Central Oregon Beer Week

May 22-31, 2015, we're firing up Memorial Day weekend and rollin' right on through with 9 days of Central Oregon beer love! Our kickoff event will again be the SMaSH Fest at McMenamins with Single Malt, Single Hop beers from Central Oregon and beyond. Some of the other events I'm anticipating are the Growler Phil's mini-fest (tucked back in their parking lot including food from Primal Cuts butcher shop), the Three Creeks production facility Grand Opening party, and the 3-Way release party at Crow's Feet Commons with Ft. George, pFriem, and Georgetown representing. New events are being added regularly, so keep an eye on http://centraloregonbeerweek.com/2015-central-oregon-beer-week-events/. Anyone planning to be in town at the end of this month?

 

Finalized the details for the 19 SMaSH beers at the festival. 18 different hop varieties, and almost as many malt choices. Several brand new or experimental hop varieties, and at least one beer using Central Oregon's own Mecca Grade malt.

I think almost all the hops grown in Central Oregon got used fresh last year, but if any are dried from harvest this year I'm pulling for an all Central Oregon-sourced SMaSH beer at next year's festival. Not many parts of the country could pull that off.

 

Got an early taste of the official COBW beer, COBW IPA(ish) by Sunriver Brewing, at BTBS tonight. If it wasn't good, I'd keep it to myself, but I'm proud to say it's a damn fine beer! Proud as in I had nothing to do with actually producing the beer, but I was the one who talked to the right guy at the brewery and said "We thought it'd be cool if you did the official COBW beer this year," and the brewery guy was like, "Yeah." And then he coordinated the brew schedule, lined up the accounts for distribution. Basically he and the Brewer did all the work.

Like really really proud.

COBW IPA(ish), 6.5%, Simcoe, Amarillo, Mosaic, and Citra

 

Just fine, thanks. A little sunshine while enjoying a Worthy Pre-Funk Pale:

 

Since it was a COBW event, I'll add here that the 3-Way is an 8 or 9 vs. last year's 10. Still really good, and while it's hard not to hold it to last year's standard, that's not very fair.

Overdub is great too, and CFC also had Ft. George Karate Hopped, from NW rep Tim Ensign. Per Tim, he gets to brew 1 beer a year, and he did a great job. Also got to have Eddie IPL and Craigalicious from Georgetown, they don't usually send those beers to Bend. Solid event!

 

I wasn't sure if they were more common in PDX or not, but we see only Manny's and Lucille on the regular. Johnny Utah too, maybe.

 

Some other COBW-related news: Oblivion had a soft opening this weekend for their brewpub on Galveston, and Prineville brewery Solstice rebranded to Ochoco Brewing (harkening back to the name of Central Oregon's frontier brewery in the 1890s).