Deschutes brewmaster, Larry Sidor, has a background that may surprise some. For someone who has come up with such boldly innovated recipes at Deschutes such as The Dissident and The Abyss, many may not guess that Larry got his start at the Olympia Brewing Company.

“I spent 23 years at Olympia. You name it I did. It started as a journeyman situation after I graduated from OSU with a degree in the food sciences. From there I did a six-month brewing apprenticeship and performed every aspect in brewing possible. After that I was sent to Siebels, and back at that time it was a four-month course. When I returned I was named project assistant brewmaster at Olympia.”

From there Larry was promoted to Operations Manager for the entire brewery and during that time Pabst bought out Olympia. Larry remained with the company and became the R&D Manager, QA Manager, wrote and developed contract brewing situations and even brewed in Japan and China. Larry brewed such brands as Stroh’s, Lone Star, Lucky Lager, Brew 102 and even the Beer Beer (the can just said “Beer” on the side) and of course all the Pabst’s Brands.

Deschutes Brewery sent out their most recent Bitter Truth Newsletter this month.  It is an informative, colorful, and well-designed update of many of their happenings around Bend and Portland.  It also lists several newly released and soon to be released beers of interest.  Among these are the Luckiest Lager, a German style lager with a bountiful supply of hops , the Old Samhain (Sah-win) Halloween nitro brew, six different fresh hop beers, and the Big Red Double Cinder Cone barleywine.  Perhaps, the most intriguing new offering to soon be released is a Wild Plum Stout brewed with sour wort and tart plums.  Mmm.  If the puckeringly sweet flavor of the Dissident Oud Bruin was any indication of how well Deschutes does sours, then this could be nothing short of spectacular.

I phoned Deschutes’ brewmaster Larry Sidor at the brewery in Bend this morning to find out more.  Sidor informed me that the Wild Plum Stout will be release soon and will be a pub only brew.  “We made about twelve and a half barrels of it” said Sidor.  “The plums are from our refrigeration mechanic.   He grew them in his yard and we felt it was something we should work on.”  So, about 20-25 pounds of plums were handpicked and run through a wine grape crusher.  The hand-cranked quarter-inch press extracted the sugar and tart qualities from the fresh fruit.  “(The stout) has a sour wort with a Lactobacillus culture in it.  We put about two or three gallons into the mash.”  So how did it come out?  Said Sidor: “When I tasted it, it was pretty darn tart.”

Larry Sidor Deschutes brewmaster