A HOPPY ITINERARY FOR BEER LOVERS
Hoppy IPAs, fruity sours, dark chocolaty porters: Whatever your suds preferences, chances are high that you’ll be deliriously happy in Central Oregon. Bend, after all, has more than 20 breweries all by its lonesome. And nearly every neighboring town in th
9 a.m.
Turns out, beer and espresso bars are a thing. Start your day at Spoken Moto, where the coffee is smallbatch roasted and the taps showcase Bend’s best. This renovated mechanics shed houses vintage motorcycles and an accessories shop, too. Pick up a latte or seasonal cold brew in the morning (leave the tap sampling for later in the day) and don’t miss the Scoutpost food truck parked outside, with its made-toorder doughnut holes and dipping sauces. (We hear they do killer breakfast sandwiches, too).
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The city’s Old Mill district offers plenty of riverside shopping and dining distractions less than half a mile away. But first, head for Immersion Brewing, a block from Spoken Moto, where you’ve booked a BIY session — that’s brew-it-yourself — offered Thursdays through Sundays. You can use the brewery’s copper kettles to brew a batch of Kölsch, a witbier or double IPA or two dozen other options.
The fee ($180 to $220, four people per kettle) includes all the ingredients, as well as the bottles, caps and custom labels for your bottling session two to three weeks later. (See how we did that? Suggested you make this a two- to three-week Bend vacation, without actually saying so?) Time it right and you can catch the Bend Brewfest, Aug. 1618 at the Les Schwab Amphitheater, too.
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Grab lunch at Immersion’s tasty brewpub or head over to Crux Fermentation Project, where the taps include 20 Crux brews and the food menu ranges from a Grilled Cheesy (Swiss, goat cheese, havarti and bacon), Reubens and French dips (with a portobello option) to a Project Board that includes cheeses, cured meats, bacon-wrapped figs and more. Don’t miss the Black and Tan Pretzel with smoked salt and beer cheese.
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You have multiple options at this point: The Bend Brew Bus heads out at 1:30 p.m. daily for brewery tours — four hours, four breweries, behind-the-scenes tours and appetizers for $75 per person — plus they’ll drop you off at your hotel afterward. Got a group of biking enthusiasts? Book a ride aboard the Cycle Pub instead, a crazy-fun pedal-powered private tour aboard the Big Bike for eight to 14 people ($380 flat fee) or the Small Bike for four to six ($180).
Want more flexibility? Head out on your own on the Bend Ale Trail, collecting passport stamps from 10 or more breweries — ahem, not all at once, people — to receive a souvenir Silipint. Although if you start out at 10 Barrel Brewing on Bend’s west side, with its 14 taps, familyfriendly patio and very tasty beerbraised bratwurst plate, steak and Gorgonzola nachos and Pubhouse Burgers, you may never leave.
Or sub in a suds-less pursuit by heading to the wonderful High Desert Museum just outside Bend, a wildlife and living history museum whose slogan is “where wild meets west.” Prefer the outdoors? Go hiking near the cozy nearby town of Sisters, where the 3.8-mile round-trip trail to the spectacular Black Butte Lookout, for example, includes an elevation gain of 1,556 feet. (Pack plenty of water and bring a camera).
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Opted for that hike? Wilderness adventures can translate to sore muscles. Sisters’ Hop in the Spa — the nation’s first beer spa — can help
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with that. Just to be clear, there is no actual beer in that aromatic cedar tub. The Deschutes Mirror Pond pale ale is administered internally beforehand, along with a Bavarianstyle pretzel. But hops and essential oils perfume the steaming soaking tubs ($89 and up), and the scent is pretty heavenly, even for non-beer lovers. You can book a massage, too. And a Hop in the (Beer) Garden is slated to open soon.
The sun has set, the sky is darkening and we have just one word for you: Hopservatory. When the folks behind Bend’s Worthy Brewing built their brewery, beer garden
and brewpub two years ago, they partnered with the Oregon Observatory at Sunriver. The result: The nation’s first brewery observatory. Enjoy dinner downstairs — Worthy ribs or tacos, perhaps, and a Strata IPA — then take the spiral staircase to the third floor after 8 p.m. to stargaze through an OGS 16-inch RC Reflector telescope.
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Brewery-hopping is exhausting. Time for some shut-eye. Our suggestion: The whimsical McMenamin’s Old St. Francis School, a historic campus-turned-eccentric-hotel in downtown Bend. There’s a brewery on-site.