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Celebrating Oregon Beer
Your fortnightly round-up of all the beer and hop news from the Beaver State.
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The Oregon hop harvest has officially begun! If you are a denizen of social media, you might have seen pictures and videos of brewers happily loading up bags of unkilned, fresh-from-the-bine hops into trucks, or dumping the little emerald cones into waiting beer. To get a sense of the excitement, Gigantic Brewing had a wonderful video of brewer Van Havig using fresh Goschie Farms Tettnangers.
That means it will soon be fresh hop season, the most wonderful time of the year. As a part of this year's lupulin celebration, Celebrate Oregon Beer is happy to be collaborating on a special fresh hop project, which you can read about in the Spotlight below. Now onto the regular news and events from around the state.
If you are looking for more news and conversation between these emails, visit our feed on Instagram, where we try to keep you up to date with all the happenings.
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News
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Shadowy Measure Advances
A measure is proceeding toward the ballot box that would allow sales of liquor in Oregon grocery stores is moving forward. The strange thing? No one knows who's behind it.
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Oregon Back in Second
For the past few years, Oregon has been third in terms of hop acreage planted. That changed this year, however, as the Beaver State nosed past the Gem State to recapture second place.
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Barley Harvest Down
"Total planted area, at a record low 2.28 million acres, is down 6 percent from the Acreage Report and down 4 percent from 2024." Current projections would make it the lowest harvest since 1875.
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Heavenly Collab
This is a fun one. Local German-beer bar Prost! has collaborated with the Benediktiner Monastery brewery from Ettal in Bavaria to make a helles, which you can taste on tap in Portland.
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Upcoming Events
Please send us all your upcoming event information at the following email so we can include them in our weekly roundups: events@celebrateoregonbeer.com
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Viking Beer Fest
Another vivid edition of Viking Fest arrives August 22-23, where frothy brews and Nordic traditions meld into a singular, unforgettable experience. Axe-throwing, blacksmiths, mead and ale, Nordic food, live music and more.
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Mayfly Kölsch Fest
From August 22-24, enjoy 12 local kölsches, join a blind tasting to determine the best one, eat a free pretzel, or dine at a special food truck.
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Pursuit of Hoppiness
Twelve breweries and their hoppy beers are on tap at Bevel Brewing Aug 23 in their hop garden. Beer tents will be set up among the hop bines and shady pines--plus a hop station by Rahr BSG.
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Albany Beer "Run"
On Saturday, Sept 6, join one of the shortest races in Oregon! A .3k course takes you from Calapooia Brewing two blocks to Deluxe Brewing. You can score a beer in both locations. Proceeds benefit the Lions Club.
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Oregon Hop Festival
Join Crosby Hop Farm at their TopWire beer garden-in-a-hop-field for beer collaborations, live music, and behind-the-scenes tours of the hop harvest September 6-7. It's the farm's 125th anniversary, so come celebrate!
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Fresh Hop Pop-up
Returning for its 10th year from Sept 19 to Oct 5, the Fresh Hop Pop Up. For 17 days, a rotating cast of the freshest of fresh hop beers will arrive in waves at Prost! in Portland
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Zootoberfest
On September 26-27, fill your stein with offerings from the finest breweries and cideries in the Northwest and enjoy live music, food carts, animal encounters, keeper chats and more.
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Spotlight: Drink Beer for Science!
Celebrate Oregon Beer is very pleased to announce a project with Dr. Tom Shellhammer of Oregon State University and hop grower Coleman Agriculture: a new study that will look into the chemical and sensory elements of fresh hops. Because most beers use dried hops, scientists haven’t done much research into the different ways fresh hops taste and smell. With this new research, we’ll have some of the first answers.
Working with five breweries and seventh-generation hop grower Coleman Agriculture, Dr. Shellhammer will evaluate the finished beer to see if different flavor and aroma compounds are present in beer made with fresh hops. Oregon breweries are helping out by making two identical versions of a beer, with one difference. One of their beers will use fresh hops, the other freshly-dried hops picked from the same field. Different hops may express the flavors differently, so the study will look at two early-harvest varieties, Centennial and Strata. Additionally, the breweries will use different techniques in case that makes a difference.
And here's the fun part: you can help!
Customers will take part in this study by filling out a 5-minute, 15-question survey on their phones at the participating breweries. These anonymous responses will help inform what Dr. Shellhammer discovers in his lab. It is the first study to take a look at this specialty of Oregon’s harvest season.
How to Participate
The first of the fresh hop beers will begin appearing in taprooms after Labor Day weekend, with others arriving thereafter. Once they are released, head on down to the participating brewery closest to you. You'll receive a 4-ounce pour and a QR code will take you to the survey.
TYou can find the beers at the following breweries (two more, Grand Fir and Breakside, may be added to the list--stay tuned!):
- Block 15 Brewing (Corvallis), available September 23 at their Southtown Taproom location only.
Fresh². AVV: 6.7%. Style: West Coast IPA. This beer features fresh-hop and freshly-kilned Strata in the whirlpool paired with Cascade and Strata and Cascade in the dry-hop.
- ColdFire Brewing (Eugene), available the week of September 8th.
The Henry IPA. ABV: 7.0% IBU: 60 Style: West Coast IPA. We brewed this beer in honor of our office mascot, Henry the Chameleon. Our long-time friend and confidant, Henry inspired a kaleidoscope of creativity and flavor. We miss you, good buddy, but your memory lives on!
- Deschutes Brewery (Bend), available the week of September 8th only at the brewery taproom.
Independence Study. ABV 6.5%. Style: West Coast IPA
As the time gets nearer, we will give you specific dates for each release here and on Instagram. We thank you in advance for your service!
The Importance of Research
We are fortunate to live in a state not just where hops are grown, but where researchers like Dr. Shellhammer do their work. In the past two decades, research has been instrumental in changing the way we think about hops. American brewers have rewritten the brewing books with their techniques on making hoppy beers, and their discoveries have been guided by studies like this one.
In this project, Dr. Shellhammer will look to see if fresh hops leave a different chemical signature on beer than regular hops. Perhaps he'll find compounds in the fresh hop beer that don't survive the hop-drying process, or find that the compounds in dried hops are more or less bountiful in fresh hop beer. He might find that process--using fresh hops in a whirlpool versus as a dry hop addition--further affects this chemistry. All of this could be valuable to brewers going forward.
As soon as Dr. Shellhammer and his team have crunched the numbers and release their findings, you'll be the first to know.
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