INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

JL: Who are some other brewers that you really respect in the industry and how come?

VV: I really, really like Double Mountain from Hood River and consider Matt [Swihart] a friend. They make really high quality beers, whether it’s hoppy style or Belgian. There’s an Italian brewery called Birrificio Le Baladin, and everything they make they call a “specialty ale.” It’s hard to even stylize any of their beers, but they’ve got me excited about Italian beer.

JL: How do you feel about collaborating with other breweries, and do you have anything in the works? If so, what?

VV: I was just at the Craft Brewers Conference and was approached by a little brewery in Mexico. I don’t know if it will ever pan out, but Deschutes does collaborate with a number of breweries. It’s a good thing for the industry as a whole…You’re sharing experiences and knowledge and putting out something that might not be possible with just one brewery. It also kind of shows the nature of craft beer, the sharing and love we give each other. You really don’t see that in a lot of industries, the sharing of knowledge, just the fact that a small town can support different breweries. People like diversity in craft beer, and that’s good for everyone.

JL: What’s the key to successfully pairing food with beer?

VV: There’s a number of different ways to pair. It’s pretty similar to wine in some ways. You can pair flavors that are similar or opposite. You can have something hot in the food, something cool in the beer that you’re drinking. There are spices that would go together. A lot of specialty beers are great with specialty cheeses.

JL: Where do you like to drink, and what do you like to drink, when you’re not at work?

VV: There’s a taphouse called The Abbey Pub that has a lot of specialty brews on tap, a lot of Oregon breweries that aren’t in Bend. I like to support them. They have a really, really great tap list. I don’t like a particular style. I like all styles, as long as they’re high quality. There’s a great bottle shop in town that’s also the homebrew shop, called The Brew Shop, if I feel like getting an Italian beer.

JL: If you could only fill your glass with one more beer, what would be in it and how come?

VV: It might be the Nora from Baladin. It’s just a gorgeous beer. I drank it completely luke warm and it would go with almost any food. If it was the last beer, I could also drink it after skiing all day and be pretty happy.

JL: What do you like to do outdoors?

VV: In the winter, I Nordic ski, alpine ski and snowboard. In the summer, I mountain bike and road bike, and do cyclocross racing in the fall.