http://blog.seattlepi.com/thepourfool/archives/182851.asp
Deschutes...The Best Brewery In America?
Your Intrepid Fool Says...Quite Possibly!
In the surprisingly small world of big-league craft brewing, there are some names - young as the community is - that carry a little magic in them: Port Brewing of San Marcos, CA...Three Floyds Brewing of Munster, Indiana...Victory Brewing of Downington, PA...Stone Brewing of Escondido, California...Russian River...North Coast...Dogfish Head...Founder's...Surly... Firestone-Walker...Goose Island...and the list goes on and on. They're everywhere - literally. Allagash, in Maine, is perhaps America's best brewer of Belgian-style ales. Ommegang, in Cooperstown, New York, is the leading innovator of Belgian ales given a left-handed American spin. Great Divide, in downtown Denver, is world-famous for it's high-octane, hop-crazy style. AleSmith, in San Diego, scores consistent 90-point+ ratings on practically all it's beers. Even in my own home state of North Carolina - which had TWO craft breweries when I left in 1992 - there's Duck Rabbit Brewing, which is quickly building a national-grade reputation.
Over the past ten+ years, I've made an effort to taste as many beers from as many of these brewers as I possibly could; sometimes going to great lengths to get to places where those not distributed in Seattle could be found. On a trip back to Washington, DC/Virginia/North Carolina, I finally got to taste the Three Floyds ales, which more than lived up to the hype. Some have come to me: Russian River, Bear Republic, Port Brewing, and Firestone-Walker have all recently signed on with Seattle distributors. And my last trip to Denver was nothing less than revelatory: Breckenridge, Great Divide, Boulder Brewing, Left Hand, Avery, Del Norte, Twisted Pine, Oskar Blues and Wynkoop all got me for a short while. California brewers you can't find here, like Green Flash, were on tap in Denver's pubs. But, after all that, and after 18 years in the Northwest - arguably the closest thing on the planet to Beer Heaven - ONE brewery has stood out, the entire time, as the one I drift from periodically in search of the Next Big Thing but always come back to for my serious craft ale appreciation:
Deschutes Brewing of Bend, Oregon.
Deschutes Brewing is simply, in my humble opinion, the most complete, most accomplished, most confident, most experimental, and most successful brewer of fine ales I have ever found within the borders of this country.
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