Writing a story a few months after it happens either requires notes or a good memory. I don’t have much of either. Regardless, my memories of Bend are some of the best times we’ve had while living on the road. The mountain biking trails here are epic and match up with the almost 30 breweries within and surrounding Bend. And we’ve got the tour of Bend Oregon’s best breweries laid out for you right here.
Bend, Oregon. A mecca of all things outdoors, including the eats and drinks to celebrate with afterward and the coffee shops to fuel you up beforehand. With the Deschutes River running through this beautiful town, and streets that seem to end at one brewery or food truck or another, this is the place to go for adventurous beer lovers.
We managed to hit up most of the breweries in the area and spent a lot of time boondocking at Phil’s Trailhead where we rode our mountain bikes pretty much every other day. If you must get a lot of work done while spending time here, not sure if this the place to be. There’s so much to see and do, and playing in this natural wonderland is a must. Regardless, somehow we managed to work, eat, play, and drink our way through Bend, Oregon.
Bend Breweries Near Me
And with so many breweries, how do you know which ones to visit? All of them, of course. Did we visit all of them? Most, but not all. Our livers need a break every once in a while. So, while we did not visit all of them, we did do our best to list and link all of them so that you can find all the Bend breweries near you. If you decide you want to visit all of them, well, hopefully, we made that task a little bit easier for your brain to handle.
PRO TIP: Many small breweries are closed Sun-Weds. They also generally don’t open until late afternoon, so plan accordingly.
A Tour of Bend, Oregon’s Best Breweries
We’ll tell you what we recommend and our favorites based off of beer, ambiance, and more. What we won’t tell you is where not to go. Everyone has differing opinions on what creates a favorite place for them and there are so many subjective components that come into play when choosing favorite breweries.
If we visit a brewery and the flavor profiles of the beer there are not what our palates are looking for at that time, we’re not going to tell you it’s a bad brewery. But if a brewery has beer that has something off, such as spoilage or poorly made qualities based off of what beer is supposed to be, we’ll tell you that.
Otherwise, you’ll have to embark upon your own Bend brewery tour. Figuring out your favorites is the fun part. We’re simply here to get you started.
🍻 our favorites – Honestly, we loved all the breweries, but everyone has favorites, including us, and we felt that these were some of Bend, Oregon’s best breweries.
Oh, the breweries we visited!
- The Ale Apothecary 🍻
- GoodLife Brewing Company
- Bend Brewing Company
- Deschutes Brewery 🍻
- Worthy Brewing Company🍻
- Immersion Brewing
- Bevel Craft Brewing
- Spider City Brewing
- Boneyard Beer
- Crux Fermentation Project 🍻
- Monkless Belgian Ales 🍻
- Crosscut Warming Hut No. 5 🍻
And the ones we didn’t get to.
There’s only so much time in this world, and oh so many places to see. So, while we didn’t make it to these Bend Breweries, maybe you have. Let us know what you think! We love hearing other people’s stories about brewery visits, not just ours.
- Bridge 99 Brewery
- Cascade Lakes Brewing Company
- Craft Kitchen and Brewery
- Kobold Brewing
- McMenamins St. Francis School
- Oblivion Brewing Company
- Silver Moon Brewing
- Van Henion Brewing Company
- 10 Barrel Brewing Company
A bit of info on the Bend breweries we visited.
We don’t want to color your impressions of the breweries before you get a chance to visit them. But we do want to be a bit helpful so that you know where to start, at least.
THE ALE APOTHECARY
Tucked away in a little shopping center next to GoodLife Brewing, sits the taproom for The Ale Apothecary. This vintage batch oak barrel brewery offers unique naturally sourced and fermented craft brews. Brewed at Paul and Staci’s farm just outside Bend, the Ale Apothecary is a must on a Bend brewery tour and is one of Bend, Oregon’s best breweries. The intimate taproom is a perfect space for a cold winter’s day snuggled up inside, and the quaint patio space is just terrific for those beautiful summer days when you just can’t get enough of Mother Nature. Absolutely one of our most favorite places in Bend and the world, Paul and Staci, and everyone here will make you feel like you live in Bend and belong nowhere else but here.
Be sure to listen to our podcast where we got to sit down with Paul (with some fun input from Staci) to learn all about the farm and his unique brewing process, but we also talked about travel and all the craziness of life.
GOODLIFE BREWING COMPANY
Since you have just visited Paul and Staci next door, take a quick wander down past a few shops, and you’ll come across GoodLife Brewing Company. A good brewpub with good standard beers along with a few surprises, and pub fare to sink your teeth into, this is the perfect next stop on your Bend brewery tour. You can enjoy a sports bar feel on the inside or fully enjoy soaking up some vitamin D on their expansive patio space.
BEND BREWING COMPANY
A staple in Bend’s bountiful craft beer world, Bend Brewing Company is the second oldest brewery in Bend. Offering delectable pub fare that goes above and beyond typical pub fare and beers that have proven themselves time after time, this is another must on a Bend brewery tour. It has a special place in our heart because of its patio where we were able to sit outdoors and chat with a few strangers during a time when it was hard to do so. You all know what time I speak of. So yes, there’s that, but it simply has a feel good vibe. Plus, it’s located downtown next to all the wonderful things that define Bend, including the Deschutes River.
DESCHUTES BREWERY
And speaking of the Deschutes River, you can’t miss one of Bend’s best and oldest breweries, Deschutes Brewery. A staple in Bend’s beer world, it is also one of the breweries that got us hooked on craft beer so many years ago. There’s definitely a special place in our hearts for this brewery, and even though they now have beers all over the country, they still manage to make their spaces feel small and intimate, especially the brewery taproom. Small, but offering all the beers you would expect from Deschutes, you’ll also get specialty and aged beers only available there. We spent some money!
If you’re looking for food and beer from Deschutes, then you must visit their downtown brewpub location, where you’ll find all of the above. Whatever you choose – how about both – you’ll be rewarded with a classic that isn’t going away anytime soon.
WORTHY BREWING COMPANY
With a focus on great beers, of course, the folks at Worthy are also quite focused on sustainability and education. With a greenhouse and hop yard on-site at their original location, along with access to their very own hopservatory to view things greater than the hops – yes, there are things greater than hops, Worthy Brewing Company is worthy of a visit.
We only had the chance to hang at their newest downtown location, but with great food, a quaint patio, and very cool artistic indoor space, this is a brewery to return to again and again. Especially, so we can go back and check out the magic at the original brewhouse. And like I said, Worthy is worthy of your tour of Bend, Oregon’s best bbreweries.
IMMERSION BREWING
Located in the Old Mill Shopping District, Immersion Brewing has the beers you want along with the food you need from their made from scratch kitchen. Enjoy a pint of a wide selection of beers from IPAs to fruited sours to ambers, and even some dark beers including some barrel-aged beauties. The patio is inviting, and so is the area.
BEVEL CRAFT BREWING
Located at the 9th Street Village, surrounded by food trucks, Bevel Craft Brewing is a beautiful place to pull up a seat on a beautiful patio space, grab some grub, and enjoy the beers all around a fire pit when the weather warrants it.
All breweries have a story and Bevel is no different. The owners here have traveled quite extensively in their quest of becoming two of the most recognized professional disc golfers in the world. The beveled edge transformed the traditional frisbee into a powerful flying force, creating the disc. And these two have taken that transformation and innovation into Bevel Craft Brewing. Stop on by to drink some beers from a disc and taste that innovation in a glass.
SPIDER CITY BREWING
Spider City Brewing grew out of a love for traveling and beer. With two locations serving up all types of beers including IPAs, sour series, stouts, and German and Belgian beers, there’s an atmosphere of inclusivity for everyone here. And just as with the other breweries, Spider City has space for both indoor and outdoor lovers.
BONEYARD BEER
Not too far down the road from Spider City, you’ll find a boneyard. Boneyard Beer, that is. This is the place to be when it comes time to enjoy a beer in Bend, pint glass in hand, casually sipping away on the patio that never seems to end.
Collecting old brewing equipment from 13 different breweries across the country, Boneyard Beer was born with one simple goal in mind – to make great beer. And that they have done. Whether you pay a visit here for a pint of their Plum Saison or one of their well-known IPAs, or even a bite to eat, Boneyard may not let you leave for quite some time. After all, time on their patio is time very well spent.
CRUX FERMENTATION PROJECT
The second we walked into Crux Fermentation Project, we knew we wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. Famous for its live music and events in its Craft Beer Park, you won’t be leaving soon either. Literally in the center of Bend, they are housed in an old transmission repair plant, now fixing relationships through beer instead of transmissions. When we were there, we knew we were in the right place; they were showing a ski movie in the beer park, and we had a surprise visit from a friend. Life is good when you’re at a brewery.
From their banished barrel-aged series to their IPAs to everything in between, Crux offers a unique style of brewing with open fermentation, wild yeast strains, and experimental hops. And we’ve got all the information in a podcast and video for you. Click here to listen to more about one of the best breweries in Bend, Oregon.
MONKLESS BELGIAN ALES
Not too far from Crux – actually most breweries in Bend aren’t too far from each other – is another favorite of ours, Monkless Belgian Ales. Any brewery that has Belgian in the title, I’m in. And while we have yet to visit Belgium, we got pretty close when we walked into this gem of a brewery. Their dark colors and intense architecture, along with their stunning flight presentation was reminiscent of a monastery straight out of Belgian. Not run by monks, though, hence the name Monkless, the brewery is absolutely fantastic for its beer along with its delectable food. Another don’t miss brewery on your Bend brewery tour.
CROSSCUT WARMING HUT NO. 5
Ok, yes, this isn’t a brewery, and there are many other taprooms in Bend that are probably awesome, too, but we found Crosscut Warming Hut No. 5 and fell in love the moment we entered the door. Actually, before that. This tap house makes you feel as though you just walked in off the mountain from the best ski day ever! Order a beer from one of their over thirty taps, cozy on up to their fireplace, or wander out into the beer garden. Either way, the place is phenomenal. Combine the beer and the ambiance with gourmet food truck choices in the garden, and you may find yourself choosing the warming hut over your favorite Bend brewery.
Nearby Breweries: Redmond, Sisters, & Sunriver
With several small towns located within mere minutes of Bend, and each of those towns with a brewery or two, and a mountain biking trail or two nearby, these are worth a day trip or two. The only brewery outside of Bend we made it to (we just couldn’t get ourselves to leave Bend and Phil’s Trailhead) was Sunriver Brewing Company. And while all good beer is worth the trip, such as Sunriver Brewing, there was just so much to explore in Bend, that we found no reason to head back that way again. But you might!
Redmond – 17 miles north of Bend
- Kobold Brewing
- Cascade Lakes Brewing Company
- Wild Ride Brew
- Porter Brewing Company
- Initiative Brewing
Sisters – 22 miles NW of Bend
Sunriver – 17 miles south of Bend
If you’re need of some new adventures and breweries in and around the Bend area, venture forth my friend. There are always great places. Seek and you shall find!
Recreation, Food, Coffee & Shopping in Bend
Recreation/Mountain Biking
There’s so much to do here. From water recreation in Deschutes River and Mirror Pond to hiking to people-watching to shopping to road trips everywhere that lead you to more places to recreate. And did I mention mountain biking? So many trails in Bend and the surrounding areas. You can either ride your favorites again and again, like we did, or explore mere minutes away in Redmond and Sisters, to name just a couple.
One of our favorite pastimes, besides drinking beer, is mountain biking. And we fell in love with Phil’s Trailhead. The trails, the people, the closeness to Bend, and the free camping. For all the deets on Phil’s, check out Trailforks. Also, check out our Bikin’ Bits podcast episodes, where we share all the info about where to ride and what to expect in a short podcast. We’ve got three of them from Phil’s area. All you have to do is scroll down a tiny bit, once you click this link. Either that or just listen to all of the Bikin’ Bits episodes. We’re kinda hilarious!
Food, Coffee & Shopping
Again, there’s so much to do here, including places to eat, drink (beer, always) coffee, and shop for necessities and all the things you want to buy but don’t need. While most of our food budget goes into craft breweries, meaning when we find a brewery with food this is also where we usually eat, there are a few places that we managed to get to that aren’t breweries.
Places like Looney Bean Coffee in downtown Bend with an expansive green grass patio space right next to Mirror Pond. Places like the Old Mill District with shopping and dining. Places like The Lot with an outdoor space, a bar with craft beer, food trucks, and heated seats to keep your butt warm on those cool Bend evenings. The Lot was really cool and one of our favorite places, but those heated seats made it over-the-moon cool.
Places like all of Bend, really. We fell in love with this town. We think you will, too.
Now, go out there and create your own story, your own epic brewery tour of Bend, Oregon. And let us know what you love.
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The Craft Beer Adventure Journal
Need to keep track of all the beer you drank? What it tasted like, looked like, where you drank it? We’ve got you covered with the Craft Beer Adventure Journal. Order yours today.
The Craft Brewery and Mountain Bike Trail Finder Map
Want more craft beer travel advice on where to go? Need to visit all the breweries? Check out our brewery map, getting you the info you need on the breweries and places you want to visit.
