Deceptively Good

On our way back from the Oregon Garden Brewfest we decided to sneak in a couple of brewery visits, places that aren't far from Portland but are just far enough that we knew it might be a while before we took the time to visit them. Wolves & People, the highly buzzed about addition to Oregon's breweries, was the first that came to mind but upon seeing that they didn't open until 2pm we searched a bit and were reminded of Deception Brewing in Dundee. Opening at noon, it seemed the perfect way to span the time between checking out of our hotel room and when Wolves & People would open.

Deception Brewing sits along 99W and while we'd driven by it at least once coming back to/leaving from Portland it hadn't been a planned stop so we ended up not stopping (sound familiar?). Coming south on 99W it was an easy turn into their parking lot in back and as we walked up the beautiful, heady aroma of beer being brewed hit our noses, bringing immediate smiles to our faces.

The front sports a permanently covered area with picnic tables and a fire pit. An indoor/outdoor bar with tall bar chairs on each side spans one half of the front wall, a perfect place for us to sit with our pooch (the patio being dog-friendly) while still feeling like we were getting the brewery experience. In our direct line of site was a window to the brewery where as our noses had tipped us off to, the brewers were hard at work.

Inside above the actual bar was a chalkboard with 10 beers listed, five of which we immediately ordered up in sampler size. We worked our way through two pale ales (Long Gone Day and Spruce Tip), Menage a Hop IPA, Ragged Rocks CDA and Sludge Factory stout. The Sludge Factory smelled amazing, giving a preview of the rum barrel-aged beer, but per our general tasting plans we started out on the light end. Long Gone Day was almost hoppy enough to be an IPA - excellent! - and while I didn't get much spruce character the Tip was fine for the style. The IPA was right up my alley and while the CDA could have used more hop bite in my opinion, Mag was quite pleased with it. Finally it was time to see if the flavor of the Sludge lived up to the aroma. Oh yes it did!

While we could have continued on the sampler path with a second set to ensure we tasted everything available that day we moved to pints of our respective favorites of the five. Leaving some un-tasted gives us all the more reason to head back in the near future. Perhaps you'd like to come along.

Deception Brewing
1174 SW Hwy 99W, Dundee
Open M-F at 4pm, S & S at noon