The Ale Apothecary

Paul Arney brewed with the team at Deschutes Brewery for seven and four years, crafting some of the most memorable specialty beers the brewery has released. Then one day in Sinatra style, but still with much love for Deschutes, he decides to start his own brewery and craft things his way. He told an interviewer: “My plan is to utilize a very small home-built brewery to develop a beer that has existed in my mind only. Develop a process that produces the desired flavor profile, and then, build a brewery around the process. We will not be brewing to satisfy bulk consumption.” And so, within a 500-square-foot brewery in the woods, The Ale Apothecary set out to embrace the artfulness of brewing.

Paul creates beers that embrace the old world craft of brewing incorporating carefully selected ingredients – at times foraging them for wild fermentations. Beers like “Sahalie” ferments entirely in wood, “Spencer” spends years resting in Oak, “Ralph” is brewed with fir needles foraged from the forest surrounding his brewery. You’d almost expect Radagast to be sitting at his tasting room throwing some back before another adventure. To Arney, beer is art and clearly a labor of love. The Ale Apothecary is possibly the only brewery in Bend that has attained a “cult” status. With a waitlist to join the beer club and a tap room in town that is mostly jam packed during events, stop by and be amazed.