Bend News

Bend's first microbrewery makes it big

Bend’s Deschutes Brewery Expanding To Portland

By Joseph Friedrichs, 1-17-07

The new Deschutes pub in Portland will be very similar to this one in downtown Bend.

For the first time in its young history, the Deschutes Brewery has decided it will open a branch of operation outside the city limits of Bend with a move to Oregon’s largest city, microbrew-loving Portland.

The jump will put Deschutes in the thick of a city with more microbrew operations per capita than any other city in the country. The headquarters for Deschutes will remain in Bend, where they have been since 1988.

Dave Wilson, the director of sales and marketing for Deschutes Brewery, confirmed with me Tuesday afternoon that the company is indeed heading north to Portland. Top executives at the brewery made the decision at the tail end of last week.

No official public announcement has been made regarding the Portland pub. However, Wilson said the new site will be very similar to the pub that sits in downtown Bend. That was the original pub/restaurant/brew site for Deschutes. The brewery expanded in 1993 and now has a brewing facility with two brew houses. Deschutes is considered one of the most successful microbreweries in the Northwest and distributes its beer to nearly every Western state and beyond. For example, I saw an assortment of Deschutes-brewed six packs in Minneapolis last month.

Gary Fish established the Deschutes Brewery & Public House as small brew pub and named it after the Deschutes River that flows through Bend. It was the city’s first microbrew operation and produced 310 barrels of beer that year. They now produce more than 100,000 barrels annually. Deschutes’ first beers were Black Butte Porter, Bachelor Bitter and Cascade Golden Ale. They now have a collection of seasonal beers and produce more than a dozen different flavors at any given time.

Included in the Deschutes’ seasonal-brew package is Cinder Cone Red Ale. This ale is widely popular throughout the Northwest, and has fanatical following in Portland. A group known as People For Year Round Cinder Cone have campaigned for the brewery to, well, produce the particular beer all year.

The micro-brewing movement is believed to have started in Portland in the 1980s. As of last year, 33 microbreweries, more than one-third of the state total, were located in Portland. Bend has five microbreweries. Oregon also has the most breweries per capita than any other state.

Details of the Deschutes pub in Portland are expected to be released in the coming weeks, Wilson said.

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