Tag Archives: Bend OR

NAGBW Award Winner: One Of The World’s Most Obscure Beers Comes To Bend

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It’s almost a good thing I neglected to post this story about smokey, Gotland, Sweden-style farmhouse ale, aka Gotlandsdricke, when it was published in Bend Source Weekly this past year. Why? Because it gives me a chance to share it now, now that it was awarded the 3rd Best Beer Review by the North American Guild of Beer Writers. It’s a real thing!

I neither fell in love with this beer style–perhaps most closely resembling a Polish-style Grodziskie or Lichtenhainer, but those also require high levels of beergeekdom given how obscure they are–neither in Sweden nor here in Bend, Oregon, but in Boston, Mass! That’s the backgrounder on how I played a roll in getting a stab at the style to be made here in Bend…

Bend’s Best (Autumnal) Doughnuts

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For the latest seasonal round-up of Bend’s best doughnuts, we start by hunting for fall’s best style, the apple cider doughnut. When that search failed, we went with anything that reminded us of fall-scented candles. Here are Central Oregon’s best autumnal doughnuts. Careful you don’t accidentally move to Vermont.

Sisters are Brewing it for Themselves

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I know that’s a played out pun, but I like Annie Lennox and I love Aretha Franklin, so I’m using it. It’s also the most apt way to headline the beer that Pink Boots Society–an organization with the mission of elevating women in the workforce (and beyond) brews on International Women’s Day. It makes me think back to a quote that Jodie Stoudt, head brewer at Stoudt’s Brewing (and the daughter in law of Carol Stoudt, who was perhaps the first woman to build and own a brewery in the craft era) said to me when I interviewed her in 2006. “Women taste better than men.” She was, of course, referring to women’s analytical skills. So raise a pint to the brewsters in your life, and the ones you wish were in your life because girlz got mad brewing skills.

Bend’s Best (Boston Cream Pie) Doughnuts

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Since Boston cream pie doughnuts are my 5th-grade son’s favorites, for the latest quarterly round-up of Bend’s best doughnuts, nepotism led me to use his friends as judges and jury the morning after his birthday sleepover-party. I assure you, dear readers, they executed with Gordon Ramsey-like brutal honesty. So much so one of the owners got up in the comments of this one (for the first time that I know of).

I really need to get better at doughnut photography. I don’ do any of the drool-inducing morsels justice.

Bend’s Best (Old-fashioned) Doughnuts

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It was all I could do to keep from licking my own iPhone screen.

When presented perfectly, the glazed craggy ring is one of the most perfect doughnuts.The fact that one of Bend’s four brick’n’mortar doughnut shops only makes them intermittently makes me realize that such a bakery without old-fashioneds would be like a brewery without an old-school classic pale ale. Given that I’ve awakened to the simple, ecumenical beauty of old-fashioneds, I collected both the quintessential glazed version as well as chocolate-frosted, and even a few others such as cinnamon-sugar, maple-iced and true O.G. plain (like an unglazed cake doughnut, these are only intended for dunking in coffee or hot cocoa), If you’re jonesing for any sort of old-fashioned in Bend, heed our grueling research.

Bend’s Best (Jelly) Doughnuts

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Look, it’s a matter of fortuitousness that I became both a beer writer and a doughnut writer. But if I’m being honest, I think Canada’s antiheroes, the McKenzie Bros. had something to do with it. Which is also why I can’t even THINK the words “jelly douhnut” without hearing Rick Moranis sheepishly offer, “It’s a jelly.”

It’s a jelly.

So I was elated to drive all over Bend and Sisters in search of Bend’s best jellies!

Discovering Bend’s Secret Doughnut Shops

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I instinctively knew there weren’t enough doughnut shops in Bend and Central Oregon. What I discovered is that a few enterprising young women have done something about it! Thanks to Oregon laws about cottage catering, I wrote up the places you can order and pick-up custom-made doughnuts. Who knows, they may be right next door!

Bend’s Best (Apple Fritter) Doughnuts

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One’s a one-off, two’s a series! The next installment of my doughnut round-ups, where I spend an early morning driving all over Bend (and even out to Sisters) to score a sample of a particular variety lands on the Yaeger Family Favorite: the mighty apple fritter. Who makes the best around? Sink your teeth in here to find out.