Deschutes Brewery opened its doors to the public 30 years ago this week, introducing Bend to the taste of locally brewed beer for the first time. Modeled after a traditional English ale brewery, the pub struggled the first year of its existence, weathering infection, Coors Light drinkers, recession and more. The taste for craft beer prevailed, however, and helped propel the company through three decades of growth and popularity.

What does 30 years of beer look like? I sat down with Gary Fish, Deschutes’ founder, and Veronica Vega, brewmaster of product development, to find out.

“Just as a general rule, the only constant is change,” Fish said. “With that being said, we’ve tried to maintain a standard, and we’ve tried very, very hard to maintain that standard.”

When the brewpub opened June 27, 1988, it offered four beers: Bachelor Bitter, Cascade Golden Ale, Black Butte Porter and Wychick Weizen. Black Butte Porter lives as the company’s flagship, and Bachelor Bitter remains a local favorite, consistently one of the pub’s top sellers.

Those original recipes were developed by Frank Appleton, a brewing consultant, and John Harris, Deschutes’ first brewer, now the owner of Ecliptic Brewing in Portland. Harris ran the brewery for four years and is responsible for many of its iconic brews, such as Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Obsidian Stout and Jubelale.

That first Black Butte Porter was not the recipe that exists today. In 2014, I interviewed Harris, and he shared the story behind it.

“The first batch of Porter was really more of a brown ale; it was really light. And for my tastes in porter, I was like, this is way too light,” he said. “And Frank was like, ‘This is the way it should be!’ I want to add more chocolate, I want to add more dark malt to this thing; it’s not right. And Frank was all, ‘Well, at the end of the day this is your place, so you can do what you want.’”

Harris adjusted the recipe over the next several batches, developing the porter that is still being brewed today — mostly. As Deschutes grew and upgraded over the years, recipes and processes evolved to match and maintain consistency in the beers.

“I think it took us four and a half years to flavor-match Black Butte Porter from the JV brewhouse here to the Huppmann brewhouse,” Fish said, referring to the 150-barrel brewing system installed in 2003 and the process of scaling the recipe up from the previous 50-barrel system. “It took us a long, long time and a lot of mechanical modification and so forth to get the flavor we wanted, and the flavor that our sensory panel would pass for that particular product.”

Jubelale, the brewery’s winter ale, was also first brewed in 1988 and has returned every year since. As with its other brands, consistency is at the heart of the brewing process for this seasonal favorite, although several years ago, Deschutes altered the process slightly.

“We went through a kind of return to formulation, a deliberate change … to the flavor profile,” Fish said. “Because it was our perception that it had changed over time. And it was kind of my thought, and I think we were all pretty much in agreement, that we had lost some of the character that was in that beer.”

“People always pinpoint Jubel as, ‘Do you change the recipe from year to year?’ That sort of thing,” Vega said. “And really, we deal with Jubel the same as every other brand, but I think Jubel has more nostalgia attached to it.”

Vega explained what process changes have been made.

“I believe it’s close to a three-hour boil, which is not efficient,” she said. “That excess boil time is more for building the Maillard malt flavors, that sort of thing, in the kettle.”

Changes were made in mash profile as well, to leave some residual unfermentable sugars for body, Fish revealed.

Twilight Summer Ale deserves a special mention in any retrospective discussion of Deschutes beers. First released in 2003, the summer seasonal returned every year until 2016, when the brewery replaced it with Hop Slice Summer Ale. However, consumer demand revived Twilight this year; few such brands ever return when discontinued.

“That was the very first beer we ever made that was essentially designed by our sales team,” Fish said. “They specified the kind of beer they wanted in the marketplace. And the brewers constructed the beer to that specification. Prior to that, everything was completely brewer driven. This was kind of a grand experiment; it was a cultural experiment internally for us as well.”

The year 2003 was transitional for the company, with the new 150-barrel brewhouse installation, continued expansion into new markets and the exit of its then-brewmaster, Dr. Bill Pengelly. In January 2004, Larry Sidor took over the role of brewmaster. Sidor later moved on to found Crux Fermentation Project.

Among other accomplishments during Sidor’s eight-year tenure was the introduction of the brewery’s Reserve Series of specialty beers, notably The Dissident in 2008.

The Dissident was Deschutes’ first commercial foray into the world of sour and wild beers. Styled after a Flanders Oud Bruin (a sour brown ale) and aged on cherries, it represented a big unknown for the brewery.

“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Fish said. “And it was kinda pure experimentation — we didn’t know where we were gonna end up when we started. We just wanted to do something that was completely outside the box from our experience.”

The Dissident won multiple awards and garnered much critical acclaim and remains among the most complex creations in the brewery’s repertoire. The experience and success of crafting it led to further development and experimentation with the sour beer program.

Today, the brewery regularly offers a rotation of sour beers, including a series of pub-only culinary-inspired sours.

With the release of The Ages, a blended sour consisting of multiple years’ worth of specialty barrel-aged beers, Deschutes showcases all of that experience and more. Inspired by the Belgian tradition of gueuze, a blend of young and old lambic beers (spontaneously fermented sours), The Ages is deeply complex, presenting layered flavors of fruit, tart sour, peppery spice, balsamic vinegar and more.

And it’s quite different from its core brands, rooted in English ale traditions.

Does The Ages represent a culmination of 30 years of experience for the brewery?

“Absolutely,” Fish said. “That really is a compilation of everything we’ve learned and done over 30 years. And you know, the next thing will be built on top of that.”

— Jon Abernathy is a Bend beer blogger and brew aficionado. His column runs in GO! every other week.