McMenamins releases Irish Stout

McMenamins released its Irish Stout on the first of March. According to the brothers' press release, McMenamins Irish Stout will be served all of March on nitro tap.

From the web site:

Irish eyes will be smiling all March long with the arrival of McMenamins Irish Stout. This is our Saint Patrick's Day Seasonal and will pour exclusively on our ‘Nitro' taps the entire month of March. McMenamins Irish Stout is our interpretation of the internationally renowned beer style that originated in Ireland and was popularized by legendary brewing institutions, such as Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish. Historically speaking, the style emerged early in the 19th century from attempts by Irish brewers to capitalize on the success of London porters. To cut costs, unmalted (and therefore, untaxed at the time) roasted barley was used, which imparted a unique and distinctively different coffee-like bitterness to the flavor and aroma of the ale. Thus, a new beer style was born.

Chocolate Beer Dinner at Deschutes

We pulled this from the Deschutes web site:

Join us for an evening of Deschutes brews paired perfectly with five courses of chocolate-themed menu items. Brewer Jimmy Seifrit will be on hand to explain each beer, its chocolate notes and its specific brewing process. In fact, all the beers AND food at this delectable event are made with chocolate.

Double Mountain release party in Bend, this Friday

We've been pretty heavy on the Brother Jon's news, but this one is pretty cool.

Double Mountain Brewery, out of Hood River, is having a release party for its newest beer, the Empire Strikes Back All-English IPA in Bend. It'll be from 5-9 p.m this Friday (March 3) at Brother Jon's (1227 NW Galveston Ave.).

Beer and Pizza

One of the best happy hours in Bend is over at Pizza Mondo.

Most of you are probably familiar with their After Mountain Special during the week, but it's worth repeating.

From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. you can get any two slices of pizza and a beer on tap for $6.50. It's one of my favorite deals in town. Right now they've got 10 Barrel Apocalypse, Deschutes Black Butte Porter and Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale on tap.

If you don't want the beer (I'm not sure why you're reading this blog then), it's only $5.50 with a soda.
Eat, drink and enjoy,
Beau

On tap update: Brother Jon's and Deschutes

When I have something interesting to add the Central Oregon tap list resource page (which you can read here, by the way), I'll try to post a quick blog update. I'm not talking about Bud being swapped out for Coors, or if x pub has a new type of Deschutes you can already get elsewhere. But if there's something new that might be hard to find here, or if a brewpub has a new beer on tap, we'll try to report on it.

Mondays with the BBB: A Deschutes growler and exploding Hair of the Dog

As we are getting the Bend Beer Blog started, we are planning on having Mondays be a regular "beer excursion" day. It gives us an excuse to drink, to talk about the blog, and gives us something regular to blog about. We actually have Mondays off, usually (pretty choice, right? Actually, it could be worse...it is locals night at Deschutes), so it works for us.

Portland road trip

This weekend I went over the hill for work in Portland - unfortunately the Bend Beer Blog isn't quite turning a profit yet - but made sure to sample the local brew scene as much as possible.

If there's a better beer town in the world than Portland, I'd like to know where it is. That being said, here are some thoughts from the final weekend in February: