Tillamook, Oregon sits out there at the ragged edge of the map like a wool sweater that never quite dries — 74 miles west of Portland, perpetually kissed by mist, perfumed with salt air and dairy barns, and humming with that quiet, end-of-the-road energy that makes you wonder if time runs slower near the sea. It’s not flashy. It’s not loud. It’s the kind of place where fog drifts in like a half-remembered dream and stays for a second cup of coffee. Which makes it a perfect hiding place for something wonderfully unhinged and quietly brilliant: de Garde Brewing.
Founded by Trevor Rogers, brewer-poet of the wild fermentation frontier, de Garde doesn’t so much make beer as coax it into existence using old-world patience, coastal mysticism, and an unshakable faith in airborne chaos. Tucked near the Tillamook Air Museum’s colossal blimp hangar — yes, a literal cathedral of aviation nostalgia — the brewery operates like a secret society for sour romantics. Distribution is whisper-thin. You either hunt bottles online like a digital cryptozoologist or make the pilgrimage yourself, fog and all. And once you’re there? Oh, it hits. A small, ever-shifting lineup of wild ales and guest rarities on tap, plus limited bottles to go, all pulsing with personality and tart, barnyard-adjacent elegance.
Berliner weisses, Belgian ales, porters, and other genre-benders lounge in open-air coolships, letting the Oregon Coast breeze drop wild yeast like invisible confetti. From there they’re tucked into cherry, oak, and gin barrels, seasoned with local fruit, time, and just enough funk to keep things interesting. The result is beer that tastes like the coast dreamed it into being during a stormy nap.
We couldn’t resist. Peaks & Pints snagged four de Garde beauties for today’s flight — a fog-soaked, barrel-kissed, tart-heart serenade we’re calling Craft Beer Crosscut 11.28.18: A Flight of de Garde. Consider this your coastal passport stamp, no rain jacket required.
Craft Beer Crosscut 11.28.18: A Flight of de Garde
de Garde The Frais
5.5% ABV
de Garde’s The Frais is a spontaneous wild ale aged in oak barrels blended from two years with fresh Citra and Mosaic hops.
de Garde The Blackberry
6.8% ABV
de Garde’s The Blackberry is a spontaneous wild ale aged in oak barrels with blackberries.
de Garde The Purple
6.5% ABV
de Garde’s The Purple is a wild ale aged in oak wine barrels with black and red raspberries.
de Garde The Rougess
6.9% ABV
de Garde’s The Rougess is a spontaneous wild ale, born from a base of Northwest grown and malted barley and northwest raw wheat, boiled extensively with four year aged local hops. The beer is blended from multiple different years and batches of barrels. After composing the blend, the beer was transferred into secondary oak tanks along with large amounts of red raspberries, as well as Morello and Montmorency tart cherries.
