More Bend News

| June 15, 2010 | Oregon beer | 10 Comments


Having spent a week in Bend, Brewpublic was able to chat with some brewers and discover that Bend has a lot to offer beer-wise, and we should find it no surprise that it is growing. In an effort to promote the beer culture in Bend, the tourism board created a program called the Bend Ale Trail. According to www.visitbend.com:

Starting on June 1st, you can use the Bend Ale Trail Map and Passport available in the latest Discovery Map of Central Oregon to discover Bend’s 7 breweries – and for extra credit, head to our neighboring brewery in Sisters to visit the 8th! Be sure to get your passport stamped at each location. When you get all 7 stamps, stop by or send your completed passport to the Visit Bend Welcome Center and receive a commemorative Bend Silipint made especially for beer drinkers on the go! And, if you do your extra credit and visit Sisters, you’ll receive a special surprise.

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The Bend area can also see two other new breweries coming its way. Also in early development stages, Bend can expect Noble Brewing and Copper Mountain Brewing to open facilities some time in the next year. If this happens, we may consider voting for Bend as Beer City USA in the next Charlie Papazian poll.


Finally, and probably the most exciting news we heard…Boneyard Beer has big ambitions and would love to do collaborator beers with all the breweries that contributed equipment to their brewery. This would include breweries such as Firestone Walker (Paso Robles, CA), Anderson Valley (Boonville, CA) and Three Floyds (Munster, IN). To put the icing on the cake, Boneyard is in the works of bring Three Floyd beer to Oregon. Brewer Anthony Lawrence spends about 8-10 weeks a year with the folks at Three Floyds, and if things go as planned, Lawrence and company will start distributing the highly regarded Midwestern beers in Oregon.

Editor’s note: In a previous version of this post it was stated that New Belgium Brewing had plans to open a facility in Bend, Oregon and had initiated this process. Unfortunately our source for this information was not correct according to New Belgium’s media relations department and Brewpublic apologizes for this error.

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About The Author

Margaret and Angelo

10 Comments
  1. derrick

    jeebus, that IS a lot of big news from the week in bend. well done brewpublic team.

  2. jeff

    All great news!

    I’m curious to hear more about new belgium. Any idea why they’re leaving CO for this facility? Do they operate in any other places besides CO already? Now that they’re opening a production/canning line in OR, can we expect a tasting room or any other open-to-the-public location?

  3. Bill Night

    Man, no kidding! Hiding two big scoops under a headline like “More Bend News”? What else you got for us?

  4. Jim

    So NB says this is completly false.

    If anything, Boneyard is considering starting a canning line in a year or so.

    Copper Mountain Brewing is opening shop in Issaquah Wa, not Bend.
    And Noble Brewing doesn’t exist to anyones knowledge. Woo…go Brewpublic.

  6. bryan simpson

    Hey Brewpublic Readers,

    Much as we love the great city of Bend, New Belgium Brewing does not currently have any plans for a facility there, production, bottling or otherwise. Bend seems to have pretty hoppin’ scene already.

    Chrz,

    Bryan Simpson
    Media Relations
    New Belgium Brewing

    • admin

      Thank you for the comment and clarification, Bryan. We received the information about New Belgium from Tony at Boneyard Brewing, who was told this information by a city official who was processing permits for his brewery. It is with egg on my face that I humbly recant what was written about New Belgium opening a facility in Bend, Oregon.

      Regarding the person calling himself Jim with the grandstanding comment, Tony also informed us that Copper Mountain is the potential name of a new brewery being started by a bend homebrewer. There is in fact an online presence for a Copper Mountain Brewing Co. on the Internet (we can Google, too), but it doesn’t seem established. And if someone does own the name, then Bend’s start-up will likely be forced to change it. As JYork points out, there is a Noble Brewery mentioned in the Bend Bulletin.

      On behalf of Brewpublic, I would like to apologize for disseminating any misinformed allegations about New Belgium though I admit that the information Margaret received from her source seemed very credible. I will amend the article and remove the portion about New Belgium having plans to operate in Bend, Oregon. As for the rest of the article, we still stand by it, and will until it is noted otherwise.

      Thank you.
      http://brewpublic.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-form
      Angelo

  7. John L.

    Noble Brewing underwent a re-branding just prior to its official launch. It is now GoodLife Brewing: http://www.goodlifebrewing.com