2019 marks the 25th year that Redmond, Oregon’s Cascade Lakes Brewing has been in business, and last week the company announced some major changes as the company invests for the next quarter century.

Principal among those changes is new majority ownership in the company, with one of the new owners also stepping into the role of director of brewing operations. Here are details from the blog post:

The majority ownership of Cascade Lakes Brewing Company was purchased by Andy Rhine and his father, Bruce Rhine. Cascade Lakes Brewing president, Chris Justema, remains in his role and as a shareholder in the company.

Bruce Rhine has strong ties to Central Oregon, as a former resident and as the CEO of Bend-based Accent Optical Technologies, a process control measurement company which was acquired in 2006 by Nanometrics of Milpitas, Calif.

“We are humbled by the Rhine family’s vote of confidence in Cascade Lakes Brewing Company” said Justema. “Under this new structure, we will sharpen our focus on the quality of beer and the consistency of our products across the board. There’s a new energy here to make better beer and build a stronger local presence in Central Oregon. I love this company and am stoked to be a part of this new chapter for Cascade Lakes Brewing.”

As part of its renewed commitment to quality and consistency, Cascade Lakes Brewing announced Andy Rhine, a chemical engineer and process specialist, as Cascade Lakes Brewing Company’s director of brewing operations. Andy Rhine graduated from elite engineering college Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and subsequently took positions as a process engineer and quality manager while home brewing on the side.

“I came on board not only because I love the product but what the product creates,” Andy Rhine said. “Cascade Lakes creates a welcoming, friendly environment unlike other business I have seen. I want to help maintain that familial culture and deliver a product whose quality is second to none.”

Andy Rhine said that his top three reasons for joining the Cascade Lakes Brewing team were getting to learn the business from Chris Justema, moving back to Central Oregon where he spent many years before college and helping to improve the overall quality of the product.

Presumably an injection of capital came with the new owners. And no word of whether the previous owners, Doug Kutella and Ray Orazetti, are still involved (as minority owners or something else) or were bought out entirely. Kutella and Orazetti bought Cascade Lakes in 2002 from founders David and Steven Gazeley, and Chris Justema joined them shortly afterward.

Along with the news of the new ownership, the brewery also announced a new brewmaster, a former Deschutes Brewery brewer:

Cascade Lakes, brewer of the regionally iconic Blonde Bombshell and Salted Caramel Porter, also announced Ryan Schmiege as its new head brewmaster. Schmiege had been the assistant brewmaster at Deschutes Brewery for fifteen years. His duties there included managing brewing operations, barrel aging beers, cider and whiskey projects among others.

“I look forward to working with a talented crew at Cascade Lakes and bringing my experience to stabilize the quality of our existing portfolio and to create new beers that go to the heart of quality and drinkabililty,” said Schmiege. “We have the potential to create a stronger bond with consumers through our beers, and we intend to do that one beer at a time.”

This isn’t the first time Cascade Lakes has poached Deschutes brewers. Mark Henion and John Van Duzer both came to the company from Deschutes in 2005, for instance. (Henion and Van Duzer are both with Boneyard Beer now.) Getting Schmiege is a good move; he also has a lot of experience in barrel aging and blending. It will be interesting to see how this works out and if there will be any changes or new beers coming out of Cascade Lakes.

Aside from this news, you may have seen the brewery’s 25th Anniversary IPA on the market as well. Available in cans and on draft, it’s brewed with Cascade, Ekuanot, and Mosaic hops. And Cascade Lakes is planning 25th anniversary parties on May 25 and August 25 at its Bend Lodge and Redmond 7th Street Brewhouse, respectively.