Resort Brewery Sunriver Went From Mediocre Contract Brewer to One of the Best Breweries in the Country

Our personal favorite is Rippin, a Northwest-style pale ale bursting with hops, aroma and flavor, but light enough to be easy drinking.

(Pete Dunlop)

57100 Beaver Drive, Building 4, Sunriver, 541-593-3007, sunriverbrewingcompany.com. 11 am-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

Businesses come and go in Sunriver Village, which relies heavily on transient tourist dollars. When it opened five years ago, Sunriver Brewing was an instant hit. The beers were contract-brewed at the time and were typically substandard and inconsistent. Ownership fixed that by bringing in Brett Thomas, formerly of Bend's Silver Moon. Thomas supervised the construction of a brewery and orchestrated the dramatic rise of Sunriver's brewing program. Under his guidance, Sunriver has won numerous awards, including two gold medals at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival. There are a number of excellent beers available here on any given day. My personal favorite is Rippin, a Northwest-style pale ale bursting with hops, aroma and flavor, but light enough to be easy drinking. For something lighter, the seasonal Mexican Lager is a wonderful tip of the hat to the better beers of Mexico. The food is what you expect to find in most Oregon brewpubs, at prices that are reasonable enough for a resort area. More than a thousand faces a day pass through the pub during the busy winter and summer seasons, a point worth noting since they don't take reservations.

Nearby: Too many resort-based businesses rely on a captive crowd instead of quality. Sunriver has done the opposite, and succeeded to the point that they actually opened a satellite pub in town (1005 NW Galveston Ave., Bend, 541-408-9377, sunriverbrewingcompany.com).

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