Last week the Bulletin ran a story about the “Bend Ale Trail,” but I completely missed it because a) it’s behind the paywall and therefore unavailable to read online and b) I didn’t see it in their RSS feed anyway because of late they have cluttered up their feed with all of their available news items, particularly the AP stuff that’s not relevant to Central Oregon at all, and I don’t read their RSS feed anymore because of that.

But! I was able to find a copy of the article someone posted over at TravelChannel.com. It’s worth a read.

Visit Bend, the city’s tourism-promotion agency, has joined with area beermakers to create a self-guided tour, Doug La Placa, president and CEO of Visit Bend, told the agency’s board members Tuesday. It will feature the seven breweries in the city and Three Creeks Brewing Co. in Sisters.

An Ale Trail map will provide directions to the breweries and include a passport providing a spot for participants to collect stamps from each beermaker.

Those who collect all seven stamps from the Bend-based breweries can take the passport to the Visit Bend Welcome Center downtown and receive a Silipint, a foldable pint glass made out of silicone by tazlab, La Placa said, the Bend company that also makes a collapsible dog bowl and other pet products.

Brew fans who go the extra 22 miles to Sisters and get a stamp from Three Creeks Brewing, in addition to the seven Bend stamps, will receive a special surprise, which La Placa would not reveal.

Participants do not have to purchase anything. The campaign does not attempt to promote drinking or alcohol, La Placa said.

I want that collapsible pint glass. And I really like this idea; if I can find out more, I’ll post about it.

Incidentally, while searching for this I also stumbled across “Boneyard Brewing” (mentioned briefly in that article) and their Facebook page—you might remember a year and a half ago I blogged about the new “Brewtal Brewing” which was going to open in Bend. Yep, they had to change their name and they are now apparently brewing beer. (I was wondering what happened with that.)

They’re located at 37 NW Lake Place, near downtown. I need to go check them out.