Deschutes Brewery - History

History

Gary Fish established the Deschutes Brewery & Public House as small brew pub in 1988 in downtown Bend, Oregon and named it after the Deschutes River. Fish emphasized a community-based approach to his business, stating, "We want people to feel like this is, in a lot of ways, theirs." The brewery sold 310 barrels of beer in its first year, and by 1992, sales were up to 3,954 barrels. Unable to keep up with demand in its original facility, the brewery expanded to a 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) production brewery in 1993 with the ability to brew in 50-barrel batches. Deschutes now has a brewing facility with two brew houses, distributing its beer in eighteen Western & Midwestern states. Bend's original brew pub still brews most of the beer it pours at the pub on the 12-barrel system. A Deschutes brew pub opened in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon in May 2008.

In 2011, it announced plans to expand its brewing facility by 6,750 square feet (627 m2), allowing an additional 105,000 barrels to be brewed per year. New equipment installed will contain a water reuse system, saving the company thousands of gallons of water per year, as well as a carbon dioxide capture system from the fermentation process, which will decrease waste to the city sewer system. The expansion is expected to be completed mid-2012.