There was an interesting local article about beer and the economy this week: High Desert’s big beer biz: Bottoms up or bust? It includes some interesting and candid quotes from some of the beer folks here in Bend, including Deschutes Brewery’s Gary Fish and 10 Barrel’s Garrett Wales.

“At Deschutes Brewery, our numbers are okay,”President and founder Gary Fish said Wednesday. “They’re not great. It’s been a different year for us, like it has been for everyone.”

Fish has been in the beer business for nearly 22 years, and now his baby, Deschutes Brewery, is one of the leaders in the industry, shipping product all over the Western U.S. But sales aren’t always ‘hoppin,’ and this year has been tough.

The situation doesn’t entirely go against my predictions for this year, but it’s not foreshadowing any closures or anything like that.

On the flip side of that coin, though, there has been no word whatsoever of “Brewtal Brewing“, which was supposed to open up this past spring here in Bend. I should look into what happened with that…

Update: I should note that “recession resistant” is as opposed to “recession proof”.