REDMOND Doug Kutella and Rick Orazetti are the kind of beer dudes who would be naturals for a television commercial.

They’re both 26-year-olds whose wardrobes lean toward baseball caps, T-shirts and jeans. They drive well-worn SUVs. And they’re passionate about suds.

These two aren’t a couple of couch potatoes eating chips while draining a half-case of cheap beer watching sports on the weekend, however.

After purchasing Redmond’s first and only microbrewery, Cascade Lakes Brewing Co., about a year ago, they’re working long hours revitalizing the business.

”How many hours do I put in?” said Rick Orazetti with a laugh. ”Let’s see, what’s 16 hours times seven days?”

Cascade Lakes was started on a shoestring budget by brothers Steve and Dave Gazeley in 1994 in a nondescript 5,000-square-foot building in an industrial park west of the Redmond Airport. Known mainly for its Rooster Tail Ale, Monkey Face Porter and Angus MacDougal amber ale, the company for years has been distributing kegs and bottled beer throughout Central Oregon and in Portland.

Cascade Lakes hardly is on the radar screen of craft brewers in the state: For example, the brewery expects to produce about 3,000 barrels this year. That’s less than 10 percent of what Bend’s Deschutes Brewery produced last year.

But while Cascade Lakes may never run with the big boys, the Gazeley brothers sold the business to Kutella and Orazetti in the first quarter of 2001, and the two new owners have been hatching big plans ever since.

They and a third partner Kutella’s father, Ron Kutella of Seattle purchased the Cascade West Grub and Ale House on Century Drive in Bend.

The company, Kutella and Orazetti, Inc., also owns and operates the Seventh Street Brew Pub in Redmond.

And Cascade Lakes also is close to closing a deal to build a brew pub and restaurant in the Century Washington Center next to Century Drive in southwest Bend. Even though the proposed pub would be within a mile of Cascade West, both would continue to operate.

”If it happens, I think it’ll be a great place,” said Orazetti about the proposed new pub. ”We want to be the neighborhood pub. We don’t want to be a Yuppie place.”

That attitude pretty much sums up what Doug Kutella and Orazetti are all about. The two, who grew up in Portland and have known each other since kindergarten, describe themselves as near-brothers.

Orazetti over the years has worked at several restaurants, including Portland-based McMenamins. Kutella has a bachelor’s degree in food science, specializing in fermentation, from Oregon State University.

Their production plant at 2441 NW First St. in Redmond has a tasting room that’s open from 3 to 7 p.m. each day, and has become an after-work hangout for ale drinkers who appreciate the 20-ounce pints. They also sell ”growlers,” which are half-gallon containers of ale.

”It’s a ‘throw the peanut shells on the floor,’ guy kind of place,” Orazetti said.

The pair declined to discuss financial details of their business, other than to say that sales ”are on a growth curve.”

”We’re paying the bills and having fun,” Orazetti said.

And where do they want to be in 10 years?

”I guess we just would want to be recognized as one of the major microbrews in Oregon,” Orazetti said. ”We’re not saying our beer is the best, but we think it’s pretty good.”