Out of Bend, Oregon. They started selling beer in Minnesota. Wooooo Hoooooo. Haven't had any since I left Seattle. Mirror Pond Pale Ale is absolutely fantastic. Their Bitter and Porter are excellent.

herf, try their Inversion IPA.

^^^ Red Chair mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Loved it - and I'm not a huge fan of IPAs.

Will do Pliny. Thanks!

good stuff!

RE #2

I picked up a few bottles of that a week or so ago, along with a few bottles of the Mirror Pond Pale Ale. I was impressed by both.

Coop, I like both of those.

If you don't like them, send them my way and I'll send you something.

I’m shocked that Z didn’t post anything on this.

Visited the brewery when we were in Bend. IPAs are decent. They make a fantastic stout called The Abyss.

I've only had their Dry Hop'D Zwickl which is a collaboration with Germany's Bitburger. Pretty good.

They got wacky after their head brewer left to start Crux.

Started cutting successful beers from the lineup, making beers like Red Chair a seasonal, and taking Black Butte Porter from an 8.2 abv beer to a 5.7%abv beer. I do NOT recommend a Porter if it’s under 7 they don’t taste right IMO. They did right by Abyss for a while then that got wacky too, I appreciate growing and not being stagnant, and was it just this they did differently it wouldn’t have been so bad.

Main problem I have with them is their focus on IPAs, I love a good IPA but having 20 different ones not so much. Make a handful of different styles and nail them is better. I said this to them on social media and they were receptive to the input and responded that they “may just bring back” their white IPA if there was enough support to do so. Then a crap ton of people started asking why did you discontinue the white IPA. The. I never saw them respond again.

Good company good beer. They were the first major brewer in the northwest to bring different styles of beer to the masses. Back in the day I can’t tell you how much Mirror Pond, Black Butte Porter and white IPA I drank. They kickstarted the beer growth here IMO by getting folks curious about different things.

Oh and McMenamins down the block from Deschutes has a cigar room and a great whiskey list.

Wanted to go to the Deschutes Brewery last time I was in Portland in 2013. My buddies and I planned to go brewery / distillery hopping but never got around to it.

Portland one is good, Bend location is more homey.