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Celebrating Oregon Beer Newsletter
Published 13 days ago • 7 min read
Celebrating Oregon Beer
Your fortnightly round-up of all the beer and hop news from the Beaver State.
We are excited to announce our second annual Oregon Homegrown collaboration this year, which is about to kick off at taprooms around the state. Oregon Homegrown is a statewide collaboration among 14 breweries statewide, Woodburn's Crosby Hop Farms, and Portland's Imperial Yeast. The purpose of the collaboration is to showcase Oregon's incredible culture and tradition of brewing. We focus on one hop variety in this collaboration, and this year it's an important one: Cascade, the Oregon-bred hop variety that kicked off craft brewing.
In this issue of the newsletter, you'll be able to read all about the collaboration and Cascade hops--and especially, where you can find these beers. We are still gathering information about the beers themselves, so look for a full list in the next issue.
- News -
1188 is NE Oregon's Best
What's the best brewery in NE Oregon? Locals say it's John Day's 1188 Brewing Company. Longtime employee Tracy Clark was also recognized for the second year in a row as best server
Salem-based Xicha Brewing, a Latino-owned brewery, says an Oregon GOP gubernatorial candidate scheduled campaign event without permission on Cinco de Mayo--which put the brewery in an awkward position.
The Oregon Brewers Guild is back with their hotly-contested IPA title, Best of the West Coast. Breweries have until June 26 to get their entries in, and bragging rights are on the line.
Oregon Homegrown is a statewide collaboration among 14 brewers (and possibly more!), Crosby Hop Farms, and Imperial Yeast. Oregon's breweries are justifiably famous, but the state's beer culture goes much deeper than that. Oregon is one of just three commercial hop-growing states, and the birthplace of the hops that built craft brewing. Of the half-dozen national labs producing brewing yeast, two are located in Oregon. With this special collaboration, drinkers can actually taste the “Oregon” in their beer.
For 2026, we are excited to showcase Cascade hops, the most important variety ever bred in the U.S. When the USDA released them in 1972, breeders thought they might replace expensive imported hops in domestic lagers. They were too expressive and “American,” however, but within less than a decade small start-up breweries would discover them. Soon Cascades became the ubiquitous flavor that fueled American craft beer.
Celebrate Oregon Beer is partnering with Crosby Hops this year on a new twist on the famous old variety: “Deep Cut” Cascades. Crosby lets these Cascades ripen in the late-summer sun a little longer than usual, which allows the oils to increase and intensify, giving Deep Cut Cascades a brighter, more modern, and “juicier” profile.
For Oregon Homegrown, at least fourteen breweries have created a range of different styles of beer with Crosby Deep Cut Cascades so consumers can get familiar with the flavors and aromas this hop produces. The diversity of styles, both out in the world and in this collaboration, are defined partly by brewing tradition and history—but especially by yeast. When drinkers try Wayfinder’s golden mild, Breakside’s American pils, or Kings and Daughters’ IPA, they’ll be tasting styles in large part defined by the yeast variety. We are excited to partner with Imperial Yeast this year on the project.
Tap Takeovers Where will you be able to taste these beers? Glad you asked! In 2026, have five wonderful taproom partners who will be featuring these beers. (The state's amazing taprooms and bars are another reason Oregon is a special place for beer!). We will have a full list of beers on our website soon--and we'll have them in the next edition of the newsletter. In the meantime, make sure to mark these dates on your calendar.
Please send us all your upcoming event information at the following email so we can include them in our weekly roundups: events@celebrateoregonbeer.com
Claim 52 Newport Debut
Claim 52 is hosting the grand opening of their Newport location Weds, May 20. After Rogue’s sudden dissolution, Claim 52 grabbed the original location of Rogue’s Bayfront Public House, updated it, and will soon be pouring their beers.
Pelican Brewing is celebrating 30 years at their Pacific City location on Friday, May 22. You'll find throwback brews, bites, beach games, live tattooing, and a classic bonfire on the beach, complete with s'mores.
On May 23rd, the 2nd annual Bend Brews & Beyond returns to Drake Park in Bend with 50+ Oregon breweries and cideries and a dozen NA options. It will feature live music, events, and more.
Celebrating its 13th year, BBQ Blues Brews & Bourbon on the Bay has grown to be one of Ko-Kwel Casino Resort’s most well-attended signature events. Two days of lip-smackin’ BBQ, incredible brews, and smokin’ hot blues. The fest happens May 23 – 24.
On Sat, June 6, McMenamins Grand Lodge is hosting a celebration of beer, cider, wine, spirits and more at the 4th Annual Grand Lodge Brewfest. Bring your blanket or lawn chair, grab some food and enjoy an evening of specialty beverages and live music.
On Saturday, June 13, Lupulin Ecstasy returns. Fort George's summer IPA festival features beer from the world's best hop-forward brewers, live music, food, all on the the grounds of the historic Flavel Mansion in Astoria.
Join Great Notion on Saturday, June 27th at their NW 28th location for an anniversary blowout featuring 40+ beers on tap, a Beastie Boys tribute band, food, games, dirty soda bar for the kids and some of the rarest barrel-aged beers they've ever released.
Our story starts in 1956 in Corvallis, Oregon. Dr. Stan Brooks, a plant researcher working for the USDA, planted 7,000 seedlings of new hop crosses, hoping to find a variety resistant to downy mildew. Developing new varieties of hops is a slow business, especially in a country that had no history in hop breeding. Eventually, over the next 12 years, one of those little seedlings—No. 56013—worked its way through successive rounds of eliminations and field trials. It had a similar chemical composition to the famous European varieties it was bred to replace, and breeders and brewers were excited.
A Crosby Cascade hop. Credit: Crosby Hops
In 1968, the first sizable crop of the new hop, now called Cascade, came off two acres of Don Weathers’ farm near Salem, Oregon. Writing in Brewers Digest in 1972, researchers noted that it was the first American hop with measurable farnesene—an aromatic compound found in classic noble varieties like as Saaz and Tettnanger. They continued optimistically, “The aroma of Cascade is delicate, slightly spicy.... Aroma notes associated with Cluster, Brewers Gold, Bullion, and Talisman [that have been] described as ‘American aroma’ are absent or very subdued in Cascade.” (At the time, American hops were considered far inferior to European hops, so lacking the 'American aroma' was considered a good thing!)
Domestic breweries were excited at the prospect of saving a lot of money, and Coors agreed to contract with growers to buy the Cascades. They bought millions of pounds early on--and discovered to their surprise that the new American cultivars were far more expressive than German hops. Too expressive, in fact, for their domestic lagers. Cascade hops had an unmistakable floral and grapefruit character with hints of pine, and produced beautiful, clean bitterness. Fortunately, homebrewers liked them, and a few years later the nascent craft brewing industry would too.
You know the rest of the story. Those "expressive" hops would come to characterize craft beer. The first American craft brewery, New Albion, used them in their Pale Ale in 1976, and a few years later Sierra Nevada did, too. Cascades have been central to the flavor of Oregon beer for over forty years, and can be found in classics like Widmer Hefeweizen and Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale--as well as thousands of other beers brewed around the country. To this day, Cascades are still the 6th most-grown variety in the US and are grown in England, Germany, and New Zealand.
"Deep Cut" Cascades
For this year's edition of Oregon Homegrown (see more below), the participating breweries in the project will be using "Deep Cut" Cascades from Crosby Hops in Woodburn, Oregon. Below, read Crosby's description of this new twist on the classic hop.
Crosby Hops’ Deep Cut™ Cascade is a bold new take on a classic American hop. Purposefully left on the bine into late September, we allow Estate Grown Cascade cones to fully mature and develop a higher total oil content (up to 3.0 ml/100 g or 2x the industry average Cascade oil). The result is a vivid evolution of Cascade bursting with mandarin, peach, and grapefruit, all layered over subtle pine and resin tones without any onion/garlic characteristics.
Research backs what we’re seeing in the field: harvest maturity dramatically shapes Cascade’s aroma. A study published in Food Chemistry found that as Cascade hops mature, total oils and aroma volatiles increase, while bound thiols decrease and free thiols rise, amplifying those bright, citrus-driven notes. In addition, research presented by Sapporo Breweries demonstrated that later-harvested Cascade hops exhibit enhanced fruity and floral aroma compounds alongside a reduction in green and sulfurous notes, further supporting the benefits of extended hang time for aroma-rich hop varieties like Cascade.
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