Anyone have any recommendations for a good bottle shop in Bend, OR? Also welcoming any recommendations for bottles to bring back to the east coast local to the PNW.
Broken Top Bottle Shop and The Beer Shoppe/Platypus Pub. Bend Brewing "Ching Ching," any and all Ale Apothecary bottles, Impasse and Half Hitch from Crux, and some Boneyard growlers.
I would also stop in Crow's Feet Common, last time I was there they still had a few Upright 'Special Herbs' bottles, and Oak Aged Bretta on tap. Growler Guys has the best price on growler fills, I think it's actually cheaper than direct from Boneyard, $9 for RPM and like $11 or something for Hop Venom when they have it on.
Bend has 2 bottle shops in town, Broken Top and The Brew Shop. Whole Foods and Newport Ave Market also get some bottles not found at the other places. Fortunately, all 4 places are roughly in an east-west line through the center of town, so it's easy to catch all of them in a relatively short time. Crow's Feet Commons has a small selection, but they do get some rarities. All the main growler fill shops have online taplists so you can browse without having to visit each. In addition to the breweries/beers listed above, be on the lookout for Below Grade Brewing (esp. Identity Crisis and Dangerous Kate), and some of De Garde's bottles might still be floating around town at Brew Shop or Crow's Feet. Logsdon distributes to VT, but may be easier to find the full selection here? Also lots of good local beer with zero hype, so don't be afraid to grab something nobody mentioned. I'm in town so if you have other questions or want to grab a beer, shoot me a BM.
I wouldn't limit Bend Brewing to Ching Ching - though it is great. Hop Head, Sexi Mexi, Elk Lake, their bitter ... they're pretty good across the board. Deschutes is worth swinging by; they have a lot on top that's never bottled. If you're there soon they just released their first ever brewery only bottle, Big Red (see the other thread in Northwest on this very topic). 10 Barrel is a solid place to grab food. I know they do some "special" bottles in their "Small Tank Project" on occasion ... but not sure what the frequency or distro is on them.
+1 to the comment about Bend Brewing. I don't think you can miss with anything they brew/bottle. Maybe I just didn't hit them at a good time, but I was really underwhelmed by the selection during my stop at Deschutes. None of their brewery only options impressed me at the time, though maybe the time of year had something to do with that (I was there in August and most of the brewery only beers were low alcohol session beers that were pretty "mehhhh").
You're probably right about them being hit or miss. My most recent trip probably has me in the favorable camp since I had an excellent IPA called Pine Drops - which tasted like pine & citrus candy in a good way - and the sour porter that was one of the blending beers from Black Butte XXV. I think I also had a Belgian IPA. This was in Portland though ... so perhaps the Portland brewers are a better lot. I find there are always Belgian styles on tap there whereas the bottle very little that's Belgian in nature (special releases like Dissident and Stoic aside).
Well I am still here currently. I had a chance to visit the Brew Shop and as of yet got my hands on Ale Apothecary Sahati and LaTache as well as a 2013 Abyss and a 2011 Abyss.
