Hop Harvest Time

Oregon is in the homestretch of harvesting the hop crops for this year and brewers from all walks are rolling into farms across the Willamette to get orders in. Websites are rife with tales of harvesting, hauling the bags of hops back to the ranch as fast as possible, and dates and times of the newest creations dropping all over town. If you've never had true, honest-to-god, fresh-hopped beer before, you are missing out on something unique. The nose and 'brightness' of a "these-hops-were-off-the-vine-for-60-minutes-before-going-into-the-brew" IPA is eye-openingly awesome. Consider yourself a Hophead? You should be finding this stuff with all available speed.

I intend to hit a few of these this weekend. Full Sail's Lupulin Ale (a version with First Gold and a version with Centennial) has been my kick-off for the last three years and has already arrived in the Pilsner Room on the waterfront. Rock Bottom has their version out and initial reports are "GOOD!" And I may even hit Deschutes to complete the Southwest loop. They are not bringing out Hop Trip (their fresh hop style) until closer to the end of the month, but I still haven't been there in more than a few weeks and I'm starting to keep an eye out for the '10 version of The Dissident. AS SHOULD YOU.