Two Deschutes beers make Ratebeer.com's top 100

Congrats to Deschutes, two of the brewery's beers have been named to Ratebeer.com's 2010 100 Best Beers in the World List: The Abyss clocked in at 18, the top Oregon beer, and Black Butte XXI was ranked 78.

Here's the link from The Oregonian's John Foyston.

According to Ratebeer.com's press release, the list was based on more than 2 million reviews. Imperial Stouts dominate the list, taking 18 of the top 20 spots.

Portland's Hair of the Dog Brewery placed four beers on the top 100. The only other Northwest brewery to make the list was Alaska's Midnight Sun Brewing Company.

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Getting a buzz with your buzz cut

Beer at the barber shop isn’t a revolutionary idea. Multiple barbers in Bend offer a complimentary tasty beverage with a hair cut. But bless the boys downtown at the Bond Street Barber Shop, they’ve brought in pony kegs to give you a nice Central Oregon microbrew on tap.

For $17, you get a haircut and a glass of 10 Barrel Brewing. (As of Wednesday, Jan. 27, Bond Street was serving up 10 Barrel’s Apocalypse IPA, Pray For Snow Strong Ale and the company’s Summer Seasonal.)

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the Metropolitan Barber Shop gives you a can of PBR and Element 909 Aveda Men salon offers bottles of Cascade Lakes Brewing, both of which are also downtown. Also, Jay T’s Parlor for Men in the Old Mill has fridge full of micros . Not bad options, but it certainly isn’t the same as a drink fresh off the tap.

Let’s hope the keg in the barber shop is a trend that keeps growing here in Bend.

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"I don't know if it's worth $9.69 but it's pretty fricking good."

The Bend Beer Blog's better third is living the good life in Hawaii this week and found some Central Oregon brew in one of the local grocery stores.



Good to know the islands are well stocked.

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Dark beers are dark

Beau and I went to McMenamins (Fireside) tonight after work. And we had some dark beers. I mean, they're really dark. Check it out at right.

Actually, I just couldn't get the flash to work on camera on my phone.  So we put the candle behind the beers so you could see something. Even photoshop couldn't salvage this one.

Anyway, one of these is Baltic Porter, which is on special now. The other is their standard Terminator stout. We both enjoyed the porter, although it was pretty different from any porter I've ever had. The mouth feel was pretty light, and the flavor wasn't overpowing, or the standard coffee/smoky flavor you often get with porters.. But it went down easy!

I learned from McMenamins' Twitter feed that this was the 1,000th batch of beer brewed on site at St. Francis School in Bend, and that the full name is 1000 mile Journey Baltic Porter. Now you know.

This was our first official beer drinking since we started the blog, so I felt obligated to post something. The first of many more to come, we hope. And hopefully with more insight.

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BBC's Seasonal, Outback X

From fellow brew-enthusiast, Willy Warburton:
I had the Outback X at BBC tonight. I wasn't sure if the "X" stood for "eXperimental", "eXtreme" or the number ten, so I asked and the guy who said, "It's just an X." It's served in a tiny snifter and has a sweet malt tone. A nice beer to compliment the heavy pub food and without so many hops that your tongue is left burning till bedtime. BBC doesn't change their beers that often so trying their seasonals is always a good choice.


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Good day for a nitro

With the snow blowing in today I'm thinking something thick and creamy on a nitro tap sounds pretty good.

Here's a rundown of what the local establishments have on nitro today:

• Bend Brewing Company: Vanilla Porter
• Deschutes Brewing: Obisidian Stout and Theo's Super Seven Nitro Sessions Chocolate Stout
• McMenamins: Old English Ale? (I'm not sure about the name but I've had it several times over the past week. One of their better seasonals.)

We'll try and update the rest of the breweries as they answer their phones. If we've missed anything, let us know.

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TJ's Vintage Ale 2009: tasty, cheap and shwilly

Like Chimay but not balls-out expensive at $4.99 for a 750mL bottle. Tastes like a Belgian and swerves like one to at 9%. Available at your not-so-local Trader Joes. Be clever, stock up.

Then go out and get a fresh pint from one of our many fine local purveyors.

see a Beer Advocate review and picture

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Free Abyss

I'm not sure if it's the best-kept secret in Bend or not, but free 4 oz. beer samples are available at Deschutes' brewing facility on SW Simpson. I'll be honest, whenever I have to buy a birthday or wedding present for someone, I swing by the gift shop there and have a few beer samples before buying my gift.

It's the greatest shopping experience ever.

In addition to all of Deschutes' classic beers, the brewing facility also has a handful of seasonals on tap. When I was there on Thursday, Jan. 21, they had Hop Henge and The Abyss.
As of Jan. 21, here's what is on tap at the Deschutes Brewery brewing facility:

• The Abyss
• Hop Henge IPA
• Cinder Cone Red
  
• Obsidian Stout
• Black Butte Porter
• Inversion IPA
• Green Lakes Organic Ale
• Mirror Pond Pale Ale

Note: Right now this is the only place to get The Abyss on tap.

Cheers!

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Red Chair NWPA in stores

It's always nice to see something from Deschutes other than the older standards available in the stores. I was happy to see Red Chair NWPA at Safeway, and on sale no less, the last time I went to the store. So, being a good patron of local beers, I procured a 12-pack. Here's the bottle.

You can read more about it at Deschutes' Web site here.

Its a tremendous beer. I would stop short of saying I enjoy it more than Hop Henge or Hop Trip, but it's definitely a solid offering. And if you need a change of pace from the regular rotation you find in stores, you should give it a try.

Gah, I just read that, and it really sounded like I was a shill for Deschutes. I promise that's not the case.

And, I just created an  e-mail address for the site. It'sbendbeerblog@gmail.com. If you're a brewery, a beer fan, a Bendite, a sasquatch, etc., and you want to get in touch with us, or send some info our way, e-mail away.

Welcome to the Bend Beer Blog

Welcome. My co-worker/friend Beau and I were talking a while ago, and we don't think there's a blog for beer in Bend/Central Oregon. Which seems hard to believe, since there have to be more brewpubs and microbrews here per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Our apologies if there is a blog already. If there is, we've never heard of it. And, if there is, I think there's room enough for more than one, considering there's a lot of beer to cover.

Anyway, we started this on a lark. We think it could be a great resource for what's on tap and what's going on at the local breweries and brewpubs, and a great opportunity for us to drink (more) great local beer.

So, cheers. Let's hope we're not too lazy to actually post on this blog!

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