Terranaut Brewing is Bend's second new brewery in the last five years (including Van Henion). If it feels like Bend already has a bunch of breweries, that's in part because in the five years prior, nine had opened. While Terranaut is most certainly new, it comes with a vaunted pedigree in brewer and co-owner Bryon Pyka, who was part of 10 Barrel Brewing's innovation department with, as Pyka puts it, "some great brewers like Tonya Cornett and Ian Larkin." But as the brewer behind exotic and award-winning 10 Barrel beers (under the imprint TinyHaus) such as Peach Deface, Sir Bois and Marionberry Cheesecake Sour, Pyka is looking forward to making a splash with pilsners. He's beginning with a modern interpretation of the Czech classic: a dry-hopped Italian-style pilsner.
Pyka started brewing at 10 Barrel shortly after moving to Bend in 2013, but his first exposure to brewing came courtesy of a high school buddy's dad. Followed by his college roommate. The craft followed him until he realized it was the path he was destined to pursue. Striking out on his own — with business partners in Peter Brantley and Katie Dunbar — has been the goal for a while now.
"Pete and I have been good friends for 10 years and do a weekly bottle share with a couple other friends. A lot of conversations about beer, breweries, and opening a brewery have happened on those get togethers...And Katie is my partner in business and in life." The dream didn't come to a head until after brewing a collaboration beer with Todd Clement at Monkless Belgian Ales.
Cut to: Terranaut has moved into the brewery space formerly occupied by Monkless, which was previously the original location of 10 Barrel Brewing (when it began on the 10-barrel brewing system that Terranaut now brews on) in Boyd Acres. Today it's referred to as the Brewer's District, as it's also home to 10 Barrel East Side, Van Henion, Bridge 99, Oblivion and Craft Kitchen & Brewing — not to mention the (non-public) production facilities of Bend Brewing and Crux Fermentation Project.
Until the taproom is permitted to open, eagle-eyed local beer lovers may have spotted Terranaut beers out in the wild. Brantley, being an English beer lover, is why Terranaut already has an Extra Special Bitter out, called For Pete's Sake. And an English-style brown ale. In fact, that brown ale has a variant with coffee and vanilla.
Says Pyka, "We'll definitely be doing some cocktail and dessert-inspired beers. The way I'd describe how we're positioning our lineup is an even mix of classic styles, modern styles and experimental beer." That explains why there's only one IPA — in the translucent, bitter West Coast style — along with other beers that feature culinary ingredients including basil, Buddha's hands and herbal tea.
"IPA obviously dominates craft beer," notes Pyka. "We're definitely going to brew our fair share under that umbrella, but we're going to be very careful to not have our lineup dominated by IPAs...We don't want to go too far into pandering to the masses because I feel like that can easily cause you to lose your passion that brought you to where you are now."
As for the name, "terre" is the Latin root word for Earth or land and "naut" refers to sailing, so while an astronaut is a celestial sailor, this neologism means someone who explores our earthly realm. "We wanted something that wasn't necessarily a dictionary word and evoked some mysterioso...But it also goes deeper than that. We'll be exploring beer styles and unconventional ingredients from around the world." Those Buddha's hands? That's the lemony citrus fruit that originated in India and sort of looks like a Pacman ghost on acid.
Pyka's a musician as well, and declares that music plays a vital role within the fledgling brewery. "We'll be spinning our own records, and we'll be doing a bring-your-own vinyl night," he describes. Pyka is really looking forward to a weekend in the Gorge to see King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, as he's a big fan of psych-rock.
As he notes, "it'll show up as a few Easter eggs in our taproom." The tie-dyed Terranaut shirts are already ready, once the place is permitted to open. No word yet on an exact date for the taproom to open, but Terranaut's owners are hoping for late September.
