When Bend Brewfest was canceled last year, Brian Yaeger knew he was well-equipped to carry forward a new iteration of the beer festival.

The Old Mill District, which hosted Bend Brewfest for over 20 years, had the same idea. It had asked Yaeger for help up until pulling the plug on the event. Then it handed it over to him.

Yaeger has covered the beer industry on a national level, a statewide level and, most extensively, at a local level. He’s the author of “Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey” and “Oregon Breweries.” As the founder of Grand Craft Bend, he’s created and organized niche-market beer festivals across Oregon, including Diff’rent Smokes, which raised money for firefighters while serving smoke-infused beer in 2023 and Bend, Bands & Brewers Bash, an event matching 10 breweries with 10 bands that tasked breweries with creating a beer tasting like a band’s music in 2024.

“It was an honor to have them approach me because even thinking of me to do it and trusting me to bring it back in a sort of next phase means the world to me,” Yaeger said.

In a world where people are drinking less alcohol and have less to spend on going out, Yaeger has reimagined Bend’s beer fest, naming it Bend Brews & Beyond. The festival is slated for Saturday and Sunday.

50-plus breweries

Yaeger surveyed attendees and producers and combed through online comments to determine what the community wanted in a beer festival. He’s refreshed Bend Brewfest and instead of going as big as possible, has shrunk it in terms of scale and admission cost.

The festival features 50 Oregon breweries and cideries, including “every locally owned Central Oregon hopped, appled and honeyed beverage producer,” according to a press release.

“If we’re going to say that we’re Beer Town U.S.A. because we have 30 breweries, you really need to have all of them there,” Yaeger said. “Some of them are new and people might not know about them, some of them are very small and it would be easy to not know about them. I love that they’re all going to be there.”

Rather than at Hayden Homes Amphitheater, it will be held at Drake Park, what Yaeger called his “dream destination” from the outstart, with two 50-foot-long beer and cider tents and a 40-foot tent with non-alcoholic options such as hop waters, kombuchas and cold brews.

Recognizing that not everyone drinks beer, Yaeger has included over a dozen non-alcoholic drink makers, including beer made by Crux Fermentation Project, Deschutes Brewery and Bridge 99 Brewery. He’s also corralled beverage makers from the Portland area, throughout the Willamette Valley, Southern Oregon and up and down the coast.

“We are so spoiled with good options that I really was excited to bring all of it into this one festival. And I hope people take the opportunity to explore it all, to try it all, whether it’s something they are familiar with or they’ve never heard of,” Yaeger said.

Gluten-free beers

Gluten-free drinkers will have options, with beer by Bridge 99, ciders, hard kombuchas and soft drinks.

Trever Hawman, owner and brewer of Bridge 99, considers the festival an opportunity to introduce his beer to people who haven’t tried it yet, or who have yet to visit his brewery in northeast Bend. He’ll be serving the Blood Orange Hefeweizen, Bohemian Coffee Stout and Zahm IPA, the latter three of which are 99% gluten free.

Most of the brewery’s beers are 99% gluten-free, Hawman said.

And although gluten-free beer has a reputation for subpar flavor, Bridge 99’s version is identical in flavor to brews with gluten. Hawman said that the clarifier, which is used to help remove particles such as yeast, tannins and proteins, is added at the same time as the yeast and consumes the gluten along with the yeast.

“It’s a win-win,” he added. “If it makes it so more people can drink it, then it’s a good deal.”

The process doesn’t work, however, on all of the brewery’s beverages, such as the Blood Orange Hefeweizen or its Hazy IPAs.

Bridge 99 will be easy to spot at the festival, as it will be pouring from a 1970s Chevrolet Step-Van, which was formerly a milk truck delivery van. The van, known as “Shorty” for short, has eight taps with flames on the side and looks like a Hot Wheels car, Hawman said.

A new brewery is unveiled

Also on tap will be Bend’s newest brewery, UPP Liquids.

The name stands for uniting people and places and is the new imagination of Immersion Brewing. It will serve a variety of fermented beverages, not just beer, said master brewer Tonya Cornett.

Cornett is looking forward to face time with the public at the beer festival.

“We’re really excited to share our beer, share the idea of what UPP Liquids is and give everyone a taste of what we’ve created,” she said.

Humm Kombucha will also debut its orange cream flavored nitro kombucha, Nitro Orange Dream Pop Kombucha, and Lazy Z Ranch Wines has produced two new sparkling meads, Yaeger said.

Just for goofiness

In true Grand Craft Bend style, the brewfest includes an element of goofiness. Attendees are invited to don their funkiest pants in the hopes of earning the title of inaugural Bend Drinking Pants Pageant winner.

The title will be decided equally by the pants worn and the audience’s reaction to the pants, for a chance to win tickets to concerts at Hayden Homes Amphitheater. The contest will be “the most fun you’ll have with your pants on,” according to the press release.

On both afternoons, Meet the Makers sessions will be held, allowing festival goers to meet and ask questions of brewers and beverage makers, a vital aspect of Yaeger’s vision for the festival.

“These are your neighbors who are making all of this. This is not coming from some weird factory. It’s locally created by this human being and I love that you will get to put a name and a face and a fist bump to those labels.”

There will be 10 food trucks in attendance and perhaps the most Bend thing of the whole event, valet stand-up paddle board parking, courtesy of LOGE Bend. Attendees are invited to paddle or tube downriver to Drake Park, where there’ll be valet parking for bikes, tubes and SUP boards.

But Yaeger’s hope for the outcome of the festival is simple.

“As long as at the end of the day, the beer is flowing and it’s cold and tasting good and there are people there to drink it up, then nothing else matters because that’s all that this is for, is people coming together, having a good time and trying some new favorite liquids, be they beer, cider or hop water,” Yaeger said.

Bend Brews & Beyond is for 21+. Tickets are expected to sell out.

If You Go

What: Bend Brews & Beyond

When: noon-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: Drake Park, 777 NW Riverside Drive, Bend

Cost: Tickets cost $40 for alcoholic drinks and $30 for non-alcoholic drinks online, includes souvenir mug and seven drink tokens. If available at the gate, $55 for alcoholic drinks and $45 for nonalcoholic drinks

Contact: bendbrewsandbeyond.com