keyboardist for local jam band The Mostest, and as a solo artist, who the Source Weekly says, “could play a rave, your birthday party or with Justin Timberlake.”
• Scholarship BrewFest & Basket Raffle
  Come to Common Table from 6 to 8pm to help kick off Central Oregon Beer Week with a sampling of local brews while supporting the Bend Youth Collective’s 2012 Urban Immersion Trip to Washington, D.C. Admission is $15 and includes food and 2 drink tickets. Premium Raffle Baskets will be available from the likes of Atelier 6000, Altrec, and others. Raffle tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20.

And of course if you want to participate (even if it’s a tasting, beer specials, or something else you might otherwise think is minor), feel free to submit an event anytime!

Overall it was a fun experience to call in and talk beer, and I definitely have to thank Lisa for having me!

(And you should listen to the rest of the show regularly too.)

• BREWS & BANDS at the Broken Top Bottle Shop all week: BTBS is a major contributor to COBW, and they’ve lined up a week’s worth of meet the brewer events featuring different local brewers each night, paired with live music—all in their brand-new space! They’ve been working hard to get their new expanded space ready for the bottle shop portion of the business and it’s going to be a great venue for music and beer.
• Whole Foods is likewise doing a week-long series of tastings featuring beers from different local brewers each day which is definitely something to be checking out—not only for the tastings but also for one of the best bottled beer selections in town.
• An event I’m excited to have on the schedule is an exclusive “Pre-release Backstage Brew Bus Tour” from Wanderlust Tours, taking you on a visit to both The Ale Apothecary and Crux Fermentation Project: “Take a trip up to Bridge Creek to see Bend’s City water source in all its pure, clear glory. The best beers in the world spring forth from this excellent water source. The first brewery downstream is the new Ale Apothecary- our first stop at this behind the scenes tour! Owner and Brewmaster Paul Arney will share his eclectic, yet experimental craft with us in a gorgeous mountain forest setting. The tour will finish up with a stop at Crux Fermentation Project- Bend’s next great brewery in the making. Open fermenters, shiny copper, a true crossroads of traditional and upstart northwest flavors, seeing Crux behind the scenes is a special treat!”  The price is only $45 and they can seat 14 people—and there’s only going to be one! I’d definitely encourage you to sign up for this one—call 541-389-8359 for reservations.
• GoodLife Brewing has the grand opening of their Biergarten on Friday the 25th, along with the release of this year’s seasonal Sweet As Pacific Ale. There’s going to be music, games, food, a fire pit, and with the beautiful weather we’ve been having the Biergarten is going to be the place to be when they open!
• Mt. Bachelor’s Brewski Festival caps the week on Memorial Day weekend—it’s the Mountain’s closing weekend and from 12 to 3pm both days you can enjoy beers poured from Central Oregon’s breweries along with live music, skiing, and more. The cost is $10 for a beer stein and three tokens, with additional tokens available for $2 each. A full 14 ounce pour will cost three tokens, while a sample 4 ounce pour will cost one token. Even if you don’t ski, you can head up to the Mountain to enjoy the beer!
• The Bend Ale Trail during the Week will be giving out a special bonus prize to folks that complete the Trail: special limited-edition BAT koozies! I don’t know if or when these will come around again, so don’t miss out—plus you’ll get to see all our breweries in doing so! Win-win!

There are of course a lot more events taking place all week, and I’ll be doing my best to hit a good number of them (I’m definitely interested in the beer cocktails at 10 Below restaurant, which are going on all week). It’s going to be a good week!

First off, the Oregon Garden itself is a pretty amazing place. It opened in 2001 and consists of some 80 developed acres, with 40 more acres planned, and among its features are an artificial wetland (part of a deal with the city of Silverton to help cool and process their treated water), an old-growth oak grove (including a 400-year-old oak tree), market garden for growing food (all of which is donated to local food banks), a rose garden, tropical greenhouse (closed during the Brewfest unfortunately), children’s garden, “Northwest” garden (featuring every plant native to the Pacific Northwest), the Gordon House (the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in the state of Oregon), and much more. If you get the chance to visit the Oregon Garden just for its own sake, I highly recommend you do that, it’s pretty spectacular what they’ve accomplished in just a dozen years.

Continue reading “Oregon Garden Brewfest wrap-up review” »

I thoroughly enjoyed the Dinner, both for the company (blogger friends, most of whom I hadn’t seen since last year) and for the food and beer. I will right up front say that not all the beer worked for me, and while I enjoyed the food for the most part, I heard from some folks who weren’t as impressed. As with anything along these lines, you mileage will vary of course. Me, I enjoyed it and had a good time.

The dinner itself consisted of six courses each paired with a special beer from various Oregon breweries, and afterwards guests were invited to retire to the Fireside Lounge to enjoy a drink (with a special coupon discount) and mingle with the featured brewers.

Continue reading “Oregon Garden Brewfest: Brewer’s Tasting Dinner” »

CELEBRATE CENTRAL OREGON BEER WEEK MAY 21-27

Bend and Central Oregon has one of the largest per-capita number of breweries of any region around, and on top of that a thriving, exploding beer scene—so it’s only natural that we also have a Central Oregon Beer Week (COBW), a week-long celebration of Central Oregon’s amazing beer culture!

Central Oregon’s very first Beer Week takes place the last full week in May, leading up to Memorial Day weekend with Mt. Bachelor holding their two-day Brewski festival featuring great beer from Central Oregon’s fantastic breweries.

Other events are in the works, including tastings, meet the brewers, beer dinners, some special tours, and much more, all in conjunction with the newly-formed Central Oregon Brewers Guild—check out and bookmark the Events page to keep abreast of all the Week’s happenings!

If you would like to participate in Central Oregon Beer Week, we would welcome your event! You can fill out our event submission form on the COBW website to tell us all about it.

And, a bit of backstory: This has been an idea I’ve been bouncing around for awhile now, talking with folks about it and early on I was thinking a spring event would work well, trying not to schedule around times when other Oregon beer weeks were taking place but still something that would be good for Central Oregon. As the time ran short, however, there was also talk about the possibility of August (coinciding with the Bend Brewfest), but everybody liked the idea of a May event so we decided to go for it anyway.

Everyone I’ve talked to about it (the breweries, bottle shops, businesses, restaurants, and so on) has been incredibly receptive and enthusiastic, so my hope is to put on a Week full of smaller, inclusive events (necessary really given the very short lead time) that will generate buzz and highlight and raise awareness of the amazing beer culture Central Oregon has to offer.

To that end, if you’re in Central Oregon and you’d like to participate by holding an event or have ideas you’d like to share, by all means please fill out the event submission form and let us know—we would love to include you and get you listed on the Central Oregon Beer Week site and events!

Watch that site and the blog here for a lot more to come about this in the next few weeks!