My latest column for The Bulletin is out today: Retirement is fruitful for Redmond brewers. I didn’t write the headline, but it does get clever with what I wrote about Redmond’s newest brewery, Geist Beerworks.

With a brewhouse volume of 4.5 barrels, the Waleses are content at that size and view the venture as their retirement gig.

“We have no desire to grow … we really don’t,” Greg said. “Quality at the end of the day is what our goal is.”

The goal is also to have fun making beer.

“Any other job, this would be overtime,” Heather said. “We leave laughing.”

The small size allows them to stay nimble and produce a range of styles as well as experiment with recipes. Among the more experimental offerings are several fruit beers, including Sandia, a light ale infused with watermelon described as “summer in a glass.” After sampling through most of the beers on tap, Sandia is what I returned to for a full pint.

Geist is part of a larger post I’ve got coming up on Redmond and Central Oregon’s new breweries… For this article though, I will point out that in drinking through the beers (in samples), I was impressed overall by how solid and balanced they were. Yes, even the watermelon ale, Sandia.

Stay tuned, I will also have a follow-up post on a first look at Geist beyond what I have in the Bulletin article.