For about four years, the state of Virginia has been working diligently on getting the attention and favor of Bend, Oregon's Deschutes Brewery. This long term chase came about as Deschutes announced that they were going to take root and make a second home somewhere on the east coast. After years then months of waiting, and an amazing, local social media effort -Deschutes2RKE - from the Roanoke community, it finally came between two mountain cities in the south - Asheville, North Carolina and Roanoke, Virginia. On March 22, 2016, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that the brewery would build it's east coast brewery in Roanoke.
Deschutes Brewery was founded in small town Bend, Oregon in 1988. Ever since then the brewery has expanded their reach every year to places all over the country. Deschutes is probably most well known and loved for their beers such as their dark Black Butte Porter and their citrusy Fresh Squeezed IPA, both a huge sellers all across America. With the original home of the brewery in Bend, and a large public house in nearby Portland, coming to Roanoke will be the brewery's first official move, which is huge not only for Deschutes, but for Roanoke as well.
As a local from Roanoke, Virginia, I am very excited to see that a large craft brewery will be making a second home in my own home! Michael LaLonde, President and COO of Deschutes, felt a connection to Roanoke because of mountainous location, our outdoor enthusiast culture, and our decent cost of living in a small sized city. The Deschutes crew must have loved Roanoke, because the company will be investing a whopping 85 million dollars into the move! Now, while Roanoke may not be "Beer City USA" like our southern companions in Asheville do not let that fool you - we love our beer. With many craft breweries in and around the Roanoke valley, the beer culture in the Star City is doing nothing but continuing to grow. Not only is this a good thing for Roanoke for the great beer coming our way, but also for the community itself. I love my city and it's people and I am happy to see a large name such as Deschutes choose little 'ol us as their new home, because this move will bring nothing but great things. Hundreds and hundreds of jobs will be created, as well as just plainly bringing more business to the area. I am also happy to see how so many people in my community, beer connoisseur or not, have come together to bring this amazing thing to our back doors, and celebrate the good news together. Getting Deschutes to Roanoke will only continue to help us grow as a city and a community.
While the announcement was made this past March, unfortunately moving an entire business across the country and building on new ground will take a good while. Deschutes current timeline projects the new brewery to be open to the public in 2021. Luckily for us Roanoker's a select few of the craft beers are now being sold in the area, as well as a huge array of Deschutes events. This past weekend, on August 27, Roanoke hosted the Deschutes Street Pub event at Elmwood Park downtown, bringing out tens of thousands of people to celebrate and drink some good beer. While it will be a good number of years until we see the brewery come to life in the Roanoke area, I have no doubt that the Star City will continue to reap the hoppy rewards of bringing in new friends from Bend, Oregon.
