Deschutes Brewery

             As promised I am finally going to post some pictures of mine and kelly's VIP tour of Deschutes Brewery in Bend Oregon.  First a little bit of back story.  I know that me and my lovely wife are not the only ones to ever receive a VIP tour to the Deschutes Brewery but for us to get hooked up in this way simply because Kelly used to work for the Meat Lockers is a really cool opportunity and was a lot of fun.  Not that one needs an excuse to visit Bend, but this made our little weekend out all the more special!

As you drive in to the Deschutes Brewery you are greeted by some beautifully large grain silos housing the delicious "fruit" of the beverage that is housed within these walls.  

Between here and the next picture we walk in to the main lobby and are greeted by the friendly staff at the Deschutes Brewery and offered some tastings of their amazing brews.  We gaze around at all the swag, all the normal brewery stuff, pint glasses, t-shirts, hoodies, and await our tour.

The tour begins and the first big stop is right here where all the magic happens.  We are told the story of the company that designs the boilers and mash tuns and such for Deschutes Brewery.  It's a pretty amazing story involving millions of dollars, shutting down highways for transport, and overseas commerce.  The company that designs these tanks is one of a kind and each of these tanks is one piece of seamless stainless steel, making them simple to clean because of the lack of space for contaminants to get stuck in. 

 Heres a little peek in to one of the tanks.  To be completely honest I'm not quite sure what this one is used for and while I may grasp the general procedure for brewing beer, I can't for the life of me remember what this tank is for. (beer geeks everywhere are laughing at me).

 Hops glorious glorious hops!!! Here is a picture of Deschutes Brewery's hop storage room.   We actually got to split open and taste one of the whole flower hops, it's bitter as one would expect and it smells like delicious beer!

 This is my very favorite picture of the tour!  I'm pretty sure our tour guide told us this is a secret room just so we'd feel special but if not then I'm about to spill the beans!  When you go down stairs in the brewery the tour guide shows you the room where all the employees gets a free pint of beer after their shift is over (one of the perks of working at Deschutes Brewery).  In this room you will see a door marked "restroom".  Well as the picture tells the story it really isn't a restroom, it's a staff tasting room.  In here there are many kegs hooked up with a few beers that the general public doesn't get to taste on tap (but we did)!  On the door is a dry erase board with the names of the brews that are on tap.   Some of the names are simply employee nick names for common brews, all of them are delicious!

Finally to end this blissful journey, a picture of my handsome face holding a sampler platter from the Deschutes Brew Pub.  You can get an amazing plethora of brews for a fair price at the brew pub along with some of the best food you could ask for.  If you venture here I recommend the garlic burger... this burger is seriously so good it will hurt you! Served on their fresh focaccia bread, a perfectly juicy garlicy flavored beef burger and beautifully displayed with their scrumptious french fries (or another side if you are silly enough to not like french fries).  The final word on the matter is, if you are in bend EAT HERE!

Thank you all for reading and for your interest in my blog, until next time enjoy your fine craft brews and hope to hear from you soon!