In some ways, the recent tour that Veronica Vega took to L.A. bars like The Surly Goat was a homecoming. The brew pro and outdoors addict grew up in neighboring Ventura County before setting her sights on our National Parks. She worked in places like Mount Rainier and Crater Lake before settling in Bend, Oregon, home to Deschutes Brewery. She started in the tasting room and transitioned to the brewhouse. We recently spoke by phone, where Vega further explained her background and outlook.
Josh Lurie: What’s your first beer memory?
Veronica Vega: My mom’s from Mexico, so my parents pretty much drank Tecate. My first craft beer memory was in college. Sierra Nevada Porter was the first craft beer that I put together with camping and after bike rides. It was to experience craft beer as part of my outdoor adventures.
JL: What was the first beer you brewed, and how did it turn out?
VV: The first beer I brewed was Mirror Pond Pale Ale in a 150-barrel brewhouse. I had some help so it turned out well. My first own personal recipe was a Belgian strong ale called Twin Pillars, so people continue to request it. That’s the biggest compliment, when people want it repeatedly.
JL: What do you think differentiates Deschutes beer from other breweries?
VV: As far as our main line, we go to great lengths to maintain quality and consistency. Part of that is working meticulously on every beer we put out, including lab data. Every brewery should have a quality program, and as you increase in size, you increase your quality program…As far as R&D we spend a lot of time researching and developing beers and testing them at our pub. We’ll take 20 batches at our pub and fine tune it before it fits. We do that with pretty much every new brand. We spend a lot of time in perfecting it before we release it.
JL: What’s the most recent beer that you brewed, and what was your approach with it?
VV: Vienna Lager, slated to come out with on Cinco de Mayo. This is the first beer I started a pilot yeast progagation, my first beer from prop to brew. We got White Labs’ Mexican white lager yeast strain from Mexico City. It’s a pretty typical Vienna recipe, but I’m excited to see how that turns out. It’s cellaring right now.
JL: Would you say that you have any brewing mentors?
VV: Certainly. Everyone at Deschutes I consider a brewing mentor. Any recipe I develop, I’m asking very knowledgeable brewers suggestions and using state of the art equipment, so no beer is completely my own. Our pub brewer – Paul Arney – and our brewmasters, all of them. I will call Larry and ask for suggestions for hops and I’m using systems that are really nice. I wouldn’t call any beer completely my own. Larry. Not only with recipe development, but also with his liberal vision of brewing, where it’s going and where we want to be as a company. He has a global vision of brewing, and I have the day to day, minute by minute, what are we doing today questions? He’ a wealth of knowledge and available to us all the time. When we go to conferences, I see him provide information to brewers.
JL: Who are some other brewers that you really respect in the industry and how come?
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