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Testing the new WordPress 3.1 post-formats. This post is using the ‘status’ format! #WordPress #post-formats

 

Red Chair – Deschutes Brewery – Bend, Oregon

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Rating: 4.5/5 [3 votes]
4.5/5

There are many great things about living in Central Oregon. From the lakes, rivers, and mountains there are lots of opportunities to experience the outdoors. One of our favorite hobbies here in Central Oregon is snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor. Every year we look forward to making turns down his beautiful slopes, and every year we look forward to riding up the Red Chair lift together.  This year we have started a tradition that involves drinking a Red Chair beer from Deschutes Brewery on our first run.  Really there is no better way to celebrate another year on the hill.

Deschutes has made a delicious batch once more and we will definitely be putting a dent in the supply!

Check out the specs:

red chair - deschutes brewery - bend, oregon

Style: American Pale Ale

Ingredients:

Malts: Seven varieties of malt including British crystals, German pilsner, and domestic versions of cara-pils and Munich.

Specs:

  • 6.4% ABV
  • 60 IBU
  • Available: January to April

Changes to 10 Barrel Brewing

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I am not going to lie, I was a bit shocked when I first read about this news. But now that it has sunk in, I am quite excited about the changes going on with 10 Barrel. Our favorite local’s night and happy hour at Bend Brewing Company (BBC), is about to go through some major changes as well , and this was probably the most surprising part to me. 10 Barrel has hired some new Brewmasters, and one of them is Tonya Cornett, currently Head Brewmaster at BBC. This change for Tonya, will formally take place mid-summer 2011 by the sounds of it. 10 Barrel also hired longtime Deschutes brewer, Jimmy Seifert, to assume the brewmaster duties at 10 Barrel. Seifert has just started this month. So we are excited to taste some new beers from 10 Barrel and know that we will keep you updated on what we like.

To read more about these changes, visit The Source Weekly’s Article, or Hack Bend’s Blog for more information.

Congratulations to Tonya, Jimmy and to 10 Barrel Brewing!

Hophead Imperial IPA – Bend Brewing Company – Bend, Oregon

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Rating: 4.6/5 [1 sip(s)]
5/5 4.5/5

Finally, it is time for us to post about one of the best beers I have ever tasted. In preparation for this blog I wanted to spend some time making sure this life-long relationship was real. How many times have you tried a beer a second or third time to find it doesn’t compare to your original assessment? Maybe it was the food pairing. Could have been that particular batch. Or possibly it was the not so good beer you tried right before. After almost every Tuesday for over 8 months of visiting Bend Brewing Company in Bend, Oregon I can truly say this beer is unequaled by few in the community. With a 9.2% ABV this time around Hop-Head Imperial IPA is a sweet and smooth treat with a power packed punch to the noggin’ if you’re not careful.

 

Hop-Head’s home, Bend Brewing Company, is a great spot to hang out and kick it after work any day of the week. The dining area is cozy and sports fans will love the TVs in view of most tables. The bar is one step above the dining area and can seat quite a few hop heads waiting for a pour of gold! In the summer time the back patio provides a great spot to chill out while viewing the Deschutes River at Mirror Pond.

Amazingly, Bend Brewing Company has occupied the same building for it’s 15 years of existence. The brewery was actually the 2nd brewery to be founded in Bend. The beers are all nurtured by their awesome brewmasters including one of a handful of female brewmasters, Tonya Cornett. Hop-Head and some of their other brews have won medals at many prestigious beer festivals around the globe. After trying any of their award winners it’s easy to see why locals night at the pub is always busy!

Tonya Cornett and the Bend Beer Bloggers!

PB Hoss Amber – Homebrew – Powell Butte, Oregon

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Rating: 0.0/5 [0 votes]
/5 4.5/5

Earlier this year, we did a trade deal with Justin Iverson, aka PB Hoss for all you twitter fans. We designed his beer cellar door and he gave us a case of his wonderful amber home brew. Thanks Justin, we enjoyed it!! And we hope to come out and brew with you some time!

Nice Rack IPA – Southern Oregon Brewery

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Rating: 3.3/5 [3 votes]
2.5/5 2/5

Last week we tried the Southern Oregon’s Nice Rack IPA. Love the name, but are not in love with the actual beer. We have never been to the actual brewery unfortunately, but do hope to visit soon and to try some of their other beers as well.

Boneyard Brewing Bday Beer

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We would like to say thank you for a great time tasting at Boneyard Brewing on Friday, November 12th. We had a birthday celebration for Auz, where we celebrated in Bend Ale Trail style and started at Boneyard Brewing on NW Lake Place in Bend. They close at 6pm every night, with the exception of Wednesdays, when they are open until 7pm to fill your growlers up for only $6! This Friday, however, they stayed open for a private tasting for just our party and it was a great time. We got to try all their beers on tap including their newest beers, Armored Fist and the Backbone and both were fabulous!

Check them out online here: www.boneyardbeer.com or visit their brewery for a tasting:

Boneyard Beer
37 NW Lake Place, Suite B
Bend, OR 97701
Phone (541) 323 -2325

We at Bend Beer Blog are so glad Boneyard Brewing is here and we really appreciate you guys staying open for us! Thanks so much for the great time and of course the Boneyard birthday hats. Cheers!

Maiden The Shade – Ninkasi – Eugene, Oregon

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Rating: 0.0/5 [0 votes]
3.5/5

Ninkasi has been a power house in the local beer industry this past year. They are doing great things not only with their beers, but with promotion and advertising as well. It takes a lot to stand a part from all the other local breweries. Good beer is just part of the puzzle. We recently had a chance to give their Maiden The Shade a try and were very pleased to find this beer can definitely stand on it’s own.

Style: American IPA

Ingredients:

Malts: ???

Hops: ???

Yeast & Water: ???

Specs:

  • 6.8% ABV
  • Starting Gravity: 1065
  • 72 IBU
  • Preferred Glass: Pint Glass (or Becker, Nonic, Tumbler), Mug (or Seidel, Stein)
  • Food Pairing: Cuisine (Curried, Thai) Cheese (peppery; Monterey / Pepper Jack, sharp; Blue, Cheddar, pungent; Gorgonzola, Limburger) Meat (Poultry, Fish, Shellfish, Salmon)
  • Established 2009
  • Available: Seasonally on draft and in 22oz. bottles

Bend Ale Trail

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So we have finally finished our Bend Ale Trail trip and so excited to share it with you! What a fun thing to do, we highly recommend it whether you live in the area, or are just traveling through. We also recommend biking the trail or calling John Flannery of the GETIT Shuttle (also known as Green Energy Transportation) at (541) 610-6103. They offer Bend Ale Trail tours every Saturday and are happy to schedule a private large group tour if you are interested.

We started our trail with a stop at the downtown Visit Bend office where we found out more information, picked up our maps and got to see the silly pint which we now are so excited to have! We also left some of our Bend Beer Blog rating cards with them, so be sure to pick some up so you can rate the beers you try while on your own Bend Ale Trail trip. Then make sure to come back to our site and let us know what you thought of the beer and the Bend Ale Trail.

From there we headed out to the “extra credit brewery,” Three Creeks Brewing. We absolutely loved it! The ambiance is wonderful, service was great, food was yummy and the beer was pretty good too. Our favorite beer here was the Old Prospector Pale Ale.

We then headed back to Bend, got on our bikes and headed to Cascade Lakes Brewery. We each had an IPA while sitting outside on their patio and it was so refreshing after the bike ride in the heat to get there! We also had to check out their cool car with the Blonde Bombshell logo on the side (see photos below) while riding out to our next stop, 10 Barrel Brewing. Here we had their Apocalypse IPA at their outside bar. We had recently tried all of their beers on a sampler tray and the Apocalypse IPA was the winner by far so we stuck with that. I do want to mention that we think they did a great job designing this brewery and we love the outdoor seating areas.

Back to biking, we rode across town to the Silver Moon Brewery off Greenwood Ave., where we sampled a few more beers and then ordered the Hop Knob IPA. We also had a few bites to eat from their appetizer menu. We usually enjoy the live music here at Silver Moon but stopped in too early to take part this evening but still had a great time tasting.

Our next stop was Bend Brewing where we always hope to have the Hop Head. Unfortunately, it was still unavailable so we tried the Red which was great, just not the Hop Head. We enjoy BBC and you can almost always find us here on Local’s Night every Tuesday.

We then decided to call it a day but don’t worry, we picked it right back up the following day at McMenamins where we enjoyed the patio seating, cajun tots of course and then some fun mixing beers…I mean where else can you mix a Ruby and and IPA? Well I did just this and it was pretty great on that hot afternoon. We also tried several of their other beers and had a great time.

Next we stopped in to Deschutes Brewery. As usual, there was an hour wait to be seated so what better way to spend that time…order a beer! Once sat, we tried some of their seasonal brews which is always fun at Deschutes. We have also done their brewery tour off Simpson Ave. and highly recommend it.

Last and most definitely not least, we made a special stop at Boneyard a few weeks later. This brewery has some great beer to try and we highly recommend their Pale Ale! If you cannot tell by now, we love the hoppy beers and this pale ale is outstanding! The tasting room was small but the brewers were friendly and we had a great time. We also want to say that Wednesdays are a great day to stop by Boneyard for their $6 growler refills. We are glad that Boneyard is here!

This completes the Bend Ale Trail for us, we are now proud owners of the Silipint! What a great cup for the beer drinkers on the go like us! Make sure to stop into the Visit Bend office to pick up your map when you start the trail, and then once again when you are finished to pick up your own silipint. We look forward to seeing all of you on the trail and make sure to come back to our site and rate the beer you try!

Hopportunity Knocks – Caldera Brewing Company – Ashland, Oregon

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3/5

We picked up this beer at our local Whole Foods. Caldera Brewing located in Ashland, Oregon brews this pretty tasty American IPA. We can’t help but love the label on this one!

Style: IPA

Ingredients:

Malts: ???

Hops: ???

Yeast & Water: ???

Specs:

  • 6.8% ABV
  • ??? IBU
  • Preferred Glass: Pint Glass (or Becker, Nonic, Tumbler), Mug (or Seidel, Stein)
  • Food Pairing: Cuisine (Curried, Thai) Cheese (peppery; Monterey / Pepper Jack, sharp; Blue, Cheddar, pungent; Gorgonzola, Limburger) Meat (Poultry, Fish, Shellfish, Salmon)