Larry Sidor has a huge passion for hops. With the experience and knowledge he gained working at a hop farm in Yakima he takes his hops seriously. To continue with the interview with Larry, we find out about his love for hops, organic and sustainability in the brewhouse and about his hoppy beers.

ML: You obviously have a passion for hops and capturing essences and aromas of hops. What approach to hops have you found yourself using? And how do you incorporate that into your brewing?

LS: Oh wow, it is never ending. It is cutting holes in tanks and finding places to put hops in. Dry hopping techniques, different hop products from the suppliers and I now put about 30% of our whole flower hops in foil bags just so that they don’t age and I can maintain those volatile hop compounds that we like. I keep notes from every year on what kind of hops different growers produce every year. One of the things I have pioneered is the use of Salmon Safe hops. There are two growers Goshie farms is where the discussion started and Sod Busters is the second farm. Salmon Safe hops are not organic, don’t get me wrong there, it is nothing about organic but it is more about growing the hops in a method that is best for the environment. There are set backs as to how close you can have a hop field to a stream or creek and it is about what pesticides or crop protectents they can use. There might be one that is better for the environment but more costly so the Salmon Safe organization recommends that one or maybe the other one is cheaper but has to be applied more often or something such as that. Salmon Safe doesn’t effect the volatizes like we were talking about but it separates out the growers who are the most caring and respectful and observant to the production of hops and that translate to when I rub the hops and smell them that they are the most superior.

If you are a beer geek in the Pacific Northwest, you’d have to be living under a rock to not know the importance of July for craft beer in Oregon. For the fifth consecutive year, the Oregon Brewers Guild headed by Brian Butenschoen has organized a magnificent schedule of events to highlight the significance of craft brew in our great state. Butenschoen notes that the summer is undoubtedly the most successful month for craft brewers in the state. “It’s not surprising considering the weather here” says Butenschoen, who was on hand raffling off t-shirts and prizes at the Horse Brass Pub on the month’s kick off party. “(Craft beer) makes its peak in July and August. Since we started doing this five years ago, we’ve had a proclamation from the governor and mayor.” A parade of brewers kicks off the Oregon Brew Fest during the last weekend of July.  the inspiration was taken from the Brewers Association’s American Craft Beer Week. For Butenschoen and others dedicated to promoting the craft that is so vital to Oregon’s economy July involves a lot of hard work but is also very much worth it. “It’s Craziness, but a good kind of crazy” he says. “The Brewer’s Dinner that kicks off the OBF is the closest thing to the brewers reception at the Great American Beer Fest. Lots of different specialty beers.” Butenschoen explains that the fest is really about the brewers. The dinner is a great way for industry people to gather in one spot in a great environment, Tom McCall Waterfront Park. “It’s more of a gathering than a sit down dinner” he says. “It’s nice to be on the river drinking good beer with friends.”

On a recent trip to the coast that involved a magnificent stay at Pacific City’s Inn at Cape Kiwanda where we met with some craft brew-minded folks like Pelican brewmaster Darron Welch (look for an interview in the near future) and the Kiwanda Hospitality Group’s Jeremy Strober. Strober met up for tea and coffee in the morning before we headed down to the beach to soak up some sun and great views of Haystack Rock looming just out to sea. Later we also grabbed a pint and light lunch at Pelican (not light on the pocketbook, but being that we don’t get out to the coast much, this was a real treat). Strober told us all about the area. A native Californian, he was captivated by the quiet landscape of the Oregon coast and compelled to make the seasonal vacationland his year-round stomping grounds. Learning about lots of great things to do and places to see, he pointed us to some must-visit destinations for lovers of craft brew.

I could get used to this

It’s true. Computer savvies, tech nerds, whathaveyou-a distinct breed of these virtual worlders here amidst the Silicon Forest also appreciate delicious handcrafted brew. This is especially true of the dudes who started Taplister, a company billing itself as “Portland’s newest online craft beer resource.” Founder Kerry Finsand. Finsand, a native Oregonian and beer enthusiast has worked in various posts in advertising including work with Citysearch. He also was a contributor with Guest on Tap, a weekly column about craft beer in the Portland Tribune. Finsand, along with partners, Scott Wray, Ken Baer and Kevin Scaldeferri started Taplister to give Portlanders an up-to-the-minute list of what is pouring at beer geek havens around town. They have done so by “creating the first live beer search engine using the popular social network Twitter.” Beer enthusiasts can visit www.Taplister.com and search to see where their favorite beers are on tap. Mobile users can download the free iPhone app called Beer Signal or use the mobile version of Taplister.com to search for their favorite beers. In addition Taplister.com has installed Pubcams at East Burn and Saraveza that displays a live feed of their tap boards on Taplister.com.

Deschutes brewmaster, Larry Sidor, has a background that may surprise some. For someone who has come up with such boldly innovated recipes at Deschutes such as The Dissident and The Abyss, many may not guess that Larry got his start at the Olympia Brewing Company.

“I spent 23 years at Olympia. You name it I did. It started as a journeyman situation after I graduated from OSU with a degree in the food sciences. From there I did a six-month brewing apprenticeship and performed every aspect in brewing possible. After that I was sent to Siebels, and back at that time it was a four-month course. When I returned I was named project assistant brewmaster at Olympia.”

From there Larry was promoted to Operations Manager for the entire brewery and during that time Pabst bought out Olympia. Larry remained with the company and became the R&D Manager, QA Manager, wrote and developed contract brewing situations and even brewed in Japan and China. Larry brewed such brands as Stroh’s, Lone Star, Lucky Lager, Brew 102 and even the Beer Beer (the can just said “Beer” on the side) and of course all the Pabst’s Brands.

Rock Socks

We just received an email from beer enthusiast Erica Easley, the founder of  Rock Socks, a company dedicated to creating stylish and comfortable foot socks. She’s developed a new flashy, comfortable sock that expresses one’s love for the heavenly malted beverage. Says Easley:

I thought you and your readers would get a kick out of my retro, 70’s-inspired Beer socks. They are super stretchy (designed to be unisex, they fit women’s size 7 - men’s size 13.5 and to the knee on anyone 5′2″ - 6′2″), super comfy (made of a high-quality cotton-poly-spandex blend with a cushion foot and just enough spandex to stay up without squeezing your leg) and 100% Made in the U.S.A.

On a recent trip out to the coast, we decided to take a different path. Heading to Pacific City for the night, we turned from highway 26 onto highway 6 and cut across the 47 through the heart of Oregon wine country. Past the town of Forest Grove, where SakeOne makes wonderful rice wines, and into the one-stop-light town of Gaston, Oregon, there can be found a small market and a feed store across the street from the One Horse Tavern. In the heart of Washington County, One Horse was opened by husband and wife team Vince Taggart and Wendy Chamberlain in January 2007.We poked are head in the bar after hearing that the establishment has been registered as a member of the Oregon Brewers Guild and Vince has been making and serving beer on premise.

Green Bottling has been bottling up a storm around Portland. Here’s a couple new beers they’ve capped up for your drinking pleasure:

BridgePort Stumptown Tart

Kudos to the organizers of the North American Organic Brewers Festival for bringing great beer, food, and live music to Portland’s Overlook Park. Friday June 26 kicked off the fourth year of the event, and the third at its present location, perhaps the best outdoor venue for any beer fest I can think of.

You’ve probably already heard about it and we’re sure you know about the stubby bottles. Full Sail has released the Black Session dark lager to the market to celebrate ten years of employee ownership. Here’s the lowdown from Oregon’s windy city, Hood River:

Hood River, Oregon - Full Sail Brewing has a lot of things to celebrate this July. Our nation’s independence, Oregon Craft Beer Month, and, most significantly for us, celebrating our own independence. On July 2, we
celebrate our tenth anniversary as an employee - owned brewery. To commemorate, we are delighted to showcase the release of Session Black Premium Dark Lager, which is ready to hit the stores in early July.