Only the photo from our motel room is bleak and dark. (Great effect using black and white on this photo.) The weekend, however, was a super weekend in Bend, Oregon. Along with some other tasks to complete – see the Retirement in Idaho blog – we also had a great time visiting some brew pubs in Bend. As it turns out, we had a comparison tasting of beer. Look at these photos and the story should become clear. Cheers!

Mount Hood from Brothers, Oregon. It’s a long way to the mountain from this vantage point.

Buddy wanted to go to bed after an eventful day. This is the first time we have taken him with us for any distance or period of time. He did very, very well!

Our first stop was at the Pine Tavern in Bend. They have a good Happy Hour. I asked the manager, Rob, what beer he suggested to have with our appetizers. He suggested a 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA and the discussion of this beer is in the previous post. It was an awesome brew!!

Fried Green Beans
Onion Rings
These were both very good!

Crab Taco

Beef Bites

Trader Joe’s in Bend, Not Boise! Why not?

Robin trying to make up her mind in Trader Joe’s.

Deschutes Brewery and Pub

Inside the pub.

Here is the Special! Only problem is, they were all out of the house sausage. Too bad, they were probably good!

Here is the flight we had. Reading the top row, left to right:
Deschutes Brewery Hefeweizen (Good with oyster shooters), Trees From Doom Dunkel (Sweet) and Green Lakes Organic Ale (Best with brats)
Front Row, Left to right:
Welcome Back Wit (Rated this best), Hop Henge Experimental IPA (Rated second), Inversion IPA (Rated at the bottom. This was supposed to be better than the 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA. It was not.)
The Inversion just did not meet up to the 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA. See below.

10 Barrel Brewery and Pub

The building. Look close if you are driving … You can miss it.

The patio with the fire going – it was cool – is very inviting.

Their pizzas are good, but not as good as the Flying Pie Pizza here in Boise. (We didn’t throw any away, though.)

Colorful T-Shirt!

Apocalypse IPA, 22 ounce is all they sell. This is an awesome brew! It definitely is a benchmark for me. Slightly – very slightly – sweet and very, very smooth. Light with a long finish. It went very well with the Pepperoni Pizza we had. I did tell our Waiter that we were there at the suggestion of the Pine Tavern Manager, Rob, and that we had done a comparison tasting between their Apocalypse and Deschutes Inversion. 10 Barrel won … substantially. He was happy!

So there you have our brewery tour in Bend, Oregon. I guess we will have to go back and finish our tour. That sounds like fun!! And let’s see if we can get the 10 Barrel Brewery Apocalypse IPA here in Boise! Bet you won’t keep it on the shelf. It’s that good. If it were a wine, it would be a 98! Cheers!