The Bend beer scene has nearly all of the style profiles covered; from Deschutes Brewery’s craft-standards to the funky, rare beers by the Ale Apothecary, there’s bound to be a beer made by locals for every taste preference in Central Oregon.

Except for one, according to Todd Clement and Kirk Meckem. Which is why the two opened Monkless Belgian Ales — Bend’s first Belgian-style-only brewery — at the beginning of November.

Belgian-style beers are prized for their unique yeast strain, which provides spicy, fruity and earthy flavors. But the beers are largely left to old-world breweries in Europe. Outside of the trendy saison style, Crux Fermentation Project occasionally releases dark Belgian-style beers as part of its Banished barrel-aged series. And for Clement and Meckem, that’s simply not enough.

“We saw a need,” Clement said. “From our perspective, we see the success of (Crux’s Belgian-style ale) Double Cross as a data point that Bend wants Belgian beers.”

Clement and Meckem met about seven years ago as neighbors on Bend’s west side. Clement, a former process chemist turned software product manager, and Meckem, an insurance agent, both encountered Belgian beers after striking out with other styles.

Tired of buying those kinds of beers in bottles, Clement and Meckem learned how to homebrew to fill Clement’s kegerator. Their first recipe: an extract-based Belgian tripel, a high-alcohol beer with a light color.

“Yeah, it was a big beer to start with,” Meckem said. “But it came out pretty good.”

Good enough that the pair decided to keep brewing. They brewed a Belgian dubbel and another tripel, then switched to the more technical but professional all-grain homebrewing process.

“He was a process chemist,” Meckem said of Clement. “He made a living taking something small and making it bigger.”

That’s a skill that would come in handy. After a year of homebrewing, the two men decided they wanted to open a small brewery after encouragement from their friends and family. They decided to build it in Clement’s basement area, which just needed some modification to meet Oregon Liquor Control Commission code.

A year later, while working through the difficult brewery licensing process, Clement and Meckem had to start scaling up their recipes from 10-gallon batches to 1-barrel (31-gallon) batches.

“We’re still working the kinks out,” Clement said. “It’s a great challenge to get the process worked out.”

Monkless Belgian Ales brings Central Oregon’s brewery count to 27, with 19 inside Bend’s city limits. Although that number boosts Bend’s reputation as a top-notch beer town, neither Clement nor Meckem are concerned about an oversaturation of the market.

“It’s going to be one step at a time,” Meckem said. “We’ve got to make sure we put one foot in front of the other, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. But we feel that we’re putting out good, unique beer and Bend will respond to that.”

Monkless Belgian Ales had its first tasting as a registered brewery on Black Friday at Humm Kombucha, where Clement and Meckem poured “Dubbel or Nothing,” the brewery’s Belgian-style dubbel. They are working on other events around town, as well as tap placement, and aren’t open to the public. (If you want to get in touch with them, visit Monkless on Facebook: www.facebook.com/monklessbelgianales.)

All that peripheral stuff aside, for now the Monkless men need to keep brewing to keep any sort of consistency.

“These beers take a little longer for conditioning,” said Clement, who noted the process can take 30 to 40 days, as opposed to American ales, which can take as little as 14. “It takes a strong schedule to stay on top of things.”

— Reporter: drinks@bendbulletin.com