Biography

Established: 1988

Owners: Gary and Carol Fish

Brewers: Karl Ockert, director of brewing operations; Veronica Vega, brewmaster

Locations: Bend Public House, 1044 NW Bond St., Bend, (541) 382-9242

Bend Tasting Room
901 SW Simpson Ave.
Bend, OR 97702

Portland Public House
210 NW 11^th Ave.
Portland, OR 97209

PDX Airport Pub
7000 NE Airport Way
Portland, OR 97218

Roanoke Tasting Room
315 Market St. SE
Roanoke, VA 24011

Specialty: And every Deschutes Brewery pint shared has a healthy dose of community, experimentation, and ingenuity.  It’s crafted with plenty of balance and drinkability and invested with quality and consistency. Deschutes has always emphasized a community-based approach to their business. Every pint shared has a healthy dose of community, experimentation and ingenuity.  It’s crafted with plenty of balance and drinkability and invested with quality and consistency. Deschutes uses an in-house, proprietary yeast strain resembling Wyeast Laboratories, Inc. #1187 Ringwood Ale yeast.

Five Notable Beers: Black Butte Porter, Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Obsidian Stout, Fresh Squeezed IPA, The Abyss

Awards: Deschutes has earned too many awards to list, but we’ll list a few. … Fresh Squeezed IPA grabbed silver at 2015 North America Beer Awards. Hop Hedge and Fresh Squeezed took gold at 2014 World Beer Awards. Obsidian Stout named “Best Stout” at 2013 and 2014 World Beer Awards. Deschutes Brewery received the 2012 Sustainability Award from the Central Oregon Environmental Center and was named in 2011 as a “Green Power Partner” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mirror Pond Pale Ale took the silver at the 2017 World Beer Awards, while Obsidian Stout took America’s Best Stout. Obsidian also won gold at European Beer Star. In 2016, Mirror Pond won bronze at European Beer Star and World’s Best Bitter 4 – 5% at the World Beer Awards. Obsidian Stout did well with a gold at Brussels Beer Challenge, gold at European Beer Star and World’s Best Stout at World Beer Awards. Hop Slice Summer Ale won World’s Best Low Strength Beer at the 2016 World Beer Awards and Mirror Mirror won World’s Best Dark Beer.

Fun Facts:

>> Deschutes Brewery is a family business but employees own about 7.9 percent of the company.

>> Deschutes Brewery sold 310 barrels of beer in its first year, and by 1992, sales were up to 3,954 barrels. The brewery produced 385,000 barrels of beer in 2015.

>> In June 2013 Ernst & Young recognized Gary Fish as a Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur Of The Year Award Recipient.

>> In spring 2016 Fortune named Deschutes the 8th largest brewery in America.

>> Deschutes is building an East Coast brewery in Roanoke, Virginia.

>>Ships beer to 32 states, District of Columbia, British Columbia and Alberta

>>Recently opened a tap room and restaurant on the East Coast in Roanoke, Virginia with plans to start production in their new brewery in 2021.

Californian Gary Fish established his brewpub concept, Deschutes Public House, in downtown Bend in 1988. Named after the Deschutes Rover, Deschutes was Central Oregon’s first brewery. Fish hired John Harris (founder of Ecliptic Brewing Co.) from McMenamins. Legislation and a growing provincialism for locally crafted beers soon turned the microbrewer of Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter in obscure Bend, Oregon into a macro success, as the state’s largest brewer by barrel count. In 2012, the brewery expanded its brewing facility by 6,750 square feet, adding 105,000 barrels of production capacity. Still family and employee owned, the brewery is known for brewing a diverse line-up of award winning beers including the popular Fresh Squeezed IPA, Black Butte Porter, and Mirror Pond Pale Ale. With a second brewpub in Portland’s Pearl District that has become a popular destination for craft beer lovers from around the world, Deschutes Brewery now ships beer to 28 states, the District of Columbia, and internationally from its main brewing facility located on the banks of the Deschutes River.

LINK: Deschutes Brewery archives