Deschutes Brewery in Bend, OR

It’s been a little while since we’ve visited the Deschutes Brewery in a review, which rather surprised me. I’ve always been a big fan of Deschutes. Their darker beers are all absolutely delicious and abundantly available here in the state. Even their lighter fare like their Inversion IPA or their Mirror Pond are all beers I’ve brought six-packs of to parties in the past. But when I saw their Green Lakes Organic Ale, I was put into a bind. I have to admit that I’m not a huge organic food and drink junkie. Yes, I know making beer certainly can’t be the most environmentally friendly thing in the world, but there are good breweries out there doing their part. And so when I see a beer labeled as organic, I cringe just a little bit. It probably does help the environment to use all organic products, but it also screams WHOLE FOODS! and BUY THIS AND IT WILL MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’VE SAVING DOLPHINS AND POLAR BEARS! Maybe I’m overly cynical, but a beer labeled organic is probably more about marketability than taste. But with Green Lakes Organic Ale, you get a healthy helping of both.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, Green Lakes isn’t a fancy organic breed of an ale. Rather, it’s an amber ale that just happens to be organic. The color was certainly an invitation to drink as a light-orange cream color filled the glass with a hefty dose of light creme-colored head. The smell was also rather inviting, with a hefty dose of malt and maybe some apple. And there weren’t any hints of butterflies or organic tofu or vegan black bean artificial chicken paste. So that was a plus. The taste was amazingly refreshing, with an upfront bitterness being quickly quashed by a peculiar creamy taste before blending into a solid foundation of malt and wet hops. The refreshing qualities of this beer were really remarkable, and all I could think was that this might be the first beer I could enjoy after a long run. Further sips revealed a heavier tail end than I had initially noticed, but this was certainly a good quality considering the lighter frontnotes. I still couldn’t really place a finger on the tastes I encountered right upon sipping the beer, but it didn’t really matter–the refreshing features of this beer were more than enough to satisfy me.

Though Green Lakes might not be able to rival Bayern Brewing in terms of pure and refreshing tastes, Deschutes’s organic ale certainly surprised me considering its organic slogan. This is a quality amber that finds a great middle ground between being a super drinkable and thirst-quenching beer while still maintaining a great hop and malt backbone that will leave any seasoned amber drinker with a smile of their face. I’ll give the organic ale title a pass this time, and I can certainly get behind this movement in beer even more if every amber tastes like this.