Smoke-infused beer and barbecue festival raises money for firefighters

Published 11:30 am Wednesday, October 11, 2023

As Brian Yaeger noticed Oregon’s summers becoming hotter, drier and increasingly wrought by wildfire, he realized there was something he could do to help as the owner of event company Grand Craft Beer.

So in November 2021, he founded Diff’rent Smokes, a festival celebrating smoked beers and the end of the summer fire season. The festival takes place again Saturday from 1-7 p.m. at GoodLife Brewing Co.

“I (realized) I could spread the joy and the awareness of smoke beers and have it be this sort of very obvious pairing where the event is a benefit for the Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association,” Yaeger said.

Curated flavor profiles

Although the beer lineup will be exclusively smoked beers, no two beers at the festival will taste the same. There’ll be lagers, porters and malts smoked over beechwood, alder wood and cherry wood.

Oblivion Brewing Co. and 10 Barrel Brewing Co. will bring beers made from smoked pumpkins — a first at the festival. Tiger Town Brewing Co., a brewery from the town of Mitchell, will bring a smoked porter with natural chocolate and coffee notes.

And there’ll be several layers of smoke in Boss Rambler Beer Club’s Imperial Stout, brewed with mezcal-soaked oak and chipotle peppers.

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Smoked beer from its ancestral homeland

Beers will be sourced from Bend and across Oregon, as well as from Vermont, Chicago and Germany. The imported keg from Germany is from Schlenkerla, a brewpub founded in 1405 and famous for smoked beer — or as it’s called in Germany, “rauchbier.”

“You can’t have a rauchbier festival without one from its ancestral homeland,” Yaeger said.

According to the press release, all brewing malts up until the late 18th century were dried over an open flame, imbuing the beer with a smokey aroma and making smoked beers an integral piece of beer culture.

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“A lot of people have never tried, or even heard of smoked beers. For (craft beer enthusiasts) I equate that to saying you are a foodie and not ever having had barbecue,” he said.

Smoked beers at Diff’rent Smokes will be paired with smoked meats from Luckey’s Woodsman, Susan’s BBQ and GoodLife Brewing.

Tickets cost $20 online or $25 at the gate and include a souvenir glass and five sample pours. Full-glass pours require three tickets and additional tickets may be purchased for $1 each.

What: Diff’rent Smokes, a smoked beer festival

When: 1-7 p.m. Saturday

Where: GoodLife Brewing, 70 SW Century Drive #100, Bend 

Cost: $20 online or $25 at the gate, includes five drink tickets and a souvenir glass

Contact: bendticket.com/events/diffrentsmokes, facebook.com/diffrentsmokes or Instagram @diffrentsmokes