Deschutes Brewery Week: Variety is the spice of life

Deschutes Brewery WeekOne of the things that impresses me about Deschutes Brewery is the sheer number of varieties of beer they offer—not just the specials, but for the standard lineup as well. There’s a beer for almost any mood or occasion.

Want a light lawnmower beer? Cascade Ale. American Amber? Green Lakes Organic Ale. Organic ale? Natch. Darker beer? Black Butte Porter or Obsidian Stout. Fresh Hop? Yup. You see where I’m going here.

Between the regulars, the seasonals, and the various special offerings, they’ve got a wide spectrum of beer styles covered. And for styles they don’t otherwise offer, there’s always their tap-only pub exclusives; for instance, last weekend I had a pint of "Harv’s Wild Plum Stout"—a Belgian-esque stout brewed and conditioned with plums grown on one of their employee’s trees. (It was good.)

Even for all that, there are naturally some styles or beers I’d like to see make an appearance. Such as:

  • A Pumpkin beer. To my knowledge, Deschutes has never produced one of these, and it’s high time they did, and bottled it. As a Bond Street Series beer, perhaps. I think they could do something great with pumpkins.
  • A Belgian Wit as a year-round offering. Take the 20th Anniversary Wit recipe and brew it year-round. It was really quite good and adding another lighter beer to the lineup would be a good thing.
  • A Barleywine. These show up at the Pub occasionally, and word is there’s another bottling of Mirror Mirror planned for 2009, but I would love to see a barleywine style ale joining the seasonal lineup, a là Jubelale.
  • Some Lagers. A Doppelbock would be great, as would a Czech Pilsner. (Similar to past anniversary beers.) Again, lagers show up from time to time at the Pub—let’s bottle ’em!
  • A Smoked beer. Something like Rogue Smoke, or an Alaskan or Stone Smoked Porter, maybe, or a traditional Rauchbier, or something different. Like pumpkin, I think they could really do something good and cool here.

What would be on your Deschutes wishlist?