Being in the midst of summer here in the Pacific Northwest we get our fair share of beer events. It’s great for those of us that live in the Portland metro area but for those from afar you have to put in some time and miles to attend many of these fun filled festivals. But later this week is the time of the year for those beer seekers from Central Oregon to shine brightly.

The Bend Brewfest is now 10 years strong and begins on Thursday, August 15 and runs for 3 days along the banks of the Deschutes River at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.  Beginning on Thursday and Friday at 3pm and at Noon on Saturday you will be able to enjoy beers from over 60 breweries, a few cideries, a meadery and a winery. From the beer list that is provided after you scowl down there are 140+ craft beers from the 60+ breweries predominately from our bountiful Pacific Northwest region. For all things moderate in ABV, Bend Brewfest has you covered.

One of the highlights of the Bend Brewfest for us at Brewpublic is the very casual atmosphere that the Les Schwab Amphitheater offers its festival goers. Les Schwab’s lush grass lawn, unlike the sand and dust pit at the overworked Tom McCall Waterfront Park during OBF, is a very inviting setting. You can actually walk the grounds with cushioning grass below you.

As each year passes the Bend Brewfest keeps growing. Brewpublic was last at the fest in 2011 and if memory serves me correctly there are some new faces at the festival this year. First time pouring at the fest in Bend this year include Smith Rock Brewing, Worthy Brewing, Rat Hole Brewing, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Rusty Truck Brewing Co. among a few others.

Returning once again this year is the X-Tap. Now in its 3^rd year, the X-Tap booth at the festival features specialty beers from many different breweries. This years X-Tap beer list includes Bend Brewing’s Ching Ching, Anderson Valley’s Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout, Oakshire Brewing’s Bier de Mars, Logsdon’s Far West Vlaming Flander’s Red and many others. Be sure to check out the X-Tap schedule on page 13 of this year’s guide to keep up with the day’s special beers.

Another feature here at the Bend Brewfest is what the organizers call the Brewtality Tent. The Brewtality Tent gets better every year, this year it will be hosted by The Brew Shop scheduling a great line-up of guest speakers. Sierra Nevada is brewing a special beer with The Brew Shop and will debut the tasty beverage at our Brewfest! This beer that the fellas from The Brew Shop brewed down in Chico is Beer Camp 99 India Farmhouse Ale. And it will debut at the X-Tap on Thursday at 4pm. We are looking forward to sampling this beer.

That sure is a plethora of beer choices at the fest this weekend. So what do you do when you bring a friend that is still on the fence about craft beer? Yes, the beerfest is offering a few options that do not contain malted barley. Cider and gluten free fans will rejoice on the cider options at this year’s Brewfest: 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Nectar Creek Honeywine, Red Tank Cider, Wandering Aengus Cider and Woodchuck Cider. There will also be Wine by Hood River’s Naked Winery and locally made mead by Nectar of the Gods Meadery.

And when you need the time to get some food, there will be plenty of options. This years food vendors include Cuppa Yo, Famous Kettle Corn, The Pizza Cart, Camerons Smoke Shack, Parilla Grill, Parilla Fries, Demetri’s, Dumpcity Dumplings, Spork, Jumbo Tamales, Bend Burger Co., Family Dogs Corndogs – Bison Blue Corn Corndogs and a Lil bit of Texas Sausage – Sausages. So if you arrive on an empty stomach one of these options looks satisfying.

And if these are not enough reasons to visit the Old Mill of Bend later this week you may want to visit some of the newly opened breweries in Bend and the surrounding area. A great adventure that the Visit Bend Tourism offers is the Bend Ale Trail. As the quantity of Bend Breweries continues to increase, the Ale Trail also increases in the amount of breweries that you need to stop in at to win your free gift. The Ale Trail now requires you to visit 11 Bend Breweries with a 12^th bonus brewery in Sisters. It now seems a bit more challenging to complete in one day so take your time and complete in a couple of days.

You can check out the 2013 Bend Brewfest Guide here. If not, they’ll have plenty of copies when the festival kicks off on Thursday. This 40-page guide is definitely well thought out and put together very nicely.

And prior to leaving, please don’t forget to vote. The Bend Beerfest offers their patrons to vote for their favorite beer being poured over the weekend. Last summer GoodLife Brewing’s Mountain Pale Ale and Klamath Basin Brewing’s Vanilla Porter were Bend Brewfest People’s Choice Award winners.  Be sure to vote for your favorite beer this summer at Bend Brewfest.

2013 BREWFEST LINEUP

Brewery	Beer #1	Beer #2	XTap Beer
10 BARREL	Swill German-Style Radler	OG Wheat IPA	—-
21st AMENDMENT	Hell or High Watermelon Wheat	Bitter American Extra Pale Session Ale	—-
2 TOWNS CIDERHOUSE	The Bad Apple	Rhubarbarian	Ginja Ninja
ALAMEDA	Klickitat Pale Ale	P-Town Pilsner	—-
ANDERSON VALLEY	Summer Solstice Ale	Heelch O’Hops Double IPA	Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout
BACKWOODS	Beacon Rock Bitter	Copperline Amber Ale	—-
BASE CAMP	In-Tents IPL	Northwest Fest Marzen-style Lager	MeridiWit Belgian Witbier
BELOW GRADE	Validation Imperial IPA	—-	Dangerous Kate Imperial Black IPA
BEND BREWING	Elk Lake IPA	Black Diamond Dark Lager	Ching Ching Sour
BIG SKY	Moose Drool	Trout Slayer	Heavy Horse Scotch Ale
BONEYARD BEER	RPM IPA	Shotgun ISA	Funky Bunch Sour
BREAKSIDE	Breakside Pilsner	Breakside IPA	Alan from the Wood Strong Smoked Ale
BREW SHOP – PLATYPUS PUB	—-	—-	Beer Camp 99 India Farmhouse Ale
BREW WERKS	Rabble Rouser Imperial Red	Irreverence IPA	Brahfinger Sour
BRIDGEPORT	Summer Squeeze Bright Ale	Kingpin IRA	Longball Ale
BURNSIDE	Sweet Heat Wheat Ale	Lime Kolsch	lower_case ipa
CASCADE LAKES	Paulina Lake Pilsner	Jefferson Park IPA	Solstice Stout
COLUMBIA RIVER	CRB Pale Ale	Rose City Wheat	—-
CRUX	Outcast IPA	Crux Pilsner	—-
DESCHUTES	Deschutes River Ale	The Belgian Baroness IRA	Plum Line Sour
DOUBLE MOUNTAIN	Vaporizer Pale Ale	Kolsch	—-
ELYSIAN	Night Owl Pumpkin Ale	Loser Pale Ale	Oddland Spiced Pear Pale Ale
EVERYBODY’S	Country Boy IPA	Little Sister ISA	—-
FIRE MOUNTAIN	Tan Line Summer IPA	Bogart NW IPA	Steam Fired Stout
FIRESTONE WALKER	Union Jack	Wookey Jack	—-
FORT GEORGE	3-Way IPA	Quick Wit	Hellcat Belgian Pepper Pale Ale Tripel
GEORGETOWN	Manny’s Pale Ale	Lucille IPA	—-
GOODLIFE	Evil Sister Imperial Pacific Ale	Descender IPA	Bourbon Pepper Brown Ale
HOP VALLEY	Alpha Centauri IPA	Czech Your Head Pilsner	Peace and Carrots Belgian Saison
HOPWORKS URBAN	Organic HUB Lager	Organic Hopworks IPA	Army of Darkness Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
KLAMATH BASIN	Vanilla Porter	Linkville Lager	—-
KONA	Big Wave Golden Ale	Longboard Lager	—-
LAGUNITAS	Lagunitas IPA	LIttle Sumpin’ Wild Belgian Ale	Aged Hairy Eyeball American Strong Ale
LOGSDON FARMHOUSE ALES	Kili Wit	Seizoen Bretta Saison	Far West Vlaming Flander’s Red
LOST COAST	Great White American Wit	Tangerine Wheat	—-
McMENAMINS OLD ST. FRANCIS	My Sunshine’s Pilsner	Check Yer Coffeepot Golden Coffee Ale	—-
NECTAR CREEK HONEYWINE	Wildflower Session Mead	Ginger Session Mead	—-
NECTAR OF THE GODS MEADERY	Peach Session Mead	Ginger Session Mead	—-
NEW BELGIUM	French Aramis IPA	Pumpkick	—-
NINKASI	Tricerahops DIPA	Maiden the Shade	—-
OAKSHIRE	Watershed IPA	Line Dry Rye Pale Ale	Bier de Mars
OSKAR BLUES	Mama’s Little Yella Pils	G’Knight Imperial Red IPA	Gubna Imperial IPA
PELICAN	Silverspot IPA	Surfer’s Summer Ale	—-
PFRIEM FAMILY BREWERS	Blonde IPA	Saison	—-
PHAT MATT’S	White IPA	Pacific Northwest IPA	Jalepeno “Tres Peppers”
RATHOLE	Fence Post Porter	Rotation Red Ale	Haystack Hazelnut
RED TANK CIDER	Happy Cider	Roughneck Cider	425 Cider
ROGUE	Hazelnut Brown	Brutal IPA	—-
RUSTY TRUCK	Moonlight Ride Blackberry Ale	Hempeweizen	—-
SEVEN BRIDES	Waldo Hills IRA	Mary’nberry Wheat Ale	—-
SHADE TREE	Mustang Pale Ale	Challenger Smoked IPA	Corvette Strong Ale
SIERRA NEVADA	Red IPA	FOAM Pilsner	—-
SILVER MOON	TBA	TBA	TBA Barley Wine
SMITH ROCK	XTap only	XTap only	Sweater Weather Barrel Aged Oatmeal Imperial Stout
SOLSTICE BREWING	XTap only	XTap only	Show Me the Honey Wheat Ale
SPEAKEASY ALES & LAGER	Prohibition Ale	Tallulah XPA	Butchertown Black Ale
SUNRIVER	Grandma’s Pale Ale	Double Hook IPA	Tripple Dry Hopped IPA
THREE CREEKS	Raptor Rye IPA	Five Pine Chocolate Porter	Imperial IPA
WALKINGMAN	3rd Bridge Rye	Homo Erectus American Double IPA	—-
WANDERING AENGUS	Cherry Cider	Hops Cider	Oak Dry Cider
WIDMER	Alchemy Ale	Hopside Down IPL	—-
WOODCHUCK HARD CIDER	Amber Cider	Raspberry Cider	—-
WORTHY	Imperial IPA	Helles Bock	Special Saison
NAKED WINERY	Naked Winery TBA	Naked Winery TBA	—-

 

Visit Bend Brewfest for more information or to volunteer at the event. Brewfest t-shirts, growlers and more will be available at the Ticket Mill prior to the event.

 

Festival Times:

• Thursday, August 15 – 3:00 to 11:00pm
• Friday, August 16 – 3:00 to 11:00pm
• Saturday, August 17 – Noon to 11:00pm

 

ALL AGES and furry family members are welcome until 7pm each night with a parent or guardian in attendance. Parent/guardian is required to sign a pledge acknowledging the responsibility of preventing children from consuming alcohol and the penalties for the parent and child. Pet owners will be required to sign a pledge acknowledging the responsibility of keeping your pet safe and hydrated, and guarantee the pet will be under your control at all times.

Re-admittance is permitted.

 

Admission:

Fee and children are welcome until 7pm each night. For beer tasting, you’ll need to make a one-time purchase of a 2013 Brewfest tasting package for $12. Tokens are required for each beer tasting (sold in packs of five for $5) good for all three days. Bend Brewfest runs Thursday & Friday from 3 – 11pm and Saturday 12 noon-11pm. A variety of food carts from outstanding local vendors. Cash required for food, mugs and tokens with an ATM on site.  

 

Social Media:

• Twitter: @bendbrewfest  #BBF13
• Facebook: facebook.com/BendBrewfest
• Instagram: #bendbrewfest

 

Getting There:

 

344 SW Shevlin Hixon Drive

Bend, OR 97702

 

From The Parkway take exit #138 following signs to Colorado Ave and the Old Mill District. Head southwest on Colorado Ave to the roundabout at the corner of Simpson and Colorado. Free parking is available in the Mt.Bachelor bus lot, located just two blocks from the Les Schwab Amphitheater.