First look at Geist Beerworks, Redmond’s newest brewery

September 18, 2018 By Jon Abernathy | Filed in Breweries

As I detailed in my print article that came out last week, Geist Beerworks is the newest brewery to open in Redmond, Oregon. Between my article and this one that appeared in July (not mine), there’s pretty good coverage of Geist’s details. Just in case, here are the highlights:

Geist opened its doors on August 3 (the owners, Greg and Heather Wales, were hoping for April).
The brewhouse capacity is 4.5 barrels.
The equipment came from their previous brewery in Lake Havasu City, Arizona — Copper Canyon Brewing Company.
Greg in particular has a homebrewing background as well as commercial brewing.
They love the beer and other breweries in Central Oregon, and see themselves fitting into a niche with the fruit beers and focusing on a solid, classic lineup.
Three of their beers were sent to GABF.
Geist is contract brewing for Braveheart Brewing, the brand of which is owned by Bob Sofsky of California. The goal is to sell beer under the brand, raising money for various veterans outreach organizations. (Update 2021: Silver Moon Brewing brews the Braveheart beers and has for the last couple of years.)

One detail I didn’t put into the Bulletin article is the planned holiday/winter beer. It will be a barrel-aged imperial stout named Hookers and Blow. (There are some gifts of the Magi for you…) The name comes from a detective friend of Greg’s in Arizona, who proclaimed an early iteration of the beer “better than hookers and blow.” Alcohol will be approximately 13% by volume and it will be limited.

Overall the beers I sampled were good and solid, and the taproom is worth a stop when you’re in Redmond.

Here are first-look pictures: