The Beer of Him That Breweth in The Wilderness.

I got out to the Pacific Northwest (PacNW) and toured western Oregon recently. One day, after an excellent lunch with great beer on the side of Mt. Hood at the Mt. Hood brewpub, I drove south into what is known as 'the high desert.'

Somehow I moved from the thick pine forests around Mt. Hood to the dusty scrub of the desert without noticing the transition, an odd, slightly disturbing affect of the senses that set a mystic tone for the afternoon. Mountains far off across the desert to my left and right, mountains ahead, and everywhere clouds spiked by bright sunshine created a scene from books of Native American myth (put me in mind of Knee Deep in Thunder, a book by Sheila Moon that I highly recommend for early teens).

After a stunning descent into the canyon where the Warm Springs oasis lounges by the river, I continued south, pacing the mountains, till I came to Bend, the vision of my quest. In this surprisingly green and busy town in the desert, I found Deschutes Brewing, and its somewhat visionary, wholly practical president, Gary Fish.

I helped pick Deschutes as Malt Advocate magazine's Brewery of the Year a couple years back. I like this brewery and their beer. After meeting and interviewing Gary Fish, I'm even more impressed.

The brewery (not the brewpub in 'downtown' Bend, which is a different and thoroughly enjoyable proposition that I also highly recommend) is a building of modern design on the south side of Bend, perched on a small bluff looking over the Deschutes River and Bend's growing commercial area. The actual workings are big, automated, and very impressive. Tours end in the Mountain Room on the top floor, a room with sampling taps and a wide glass front that gives a great view of those mystic mountains.

What's the story on Deschutes? Founded by Fish in 1988 in the brewpub, the company was kind of dragged into a larger market by demand from Portland. In 1989 a Portland wholesaler asked for some beer. Fish and brewer John Harris (now at Full Sail's Pilsner Room, and one of the PacNW's best brewers) rounded up some kegs and piggybacked them onto a local recycling truck headed to Portland. That's how things were done in those days! Soon they needed their own truck and were brewing 7,000 bbls. That's when the decision was made to build a production brewery.

That's when the story diverges from most microbrewery stories from this era. Unlike other area micros, Deschutes did not jump into a huge building program based on growth projections of 40%/year continuing into the future unabated. They moved ahead gradually. "We don't have to move fast," said Fish, "just forward. We're meeting our goals, and it's a long, long game."

Built in 1993, the facility was finally built out in its last phase just this year. They are now at a maximum capacity of just over 100,000 bbls., which... is just about what they're selling. Smart. Very smart, when you consider that brewing is a business that makes its money on efficiencies.

But enough business, let's have a beer. Deschutes is a little different here, too, in that their flagship is a dark beer: Black Butte Porter. While everyone else in the area pushed relatively easily approached pale ales and ambers, "We took a contrarian approach," said Fish. "The dark beer was smaller, but we figured we could own almost all of it."

That's how it turned out, too; Deschutes Black Butte is the largest selling porter in the country, with 90% of the PacNW porter market. The brewery is firmly behind the beer, even though their Mirror Pond Pale Ale is starting to outsell it. "Black Butte will always be the flagship," said Fish. I saw Black Butte taps everywhere, and got my share: it's a fairly mild but flavorful porter, not too roasty (thank God) and not too sweet.

Mirror Pond Pale Ale is a beauty of a beer, though, and shows Deschutes knows what they're doing in this crucial market as well. While it carries the full-honk nose of Cascades necessary to success in this market, it has a surprisingly firm malt underpinning, a slippery, supple, strong mouthfeel that is more than body but never something you'd call 'heavy.' This is a superlative beer, and probably my favorite of the line.

One other that deserves mention is the Pine Mountain Pils, a relative rarity in the PacNW (Full Sail does a pilsner, but few other large micros do). Formerly named Paulina Pils ("paw-LINE-uh") after a local mountain (all the Deschutes beers are named for local geographical features: the Cascade Ale is not a Cascade-hopped beer, but is named for the Cascade Mountains), Deschutes changed the name after some pressure from the Paulaner brewery of Munich, who thought there might be some confusion. Maybe so, but everywhere in the production facility, the beer is pointedly referred to as "Paulina." Good for them!

A friend of mine recently compared it to the Alsatian pilsner from Meteor, and it's a good comparison; both beers have a very drinkable malt character with more an aroma of hops than a big bitterness, almost more like an Export style. A fine, fine, drinkable pils that has an alluring freshness to it.

What else can you tell me, I asked Fish at the end of the interview. He paused for thought, then he smiled. "It's a great business, it's fun," he said. "I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing."

After one of Deschutes' excellent beers, you'll probably feel the same way.



Recommended: Yes

Brewery Name: Deschutes Brewery
Date Visited: July 2001
Tours Offered: Yes
Tasting cost, per person: NA
Brewery Rating: Plan your trip around this!