Thursday 11th of July 2013 02:18:39 PM

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After a very nice early lunch and beer sampler at 10 Barrel we walked across the Deschutes River, a neighborhood, and a large parking lot in the middle of desert scrubland, to find the Deschutes Brewery. I had been meaning to just get there to take some pictures and see the swag shop, but we hit it at just the right time to sign up for the 1 PM tour. The tasting room, and swag shop is too small for these guys! You get 4 samples with your tour (or just if you stop by) and we were lucky enough that one of the employees cracked a bottle of the special smoked porter for us to try. The staff here were crazy nice and helpful, I can't say enough about it! This place has a ton of logo'd items: golf balls, hats, canoe paddles, longboards, etc. I'm surprised I didn't see a Deschutes kayak. I picked up a mini tap handle for my nitro tap at home and a cool hoody because I'm a sucker for merch.

The tour itself was about 45 minutes, and very nice, but a bit long. I've just been on too many of these I think. We did get to hear the cool story of how the massive brew kettles required that the state police block off the entire highway through the mountains to get them up to Bend...for several nights in a row! In the staff break room, they have taps and everyone gets a free pint after their shift is done. Nice perk! In the offices, they have the framed artwork from each year's Jubelale Christmas beer lined up. One in particular had actually taken about a hundred of the previous labels and made an insanely complicated collage...I've seen that label on the bottle but never realized how much work went into the design!

Friday 22nd of May 2009 01:11:13 AM

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The tour we took at Deschutes was top-notch. Best brewery tour I've been on. The tasting room was open and friendly, with no shortages of tastings. In fact they made us stock up on samples as we left off on the tour, bless them.

The tour was fun, engaging and informative. The guide was very personable and knowledgeable. He fielded noob questions just as well as advanced home-brewer questions. The scope of the operation is very impressive, and there is a lot to be learned about the brewery's history.

Best of all - it's free! Just know you can't go to Bend without going on this tour AND visiting the Bond Street pub!

Sunday 4th of January 2009 11:36:17 PM

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Deschutes provides a very professional and clean tour. The tour guide was very excited about his profession, giving us the opportunity inspect the fresh hops. The bottling facility reminded us of Lavern and Shirley (If you don't understand this reverence you shouldn't be on this site). The free sample bar was freakin' amazing... Just go for the the Abyss sample, everything else pales in comparison. The gift shop had a great selection.

Friday 15th of August 2008 12:31:09 PM

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If you visit the brewery’s tasting room, you can try four generous samples of beer for free. When we visited, there were four regular Deschutes beers available and four seasonal/specials, including two beers brewed especially for their 20th anniversary. The 20th anniversary Wit was an excellent American version of the style - dry, not sour, but unusually full flavored. The other anniversary beer, the Black Butte XX Porter was also excellent - made with coffee and cocoa nibs and aged in bourbon barrels.

The tasting room has a nice long wooden bar that used to be the barrier for the receptionist when the room was just the brewery office entrance but it works well as a bar. Also in the room are the usual sort of beer paraphernalia for sale (shirts, hats, glasses, pub signs, etc.) and a display case with historical Deschutes beer bottles and awards.

The tour was a cut above almost every other brewery tour we’ve had. Granted, it could have been we had a special guide, but it really was informative and comprehensive. We got a good view of, and information about, all of the following: the smaller brewing system dating from 1993 (31 bbl), now used for some experimental brews and which is also certified organic, the large main brewing system dating from 2004 (135 bbl), the fermentation vessels, the lab and taste testing area, and the bottling system (380 bottles/minute). The bottling system has been in use since 1993 and has bottled every single Deschutes beer. At the very end of the tour, there is an art gallery of the original paintings by Northwest artists that have been used to create the annual Jubelale labels (i.e., the labels for the annual holiday beer).

Review note: we gave less than a full score for selection because the taproom doesn't have all Deschutes beers on tap.