I could not make this up: after yesterday’s newspaper article and post about Old Mill Brew Werks, Bend’s eighth (proposed) brewery, I take a look at the Business section of the paper and work this morning and nearly spit out my coffee: another brewery planning to open! Titled “11 breweries and counting: Below Grade plans to start small in Bend,” it’s behind the paywall (again) so here’s some transcripted pulls, presented without comment (I’m not sure I have any comments left right now):

Dean Wise has applied for a brewery-public house permit from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, as well as required federal permits, under the name Below Grade Brewing. Wise’s plan is to keep Below Grade small as he tests the market “to see if people will buy it on a regular basis—to see if it’s worthy.”

Wise has been a homebrewer for 18 years.

Initially, Wise plans to brew in his NorthWest Crossing home. For the first six to 12 months, he plans to brew three or four batches of beer at a time, bottling the product for retail sale and possibly selling kegs to bars.

He thinks his first retail beers could be two different India Pale Ales and an Old Ale.

Okay, maybe a comment or two.

There’s a website-in-progress here, but there’s more to glean from the Google cache though it’s mostly minimal, mission statement-type stuff, nothing really to speculate about. And, despite some of the talk lately about small “nano” brewers trying to get a toehold in the beer market, I really have to wonder at the idea of being licensed to brew beer on your homebrew basement system; it almost sounds to me like a stunt—a “why not?” type of proposition, just to see if you could get licensed.

Maybe I should apply for a brewery license…