Deschutes: Bend's Big Craft Brewery

We have been to Deschutes Portland Pub a few times, and even had the chance to go behind the scenes to see their brewing operations. The Portland Pub is a relatively small brewery that basically produces the beer consumed onsite. Our trip to Bend gave us the opportunity to visit the main Deschutes Brewery. As you are aware, we love the brewery tours. You'd think you've seen one brewery, you've seen them all. But that's false! Each brewery has different arrangements and philosophies They also vary on size and volume, and have different tour guides. Even some of our repeat tours are different because the breweries increase in size or upgrade equipment.

But back to Deschutes... the first picture shows the brewing kettles (we love stainless steel). To avoid getting particles stuck in seams, each kettle is fabricated in one giant piece. This caused a challenge to Deschutes - how to get these kettles over the Cascades and into Bend. With some careful transportation and temporary closing of highways, they made it. Here are some other interesting facts:

The Deschutes tour took us past their lab where they cultivate and test their yeast strains. Deschutes sets out to make English style ales so they do add minerals to their water to match the type of water that occurs naturally in England.



















Every bottle of Deschutes beer comes from this line.







The best part of any tour is of course the tasting. We were lucky enough to get to try several of their seasonal brews, including Hope in the Dark, but of their year round selections our favorites are Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Green Lakes Organic Ale, and Obsidian Stout.

Finding the Sun in Bend, OR

Last year we had a rather long, wet, and cool spring. By the time June rolled around we were dying for a peak of sunshine, as well as some warmth. We heard tale of a place in Oregon - just a few hours drive from Portland - where we could get out from underneath the towering Douglas firs, looming rain clouds, and finally get some sun on our abnormally pale faces. So on a rainy, cold Portland morning in June, we packed up our car and headed out to Bend, Oregon. Where we most certainly found sunshine!



















Here is a list of a few places we discovered while in Bend and highly recommend.

Sites:
Pilot Butte - This extinct cinder cone volcano offers an amazing view of Bend and the surrounding mountains such as Mt. Bachelor and Three Sisters. You can drive, bike or even hike to the top to catch a view like this:

















Downtown Bend - There are many unique stores, coffee shops, and restaurants in the downtown area.

Drake Park - A pretty park located in the downtown area. Drake also has a great trail for biking or strolling along the Deschutes River and Mirror pond

Food:
McKay Cottage Restaurant - The most amazing breakfast we have ever had! Definitely go on a sunny morning so you can sit outside.

Bend Burger Company - A great burger and super friendly staff...a win-win.

Baldy's BBQ - Ever since leaving OKC we have been on the lookout for some good Texas-style BBQ and this place does a good job of feeding our smoked meat craving.

Activities:
Deschutes Brewery tour and tasting - A more in depth post with pictures here.

Eagle Crest putting course - It's putt-putt but on real grass and a fun way to spend an hour.

For what's it worth we found most of these places plus many more things we want to do at the visit Bend website.

An added bonus was this amazing view of Mt. Hood on the way back to Portland.

















We enjoyed Bend so much that we went back again in August, and will head back as soon as the mountain passes reopen in late spring.

Remember when we used to update this blog...

Yeah, us neither. However, we are about to remedy that at least in the near future so check back very soon for posts about what we did the last half of 2011 and what we've been doing in 2012. Until then please accept this OKCtoPDX approved Portlandia clip as an apology for our absence.

Portland Gets a New Bridge!

Courtesy OregonLive.com

Many years ago, we presented our readers reader with a post about bridges in Portland. Great times, I know. Well, get ready to add one more bridge to the mix. The City of Portland and Trimet recently broke ground on a new bridge over the Willamette. This bridge, completion date of many years from now, will carry light rail, people, and bikes. No cars allowed! That's Portland for you.

For now they are calling the bridge the Portland-Milwaukie light-rail bridge. I have a feeling they will come up with a cooler name once it gets dedicated. I'm thinking something to do with beer, books, or hipsters. Read more about the bridge and see a nice graphic here. To watch the building, live, click here.

Time to Lager!

As you know, we are homebrewers (here is proof). Our first few batches of brew were made using ale yeast (a top fermenting yeast). The different strains of ale yeast allow you to make pale ales, amber ales, porters, etc. Ale yeast like warm temperatures (room temperature is fine) and work through the beer quickly. Thus, you can drink your homebrew about a month after you boil up your wort.

Lager yeasts are a different story. These fellas like cooler temperatures (under 60 degrees Fahrenheit) and work at a slower, more relaxed pace (on the bottom of the brew). Lagers often have mellow notes, but allow for some additional flavorings if you are daring (we are not that daring yet). Pilsners are an example of lagers. If you want to brew up a batch of lager, you will need to either do it in the winter (much like the Germans who created it) or have some equipment artificially chill the batch.


Back in February we decided to take a crack at brewing a lager beer. Our garage keeps a fairly constant 50 degrees over the winter, and we had enough space in our fridge for the final lagering phase (yes that is 5 gallons of lager in our fridge above!), so we went to our local brew supply store and bought the ingredients. The key to lagering is patience - expect to wait at least three months before you pour your first beer.

Boil the wort as usual (instructions), and follow the steps up through this post. Once the lager yeast is in the primary fermentation bucket, keep the batch at around room temperature for a day. This will make sure the yeast get started. After the yeast start bubbling away, move the primary into your cool (45 to 55 deg.) area. Keep the batch in this area until the batch bubbles once every 4 minutes. Don't be too eager to move onto the next step, just be patient and let the the beer mellow.

When the primary fermentation is done, move the primary into a 60 degree area for a few days. This helps the yeast finish off its work for this round. Rack the beer to the secondary (like here), and keep the beer in the 60 degree area for a week. As long as the beer is not bubbling, you can move the secondary back into a cold storage area. We used our fridge set at 37 deg. F. This is the official lagering period and should go 3 to 4 weeks.

After the lagering period, bottle just like you would the ale beers. Store the bottles in a cool area (55 to 65 deg F) for one week, allowing the yeast to carbonate the beer. Then move the bottles back into a cooler area (45 to 55 deg F) for 4 to 6 weeks. This allows the final conditioning and flavor mellowing to occur. After this time, refrigerate, crack one open, and enjoy!

For the official instructions, from the experts, please go here.